Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 10.57
Grae's levels of detail
Testing LODs: The Level of Detail Group
Knowing how the levels of detail will look in the game can be guesswork at times. It usu-
ally involves your actually seeing the character in the game—but Maya has a way around
this requirement. Maya allows youtoview the models interactively usingaLevel ofDetail
Group. The programmers on your team can then use the data in this group to help them set
up the in-game LODs.
Much like a normal group, what the LOD Group does is group all the different resolutions
together. Then you can designate at what distance each model should be viewed.
Let's apply this technique to our characters, Kila first.
1.
Load in the file called Kila_LOD_Prep.mb. Make all the LODs visible in the Lay-
er Editor.
2.
In the Outliner, select the highest LOD group first (Kila4096). Then, holding Ctrl,
select the lower ones in order.
3.
Go to Edit > Level Of Detail > Group. Each version of your character will now be
placed into a new group called lodGroup1. This group will now control each
LOD's visibility.
4.
Try dollying the camera in and out of the screen; the character will change depend-
ing on its distance from the camera. The problem at the moment is that the dis-
tances are not set up correctly.
5.
If it's not currently selected, select the lodGroup1 group and look in the Channel
Box (
Figure 10.58
)
.
