Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - DynDOLOD 2.21

[sheson]

DynDOLOD 2.19/2.20 / 2.21 condensed update post | Full Update Post | Skyrim Special Edition

 

What’s New?

 

This updates includes minor speed improvements for DynDOLOD.exe and TexGen.exe, 64 bit executables and visual improvements for billboards used as static LOD (higher LOD levels 8/16) if using the ultra tree LOD option. Of course there are also a few updates for a couple mods.

 

See Full update post for 2.xx update instructions

 

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64 bit executables

To avoid confusion, this has nothing to do with Skyrim SE being 64 bit. Just going with the flow. There is no requirement for this right now, but it will work natively with 64 bit managers or if executed directly. 64 bit versions are a tiny bit slower due to a couple reasons, but obviously they will allow for more data to be loaded... in the future... for insanely large load orders. Another long term benefit is, that the 64 bit changes are merged back into xEdit sources.

 

Improvements for billboards used as static LOD

When using the ultra tree option and you ever thought far away trees or trees on the map look too dark or too bright, check out the new Trees on the Map section in docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html. The new default settings should already result in better lighting behavior. If not try any of the additional tips from the manual. To update an existing save game, it is enough to just do an update generation with the existing DynDOLOD.esp in the load order. Then no clean save cycle is required. Just a save in an interior before updating.

 

Persistent references

There is a new switch Temporary=0/1 in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_TES5.ini, which instructs the patcher to use less persistent references. This is for users who have so many mods installed and suffer from CTD when clicking new as we discussed recently. The downside is, that by using temporary references more plugins may have to be used as masters and the generated DynDOLOD.esp will be larger, because of additional CELL data that needs to be copied. If you do not have any problems starting the game there should be no reason to use this setting.

 

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Mods Requiring DynDOLOD

Spice of Life - Orc Strongholds - overwrite meshes from DynDOLOD Resources with the ones included in the mod

 

Verified working out of the box - included rules

Wind's Rest Estate - A Whiterun Tundra Home

Ayleid Palace Remastered

 

Verified working out of the box - added/updated meshes and/or textures

Settlements Expanded

Greater Skaal Village

Whiteraven Manor

Tactical Valtheim

Dwemer Manor

JKs Skaal village

Dolmen Ruins - ESO Dark Anchors

Peak Aspens - Billboards included in versions for DynDOLOD/TES5LODGen in optional files

Fantasy Forest Overhaul - Billboards included in versions for DynDOLOD/TES5LODGen in optional files

 

 

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DynDOLOD 2.21 - Download from Mega, Nexus

 

DynDOLOD Resources 2.20 - Download from Mega, Nexus

 

DynDOLOD Patches 2.22 - Download from Mega, Nexus

 

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[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.19]DynDOLOD.exe - added xespignore file for XESP markers to ignore instead of the one hardcoded dunCGOutsideClutterMarker from intro scene

DynDOLOD.exe - fixed sometimes not correctly identifying Has Tree LOD flag on base records

DynDOLOD.exe - added settings FlatLODLightingEffect, FlatLODGlowMap and FlatLODLevelLODFlat to DynDOLOD.ini, see docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html

DynDOLOD.exe - added a switch Temporary to use less persistent references for overloaded load orders, will result in more plugins required as masters and larger esp

DynDOLOD.exe - added verbose switch for LODGen.exe to DynDOLOD.ini

DynDOLOD.exe - updated reading existing tree LOD to be able to read btt data from BSA

DynDOLOD.exe - some minor performance improvements

DynDOLOD.exe - changed log filename to DynDOLOD_log.txt

DynDOLOD.exe - added a x64 version

TexGen.exe - sync updates with DynDOLOD.exe

TexGen.exe - some minor performance improvements

TexGen.exe - changed log filename to TexGen_log.txt

TexGen.exe - added a x64 version

LODGen.exe - added optional --inputfile path/to/file command line parameter, first parameter just being path/to/file still works too

LODGen.exe - make billboards soft lighting behave more similar to vanilla tree LOD (FlatLODLightingEffect and FlatLODGlowMap)

LODGen.exe - added setting LOD Objects flag for higher LOD levels on billboards (FlatLODLevelLODFlat)

LODGen.exe - added a x64 version

DynDOLOD_Manual.html - updated compatibility information for several mods

DynDOLOD Resources - updated/added meshes for better compatibility with mods

 

 

[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.20]

DynDOLOD.exe - fixed a list assignment

TexGen.exe - sync updates with DynDOLOD.exe

DynDOLOD Resources - Papyrus Scripts - fixed a race condition

 

 

[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.21]

DynDOLOD.exe - fixed a case of removing entire worlds when removing empty cells

DynDOLOD.exe - added an installation path check

DynDOLOD_Manual.html - updated compatibility information for several mods

DynDOLOD Patches - added script patches for Caranthir Tower Reborn 2.x

 

 

[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.22]

DynDOLOD Patches - fixed a typo in Wizard.txt

 

 

 

 

See Full update post for full changelog, fully detailed update instructions and updated compatibility information for Skryim mods.

 

DynDOLOD 2.18

[lekvarik]

and i can run the whole setup without DynDolod fine on default Crash Fixes ini with only OSallocators on. No need for custommemoryblocks.

[sheson]

and i can run the whole setup without DynDolod fine on default Crash Fixes ini with only OSallocators on. No need for custommemoryblocks.

DynDOLOD needs *some* memory, but with its typical default setting, especially on low it is nothing dramatic. It could be that you have a mod installed that overwrites something or otherwise something gets picked up for LOD that maybe causing this.

Test with Legendary plus essential mods which require LOD only. No need to have other mods in the load order while generating LOD.

Use BethINI, use default medium settings or even low for Distant Object Detail as a test.

I suggest to try the default memory allocation as a test and check default heap memory usage with Memory Blocks Log. I suggest to set up  proper stable game by following a guide. If not caused by mods, something doesn't seem to be configured right.

Edited November 10, 2016 by sheson

[Xen0nex]

Hello, sorry if this is a simple question, but after reading around and searching, I found some similar questions which didn't happen to answer my particular case, or the solution involved conflicts with mods that I don't have.

 

I think I have some kind of tree LOD / billboard mismatch?  E.G. when walking around, distant trees will regularly "pop" from one type of tree to another.  Here you can see the distant tree LOD / billboard, but then it pops to this as soon as I take a step.

 

Obviously I did something wrong, but am struggling to pin down exactly what.  I had read the included manual earlier, and following the installation video.  The only mods which I imagine would be a factor is Skyrim Flora Overhaul, and I added the relevant Vurt SFO LOD Billboards along with the Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards.  I made sure both are version 1.91 (version 2+ says it needs a powerful computer).  I also made sure that in Mod Organizer, the order in the mods list goes High Res Texture Packs > Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards > Skyrim Flora Overhaul > Vurts SFO LOD Billboards, with DynDOLOD Resources > DynDOLOD Textures > DynDOLOD Output at the bottom of the list.  

 

I figure either I messed up some preliminary step, or there's a chance some other mod is interfering, but I'm not sure which it would be.

 

Modwatch link

System specs:  

•  Skyrim (non-Special Edition) on Steam with all DLC
•  Using Elder Scrolls V: Mod Organizer
•  Lenovo Y70 laptop  
•  Nvidia GTX 860M graphics card
•  Windows 8.1  64bit
•  CPU: Intel i7-4710  
•  Memory: 8GB  

Edited November 10, 2016 by Xen0nex

[sheson]

 

Hello, sorry if this is a simple question, but after reading around and searching, I found some similar questions which didn't happen to answer my particular case, or the solution involved conflicts with mods that I don't have.

 

I think I have some kind of tree LOD / billboard mismatch?  E.G. when walking around, distant trees will regularly "pop" from one type of tree to another.  Here you can see the distant tree LOD / billboard, but then it pops to this as soon as I take a step.

 

Obviously I did something wrong, but am struggling to pin down exactly what.  I had read the included manual earlier, and following the installation video.  The only mods which I imagine would be a factor is Skyrim Flora Overhaul, and I added the relevant Vurt SFO LOD Billboards along with the Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards.  I made sure both are version 1.91 (version 2+ says it needs a powerful computer).  I also made sure that in Mod Organizer, the order in the mods list goes High Res Texture Packs > Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards > Skyrim Flora Overhaul > Vurts SFO LOD Billboards, with DynDOLOD Resources > DynDOLOD Textures > DynDOLOD Output at the bottom of the list.  

 

See if this post helps you

Edited November 11, 2016 by sheson

[Xen0nex]

See if this post helps you

Thanks, it definitely got me several steps forward!  I was able to record several of the "problematic" trees, and find their corresponding MODL filenames in xEdit.  I was even able to pull up a Nif of one, but to my untrained eyes, it doesn't really seem to resemble either the in-game tree model or the in-game billboard for the tree, so I'm not exactly sure what to take away from that...

 

The TES5Edit_log.txt I opened didn't have any ".dds" filenames in it, so I just searched my mod files for the same tree FormID to find the .dds files.  From that, it seems like the game is correctly displaying the billboards from Skyrim Flora Overhaul, which is what I want, but for whatever reason the actual in-game tree models don't match the billboards provided by the Vurt SFO Billboards file.

 

Here is an image gallery of all I found out for that particular tree.  Oddly, for that particular tree, in xEdit when looking up the FormID for the full model of the tree, it lists both Skyrim.esm and SFO - Expanded Diversity.esm (from Skyrim Flora Overhaul), even though that tree does display the Vurt SFO LOD Billboards, not the Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards.  However, the other 4 types of problematic trees I looked up in xEdit only show Skyrim.esm alone, so I'm not sure what to think.  

 

Would the conclusion be that some other mod is altering the in-game tree models to no longer match the supplied LOD Billboards?

[Jakolanten]

Does making mountain set to Never Fade Full eliminate the z-fighting?

[sheson]

Thanks, it definitely got me several steps forward!  I was able to record several of the "problematic" trees, and find their corresponding MODL filenames in xEdit.  I was even able to pull up a Nif of one, but to my untrained eyes, it doesn't really seem to resemble either the in-game tree model or the in-game billboard for the tree, so I'm not exactly sure what to take away from that...

 

The TES5Edit_log.txt I opened didn't have any ".dds" filenames in it, so I just searched my mod files for the same tree FormID to find the .dds files.  From that, it seems like the game is correctly displaying the billboards from Skyrim Flora Overhaul, which is what I want, but for whatever reason the actual in-game tree models don't match the billboards provided by the Vurt SFO Billboards file.

 

Here is an image gallery of all I found out for that particular tree.  Oddly, for that particular tree, in xEdit when looking up the FormID for the full model of the tree, it lists both Skyrim.esm and SFO - Expanded Diversity.esm (from Skyrim Flora Overhaul), even though that tree does display the Vurt SFO LOD Billboards, not the Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards.  However, the other 4 types of problematic trees I looked up in xEdit only show Skyrim.esm alone, so I'm not sure what to think.  

 

Would the conclusion be that some other mod is altering the in-game tree models to no longer match the supplied LOD Billboards?

The log is written to DynDOLOD\Logs\DynDOLOD_log.txt in the latest version. That changed in a recent version.

 

Only the last overwrite (most right plugin) for a tree matters. So if SFO overwrites a vanilla tree record only its data matters. Most likely SFO overwrites the vanilla nif file as well in addition to updating its data.

 

The last overwrite of a billboard dds file for a tree is the texture that is used for the tree LOD texture atlas that is created to the output folder Textures\Terrain\Tamriel\Trees\TamrielTreeLod.dds.

 

So, if the correct billboard is in that atlas the only way tree LOD can not match is, if the created tree LOD / atlas is overwritten by a mod.

 

 

Does making mountain set to Never Fade Full eliminate the z-fighting?

No. z-fighting is 2 different models occupying the same space. Their number of triangles does not change that.

[Jakolanten]

I am only running a core i3 6100 and I DynDOLOD is not responding due to LODGEN.exe, which in my understanding is responsible for creating static lods,  running at multiple instances. My solution to this problem would be to generate only static LODs first(unchecking Generate DynDOLOD option) for only one world, for example Tamriel, then when it is finished i will restart it then generate for another world, for example Sovngarde. Rinse and repeat. Then when all static objects are finished I will restart dyndolod then only generate DynDOLOD leaving generate STATIC LOD unchecked. Can you please tell me if I am doing this is right? 

[sheson]

I am only running a core i3 6100 and I DynDOLOD is not responding due to LODGEN.exe, which in my understanding is responsible for creating static lods,  running at multiple instances. My solution to this problem would be to generate only static LODs first(unchecking Generate DynDOLOD option) for only one world, for example Tamriel, then when it is finished i will restart it then generate for another world, for example Sovngarde. Rinse and repeat. Then when all static objects are finished I will restart dyndolod then only generate DynDOLOD leaving generate STATIC LOD unchecked. Can you please tell me if I am doing this is right? 

If DynDOLOD.exe hangs with 0% CPU for a long time, set FasterBase=0 or FasterCreate=0 in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_TES5.ini depending on which part in the process it happens. Regardless of CPU, multitasking (the execution of several programs at the same time) should always work in windows even if slow or not many cores exist.

 

Otherwise try to generate all LOD for a worldspace at a time. But yes, it also works to generate static LOD in first pass, and dynamic LOD in a second pass for the same worldspace.

[dunc001]

OK, so I was tired last night and I f'd up.  I finished updating a couple of city and retexture mods and without thinking deleted and reran Texgen and DynDOLOD without following the update procedure in game :(  Can I follow the process of disabling in MCM/interior cell/save/remove/load/save/load/reactivate using the newly generated esp and get the same result?  Or is there anything else I should do?  All I changed was a mod that completely retextures Solitude, and one that adds a load more snow in Windhelm (different meshes for buildings, etc).  In game I am currently nowhere near either of these places, although my last save made is in the main Tamriel worldspace. Any advice would be most welcome.

[sheson]

OK, so I was tired last night and I f'd up.  I finished updating a couple of city and retexture mods and without thinking deleted and reran Texgen and DynDOLOD without following the update procedure in game :(  Can I follow the process of disabling in MCM/interior cell/save/remove/load/save/load/reactivate using the newly generated esp and get the same result?  Or is there anything else I should do?  All I changed was a mod that completely retextures Solitude, and one that adds a load more snow in Windhelm (different meshes for buildings, etc).  In game I am currently nowhere near either of these places, although my last save made is in the main Tamriel worldspace. Any advice would be most welcome.

Go inside a building. Save. Start game without esp. Load last save game. Wait. Save. Start game with new esp. Should work. If not clean the save made after removing esp.

 

Read the section "Update Texture Atlas" in the TexGen manual how to update LOD texture atlas for the existing LOD without redoing the whole esp.

[dunc001]

Go inside a building. Save. Start game without esp. Load last save game. Wait. Save. Start game with new esp. Should work. If not clean the save made after removing esp.

 

Read the section "Update Texture Atlas" in the TexGen manual how to update LOD texture atlas for the existing LOD without redoing the whole esp.

Thanks, I'll give it a try tonight.  I'll also read the TexGen manual, but now that you've made the whole process so much quicker it's really easy to just be lazy and run the whole thing :P

Edited November 15, 2016 by dunc001

[Rebel47]

I did a search through this topic for anything pertaining to Summerset isle and couldn't find it so I'll ask here, I'm using it in my load order will I need the tree lod from TES5LODGEN mod page or is that now covered in DynDOLOD ?

 

I would love to know before i proceed further with my DynDOLOD installation.

[sheson]

I did a search through this topic for anything pertaining to Summerset isle and couldn't find it so I'll ask here, I'm using it in my load order will I need the tree lod from TES5LODGEN mod page or is that now covered in DynDOLOD ?

 

I would love to know before i proceed further with my DynDOLOD installation.

Mods which are not listed in the Compatibility section of the manual are not specifically supported.

 

DynDOLOD includes no billboards (or almost none) as it just uses the TES5LODGen tree LOD generation. Any sets of billboards for mods I created are uploaded to the TES5LODGen page on nexus as well.

So just follow the installation instructions:

 

Install Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards from TES5LODGen or Indistinguishable Vanilla Tree Billboards and let them overwrite any DynDOLOD Resources files. Then overwrite with any LOD Billboards for mods in the the load order.

[Rebel47]

Much appreciated, I was following an "old" video of Gamerpoets on DynDOLOD and it didn't mention summerset and it seems I had a silly moment where I forget to check the written instructions, thank you nonetheless

Edited November 15, 2016 by Rebel47