Automatic LOD - Create and manage LOD levels automatically

No they don't answer emails =(
Asset is expensive as F* yet UG shows no reaction to buyer questions. Such disappointment!

@anyone:

I was astonished after paying 90 dollars for this asset that there is no interface for restrictions like forbidding collapsing of edges for angles/distances greater then a given threshold.

To make a mini game one might afford to manually test the vertex percentage to use for one's mesh simplification as not to lose too much detail while still reducing over-complexity of the model. But I need to mass-pre-process hundreds of high poly meshes, I need some guarantees that my meshes still look good in the end, and I can't make assumptions on how much exaggerated the mesh complexities are, hence I cannot just fix a vertex number.

similar to ComputeMeshWithVertexCount(int numbOfVert)
I need:
ComputeMeshWithMaximalCollapseCost(float maxCollapseCost)
my question is quite simple: replacing

while (listVertices.Count > nVertices)
{
// progress stuff
Vertex mn = listVertices[listVertices.Count - 1];
listVertices.RemoveAt(listVertices.Count - 1);
Collapse(mn, mn.m_collapse, false, null, null);

in simplifier.cs, ComputeMeshWithVertexCount(), line 306 onward with what?
I need to do the collapsing until the cheapest edge to collapse has a cost greater than some threshold (better would even be if i could restrict on angle and distance separately, but I'll take the first price, don't care just need a clue)

 

Will this work with flat shaded / not shared vertices ?

 

I finally picked this up and am starting to tinker around with it, primarily for creating clothing in a Unity-based virtual world (they've just added LOD support on clothing). Is there a way to merge child meshes? I love that the tool works on multiple mesh objects in a hierarchy, but for my purposes I need to combine the results of what I do in Automatic LOD into a single object per LOD. The Simple LOD asset has that functionality, but its decimation and controls are a lot more basic.

Another thing I'm having trouble is that I'm unable to adjust the number of LOD's when using the Unity LOD Group method. In the help doc it shows a "Levels To Generate" drop-down menu, but I don't see that in the panel

 

Was a looking for such a solution but with comments like this, it’s a NO BUY for me. Thanks for letting me know guys, developer not supporting their product is a no no for me. If someone having another suggestion for similar product can you please PM me !!

 

I see UGTools periodically poking in, and updates have been made based on requests in this thread (thanks for adding Unity LOD Group support, @UGTools), but I know it can take time. That's fine by me, from having followed the discussion for months before purchase I knew it going in, and I know that not every asset developer can make Unity their full-time (or even part-time) job.

I also have and enjoy using Simple LOD. That tool can also merge meshes and make atlases, but IMO the decimation on Automatic LOD is much better... and the relevance area feature is an amazing addition.

 

It would be good if there was a final LOD level for billboarding, now that would rock.

Also I emailed the author directly he replied promptly, so try that!

 

Is there a simply way to generate LODs in runtime and store them to a LODGroup?

 

Simple LOD in the asset store does it, so it is feasible, but I think Automatic LOD is entirely built around the idea of working only in the editor and not as a solution for procedural environments.

 

Hi @UGTools ,

I tried to reach you by email with no success.

My LOD's don't switch when my camera back or forth.

I have more than one camera, but only one of them is looking at the scene. Also, my scene view is looking away from the scene. I'm using "Camera Distance", with appropriate distances for each LOD's, and I enabled Prefab usage.

I have 20 instances of the prefab (a skinned humanoid), which I have already put in the scene before runtime. This prefab will never be instantiated in my game. But I'm still using the "Enable Prefab usage".


Also, I have modified (via script) the material of the LOD's skinned mesh, but I assume this wouldn't cause a problem to the LOD, right?

What are the possible reasons why the LOD's are not switching?

Thanks in advance

 

Hello @UGTools.

I bought Automatic LOD, and ...

Below is the test scene, 825 instances of the robot, distance from 100 to 1100.
Total 2.2 million triangles. Speed without LF 20FPS. (mobile - 6-7FPS).

After importing the LOD, the speed ... dropped to 8FPS. Besides, they are terrible
lags when modifying objects "affected" by LOD. 30-60 seconds.
Despite quite a strong workstation - 7820X / 32GB of frames. Unity ver. 5.6.5.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, that's why I'm sending this screen, maybe you'll tell me
what use would be optimal for such a scene (it is not fictional, I just dumped unnecessary elements). A few questions in addition:

1. "Switch Mesh / Switch Game Object / Unity LOD Group" - there is no description in the manual what in what case. I tried everything - the effect is the same. :-(

2. Should I join LOD to prefaba or individual instances?
In fact, I tried this and this. Maybe I missed something?

An attempt to change the distance at LOD 1-3 and "w / g distance of the camera" is 2-3 minutes (!) Waiting for the display of each option.

Basically, the robot compresses well to 45%, so I should lose more than half the triangles from the stage. Half the number of robots, without LOD, I have enough performance. So I still have hope.

Best regards,
Kajetan K.

 

Just purchased the asset but getting the following errors:

error CS1061: Type `MeshSimplify' does not contain a definition for `startMeshSimplification' and no extension method `startMeshSimplification' of type `MeshSimplify' could be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?



error CS1061: Type `MeshSimplify' does not contain a definition for `percentageToSimplify' and no extension method `percentageToSimplify' of type `MeshSimplify' could be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well, it hasn't been updated in over a year...

 

Trying still to write here, just in case (We used Unity 2018.2):

Added automatic LOD on the root of or character, everything works fine but the LOD generated have the same number of vertices than the original (does not change even if I move the sliders down). It's like the LOD cannot be generated for my characters, anyone had this problem before? Is it caused by an import setting?

 

This plugin seems to be abandoned. I use it but on this forum I cant remember when cerator answered here> I think last reply is from more than a year ago

 

Although the publisher was still around within the forums, today. Maybe @UGTools doesn't get any reminders from this forum.

 

Hey @UGTools - I'm working on a project in Unity 2017.2.4f1, and am finding that Automatic LOD is causing Unity to crash fairly regularly. When trying to create a Unity LOD group, when adjusting the % on each LOD and clicking the 'recompute all levels' button, 50% or more of the time, it causes the Unity editor to crash. Can you please check on this and issue an update?

 

Is there a way to turn off mesh normal smoothing for generated LODs?
The smoothing causes LOD meshes to conflict with the style of the rest of the meshes (And looks worse).
I'm optimizing meshes like this:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/dungeons/polygon-dungeons-pack-102677

Noticed SimpleLOD doesn't smooth which is good but the results are pretty bad with missing triangles at more than half poly.

 

I've been considering this tool, but I just don't know if I want to spend money when there seems to be a lack of support for the asset.

 

is it possible to add a custom LOD to the generated list?
For example, I'd like to add a final LOD imposter generated from Amplify Imposters.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/amplify-impostors-beta-119877

 

Will "Automatic LOD" work in Unity 2018.3, given the new prefab system? (Finding a bunch of assets are still being reworked to support, so wanted to check before I pick up)

 

Decided to just give it a try, and worked fine for me in 2018.3.r4f1.

 

I'm on 2018.3.6f1 and I noticed that if my animator models have 'optimize game objects' checked, AutomaticLOD will not generate LODs properly.

 

My prefab of the model with LOD puts unity into a loading cursor loop - where the loading never stops.
This is the error being thrown - any thoughts?

I am stuck with Unity 2018.4.9f1 for a project I am working on

InvalidOperationException: Destroying a GameObject inside a Prefab instance is not allowed.
UnityEngine.Object.DestroyImmediate (UnityEngine.Object obj) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Runtime/Export/UnityEngineObject.bindings.cs:322)
AutomaticLOD.CheckForAdditionalLODSetup (AutomaticLOD root, AutomaticLOD automaticLOD, AutomaticLOD+LODLevelData levelData, System.Int32 level) (at Assets/_User/_plugins/Ultimate Game Tools/AutomaticLOD/Scripts/AutomaticLOD.cs:1911)

 

If that wont be working for us on 2018.4 I think I will as for refund

 

Have exactly the same problem with constant loading loop of prefab with that asset. Because dev dont reply here for more that year, I contacted unity for help or refund. The worst thign is that We boight that asset long time ago but almost didnt used it cause our game was then in early phase. Now when we need it it is buggy and many people try to contact dev. I udnerstand that Dev could not more develop product but He should update it and debug. or just deprecate asset...

 

Maybe the problem is that I cant download 1.52 version from unity 2018.4 if only developer would reply here and could help, but probably wont do that since no reply for a year, tried on e-mail and unity support too.

 

Interesting how the developer has time to say he updated his products for the recent sale,s then no support via forum or emails.. and products are still broken. my guess is he will soon depreciate this tool kit.. just wanted one last quick intake on money...

which i will add is ashame ,considering this really was a great tool package worth its heafty price tag.

 

I wrote to unity support for refund and help, developer reply to them that he is sorry and reply here , few days passed no dev info still. Trying to contact him directly no reply. What is strange info says tghat there is version 1.52, But when I download it from unity 2018.4 and check Release Note.txt in package it says 1.51 still. I also cant get refund, cause passed to much time since i bought it so I hope that dev will fix that problem...

 

Trying to help here but I'm in no means related in any way with the asset publisher, just had the same issue in 2019.2.
What I did to get rid of those issues was to opening up the prefab itself (so not in the actual scene) and run the automatic LOD tool.

 

Thanks
I know that but still totally unusable for example if I would to select a lot of objects unity hangs constantly reloading prefabs

 

@UGTools Thats ridicoulous, still no fix for main problem on 2018.4 2 e-mails to unity, you replied them that you will fix, that I cant get my money back also, cause no reply to my e-mails, and unity says I should contact creator. When That bug Will be fixed, Or how to download version 1.52 from asset store cause I cant do that using unity 2018.4. I have in my library like almost 100 products and never has such a bad support like here. No contact on forum on e-mail even unity support wasnt able to help...

 

Im still using this after years and it is still great... one thing ive noticed in profiler is that it does a lot of looking for Camera.Main, I was wondering if we could have an optimisation where we pass it the camera in use instead of it wastefully looking for camera.main which is essentially a GameObject.Find() ...

 

You probably dont use unity 2018.4 then...

 

no im on 2020beta, what issues u having?

 

Only working on LOD 0, all others show up with nothing. I need this to work or will get refund. Why is this not working???

 

I asked unity for refunding that asset and they replied that I bought it over year ago so they cant do that, they even contact creator they told us that he will reply here, As you see creator abandoned this asset and there is no contact with them. Better take refund earlier than later, I dont know why this asset isnt depracated yet

 

Ive never had this problem, maybe try regenerating the LODs. As far as im aware this asset works well now ive had it in my project for 5+ yrs. But I could be missing some of the bugs.

 

Hi, I bought the Automatic LOD and it works great.

My use case is as follows...

1. Run the scene
2. Choose a model from a list
3. Click a "Add LOD" button
4. Add the lod using AutomaticLod
5. Use arrow keys to move around the object and use unity's "Stats" menu to see the number of tris be reduced when the object is far from the camera.

All that works. However to complete #4, I had to create new code. This was easy enough;

Code (CSharp):

1. loadedGameObject.AddComponent<AutomaticLOD>();

A). But I see no public methods on that class to generate the LODS at runtime. So I copied code from the edit-time only script of

Code (CSharp):

1. AutomaticLODEditor.cs

And I have it working in the unity editor at runtime and in Windows builds. I have not yet tested any other builds from my desired targets include Mac/iOs/Android/WebGL except...

B) Simple models take milliseconds. However, on complex models at runtime the 'add lod' operation takes minutes. Can I 'save' this result at runtime so the second time I run the 'add lod' operation (during the same session or in a future session of the app) so that it executes more quickly?

Thoughts on A/B?

 

I hope you all realize all UGTools assets were abandoned 2+ years ago...you're completely on your own.

 

The asset store item was updated less than 5 months ago.

 

AutomaticLod.Update() Make 216 calls on my processsor, Yes asset is abandoned, Id anyone still use it please remove Audomatic LOD script after making LOD in iother case It will get most of you cpu

 

i get many calls on that too, i thought it was required to work??

 

The Asset is just broken on 2018.4 tried to contact unity tried to comtact creator, nothing helps problem still here, I just need to remove automatic script from all my prefabs

 

Hello. i am trying to create LODs with the Automatic LOD utility however it is unclear when the use prefab button should be checked when multi selecting children inside an empty GO.

I've generated them and then see the slider interface for the LOD but the objects disappear beyond LOD1. When I then check use prefab for all the objects it prompts me to save multiple objects/meshes but still references an empty mesh in the interface.

 

Hello, when i want to build my project, i get this error;



How can i fix it? is there any workaround?

Thanks

 

Hello,

I've fixed it making these changes;