Kyuubeey
@Simberia
Software can do it, but they can't make it look perfect. Unless it's like, a box. I think software also has a hard time intelligently combining materials.
Now, with good AI, probably. It's not a mathematical issue as much as it's an intelligence and artistic sense issue.
Think of it like taking a photograph and running a "painting" filter over it, where the end result might fool you from far away for a little while, but if you're at all knowledgeable about painting, the texture of it and the decisions for shapes and edges are just strange and not something like a human would make. Compared to a real good artist looking at the photograph themselves and making a new painting out of it, using their own judgment and past experience to determine what's important and what's not.
For something like LOD D, I guess it'd be okay to use software like this then make sure the materials are merged efficiently, but I think it's always better to make a LOD B, make a LOD C from the LOD B etc.
Now, with good AI, probably. It's not a mathematical issue as much as it's an intelligence and artistic sense issue.
Think of it like taking a photograph and running a "painting" filter over it, where the end result might fool you from far away for a little while, but if you're at all knowledgeable about painting, the texture of it and the decisions for shapes and edges are just strange and not something like a human would make. Compared to a real good artist looking at the photograph themselves and making a new painting out of it, using their own judgment and past experience to determine what's important and what's not.
For something like LOD D, I guess it'd be okay to use software like this then make sure the materials are merged efficiently, but I think it's always better to make a LOD B, make a LOD C from the LOD B etc.