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For any modelers who didn’t know this already:
The distance from the camera at which a model changes it’s LOD varies according to the size of the model’s collision hull. So a massive object like a base or a station, which can be seen for many kilometers, will take long distances to switch detail levels as you make you way towards it. But a small object, like a Star Wars fighter, will remain at the lowest LOD until you get relatively close to it. Then it will change up through the LODs very quickly, using very short distances.
The reason this is important is; when building small objects like fighters, it’s basically a waste of time to build a medium LOD for your model. Since anything beyond a few meters will switch away from the high (read: not crappy looking) LOD, your best bet is to use the high LOD model for the high and medium posistions. Otherwise, you’ll rarely (if ever) get close enough to actually see the nice high LOD model you spent so much time making. I first spotted this when I looked at some of Major Tom’s SW mod screenshots. Even though he’s pretty close to the other ships when he snapped the shots, I noticed that they were already at medium detail level and looking crappy. And that really annoyed me. You should still be seeing the full detail model at those distances, not watching the ship pop in and out of medium and high detail. That’s probably one reason why things like cargo pods don’t use LODs. But since ships are too polygonally complex to forego the LOD system, I now use a copy of the high LOD model in both the high and medium LOD positions. Which looks much better.
And don’t worry about the drastic switch from high to low LOD. By the time you reach the low LOD switch distance the model is so tiny you can barely see it anyway. You won’t notice the switch unless you’re really looking for it.
As always, you’ll have to be the judge as to when your object is small enough to apply this method.
I hope this saves someone a little time and aggrevation while modeling.
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