I response to some confusion over LOD levels when uploading mesh, I’m gonna toss together the steps I take for keeping LI and upload costs low. (^_^)
To start… ALWAYS start with multiple models. At least 2. For this demo, I’m using 3. (^_^)
The differences in detail should be apparent. I’ll call them A, B, and C. Note that A has 3x the Verts of B and C is little more than a cube. All 3 models have 3 material surfaces and roughly the same UV maps. (^_^)
Now, to upload. =^-^=
This is the default upload for A. The model makes up the High LoD and the uploader is set to Generate the rest of the models based on a Triangle Limit. The uploader can be really rough when removing verts to bring the objects down to the marked triangle limits. (>_<)
View each LoD level, click on the High, Medium, Low, and Lowest names on the far left… Or use the box just below the mesh image. As you can see, Lowest can make for a pretty ugly blob. The going price for this blob is L$12 to upload and an LI of 10.059. (O.o)
So, lets use the rest of our models… =^-^=
Now High, Medium, and Low each have a model for uploading. These models will look exactly like the ones in the top image. So Medium will preserve more of its shape, Low will just be a box, and Lowest will be Generated and be a decimated blob of the box from Low. Here’s the good part. Upload price is now L$11 and the LI has gone down to 7.812. (^_^)
This is a relatively simple model, so the savings won’t be very huge… But, this should at least demonstrate that a savings is possible. (^_^)
Finally, when it comes to physics, complex models can really jack up the LI. Items like clothing and other attachments could wind up having very complex physics shapes in spite of them being totally phantom while worn. What I do for this is keep a cube. Just a default Blender cube that I can use as the Physics LoD file. (^_^)
Now, since this model is very simple… There’s no actual change in physics detail with or without the cube. Since physics is less than 1, it won’t affect our upload cost or LI.
Once the LED was inworld I found that the models were something like 8 meters tall which initially threw off the LI number while uploading. Once it was scaled to 2 meters tall or less, LI fell below 1 and I was able to link 3 together for 2LI.
This is my take on things. It probably isn’t accurate or complete, but, it’s what I’ve been doing and it works for me. Please correct me in comments if need be. (^_^)y