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

[blessedmilkyway]

Looking at the shader it seems to do the the usual diffuse * color multiplication, which is what xLODGen does.

 

Regardless, beta 65 now has a Vertex Color Intensity option to control how much of the vertex color overlay is applied to the final texture. Maybe do a specific chunk with 0.8 and compare with your earlier screenshots.

Updating with new screenshots : it seems to happen only on LOD4 level. I've noticed it as well in mountains area where it shows also in the same way.

 

The LOD8 look great and consistent from afar with the fully loaded cell, the over darkening effect happens only on LOD4 then goes away again when the cell is loaded. So LOD8 is more correct to the fully loaded cell than LOD4 is.

 

(all settings in xLODgen regarding brightness/contrast and gamma are the same through all LOD levels)

 

Also looked into the beta 65 vertex colors but it seems the setting applies to all LOD levels, but this issue seems to be specific to LOD4 only, so not sure what is happening.

 

[sheson]

Updating with new screenshots : it seems to happen only on LOD4 level. I've noticed it as well in mountains area where it shows also in the same way.

 

The LOD8 look great and consistent from afar with the fully loaded cell, the over darkening effect happens only on LOD4 then goes away again when the cell is loaded. So LOD8 is more correct to the fully loaded cell than LOD4 is.

 

(all settings in xLODgen regarding brightness/contrast and gamma are the same through all LOD levels)

 

Also looked into the beta 65 vertex colors but it seems the setting applies to all LOD levels, but this issue seems to be specific to LOD4 only, so not sure what is happening.

 

 

What seems to happen on LOD level 4? LOD does not cast or receive shadows. xLODGen/DynDOLOD are LOD generators. They do not change how the engine works. Especially not how the engine fades full terrain and terrain LOD.

 

You seem to be confused what or where the attached cells are and what the LOD levels 4 and 8 are or where they start.

Type tll in console to turn off LOD. The terrain that is left are the attached cells. 

 

 

Of course the vertex color intensity applies to all LOD levels all the same.

Edited December 30, 2020 by sheson

[blessedmilkyway]

Looking at the shader it seems to do the the usual diffuse * color multiplication, which is what xLODGen does.

 

Regardless, beta 65 now has a Vertex Color Intensity option to control how much of the vertex color overlay is applied to the final texture. Maybe do a specific chunk with 0.8 and compare with your earlier screenshots.

Here's an update with different vertex settings on a specific junk.

 

0.01 gives the best result, literally negating the darkening effect (0 seems to do the same as vertex colors=1).

 

I'm going to render a full map see how it goes.

 

[sheson]

Here's an update with different vertex settings on a specific junk.

 

0.01 gives the best result, literally negating the darkening effect (0 seems to do the same as vertex colors=1).

 

I'm going to render a full map see how it goes.

 

These screenshot look like you are looking at the attached cell area - probably faded with terrain LOD texture diffuse Type tll to disable LOD. If the terrain stays it is loaded cells. 

 

That would explain why 0 * vertexcolor is still visible, because the terrain and dark spot is - at least in part - fully loaded terrain.

[blessedmilkyway]

These screenshot look like you are looking at the attached cell area - probably faded with terrain LOD texture diffuse Type tll to disable LOD. If the terrain stays it is loaded cells. 

 

That would explain why 0 * vertexcolor is still visible, because the terrain and dark spot is - at least in part - fully loaded terrain.

Yes it stays when doing console tll.

 

I did a full map 1K with vertex colors 0.01 and checked the most problematic areas and it did the trick. The blended part and the fully loaded cell are now consistent.

 

So what I was considering as LOD4 is not actually LOD4 but a blend between LOD4 and fully loaded cells?

 

Do you have ressources/articles that explains how LODs work in that regard?

 

The result is very good with vertex Colors = 0.01 so far.

Edited December 30, 2020 by blessedmilkyway

[sheson]

Yes it stays when doing console tll.

 

I did a full map 1K with vertex colors 0.01 and checked the most problematic areas and it did the trick. The blended part and the fully loaded cell are now consistent.

 

So what I was considering as LOD4 is not actually LOD4 but a blend between LOD4 and fully loaded cells?

 

Do you have ressources/articles that explains how LODs work in that regard?

 

The result is very good with vertex Colors = 0.01 so far.

 

 

The circular blending of full textures to terrain LOD diffuse texture has come a couple times on this forum. It is rather easy to spot, disable grass, tcl into the air, look straight down. Nothing can be really done about it. Eventually someone will hopefully update the shader and simply disable it (like it seems to be in Fallout).

Edited December 30, 2020 by sheson

[Stefan]

Does beta 65 automatically closes itself, or it crashed? This is the end of my log:

Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.52.60.btr [64/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.56.60.btr [64/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.60.60.btr [64/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.4.56.btr [8012/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.8.52.btr [16946/32]
Log ended at 3:46:07 AM (0:39)
Code: 0

Thank you.

[Stefan]

Also, how do I do a clean install? I have downloaded the 65 beta, removed everything inside the 64 folder, than unziped 65 in the same folder, but when I launch xLodgen through MO2, the 64 custom templates are still in the Terrain LOD4 LOD8, etc. 

 

Thank you.

[sheson]

Does beta 65 automatically closes itself, or it crashed? This is the end of my log:

Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.52.60.btr [64/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.56.60.btr [64/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.60.60.btr [64/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.4.56.btr [8012/32]
Finished LOD level RigmorRoscrea.4.8.52.btr [16946/32]
Log ended at 3:46:07 AM (0:39)
Code: 0

Thank you.

Nothing changed. You pasted the last few lines from the LODGen.exe log. LODgen.exe always ends like this since years.

Also, how do I do a clean install? I have downloaded the 65 beta, removed everything inside the 64 folder, than unziped 65 in the same folder, but when I launch xLodgen through MO2, the 64 custom templates are still in the Terrain LOD4 LOD8, etc. 

 

Thank you.

What are "custom templates" supposed to be? There is such thing in xLODGen terrain LOD beta.

[Stefan]

Nothing changed. You pasted the last few lines from the LODGen.exe log. LODgen.exe always ends like this since years.

So it didn't crash. For some reason in my first 5 or 6 terrain generation, xLodgen never closed by itself so I had to close it manually. So that's why when this time it did, I thought it crashed.

 

 

 

What are "custom templates" supposed to be? There is such thing in xLODGen terrain LOD beta.

The custom templates from the Step tutorial here https://wiki.step-project.com/SkyrimSE:0.3.0b#xLODGen, those 4 images from "Terrain LOD generation". When I first installed beta 64, the data was different, and I had to change it to the Step guide. When I installed beta 65, all 4 were present.

Cheers

Edited January 3, 2021 by Stefan

[Stefan]

And this was the full log:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0b6hwdjvklknby/lodgen_log.txt?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6epqvpmtxb0u2pu/sselodgen_log.txt?dl=0

[07:35] Error creating textures for level 4 quad [12,-40] Operation aborted
[07:35] Error creating textures for level 16 quad [0,-48] One or more errors occurred

I repeat, the reason why I ask is because the first 5 or 6 times when I generated terrain last week with SSELODgen, when it was done I had to close it manually. But the last 2 times, for some reason after RigmorRoscrea world both times it closed automatically, when I came to the PC only MO2 was running. 

So I thought it crashed or something.

 

The second log shows an error at the end?

 

Thank you.

 

PS: Could it be because I have ticked Grass Cache, the grass generated with No grass in objects? That's the only difference between these 2 runs, and the other 5-6 runs.

https://prnt.sc/wf7qfl

Edited January 3, 2021 by Stefan

[sheson]

So it didn't crash. For some reason in my first 5 or 6 terrain generation, xLodgen never closed by itself so I had to close it manually. So that's why when this time it did, I thought it crashed.

xLODgen.exe terrain LOD beta never closes itself. It ends with a "LOD generation complete" message. Always has. However the spawned and hidden LODGen.exe processes from which you posted the last few log lines does.

 

 

The custom templates from the Step tutorial here https://wiki.step-project.com/SkyrimSE:0.3.0b#xLODGen, those 4 images from "Terrain LOD generation"[/size]

 

When I first installed beta 64, the data was different, and I had to change it to the Step guide. When I installed beta 65, all 4 were present.

Cheers

These are called options or settings. xLODGen/xEdit stores settings between sessions in the same folder as plugins.txt for the selected game mode.

 

 

And this was the full log:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0b6hwdjvklknby/lodgen_log.txt?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6epqvpmtxb0u2pu/sselodgen_log.txt?dl=0

[07:35] Error creating textures for level 4 quad [12,-40] Operation aborted
[07:35] Error creating textures for level 16 quad [0,-48] One or more errors occurred

I repeat, the reason why I ask is because the first 5 or 6 times when I generated terrain last week with SSELODgen, when it was done I had to close it manually. But the last 2 times, for some reason after RigmorRoscrea world both times it closed automatically, when I came to the PC only MO2 was running. 

So I thought it crashed or something.

 

The second log shows an error at the end?

 

Thank you.

 

PS: Could it be because I have ticked Grass Cache, the grass generated with No grass in objects? That's the only difference between these 2 runs, and the other 5-6 runs.

https://prnt.sc/wf7qfl

 

Again. xLODGen.exe never closes itself. Never has. In case of a problem there should be an error message in the log or a message window popping up.

 

"Operation aborted" typically means you closed the program before it was finished.

 

xLODGen does not care about grass data files.

Edited January 3, 2021 by sheson

[Stefan]

Edited because you edited your post so my answers sync to your edited post.

 

Thank you. I will try to troubleshoot the issue.

 

PS: The plugins.txt is in the MO2 profiles folder, but there is no xLodgen settings in there https://prnt.sc/wfal1r EDIT: SOrry, you mean that it stores them between sessions, so probably because I am running it now, there are no settings there.

 

"Operation aborted" typically means you closed the program before it was finished.
 

PC was untouched through the night, so I definitely didn't close it unless I was sleep walking. 

 

PS2: Good to know, so the issues are not with the grass. WIll try to isolate.

 

Thank you 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Stefan

[sheson]

Edited because you edited your post so my answers sync to your edited post.

 

Thank you. I will try to troubleshoot the issue.

 

PS: The plugins.txt is in the MO2 profiles folder, but there is no xLodgen settings in there https://prnt.sc/wfal1r EDIT: SOrry, you mean that it stores them between sessions, so probably because I am running it now, there are no settings there.

 

PC was untouched through the night, so I definitely didn't close it unless I was sleep walking. 

 

PS2: Good to know, so the issues are not with the grass. WIll try to isolate.

 

Thank you 

 

The games plugins.txt is in c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\[skyrim|Skyrim Special Edition]\Plugins.txt. Mod manager might have local copies that replace plugins.txt at this location at run time, but that does not change where the game or xEdit reads/writes standard game files.

 

xEdit/xLODGen settings are in Plugins.sseviewsettings

[Stefan]

Also, as a note, xEdit seems to be stalling for some reasons a lot of time https://prnt.sc/wfbksq .

 

The games plugins.txt is in c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\[skyrim|Skyrim Special Edition]\Plugins.txt. Mod manager might have local copies that replace plugins.txt at this location at run time, but that does not change where the game or xEdit reads/writes standard game files.

 

xEdit/xLODGen settings are in Plugins.sseviewsettings

Posting while you were also posting.

 

Thank you, I have found them. If this lod run doesn't work again, I will delete those settings too, and do a clean install of SSELODgen and try again.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Stefan