VDB_LOD(1)

💖 VDB_LOD ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the VDB_LOD(1) page — this is the one that goes in the User Commands section of the manual, and it's about generating a volume mipmap from an OpenVDB grid. yes, mipmap. like textures but for volumes. we love a level-of-detail moment. let's get into it 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

vdb_lod — generates a volume mipmap from an OpenVDB grid.

that's it. that's the whole job. it takes a grid and makes it smol (or not smol) on a whole ladder of resolutions. iconic.

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⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

vdb_lod in.vdb out.vdb -range FROM[-TO[:STEP]] [options]

so basically: give it an in.vdb, tell it where to write out.vdb, say what range of levels you want, and then sprinkle on options like they're glitter. ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Which: generates a volume mipmap from an OpenVDB grid. Where: right here, bestie 💅

• FROM — the highest-resolution mip level to be generated.
• TO — the lowest-resolution mip level to be generated. defaults to FROM, so if you don't say anything, you just get the one level. lowkey minimalist of you.
• STEP — the mip level step size. defaults to 1.

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -name S[,S,S,...] — the name(s) of the grid(s) you want processed. default behaviour is to process all grids of supported types, so if you're a control freak, this flag is for you.
• -keep — pass through the grids that weren't processed. the default is to discard grids that weren't processed, so this is the "no babe, keep everything" flag 🌈
• -nokeep — cancels an earlier -keep option. it's giving "undo my last text".
• -p, -preserve — if only one mip level is generated, give it the same name as the original grid. the default is to name each level "NAME_level_N", where NAME is the original grid name and N is the level number — e.g., "density_level_0". so -p is for when you want your grid to keep its government name 💅
• -nopreserve — cancels an earlier -p or -preserve option. the ultimate "nvm".
• -version — print version information. that's it, that's the whole flag 🎀

heads up bestie: mip level 0 is the input grid. each successive integer level is half the resolution of the previous level. and yes, fractional levels are supported — the math girlies ate with that one. 🔥

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

generate levels 0, 1, and 2 — that's full resolution, half resolution, and quarter resolution respectively — for all grids of supported types, and ignore all other grids:

vdb_lod in.vdb out.vdb -range 0-2

generate levels 0, 0.5, and 1 for all grids of supported types and pass through all other grids:

vdb_lod in.vdb out.vdb -range 0-1:0.5 -keep

generate level 3 for the first of multiple grids named "density":

vdb_lod in.vdb out.vdb -range 3 -name 'density[0]'

generate level 1.5 for the second of multiple unnamed grids and for the grid named "velocity", and give the resulting grids the same names as the original grids:

vdb_lod in.vdb out.vdb -range 1.5 -name '[1],velocity' -p

like?? the indexing?? the specificity?? we love a tool that knows what it wants 😭💖

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

this manual page was written by Mathieu Malaterre <malat@debian.org> for the Debian GNU/Linux system — but bestie, it may be used by others too. sharing is caring. 🫶

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and that's the whole page, no cap. this was vdb_lod version 10.0.1, dated August 2026. go make some mipmaps, main character. 💜✨