LOD - -= Gametoast.com =-

n1nj4 · Post by **n1nj4** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:41 pm

How do I create a LOD mesh? Is there a tool that reduces poly-count? How can I find out how many polys my mesh has? Do I simply build the lod mesh ontop of my orginal? Please help an XSI noob.

Post by **Gogie** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:40 pm

create a model and a lower res model then place it in your odf.

look at Kamino or Tatooine for refference.

n1nj4 · Post by **n1nj4** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:42 am

thanks, but how do I know how many polys my mesh has?

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:14 am

Select the entire mesh (make sure you don't have any nulls selected) and press Shift+Enter. I think that's how you do it.

Murdocr · Post by **Murdocr** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:17 am

in xsi press shift+s and go to stats. then select show scene info and show selection info. Also another way of getting a LOD model in game is to select all geometry and go create>poly mesh>merge. name this new poly mesh something_lowrez. works every time for me

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:15 am

In XSI make the lowres object children of the original object and name it objectname_lowrez (where objectname should be the name of the parent object.

You also need to select the both models before exporting.

Rends

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:20 am

But what if the parent object is more than one mesh? Do you have to make a polymesh out of all of them?

t551 · Post by **t551** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:44 pm

The prop should be one polymesh, and it's lowrez should be another, and then, if you include collision primitives, those are each one polymesh to themselves.

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:25 pm

This is a typical 3dmodel arangement for SWBF:

Note: for export you need to select all objects.

Rends

t551 · Post by **t551** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:37 pm

Well, you do that by baranch selecting DummyRoot, don't you?

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:50 pm

It´s the shematic view ( 9 key)

Rends

t551 · Post by **t551** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:54 pm

No, no, I mean selecting all the objects, it's done by branch selecting DummyRoot.

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:22 pm

Well no, you need to hold down the shift key and select everone.

Rends

Post by **Qdin** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:41 pm

lol - no Rends

t551 was talking about when exporting, and he's totally right

you gotta Branch Select the DummyRoot, since EVERYTHING should be a Child of the DummyRoot

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:08 pm

Well not sure what you mean with dummyroot.

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:32 pm

Dummyroot is the parent null that everything goes under. Personally I call it MS3DSceneRoot, and it works fine for me.

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:37 pm

Regarding to the screenie here:

I didn´t add a Null.
The Cube is the parent and everything else is a child of it.
So what do you mean?
Cube=Null=Dummy ???

And in explorer view if i select the cube only the cube will get highightet not the childs so i still need to select the childs one by one.
(Teach me if there is another way)

Rends

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:58 pm

If the cube is the parent then you can middle-click on it to select everything else (branch-select), then export. I've never seen the actual mesh being the parent of everything though. Meh, if it works, it works.

t551 · Post by **t551** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:43 pm

Yeah, the way the dev's did it was to have, under Scene_Root, a null called DummyRoot, which has everything pertaining to the model as a child of it. When you export, you branch select (middle-click) DummyRoot, and then everything that is useful to the model is selected for export.

n1nj4 · Post by **n1nj4** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:10 pm

Murdocr wrote:in xsi press shift+s and go to stats. then select show scene info and show selection info. Also another way of getting a LOD model in game is to select all geometry and go create>poly mesh>merge. name this new poly mesh something_lowrez. works every time for me

so....I don't need to reduce the poly count for a lod mesh? That's fishy...plus, my model is one object, so if I hit merge, my mouse has "pick" over it...couldn't I just duplicate my model and make it a lowrez?