Texture LODs / LOD Tool

[Kartoffel]

(Mount and Blade normal version)

Hi,
I have two questions.
First: Is there a way to have LODs for textures? It would be very useful for the ground textures, because they are flickering, when they are in a hight resolution.

Second: Is there a free Tool to make a LOD from a 3D Mesh?
I hope you can help me with these questions.

 

[Rath0s]

I use this to reduce the polys of my models, its too boring doing it manually. 

http://download.cnet.com/Balancer-Lite/3000-6677_4-10913019.html

 

[Kartoffel]

Thank you, its a really good tool! Now there is still the other question...

 

[mr.master]

That tool is for making lods from 3d models. If you also need to do lods for textures, generate mipmaps while making it a dds file. If I understood right, it's pretty much the same, expect it's for textures.

 

[Rath0s]

Yes, use mip maps.

 

[Mandible]

whats a good number for mipmaps? The dds converter has an option to set how many you want to make. 3-5? What do you guys use?

 

[mr.master]

Well, Id say that the more the merrier. : D Of course, I could be very wrong about this. I havent used much mipmaps etc though.

 

[Somebody]

It depends on your texture size: for example 512 = 2^9, so you should have 9 levels of mipmaps.

 

[Kartoffel]

Thank you again! One more little questoin: Do the mipmaps really improve the performance?

 

[Lumos]

Yes, they are very needed.

 

[Kartoffel]

So it would make sense if I would add mipmaps to ALL .dds textures?

And two other question to LODs: I saw, that LODs for scene props don't work, if you normal add it in the brf file. What to do?

And is there a Tool to make a 3D model more detailed?

 

[mr.master]

So it would make sense if I would add mipmaps to ALL .dds textures?

And two other question to LODs: I saw, that LODs for scene props don't work, if you normal add it in the brf file. What to do?

And is there a Tool to make a 3D model more detailed?

What do you exactly mean by making a model more detailed?

 

[Kartoffel]

the opposite from make a LOD, more highpoly.

 

[mr.master]

Hmm, not sure. Well, Wings 3D has "do subdivision". You could try that.  Not sure if it's what your looking for but well, you could try : P

 

[Kartoffel]

Thank you for answer. I will try! You don't know the other answers for the questions?

 

[mr.master]

Not sure about the scene props. I have to see about them.

 

[The Shadow]

How many mipmaps would you want for say, a 1024x1024 and a 2048x2048? 

 

[Somebody]

log2(size). Most programs do it automatically when converting/exporting to dds based on that anyways.

 

[Kartoffel]

I'm still interested, if there are LODs for scene props. So: if anybody kknow how to have LODs for scene-props: post it

 

[Harmast]

I'm still interested, if there are LODs for scene props. So: if anybody kknow how to have LODs for scene-props: post it

Won't LODs work the same way with scene props? IIRC the desert plant prop from Native Warband has LODs.