Working with Levels of Detail (LOD)

Foxel supports multiple Levels of Detail, or LODs, for voxel data.
A lower LOD contains less detail and is useful when objects are viewed from a greater distance.

How LOD Works

A Voxel Layer can contain several versions of the same model at different resolutions.
Foxel can then display the appropriate version depending on the current view settings and distance.

Automatic and Manual LOD

Foxel can display lower-detail versions automatically, but you can also create manual LOD levels when you want direct artistic control.

A practical workflow is:

• create the highest-detail version first
• derive lower-detail versions from it
• simplify each lower version until it reads well at a distance

Creating Lower LODs

Two common approaches are:

• start with LOD0 and use Downsample to generate lower levels
• start with a coarse version and use Upsample to continue detailing at higher levels

Displayed LOD

The displayed LOD can be changed from the Header Bar using the LOD drop-down.

You can either let Foxel choose the displayed LOD automatically by selecting Dynamic LOD, or force a specific level by selecting LOD0, LOD1, LOD2, or LOD3.

When a specific LOD is selected, voxel objects are displayed at that level instead of switching automatically based on distance.

The same drop-down is also used when manually editing voxel layers with manual LOD enabled.

Additional LOD-related display settings are available in the advanced view options. To open them, click the View Options button in the Header Bar, then choose Advanced View Options.

Useful Shortcuts

• PgUp switches to a higher-detail LOD mode.
• PgDn switches to a lower-detail LOD mode.

The shortcuts cycle through Dynamic LOD, LOD0, LOD1, LOD2, and LOD3.