LOD Mesh & Texturing

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LOD stands for Level of Detail and is a low poly representation of your model.Most LOD's are around 50-200 polygons.This describes the process of optimization where your model will toggle over to a low resolution model. This functionality is inherent in all models, with some LOD'ing more aggressive than others (props will use LODs quicker than asset models and actually even disappear). The purpose of the LOD is to reduce the amount of rendering a GPU has to make when viewing your overall city from a distance. The LOD will appear quicker for some people who have lower graphical settings in game.It is an icon to represent the object from a far. So It doesn't need to look like the asset pixel per pixel. The Major edges should match up perfectly to your main model but you don't need to provide every little detail that your main model has. Making a low poly version of your main model means using smaller texture sizes too! For Example: Main model can have 1024x1024 and LOD texture can be 128x128 (as low as 16x16 for cars). For some very large buildings 512x512 is acceptable. Just as the main model, the LOD must all use the same texture sizes to show up right.You shouldcreate custom geometry and custom UV's for your LOD. Your LOD model does not require custom texture maps by default so if you are un-sure how to create a LOD diffuse you can let the automatic LOD texturing generate the material for you by a process called baking. However, a manually made texture will always be better than what the game generates. You can override what the importer generates for you by placing any LOD maps (diffuse/spec/etc) in the import folder, but your geometry and associated UV's should most definitely be custom. This is a different mesh than your main model. Stacking UV's for the LOD mesh can cause issues with the auto texture generator as well.After Dark Update: With After Dark released It's more important than ever to bake your lod models textures using your own 3D application and touching up and flaws in Photoshop. The Auto generated textures in After Dark can seriously make your whole asset illuminate with flaws.LOD textures require special care that the creator stays within the 0-1 UV coordinates of all map types. Failure to stay within those parameters will result in a bad LOD. If you happen to go outside of the boundaries the game will actually pull textures from completely random models and try to use those instead.All LOD maps have the suffix"modelname_lod_" Then suffix of map type" such as "d".Which should look something like this... "modelname_lod_d.jpg"The textures must have lower case "lod" not "LOD"Triggering the LOD in the asset editor will allow you to see how big the model will be when the LOD switches on. Based on the size you can get a good idea of how small your textures can be and retain quality without having them be really blurred and noticeable. Using the Isometric Camera mod will forces LODs to show up even at very close distances. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=409359952 The Asset Editor has issues sometimes and your LOD texture might show up with random colors unrelated to your texture. Simply save it and check it out in game and you will notice that everything is actually showing up correctly.Here's a video tutorial how to make a custom LOD using 3D Studio Max.