mmm and it is most definitely dependent on how
big terrain chunks are , it is a chunk based lod system ,I believe ?

I think i should determine my lod distance on chunk sizes
such that if I want 4 lods I would need to use a distance of view to include 4 chunks distances ,I think
the terrain system is quite flexible ,provided that chunks and total vertices and view distances can
be managed correctly ...

however as you mentioned with dense populated areas of meshes ,added to the scene it could become
a little problematic for a scene , I know we have lod
for models and these models would preferably be
rendered on their own draw distances ,depending
of course on how much of them is required in view.

i would manage such a system a bit like gta handled
its draw distances , models would have different draw
distances based on their type , ultimately this is not
enough for me in such a system ,I am working on
a mesh chunker to split meshes in to chunks of N triangles ,it should help me out when I need it .