What does the LOD value for shaders represent?

Questions & Answers
1

Question: What does the LOD value for shaders represent?

So for example I have an LOD of 200. How many triangles does that mean it draws? Is there a formula for the amount of triangles it draws?

I read a paper which has a formula for the amount of triangles which was 4^(d+1) where d is the LOD. I am not sure if that was just something the author came up with or if it is a standard formula for amount of triangles. I thought I would check just in case. Any direction would be great.

Thanks.

2

Nothing quite so direct, I’m afraid. The idea with shader LODs is that it enables you to enable/disable various graphical features:

  • Each shader has an LOD
  • You can specify that shaders above a particular LOD will be disabled

See here for more information: Unity - Manual: ShaderLab: assigning a LOD value to a SubShader

As far as triangle count, that will largely depend on the geometry you’re rendering.

I feel like this isn’t quite the answer you’re looking for, but I hope it helps.