In a game where you can't zoom that far out like C&C, this could be doable. But in a game with strategic zoom, keeping everything at max detail even at max zoom would kill any computer.

 

I mean, will I be able to decrease the amount of LoDing if I have a faster computer and larger, higher-res monitor, or even turn it off entirely.

Using higher resolutions and having LOD control on textures is part of the same package.  Zooming out is essentially the same operation as decreasing the resolution.

There is nothing to turn off. Frame rate determines when it switches to the next quality level.

I took these screenshots on a Thinkpad T60. Not exactly a top of the line machine.

I have a couple of questions regarding the 4th image. There are grid lines on that image. What is the scale of the game world (how many x how may of these grids?) It appears that a unit would have a lot of room to roam within one of those grids - how many "movement squares" is one of those grids made up of?  

Ahh, so that's how it determines scaling. I thought it might have been some "you can't see the detail of this level at this zoom" algorithm. Will you be able to change the frame rate threshold? Some people are fine with a lot more stuttering than others. Also, I presume there will be a set zoom level for the transition from 3d to 2d, since otherwise a powerful computer could zoom out to where the 3d version would be illegible if it was just based on frame rate. Is this correct?

Also, ha! My T61p (presumably) beats your T60 ! Of course, knowing your habits it's probably pimped out just short of spinning rims territory. What graphics does it have in it, though? Because the only T60 my school offers is an intel graphics model, I wonder if yours has a GeForce card or is stuck with a quadro with its lovely non gaming optimized drivers available about 8 decades after nVidia comes out with them, from what I can tell.

so are we going to be expected to create several versions of whatever we mod so it can scale, or are the mod tools going to figure that stuff out for us?   (I'm not sure how difficult it is to create an editor that takes a high quality image and figures out how to auto-adjust the resolution/poly-count to fit its needs)

Yes, I agree...  several months ago I asked for more details regarding the graphics and images, but no response yet.   I would love to get started on creating the images for my creatures, units, etc., etc., ... but we need information and guidelines.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the engine manipulates the thing itself, otherwise I imagine their artists are probably raving mad by now and had to be chained up and fed with some rather thick bite-proof gloves.

  Yeah, with the zoom level required for Elemental, we've had to really dig in and process the images by hand. A huge part of the image used is the zoom distance, so as you pan back the images get more and more iconic to the point that a fallen circle of castles, overgrown with grass and vines becomes a simple X at the furthhest zoom (representing it's game type...an artifact).

Also, if you zoomed out all the way, you'd see that fertile grove (the flowery patch of grass north ofthe city) basically disappear because it hasn't been given the LOD treatment yet (the stalks of grass quickly vanish in DirectX generated mipmaps). We'll thicken and consolosate those blades for the further shots, eventually thuring it into somethign truly iconic (perhaps just the sunflower head) so it's quickly identifyable when scanning the entire world.

Nope, every image is hand-made with an artists touch. DirectX made mipmaps (with an alpha channel) would all have a funky halo around them and become completly unreadable at the farthest zoom.  We have a pretty cool system for making the cloth icons, though...I'll bring up an example when I get into the office.

Hmm... I´ve been wondering how long will take BoogieBac to get into office.

 

@Scoutdog : I have an example for you to understand why it´s not possible to do what you want. Imagine yourself on a rocket, going out of the planet. As you accelerate through the orbit, you start seeing things down here on Earth everytime smaller, first buildings, cars, then you see cities boundaries and then you see only small dots that you believe it´s a country or something. That´s what happens when you zoom out. "Turning off" the LoD would be something like being on orbit and even tough seeing every single person, car, building, bird, BEAR, or whatever, in the "screen of your eyes". Can you imagine how big that would be, and even if you have that image, how frustrating and confusing it would be? There´s no reason in having such a scenary. 

That´s why I love analogy. Hope you understood, if you don´t, feel free to ask.

 

Cheers,

Kata

Eep! In that case your artists are definitely doing a good job

Actually, whay Kata is describing sounds like an interesting way to play the game.... but the info from Brad about it being toggled by frame-rate is exactly what I wanted to hear.

I guess the next question then is if you make a mod that only has one piece of art for the thing in question, will it try to show that thing all the time? How many scaled levels are required?

Boogie's post gave me the impression that the thing will automatically remove details as the zoom goes away. Even if it doesn't, just shrinking the image then blowing it back up again will have much the same effect.