Dammal19

I think these instructions are as clear as it can get. Thanks alot, I really appreciate your dedicated support! I might not be able to try it out immidiatly as im busy the next 2 days, but I will try to get this to work as soon as I can and give feedback. Cheers

Sorry Sheson, I have one more question.. When I want to replace hybrid trees by full models (I proceed exactly like you described in the tree.ultra readme, I just set Full model instead of "Static LOD4" in the LOD4 entry of the tree mesh rule), the tree meshes - which should show up in the fBlockLevel0Distance - are not displayed at all ingame. No matter what tree mesh is used (SFO, vanilla trees, .. ). Did you try this setting, did it work for you? Or is it untested? I know the performance impact is big with the full models but I want to try it out... Do I have a faulty ini setting that makes the trees not appearing? Maybe tree meshes not working because they are special? (with the leaf movement animation..)

Thanks.. think I got it. So in theory when I change the LOD8 entry in the "/" rule to "Static LOD4", put the tree mesh rule for the hybrid trees below the "/" rule and adjust fBlockLevel0Distance+fBlockLevel1Distance accordingly I will get my desired result. Only problem will be the "small" distance of the lower poly LOD 16 stuff and if I want to compensate this visual penalty I have to do some manual mesh rules that put "Static LOD4/8" stuff into LOD16 entry. How much work is it to make such manual mesh rules? Is it necessary to make a separat rule for every single mesh or is it possible to group nifs up into a single mesh rule? Do I have to remake the rules everytime I update the mod? This approach sounds like a good balance between reducing ugly Tree popin and performance. (hell, I could even use the full 3D model on LOD4 when setting a rather small fBlockLevel0Distance, but I guess hybrid trees are way more performance friendly.) It will be more aesthetic of course once you will incorporate the billboard-based 2D flat LOD generation into the static object LOD generation. Looking forward to that :) I really appreciate the work you put in to make the mod that cusomizable for the user. I think many user might not even see the mods potential because its ;) Cheers, Dammal19

Thanks alot for your in-depth reply! So regarding my first question.. I think I formulated it quite washy because I wasn't really aware of the difference of landscape and object LOD... So let me gather my thoughts together and see if i get it right (sorry, im just getting into all that stuff): What I wanted to decouple is the hybrid trees and the remaining static object LOD.... So I guess a distant waterfall, some fort building parts, rocks and a hybrid tree are all static Object LOD and get influenced by fblockdistances right? fSplitDistanceMult just does the terrain (large water/landscape bodies which do not get touched by DynDoLOD -> I use OScape for that). I want to have shorter range for trees than for other objects because of performance... is that possible? Mesh rules seem to tell objects when to get displayed based on the default Skyrim grids system (LOD level 4, 8 & 16). So when I set the hybrid tree (aka "Static LOD4) to the LOD 4 level, it will be bound to fBlockLevel0Distance just like other static Object LOD. Beyond FBlockLevel0 the 2D flat.nif model is used. Can trees be treated differently? If I'm correct here - still struggling to understand how your mod works - You seem to be able to attach cells to the player (like an expanded uGridsToLoad, you call them NearGrids and FarGrids) and make appear objects in them by using scripts. You did this so you can display stuff from mods (which have no static LOD model) as neverfades and switch those Neverfade-objects off when they are too far away (because performance impact would be severe if they wouldnt be switched off). Can you attach such a grid (with customizable size?!) to the player only for trees and tell the game to use hybrid trees in that grid (and 2D model beyond it)? Or maybe, a bit simpler, not create an extra grid for trees, but just use the Near- or FarGrid which are already present in the mod for this task... This would give a good tree scenery without heapSpace spiking to 600-800 when loading game in certain area. Sorry if I'm asking too much/my question is dumb hehe :) As for the mesh editing.. I would love to get myself familiar with the tools a little bit and maybe be able to create something (hybrid trees?) with it.. Hope I will find some time for that stuff in the holidays.. though I think its a long learning process to get into a program like blender. 3DS max I have no access to as I believe its rather expensive for a hobby modder :E Best Regards, Dammal19

Hello Sheson, I have a couple of question concerning the optional tree.ultra feature.... I think its a brilliant idea, preventing lod-popin of trees at ugrids 5.... transition between hybrid model and full model ist hardly noticeable.... I have set it up with success, and I have some questions about how much it can be modified... 1. The boarder between hybrid-tree-model and 2D-LOD-model is given by the fBlockLevel0Distance of SkyrimPrefs when I set it up as you describe it in the manual. Here is the problem: I think this distance is kind of overkill, I want the hybrid trees far away, but not that far away. OK, so you say solution is simple reduce fBlockLevel0Distance. But with that I decrease the quality of LOD-landscape aswell. I want to keep high fBlockLevel0Distance (or high [TerrainManager]-settings in general) to have nice landscape, while reducing max distance of hybrid trees to save some HeapSpace in Memory and in general hardware ressources. Is there any way to decouple the hybrid tree range from fBlockLevel0Distance?? ...IDK, by mesh rules or something??? Im really not good at this :( 2. The Tree LOD that gets drawn beyond the hybrid tree radius... It looks kind of weird (its more visible when I reduce fBlockLevel0Distance). How do these LOD models get created? Is it the same as normal TES5LODGen creation? Can I influence those models with billboards? Or are these fixed models from your mod? 3. Can I use the hybrid trees with a mod like Skyrim Bigger Trees? I think Skyrim Bigger Trees doesn't replace tree meshes but works by editing tree sizes manually for every tree record.... how does the size of hybrid trees (or 2D-LOD trees in general) get determined? Does the LOD/ hybridtree size get derivated from the treesize-entry of the individual tree record or do I need special Billboard / Hybrid trees for this mod? 4. Unfortunatly the feature doesn't seem to be very popular so far and there are no people making hybrid tree models for alternative tree meshes like Skyrim flora overhaul. Any way to build such hybrid tree model myself, or ist to hard for newb-user? A tutorial for making Skyrim-meshes anywhere maybe? But I guess I need understanding in special tools to do this, like Blender or 3DS max right? I only have blender and nif scope, but dont really know what to do with them at all Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through the questions and maybe answering them! And thanks for DynDoLOD...:) Cheers, Dammal19