Temple of Meridia/ College of Winterhold Magic Lights

[kevkiev]

During the College of Winterhold quest, the mage who first meets you outside Winterhold lights certain "pools" resulting in vertical beams of blue light.  After the Temple of Meridia quest (Dawnbreaker), beams of white light surround the temple.

 

Both sets of lights turn off after a while.  The temple of Meridia ones only shut off because of a fix in the unofficial patch. Without the patch, they stay on forever.  However, even with the patch, if you re-enter the temple later and exit to the balcony (which you might do as part of a radiant quest), the lights turn back on again, and that's the state of my current game. 

 

For the college, I have a mod that keeps the lights on (I only activate it after the relevant point in the quest), but it has virtually no noticeable LODs.

 

I found the lights (and thier .nif file) for the college in xedit, and it's under "magic effects", if that's of any relevance.

 

My first question is whether or not Dyndolod would generate LODs for these lights.  Not much I can do about the Meridia lights, but I could disable my College mod.  (Although, in a new game, it might be better to have constant LODs rather than not have them when they should be there.)

 

My second question is: if the answer to the first Q is "yes", can files in the Dyndolod Output folder be "hidden" just the same as mod meshes and textures?  I.E.  In a later game, I could just find and hide those files until I need them.

Edited October 4, 2018 by kevkiev

[kevkiev]

Couldn't edit the above post.

 

My XEdit reference is wrong.  The lights (and thier .nif files) are under under "Moveable Static" (MGMagicFirePillar01).  That record is referenced by an entry in "Lights" (MGFirePillarLightBlue).  I'm guessing the Temple lights follow a similar pattern but didn't confirm.

[sheson]

By editing mesh rules, LOD can be added for most objects and effects. See the included manual "Configuration" how to add a mesh rule.

 

In this case it this should work

 

Mesh mask = filename.nif

LOD4/LOD8/LOD16 = empty

VWD = not checked

Grid = Far LOD

Reference = Unchanged

 

I also suggest to read the included documentation "DynDOLOD Mod", "How LOD works in Skyrim" and https://forum.step-project.com/topic/13696-new-game-with-disabled-mods-that-have-dyndolod-lods/

 

If the plugin ends up as a master in a DynDOLOD plugin, then try to update existing DynDOLOD plugins once the plugin was added to the load order.

 

Best would be to just enable the original objects again, which might be possible by manually enabling the XESP enable parent from console.

[kevkiev]

Thanks. I read the manual, including that section but I guess I'm thick b/c I wasn't precisely sure it's application to this. I mean, I understand the basics but (notwithstanding that elite-level modders like Elianora find it all so ridicuously easy) I still struggle with stuff that's not explicitly spelled out. I often am relatively confident about things, but have enough doubt that I like to seek out expert advice.

 

Anyways, especially with the mesh rule you kindly provided, my understanding is that these will indeed be part of the LODs generated by Dyndolod.

 

Still, would I be able to "hide" the relevant files in the Dyndolod output via Mod Organizer (like you can hide textures/meshes in the "filetree" tab even if they're not conflicting).  That way, I could disable the effects' LOD until I'm at the point in my (next) game where those lights become active through quest completion. *quickly goes to re-read the manual in case that's covered*

 

Thanks again for replying, I really do appreciate the assistance.

Edited October 4, 2018 by kevkiev

[kevkiev]

Okay, nvm, I saw a post of yours in another thread that you can indeed hide files from the output. On second thought, I guess that shoulda been obvious. Anyways, I think I'm ready to go!  (Sorry if I sounded passive-aggressive with that Elianora reference.  I tried to delete it but was too late, I'd lost the edit option.)

 

Cheers

Edited October 4, 2018 by kevkiev

[sheson]

The dynamic LOD (also for the magic lights) adds references and base records into the DynDOLOD plugins. There won't be any files for it in the DynDOLOD / meshes as the LOD will be using the full model wit the never fade flag. It all depends if the plugin ends up as master or not.

[kevkiev]

Ah, gotcha, I guess it wasn't so obvious after all.  Thanks for clarifying.