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Starting with DynDOLOD Alpha-59 I updated the waterfall rule for Skyrim Special Edition so there is a static LOD model in object LOD Level 4 already. They are slightly moved down and back so it shouldn't z-fight with the full / dynamic LOD models.

I've recently finished the guide and things are working pretty good for me. I've tested the game a bit before moving on adding other mods and haven't come across any issue.

Uploaded a new DynDOLOD DLL version for Skyrim Special Edition 1.6.353 (Anniversary Edition). It requires SKSE64 2.1.5 or higher.

I will keep this post brief. Make use of the Help buttons and hover over settings. Do not hesitate to ask questions and provide feedback. This is early ALPHA to test things and iron out bugs. Certain things may be incomplete, not work as expected or change considerably between versions. Read the documentation included in the Standalone archive. In case of error messages prompts, click the link Click on this link for additional explanations and help for this message if available to open the associated help/message page on https://dyndolod.info Use search to find similar questions and answers. Ask questions (also about 3rd party mods) or report any problems or issue in this thread only. Questions or problems can only be properly answered or addressed by the developers. If making posts or reporting errors, upload/paste these files (if they exist) to a file or text sharing service: ..\DynDOLOD\bugreport.txt ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\[DynDOLOD|TexGen]_[TES5|ENDERAL|SSE|TES5VR|ENDERALSE]_log.txt (truncate large log files to the entire last meaningful generation) ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\[DynDOLOD|TexGen]_[TES5|ENDERAL|SSE|TES5VR|ENDERALSE]_Debug_log.txt If issue involves LODGen upload/paste ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\LODGen_[TES5|ENDERAL|SSE|TES5VR|ENDERALSE]_[Worldspace]_log.txt If the option "Copy this message to clipboard" is available, copy and paste the text instead posting a screenshot. Requirements DynDOLOD Standalone 3.00 Alpha-65 (Mega) DynDOLOD Resources 3.00 Alpha-17 (Mega) for Skyrim/Enderal or DynDOLOD Resources SE 3.00 Alpha-19 (Mega) for Skyrim SE/Skyrim VR/Enderal SE Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019 For dynamic LOD: SKSE, SKSE64, SKSEVR and PapyrusUtil, PapyrusUtil SE, PapyrusUtil VR or DynDOLOD DLL For grass LOD: A warm precache from No Grass In Objects. See next post for details. For Majestic Mountains: Majestic Mountains LOD Pack for DynDOLOD 3. Obviously do not install LOD meshes from older versions made for DynDOLOD 2.x. Installation Install the requirements as usual. Install the Core Files from either DynDOLOD Resources or DynDOLOD Resources SE depending on the used game version. Typically overwrite any files or refer to Load/Overwrite Orders. Install other options as desired. Unpack the DynDOLOD Standalone archive into a new empty 'DynDOLOD' directory that is outside of special OS folders like 'Programs Files' or 'Program Files (x86)', User, Documents, Desktop, Download and also not in SteamApps, game or any mod manager folders. If the tools are started without setting a Game Mode with a command line argument (-tes5 for Skyrim, -sse for Skyrim Special Edition etc.), a message window will prompt for the desired Game Mode. Since TexGen now generates billboards do not install any 3rd party billboards. LOD Generation Use TexGen to generate object LOD textures and tree/grass LOD billboards into a dedicated output folder and then install as a mod. Use DynDOLOD to generate object LOD (includes grass LOD if enabled), tree and optional dynamic LOD into a dedicated output folder and then install as a mod. Major Feature Changes Generate high quality tree/grass LOD billboards with TexGen. No need to install any billboards. Optional ultra tree LOD is now a checkbox - remember to update the tree mesh rule as desired. Optional billboard Grass LOD in object LOD Level 4. See next post for details. Generate some pre-rendered object LOD textures, including all cities. Optional generate an underside terrain mesh to block sun rays. Automatic texture replacements for stitched object LOD textures. Optional grass LOD generation is now a checkbox Optional occlusion generation is now a checkbox and can generate Occlusion.esp in the same session, eliminating the step with xLODGen Optional terrain underside generation is now a checkbox Changelog

Thanks. The Skyrim.ini you attached is valid, it contains sLanguage=english with a standard lowercase "i". I tried running xEdit with it and there is no issue, as expected. Where exactly are you seeing your language's letter "ı"? Are you using profile-specific INI files in MO? As shown here: If you are using profile-specific INI files, you need to look for Skyrim.ini, SkyrimCustom.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini in your MO profile folder. Click on the Folders menu in MO and select 'Open INIs Folder' to open a Windows Explorer window for that folder: Then please post the Skyrim.ini and SkyrimCustom.ini files as attachments.

So, were you able to resolve the xEdit strings error issue in the end? If so please describe what you think caused it to the best of your knowledge, and describe the solution you used for the benefit of others who may encounter the same issue and bump into this topic. This particular one is completely normal and harmless. As Z mentioned above, please start a new topic about any new issue or question rather than continuing an existing one that's unrelated. And please provide some context. Like, what are you trying to accomplish by checking for errors in the vanilla plugins? I'd suggest not to waste your time and to leave them alone.

@teq2077thanks for pinpointing the issue for me. I have just reinstalled Windows on a new M2 SSD and I have to reinstall some core programs (like Steam and Direct X) and drivers before I can test the issue myself. It might take 2 or 3 days. I suspect the issue is caused by Stewie's plugin itself. I have a version that was last updated on December 31, he has released some updates in rapid succession (the latest on January 23). I will come back when I have tested this.

'englýsh' is not a valid language and xEdit can't use that. Don't look at Skyrim_Default.ini. Look at Skyrim.ini in your 'Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition' folder. See also my post above about xEdit localization menu. See also xEdit Default Language. If all else fails, force the language on the xEdit command line: Command Line Switches. Use the -l option.

Something doesn't look right: SSEEdit 4.0.4 (103758D4) starting session 2022-01-24 14:33:53 Using language: englýsh Using general string encoding: 1252 (ANSI - Latin I) Using translatable string encoding: 65001 (UTF-8) Using VMAD string encoding: 65001 (UTF-8) 'englýsh' is not a valid language. Which probably leads to the error in exception log and xEdit not being able to load the strings. Check and/or post your Skyrim.ini. In the [General] section, there should be: [General] sLanguage=ENGLISH For testing, you don't need to load your entire mod list in xEdit. When you're prompted after launch to select the plugins to load in the 'Modules Selection' panel, right-click and pick 'Select None', then check 'USSEP'. That will make loading much quicker and enough to check the language & strings.

If you are using DynDOLOD 2.x read all the log messages a around the error and follow their suggestions. If you are using DynDOLOD 3.x read the first post of https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/15606-dyndolod-300-alpha-65/

Spot on, the solution nailed my problem. I signaled it in the thread you pointed me. Thanks mate.

That's right. Make sure to run LOOT again after disabling the mods, and check there are no errors.

Sounds good I meant a backup of the CRF mod. Make a backup of your CRF and USSEP .7z archives, both mods by the same author.

The shared file you found on reddit is ok. It's just a copy of version 3.1.10 downloaded from Nexus, the last one officially supported for Skyrim 1.5.97 and USSEP 4.2.5, so guaranteed to work with them. Personally I've installed the latest version available on Nexus (3.1.11), and I'm using Skyrim 1.5.97 and USSEP 4.2.5b. The only difference with the previous CRF version are 2 bug fixes in College of Winterhold quests. I recommend you make a backup of whichever version you use. The mod author has a habit of updating his mods, removing older versions, or completely withdrawing his mods from Nexus without warning.

Survival Mode is vanilla in 1.6.x. Not in 1.5.97 which you went to the trouble of reinstalling Theoretically you can use the Survival Mode CC add-on with 1.5.97, but as mentioned before, this would be considered a custom addition to the guide. Please complete the guide first without it - and skip the related patches. If you're interested in using Survival Mode, consider integrating it later once you're done and familiar with the basics.

You can search this sub-forum. Each topic in this sub-forum is about a specific mod, not necessarily used in the guide (for example: Mari's flora). If you find a matching topic for the mod you're considering, you can ask questions there or report about your experience integrating it or playing with it. If you can't find an existing topic for the mod you're looking to add, having trouble (or success) with, you can use this sub-forum: General Skyrim SE Discussion & Support. For any other question or feedback directly related to the guide, there is another sub-forum: Step Skyrim SE Guide. If in doubt, simply post in the general SSE sub-forum. Moderators will triage and move to a more appropriate location as needed.

I am following the 1.0.0 guide and will try to provide as much feedback as I can.

No it doesn't change. It's either clean or dirty all the time. In order to remain consistent with the guide's aesthetic choice (vanilla-like) you should select the 'Clean Face and Body Textures' option in the FOMOD installer. But you can select the dirty option of course if you prefer.

It doesn't hurt to install it but it's completely fine without it too. I use it. If you do install it, merge it with the main file.

No. It's not mentioned in the guide but it's actually optional, you can skip.

The instructions given are somewhat incorrect. Install the main file 'Mudcrab 4K FOMOD Installer' first which will give you 4K textures for creatures and 2K for clutter/ingredient. If you'd rather use 2K textures, merge/overwrite with the 'Mudcrab 2K2K - Creatures' optional file. You can also skip the main file, and only install the optional file if you don't care about the clutter/ingredient retexture. In any case the update file is not needed. It's intended for users of an older version of the main file.

Yes indeed.

The instructions are (emphasis added): The Update File is "Steel Armor Fix". So, yes, you should install it.

Yep, that's correct. Sounds like you're fine as it is, so no need to make exclusions. No problem, glad to help.

Which tool are you using, Depot Downloader or Unofficial Skyrim Downloader?

You could use a firewall to block all outgoing network connections for the app and only allow IP addresses and domain names that connect to Steam servers directly or to CDNs (Content Delivery Network) used by Steam. Needless to say, that's not a piece of cake.

Thank you! Those settings helped quite a bit. Could be tweaked a bit more. But that can wait until the next time I run DynDOLOD. The match is pretty close now, as it is. Thanks again. edit: ENB is definitely in play here, too. Without ENB, it is a perfect match (using the above settings). With ENB, I will need to tweak a bit darker.

You're not the only one apparently. You can try some of the workarounds discussed in the Downgrade Patcher comments section. If you can't find a solution, throw the Downgrade Patcher away and follow the procedure described in the OP, using Depot Downloader to download a fresh copy of SSE 1.5.97 from Steam. Or use Unofficial Skyrim Downloader which does the same thing with a user-friendly UI.

OK I will take in account the forum tool in the future.

Just tried adding Noble Skyrim and regenerating the LOD with Alpha-64, and bang: the tower was gone again. The combination of Fortified Whiterun, Noble Skyrim textures, and DynDOLOD 3 Alpha-64 does seem to be what triggers it. `prid 1000AA28` and disable/enable and recycleactor resulted in no change. Curious to hear if you're able to reproduce when you add Noble Skyrim to the mix; if not, something very strange is happening on my end, and I'll stop bugging you about this. If you do see this issue, please try walking into the tower area; you should also find that the tower's collision is gone as well as the visual model. For now, I'm off to bed--it's 4am and I have work in a few hours. Thanks for looking into this! EDIT: As I went to log off, it occurred to me: if the Noble Skyrim's textures trigger this, is it possible that the relevant change between Alpha-58 and Alpha-64 was in TexGen rather than DynDoLOD? I don't understand enough about their inner workings to know if that's plausible, but I'll try using old TexGen/new DynDOLOD and new TexGen/old DynDOLOD tomorrow when I have a chance.

The Vivid Weathers overwrites the Smooth Sky Mesh , and so the latter is useless. On this page :https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimLE:3.0.0

FYI: The wiki instructions for this mod still haven't been updated. The Odin option is still checked in the FOMOD installer. It should NOT be ticked. Please refer to the discussion in the few posts above this one for context. Thanks.

Nothing really changed how this works in months or years even. I mean just check changelog of 62, 63 and 64...

Uploading again as DynDOLOD Resource 3 SE as Alpha-19, see if that works.

If full textures become thin in the distances, also try generating mipmaps for it with an appropriate alpha-to-covergage setting. When a texture is added to the atlas, DynDOLOD does this automatically, hence the difference. From https://dyndolod.info/Help/3D-Tree-LOD-Model: Note that LOD only has binary alpha with a fixed threshold of 128. DynDOLOD reads the alpha threshold from the NiAlphaProperty from the models used for LOD and adjusts the textures before it is added to the atlas texture. The final result in game may be to thick or thin like certain objects seem to be missing or transparency looks off. Try adjusting the NiAlphaProperty in the 3D LOD model. Again, note that the UV texture coordinates need to be >= 0.0 and <= 1.0 for LOD being able to use the atlas texture. If the UV is outside those limits, LOD will use the texture directly. You can check and do simple edits to UV in NifSkope. If they are just slightly outside you can move them inside 0.0 and 1.0 in NifSkope UV editor or change wrap UV to clamp the UV in the shader settings for that shape.

As you can see the LOD model does not have the dormers. So their glow LOD windows which match the full model will seem to float in front of the LOD roof without the dormer. Also, as already mentioned, the glow LOD windows are moved forward a bit to be outside the walls, because of large LOD models and to eliminate z-fighting.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Object-LOD Object LOD uses the single texture in case the UV coordinates of a 3D shape do not allow the use of the object LOD texture atlas. For a shape in the object LOD *.BTO to be able to use a texture on the object LOD texture atlas requires its UV coordinates to be inside 0.0 and 1.0. If any of the UV coordinates are outside, the single source texture will be kept instead. DynDOLOD may try to update the UV on the fly. If that is attempted and succeeds or has acceptable results depends on each case.

Looks great indeed.

Your suggestion worked out perfectly. The fact that this texture is slightly darker helps, because of the slight visual difference that is still there due to LOD not supporting parallax. The effect does make the mesh darker - kind of - so that's a perfect match. I will just assign this texture for all of them. Yes, its funny that people just notice the flickering/Z-fighting on transitions now... I reduced the scale to 0.99 and it fixes it, but of course the mesh "grows" a tiny bit on transition from LOD to full model. I guess this is due to glaciers being such large objects to begin with. I'll see what value works best. Screen using glacierslabnoalpha.dds/glacierslabnoalpha.dds_n:

That doesn't work ... See what happens if you use textures\landscape\glacierslabnoalpha.dds generated by TexGen. It is a 1x1 version that is made slightly darker. Lots of vanilla LOD models have that z-fighting effect as it is inherent to how the engine works. Always weird how sometimes people only notice such things years later. Yes go can try setting a smaller or larger scale. You need to set such change on the NiTriShape/BSTriHSape, not on the root BSFadeNode.

Perfect, worked like a charm. Also I would like to add that; I recently got back to modding my game, and I remember a few years back I was struggling with using a mod for bigger trees along with Dark Forests of Skyrim. The LoD was just not matching up, and I had trees pop in no matter what I did, and it wasnt even the same model. I have no doubt that I might have been doing something wrong, but I did a lot of searching and trial and error, so I don't know what the issue was. So when I got back to modding my game, I faced the same issue again. Been trying everything, ini settings, different mods, different versions etc. etc., and still had trees pop in, and then I read about DynDOLOD 3 and how TexGen generates it's own billboards, thought it might work. So I would just like to tell you that this seems to work absolutely amazingly. LoD matches up with the trees, the pop in is extremely minimal. I don't think it will be noticeable in a normal playthrough (atm just zooming through in 3000% movement speed). You may have my firstborn.

I want to report, that I was going to post about the same issue that 3fast5you was getting, and the new exe fixed it on my end.

Read everything you find here: https://dyndolod.info. Maybe start with https://dyndolod.info/How-LOD-Works. Then have a look at https://dyndolod.info/Updating. LOD generation is a snap shot of the current load order. Generated LOD is mostly meshes and textures. Every options and INI setting for the tools only ever affect LOD generation. Great. Will be included in the next version that also fixes the building in Riften.

Music fix: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/54019 I love Forgotten City. Very nice mod.

Thank you for the responses guys! Just the little bit of info you were able to share is helpful. I'll spend some more time researching on Reddit as they seem to have quite a bit of info on there. I'll keep the graphic mods to 2k and maybe even try the Wabbajack install just to see how it plays and then build from scratch after that. I wanted to ask here because I've had very little issues with 3 or 4 different STEP builds on oldrim and SE. Crazy how fast technology moves. I built this machine a year ago and it took like 4 months to even find that rx580 and had to pay over double what they were when they came out. I built a dual boot machine so needed 10gen and that card to work. Thank you for all that you guys do!

Mod updated on Nexus. Version 3.2 Added new ruinscanopicjar texture Added wrburialurn01 and wrcoffin01 mesh with corrected texture path for silver decoration Included falmer temple chandelier in main patch Included fix for the ratway wood and ruins linen texture in the main patch Improved dragonclaw mesh and fixed texture seams Improved mesh and texture of Seranas coffin in the Dimhollow Crypt Improved vertex lighting and texture of several soulcairn static objects (walls, stairs, lightwell) Improved riekling throne mesh Improved trapdoor handle Improved texture and uv mapping of several woodbeams (mines, riften, ship) Improved texture and uv mapping of riftenrwhallarch01grate01 and riftenrwhallsewerhole01 Improved riften jail door Improved shipkatariahdoor mesh and texture Improved texture of basic wooden plate and woodenbowl Improved dwarven oil texture (original design by SRW0) Slightly improved pitchfork01 mesh and texture Slightly improved puzzledoor texture Slightly improved ruinsconcebase01 texture Slightly improved soulgemholder texture Slightly improved imperial and riften wood door Fixed texture seams and slightly improved the mesh of the dragonstatues Fixed bright blood texture on silverware in castle Volkihar Restored ruinsconce01 mesh to original design, fixed the base mesh and texture seams

In a nutshell... This is primarily middleware for mod authors. It's intended to greatly reduce or eliminate the need for traditional patches or scripts, and to improve performance in the process. I'm using the term 'patch' in its most general sense - in its simplest form, a mod plugin that overrides a few records in Skyrim.esm can be considered a patch for Skyrim. A mod plugin that voluntarily overrides a few records in another mod is a compatibility patch. The "old-school" way of replacing objects can be seen in kryptopyr's overhaul mods for example, which have big plugins that override hundreds of vanilla records, and include dozens of scripts. These overhaul mods are a pain to use with other mods because they require compatibility patches to be integrated with those other mods, and are a drain on the engine because of all the script and plugin processing. The "modern" way of dealing with this problem as implemented by SWAP is to define the new objects in the mod plugin, and let the framework (more or less an engine extension) do the replacement on-the-fly at runtime, based on substitution rules defined in the mod's SWAP configuration file. Patches or scripts are no longer needed to override the vanilla records and references. Compatibility patches are no longer needed to override another mod's record. Let's say you're a mod author and your mod replaces the vanilla salmon by a rabbit (stupid example to illustrate), and another mod replaces the vanilla salmon by an enhanced salmon. With the "old-school" way, if you wanted to replace the other mod's salmon by your rabbit, you'd have to create a compatibility patch plugin, or in the best case scenario, simply change the load order of both mods. With the "modern" way, you'd simply add a substitution rule to your SWAP configuration file. SPID has a different function, but has the same design goals as and works similarly to SWAP. This is very smart, neat and efficient. Right now SWAP is still experimental. There are a few mods that have been converted to SWAP as proof of concept: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/60741 https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/60756 (without SWAP: patching ~1200 worldspace records / with SWAP: 0 worldspace record overrides but ~1200 substitution rules) https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/60762 The problem is that the long-term implications have seemingly not been thought through. This framework could be adopted too fast by too many MAs in too raw a state. Issues identified so far: Doesn't work with large references Unintuitive precedence rule, opposite of long-established rule Conflict identification and resolution process is significantly worse than plugins in xEdit This was supposed to be brief so I'll stop here

You could check if the json data could be invalid. https://jsonlint.com

If you have such trouble with PapyrusUtil, just switch to DynDOLOD DLL.

Over time, and by reading comments of mod authors, I have learned that for certain record types displayed in TES5Edit, when using the conflict filter feature, some records are incorrectly identified as conflicting (ie., "conflicting" = overridden by a plugin which comes later in the load order.) For example, ripple, the author of Inconsequential NPCs has explained that location persistent references (LCPR sub-records in LCTN / Location records) supplied by different plugins are not actually overwritten by the last mod in the load order LCTN for certain locations (source). The implication here is that all those references are combined and used from all mods with that record type when Skyrim is started. So in other words, when making a compatibility patch in TES5Edit, you do not need to copy overrides for those particular records. I have asked in a number of places which records types do not need to be carried forward into compatibility patches, but have never received a reply, and still to this day have not found a definitive list in one place. Well, I'd like to change that, and I need your help, if this is something you are knowledgeable about. Below is a list of record types, grouped by category, that I have read comments saying they are incorrectly identified as conflicting, because they are actually combined at runtime: A List of Non-Conflicting Record Types seen in TES5Edit [WIP] Default Object Manager (DOBJ)Record sub-record types: DNAM - Objects (Confirmed here) Dialogue Topic (DIAL) Record sub-record types: TFIC - Info Count (Confirmed - sources: here & here) Dialogue Information (INFO) Record sub-record types: PNAM - Previous Info (Confirmed here) Idle Animation (IDLE) Record sub-record types: ANAM - Related Idle Animations (Confirmed here) Location (LCTN) Record sub-record types: (Confirmed here) ACPR - Actor Cell Persistent Reference LCPR - Location Cell Persistent Reference RCUN - Reference Cell UNique ACSR - Actor Cell Static References LCSR - Location Cell Static Reference RCSR - Reference Cell Static Reference ACEC - Actor Cell Encounter Cell LCEC - Location Cell Encounter Cell RCEC - Reference Cell Encounter Cell ACID - Actor Cell Marker Reference LCID - Location Cell Marker Reference ACEP - Actor Cell Enable Point LCEP - Location Cell Enable Point NOTE: Other LCTN sub-record types require conflict management. (Confirmed - sources: here, here, here & here) Story Manager Quest Node (SMQN) Record sub-record types: (Confirmed - source: here & here) SNAM - Child sub-records QNAM - Quest Count / Quests Story Manager B??? Node (SMBN) Record sub-record types: SNAM - Child sub-records (Confirmed here) For more details about how the above listed sub-record types merge at runtime, please see this excellent opening thread post by Arthmoor from 12 March 2014. Many thanks to him for confirming / explaining all of these, and a tip of the hat to MonoAccipitor for noticing Arthmoor's post. I will update this list with additional confirmed non-conflicting record types based on your replies. Thanks in advance for your help, and let's hope others can benefit from this list!