Hey guys, I am wanting to do some tall grass in my map in large patches but I want to make it sort of optimized. Would the best way to go about making this just be a grass patch scenery with LODs or is there a better way? My concern about LODs is people will have this false sense of hidden-ness but I can't think of any way at all to get around the grass making people unhidden at range.

You can use detail objects. I believe there is a tutorial on halomaps.

E: yeah here it is
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3008
Edited by UnevenElefant5 on May 31, 2011 at 07:16 PM

I think it should be bsp. Use triangles or squares of two triangles for low-poly additions.
Make sure it's render-only (material_name!).

This is correct.

Detail objects are ok, but they are still meant to be somewhat LOD'd (fade out the farther you are from them). Plus, they reset upon bsp recompile, something I do a lot.

In this engine I would recommend BSP, use planes. Watch your tri count though, you can easily go over the top. And if your wanting to do a large field I wouldn't if I was you, as good as it could look in other engines it wont in this one.

Even though that these are only render only, it still messes with portaling, and can cause alot of performance issues.

like otheres said, use LOD's... I recommend only doing them once, when your bsp is complete ingame. And be careful! You cannot undo them or delete specific ones, I believe. The only way to get rid of one is to get rid of all.
Edited by Higuy on Jun 1, 2011 at 05:35 PM

I think shift-clicking or alt-clicking or something gets rid of only one. But you're right, it's still risky.