rdLODtools

This is a UE plugin that resides in the Static Mesh Editor.

General Information

It allows you to easily create Billboard, Planar, Cubic, TriSprite and Impostor LODs. Billboard LODs can have up to 64 frames in a FlipBook giving a full, 360 degree view (or a range) of the mesh in just 2 or 4 triangles (v1.4 will have dual axis). Planar LODs can have 2-32 planes plus a top plane. Cubic LODs can be modeled to any shape and TriSprite LODs are 1 triangle. Impostors are all-around views, using the ImpostorBaker Shaders for runtime.

Note: Billboards and Impostors are primarily designed for trees and tall, thin foliage, ones using masks or translucency - complex materials. Trying to create these for other types of objects can produce mixed results, and often no optimization. Look at reducing tri counts and using existing materials for other types of meshes.

Running rdLODtools over your complex meshes can speed up rendering by huge factors. These LODs can also give a thicker appearance on screen in the distance while also reducing your frame-rates.

Note: To create the LODs, Deferred Rendering must be used, if you're using Forward Rendering, just flip to Deferred while creating the LODs (or create them in another project).To create Impostors, you must enable the Impostor Baker plugin that comes with the engine.

Mesh Types that rdLODtools is most useful for are things such as:

• Trees

• Tall, thin Foliage

• Complex Sky Scrapers and tall buildings with mixtures of materials

The cost of reducing your mesh to an Impostor or Billboard is an extra set of textures - a balance between VRAM usage and triangle reduction must be aimed for.

Please note that often you will need to manually adjust the colors of your mesh - this is made easy by incorporating adjustment values in the LODs material instances.

Version 1.3 introduces many tools to speed up all your work with LODs. Context menus have been added to easily change many LOD details and also create/extract LODs from meshes.

Version 1.4 introduces Impostor LODs.

Version 1.44 introduces a tool to create new meshes at the specified reduced LOD size (disk footprint optimization)

Technical details

Features:

• Create 2/4 triangle, multi-angle Billboard LODs
• Create 2-32 poly planar LODs
• Create Cubic LODs which can be edited in modelling apps.
• Create high-speed, single triangle TriSprites.
• Create Impostors
• Complete color customization
• Speed up your Scenes by huge amounts
• Large number of tools for editing details about LODs
• Create smaller optimized meshes from reduced poly LODs
• Tools to Remove, Combine and extract LODs
• Workflow optimized
• LOD settings Vault for storing custom LOD values

Code Modules: rdLODtools (Editor)

Number of Blueprints: 0

Number of C++ Classes: 7

Network Replicated: No

Supported Development Platforms: Windows,Linux

Supported Target Build Platforms: Any, Editor only plugin

Documentation: https://recourse.nz/index.php/rdlodtools-manual-1-4/

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