OK well you're almost there and glad to hear it works well for you. It is actually a pretty powerful tool and I had not encountered better, until I discovered the one in 3ds Max will do these reductions symmetrically, if desired.
Ultimately you would want 3 or more LODS, the numbers roughly correspond to size on screen and 100 is the most common maximum LOD, although I have a spawnable hangar with moving door that works quite well with 400 being the maximum LOD, obviously from inside the model. Right now, your model is at full resolution from LOD size 100 through LOD 40 where it suddenly changes. It seems like as soon as one was not standing directly next to the model, it could be less complex and not have to wait until it was less than half its original size on the screen, yes?
You have full control over the polygon reduction algorithm. The algorithm will present automatic LOD steps, which IMO, are somewhat arbitrary. FYI, I never, ever accept the recommended LOD levels, until the model is below LOD 40. So I start with LOD 100 and .02 on the grid size. If the model is over 10k polygons, I will want my first LOD under 100, to be close to 10K and I will continue to discard LOD passes, until the model gets there. Once set, I visually examine the result to make sure it does not need more polygons and then, whatever MCX has set for that LOD, probably 40, I use Change LOD to make it 80.
For the scenery addons I upload, I interpret where my models will be in relation to population centers and flight paths. If I believe people that use my airports, also fly over them at much higher altitudes, I will try to make all models such that the large visible ones are still visible, but low in poly count and the ones that would be invisible, are just a triangle or two, so they do not burden the render. To be clear, my scenery models usually have 5 or more LOD's, starting at 100, 80, 40, 16 to 6.
Finally, a note about Grid size. Grid size is like the net you cast to catch fish. If the model is an immense hangar constructed with 8 polygons, you will get no reduction whatsoever until you set grid size to 100, or 500, or 1000, the number corresponds to meters, I think and once you do get the "net" big enough to affect an 8 polygon hangar, you will learn there are no polygons that can be removed without significantly distorting the model, which shouldn't matter, it was only 8 polys to start.
Going the other direction, if you have a very detailed model of a cell phone, grid size .2 will obliterate the thing, I hope for obvious reasons Another FYI, .01 is the smallest useable Grid size.
The other settings, Angle weight and Area weight, discriminate the render on a different basis, in that small angle polygons, meaning they are almost sticks, likely do not comprise major portions of a models geometry and the same with area, individual polygons of extremely small area are either composing an elegantly curved surface, which the sim could represent other ways, or they are completely useless and should be swept away.
Floating cell is the alternative to fixed point calculations and while one or the other may have a specific, direct affect on quality, it is to me another setting to experiment with. Ground clamp attempts to keep all iterations of the original model, within reason, the original distance from the x/y plane.
