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

[sheson]

3 hours ago, z929669 said:

First run for this one provides no new information

What is this supposed to mean? It ran and all was fine?

3 hours ago, z929669 said:

Second run successful, but notably more GPU intensive at end of generating Tamriel and SolstheimWorld textures.

There is no change to terrain LOD generation code.

3 hours ago, z929669 said:

Notably, the successful run did not leave an SSELODGen log file.

If xEdit can not write its log file when closing, there should be an error message. Sounds like a UAC, antivirus issue.

[z929669]

7 hours ago, sheson said:

What is this supposed to mean? It ran and all was fine?

There is no change to terrain LOD generation code.

If xEdit can not write its log file when closing, there should be an error message. Sounds like a UAC, antivirus issue.

No new information = same useless output with random fail as in previous runs

For whatever reason, I noticed GPU fan and % use was noticeably higher. No different conditions on my end. Is what it is I guess.

I will run wo/antivirus next time, but this has never before been an issue, and I have not changed software/settings for my AV.

 

I need to build a house for our wild cats today, so I probably won't be back at my PC till this evening.

[sheson]

45 minutes ago, z929669 said:

No new information = same useless output with random fail as in previous runs

Post it anyways. Maybe it spawns more silly ideas on my end what to try next.

46 minutes ago, z929669 said:

I need to build a house for our wild cats today, so I probably won't be back at my PC till this evening.

There no requirement to rush anything.

[OregonPete]

Part of the new mod I'm currently working on is set in a custom worldspace that is almost entirely underwater. With Sheson's help, I've already been able to resolve a few issues in regard to mountain LOD (I've surrounded the area the player needs to stay in with mountains as a natural barrier).

But another issue I'm having is that the water tiles aren't displayed in the distance, and they keep popping in when I get closer (independent of whether I'm above or below the water), which is really annoying, especially since you can only see the mountain peaks that are above water through the water tiles when you're underwater, meaning you can't see the peaks in the distance when you're underwater. Has anyone ever had this issue, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve it? Any advice is highly appreciated.

 

[z929669]

19 minutes ago, OregonPete said:

Part of the new mod I'm currently working on is set in a custom worldspace that is almost entirely underwater. With Sheson's help, I've already been able to resolve a few issues in regard to mountain LOD (I've surrounded the area the player needs to stay in with mountains as a natural barrier).

But another issue I'm having is that the water tiles aren't displayed in the distance, and they keep popping in when I get closer (independent of whether I'm above or below the water), which is really annoying, especially since you can only see the mountain peaks that are above water through the water tiles when you're underwater, meaning you can't see the peaks in the distance when you're underwater. Has anyone ever had this issue, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve it? Any advice is highly appreciated.

 

Sounds like it could be related to DynDOLOD "Optimize Unseen", but sheson can provide insights that go beyond my intuition.

[sheson]

49 minutes ago, OregonPete said:

Part of the new mod I'm currently working on is set in a custom worldspace that is almost entirely underwater. With Sheson's help, I've already been able to resolve a few issues in regard to mountain LOD (I've surrounded the area the player needs to stay in with mountains as a natural barrier).

But another issue I'm having is that the water tiles aren't displayed in the distance, and they keep popping in when I get closer (independent of whether I'm above or below the water), which is really annoying, especially since you can only see the mountain peaks that are above water through the water tiles when you're underwater, meaning you can't see the peaks in the distance when you're underwater. Has anyone ever had this issue, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve it? Any advice is highly appreciated.

 

Are you saying that CELLs which are defined in a plugin do not have water LOD generated for cell water that is above the terrain level? Maybe post a screenshot.

[niston]

Hey there and thanks for your work!

I recently thought I'd give xlodgen a try and downloaded Beta 81. I've also installed the FO4lodgen resources and the NeuraLOD resources and activated their plugins for LOD generation.

The Terrain LOD works very well, but the Object LOD is a total failure. Large swaths of Downton Boston are missing, including most of the skyscraper ruins there. Of Easy Downs, only the racetrack oval itself is there. All of Lexington is missing completely, the only building there is the Corvega Plant. The projection/diner building at Starlight is missing as well. Generally, lots of (vanilla) buildings are missing either completely or in large parts.

It's likely something I'm doing wrong. What could it be?

Edited May 17, 2021 by niston

[sheson]

12 hours ago, niston said:

Hey there and thanks for your work!

I recently thought I'd give xlodgen a try and downloaded Beta 81. I've also installed the FO4lodgen resources and the NeuraLOD resources and activated their plugins for LOD generation.

The Terrain LOD works very well, but the Object LOD is a total failure. Large swaths of Downton Boston are missing, including most of the skyscraper ruins there. Of Easy Downs, only the racetrack oval itself is there. All of Lexington is missing completely, the only building there is the Corvega Plant. The projection/diner building at Starlight is missing as well. Generally, lots of (vanilla) buildings are missing either completely or in large parts.

It's likely something I'm doing wrong. What could it be?

Looks like we are just supposed to make blind guesses. 

If something doesn't have LOD it is because its LOD models not being defined or assets are missing from the load order.
If something happened during LOD generation there will be error or warning messages in the log.

Obviously, test LOD generation without any LOD mods. Then install them correctly.

[niston]

Here's my LODGen_log.txt; There are no errors as far as I can discern: https://x0.at/I79.txt

The settings:

This is what the generated LOD looks like:

I've got these plugins activated for LOD generation:

• FO4LODGen-DLCCoast.esp
• FO4LODGen-DLCNukaWorld.esp
• FO4LODGen-DLCWorkshop03.esp
• FO4LODGen-FullModelLOD.esp
• FO4LODGen.esp
• NeuraLOD_Resources.esp

It makes no difference if I keep them activated or not during playtesting, albeit I understand they are only useful during LOD generation.

I don't use any LOD mods at all. No super-duper-ultra-high-res textures or some such either.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by niston

[sheson]

1 hour ago, niston said:

Here's my LODGen_log.txt; There are no errors as far as I can discern: https://x0.at/I79.txt

The settings:

This is what the generated LOD looks like:

I've got these plugins activated for LOD generation:

• FO4LODGen-DLCCoast.esp
• FO4LODGen-DLCNukaWorld.esp
• FO4LODGen-DLCWorkshop03.esp
• FO4LODGen-FullModelLOD.esp
• FO4LODGen.esp
• NeuraLOD_Resources.esp

It makes no difference if I keep them activated or not during playtesting, albeit I understand they are only useful during LOD generation.

I don't use any LOD mods at all. No super-duper-ultra-high-res textures or some such either.

 

You uploaded the LODGen_log.txt, not the xLODGen_log.txt (FO4LODGen_log.txt).

Set a dedicated output folder as explained in the first post.
Do not install the game into special Windows folders like programs Filesx86.

The listed plugins, especially NeuraLOD is a LOD mod that replaces LOD assets.

For reference to have LOD, a reference needs to exist in the load plugins. The reference needs to use  base record that defines LOD models. Those LOD models and their textures need to exist in the load order either loose files or BSA filled. The loose files and BSA files need be loaded by the tools. That includes being able to access folders, read and write files.

Make sure the INI settings for the LOD Distances are not messed up and there is merely a problem that only shows in the game

[niston]

Investigating one of the missing pieces of Overpass "HWDoubleEndCapR02" (0x7485b) in Cell 0xdbe0, I load my entire load order in xEdit and navigate to this record:

It appears there are no overrides to this piece from any mod in the LO. There are 3 LOD levels with 2 different meshes defined.

Next, I load all the BA2 archives in my Data folder into BSA Browser and query each and every BA2 for "HWDoubleEndCapR02_LOD". Expectedly, I get a hit in Fallout4 - Meshes.BA2:

I toggle through the rest of the loaded BA2, and there are no more hits for that piece. Apparently, nothing from any mod BA2 is overriding these vanilla LOD meshes.

Next, lets see if there are any loose files in Meshes\LOD\Landscape\Roads... 

Nope; The respective folder does not even exist in the file system. At this point, it is pretty safe to assume that there are no overrides to the vanilla LOD meshes for this piece, at all.

So let's investigate one of these LOD meshes in Nifskope, to see what materials or textures it uses:

Querying for HWOverpassLOD.BGSM on all the BA2 archives in the Data Folder:

One hit is returned for Fallout4 - Materials.BA2.

Another hit is returned for FO4LODGen - Main. No other hits can be found in any BA2, pertaining to this file.

Checking for any file system overrides:

Nope. It is pretty safe to assume at this point that the material file from FO4LODGen - Main is being used, since the FO4LODGen.esp is lower in the LO than the Fallout4.esm.

Let's take a look at this BGSM:

Checking for the respective textures:

and

The filesystem doesn't have any loose files overriding this either, as I don't have a LOD folder under textures:

So let's inspect the textures in that NeuraLOD BA2:

Yep, they're there and can be loaded, by paint.net at least.

Now, after doing all these checks, I don't see why my generated LOD is generally very incomplete and specifically missing this particular piece of Overpass.

 

 

[sheson]

38 minutes ago, niston said:

Now, after doing all these checks, I don't see why my generated LOD is generally very incomplete and specifically missing this particular piece of Overpass.

If you want to verify if assets are actually available in the loader for xEdit/xLODGen, use the xEdit Asset Browser (CTRL+F3). I am explaining how these work so you can troubleshoot as you did. You do not need to post screenshots to proof that to me.

Check a generated BTO if it includes all the LOD or not, to double check if the issue is in the game or not.

No xLODGen log, yet. We could check it for example if the required BA2 are being loaded or if there are any additional errors or warnings.
Fix the already identified problems of not using a dedicate output folder and the game being installed into a special windows folder. Since I already mentioned access, read/write, make sure that no antivir blocks that.

 

[niston]

Because there were only 3 of 4 LOD level meshes defined in the vanilla record for this overpass piece, I've made a small plugin with a single override:

Then I simply copied the level 2 mesh name into level 3.

The result after regenerating the LOD:

The particular piece appeared in the Object LOD and apparently, we are looking at Level 3 Object LOD.
On a side note, re Terrain - The water appears to be missing in this particular cell for some reason, but I have not investigated this yet.

In any case, I find all this very strange.
Because, when we look at the very same LOD Level 3 scenery in vanilla, it looks like this:

Perhaps an option to use lower level LOD mesh if higher level is undefined could be useful?

Only other way I see is to manually check all the records in vanilla and copy level 2 into level 3 if they are missing the level 3 definition.

 

NB: I don't post screenshot as "proof". But maybe your eyes can spot something I'm missing.

Edited May 18, 2021 by niston

[sheson]

4 minutes ago, niston said:

In any case, I find all this very strange.
Because, when we look at the very same LOD Level 3 scenery in vanilla, it looks like this:

 

Perhaps an option to use lower level LOD mesh if higher level is undefined could be useful?

Only other way I see is to manually check all the records in vanilla and copy level 2 into level 3 if they are missing the level 3 definition.

 

NB: I don't post screenshot as "proof". But maybe your eyes can spot something I'm missing.

As I mentioned already:
"Make sure the INI settings for the LOD Distances are not messed up and there is merely a problem that only shows in the game"

That last screenshot is not showing LOD level 32. The higher LOD levels are supposed to have less LOD objects.

 

[niston]

Both screenshots are taken in the same way:

- I'm in Goodneighbor
- I type tfc
- I navigate up, turn about 180° and move a little bit forward roughly towards the North

First screenshot was taken with generated LOD active.
Second screenshot was taken with vanilla LOD active.

Since there were no other changes by me other than to delete the generated LOD files (meshes/terrain and textures/terrain) between first and second screenshot, I must assume we are looking at the same LOD level in both screenshots.

What is the significance of the INI settings? Do they influence LOD generation? They are unchanged between both screenshots if that matters? I have these settings:

fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1500.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=5500.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=7500.0000
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fDecalLOD0=800.0000
uLockedObjectMapLOD=16
uLockedTerrainLOD=32
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=20
fLODFadeOutMultItems=5
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

Not sure if something's wrong, but wouldn't that affect also the vanilla screenshot then?

Edited May 18, 2021 by niston