Add support for Distant Horizons LODs [Feature Request]

[Mage-Enderman]

When exporting Minecraft environments to use for renders or in other game engines
It can become really performance intensive quickly when trying to do anything with bigger environments/builds
Blender, Unity, etc support LODs and it'd help immensly in some situations if we could more easily use them for Minecraft animations
(In my case I mainly want LODs so I can make VRChat worlds of things I've made in Minecraft with friends)

Being able to use LODs already made by Distant Horizons would be convienent
Though LODs in a similar manner to Distant Horizons would probably suffice

[erich666]

I hadn't heard of "Distant Horizons". Aha, https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/distant-horizons

Interesting idea. I'll be honest and say that I'm unlikely to ever support this mod. It's very specific, and there's lots of questions about what it would mean for a static export: would you define a detailed LOD for "any chunks within N meters of this point" and less detailed further out? Might be a thing to add using scripting, as it'd make the export dialog have yet another option, a bit obscure and rarely used.

That said, there is a way, I think, that you could get something like this. Write a script to export chunks. Export the nearby chunks at full detail. Export the far away chunks by unchecking the "export lesser, detailed blocks" option. I'd also (since the point is to save polygons) click the various options highlighted below:

Now the exported blocks will all be just simple blocks, nothing detailed, and mesh simplification will also help considerably. You'd probably have to fiddle a bit with the options for export, but this sort of operation is exactly what scripting is for, see https://www.realtimerendering.com/erich/minecraft/public/mineways/scripting.html#uie for an example.

That said, note to self: There seems to be some sort of problem with the "Simplify mesh" toggle in the program, a bug. If you turn off detailed blocks first, the Simplify mesh option doesn't toggle on and off. You have to toggle "Simplify mesh" on first - I think that'll work. Need to fix the squirrelly logic for the UI here. I'll keep this bug open as a reminder.

[erich666]

Fixes for fatten and simplify mesh states are now in, at f3d397f - these will be in the next release, so I'll close the bug then (hopefully my notes above will solve your original request - I won't be trying to add that feature).