LOD1 building transform group

[sablerock]

Can’t find tutorials on this.
But it looks like I must reduce poly count of my building in Blender by deleting details from mesh like props/chimneys etc…
And use this object as lod1.
This cant be done in GE.
Am I on right track?

[Tiredasagiraffe]

Yes, any reduction in poly count would be done in Blender.
Have you taken a look at some of the Giants in-game map buildings? Should give you a good idea of how to approach this.

[sablerock]

Yeah I’ve seen.
All unnecessary meshes like snow removed.
So my question was just to get confirmation that you have to duplicate your object and Blender and reduce poly count.
I thought by duplicating object in GE and make it LOD1 , that GE do the mesh reductions automatically.
But, alas not so

[OmaTana]

Can’t find tutorials on this.
But it looks like I must reduce poly count of my building in Blender by deleting details from mesh like props/chimneys etc…
And use this object as lod1.
This cant be done in GE.
Am I on right track?

Yes, it works as you think.
You should do this after making the 2nd UV, because both buildings should use the same 2nd UV map for snow, ao, dirt and moss.

[sablerock]

Sure it’s terminology, but what do you mean by 2nd uv map?

[Missyb]

For the LOD_1 grouping you need to do the following...

In blender once you are done making the model duplicate the main buliding reduce the ploy count by half. export both into GE,

When in GE create a new transform group tick LOD in the attributes, then create 2 more transform groups naming them LOD0 and LOD1 if done correctly lod1 will be inadvisable

[Missyb]

You should do this after making the 2nd UV, because both buildings should use the same 2nd UV map for snow, ao, dirt and moss.

Snow workS from the first UV not 2nd only dirt and moss work from the 2nd UV

[OmaTana]

You should do this after making the 2nd UV, because both buildings should use the same 2nd UV map for snow, ao, dirt and moss.

Snow workS from the first UV not 2nd only dirt and moss work from the 2nd UV

Snow works from the 1st UV if you use the placeableShader and from the 2nd UV when using the buildingShader.
When using the placeableShader you don't even need a 2nd UV at all.

[OmaTana]

Sure it’s terminology, but what do you mean by 2nd uv map?

If you want to use the buildingShader, then you need a 2nd UV in addition to the normal UV.
With the 2nd UV you use an additional texture for Ambient Occlusion, Moss and Dirt in a single texture file, and you determine, where the snow should be and witch faces are considered indoor. The indoor faces should be at the left side of the texture of the 2nd UV map.
This is quite some stuff to learn, but as you are already asking for LOD1, I think you are already rather advanced.