xLODGen - Terrain LOD beta 128 for FNV, FO3, FO4, FO4VR, TES5, SSE, TES5VR, ENDERAL, ENDERALSE

[sheson]

Got an odd issue with the terrain meshes for DLC1HunterHQWorld and the DLC01FalmerValley, but the comment will only refer to the former. LOD water will show up in conjunction with the fully loaded water even when being very close, causing flickering. I don't think that is related to slowly loading terrain, as the terrain textures are correctly disappearing. 

 

I tried recreating the meshes with various options (optimize unseen on/off, protect borders on/off, quality settings from 0 to 10 for all LOD levels), but couldn't prevent the issue. There is only a very small spot with water in the DLC1HunterHQWorld (corresponding terrain mesh is dlc1hunterhqworld.4.-1.-5.btr). The issue is reproducable, i. e. the flickering will disappear when the created terrain meshes aren't present and vice versa.

Please check if xLODGen beta 18 fixes that for you in both worldspaces

[LoD7995]

Yes, everything works correctly now. Thanks for the quick response!

[sheson]

Yes, everything works correctly now. Thanks for the quick response!

Good to know, thx.

[David2408]

Hello fellows,

 

I had a nice time testing BETA 18 and I cannot stress enaugh how impressive the baked normal maps for distant terrain look. You can actually recognise the characteristics of the vast landscapes of Tamriel by looking at the normal maps. Awesome.

 

However, I also encountered an oddity. When creating 4K 565 compression LOD for [32, -32, 0], there was a tiny rectangle on the upper left of the normal map with some weird colouring and very sharp edges. It looked like diagonally aligned subpixels of an LCD lol. ^^

 

I could not find something like this on any other baked normal map.

[sheson]

Hello fellows,

 

I had a nice time testing BETA 18 and I cannot stress enaugh how impressive the baked normal maps for distant terrain look. You can actually recognise the characteristics of the vast landscapes of Tamriel by looking at the normal maps. Awesome.

 

However, I also encountered an oddity. When creating 4K 565 compression LOD for [32, -32, 0], there was a tiny rectangle on the upper left of the normal map with some weird colouring and very sharp edges. It looked like diagonally aligned subpixels of an LCD lol. ^^

 

I could not find something like this on any other baked normal map.

 

This is actually caused by messed up VNML Normal data in Update.esm of the Skyrim.esm version for the LAND records in the cells -16,25 and -16,26. Most of it is covered by Solitude ground meshes. When in the cells in game or in CK it is only visible when disabling those objects first.

 

You could create overwrites with the Update.esm LANDs and then drag and drop the original VNML data from Skyrim.esm to fix.

Edited May 14, 2018 by sheson

[David2408]

Thank you for the insight! I will try that now

[David2408]

Thank you for the insight! I will try that now

Okay, I honestly cannot find those entries.. Could you please give me some instructions what to click on in SSEEDIT? - that would be awesome!

Edited May 14, 2018 by David2408

[sheson]

Okay, I honestly cannot find those entries.. Could you please give me some instructions what to click on in SSEEDIT? - that would be awesome!

Press CTRL + Shift + F to start the Cell browser, enter the cell coordinates and change to Tamriel, click OK

 

In the left tree view, unfold the [+] CELL and [+] Temporary, the LANDscape entry should be the first listed.

 

In the right pane CTRL + left click onto the FormID field of the Update.esm column to update the left tree view from Skyrim.esm to Update.esm

 

In the left tree view, right click the LANDscape entry in Update.esm and select Copy as override into or select an existing plugin of your choice, for example SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm (I wouldn't use plugins that might get updates as by then you will have forgotten)

 

Once the right pane shows the new overwrite, drag and drop the contents of the VNML - Vertex Normals field from the Skyrim.esm to the plugin with the overwrite.

 

Repeat for other cells and then save.

Edited May 14, 2018 by sheson

[David2408]

Thank you very much, this will probably also be helpful for others trying tho fix this for Beth^^

 

Another thing, I somehow cannot up the maximum value for vertices, is this intentional? I would like to create one specific chunk with some higher quality settings to smooth out coast lines, but I seem to be reaching the vertix limit.

Edited May 14, 2018 by David2408

[sheson]

Thank you very much, this will probably also be helpful for others trying tho fix this for Beth^^

 

Another thing, I somehow cannot up the maximum value for vertices, is this intentional? I would like to create one specific chunk with some higher quality settings to smooth out coast lines, but I seem to be reaching the vertix limit.

The vertex limit is to make sure that nif file limits for a single shape are not exceeded as terrain LOD can not have multiple shapes like object LOD for example.

[David2408]

The vertex limit is to make sure that nif file limits for a single shape are not exceeded as terrain LOD can not have multiple shapes like object LOD for example.

I understand. 

 

Also, I can confirm that when setting Optimised Unseen 700, meshes start flickering in NifSkope and ingame. I thought higher Optimised Unseen values would result in less z-fighting, but for me, it is the opposite case when going for values higher than 650.

[sheson]

I understand. 

 

Also, I can confirm that when setting Optimised Unseen 700, meshes start flickering in NifSkope and ingame. I thought higher Optimised Unseen values would result in less z-fighting, but for me, it is the opposite case when going for values higher than 650.

Higher values means more and more original vertices of coast lines are kept, leaving less "space" (the nif limit for a single shape) for other "important" vertices that for overall good quality should probably not be removed; bumps in the terrain that are not coast line get flattened into larger triangles.

[David2408]

As a means of testing, could you please provide the neutral colour noise.dds you were talking about earlier? I use the Vanilla noise texture and my terrain looks too dark everywhere :/

[sheson]

As a means of testing, could you please provide the neutral colour noise.dds you were talking about earlier? I use the Vanilla noise texture and my terrain looks too dark everywhere :/

I added two versions to bottom of first post.

 

The flat version removes all noise, so the terrain LOD textures should match the loaded cell textures more or less exactly (it might be off by a nudge depending in lighting).

 

The modified vanilla version has only a very light effect.

Edited May 18, 2018 by sheson

[David2408]

To express my gratitude with a famous Oblivion phrase: "Thank you kind Sir" ^^

 

No, but seriously, xLODGEN + TexGen + DynDOLOD makes Skyrim look stunning.