LODs on MD3s?

[DerFürst]

GLMs have LODs as part of the mesh already. MD3's do not.

 

I read somewhere that having MD3's with LODs was as simple as creating the lower detailed model, then exporting it as "objectname_1.md3" etc and placing it right next to the original "objectname.md3" file. In engine, the game should know to replace "objectname" with "objectname_1" when viewing at a distance as it does for GLMs without any keys in the misc_model(_static) entity I'd hope.

 

How does it actually work? Please explain as if I had never done this before if you know. 

[Spaghetti]

I am very curious about this too, there are many applications where LODs are vital for performance.

[eezstreet]

What you've heard is correct. Simply adding a _1, _2, ... to each higher LOD (as the numbers increase, the detail decreases). Note that this doesn't work if you use the model as a misc_model, it has to be misc_model_static or misc_model_breakable

[Ramikad]

What you've heard is correct. Simply adding a _1, _2, ... to each higher LOD (as the numbers increase, the detail decreases). Note that this doesn't work if you use the model as a misc_model, it has to be misc_model_static or misc_model_breakable

 

Precisely. Out of curiosity, do you know why it only works with these kind of models, and not with plain old misc_model?

[Xycaleth]

When you compile a map with misc_models, the model data is extracted from the model file and baked into the BSP file. The game doesn't even see that there was a model there as it's all part of the map.

[Spaghetti]

Thanks for the help EZ, simple enough to remember.