Spring RTS Engine

I don't see any recent feature requests about LODs so here it is.

For those that don't know, basically, the feature would be that depending on viewdistance, different models are shown. So for instance, up really close, you'd have very high-detail models; from a moderate view you'd see a less-detailed version; and from afar you'd see the bare minimum, perhaps just a box, I don't know. The point is, it would (should) increase performance as you won't be rendering dozens of 1000+ tri models from across the map. Would be especially useful with mods that want/need high unit counts and for features.

IIRC, aren't LODs already implemented?

Either they're already implemented, or they will be very soon. I think.

The LOD implemented in spring is barely LOD at all. It just switches between rendering either the the full 3d model, or an image of it on a textured quad, depending on distance to camera.

So indeed this is a reasonable feature request.

Whoever does it will be personally worshipped by me for some months or so - especially if they give us a nice tool to auto-generate them

As far as I can tell the current LOD simply displays a grey block (no image of the unit) and only appears within a few (ingame) meters of where LOD cuts off entirely, making it completely useless. What I'm talking about is a more extensive system that will switch much sooner.

Actually for me it displays a rather nifty image of a unit all simplified and billboarded to the camera viewpoint.

Why the hell doesn't it do that for me?

Anyway that would make a good max view range but there's still need for shorter distance LOD changes.

You have to zoom out far enough to see it. It happens alot for me. It explains those nasty 2-dimensional features on zooming out.

The LOD thing is a nice idea actually. It just needs to do a bit of a better job (in AA the Arm Tech 2 Bots don't have legs or torsos ) I agree with the possibility to have LODs for mods that want them. Larger units would benefit most from them.

For the grey vs. proper image debate: Maybe it's using a drawing method similar to the one for cloaking so s3os in an s3o only mod would look grey while 3dos would look fine?

Would we be expected to model the "simpler" versions, or would the engine do it for us?

Might be nice to double the code so that the same system can be used as units traverse from the edge of LOS to true LOS, as one of the ugliest things in Spring right now is the way units tend to 'pop into' your LOS. I think transferring from a blobby not quite intelligible shape into a full recogniseable unit would be an excellent way to deal with how units appear at the edge of your LOS.

I think initially you'd have to model them yourself and later on someone comes up with a method to do it automatically if you don't want to.

i'd settle for a way to disable it.

Of course if you don't do anything it won't do LODs. It'd be useful for e.g. Nanoblobz since some of those units are quite detailled up close but that detail isn't necessary when you see them as 20 pixel high blobs.