InstaLODADVERTORIAL
SIGGRAPH 2019series of LODs for any given asset with
one click. They could then distribute
the tools to their outsource partners
with ease. LODs could be generated
in a number of seconds without having
to maintain a distributed build system,
helping with iteration times and meaning
that performance could be maintained
throughout the process.
Objects needed to have a level of detail
flexible enough for the player to inspect
them close up, but also work to populate
richly detailed areas with low-cost versions
at a distance. It was vital to switch between
polygon topologies and shader complexity
depending on distance. This worked
perfectly with InstaLOD’s remeshing and
texture-baking functionality.
Meshes could be collapsed from a
number of materials down to one, and
could bake down complex blended
materials into simple textures and vertex
colours. The high quality of the meshes
meant that the poly count could be
reduced quickly, vital for a game in which
high frame rates are critical. Skinned
and animated meshes also benefited
from InstaLOD’s ability to preserve
deformations, which made it possible to
adjust skinning on NPCs and let InstaLOD
regenerate the new LODs. This helped
to maintain the silhouette of enemies ata distance with much lower-cost meshes,
while still allowing high levels of detail
during close combat.
James Answer, lead technical artist at
Sony London Studio, adds: “Producing
LODs for all the assets in the game
manually would take many months on a
job that no-one wants to do. InstaLOD
removed this cost and effort, and
made it possible to validate the team’s
performance budgets throughout.”
From VFX to video games, product
design to post-production, InstaLOD’s
versatile features provide much-needed
relief to various different pain points in the
production process.Left: This image was
rendered with the new
hardware-accelerated
ray tracing featured in
the upcoming version of
InstaLOD Studio XL. The new
ray-tracing engine leverages
AMD’s new Radeon™
ProRender technology and
combined with InstaLOD’s
standalone application,
enables novel workflows
and direct image generation
for any kind of source data:
from engineering data to
game assets