Tropical Skyrim Feedback

[Ewarre]

@Sheson Many many thanks again for this fantastic toy DynDoLOD.
I now have it playing nicely with my Tropical Skyrim and all the rest my mod collection, but it was a bit of a push to get there.

I made so many test runs I recon you are probably the only person who has done more DynDoLOD runs than me. :D  Even with a massive load order, a complete "Tamriel only" everything in run takes under 7 minutes, I am very impressed  with your tweaking !


I'm guessing you also did a run on TS as I got "tripped out" on having the TS-Birds ESP active, so I know others have gone before me. But there is a certain coastal palm tree [has 2 versions] that is a NIF swap on a STATic object that continually threw a double image while in LOD range, ie the TREE LOD image and your new generated LOD for STATic objects. If I removed its billboard then I got no LOD at all. I guess there was a way to turn off one of these via special rules, but was getting a bit tired and just as an experiment I did a quick tree only run using Zilav's TreeLod.exe and it was all good --- only the orthodox tree LOD was painted up, which became 3D as you approach.  So now I run your BTOs and Zilav's BTTs.
 
As a minor thing that you probably already know, the program LODGen.exe does not like special characters in the file path name. I have used the "=" prefix on several of my Steam Libraries since Windows XP and never had issue before, and I have used just about all the tools on NEXUS-Skyrim with no problems including TreeLod.exe.  
Depending on how you call LODGen, you can get a return code of 1 [or maybe it was -1 ?].
DynDoLOD will give "sucessfully completed" in its messages but without LODGen working it did not produce any BTOs, but naturally the BTTs & atlas files were all good. I only mention this here in case others have fallen victim to this, and maybe if you add it in your FAQs .... as in, do not do this.  :)
 

[Ewarre]

my bad, the 3rd para should read "TES5Edit build LOD [trees only]"   not   "Zilav's TreeLod.exe"

[sheson]

So now I run your BTOs and Zilav's BTTs.

 

DynDOLOD is using tree LOD generation of xEdit/TES5LODGen. If the same tree has tree LOD and 3D static LOD, there must be tree LOD files active that were not generated in the same run as 3D static LOD.

 

LODGen.exe is a c# program so whatever .NET 4.x supports. Using anything but a-z/0-9 minus or underscore in paths or filenames is just asking for trouble. The built-in command line parser from windows will probably fail unless things are properly quoted but even then it is brittle. The built-in ini parser where = is used to separate names and values will probably fail unless values are quoted. User errors like this will cause programs to fail.

Edited November 27, 2016 by sheson

[Ewarre]

Still digesting what you just said, .... my normal mode of operation is to rename old Trees-BTTs & Object-BTOs folders & move in the new as is.

[Ewarre]

another possible   ..... just had look and noticed the 2 palm trees have "has Distant LOD" flag , that is probably my doing from earlier fiddles

[sheson]

The same tree can not get 2D and 3D LOD in the same generation. Either tree LOD was generated earlier or later OR maybe the load order changed after tree LOD was generated, exposing an engine bug. The load order change can be as simple as changing the priority of an esp. But that engine bug is usually 2D LOD tree and full model in attached cells showing at the same time.

Edited November 27, 2016 by sheson

[Ewarre]

Thank you for your replies Sheson, I meant to reply sooner but RL overtook me.

On rechecking what I did as my fix, I realize I omitted something, I was also experimenting with the palms billboards. These 2 trees are the only 2 billboards inside "Tropical Skyrim.esp" within the LODGen folder. These palms are placed in the world as overrides to the vanilla static object CoastDriftWood01/2/3 on the "Placed Object" records in all applicable cell-blocks.  
 
I can opt for these two palms to have either regular tree LOD only, or your new static LOD only, or both at once. The best method was to run DynDoLOD with all billboards "in" then do a second tree LOD only run with the palms not "in" , so no standard tree LOD is generated for them leaving just your new static LOD which then changes seamlessly as you approach because they are already shown at the correct angle of lean.

Alternately to not have the palms billboards in for the initial DynDoLOD full run, then put then in for the second tree only run, leaves me just regular tree LOD for them. That is the palms are shown as straight, no lean, and clearly not as good as the first way.

If I'm doing it wrong, I honestly cannot see what that could be, every thing else is perfect and was so from the very first run, and to be honest I have my "fix" and am very grateful to you for DynDoLOD. I post this here as my "wrap up", and am content to move on rather than take up more of your time, however I remain ready to help however I can if you so wish.
 

[sheson]

Yes the vanilla tree LOD can only be straight up. The cut-off angle hardcoded into xEdit is 30 degrees, so if the tree itself is leaning more than that it won't be done as tree LOD, but typically as static LOD. I remember there are palmtrees that are in itself bendy. Those should probably always be done as 3D static LOD if performance/setup permits.

 

If you generate tree LOD again with different settings/setup, it will replace all old tree LOD. It can not merge. Trees not done as tree LOD but still matching mesh rules will be either done as 2D or 3D static LOD depending on settings and availability of a 3D LOD model.