Ultra Trees Tutorial

[TechAngel85]

Sheson,

 

I'm curious if you've ever completed the video tutorial you've linked for ultra trees:

 

I've been attempting to get it working properly, however, the LOD is off for at least a few pine trees. Rather it's not there because I still have trees fading in without displaying the LOD model. I've followed the video to the nail and have been back over it multiple times. I've also gone through the text file provided by EVT for 3D trees and have used the settings that author suggests. Nothing seems to be resolving the tree fade-in that I'm experiencing. This is near and far LOD that the issue is presenting itself for. So far, it's just the non-snowy pine trees.

 

I've tested the Borealis and the Bent Pines. They seem to working as expected with LOD.

 

I will say that I've made a few changes from the video.

• I have Indistinguishable Billboards overwriting DynDOLOD Resources, but have tried generating both way without resolution to the issue.
• Borealis has been placed at the bottom of the listed mods (just for alphabetical ordering)
• I skipped the Oaks mod because I didn't feel like converting the plugin.
• I've skipped the TreePineForestSnowL03/04 files from SFO because I don't care for the tall Scots Pines.
• I'm using 512 for TexGen (not tried 1024 yet) and have tried multiple settings for altases in DynDOLOD, no difference in the issue.
• I've used multiple options for EVT (and matched them for EVT Billboards), no difference in the issue.

Have you or anyone else gotten this process to work? This is being done for SSE, btw.

 

After I get home from work, I will try adding back in the Scots Pines to see if that is part of the issue.

[Joat_Mon]

Did this as described in the video except I used DynDOLOD 2.30 and the latest resources file, but I probably used the wrong resource file (maybe used from Skyrim, not SSE). I was only able to test for a few minutes before I had to leave for a trip out of town but my limited observation showed some trees appear to not have LOD. Also the contrast of some of the trees not having any wind motion when others do move is jarring. I also generated at 512. I use Wrye for my mod manager but used MO2 for the fomod for EVT.

 

Edited to correct version #

[sheson]

It is up to users to decide exactly which tree uses which full model from which mod. Obviously then each full model should have a matching 3D LOD tree and a matching billboard.

 

I can't really make any recommendations which single tree should be from which tree mods - as long a well matching 3D LOD tree and billboard exists, this comes down to personal preference.

 

That is really all there is to it. If entire types of trees (base records) pop into existence, its missing 3D LOD model and billboard must be missing, both will be reported in the log.

 

If specific tree references pop into existence, it is because they require dynamic LOD which doesn't exist yet. Set the Is Full LOD flag on those trees if "LOD" is desired for them. That can either be done manually or with rules.

[TechAngel85]

There is no tree pop-in in the video so I'm assuming this should work fine in SSE, but there seems to be something off if two users are reporting the same issue of pop-in from the video guide. My gut tells me this is mod related...possibly EVT. I'll have to track down the specific tree(s) causing the issue and go from there...or track down the mod. Looks like I have some time-consuming work to do...about 20mins to run TexGen and DynDOLOD for all worldspaces for each test.

 

After checking the log...

[sheson]

If a tree has no LOD - 3D or billboard - the reasons I can think of are pretty straight forward and simple to check:

 

1) There is no LOD resource for that tree - 3D or billboard. All trees of this base record will have no LOD.

When generating traditional tree LOD, the log will tell you which tree records have no billboard.

When generating 3D LOD and a matching 3D LOD tree is not found it will print a line like "Tree replaced, looking for 3D LOD [...] using billboard instead" - so again, if the tree has no LOD at all, the billboard is missing in addition to 3D LOD version.

So whatever guide you use, 3D LOD or not, the required billboards are not installed.

 

2) A tree reference has settings like the XESP Enable Parent or Is Initially Disabled flag that prevents this particular tree to have tree or static LOD generated for it. Applies to Skyrim SE or if "Generate DynDOLOD" is not checked for Skyrim.

Click on full model, get form id, check in xEdit.

 

3) LOD was not yet generated for this load order or the generated LOD is not installed yet.

Edited September 7, 2017 by sheson

[TechAngel85]

I searched the logs and there were no "LOD not found" messages. Searching for "Tree replaced" finds a lot of, "Tree replaced, looking for 3D LOD [name here] using full model instead", but no "using billboard instead".
 
I'll hop into the game and get a few references for investigate further.
 

 

EDIT:
So it seems the only pine tree with LOD is TreePineForest03. TreePineForest01, TreePineForest02, and TreePineForest04 are the ones fading into view as you walk closer. None of the references I checked at the mentioned " XESP" or the "Initially Disabled" flag.
 
From the log for these assets:

[00:00:13.187]           new tree, looking for 3D LOD srg_treepineforest01_A39424BE using full model instead
[00:00:13.234]           new tree, looking for 3D LOD srg_treepineforest02_6D2B2484 using full model instead
[00:00:13.295]           Tree replaced, looking for 3D LOD treepineforest03_631CC02F using full model instead
[00:00:13.375]           new tree, looking for 3D LOD srg_treepineforest04_C4C86D1D using full model instead
[00:00:13.437]           new tree, looking for 3D LOD srg_treepineforest05_11950A60 using full model instead

EVT - Billboards mod is providing these files for these assets:

• srg_[name]_[id]passthru_lod.nif (for all files except treepineforest03)
• dyndolodtreelod.dds
• dyndolodtreelod_n.dds
• SRG_[name]_[id].dds (for all files except treepineforest03)
• SRG_[name]_[id].txt (for all files, including treepineforest03)

 

EDIT:

For giggles I ran it with TreeFullFallBack set back to 0. No change.

[sheson]

If the user set TreeFullFallBack=1 in the ini, then it is not only looking for billboards but also for full models to fall back on for the required LOD level.

In that case, if the the entire tree group (base record) has no LOD in that LOD level, then maybe the full model can not be read/used by LODGen for whatever reason.

 

Check the export file ..DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\Export\LODGen_SSE_Tamriel.txt for the full nif name and then check the next 3 tabs (LOD4/8/16) defining either a nif (full or 3D LOD) or a billboard dds filenames. If you can not find the tree group mentioned at all, then it couldn't match any assets. Double check the LOD4 tab for which nif file is mentioned there and if it exists. I would expect that LOD8/16 should always have a billboard dds, unless you changed the tree rule.

 

BTW if EVT can not find its own matching 3D LOD models (srg_tree*), then either its required assets are not installed, or may be the Skyrim SE version is not fully converted yet. In that case use the Skryim version. For performance reasons you really want to use 3D LOD models over of full models.



>I ran it with TreeFullFallBack set back to 0. No change.

What did not change? The message did not change that it is falling back to billboards? In that case test with 2.26 or 2.27 maybe something happened to the code.
Did you generate traditional tree LOD once to check for the billboard found/not found messages?

 

In case of "new tree" (a new full model filename added/replaced by a mod) it should only fall back to full model if a billboard exists. Otherwise everything TREE would have full model LODs.

Edited September 7, 2017 by sheson

[TechAngel85]

No, change to the issue...still got pop-in. The message does changes that it's falling back to the billboards, so that seems to be working. I'm getting a suspicion that this being caused by EVT somehow.

 

I did get an application error my last run, but doubt it'll do you any good:

Application Error
Exception EAccessViolation in module DynDOLODx64.exe at 00000000008C9FC0.
Access violation address 0000000000CC9FC0 in module 'DynDOLODx64.exe'. Read of address 0000000000000240.

 

I'll likely remove EVT and run again when I get home from work to see if the issue goes away. If it does, I'll test out the Skyrim version instead of the SE version as suggested.

[TechAngel85]

This issue is definitely with EVT SSE. I changed the options I installed to custom trees and matched the billboards, reran TexGen and DynDOLOD, and half the issue was fixed. It seemed that only two models where popping in now. So I removed EVT SSE altogether and the issue was 100% fixed.

 

I went and grabbed EVT from classic Skyrim. Installed the mod via MO, archived the install and moved it to WB. Then I reran TexGen and DynDOLOD. The classic version of EVT seems to work perfectly fine besides there being a bit funky results from the hybrid trees with the lush option.

 

Granted these mod options didn't even work with the SSE version. So for reassurance, I re-downloaded the SSE version and redid the entire process again; selecting the same options that worked in the classic Skyrim version. The issues returned.

 

Without errors in the log, this seems to be something with the SSE version of the mod. I will see about getting this reported to the author.

[hishutup]

Something that I had observed with SSE is that the LOD works fine but as you creep closer, the LOD will disappear for some distance and then re-appear.

I forget what mod I was trying out but its was pretty weird, it was specific to SSE, the issue was not in oldrim.

Not sure if this is 100% relevant but there you go.

[sheson]

Sounds like the large reference engine bug. Turn the value to 5 and see if it makes a difference.

[TechAngel85]

I'm sorry, value? What value are you referring to?

[sheson]

Either move the slider Large Object Distance in the launcher to the very left or set uLargeRefLODGridSize=5 in SkyrimPrefs.ini

 

You didn't describe which type of LOD objects? Any? Just trees? Also make sure the DynDOLOD.esp is loaded in case LOD was generated with it.

Edited September 11, 2017 by sheson

[TechAngel85]

DynDOLOD plugin was loaded after all generations. Well, the title is "Ultra Trees". Haha!

 

Yes, it's just the trees popping in, from what I've been able to tell and only the ones I've listed: https://forum.step-project.com/topic/12520-ultra-trees-tutorial/?p=207055

But that seems to change depending on the selections chosen in EVT SSE. EVT for classic Skyrim works as expected without issue.

[sheson]

My posts about the large references are in answer to hishutup.

 

Your case of of missing LOD assets is solved already :)

[TechAngel85]

Oh, okay. I was prepared to rerun it when I got home! Haha!