Targets and readiness

A target is a device you ship on. It tells LOD Tailor how many triangles one mesh may have there (and one skeletal mesh), when a mesh needs LODs, whether the device renders Nanite, how its camera sees the world and which per-platform key its screen sizes and Min LOD are written to. Every scan checks each mesh against every enabled target, and the panel shows the result per target.

The targets are set in Edit > Project Settings > Plugins > ta LOD Tailor > Targets, or in the settings asset when your project uses one (see Shared settings and folder rules). The defaults are starting points, not hardware limits: tune them to your game.

Default targets

Setting	PC	Steam Deck	Switch 2	Meta Quest	Mobile
Enabled	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Device	Desktop	Handheld	Console	VR headset	Mobile
Platform (key)	None	Linux	None	Android	Mobile
Nanite	On	Off	Off	Off	Off
Max Triangles (budget)	300,000	100,000	60,000	20,000	15,000
Require LODs Above	20,000	5,000	3,000	1,000	1,000
Max Skeletal Triangles	100,000	50,000	40,000	20,000	15,000
Require Skeletal LODs Above	15,000	8,000	6,000	3,000	2,500
Distance Scale	1.0	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.5
Field Of View	90°	90°	90°	104°	90°
Aspect Ratio	1.7778	1.6	1.7778	0.95	1.7778
Min LOD	0	-1	-1	-1	-1

A Min LOD of -1 means “the first LOD within the triangle budget”. The skeletal budgets are for one character; crowds need less. Mobile is off by default; see Notes on the default targets.

The reference camera that preset distances and default screen sizes are calculated for is set next to the targets: Reference Field Of View 90 and Reference Aspect Ratio 1.7778 (16:9). See Distances and screen sizes.

Target settings

Setting	Default for a new target	Range	Meaning
Name	Empty		Shown in the panel, the findings and the reports. Targets without a name are ignored. Give every target its own name: findings refer to targets by name.
Enabled	On		Turned off targets are not checked and get no per-platform settings.
Device	Desktop	Desktop, Handheld, Console, VR headset, Mobile	The kind of device. Only picks the icon in the panel.
Platform	None		The per-platform key that the target’s screen sizes and Min LOD are written to: a platform or a platform group. None: the target uses the default values and nothing is written for it. See Platform keys.
Nanite	Off		Whether the target renders Nanite. If not, Nanite meshes draw their fallback mesh and their LODs there.
Max Triangles	50,000	at least 100	Triangle budget of one static mesh: the first LOD the target renders should not have more triangles.
Require LODs Above	2,000	at least 0	Static meshes with more triangles than this need LODs on this target.
Max Skeletal Triangles	30,000	at least 100	Triangle budget of one skeletal mesh (a character or creature): the first LOD the target renders should not have more.
Require Skeletal LODs Above	5,000	at least 0	Skeletal meshes with more triangles than this need LODs on this target.
Distance Scale	1.0	0.1 – 4.0	LODs switch at this share of the preset distances. 0.5 switches at half the distance, for weaker hardware.
Field Of View	90	20 – 170	Horizontal field of view of the target’s camera in degrees, per eye for VR headsets.
Aspect Ratio	1.7778	0.3 – 4.0	Width divided by height of the target’s screen, per eye for VR headsets.
Min LOD	-1	-1 – 7	The Min LOD a batch run writes for this target: a fixed LOD, or -1 for the first LOD within the triangle budget.

What a target renders

For every mesh and target, LOD Tailor works out what the target actually draws:

• Nanite: if the mesh is a Nanite mesh and the target has Nanite on, the target renders it with Nanite. It has no triangle budget there and no LOD checks apply.
• First LOD: otherwise the target starts at the mesh’s Min LOD for the target’s platform key. LOD Tailor reads the value for the key, then for the key’s platform group (for example Mobile for Android), then the mesh’s default Min LOD, and limits it to the LODs the mesh has. Targets without a key use the mesh’s default Min LOD.
• Triangles on the target: the triangles of that first LOD. For a Nanite mesh on a target without Nanite, LOD 0 is the fallback mesh.
• Budget: Max Triangles for static meshes, Max Skeletal Triangles for skeletal meshes. The same goes for the LOD threshold: Require LODs Above or Require Skeletal LODs Above.

The target’s own Min LOD setting doesn’t change what a target renders today; it is the value a batch run writes into the meshes.

What “ready” means

A mesh is ready for a target when no finding with severity Warning or Error applies to it on that target. Findings without a target list, such as Screen size order, apply to every target. Suggestions (Info findings) never make a mesh “not ready”.

ready % = (scanned meshes − meshes with a warning or error on the target) ÷ scanned meshes × 100, rounded

With All targets, a mesh counts as not ready when it has any warning or error. With no scanned meshes the value is 0.

The panel shows this value on every target chip, the HTML report on every target card and the commandlet in its summary line.

For example, a scan of 17 static and skeletal meshes with the default targets found these warnings:

Mesh	Warnings	On targets
SM_Kiosk_Sections	No LODs, Over budget	No LODs on PC, Steam Deck, Switch 2, Meta Quest; Over budget on Meta Quest
SM_Rock_Dense	No LODs, Over budget	No LODs on PC, Steam Deck, Switch 2, Meta Quest; Over budget on Meta Quest
SM_Building_Large	No LODs	Steam Deck, Switch 2, Meta Quest
SM_Cliff_Nanite	Nanite fallback	Steam Deck, Switch 2, Meta Quest
SM_Glass_Nanite	Nanite fallback	Steam Deck, Switch 2, Meta Quest
SM_Sign_NaniteMaterials	Nanite fallback materials	Steam Deck, Switch 2, Meta Quest
SK_Character_NoLODs	No LODs	Switch 2, Meta Quest
SM_Sign_LOD1_Source	No LODs	Switch 2, Meta Quest
SM_Statue_LOD1_Source	No LODs	Switch 2, Meta Quest
SM_Statue_Imported	Over budget	Meta Quest

That gives PC 88 % (2 of the 17 meshes have a warning there), Steam Deck 65 %, Switch 2 47 %, Meta Quest 41 % and all targets 41 %. The other seven meshes have no warnings; their suggestions, such as Weak reduction, don’t count.

Add and change targets

Tip

Hover a target chip in the panel to see its values at a glance.

1. Open Edit > Project Settings > Plugins > ta LOD Tailor (or Settings > Project Settings in the panel) and expand Targets > Profiles. If your project uses a settings asset, change the targets in the asset instead (Settings > Edit DA_LODTailorSettings in the panel).
2. Change the values of a target, or click + to add one and give it a name.
3. Turn a target off with Enabled instead of deleting it if you might need it again.
4. Scan again. A scan uses the targets that were enabled when it started, so the panel keeps showing the old numbers until you rescan.

The reset arrow next to Profiles puts the five default targets back.

Platform keys

Unreal stores per-platform values (“overrides”) of screen sizes and Min LOD under a key. A target’s Platform is that key:

• a platform, such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, IOS, or a console with its platform SDK installed;
• a platform group, such as Desktop or Mobile, which applies to every platform of the group that has no value of its own;
• None: the target uses the default values. A batch run writes no per-platform values for it, its distance scale has no effect on the screen sizes, and its readiness uses the mesh’s default Min LOD.

A platform without a value of its own uses its group’s value, and otherwise the default, the same way Unreal resolves these overrides. LOD Tailor reads them in that order too.

If a key is not a platform or group of the installed engine, the target’s chip shows a warning icon and its tooltip says “This platform is not installed in this engine. Its values are written but only used once the platform is installed.”

Caution

A key applies to every build of that platform, not only to the device the target is named after. Values written for Linux also apply to Linux desktop builds, and values for Android to all Android devices.

Notes on the default targets

• PC renders Nanite and has no platform key: it uses the default screen sizes and Min LOD, and checks only matter for meshes without Nanite.
• Steam Deck writes to Linux, because the Steam Deck runs Linux builds natively. If you ship the Windows build through Proton, set its Platform to None: Proton runs the Windows build, which doesn’t read the Linux values.
• Switch 2 has no key by default, because its platform key only exists in engines with the console’s platform SDK installed. Without a key it uses the default screen sizes and Min LOD, so its Distance Scale and Min LOD have no effect until you set the key. Its budget checks work either way. A mesh that starts over the Switch 2 budget although a lighter LOD fits gets the No platform key suggestion instead of Over budget, because without the key a batch run can’t start it at that LOD.
• Meta Quest writes to Android, the platform Quest builds use. Its camera is per eye: 104° wide at an aspect ratio of 0.95.
• Mobile writes to the Mobile group and is off by default because it overlaps with Meta Quest: Android belongs to the Mobile group. For a phone or tablet game, turn Mobile on and Meta Quest off. With both on, Android devices use the Meta Quest values (Android’s own key wins over its group) and iOS devices the Mobile values.