stop ui lag: the LOD commands

[SeraphimLeftNut]

It took me a long time to figure out what the hell is going on with these and I still want to know more, hopefully someone can take this information further.

Commands in question:

cam_HighLOD, cam_MediumLOD, cam_LowLOD, SC_CameraScaleLOD

Related commands: cam_SetLOD, cam_DefaultLOD

Useful for monitoring current LOD level: type in ShowStats, go to Camera, observe FocusDistance and LODMetric parameters


Related, in the video menu you have a selector for Level of Detail - low, medium, high. This is not related in an obivous way to the above commands.

Defaults: cam_HighLOD, cam_MediumLOD, cam_LowLOD 0.9, 1, 1.2 respectively (I do believe these can be map and mod dependent)

1. SC_CameraScaleLOD on
2. SC_CameraScaleLOD 0 or 1 or 2
If SC_CameraScaleLOD is 0 then LODMetric will be larger than the focus distance with the difference scaled by cam_LowLOD.
SC_CameraScale is 2 then LODMetric will be smaller than the focus distance with the difference scaled by cam_HighLOD. (the command cam_DefaultLOD will return to you the current scaling factor used)

(Note at this point level of detail in menu can be low medium or high, however changing these back and forth will f*** with all of the above and more)

Generally, the higher the LODMetric the less detail is shown at that given camera height(focus distance). This has a large impact on the frame rate drops. Specifically if you are CPU(not GPU, the GPU is on vacation in this game) limited on the ren thread it can be beneficial to set SC_CameraScaleLOD to 0 and cam_lowLOD to 1.5-2. If you set it higher then you will have problems seeing any units when you zoom in.

Note: if you are worried about seeing reclaim, then the commands for you are ren_Meshdissilve and ren_MeshdissolveCutoff.

Note: You will get yourself in a lot of trouble if you set SC_CameraScaleLOD to 2 and cam_HighLOD to 0.1. Also setting SC_CameraScaleLOD to some crazy number will make the game read the LODMetric as 0 irrespective of focus distance, which causes many problems.

Note: Even though commands appear to be reset to defaults after game restart, not everything is reset with the graphics. It probably has something to do with the shaders that FA makes for itself to be used later.
Please explore this carefully and report any findings.