LOD Creation Thread - Survivor: Eye of the Storm

LODs or Level Of Detail...

LODs are an important part of a game they will make the difference between a game running at 60fps and a game running at 10,
ALMOST every model in the game will require a LOD chain. Incase you have never had to work with LODs before heres a brief
explaination....

LOD models are lower poly versions of the in game mesh that load in when the player is a certain distance from the model.
All LOD models should hold the general shape of the original model as best they can atleast until the last lod where you can be very ruthless.

Heres an example of a suitable LOD chain for a fire hydrant ive made.

For Survivor we will be working that each lod will be between 1/3 and 1/4 lower polys than the lod above it so if you make a model that is 100 polys
then the 1st lod model will be 67-75 polys the next LOD will be 45-50 polys and so on until you get the most basic model you can that
holds the shape of the original.

The lowest lod should be between 1 and 2000 polys depending on the model,

So if a model of a building has 12,000 polys then you will make the 1st lod at 8000 polys, 2nd at 3556, 3rd at 1581.

UDK can only have 3 LODs per model so plan your LODs carefully. The 3rd LOD the player will be some distance from
the model so you can be kinda ruthless with what you remove but remember that the player will be walking towards the
model at some point and the last thing we want is obvious "POPPING" weve all seen popping in games before the best
example is gta san andreas or even gta4 where you will be driving along and all of a sudden a tree/lamp post/car
will apprear right in front of your eyes from nowhere this is something we need to avoid.