Tree LOD Enhancer mod idea

[boformer 3,169]

When I made the Random Tree Rotation mod, I also investigated if there was a way to rotate the LODs.

Trees have no real LOD. Instead the game renders a tree once per frame on a separate canvas (which can be seen in Modtools), then cardboards with this canvas are drawn on the terrain. That's the reason why LODs can not be rotated.

After thinking about it, I think I found a way to add rotated tree LODs. Instead of having one canvas, a mod could add 16/8/4/2 canvases to render the tree with different rotation parameters. Then the mod selects one of the canvases depending on the position of the tree on the map.

In the same go, the mod could enhance the LOD quality by increasing the size of the canvases, enabling AA etc.

[doddynco 0]

I sincerely look forward to this, it will be a huge improvement if it's possible.

[Darf 1,439]

On 14-9-2017 at 3:29 PM, boformer said:

When I made the Random Tree Rotation mod, I also investigated if there was a way to rotate the LODs.

Trees have no real LOD. Instead the game renders a tree once per frame on a separate canvas (which can be seen in Modtools), then cardboards with this canvas are drawn on the terrain. That's the reason why LODs can not be rotated.

After thinking about it, I think I found a way to add rotated tree LODs. Instead of having one canvas, a mod could add 16/8/4/2 canvases to render the tree with different rotation parameters. Then the mod selects one of the canvases depending on the position of the tree on the map.

In the same go, the mod could enhance the LOD quality by increasing the size of the canvases, enabling AA etc.

How do you combine the canvasses? Or is every single mesh seperately drawn on a canvas? 

[boformer 3,169]

2 hours ago, Darf said:

How do you combine the canvasses? Or is every single mesh seperately drawn on a canvas? 

Internally there is one large canvas for all trees (like a texture atlas).