YES! YES!

[Master_Artificer]

Schema says that he plans to have a LOD system.

(level of Detail)
(when you are far away from a section of blocks, your level of detail is diminished and a section of blocks will appear as a single block. When you are even farther away, they might even merge into larger blocks.)

. . .

 

[therimmer96]

Fairly sure the LOD was mentioned for blocks with more polys than a normal block, like chairs, not for smoothing out basic ships, because they're so low polly already.

 

[Edymnion]

We need that though.

 

[Mariux]

Fairly sure the LOD was mentioned for blocks with more polys than a normal block, like chairs, not for smoothing out basic ships, because they're so low polly already.

This^

But I beleive the thing you mentioned could be possible, too.

 

[Valiant70]

I believe LOD was mentioned in the context of planet optimization. I may have to look it up later on YouTube, but I think the people claiming "high poly blocks confirmed!" Are in error. He talked about how high-poly objects are often treated this way and turned into things with fewer vertices (like cubes) further away. At best, high poly blocks are a vague maybe by my understanding.

Shema's system will render a group of blocks as one larger block when viewed from a great distance. This should allow larger planets without melting old computers.

 

[therimmer96]

I believe LOD was mentioned in the context of planet optimization. I may have to look it up later on YouTube, but I think the people claiming "high poly blocks confirmed!" Are in error. He talked about how high-poly objects are often treated this way and turned into things with fewer vertices (like cubes) further away. At best, high poly blocks are a vague maybe by my understanding.

Shema's system will render a group of blocks as one larger block when viewed from a great distance. This should allow larger planets without melting old computers.

Near the start, the question was asked if slabs are the sign of more high poly blocks coming in the near future. He said that he does want more high poly blocks, but slabs are not related to them, and that they would have to use a separate system to the current blocks use an LOD system.

 

[Keptick]

Pretty sure he mentioned it for planets, not ships. I don't think people would appreciate seeing their intricate capital ships look like blocky blobs from a distance.

 

[Master_Artificer]

Pretty sure he mentioned it for planets, not ships. I don't think people would appreciate seeing their intricate capital ships look like blocky blobs from a distance.

I would! Elsewise they wouldn't be loaded. I would rather see SOMETHING at 4-10km rather than just a blue (or red) hexagon marker.

Also would reduce massive planets to like a few thousand blocks from a few hundred million.

 

[Keptick]

I would! Elsewise they wouldn't be loaded. I would rather see SOMETHING at 4-10km rather than just a blue (or red) hexagon marker.

Also would reduce massive planets to like a few thousand blocks from a few hundred million.

But they would be loaded... There's no maximum distance setting (it's set at two sectors I think), the draw setting changes the amount of stuff you can load in, not the distance you can see it at :p. So assuming you have 10km sectors you'll load in things just fine at 4-10km distance, you might just not be able to see it if it's too small.

But yea, it would work well for planets.

 

[Master_Artificer]

But they would be loaded... There's no maximum distance setting (it's set at two sectors I think), the draw setting changes the amount of stuff you can load in, not the distance you can see it at :p. So assuming you have 10km sectors you'll load in things just fine at 4-10km distance, you might just not be able to see it if it's too small.

But yea, it would work well for planets.

oh, right. I was paraphrasing. But if such a system was implemented, I would be able to increase my draw amount above 2000 and still get good framerate. There should also be a setting to determine LOD as well, so the people with supercomputers can basically set it to never kick in, and the people on potatoes can have it start closer in.

 

[Keptick]

There should also be a setting to determine LOD as well, so the people with supercomputers can basically set it to never kick in, and the people on potatoes can have it start closer in.

This, this I like :D. Good idea!

 

[Lord Daro]

Maybe it's possible to even have a reduced distance especially to fully load planet chunks, for even more perforemence.

I don't necessary need to see all surface details from orbit and after landing there i can't see all that far anyway with lots of terain structures in the way.

 

[Colt556]

Pretty sure he mentioned it for planets, not ships. I don't think people would appreciate seeing their intricate capital ships look like blocky blobs from a distance.

I like the option idea mentioned, as I'm always a fan of options. But even without an option I don't think this would be a big deal. I mean take real life for example, if you look at an object that's far away it really will appear as just a big blob of something. If you've ever looked at a cargo ship far off on the horizon it's very difficult to discern details or scale. As you get closer you can pick up more details, so I think such a system would work just fine in starmade. Your intricate capital ship would be a big blob at a distance, but it should be, it's really far away and with no form of magnification there'd be no way to realistically get detail. I mean hell, even in the current system if your ship is far away it still looks like a big blob of blocks.

All in all I'm in support of any feature that increases the scale of the game. Bigger planets, more ships, better performance. If having my ship look like a borg cube at 30km out is the price I have to pay, I'd personally be willing to pay it.