Auto LOD is included in every major game engine and it can be good enough in most cases until it isn´t anymore. Like for example eyes or hair pieces which are suddenly missing. (these four examples show an active Auto LOD without the included Distance where it occurs) Depending on when those issues pop up, you could do…
Ive just run a series of pretty exhaustive tests with simplygon 10 vs manual lods on a load of characters (we already know it can't cope with hard surface meshes so didn't bother there) TLDR : You'll get a better looking result doing it by hand for the same geometry cost - especially on the lowest lods Simplygon still…
Until your model is pretty simple like wall barrier , a box or like LODs are necessary . For a character Simplygon does an ok job already. As far as I know Unreal uses Simplygon and makes lods automatically . But in some cases LODs require decisions and compromises Ai incapable to do yet. There are also a semi-automated…
I assume the meshes you had to lod have not been constructed with LODs in mind? Which is a pretty common issue. Auto unwrapped and relaxed UVs, less than optimal geometry, floating geometry not baked down etc. There are lots of things that can make the job of creating lods a nightmare or a breeze
Unreal doesn't use simplygon - you can plug it in but the default is just a rudimentary (shite) decimator ok so.. this is a gross oversimplification but hopefully gets the point across The primary function of LODs is to reduce the amount of stuff on screen that your machine has to process so that it can draw frames more…
yes, it is a nightmare, thats what i did on my previous job in a studio and thats why im asking is it really really mandatory that much of optimisation. So, every AAA character need to have 5-7 LODs when doign retopo ? maybe that would be a better question