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:

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

Here are a few examples of model hierarchy using LOD

• RootNode
  • BuildingMesh ← high detailed mesh

• RootNode
  • BuildingMesh
    • LOD_0
    • LOD_1
    • LOD_2
    • LOD_3
    • LOD_4

• RootNode
  • BuildingMesh
    • LOD_012
    • LOD_34

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.

• RootNode
  • SmallPropMesh
    • LOD_01

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.