I still stand by the "who cares about disk space! as long as your distributed package is small (ala zip) your ok"
Bubba, about your request for help. Im very tempted to give it a try but i dont think it would work out. We have a lot of the same interests and goals but we use very different mediums to achieve them. I prefer using open source libraries whenver i can, and i havnt booted into windows in months. I also strongly dislike coding in Hungarian style, and your project (i assume) is already entirely written that way! My free time is also sparse at best... id hate to commit to something only to drop it because i dont have the time.
The problem of LOD with spherical meshes interests me though. Ill do a little reading and if i end up implementing anything id be more than happy to contribute it