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

[Soulmancer]

Bethesda is not really in the habit of fixing bugs and I doubt they will address that one either.

 

Not sure way I have to copy and paste from the manual again and again:

With TexGen.exe most but not all object LOD source textures can be generated from the full textures in the current load order.

 

It is obvious that terrain LOD texture generation does not matter to TexGen or object LOD texture generation or vice versa.

Is BC7 quick or max not a suitable option for normals in SE win 7/win 10 ?  Since that is what I am using for diffuse.  But in your recommendation you only mention 565 (windows 10) or DXT5 (windows 7)

[sheson]

Is BC7 quick or max not a suitable option for normals in SE win 7/win 10 ?  Since that is what I am using for diffuse.  But in your recommendation you only mention 565 (windows 10) or DXT5 (windows 7)

 

Read my my suggestions for first time tests more carefully:

 

Use DXT1 for diffuse and 565 (DXT5 if on Windows 7) for normal maps. If generating for Skyrim Special Edition use BC7.

 

This has also been discussed https://forum.step-project.com/topic/13451-xlodgen-terrain-lod-beta-for-fnv-fo3-fo4-fo4vr-tes5-sse-tes5vr-enderal/page-34?p=233697&do=findComment&comment=233697

 

As I keep suggesting: Test yourself what works best for the game, load order and hardware you are using.

[Soulmancer]

Read my my suggestions for first time tests more carefully:

 

Use DXT1 for diffuse and 565 (DXT5 if on Windows 7) for normal maps. If generating for Skyrim Special Edition use BC7.

 

This has also been discussed https://forum.step-project.com/topic/13451-xlodgen-terrain-lod-beta-for-fnv-fo3-fo4-fo4vr-tes5-sse-tes5vr-enderal/page-34?p=233697&do=findComment&comment=233697

 

As I keep suggesting: Test yourself what works best for the game, load order and hardware you are using.

Sorry I do understand now, I will run then both bc7.

 

I was reading about your brightness settings (recommended 0) if too dark you suggest to brighten the noise.dds itself rather then adjusting brightness settings + to compensate...

 

Cathedral Landscapes recommends +8 to brightness when generating terrain lods... from my understanding this would be because their included noise.dds is too dark?

[sheson]

Sorry I do understand now, I will run then both bc7.

 

I was reading about your brightness settings (recommended 0) if too dark you suggest to brighten the noise.dds itself rather then adjusting brightness settings + to compensate...

 

Cathedral Landscapes recommends +8 to brightness when generating terrain lods... from my understanding this would be because their included noise.dds is too dark?

If you have questions about third party mods or instructions you need to ask their author.

[SirArlen123]

Hi im new to xLODGen, i've generated some terrain and most of the place look good except for Morthal Swamp. I followed Lexy's guide on xLODGen parameters but it ended up looking like this https://imgur.com/a/Y622cij . Can someone help me? 

[sheson]

Hi im new to xLODGen, i've generated some terrain and most of the place look good except for Morthal Swamp. I followed Lexy's guide on xLODGen parameters but it ended up looking like this https://imgur.com/a/Y622cij . Can someone help me? 

That swamp looks like either Optimize Unseen is too low or the Quality setting is too high (lower values = better visual quality) for LOD level 32.

Try 5 for Quality with Optimize Unseen 550.

[SirArlen123]

That swamp looks like either Optimize Unseen is too low or the Quality setting is too high (lower values = better visual quality) for LOD level 32.

Try 5 for Quality with Optimize Unseen 550.

It look great now, thanks

[MrSnakestone]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask for help, but it's the only one relevant to my issue:

 

This is a weird issue that started up yesterday. I wanted to generate some LODs for a town mod I was testing. Now everything generated fine and I could get ingame, but I forgot to disable a mod that if lods are generated for will cause a floating glacier above whiterun fields near 0,0. So I had to redo my LODs again, no big deal I've done it many times before, but this time I got a invalid lodsetting file error. First time I ever got this, but I didn't pay it much mind and used the LODs that were generated. This caused me to CTD. So I deleted the LODs via MO2, and no I checked my overwrite folder and there's no LOD files in it, and generated the LODs again. After a few attempts and a post on SSELodGens page I got LODs to generate without the error, but I crashed again. The crash happens when the loading screen is about to transition into me actually being in the game. I tried everything, disabled mods, enabled mods, generated LODs and tried many new saves and coc qasmoke, but I still CTD'd. I thought my issue was Animated Armory, but even with that gone I still CTD with SSELodGen LODs enabled in my mod list. If I try to play the game without generated LODs I have floating half aspen trees all over the place. I'm at a loss on what to do and try, anyone got any advice or help.

[sheson]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask for help, but it's the only one relevant to my issue:

 

This is a weird issue that started up yesterday. I wanted to generate some LODs for a town mod I was testing. Now everything generated fine and I could get ingame, but I forgot to disable a mod that if lods are generated for will cause a floating glacier above whiterun fields near 0,0. So I had to redo my LODs again, no big deal I've done it many times before, but this time I got a invalid lodsetting file error. First time I ever got this, but I didn't pay it much mind and used the LODs that were generated. This caused me to CTD. So I deleted the LODs via MO2, and no I checked my overwrite folder and there's no LOD files in it, and generated the LODs again. After a few attempts and a post on SSELodGens page I got LODs to generate without the error, but I crashed again. The crash happens when the loading screen is about to transition into me actually being in the game. I tried everything, disabled mods, enabled mods, generated LODs and tried many new saves and coc qasmoke, but I still CTD'd. I thought my issue was Animated Armory, but even with that gone I still CTD with SSELodGen LODs enabled in my mod list. If I try to play the game without generated LODs I have floating half aspen trees all over the place. I'm at a loss on what to do and try, anyone got any advice or help.

Are you using an older MO2 version and/or forgot to set a dedicated output folder with -o as recommended on the first post? The lodsetting or single object LOD source textures being corrupted happened quite a bit earlier last year. But with the regular MO updates all reports died down.

 

In any case, create or install a valid lodsettings files again. Update to latest MO2 and latest xLODGen. Remove all generated LOD files from meshes/terrain and textures/terrain.

 

Generate LOD with -o into a dedicated folder. If it complains about not being able to read textures, install those again as well until there are no errors.

Then install the output as a mod in MO.

 

If there are still problems in the game then first temporary remove tree LOD in meshes\terrain\[worldspace name]\trees, then meshes\terrain\[worldspace name]\objects, then the terrain LOD *.BTR  in meshes\terrain\[worldspace name].

 

Once yo know which LOD type causes the problem, do the usual temporary remove half testing until you are down to only one or a handful files causing the problem.

 

Check them in NifSkope for errors or upload them for me to test.

Edited March 3, 2020 by sheson

[MrSnakestone]

Are you using an older MO2 version and/or forgot to set a dedicated output folder with -o as recommended on the first post? The lodsetting or single object LOD source textures being corrupted happened quite a bit earlier last year. But with the regular MO updates all reports died down.

 

In any case, create or install a valid lodsettings files again. Update to latest MO2 and latest xLODGen. Remove all generated LOD files from meshes/terrain and textures/terrain.

 

Generate LOD with -o into a dedicated folder. If it complains about not being able to read textures, install those again as well until there are no errors.

Then install the output as a mod in MO.

 

If there are still problems in the game then first temporary remove tree LOD in meshes\terrain\[worldspace name]\trees, then meshes\terrain\[worldspace name]\objects, then the terrain LOD *.BTR  in meshes\terrain\[worldspace name].

 

Once yo know which LOD type causes the problem, do the usual temporary remove half testing until you are down to only one or a handful files causing the problem.

 

Check them in NifSkope for errors or upload them for me to test.

I was running an old version of MO2. I updated that and updated xLODGen to the newest version. I did my LODs and didn't get any errors, but now I CTD even faster.

[sheson]

I was running an old version of MO2. I updated that and updated xLODGen to the newest version. I did my LODs and didn't get any errors, but now I CTD even faster.

There are probably still corrupt meshes or textures in the load order.

 

In addition to what I already suggested how to find the problematic LOD mesh, maybe install .Net Script Framework first. Its crash log might actually mention the corrupt file directly.

Edited March 3, 2020 by sheson

[MrSnakestone]

There are probably still corrupt meshes or textures in the load order.

 

In addition to what I already suggested how to find the problematic LOD mesh, maybe install .Net Script Framework first. Its crash log might actually mention the corrupt file directly.

So I removed the files from tamriel's folder and was able to get into the game. Everything was messed up, as expected, but no crash. So I tested it with another worldspace and I crashed. So is it tamriel's meshes that are corrupted? Do you mind taking a look at them?

 

https://mega.nz/#!VyISFITJ!Dn446s6JGxeTUX_4Vr0aUtcTzZv4e2AGPjy7QtXb16Y

 

Also I tried .net script but it didn't give me a crash log.

 

Edit: I went back in and coc'd to Raven Rock and CTD'd, so Solstheim's LODs must be corrupt too.

Edited March 3, 2020 by MrSnakestone

[sheson]

So I removed the files from tamriel's folder and was able to get into the game. Everything was messed up, as expected, but no crash. So I tested it with another worldspace and I crashed. So is it tamriel's meshes that are corrupted? Do you mind taking a look at them?

 

https://mega.nz/#!VyISFITJ!Dn446s6JGxeTUX_4Vr0aUtcTzZv4e2AGPjy7QtXb16Y

 

Also I tried .net script but it didn't give me a crash log.

 

Edit: I went back in and coc'd to Raven Rock and CTD'd, so Solstheim's LODs must be corrupt too.

Not sure why you can't do the basic troubleshooting by eliminating half of the meshes each step yourself?

 

I can load into Tamriel just fine with the meshes and textures you sent me.

 

That is most likely because not all the textures used by the LOD meshes aere part of the archive you uploaded.

 

It seems that object LOD atlas generation was not checked, so the object LOD meshes use a lot of texture directly.

 

One or more of those textures might be corrupt, may have an unsupported compression format or may have a resolution that is not of 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 etc.

 

Generate xLODGen to generate an object LOD texture atlas. Make sure there are no error messages in the log.

Edited March 3, 2020 by sheson

[BlackOncilla]

Hi sheson, I have got a question concerning the terrain generation. Whenever I generate LOD with xLODGen the terrain looks much darker than the foreground. If I use the noise textures and brighten it or generate the lod with a higher brightness setting, so that the ground looks bright enough, other parts of the landscape that I don't want to change also get brighter. I noticed that the grass mod that I am using is somehow covering all of the nearby landscape. Would it be somehow possible to use the grass texture to generate certain parts of the terrain so that there is a smooth transition between the nearby grass and distant terrain? It is very noticeable when riding through the countryside and is not very immersive. Here are some pictures:

 

 

Thank you in advance and thanks for the great tool!

[sheson]

Hi sheson, I have got a question concerning the terrain generation. Whenever I generate LOD with xLODGen the terrain looks much darker than the foreground. If I use the noise textures and brighten it or generate the lod with a higher brightness setting, so that the ground looks bright enough, other parts of the landscape that I don't want to change also get brighter. I noticed that the grass mod that I am using is somehow covering all of the nearby landscape. Would it be somehow possible to use the grass texture to generate certain parts of the terrain so that there is a smooth transition between the nearby grass and distant terrain? It is very noticeable when riding through the countryside and is not very immersive. Here are some pictures:

 

 

Thank you in advance and thanks for the great tool!

 

As explained and discussed in this thread several times already, the combined terrain LOD textures look exactly as the full textures in the loaded cells - as long as the "improved" snow shader is disabled.

 

Grass is not textures but 3D models. For now you have to manually change landscape texture to simulate grass as Terrain LOD Redone and Cathedral Landscapes do. Some kind of grass baking is tested, but I did not have much time for it so far.

Edited March 9, 2020 by sheson