What LOD gives you
Level of detail swaps a model for a cheaper one as it moves away from the camera. For vegetation it is the difference between a forest of fifty trees and a forest of five thousand.
How FoliMesh builds LODs
Instead of decimating a finished mesh, the generator rebuilds the tree for each LOD: fewer branch segments, fewer leaves, then cross cards and finally an impostor. Each level is fitted to a triangle budget and keeps the silhouette.
Typical budgets
| LOD | Use | Triangles |
|---|---|---|
| LOD0 | close-up | 8–20k |
| LOD1 | mid range | 2–6k |
| LOD2 | far | 500–1.5k |
| LOD3 | very far | 100–500 |
| Impostor | horizon | 2 |
In your engine
LOD Groups in Unity, LODs on static meshes in Unreal and visibility ranges in Godot come pre-configured in the packages.