LOD
LOD (
level-of-detail) is a method of changing something's detail level (hence the name) relative to how far that thing is from the
camera on-the-fly (dynamically, real-time, etc). In
Second Life, LOD specifically refers to
terrain, tree,
primitive, and
object/
avatar polygon complexity. For example, a sphere may be made up of 128 polygons originally but, say, at 10
m distance from the camera, LOD will reduce that polygon count to 64 polygons; at 15m, 32 polygons, etc. Avatars have 4 LODs. Given the lack of hidden surface removal (HSR) in
SL, LOD is a necessity in order to reduce
lag and improve framerate. However,
occlusion helps.
LOD also includes
texture mipmapping.
SL's
preferences has various "detail" options (object,
flexible, tree, avatar) that will adjust the LOD limits.
It is the opinion of some, that since
SL 1.9.1, the
interface options for setting detail preferences has become less intuitive. So much so that they feel it confuses the
users.
Links
camera |
polygon |
land |
prim |
object |
texture |
avatar |
flexible |
occlusion