Reduce the appearance of LOD's?

[epa]

For some scenery items, particularly HP-Trainz assets, LOD's kick in way too close, which I feel ruins some otherwise great scenery items.


HP-Texaco_Tankstelle

Drive_In

Lokschuppen_Shelby

Somehow the before picture of this one got lost, but it's supposed to be an engine shed. And unless you're right on top of it, it appears as...

My scenery detail setting is on "ultra" and draw distance is turned all the way up. Is there any way to reduce the appearance of LOD's?

Matt

 

[johnwhelan]

They are controlled by the config.txt file or the lm.txt file so yes you should be able to adjust them however the mesh table ones are under N3V'scontrol.

Cheerio John

 

[epa]

They are controlled by the config.txt file or the lm.txt file so yes you should be able to adjust them however the mesh table ones are under N3V'scontrol.

Cheerio John

I'll give that a shot, but it will have to wait until I get home from work.

Matt

 

[clam1952]

They are controlled by the config.txt file or the lm.txt file so yes you should be able to adjust them however the mesh table ones are under N3V'scontrol.

Cheerio John

Not so in TRS19, you have control with the mesh-table-lod-transition-distance tag, the values are the distances in meters the lod levels change at. This is from a signal box, one of mine with 3 levels of lod only works at 4.6 so no use for TANE.

mesh-table-lod-transition-distances     800,1500,3000

mesh-table
{
  default
  {
    mesh                                "Signal box.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           0
  }
  
  lod1
  {
    mesh                                "lod1.IM"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           1
  }
  
  lod2
  {
    mesh                                "lod2.IM"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           2
  }
}

From the Wiki: http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/KIND_Mesh

[h=2]mesh-table-lod-transition-distances[/h] The "mesh-table-lod-transition-distances" tag (float array) determines the distances in meters at which each mesh-table LOD level ends. This means that there is effectively one more mesh-table LOD than entries in this array. With an empty array (i.e. to tag value), no mesh-table LOD is used. With three values in the array, four mesh-table LOD indices are used (ie. 0, 1, 2, 3). For small objects, it may be appropriate to not provide any meshes for the final mesh-table LOD index, effectively giving some number of meaningful LOD variants and a final "null" LOD where no rendering occurs.
This is used in conjunction with the "lod-level" tag in the "mesh-table" Container. Note that mesh-table LOD is an entirely separate concept from LM.txt file format LOD. You should not attempt to configure the LM.txt transition distances using this tag. It is, however, possible to combine the effects.
This tag does not override user settings for draw distance and scenery detail. If a LOD transition takes place beyond the master draw distance for that object type, it will never be visible. Furthermore, at lower detail settings the LOD ranges may be adjusted to be more aggressive than specified by the content creator.

 

[NSWGR_46Class]

I am complained abut this so many times but nobody wants to know about it

 

[johnwhelan]

I am complained abut this so many times but nobody wants to know about it

Get notepad++ out and edit the config.txt files etc.

Cheerio John

 

[epa]

I opened up the Texaco station, and the only thing in the Config file that refers to the LOD's is...

mesh-detail-level-count                 3

mesh-table
{
  lod-0
  {
    mesh                                "texaco.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           0
  }
  
  lod-1
  {
    mesh                                "lod01.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           1
  }
  
  lod-2
  {
    mesh                                "lod02.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           2
  }
}

Nothing that would make a difference, from what I can tell. There are no mesh libraries, or even ".im.txt" files.

Matt

 

[clam1952]

Unless its needed for TANE modify that config, change to 4.6 <<< important.

Delete
mesh-detail-level-count 3

add
mesh-table-lod-transition-distances 800,1500,3000

You can adjust the distances to suit if this works

so that part of the config should read

mesh-table-lod-transition-distances     800,1500,3000

mesh-table
{
  lod-0
  {
    mesh                                "texaco.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           0
  }
  
  lod-1
  {
    mesh                                "lod01.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           1
  }
  
  lod-2
  {
    mesh                                "lod02.im"
    auto-create                         1
    lod-level                           2
  }
}

 

[epa]

Unless its needed for TANE modify that config, change to 4.6 <<< important.

Delete
mesh-detail-level-count 3

add
mesh-table-lod-transition-distances 800,1500,3000

You can adjust the distances to suit if this works

so that part of the config should read...

I tried that, and Trainz didn't like it one bit...

I guess updating it to 4.6 broke something.

Matt

 

[clam1952]

Ouch! TRS19 finds a lot more errors at 4.6 the material one is very common, the light tag has been obsolete for years, the material errors are due to the creator using the same material for different parts but using different parameters for diffuse ambient and specular, it is fixable with a hex editor or im editor. They are actually shown as warnings in TANE and yes many of us have done that including me.

Suggest a temporary fix however this is a 33,000 poly asset, with lod it takes it to under 500 but getting rid of the lod from the config would stop it vanishing. 1 high poly building in route won't be an issue 100 of them might!
Better, would be to use lm.txt which will work on the existing version and avoid having to fix all those material errors and you can adjust the lod distances.

 

[epa]

...but getting rid of the lod from the config would stop it vanishing....

That's what I was thinking. That or replacing the LOD meshes with copies of the full size one.

That asset (or really, all of the ones listed in the original post) was originally made for TRS10 or 12, I know those versions weren't so picky.

Matt

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

...replacing the LOD meshes with copies of the full size one.

Matt

That would be a bad idea. I think the error-checks pick up that kind of cheating anyway, but the display problems with this asset probably stem from the outrageously high polygon-, texture- and mesh counts involved.

The internal framework of that engine shed alone has over 128,000 triangles and 67 texture materials eek. Even the little hand-held fire extinguishers have over 27,000 triangles and 5 materials. It's like he got the objects from AutoCad or something.

Having made those criticisms, I must say the Lokschuppen (Engine shed) showed none of those problems in my copy of T:ANE on a computer which has an older video card (nVidia 980Ti) than yours.

The Texaco gas station however did show the same behaviour as in your screenshots. It's kind of ironic because this one at least has a set of LOD meshes. It's just that the creator has reduced the poly-count from 33,000 to 459 in just 2 steps by simply chopping things off instead of making lower-poly versions of the various mesh components. TANE punishes the lazy "sledgehammer" approach quite severely.




.

 

[JCitron]

That would be a bad idea. I think the error-checks pick up that kind of cheating anyway, but the display problems with this asset probably stem from the outrageously high polygon-, texture- and mesh counts involved.

The internal framework of that engine shed alone has over 128,000 triangles and 67 texture materials eek. Even the little hand-held fire extinguishers have over 27,000 triangles and 5 materials. It's like he got the objects from AutoCad or something.


.

A lot of the assets are like that from these content creators. Smart Cars, for example, have hundreds of polygons. The beachgoers too are very high poly as well. I agree these must've come from TurboSquid or one of those model houses.

 

[mrscsi]

the material errors are due to the creator using the same material for different parts but using different parameters for diffuse ambient and specular, it is fixable with a hex editor or im editor. They are actually shown as warnings in TANE and yes many of us have done that including me.

Yeah I tried to be tight on my containers and use 1 bump or param for a set and got drilled with that error so it just means everything needs its own freakin texture file on the lod 0 at least... I get away with using just one on the lod1 since for each set they are the same color so I just picked one main texture and used it for the lod1 with m.onetex

 

[mrscsi]

Even the little hand-held fire extinguishers have over 27,000 triangles and 5 materials.



.

Damn and here I thought I was REALLY being naughty doing a 53 foot container and having it 12k LOL