I was wondering if i could use this type of level of detail…example have a planet that uses a 3d looking picture instead of a 3d model…then as the ship/person gets closer certain things are then rendered and more detail is reveled as they become closer to landing on the planet. If so how would i go about using this…i have somewhat of an idea but not a very well developed one.
Planetary rendering was a school resource of mine. Its very hard to pull off mostly because of the shape of the ground not talking about individual “doodads.”
The doodad approach is very easy with panda3d while making realistic terrain is not - you would have to write your own custom engine or use mine.
When some one fixes the cube map code i should post my engine because it relies on the cube maps to work. Maybe i can find a way round this.
Panda has an LOD system if you’re willing to model the different levels of detail yourself. I think treeform is talking about a more procedural take on planet LOD’s which is also doable I think. For the LOD systems I think you would have to check the Actor API ref on its use, there might be some examples in the showcase forum. I think the PandaSteer demo uses it?
for lod you use LODNodes. You don’t need to go all the way up to actor.
I should write up a manual page… since i use LODNodes alot.
the cool thing is that I came across a game called elder scrolls IV and they use something that I would have never thought of in rendering their LOD stuff. Instead of having a 3d model of whatever have high def pictures that look 3d with a sort of billboard effect…also i maybe could do that with terragen or something like that…I haven’t really decided but I’m getting close to a solution. Also i have checked out the lod nodes and a manual is definitely needed. I looked on the call functions and they do not explain much on the subject
I have seen technique used before. Its extenuation of the pre 3d accelerator days when 3d models where represented by billboards. Now days the models are rendered real time to texture buffers that are then LOD’ed in. Usually only done for hard to draw objects and many of them are needed like trees.
sorry to revive a dead topic but if you have ever played spore then you know they use an AWSOME LOD system. I want soo badly to get my hands on their system. but I’ve developed some theories on how they accomplish their system 
spore has shitty lod system i was unimpressed. I can see the popping and i run it all on high mode.
really well you have to admit that being able to procedurally generate everything does require some sacrifice although i am dissapointed in the game play of spore