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By sheson
This is a beta of [FNV|FO3|FO4|FO4VR|TES5|SSE|TES5VR|ENDERAL|ENDERALSE]LODGen/Edit with terrain LOD meshes and textures generation.
This is for experienced mod authors and users that know how to use xEdit, xLODGen or DynDOLOD already.
Installation and Setup
Download
xLODGen beta 94 - based on 4.1.4b
Unzip into a dedicated folder outside of any Steam, game or mod manager folders or special Windows folders like Program Files.
Rename xLODGen.exe to [game mode]LODGen.exe (TES5LODGen.exe for example) or start with command line parameter -fnv, -fo3, -fo4, -fo4vr, -tes5, tes5vr, -sse, -enderal, -enderalse
Use -o:"c:\OutputPath\" command line parameter to change where files are generated to, default is the game folder. Then install output as a mod.
Do not generate into any game, any mod manager folders or special Windows folder like Program Files x86.
Requirements
Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019 - Required by LODGen.exe/LODGenx64.exe and Texconv.exe/Texconvx64.exe. Get matching platform x86/x64 depending on which xLODGen.exe (x86) or xLODGenx64.exe (x64) is used.
RTFM and Share Results
See the included Skyrim-Occlusion-Readme.txt for a brief explanation of the Skyrim TVDT Occlusion data generation. Read the hints that are shown when the mouse pointer rests on a setting. Ask specific questions or give feedback in the dedicated Skyrim TVDT - Occlusion Data thread.
See the included Terrain-LOD-Readme.txt for a brief explanation of the settings for terrain LOD generation. Read the hints that are shown when the mouse pointer rests on a setting. Ask specific questions about terrain LOD in this thread for a more in-depth explanation if required and share feedback (with screenshots) about results or problems.
These tools generate LOD meshes and textures "exactly" like CK, but not like the meshes and textures which are shipping with the games (they are often manually edited).
However, these tools provide more options and higher resolutions (use the x64 version if there are memory errors because you believe you require 4k or higher) and can be updated to add more useful features and options.
I did some testing in the different games, but finding the best combinations of options and settings requires lots of testing and are a matter of personal opinion and which game is used, the load order, mods, even different worldspaces probably.
That means, I am only able to give generic guidelines and hints to send you off to find and test for yourself and share your results. My main interested is that generations works correctly and without problems for now.
Check out the thread xLODGen Terrain Settings Compare. Also refer to any modding guide which has a list of relevant mods close to your load order.
The object and tree LOD generation is the same as the current versions of xEdit / xLODGen. Refer to their respective descriptions and explanations.
Obviously, users of Skryim/Enderal/Skyrim SE/Skyrim VR/EnderalSE continue to use the easier and more comprehensive DynDOLOD for drastically improved object and tree LOD generation and only use xLODGen for terrain LOD (and maybe Occlusion) generation.
First Time
Here are suggestion to start without going crazy and that should be quick enough to generate:
Set quality of meshes for LOD4 to 5 and then +5 for each next level. Or just set levels 8/16/32 to 10.
Check protect cell borders (yes it fixes the ugly terrain drops at outer cell borders that still exist in Fallout 4).
Use the max vertices setting only if you want to hard limit max file size.
In Skyrim Special Edition or Skyrim VR, if you notice terrain briefly flickering when new areas are loading in, set [Display] bEnableLandFade=0 in Skyrim.INI
Set Optimize Unseen to off for LOD4 for first generation. Start experimenting with a value of 550 with a quality setting of 10 or lower for LOD32 (used for map) and compare coastlines and file size to other settings.
To quickly generate terrain LOD meshes just for the map, check only terrain LOD Meshes, check the Specific Chunk checkbox and set drop down to 32. Leave SW fields empty for complete map or set SW cell coordinates to same values as a *.btr filename to test a specific area with lots of water, river etc.
Set texture sizes to 512 for a start. Larger sizes and large world spaces will take a considerable time (like 15 to 30 minutes or more easily). Each higher resolution means quadruple the work.
Use DXT1 for diffuse and 565 (DXT1 if on Windows 7) for normal maps. If generating for Skyrim Special Edition and VRAM is not of concern use BC7. Uncheck mipmaps, raise steepness and Bake normal maps.
For now, leave the Brightness, Contrast and Gamma at 0 and 1.0 respectively. It seems that only Skyrim CK and Skyrim SE CK are manipulating the intensity of the textures to adjust for the noise.dds and the god awful "improved" snow shader of Skyrim SE (just turn that thing off, really). If textures seem too dark in the game, brighten the noise.dds instead or vice versa. That way you can get perfectly matching LOD textures that look just like the textures in the loaded cells. For Skyrim a good average color of the noise texture seems to be around #C0. See below for a couple noise texture downloads.
If you want to test larger texture sizes, use the chunk option to limit the number of textures that need to be generated. For example, check [x] Specific chunk, leave the drop down empty and set WS to the lower left cell coordinate of an 32x32 area, like 0, 0. It will then generate all textures up to 31,31. Not all worldspaces have their origin at 0,0 so you will have to check already generated meshes/texture filenames for their lower left coordinates.
Questions and Feedback
Obliviously anything related to terrain LOD should be posted in this thread.
Posts related to Occlusion should be made here.
Recommended Optionals
TES5-Terrain-Tamriel.esm (Mega), SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm (Mega)
TES5-Terrain-Tamriel-Extend.esm (Mega), SSE-Terrain-Tamriel-Extend.esm (Mega) - These extend the sea of ghost further to the north (see screenshots)
SSE-Terrain-Tamriel-Full-Extend.esm (Mega) - Entire map from -96,-96 to 95,96 with northern ocean extension. Useful for mod authors.
Put in game data folder obviously. Adds back terrain for Skyrim (Tamriel worldspace) at the outer edges so there is no missing terrain meshes/textures when generating terrain LOD for Skyrim.
Load as early with lowest priority as possible, so that any other plugins overwriting or adding land records or cells with the same coordinates take precedence.
Only required to be loaded when generating terrain LOD. No harm done when loaded in-game but typically the player can not get close to these areas. There are no effects outside the far away added cells.
Noise
Single color flat noise, Adjusted vanilla noise, HD Terrain Noise Texture SE
Examples for Skyrim. Install to game folder like any other texture mod. The noise texture is applied in-game on top of terrain LOD textures, so no effect for LOD generation.
Only the red channel is used in case the textures is not a grey channel format. MipMaps are ignored. The textures is tiled 3x3 per LOD quad, e.g. for LOD level 4, the noise texture is repeated 3 times to cover 4 cells, for LOD level 8, the noise texture is repeated 3 times to cover 8 cells and so on.
Test-Terrain-Tamriel.7z
For testing terrain LOD distances. Plain color terrain LOD textures for Tamriel with coordinates for every LOD quad. Green for LOD 4, yellow for LOD8, blue for LOD 16 and red for LOD 32.
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A newer version of DynDOLOD is available
DynDOLOD 2.22/2.23/2.24/2.25/2.26/2.27 minor version update post | Major version update Post | Skyrim Special Edition
What’s New?
This update includes general performance and stability improvements for DynDOLOD.exe, TexGen.exe and LODGen.exe. See change log below for more info.
There is no need to update LOD generated by earlier versions just because the tools have been updated. See Full update post for 2.xx update instructions
TexGen.exe now offers changing the texture output formats for advanced users. Leave at default for typical use. To change the texture format of the texture atlases created by DynDOLOD.exe edit its INIs. See docs\DynDOLOD_TexGen.html for more info.
DynDOLOD.exe and LODGen.exe now offer to generate LOD Level 32 static object LOD without billboard trees, which can be used for the map. See docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html for more info.
All tools have been updated to support Skyrim SE. This is in beta and limited for obvious and well known reasons. It should only be used by experienced DynDOLOD users. See docs\DynDOLOD_Manual_SSE.html for more info. It explains the key differences and similarities, as well as the new features introduced by Skyrim SE and its bugs/problems.
Skyrim
Mods Requiring DynDOLOD
Enhanced Landscapes - Winter Edition - Includes billboards and LOD textures that need to overwrite vanilla billboards and DynDOLOD Resources - Core Files textures. If LOD textures are generated with TexGen.exe, they should always overwrite everything else.
Winter Aspen Billboards
Verified working out of the box - added/updated meshes and/or textures
Helarchen Creek
Realistic Boat Bobbing
Skysight - Simply Bigger Trees - Billboards
Dragon Bridge
DynDOLOD 2.26 - Download from Mega | DynDOLOD 2.26 - Download from Mega
DynDOLOD Resources 2.22 for Skyrim - Download from Mega
DynDOLOD Resources SE 2.22 for Skyrim SE - Download from Mega
DynDOLOD Patches 2.23 for Skyrim - Download from Mega
[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.22]
General performance and stability improvements - for real
DynDOLOD.exe - fixed sometimes using wrong glow LOD when using original LOD assignments
DynDOLOD.exe - added RemoveUnseenZShift to ini for same setting in LODGen.exe export file
DynDOLOD.exe - added Level32 switch to ini for same switch in LODGen.exe export file, see docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html
DynDOLOD.exe - added FlatLODVertexColor to ini to set vertex color of flat LOD, see docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html
DynDOLOD.exe - added FlatLODColorVariance to ini to randomly change vertex color of flat LOD, see docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html
DynDOLOD.exe - added StaticLODDiffuseFormat, StaticLODNormalFormat, TreeLODDiffuseFormat and TreeLODNormalFormat to ini to set texture atlas formats
DynDOLOD.exe - added TreeLODAverageColor to ini to replace black transparent parts of billboards with the average tree color - works only with alpha channel output formats
DynDOLOD.exe - added TreeLODBackgroundTexture to ini to replace black transparent parts of billboards with a texture - works only with alpha channel output formats
DynDOLOD.exe - shrink normal map texture atlas to 4x4 pixels if all pixels are identical
DynDOLOD.exe - added beta support for SSE, start with -SSE command line argument
DynDOLOD.exe - added a check to verify DynDOLOD Resources for the current game mode are installed
TexGen.exe - sync updates with DynDOLOD.exe
TexGen.exe - added output format options for diffuse and normal textures
TexGen.exe - fixed cases of not consequently using lowercase for comparisons
TexGen.exe - added generation for riftenstonewall02lod.dds
TexGen.exe - added generation for tundradriftwoodbark01lod.dds
TexGen.exe - fixed generation of rubblepilelod.dds
TexGen.exe - fixed generation of fxdirtmound01lod.dds
TexGen.exe - removed the need for temp files in game data folder
TexGen.exe - added beta support for SSE, start with -SSE command line argument
TexGen.exe - added fallback to Texconv.exe for reading in case DDS format is not natively supported
Texconv.exe - new - custom silent version, prints errors only
LODGen.exe - added support reading SSE LOD nif
LODGen.exe - added export Mode=SSE
LODGen.exe - added support for BSA version 0x69
LODGen.exe - added lz4 decompression
LODGen.exe - added GameMode=textureslist to generate a list of textures with UV in between atlas tolerance
LODGen.exe - added command line parameter gamemode to overwrite gamemode in export file
LODGen.exe - updated lz4 package to latest version
LODGen.exe - better error message in case required Redistributable is missing
LODGen.exe - added Level32=True, uses *.nif from LOD level 16 if 4th entry is not set to create LOD Level 32 bto
LODGen.exe - added RemoveUnseenZShift=[float] to adjust terrain height when removing unseen faces
LODGen.exe - added vertex color support for flat LOD, column 8 and 9 in FlatTextures file
LODGen.exe - some minor speed improvements and clean up
LODGen.exe - use assembly version in log
DynDOLOD_Manual.html - all docs updated for new game mode
DynDOLOD_Manual_SSE.html - new
DynDOLOD-Shortcut.txt - new
DynDOLOD-Trees.html - added info about static object LOD level 32 for map
DynDOLOD-Trees.html - added info for vertex colors for 2D tree LOD in static LOD for Skyrim SE
DynDOLOD Resources - updated/added meshes/textures for better compatibility with mods
DynDOLOD Resources SE - new - meshes in new Skyrim SE format - removed options/assets that currently do not apply to Skyrim SE
DynDOLOD Patches - fixed a typo in Wizard.txt
[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.23]
DynDOLOD.exe - fixed some default INI settings
DynDOLOD Patches - update Beyond Reach billboards to be also for arnima.esm
[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.24]
DynDOLOD.exe - check LODGen log and write result to DynDOLOD log, so it is more obvious if something went wrong
LODGen.exe - fixed error reading BSTriShapes with no vertices/triangles
LODGen.exe - apply UVScale and UVOffset shader values to model before merging
[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.25]
DynDOLOD.exe - fixed a memory corruption sometimes causing nasty things
DynDOLOD.exe - fixed an error trying to check a non existing LODGen log
LODGen.exe - fixed FO4 export mode not working correctly
LODGen.exe - updated lz4 package and supporting libraries to latest version
[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.26]
LODGen.exe - fixed a crash caused by a missing serialization
[spoiler=Changelog DynDOLOD 2.27]
DynDOLOD.exe - fixed trying to check LODGen logfile after wait times out
DynDOLOD.exe - fixed not reading billboard txt file from BSA
LODGen.exe - updated lz4 package and supporting libraries to latest version
LODGen.exe - fixed sometimes not reading BA2 files correctly
See Full update post for full changelog, fully detailed update instructions and updated compatibility information for Skyrim mods.
DynDOLOD 2.21
Skryim typos may be intentional as long as Skyrim SE has severe visual and game breaking bugs
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