Talk:Level of detail

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Didn't LOD exist long before Black and White? Ocarina of Time used it extensively and I'm pretty sure it was in Mario 64, too.68.37.43.90 21:09, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Fixed some missing words and added a note about fog which always works together with LOD.

I've seen a very simple LOD system in Mario64 for the main character and this game was released 5 years before Black & White. Also the early EA sports titles like Fifa already had a LOD system for characters.


LoD has almost always have been used. I believe even the first Quake used it (by sure Q2 had it on some entity models). Speaking about games is, however, far from doing good since LoD was invented much time before. Anyway, I added the page to my TODO list, maybe I'll be able to provide some work (and references)! MaxDZ8 talk 22:54, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeah Quake had LOD on the textures, but not the models --70.29.120.82 23:54, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking this article's historical angle is very innaccurate. LOD has been around a lot longer than Black & White, for certain. N64 used it in Super Mario 64 and probably all other titles. I believe that almost every 3D title uses it but am not sure how far back I've seen it used. --Swaaye 21:39, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

That's true. I've traced back LOD to the seventies. I worked a bit on those things and I've produced a prototype at User:MaxDZ8/LoD Proto but it's still to be finished and requires layout work.
It should make clear at least that speaking of videogames is definetly out of place.
MaxDZ8 talk 10:03, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

I looked at your proto LOD page. I know well the field and it looks mostly OK (i would remove times from the table because they are too much current HW dependent) I could add some stuff for the variable/continous LOD. I propose that you place your version here and then we could continue its improvement here.ALoopingIcon 07:51, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
I'll think about it but I'm not sure what could happen if I move it there while still unfinished. As for the elapsed times, they're sure hardware dependant but I kept them to give the reader the possibility to check the ratio himself: if I would just say that there's a 21x improvement, it would sound somewhat odd.
Is it clear that the source code will be released in public domain?
MaxDZ8 talk 16:50, 25 May 2006 (UTC)


This page seems to talk about LOD exclusively in the context of 3D games. It is missing most of the computer graphic historical background. The research paper that spawned the LOD research field dates back to 1976, and most of the seminal papers in the field are from the mid 80's. I'll try to add more complete information since this is my primary area of research, and I wrote a review paper about LOD a few monthts ago. --Rveguilla 01:45, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

When improving, try to not redo something which is on the prototype page: User:MaxDZ8/LoD Proto.
It has been asked to release it but I'm still not satisfied with the contents. HLOD is missing for example.
MaxDZ8 talk 07:16, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

I support the move. It does not seem to lose any information furthermore, newer page versions being worked are just concept-driven, making "programming" something not justified in the title. MaxDZ8 talk 07:31, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] On the new version.

As a few people said, the article was a quite good improvement over previous content. I was planning to improve it and post it in a single blow but I had to face the fact I don't have time to work in this. There are obvious places in which to put more effort.

I would like to spend a note on performance. This is very hw-specific as some people say. I still think those metrics to be useful because, in an ideal scenario I would have compared LOD and HLOD, expecting the HLOD to have higher transform rate in the end (although possibly more frame time).

Again, I now consider this to be closed by my side. I'm sure you'll be able to finish it.
MaxDZ8 talk 11:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)