How animation hides LOD Transitions
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Jesper Tingvall
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How animation hides LOD Transitions is a Simplygon blog post by product expert Jesper Tingvall measuring how walk and run animation changes visible LOD pop distance in Unity with Simplygon-generated character LODs.
It describes an experiment with five animated monster assets, aggressive OnScreenSize triangle reduction, and a flip tool that toggles original versus LOD while reporting screen height and camera distance. Results show animated models often allowing LOD switches about two to four times closer in screen height than static ones, with tables for both pixel height and distance, plus caveats about subjective viewing and normal-driven pops.
It is for intermediate technical artists and engine programmers who author LOD pipelines for animated characters. Familiarity with Simplygon or Unity LOD groups helps.
The page is a free blog article with setup notes for Simplygon 10.4 and Unity 6, result tables, conclusions, and a full C# evaluation script.
It is useful when tuning whether animated assets need cross-fades or can hard-switch LODs earlier than static props.
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