xLODGen - Terrain LOD beta 129 for FNV, FO3, FO4, FO4VR, TES5, SSE, TES5VR, ENDERAL, ENDERALSE

[sheson]

Thanks for the reply. I've managed to compress the BSA, but only the files that Mod Organizer said didn't conflict with anything. The rest stayed loose. Would you know what this File Cache SSE is exactly supposed to do? Nothing's really said on the GitHub.

It's function is in the name. It caches requests to files. That speeds up loading a bit.

[Martimius]

It's function is in the name. It caches requests to files. That speeds up loading a bit.

Thanks for your speedy reply! Yeah, definitely sounds like a good addition to everyone's installs.

 

My xLODGen run seemed to go smoothly with no errors in the program or noticeable graphical artifacts in-game. I did notice the Solstheim texture file was astronomically large though, compared to Tamriel. Tamriel's was only 835mb, while Solstheim's was at a whopping 2.01 GB. I also noticed there were much more generated files (Tamriel ~2000, Solstheim ~6000). Why is this? Isn't it a much smaller worldspace?

[sheson]

Thanks for your speedy reply! Yeah, definitely sounds like a good addition to everyone's installs.

 

My xLODGen run seemed to go smoothly with no errors in the program or noticeable graphical artifacts in-game. I did notice the Solstheim texture file was astronomically large though, compared to Tamriel. Tamriel's was only 835mb, while Solstheim's was at a whopping 2.01 GB. I also noticed there were much more generated files (Tamriel ~2000, Solstheim ~6000). Why is this? Isn't it a much smaller worldspace?

The messages in the log have the answer:

 

[Tamriel] Land height: -27000, Water height: -14000, Scanned: 11186 CELL records, Found: 11186 LAND records for area [-57,-43] to [61,50]

 

[DLC2SolstheimWorld] Land height: -4590, Water height: 256, Scanned: 34557 CELL records, Found: 34383 LAND records for area [-64,-64] to [127,127]

Edited September 7, 2019 by sheson

[Martimius]

Alright, is there any way to mitigate this though, like reduce the amount of records needed by xLODGen to effectively generate Terrain LOD for the Solstheim worldspace? I'm looking to save whatever space I can since my SSD is already starting to get full. 

 

 

On another note though, is it really needed to generate Terrain LOD for worldspaces like Tamriel, even though it could be included in a mod already?

 

 

 

EDIT: It seems the Readme has answered this, "If terrain LOD textures already exist in the output folder, their generation will be skipped. This can be used to continue generating terrain LOD textures for large worldspaces in case there was a problem like not enough space left on a drive. Simply restart with the same options. Otherwise move or selectively delete old terrain LOD textures before generating new ones."

 

So in my understanding if Terrain LOD already exists we don't have to use xLODGen if we just put the Terrain LOD files in the designated output folder (-o startup parameter), and I can just move onto generating object and Tree LOD in DynDOLOD right away?

Edited September 8, 2019 by Martimius

[sheson]

Alright, is there any way to mitigate this though, like reduce the amount of records needed by xLODGen to effectively generate Terrain LOD for the Solstheim worldspace? I'm looking to save whatever space I can since my SSD is already starting to get full. 

 

 

On another note though, is it really needed to generate Terrain LOD for worldspaces like Tamriel, even though it could be included in a mod already? An example would be Landscapes- Cathedral Concept: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/21954?tab=files

 

 

 

EDIT: It seems the Readme has answered this, "If terrain LOD textures already exist in the output folder, their generation will be skipped. This can be used to continue generating terrain LOD textures for large worldspaces in case there was a problem like not enough space left on a drive. Simply restart with the same options. Otherwise move or selectively delete old terrain LOD textures before generating new ones."

 

So in my understanding if Terrain LOD already exists we don't have to use xLODGen if we just put the Terrain LOD files in the designated output folder (-o startup parameter), and I can just move onto generating object and Tree LOD in DynDOLOD right away?

Use the Specific Chunk option to limit generation to specific areas / LOD levels.

 

I suggest to always generate terrain LOD meshes (wuth protect cell borderoption) for the current load order, since its quick and will make sure the changes of all mods are considered.

If existing terrain LOD textures already match the load order well then there is no need to generate them. Simply uncheck their generation.

Edited September 8, 2019 by sheson

[Martimius]

Use the Specific Chunk option to limit generation to specific areas / LOD levels.

 

I suggest to always generate terrain LOD meshes (wuth protect cell borderoption) for the current load order, since its quick and will make sure the changes of all mods are considered.

If existing terrain LOD textures already match the load order well then there is no need to generate them. Simply uncheck their generation.

Oh, ok then. I guess in my case I would need to generate Terrain LOD, seeing as the existing one from Cathedral Landscapes comes bundled with it and is independent from my load order. 

[Martimius]

Hey sheson, I know you've suggested for us to use the 512 texture size for LOD generation, but if we really want to get more fps, would halving it down to 256 be a good idea?

[sheson]

Hey sheson, I know you've suggested for us to use the 512 texture size for LOD generation, but if we really want to get more fps, would halving it down to 256 be a good idea?

Nobody but you can answer that question for your setup, load order and hardware. The only way to know for sure is to test.

 

Reducing texture resolution with one of the available 3rdp party tools should be quicker than running xLODGen.

[Martimius]

Nobody but you can answer that question for your setup, load order and hardware. The only way to know for sure is to test.

 

Reducing texture resolution with one of the available 3rdp party tools should be quicker than running xLODGen.

Which tools are these? Couldn't find any reference in the included documentation.

[sheson]

Which tools are these? Couldn't find any reference in the included documentation.

Tools like TexConv or DDSopt for example. Changing the resolution of textures or their compression format are everyday modding activities unrelated to LOD generation. 

[Soulmancer]

A few questions.

 

1.) Is it fine to generate terrain terrain for all spaces other than Bruma? Out of all these shown here?  http://icecream.me/uploads/e5ecab392e0d1c6010324971034f8cfa.png

2.) Does DynDoLod+TexGen and xLodGen have any bearing on one another? Does it matter which order I do them in?

Edited September 9, 2019 by Soulmancer

[Soulmancer]

Hi... So;  I installed Dyndolod+resources ... ran texgen... ran xlodgen for terrain, ran dyndolod for objects and trees, ran xlodgen for occlusion.

 

Everything looks great... except when I open the world map... what have I do wrong?

 

https://imgur.com/a/QV8dDUk

[sheson]

A few questions.

 

1.) Is it fine to generate terrain terrain for all spaces other than Bruma? Out of all these shown here?  http://icecream.me/uploads/e5ecab392e0d1c6010324971034f8cfa.png

2.) Does DynDoLod+TexGen and xLodGen have any bearing on one another? Does it matter which order I do them in?

Try to use search to find answers to questions.

 

1) xLODGen/DynDOLOD generate LOD for the plugins/data and assets that are found in the load order. They are fine to use.

 

2) Object LOD uses terrain LOD meshes for optimization. Occlusion generation uses object LOD meshes.

 

Hi... So;  I installed Dyndolod+resources ... ran texgen... ran xlodgen for terrain, ran dyndolod for objects and trees, ran xlodgen for occlusion.

 

Everything looks great... except when I open the world map... what have I do wrong?

 

https://imgur.com/a/QV8dDUk

3) Use the Optimize unseen feature at least on Level 32 terrain LOD to optimize coast lines as explained and discussed in this thread.

Edited September 10, 2019 by sheson

[Soulmancer]

Will give it a go thx. I just run everything on the default settings it prompts. Is there a 'recommended/suggested' settings page for dyndolod and xlodgen for all setting?

[sheson]

Will give it a go thx. I just run everything on the default settings it prompts. Is there a 'recommended/suggested' settings page for dyndolod and xlodgen for all setting?

It is impossible to recommend settings that are suitable for every load order, hardware and user preference/needs.

 

My priority is that they work without bugs and with required and useful options.