Table of Contents

Level Of Detail

To reduce the rendering performance impact of models with high triangle counts or models with a lot of instances, Hurricane supports levels of detail (LOD). This allows models to be rendered with a different mesh at different distances to the camera.

Hurricane supports 5 different levels of detail:

Level ID Min distance Max distance
0 0 50
1 50 100
2 100 200
3 200 300
4 300 ∞

How to

To add LOD to your model, for each mesh in your model, do the following:

  1. create less detailed versions of your mesh
  2. for each level, put your meshes in child nodes named LOD_X with X being the selected level
  3. alternatively, you can use a single mesh for multiple levels of detail: for example, if you name your mesh node LOD_23, this mesh will be used for rendering at levels 2 and 3
  4. if you want to hide a model at long distance (useful for small props too small to see from far away anyway), don't use levels past the max rendering distance you want: for example, if you want a small prop to not be rendered at a distance greater than 100, only create meshes LOD_0 and LOD_1

Example

Here are a few examples of model hierarchy using LOD

Before LOD

With one mesh per level

With one detailed and one simplified mesh

Here, the model is rendered with the mesh LOD_012 for a distance inferior to 200, and with the mesh LOD_34 for a distance greater than 200.

Only for close distance

In this configuration, the mesh LOD_01 is used to render the model to a distance up to 100, and then the model is hidden.