LOD Generator

What you get

One model in, a zip out: the original as LOD0 and two to four reduced levels below it, each a complete GLB with its textures, materials and skin weights intact. Every level is decimated from the original — never from the previous level — because chaining reductions compounds their error.

Small parts are protected at every level: eyes, buttons and trims keep a minimum triangle share instead of vanishing into the global ratio, which is the classic way an automatic LOD chain ruins a character at distance.

How to space the levels

The default keeps a quarter of the triangles per level, which matches the assumption most engines make: each LOD should read the same when the object is at half the screen size. Half-per-level is gentler and suits hero objects the camera approaches slowly; an eighth-per-level suits background props that exist mostly at distance.

Three levels below the original covers the usual range — an object that needs more than four levels usually needs an impostor, not another mesh.

Using the chain in an engine

Unity: add an LOD Group component and drop the levels into its slots. Unreal: import the files as the LODs of one static mesh. Godot: swap visibility on distance in a script, or use VisibilityRange on each level. three.js: THREE.LOD with addLevel per file. Every level is self-contained, so any engine that can load a GLB can use the chain.

Why a zip of files rather than one file

glTF has an extension for embedded LOD chains (MSFT_lod), but support for it is thin — most engines and viewers ignore it and load only the first level. Separate files work everywhere today, and the per-level stats above the download tell you exactly what each one costs before you commit.

How to use it

1. Drop your model into the box above.
2. Choose how many levels you want below the original, and how much each keeps — a quarter per level fits most engines.
3. Press Generate LODs and read the per-level triangle and size stats.
4. Download the zip — every level is a complete GLB, ready for a Unity LOD Group or THREE.LOD.

Questions

How many LOD levels do I need?

Three below the original is the safe default for game assets. Two is enough for props that never dominate the screen. If you find yourself wanting five, the far levels should probably be an impostor or a billboard instead of geometry — a 200-triangle mesh at 300 metres is still 200 triangles of draw work for a dozen pixels.

Do the textures repeat in every file?

Yes — each GLB is self-contained so that any engine can load any level alone. If the texture weight at distance matters, run the far levels through the compress tool with a smaller texture cap; a LOD3 rarely justifies more than 512 px.

Does a rigged character survive?

Yes. Skin weights ride on the vertices through every level, so all levels animate with the same skeleton and the same clips. The far levels lose small-feature fidelity, not the rig.

Why decimate from the original each time instead of level from level?

Because errors compound. A quarter of a quarter taken from an already-simplified mesh drifts further from the true surface than one-sixteenth taken directly from the original. Doing it the slower, correct way is exactly the kind of thing a tool should not let you get wrong.

The other tools

• Batch processing — Run any Rig Bake tool over a whole folder of models and get one zip back.
• Reduce polygons — Cut the triangle count of a GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, DAE, STL, PLY, VOX or VRM — or a zipped model folder — and keep the textures. Runs in your browser, no file size limit, nothing uploaded.
• Quad remesh — Rebuild any mesh as clean quads with real edge flow, in your browser — with the UVs and textures rebuilt onto the new surface too. Reads GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, DAE, STL, PLY, VOX and VRM, with no file size limit.
• Bake a normal map — Bake high-poly detail into a normal map (and ambient occlusion) for a light version of the model — the xNormal workflow, in your browser. Drop one heavy model, or add your own low-poly and the maps bake onto its UVs. No upload, no account, no file size limit.
• Compress GLB — Name the file size you need and get it. Drop a GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, DAE, STL, PLY, VOX or VRM — or a zipped model folder — and the page works down a list: dead weight first, then the mesh bytes, then the textures, and only then the triangles. In your browser, no file size limit.
• FBX to GLB — Convert an FBX — Mixamo, Blender, an AI generator — into a GLB, with the centimetre scale fixed on the way through. Any size, in your browser, nothing uploaded.
• Check a 3D model for problems — The Model doctor: find what is wrong with a model before it wastes your afternoon — wrong scale, broken bind pose, inverted normals, overlapping UVs, holes. Reads GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, DAE, STL, PLY, VOX and VRM, any size, in your browser.
• Repair a 3D model — Weld split vertices, drop degenerate faces and stray islands, fill holes, flip inverted normals. GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, DAE, STL, PLY, VOX or VRM — any size, in your browser, nothing uploaded.
• Pixel art from 3D — Drop an animated model, get a pixel-art spritesheet. The palette, the dither and the direction set are already chosen — fine-tuning lives in the editor.
• GLB to STL — Convert a 3D model to a printable STL — scaled to real millimetres, turned Z-up, and told plainly whether it is watertight. GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, DAE, PLY, VOX or VRM in, any size, in your browser.
• OBJ to GLB — Convert an .obj into a GLB that engines and browsers read. Geometry and UVs travel; OBJ has nothing else to carry. Any size, in your browser, nothing uploaded.
• GLB to USDZ — Convert a 3D model to USDZ for AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad — textures included. Any size, in your browser, nothing uploaded.
• Merge Materials — Merge every mesh and material into one mesh with one atlased material — draw calls collapse to a single one. In your browser, nothing uploaded.
• Everything else Rig Bake does — rigging, retargeting, spritesheets, VFX.