sheson

These sentences are hidden in a sea of documentation: Rules [...] are added to the mesh rules list automatically if the plugin esp filename is found in the load order when using the 'Default', 'Low', 'Medium' or 'High' buttons. Update the mesh rules by clicking the Low', 'Medium' or 'High' button after checking/unchecking any of the 'Load rules for' options or the 'Generate dynamic LOD' checkbox. Using the preset button will replace any existing rules. It is just not smart enough to individually update only a select list of rules. Have a look at DynDOLOD_Mod_Authors.html "How to add rules for your own mod"

No. "Billboard" does not use an external NIF. The required data is build internally in LODGen.exe. There is no NIF parsing involved. Billboard2/3/... uses what is defined in the INI. The Internal Billboard is not the same as using DynDOLOD_flat_2x2_lod.nif

The explanations in DynDOLOD-Trees.html should make it clear that the internal billboard is just "Billboard" in the mesh rules and not the same as "Billboard2", which is defined in the INI to use DynDOLOD_flat_2x2_lod.nif "Internal" means to use the internal billboard and a *.nif files means is is using that "external" *.NIF file. "Billboard found", means a billboard texture has been found. "using internal" means the found and shown billboard texture for that LOD level is using the internal model. If you want a LOD level to use the external NIF models defined as Billboard2=DynDOLOD_flat_2x2_lod.nif, then you need to set Billboard in the mesh rules for that LOD level. It is that straight forward. Yes the dimenions from the billboard txt or object bounds as fallback are used to set the vertices of the 2D planes for the model. Obviously this applies to the internal and external models. The external model allows users to customize things in the via a template NIF, which the internal model does not allow. Like easily adjust normal vectors, vertex colors etc. number of planes. Historically there was only the internal model in the beginning and the external option was added much later a couple years ago. You might not want to spend too much time trying to create billboard diffuse and normal map textures manually as explained in the docs as it is a cumbersome process. There will be a new TexGen beta version "soonish" that will be able to render billboard diffuse and normal map textures automatically. No ETA, sorry. It could be a few weeks or a couple months.

Just look at one oft The ini files in Enhanced Landscapes like DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_enhancedlandscapesesp.ini It contains sections for other [pluginesp] and then just adds mesh rules for form ids as plugin.esp;00123456 of object references to disable ("Delete") You need to make sure to press low, medium, high buttons for mesh rules to load.

You either edit the source billboard or the generated atlas from those textures, whatever you prefer. However, typically it is better to edit the assets being used for LOD generation so you only do it once. Tree LOD billboard textures are only used when tree LOD and object LOD are generated. You edit the billboard textures that you deem necessary you need to edit manually for whatever reason. Every tree has only one matching billboard texture. See DynDOLOD FAQ: Game: Tree LOD: LOD trees do not match close-up full model trees. 3D tree LOD models are required for 3D tree LOD. You can try the full model fallback, but you see all the warnings about it, so, yes specially crafted 3D tree LOD models are required. From the DynDOLOD_Manual.html "Terminology" section: Billboards are a simple 2D texture representation of trees and an optional text file defining width, height and other parameters used for tree LOD. Obviously they can only be used for 2D billboard tree LOD. Any tree mod for which 3D tree LOD models already exists is a good candidate or just vanilla trees, obviously.

You need keep holding the Shift key until the LOD options window loads, including through any messages.

In NifSkope change the scene lighting via the lightbulb icon. The "sun" is the direct light that should be none while the "cloud" is the ambient that should be 100%. That basically means the scene leaves the diffuse textures more or less alone and renders them as is, which is what you want if you have true normal maps and normal vectors later. In reality, leave a bit of direct light from top, so the result doesn't look all flat. Don't matter that much for trunks, but when creating tree LOD billboard diffuse textures with "true" normal maps. (Explained in DynDOLOD-Trees.html)

The only one you need to kick is yourself. You only vented with unneeded swearing. You did not not provide any information or provided any useful feedback. Consequently you disqualified yourself from giving recommendations. That way nobody can help with troubleshooting to find out why your setup is this messed up or if there is a problem or bug with the tools that require fixing. These tools exist since 6 years and are constantly updated and maintained also largely based on constructive user feedback. The tools are part of every modding guide and mod list for a reason. They typically work perfectly fine for correctly setup systems and games and when using sensible settings.

If you edit billboard textures, you need to generate LOD afterwards so LOD texture atlasses are updated with edited textures. If you edit the tree LOD texture atlas Textures\Terrain\Tamriel\Trees\TamrielTreeLod.dds directly, then the effect should be visible immediately in the game if traditional tree LOD is used. If ultra tree LOD is used, then there should be no TamrielTreeLod.dds in the output and only the object LOD texture atlasses in Textures\DynDOLOD\LOD\*.dds The object LOD texture atlasses will always contain some tree LOD billboards in any case.

Billboards use the form IDs and LOD models for ultra tree LOD use the CRC32 of the full model. If a model uses a normal map texture (and normals, bi/tangents), then its diffuse texture should not have (much) direct light baked in, only ambient. That's just the how the basic lighting method of models works in the engine. Either use less to no direct light in Nifskope or darken the textures in an image program. To fine tune you can use Vertex Colors. See the 2D trunk in Meshes\DynDOLOD\lod\trees\treeaspen01passthru_lod.nif in DynDOLOD Resources Core Files for example.

DDS files in Textures\Terrain\LODGen are the source billboards I suggest to edit directly in case the brightness setting does not have the desired results. Sounds like the textures are in BC7 format, which was introduced with Skyrm Special Edition. There should be plugins or methods to open these, also for GIMP. You can always use a command line tool TexConv to convert to any supported texture format like uncompressed dds for editing. And then convert it back afterwards if so inclined.

Correct, LOD Does not support parallax. This has nothing to do with DynDOLOD. The texture clamp mode obviously does not matter if the textures are being atlassed. There is not such thing as a mesh being compatible with DynDOLOD. The mesh and more importantly the shader settings have to be compatible with what static object LOD supports. xLODGen/DynDOLOD basically only gets the textures from the NIF to put the texture atlas. I suggest to generate LOD with that one tree to check if it works.

If the tree LOD billboard brightness setting in the advanced options does not have the desired results, you can always try to modify the billboard textures with an image editing program. Or create new billboards from scratch. Or test 3D tree LOD for the nearest LOD level.

If you did that, you have an optimized 3D tree LOD model, that requires less resources than simply a static tree model, where every shape is still true 3D. Not sure why you believe setting double sided to a Shader is a deviation? The leafs should just keep their original shader/texture settings (which typically includes the double sided flag) and the 2D trunk planes of the hybrid tree LOD models in DynDOLOD Resources should all use double sides flag already. Should be nothing special. There are several methods to get the CRC32 of the full model files. If you just have a couple trees and if 7z is installed, Windows Explorer has a right click file context menu CRC SHA / CRC-32 to quickly get the number.

The mod duplicates an existing child worldspace at same location - which of course is something irregular. Be that as it may, I can not replicate a problem, but that might be be because I am just reaching the worldspace the wrong way going through Whiterun, then through Dragonreach/Quarters to the Balcony. Do you have a better working version that is not riddled with bugs? Without being able to test I would suggest to add the worldspace Dovahsreach to the list of ChildWorlds= in DynDOLOD_SSE.ini (so it gets the activators to enable/disable dynamic LOD or sure) and to DynDOLOD_SSE_mod_world_ignore.txt (so none of the duplicated objects are added to the parent world Tamriel)

That is great. Enjoy.

Read the entire section "Generate 3D Tree Static Object LOD" in DynDOLOD-Trees.html By default DynDOLOD.exe falls back to use tree LOD billboards for all trees it doesn't find a 3D static object LOD in Meshes\DynDOLOD\lod\trees\*passthru_lod.nif for. Consider setting TreeFullFallBack=0 in '..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_[GAMEMODE].ini' to instruct it to automatically use the full model instead. WARNING: this can create HUGE static object LOD files depending on the size and complexity of the full model version. It is advised to create optimized 3D static object LOD versions. Because source shader settings of the full models are copied, this can potentially create invalid *.bto files causing the game to CTD. This is an experiemental setting for testing and should not be used for game play. It then goes on to explain how individual rules for specific trees can be set. If a model does not show the desired texture in NifSkope, check that the defined textures have the correct path and are available to NifSkope. Re-calculating the UV coords of a shape makes sure tcoords stay with 0 and 1 in order for ito be able to use texture on a texture atlas. Nowadays it is done on the fly while generating LOD. So the only reason to do it manually now is, if the full texture in the LOD model is replaced by a LOD texture that is a mini atlas, like a 4x4 tiled version of the full texture. For 3D trunks for example. If the UV for leafs is just slightly outside I manually move the points in NifSkip UV editor, so the model can keep the full texture as source and not increase vertex/triangle count. Skyrim Skyrim Special Editio uses a newer NIF version. If you try to copy/paste a BSTriShape into the older NIF version from Skyrim there will be an error.

There are no LOD models in either archive, obviously. Just using the "Preview file contents" confirms this. If you want 3D tree LOD for these trees and not use full model fallback, 3D LOD models are required. "my aspen tree LODs have white trunks" Sounds like missing textures. The "correct" format of an object LOD model is a basic static NIF with just NiTriShape/Data or BSTriShape and Shaders. No need to use the LODGen method if there is no re-uv involved. Just use NifSkope and remove all superfluous blocks from the full model. Optimize and Sanitize. Then save to a new filename. Or do the copying into a new NIF as explained in the doc. Be aware of the NIF version.

Billboards are a texture and an optional txt file for tree LOD. They can also be used in object LOD to allow for more options, but will still work essentially the same as in tree LOD. 3D tree LOD requires object LOD models. If there aren't any, they should be created instead of simply using the full model. Object LOD models should be static 3D models with all superfluous data removed, like collision, skins, bones, etc. Optionally they should also be optimized.

If you have problems with third party mods, ask their author or check/post on their comments. If there is no support, you could edit the mentioned base records to use existing (vanilla) tree meshes instead for example. You can use xEdit to check / edit the contents of ESM, ESP files. You can use the xEdit Asset Browser (start it with CTRL + F3) to check / open / extract files from BSA files. If all fails, you should remove the broken mods permanently and replace them with working alternatives.

Just do basic modding and troubleshooting: Make sure the BSA files of those mod(s) are installed and check the top of the DynDOLOD log if they are loaded. Check the download archive of the mod(s) to make sure they downloaded completely. Check the content of the download archive of the mods(s) if they contain the missing files. If they do not contain them, check the mod(s) description for requirements etc. If the download archive contains the files, make sure to install the mod(s) correctly according to its installation instructions or manually install the files.

FAQ: Game: ILS or CTD A: More LOD uses more memory and this can cause infinite loading screen (ILS) or crash to desktop (CTD) if the game is not setup correctly. This should generally not be a problem with Skyrim Special Edition or Skyrim VR, but for Skyrim double check heap memory usage (block 1) with Memory Blocks Log from https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50471/ and adjust SKSE memory settings. Or use the alternative OSAllocator from crash fixes with pre-loader. Do not use SSME or Safety Load. Setup ENBoost correctly. Set ExpandSystemMemoryX64=false in enblocal.ini. A: Do not use the experimental TreeFullFallBack setting without understanding what it does and what it is for. A: If heap memory is not the cause of CTD see ..DynDOLOD\Docs\DynDOLOD-README.txt for checking if a missing or invalid nif model used for dynamic LOD is the cause. A: Large load orders with many plugins might surpass the reference handle cap. SSE Engine fixes prints a warning. See https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ag4wm7/psa_the_reference_handle_cap_or_diagnosing_one_of/ Setting Temporary=1 in ..DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_[GameMode].ini may help in these situations, however converting large new land plugins to ESM is the preferred solution. A: If there are problems saving in Skyrim Special Edition, install SSE Engine Fixes 4.8 or newer and set SaveGameMaxSize = true in the EngineFixes.ini. Alternatively add/set [saveGame] uiCompression=1 in Skyrim.INI to change from the default 2 for LZ4 to 1 for zlib compression. 0 means no compression like games are saved in Skyrim. If this is Skyrim Special Edition the obvious first thing to do is to install the .NET framework and check its crash log.

The terrain LOD texture are generated from the unmodified (brightness/contrast/gamma left default) full landscape textures exactly like the terrain in the loaded cells. There can be no texture conflict, unless the full landscape textures changed after generating LOD. As the first post explains, in Skyrim the vanilla noise.dds texture compensates for vanilla terrain LOD textures with wrong intensities. Create or find a better noise.dds texture, disable the "improved" snow shader.

Read the "Updating" section in Docs/DynDOLOD_Manual.html

Test what happens if only selecting DLC2SolstheimWorld. The file DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\cache\DynDOLOD_SSE_dlc2solstheimworld_textures_used.txt contains all textures being used for the atlas creation. Check if one has unusual name with non standard characters maybe.