How do LODies work if yout player character is looking through a telescope or binoculars? :-)

Development Character & Animation
1

Just wondering how does LODies work if your game character is looking through binoculars or a telescope.
The character is still far away as well as the camera but the lens is seeing a much enlarged image and narrower filed of view …

2

Is it as simple as disabling the LODies for that particular camera looking through the binoculars? :slight_smile:

3

As a guess LOD’s no longer work based on distance but on screen resolution percentage relative to the camera so if looking through binoculars, which is just a visual element, the LOD’s will work the same way it would with out.

4

Thanks. I think I will just test it and see what happens :slight_smile:

5

They are screen spaced, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Screen space size should factor in FOV, if I’m not mistaken. The bigger a mesh is, on the screen, the closer to LOD0 they will be.

6

Makes sense thank you :slight_smile:
I have to read the documentation one day :slight_smile:

7

So I just heard in an Unreal live stream that “standard practice” in shooter fames is to set up scope cameras that are zoomed in to show the first LOD.

8

For a shooter that would make sense which LOD will be rendered in a dynamic fashion and there are more than a few ways of optimizing for performance that not only includes geometry but material use as well. A good example is auto LOD is an option were Level of detail can be lowered based on the amount of detail that is rendered as a sum total. or even swap in lower detail materials to cut down on the number of draw calls based on the total number of players with in the rendered frame. The best way though to sort out fact from assumption would be to profile your project under practical loads where you can play back the results and see in real time what changes improve performance. Keep in mind FPS by it’s self is really not a true indication of performance increase or decrease in a modern game engine using GPU hardware rendering.

Excellent primer

As well

So the long way of saying if you are considering making use of LOD’s you should get into the habit of profiling your project as the numbers will tell you the truth as to the notion of do you even need to do LOD’s as to rendered output or if performance loss has been inherited as in general the need for LOD’s may not even be required.

9

Got it thanks Frankie.
Yup seen those videos :slight_smile: