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Please add LODs to help with multiplayer performance.


Moezilla

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The MiG-21 currently only uses a LOD0 model. It has a .lods file describing transitions but they all reference the LOD0 model and the LOD0 model has no embedded transform nodes.

While the model is not the heaviest in DCS, in a multiplayer environment near a busy airfield, a few MiG-21s can add up to a lot of objects and triangles very quickly, putting an unnecessary load on the player's CPU & GPU, particularly with shadows enabled. Also, due to how the camera seems to work in DCS, zooming in can cause the 3D model to begin rendering at longer distances.

I did a search in this forum for the term "lod" and saw references to different LOD levels in the past, so possibly they did exist once and have been omitted along the way.

Attached are two in-game screenshots showing 10 MiG-21s taking off at Senaki airbase, at close range and 6km away, with similar object counts in both scenes.

I hope you can find the time to add the lower detail LODs as it would be a great help to the multiplayer community, especially the Cold War servers.

senaki_10migs_6km.png

senaki_10migs_close.png

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I really hope they prioritize this issue, because the Mig-21s make performance bad for EVERYONE on the server, not just for Mig-21 players.

Was flying on the Enigma cold war server, and when looking into the general direction of fight, my FPS tanked to 40. Usually I'm flying at around 80-100.

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Once the Corsair is released they said MiG-21 v2.0 would be immediate next thing to do, and that's probably one thing in which it would be different.

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"I went into the British Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I believe now that if you prepare for war, you get war."

-- Major-General Frederick B. Maurice

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A v2.0 would be great but that will take some time and, as you say, will probably need to wait for the F4U to be released and post-launch bug-fixes applied, before it becomes the focus.

For the multiplayer Cold War server enjoyers, adding even one lighter LOD to the current MiG-21 would make a big difference at busy airbases or in multi-aircraft dogfights.

ED's multi-threaded update is coming, and will help, but it shouldn't be seen as a cure-all or used as a bulldozer.

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  • 2 months later...

Wow, I thought that is a standard optimization procedure in Video Game Coding today. 
I realized the lag of LODs last time when I began to play with the LODs inside the "graphics.lua" . 
But than my presumption are correct. I changed the lod from 1.0 to 0.5 and  realized a more stable framerate for VR Singleplayer in combination with the Multithreating. It seems we still have some performance reserves here. 

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  • 7 months later...
1 hour ago, Rapierarch said:

@Moezilla I don't know how their bugtracker works but I believe since you have posted the bug you had some options like asking further questions. 

LOD issue is recently closed. Did you get any feedback about implementation of lods?

Mag3 did add a new lower detail LOD which is transitioned to at 1000m. They also changed the cull distance from 20000m to 10000m. There could be some edge cases at very high FOV (e.g. 21:9 screens at min zoom), or if the new LOD slider is reduced below 1.0, where the MiG-21 model might be culled while still in visual range. I've seen anecdotal evidence about it but I haven't been playing DCS lately to test it, and the reports about 2.9 MP performance have left me uninterested in trying again until I hear about improvements.

MiG-21_newLOD.png

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After I made updates to the main model a few years ago, I didn't do the LoDs. (mainly because of the spine & tail merging differences)  It was a difficult decision because I was on the cusp of redoing everything for Phase II, but I also have the F4U to attend t.  The original LoDs still use the 8K texture layout as well.  It's such a pain transitioning back to separate 4K textures....however, LoD4 was recently uploaded as it's easier to work with since the unaligned UVs are less noticeable with missing triangles.  In any case, I'm currently doing CE2 LoDs.  Depending on my schedule, I'll get around to doing the other MiG-21bis LoDs.  I certainly want to finish before we show off our next module.

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