I've been slightly wondering for a while, is it possible to increase LOD distance? That would make asteroid fields look like actual asteroid fields, you could see ships before picking them up on scanners, etc etc.
I am almost sure that it's one of many things hardcoded in the engine. Still, quick asking won't hurt.
Asteroid fields have nothing to do with LODs and the spawn distance can be changed in the appropriate field's INI file.
As to why they haven't be changed, they tend to cause exponentially more lag the farther they are drawn. I can't tell about server-side impacts, though. You probably *could* modify them on your client copy without negatively affecting anything (as far as I can tell), but I don't know what the admins would think of it.
' Wrote:Asteroid fields have nothing to do with LODs and the spawn distance can be changed in the appropriate field's INI file.
As to why they haven't be changed, they tend to cause exponentially more lag the farther they are drawn. I can't tell about server-side impacts, though. You probably *could* modify them on your client copy without negatively affecting anything (as far as I can tell), but I don't know what the admins would think of it.
Oh yes, the server-side impact, I forgot to ask about that.
But no, technically speaking it is LOD, except more...in-depth.
- Asteroid fields switch to the actual objects rather then the asteroid banner fields?
- LOD/distance until an actual roid model pops up? Most of them are flat 3DBs which have no seperate LOD levels, they either render in full quality or not at all.
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- Asteroid fields switch to the actual objects rather then the asteroid banner fields?
- LOD/distance until an actual roid model pops up? Most of them are flat 3DBs which have no seperate LOD levels, they either render in full quality or not at all.
In case of asteroids it would mean that they'd render from further distance...actually that could apply for anything. But then again, at least ships could cause some server lag.
