Terrain LOD

Mike_Cuzins · Post by **Mike_Cuzins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 5:00 pm

This is one of the worst problems i have with games. THE WORST being the GTA series.

Did anyone ever get the problem, that if you ot in a really fast car, or motorbike, and floored it down a big road, the textures would drop qualiy substantially and buildings would lose details ad just turn into boxes?

That was because they used something very similar (by the sounds of it) to terrain LOD. What was happening was, you would move faster than the computer could add texture quality and the other polygons.

Will the same problem occur with Lugaru???
To Dave or Jeff: If you havn't tried already, can you get the character to move as Fast as he can, jumping etc, in a straight line, and post screenshots or something? Because, lugaru is about Speed, that was one of its funnest points, and if this is a problem, it loses that point...[/b]

Post by **David** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 5:18 pm

No, that is a problem with data streaming, which won't be a problem here. In GTA the high-resolution models were loaded from the disc only when needed, which was sometimes slow because of the PS2 disc reading speed. However, when loading data from the hard drive this will not be a problem, especially since Lugaru 2 does not have such densely packed content, and can load much more into memory at a time.

Mike_Cuzins · Post by **Mike_Cuzins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 5:27 pm

David wrote:No, that is a problem with data streaming, which won't be a problem here. In GTA the high-resolution models were loaded from the disc only when needed, which was sometimes slow because of the PS2 disc reading speed. However, when loading data from the hard drive this will not be a problem, especially since Lugaru 2 does not have such densely packed content, and can load much more into memory at a time.

ahhh, wise old david. fewf, that explains (but leaves me confused) Everything! thanks

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:39 pm

Cause if you noticed that if you run an application off a disc it runs slower then if you were to put it onto your hard drive

.

Mike_Cuzins · Post by **Mike_Cuzins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:25 pm

NickD wrote:Cause if you noticed that if you run an application off a disc it runs slower then if you were to put it onto your hard drive .

Nah this was running of the hard drive, it ws on PC, and my PC was quite good at the time (for the time). I just was just going really fast (PCJ600)

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:27 pm

In GTA, there were other issues than CD loading lag that could prevent the engine to show the highres models. I know that because I experienced this problem on my PC (which doesn't load the models from the CD to update models), it was pretty annoying in Vice City and better, but still present, in San Andreas. I don't have any idea what the problem was (some scenegraph updating problem maybe?), but a lot of people complained about this. And it was never fixed. But it's obviously connected to the amount and diversity of 3D models and textures that are referenced. Obvious because the effect got worse when driving fast in urban landscape which is of course dense and diverse.

Mike_Cuzins · Post by **Mike_Cuzins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:16 pm

you guys are prolly right, I just figured that, they were low res in the distance to save FPS. and if you went to fast you would catch up to it. but that was a guess.

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:46 pm

exactly what happened... im pretty sure... i think... ask david

.

Mike_Cuzins · Post by **Mike_Cuzins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:01 pm

this topic just did a complete loop, because LOD reduces detail in the distance to save FPS aswell, although he says otherwise. im confuddled

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:05 pm

We know. It does

. Who said it didn't?

Colicedus · Post by **Colicedus** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:14 pm

I think with Motion blur you may not notice that anyway...
Or some one Correct me?

Mike_Cuzins · Post by **Mike_Cuzins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:27 pm

Then the lugaru 2 LOD will work in the same way as GTA, which was my main point. If the lugaru 2 LOD thing is the same as GTA then wont the low quality at high speeds thing be in lugaru 2 aswell?

Post by **David** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:11 am

The level of detail in Lugaru 2 is instantaneous; there is no way to 'catch up' to it. Basically, the entire scene is stored in memory at several levels of detail, and the appropriate one is drawn to the screen. Even if you teleport across the map in one frame, it will be rendered correctly.

Level of detail and data streaming are similar techniques, but not the same thing.