Question about the way buildings/ ground clutter is rendered

[Motherland]

It seems like in every game I've played going back a LONG time, ground clutter and buildings have multiple LOD's that allow them to be very detailed (and not silly looking) up close but not frame rate killing from a distance where the detail is not noticeable. AH doesn't seem to have this; a building or tree is either there, or it's not, and the buildings and trees are all very simple and not-pretty from close up. I've noticed an 'extremely low detail' building style before when turning the detail down very far, but it seems like we could have much better detail on trees and buildings without any significant frame rate loss. Of course I don't have any knowledge in this field but I'm trying to apply what I've seen in other games for a long time.
So is there a reason why Aces High doesn't seem to have this? Is it just deemed not worth it?


I was thinking about this when the point was brought up that there's not even peaked roofs in the new cities to cut down on polygons.

[Anaxogoras]

Interesting post Bubi.  After trying the RoF demo, it's pretty clear that the technique you describe is how they create such pretty scenery while maintaining a decent framerate.  The lack of multiple LoD for everything except aircraft in AH may be the explanation for why AH gives framerates that are equivalent to other flight sims that are more visually stunning.

[Ruler2]

Could this also be the solution to the blurry buildings and ground that appeared with the new version?

[Anaxogoras]

That sounds like a problem with your video card.

[Easyscor]

It seems like in every game I've played going back a LONG time, ground clutter and buildings have multiple LOD's that allow them to be very detailed (and not silly looking) up close but not frame rate killing from a distance where the detail is not noticeable. ...

This is also how it's done in Aces High, with typically 2 to 3 LOD's.

[Anaxogoras]

Well then forget what I said.  I don't notice the multiple LoD's nearly as much in AH as in other sims.