xLODGen - Terrain LOD beta 130 for FNV, FO3, FO4, FO4VR, TES5, SSE, TES5VR, ENDERAL, ENDERALSE

[El_Rizzo]

  On 6/2/2019 at 1:13 PM, kranazoli said:

 

 

Just now saw the new version. I'll try. But, you know xLODGEN it's not 15 minutes, or maybe I'll try just Tamriel...

You can always reduce your settings to speed up the process for testing or only create LOD for a chunk instead of an entire worldspace, that way you can test very fast.

[ravensm]

im getting an error message when i try to run the program.

 

"Fatal: could not open registry key: \SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout4\

 This can happen after Steam updates, run the game's launcher to restore registry settings"

 

the problem is that i dont have fallout 4..im running this through MO2 for Skyrim SE

 

sooo....lol help?

 

ohhh fixed it, add an argument in MO2 executables, add -SSE

Edited June 4, 2019 by ravensm

[Mebantiza]

So, here is my latest generation.  Rel 45 default settings.

Custom World Space DX1\DX5  1k/256

 

Tree Mod - Enhanced Vanilla Trees (Custom) not SSE version. 

Billboards Generated with EVT (Skyrim Classic Billboard Generator).

 

 

 

Beach texture has been changed, no longer the sandy color in subsquent images

 

 

 

 

Finally got EVTs tree lods working properly in this worldspace. Dyndolod 2.64

 

 

 

Object LOD has no trouble displaying the Large - Long Bridge in high detail the lower right. That model was scaled between 2 - 3x its standard size in order to span that space with the one model.

 

 

This was interesting to me, as the world map now displays the current weather properly. There is a overcast rain storm in progress below, and the map shows black overcast clouds accurately. Something I have never had happen before.

 

 

 

 

General view looking Northwards.

 

 

 

 

Im probably doing all kinds of things wrong here, not an elite modder like everyone else, but, to my un-trained eye it looks ok I guess.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Mebantiza

[Mebantiza]

I have a SSE specific question regarding Tree LODs and their dimensions.

 

 

I use a billboard generator from skyrim classic to generate LODs for SSE, as it is the only available resource for my tree mod atm, and, it returned a number of files from LODgen. It is saying, not divisible by 4*. However, unlike, a 'regular' DDS, which can easily cause a CTD  with irregular dimensions, these lods, do not seem to be causing a CTD, even though they files are of all manner of irregular dimensions. 

 

Is it advisable to change the offenders to 256 x (xxx) or 128 x (xxx)? Being LODs, I have no idea if this will cause any visual issues when generating Lods off of them. Or is there some technical reason they might need to be left alone? Like I say, no CTD, but, SSE does not like irregular dimensions for DDS files, but, seems to tolerate them if they LOD DDS files, which is a new one to me.

I am unclear if I go into the source file, change the lods to SSE friendly dimensions, and then rerun the utility, if I will end up with odd looking or sized tree lods as a result.

 

 

* From SSE nif optimizers DDS scan.

 

Thanks.

[sheson]

  On 6/19/2019 at 11:51 PM, Mebantiza said:

 

I have a SSE specific question regarding Tree LODs and their dimensions.

 

 

I use a billboard generator from skyrim classic to generate LODs for SSE, as it is the only available resource for my tree mod atm, and, it returned a number of files from LODgen. It is saying, not divisible by 4*. However, unlike, a 'regular' DDS, which can easily cause a CTD  with irregular dimensions, these lods, do not seem to be causing a CTD, even though they files are of all manner of irregular dimensions. 

 

Is it advisable to change the offenders to 256 x (xxx) or 128 x (xxx)? Being LODs, I have no idea if this will cause any visual issues when generating Lods off of them. Or is there some technical reason they might need to be left alone? Like I say, no CTD, but, SSE does not like irregular dimensions for DDS files, but, seems to tolerate them if they LOD DDS files, which is a new one to me.

I am unclear if I go into the source file, change the lods to SSE friendly dimensions, and then rerun the utility, if I will end up with odd looking or sized tree lods as a result.

 

 

* From SSE nif optimizers DDS scan.

 

Thanks.

 

Billboard textures are LOD assets that are never used directly but always being put on a texture atlas if things work correctly.

The texture atlas has the correct dimensions.

[Philou0217]

Hey guys! I'm new here and fairly new to modding too, so sorry if I sound like a total noob.

 

I'm currently modding Skyrim with the Yashed guide and I'm at the final steps of using xLODgen but I get the same error as Jarl in pages 38-39 I think. The "invalid LOD settings" thing. It's always doing it at the same place towards the end. I tried reinstalling xLODgen and the mod I thought was the problem too but nothing works. I also can't find the MO version Dragon King told Jarl to use. So if I judge by what I've read here, if I do all the plugins one by one instead, it should work?

[sheson]

  On 6/26/2019 at 4:07 PM, Philou0217 said:

Hey guys! I'm new here and fairly new to modding too, so sorry if I sound like a total noob.

 

I'm currently modding Skyrim with the Yashed guide and I'm at the final steps of using xLODgen but I get the same error as Jarl in pages 38-39 I think. The "invalid LOD settings" thing. It's always doing it at the same place towards the end. I tried reinstalling xLODgen and the mod I thought was the problem too but nothing works. I also can't find the MO version Dragon King told Jarl to use. So if I judge by what I've read here, if I do all the plugins one by one instead, it should work?

If you already found the relevant discussion about the corrupt lodsettings file then I am not sure why you reinstalled xLODGen instead of the mod that has the corrupt lodsettings file. MO right window data tab will show which mod a file belongs to. Just unfold the lod folder to see all the loose lodsettings files.

 

"Jarl" and "Dragon King" are not user names. The latest dev versions of MO can be found on the MO discord.

Edited June 26, 2019 by sheson

[Philou0217]

  On 6/26/2019 at 9:36 PM, sheson said:

 

"Jarl" and "Dragon King" are not user names

Oh god   sorry about that.

 

 

I should've specified, when I tried to reinstalled XLODgen and the mod, it was before finding this place and even after uninstalling the mod that I thought was the problem, the error still came back.

 

Like I said, I'm not really good at modding and I'm learning quite alot in the past days so I simply asked because I thought that maybe a new fix could've come up recently. Also, I'm pretty good at screwing up things so I wanted to be sure that the solutions that Astakos tried were "reliable". Sorry to bother.

[akidd]

Can anyone suggest troubleshooting steps to resolve this?

 

Before running XLODgen (using the recommended "first run" settings exactly from the top of this thread)

https://imgur.com/JKqPeEK

 

After running XLODgen (same result with no weather mod, lighting or ENB enabled)

https://imgur.com/86ePN0K

 

It looks like a forest fire hit Skyrim... What am I missing?

Edited July 8, 2019 by akidd

[sheson]

  On 7/8/2019 at 10:42 PM, akidd said:

Can anyone suggest troubleshooting steps to resolve this?

 

Before running XLODgen (using the recommended "first run" settings exactly from the top of this thread)

https://imgur.com/JKqPeEK

 

After running XLODgen (same result with no weather mod, lighting or ENB enabled)

https://imgur.com/86ePN0K

 

It looks like a forest fire hit Skyrim... What am I missing?

From first post:

 

It seems that only Skyrim CK and Skyrim SE CK are manipulating the intensity of the textures to adjust for the noise.dds and the god awful "improved" snow shader of Skyrim SE (just turn that thing off, really). If textures seem too dark in the game, brighten the noise.dds instead or vice versa. That way you can get perfectly matching LOD textures that look just like the textures in the loaded cells. For Skyrim a good average color of the noise texture seems to be around #C0. See below for a couple noise texture downloads.

 

You might also want to search this thread (top right) for "noise".

[akidd]

Thank you for your reply.  I realize I am missing something and had read the first post. I have now read every single post here with the word "noise" in it.   I do have the snow shader off bEnableImprovedSnow=0.   In data\textures\terrain I have tried vanilla and both noise.dds files posted here (and HD Detailed Terrain).   After running xLODGen the terrain texture looks dark (above) with no noise.dds.  If I add one it gets even darker.   I edited different noise.dds files and increased brightness incrementally up to 100 - it does make it lighter, but the yellow color of the tundra terrain is almost gone and has to be so bright texture isn't really applying noise when it seems even close to similar brightness. 

 

https://imgur.com/bTZKuK5

 

I've tried recreating the terrain LODs by disabling any mods/files adding anything other than trees and anything to \textures\terrain\tamriel and I've disabled all noise.dds files (although I understand those to be applied only at runtime).  

 

I have double checked that all the settings used in xLODGen are the same as the recommended "First run" that are in the first post.

 

Any other ideas?  I'm sure I'm missing something but I don't know where else to look.

Edited July 9, 2019 by akidd

[sheson]

  On 7/9/2019 at 6:12 PM, akidd said:

Thank you for your reply.  I realize I am missing something and had read the first post. I have now read every single post here with the word "noise" in it.   I do have the snow shader off bEnableImprovedSnow=0.   In data\textures\terrain I have tried vanilla and both noise.dds files posted here (and HD Detailed Terrain).   After running xLODGen the terrain texture looks dark (above) with no noise.dds.  If I add one it gets even darker.   I edited different noise.dds files and increased brightness incrementally up to 100 - it does make it lighter, but the yellow color of the tundra terrain is almost gone and has to be so bright texture isn't really applying noise when it seems even close to similar brightness. 

 

https://imgur.com/bTZKuK5

 

I've tried recreating the terrain LODs by disabling any mods/files adding anything other than trees and anything to \textures\terrain\tamriel and I've disabled all noise.dds files (although I understand those to be applied only at runtime).  

 

I have double checked that all the settings used in xLODGen are the same as the recommended "First run" that are in the first post.

 

Any other ideas?  I'm sure I'm missing something but I don't know where else to look.

You can not have no noise.dds, it will use the vanilla noise.dds texture. The noise is applied in-game. It does not matter for LOD generation.

 

If you use one of the noise.dds from the first post to overwrite the vanilla noise.dds the terrain LOD has to be lighter. It certainly can not become darker.

 

Mods adding trees do not affect terrain LOD, so I am not sure what you hope to happen when you start disabling mods. Whatever files (vanilla or mods) exist in textures\terrain\tamriel does not affect LOD generation.

 

Terrain LOD generation simply uses the currently installed landscape textures (textures/landscape/) and their placement and color information set on the LAND records. If you leave Brightness=0, Contrast=0, Gamma=1 the textures are not changed.

 

Any changes happens in the game. With the noise texture. Consider making the INIs default. It is possible there are other settings I am not aware of.

[akidd]

I only tried removing mods or anything I altered to see if anything effected change before posting and wasting someone's time.   You are correct, the original post noise.dds do make it lighter.  Others on Nexus do make it darker. 

 

I still don't understand why the terrain is so much darker than before I run xLODGen.    I will try default INIs.

 

Again, thanks for your time.

[war1ox]

Hello again Sheson.

 

I had asked this before, but I am having the problems with "textures not on atlas" again. I am only able to generate half the LODs without errors.

 

• I am running the x64 version and have it outside of my game folder.
• I tried running as an admin.
• Disabled ALL plugins besides FNV.

 

Like last time, I tried down scaling my textures to 1024 and it generated all LODs with no errors.. I can't remember what I did last time to fix the problem but I was able to generate 4k LODs after the fix. Do you have any idea why this could be happening? It seems related to texture size.

Edited July 10, 2019 by war1ox

[sheson]

  On 7/10/2019 at 6:59 PM, war1ox said:

Hello again Sheson.

 

I had asked this before, but I am having the problems with "textures not on atlas" again. I am only able to generate half the LODs without errors.

 

• I am running the x64 version and have it outside of my game folder.
• I tried running as an admin.
• Disabled ALL plugins besides FNV.

 

Like last time, I tried down scaling my textures to 1024 and it generated all LODs with no errors.. I can't remember what I did last time to fix the problem but I was able to generate 4k LODs after the fix. Do you have any idea why this could be happening? It seems related to texture size.

This message when generating object LOD for FO3/FNV means that the selected atlas resolution is too small to hold all the object LOD textures. Increase the object LOD atlas resolution and/or shrink some object LOD textures.