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

[sheson]

1 hour ago, Pawelekdabek said:

So not possible to eliminate this water lod seam?

Make all water and the LOD water use the same/similar water or  change how the engine/water works.

[Zanderat]

On 4/23/2021 at 9:39 AM, Katarsi said:

I would like to add more to A Quality World Map compatibility with generated xLODGen Terrain. Not applicable to Paper Map (I wouldn't know because I don't use it).

If this compatibility guide isn't followed, the map will look utterly distorted. I learned this the hard way.

First off, QWM textures are packed into a BSA, so loose files will always overwrite it. Generated Terrain contains loose files that will overwrite QWM, no matter where it is in the load order. Also, generated Terrain contains meshes for the map, which will mess it up because QWM is tailored for default map meshes.

Instructions:

• After generating Terrain and activating it, open up its folder (for me it's SSELODGenOutput).
• Go to textures/terrain/dlc2solstheimworld and remove every file that starts with dlc2solstheimworld.32. They are normally the last files in that folder if they are sorted by name.
• Go to textures/terrain/tamriel and remove every file that starts with tamriel.32. The same application as above.

I could mention that xLODGen is efficient to the point that it creates even normal maps of textures (_n.dds), while QWM doesn't have them. It's no biggie though, the map of this mod still looks awesome. I'm not sure about keeping these normal maps in generated Terrain, given they can differ in size from QWM textures, depending on the chosen quality when generating Terrain. The size of QWM textures is 1024x1024. If someone has an input on this, you're welcome to pitch in.

• Go to meshes/terrain/DLC2SolstheimWorld and remove every file that starts with DLC2SolstheimWorld.32. No exceptions.
• Go to meshes/terrain/Tamriel and remove every file that starts with Tamriel.32. No exceptions, as above.

These two steps are very important, because THIS is what primarily distorts the map! xLODGen generates meshes (.btr) that don't fit with QWM map textures.

Also, this whole removal shebang can be done even after all the LOD was generated (xLODGen, DynDOLOD, Occlusion), so don't worry about messing something up.

That's it, enjoy your beautiful terrain and A Quality World Map combo.

What I do is much simpler:  unpack the BSA that come with QWM as loose files and let them overwrite whatever is generated by xLODGEN using either Vortex or MO2.

[z929669]

7 hours ago, sheson said:

The settings, instructions and recommendations for TexGen, which generates object LOD textures and billboards, obviously have no correlation to terrain LOD whatsoever. What resolutions are useful for terrain LOD in what scenarios are completely different. 

I understand the distinctions. My point is that the default OOtB settings for xLODGen, TexGen, and DynDOLOD are probably close to optimal for most systems that are not higher-end with 4k-8k resolutions. Terrain LOD4/8 textures at 256k are not obviously distinguishable on my 2k monitor from current recommendations in the Step guides (512k). Same goes for quality of 0/2/4/4 (Step) vs 5/5/10/5 (closer to default when running xLODGen for the first time, IIRC).

I can see slight improvements with the higher settings, but only on direct compare of screens, and the improvements are marginal at best ... not significant IMO. Given the trade-off, the FPS/VRAM hit is probably not worth the very marginal quality gain unless the resource ceiling leaves a lot of room to spare.

[sheson]

20 minutes ago, z929669 said:

I understand the distinctions. My point is that the default OOtB settings for xLODGen, TexGen, and DynDOLOD are probably close to optimal for most systems that are not higher-end with 4k-8k resolutions. Terrain LOD4/8 textures at 256k are not obviously distinguishable on my 2k monitor from current recommendations in the Step guides (512k). Same goes for quality of 0/2/4/4 (Step) vs 5/5/10/5 (closer to default when running xLODGen for the first time, IIRC).

I can see slight improvements with the higher settings, but only on direct compare of screens, and the improvements are marginal at best ... not significant IMO. Given the trade-off, the FPS/VRAM hit is probably not worth the very marginal quality gain unless the resource ceiling leaves a lot of room to spare.

xEdit/xLODGen is a CK replacement and its default settings are supposed to match the vanilla LOD files.

TexGen/DynDOLOD is the advanced version for drastically improved tree and object LOD for Skyrim. Its defaults are based on actual testing.

The point is, whatever I recommended and explain about TexGen, object LOD textures and billboards has no connection to terrain LOD. It requires its own and different testing.

[Pawelekdabek]

13 hours ago, sheson said:

Make all water and the LOD water use the same/similar water(...)

I guess this isn't as easy as it sounds? If I'm wrong, could you tell me how to do it?

Edited April 26, 2021 by Pawelekdabek

[sheson]

9 hours ago, Pawelekdabek said:

I guess this isn't as easy as it sounds? If I'm wrong, could you tell me how to do it?

By default CELL water use the water record defined on the worldspace record. Unless a CELL record defines its own. Those things can be edited with CK/xEdit.

[z929669]

@sheson

I'm getting a new reproducible fault for xLODGen64. It seems to happen towards the end of gen for all worlds during DLC2SolstheimWorld.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          4/30/2021 10:29:29 AM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
Faulting application name: xLODGenx64.exe, version: 4.1.3.1, time stamp: 0x60705f99
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.906, time stamp: 0x2f2f77bf
Exception code: 0x0eedfade
Fault offset: 0x0000000000034b59
Faulting process id: 0x855c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d73dd390256030
Faulting application path: C:\Modding\Tools\xLODGen\xLODGenx64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 09a8a8fe-346f-444a-8157-e9b313c7ab42
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Also, does it make sense to replace all instances of LODGenx64.exe with the version you pointed me to (i.e., I replaced this under DynDOLOD 3 alpha but not under xEdit or xLODGen app dirs.)?

EDIT: I got around the issue by copying all output from failed run to MO followed by gen of just DLC2SolstheimWorld and DLC2ApocryphaWorld. I then copied that to the mod with overwrite.

EDIT2: I just noticed that I generated terrain without first activating the SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm ... not sure if that could be a potential cause

EDIT3: I should also note that I am running the latest 77 beta

UPDATE: It ran without issue after including SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm

[sheson]

1 hour ago, z929669 said:

@sheson

I'm getting a new reproducible fault for xLODGen64. It seems to happen towards the end of gen for all worlds during DLC2SolstheimWorld.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          4/30/2021 10:29:29 AM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
Faulting application name: xLODGenx64.exe, version: 4.1.3.1, time stamp: 0x60705f99
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.906, time stamp: 0x2f2f77bf
Exception code: 0x0eedfade
Fault offset: 0x0000000000034b59
Faulting process id: 0x855c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d73dd390256030
Faulting application path: C:\Modding\Tools\xLODGen\xLODGenx64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 09a8a8fe-346f-444a-8157-e9b313c7ab42
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Also, does it make sense to replace all instances of LODGenx64.exe with the version you pointed me to (i.e., I replaced this under DynDOLOD 3 alpha but not under xEdit or xLODGen app dirs.)?

EDIT: I got around the issue by copying all output from failed run to MO followed by gen of just DLC2SolstheimWorld and DLC2ApocryphaWorld. I then copied that to the mod with overwrite.

EDIT2: I just noticed that I generated terrain without first activating the SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm ... not sure if that could be a potential cause

EDIT3: I should also note that I am running the latest 77 beta

UPDATE: It ran without issue after including SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm

Always post the log please. 

The SSE-Tamriel--tamriel.esm should not affect this,  unless there is a plugin in the load order also adds the same missing cells maybe.

Try the version from 

it should create a bugreport.txt.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

Always post the log please. 

The SSE-Tamriel--tamriel.esm should not affect this,  unless there is a plugin in the load order also adds the same missing cells maybe.

Try the version from 

it should create a bugreport.txt.

Will do ... thanks

[z929669]

On 4/30/2021 at 12:39 PM, sheson said:

Always post the log please. 

The SSE-Tamriel--tamriel.esm should not affect this,  unless there is a plugin in the load order also adds the same missing cells maybe.

Try the version from 

it should create a bugreport.txt.

So it happened again first during DLC2SolstheimWorld ... event:

Faulting application name: xLODGenx64.exe, version: 4.1.3.1, time stamp: 0x6075af33
Faulting module name: xLODGenx64.exe, version: 4.1.3.1, time stamp: 0x6075af33
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000013e6ef9
Faulting process id: 0x43e4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d742d3018be86e
Faulting application path: C:\Modding\Tools\xLODGen\xLODGenx64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Modding\Tools\xLODGen\xLODGenx64.exe
Report Id: f4007d5d-7708-4b79-a39e-22136aa898e1
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

... so I deleted log and tried again. Then it quit during DLC2ApocryphaWorld. LODGen_log.txt 

...and here is the event for that:

Faulting application name: xLODGenx64.exe, version: 4.1.3.1, time stamp: 0x6075af33
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.906, time stamp: 0x2f2f77bf
Exception code: 0x0eedfade
Fault offset: 0x0000000000034b59
Faulting process id: 0x4c3c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d742d62b3eee1d
Faulting application path: C:\Modding\Tools\xLODGen\xLODGenx64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 898e25e3-3dfe-4676-8526-54fc327ae45f
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

I'm not seeing a bugreport.txt

[sheson]

5 hours ago, z929669 said:

So it happened again first during DLC2SolstheimWorld ... event:

... so I deleted log and tried again. Then it quit during DLC2ApocryphaWorld. LODGen_log.txt 

...and here is the event for that:

I'm not seeing a bugreport.txt

Can you replicate this with the latest xLODGen terrain LOD beta?

The exception happens in xLODGen (while generation terrain LOD textures IIRC), so the LODGen log generating LOD meshes does not show anything.

[z929669]

6 hours ago, sheson said:

Can you replicate this with the latest xLODGen terrain LOD beta?

The exception happens in xLODGen (while generation terrain LOD textures IIRC), so the LODGen log generating LOD meshes does not show anything.

Damn. I missed that update. I will test again with that. I was using what you last linked me to a few days ago.

[ikonomov]

It seems I'm getting a crash consistently with v80 regardless of the options I choose.  Previously (v77 and v76) it only happened when choosing specific chunk for LOD4.  Sadly I deleted the old version AND the output files I had, if still available it would be greatly appreciated if somebody can post the older v77 download link.

Thanks

[z929669]

1 hour ago, ikonomov said:

It seems I'm getting a crash consistently with v80 regardless of the options I choose.  Previously (v77 and v76) it only happened when choosing specific chunk for LOD4.  Sadly I deleted the old version AND the output files I had, if still available it would be greatly appreciated if somebody can post the older v77 download link.

Thanks

I ran v80 without issue recently but had the same issue with previous versions. I just saved the output, noted the worldspace where it failed in the log, and regenerated only the remaining worldspaces (they seem to execute in order of those listed in xLODGen). I copied the latest output over to former with overwrite. It seemed to work fine.

[sheson]

1 hour ago, ikonomov said:

It seems I'm getting a crash consistently with v80 regardless of the options I choose.  Previously (v77 and v76) it only happened when choosing specific chunk for LOD4.  Sadly I deleted the old version AND the output files I had, if still available it would be greatly appreciated if somebody can post the older v77 download link.

Thanks

There were no updates to the terrain LOD generation code after 75. This is still a beta test. Bugreport generation was added so we can troubleshoot better and fix the current version.

Not sure why you posted the bugreport in a PM. Anyhow, based on that, test with this version: https://mega.nz/file/xUhyjYzS#NJsm-U7ejFK2eqU8LHqwtPwI1scID_yBYh-AF-tKs-4