How to prevent LOD popping?

Unity has LODGroup’s, and there are several third party solutions with varying features that range from straight up replacements for LODGroups, to dynamic batching/LOD combinations. In all cases I have found, you can see a noticeable pop when switching from one LOD to another.

As of Unity 5, LODGroup’s now have a CrossFade Fade Mode option. However, it says you are required to write your own shader to handle it. I think that option simply reports the percent cross fade, then it’s up to you to handle it.

I read some info about SpeedTree, where they fade in one LOD, fade out another.

Is there a readily available solution to support CrossFade, or some other solution to prevent or reduce popping of mesh LODs?

As you said, you have to provide your own shader to handle it.

There is one available here that might suit your needs: GitHub - keijiro/CrossFadingLod: (Unity) Cross-fading LOD shader example

I wish there was support for this in the standard shader. I may have to try to combine the example by Keijiro, and the standard shader.

The alternative is to make sure that your LOD changes are subtle, and done from far enough away. For instance, if the LOD change does not affect the silhouette of the object, it will be less noticeable.