interesting research on speedtree LOD issues

[mcketten]

it seems speedtree 4.2 UDK and 5.1 both have conflicting stories on the LOD. some people are saying that billboarding and compiling LOD vastly improves performance, while others are noticing massive stutters when doing this (on several engines it seems)

i spent a few hours tonight searching the interwebz for information on it lol

what version of speedtree are we running?

[mcketten]

to be clear this is all anecdotal stuff, of course, and without detailed information about what machines these devs were running and what the various engines they were using were capable of...who knows?

the general consensus i got, however, was that dynamic lighting and self shadows should be kept at a minimum on even the lowest poly speedtree models because it seems to be making things wonky on large scenes.

funny how this wasn't a problem with something like the oblivion engine, though?

[GOPHUR]

4.2 I believe.

[mcketten]

4.2 I believe.

yeah, that makes sense

the poly count difference in speedtrees from 4.2 to 5.1 is insanely stupid

trees in 4.2 were 100-2000 polys it looked like, and in 5.1 it was about 5000-50000

not something you'd want in BE