Level of detail

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This article is about everything to do with Level of Detail (LOD) in the Just Cause game series.

The glitched U1 LOD lights, as seen from a rare unarmed UH-10 Chippewa. The map marker is at the default location for Kem Pulau Kerbau. These are the lights that should only be visible at distance. When they disappear at about 150 meters, they should be replaced by high resolution lights, which correctly do not spawn, because this is a glitch.

Description

Main article: On Wikipedia.

Viewed from a far distance, an object in the game world can only be seen in the lowest resolution form (lowest level of detail). This is to save computer/console memory and to reduce the amount of things the computer has to compute, therefore increasing performance. As the player begins to approach the object, the low resolution form of the object is replaced by a higher resolution form. The highest resolution is visible at the shortest range. The more levels of detail there are, the more smooth the transitions between the levels are. If there's too few levels, or if the player is travelling quickly (for example by plane), the levels will also be replaced faster and sometimes some levels could even be skipped. The high resolution objects visibly differ from the low resolution objects, so an unsmooth transition results in instant changes in the game environment. This is most likely to be noticeable when approaching a distant object at a high speed.

Some games like GTA4 have over 10 levels of detail and games like Team Fortress 2 have closer to 20.

Just Cause

This game has levels of detail for vehicles, trees, buildings and possibly more things.

Vegetation

At a distance, the smaller plants simply unload. Trees will stop using their normal model and will instead each use an identical 2-dimensional picture of a tree. This tree picture is programmed to always have its flat side towards the players position. This can look normal when looking at distant hills on the ground, but is very easily noticed from an aircraft, because the trees are constantly moving. Looking directly down from an aircraft will expose this effect most clearly, because the player position has a circle of these trees.

Vehicles

At a far enough distance, vehicles will become completely flat.

Gallery (JC1)

Xbox 360 version of the El Grande Fort. Notice the flat boat at the bottom right.

The same boat at close range is revealed as a Triton - patroller.

Just Cause 2

LOD file (JC2)

Some games use "hard coded" programming to display the level of detail from a certain distance (Far Z LOD). In Just Cause 2 they're usually sorted from 0 being the highest LOD (quality) to any number of lower quality LOD levels.

Each .lod file have 6 lines.

1st line = highest LOD
5th line = lowest LOD
6th line = distance between models "LOD number" * "distance" (counts from 0)

Example Rico LOD file:

Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
1

This telling us "mc01_lod1-rico.rbm" will be replaced 5 times with same model, that means model will be always same on all 5 LOD stages with distance 1 unit.

Lets take a look on other LOD file:

Structures\General_Structures\Buildings\GB017\GB017_LOD1-B.rbm
Structures\General_Structures\Buildings\GB017\GB017_LOD1-B.rbm
Structures\General_Structures\Buildings\GB017\GB017_LOD2-B.rbm
Structures\General_Structures\Buildings\GB017\GB017_LOD2-B.rbm
-
20

If you see "-" instead of text, that means model will be replaced with nothing, it just disappear when it reach LOD 5 stage in this case

Anomalies and glitches (JC2)

Rico LOD

Here is an example of the Rico LOD file:

Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
Characters\MainCharacters\Rico\mc01_lod1-rico.rbm
1

It is unclear why Rico has this and why the same file is reproduced 5 times over and what the number at the end of the file actually does, it could be that originally there were LOD files created for Rico but were removed because there isn't a time in the game when you don't see Rico from a distance, he is always on-screen and right near the "camera".

U1 LOD lights

There are lights at sea at about X:27220: Y:26200, visible only at night and from a distance over 150 meters. This is where the U1 nuclear submarine is located during the mission "A Just Cause". The fact that these lights spawn outside the mission, when the submarine is not there, is a glitch.

Fuel Silo LOD lights

A few settlements have rows of 4 red lights (visible only at night) that disappear at close range. These are exactly identical to the red lights on the tops of Fuel Silos. These settlements don't have any fuel silos, or at least none at those locations, so the lights are some kind of glitches, left over from game development.

Just Cause 3

Feel free to edit.

JC3 doesn't have too many level of detail-related glitches, which would motivate the modding community to investigate them. The main one is probably the ruins in the Volcano island in Medici, which glitch rather constantly. See images for details. Other than that, they are mostly caused by the sheer distance of the objects from Rico.

The Just Cause 3 Unlimited Edition modification might address this to some degree.

Gallery (JC3)

Burnt town LOD comparison. See also: Cut game content.

Glitched LOD at the north-east coast of the volcano.

View from the Unnamed industrial facility at N 40 46.590 E 5 37.400. Notice how the distant Wind Turbines don't spin, all look the same and have a thick middle area.

Entire settlement at a low level of detail. This screenshot was apparently leaked from game development.

Wind Turbines and houses at a distant view.

Just Cause 4

Not much is known, but that's probably because JC4 doesn't have too many level of detail-related glitches, which would motivate the modding community to investigate them.

Relevant examples

• There are some bridges that initially looked different. The original design can still be seen on lower levels of detail (from a distance). One such example is a railroad bridge near Prospero Tanques. They were most likely changed to improve game performance by reducing the amount of "non-essential" polygons. See also: Cut game content from Just Cause 4.
• When approaching a distant place by grappling onto the side of an activated Agency submarine missile, you travel at a speed so high that the game doesn't have enough time to render in details, resulting in a glitch. See more at Just Cause 4 Bugs and glitches.

Gallery (JC4)

Ricos character model has a low level of detail during this stunt, because he's moving very quickly when the vehicle is propelled and spun by the boosters.

A bridge near Prospero Tanques.