DynDOLOD Beta for Skyrim Special Edition, Skyrim VR and Enderal SE 2.98

[Godis]

Ok, I will try that if necessary after further tests. And nope, I didn't remove anything. Also I am using exactly 255 plugins, that's the maximum allowed amount. DynDOLOD tells 254 as well, but I'm pretty sure there are 255 allowed. Is that's a possible reason? Also I don't use merged plugins, except a few small patches merged into the bashed patch.

 

Edit: And a missing object in the save file refers to an object (whether that's a script or something defined by these) that cannot be found (so the script that defined it cannot be found or vise versa). So yes, it's usually exactly what you said, must be from a removed mod/content/whatever. But I didn't remove anything, that's the weird thing here..

Edited February 27, 2018 by Godis

[Godis]

It seems that it was related to that I followed the hint to disable unecessary plugins for the creation of DynDOLOD. Now I didn't do that - as I always didn't before - and it seems that there are no more unattached instances in my save file. Fingers crossed it stays like that..

There must be something in my load order that affected DynDOLOD not only "visually" (objects popping due to mods that were not taken into DynDOLOD creation) but also in another way... I just cannot figure what was that. Because I tripple checked to only disable mods that really don't add anything to the world space... However, hope it's fixed now. Thx for the help.

[sheson]

Ok, I will try that if necessary after further tests. And nope, I didn't remove anything. Also I am using exactly 255 plugins, that's the maximum allowed amount. DynDOLOD tells 254 as well, but I'm pretty sure there are 255 allowed. Is that's a possible reason? Also I don't use merged plugins, except a few small patches merged into the bashed patch.

 

Edit: And a missing object in the save file refers to an object (whether that's a script or something defined by these) that cannot be found (so the script that defined it cannot be found or vise versa). So yes, it's usually exactly what you said, must be from a removed mod/content/whatever. But I didn't remove anything, that's the weird thing here..

Skyrim SE can have 253 active plugins in the game. 254 / FE is reserved for CC and 255 / FF for temporary objects.

 

xEdit and consequently DynDOLOD support loading of 255 plugins, but count CC plugins differently though, as each CC plugin counts like it uses a full slot.

 

To test that there is enough room when generating, load entire load order into a recent version of xEdit first and make sure that there are no more than 253 plugins loaded, so there is room for DynDOLOD.esm and DynDOLOD.esp to be created at 254 and 255 in the worst case scenario. In the game the last plugin should not be higher than 253.

Edited February 27, 2018 by sheson

[Godis]

Oh, well. I didn't know that. Now I don't have any problem anymore.. But if you say so, I should probably get rid of s or 3 plugins.. Thx

 

Edit: Oh, I created Dyndolod while I left 253 plugins enabled because it would otherwise exit out with error. So could I get into trouble by using 255 plugins? There are no ESL plugins in my game.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Godis

[sheson]

Oh, well. I didn't know that. Now I don't have any problem anymore.. But if you say so, I should probably get rid of s or 3 plugins.. Thx

 

Edit: Oh, I created Dyndolod while I left 253 plugins enabled because it would otherwise exit out with error. So could I get into trouble by using 255 plugins? There are no ESL plugins in my game.

There should not be a plugin at 255 / FF in the game. I am not sure if Skyrm SE behaves "normal" with position 254 / FE and no CC present. Until some good testing is done, it is probably best to not use it either. 

[alt3rn1ty]

255 / FF is the slot reserved by the game for the in use save file to be loaded

(Oblivion / Fallout 3 / Fallout NV / Skyrim / Fallout 4 / Skyrim SE) 

 

254 / FE (for Oblivion / Fallout 3 / Fallout NV / Skyrim) is just a normal plugin slot

 

254 / FE (for Skyrim SE / Fallout 4) is reserved for loading all the new cc esl mods in the same slot (even though as esl's they will be listed just after esm's in your load order, they dont count as taking up a slot there)

 

 

So for Oblivion / Fallout 3 / Fallout NV / Skyrim, you have the use of slots 0-254 (0 counts as the first slot so you have 255 slots to play with, but deduct from that the games own plugins, leaves you with how many slots you can use for mods plugins and a bashed patch etc)

 

For Skyrim SE and Fallout 4 you have 0-253 = 254 slots to play with, and again deduct the games own plugins

[Godis]

There should not be a plugin at 255 / FF in the game. I am not sure if Skyrm SE behaves "normal" with position 254 / FE and no CC present. Until some good testing is done, it is probably best to not use it either. 

Ok, that's good to know! Regarding "some good testing": I finished my last playthrough with mostly 255 plugins filled without issues.. But just to be safe Iam now using 253 ;) And also my issue with the scripts in save file is finally gone! I have rebuilt DynDOLOD with my whole load order enabled, made clean save and reinstalled it. Now it'S working properly! I am just not sure if it was related to me using 255 plugins - or because I didn't build DynDOLOD with all mods enabled.. But as it'S working finally I don't want to reproduce the issue again, at least for now. xD

Edited February 28, 2018 by Godis

[sm0kem]

Ok, that's good to know! Regarding "some good testing": I finished my last playthrough with mostly 255 plugins filled without issues.. But just to be safe Iam now using 253 ;) And also my issue with the scripts in save file is finally gone! I have rebuilt DynDOLOD with my whole load order enabled, made clean save and reinstalled it. Now it'S working properly! I am just not sure if it was related to me using 255 plugins - or because I didn't build DynDOLOD with all mods enabled.. But as it'S working finally I don't want to reproduce the issue again, at least for now. xD

I've always followed the rule of disabling everything that isn't related to lod generation (i.e. Leaving only new lands, major texture/model overhauls, major quest ovehauls, trees/billboards, mods that add new structures/objects to the world).

Now by reading above discussion, i am wondering, what approach do you recommend Sheson: disabling unrelated or keeping full load order when running dyndolod? Also, what's your take on cleaning/sorting masters on dyndolod esm/esp if full load was used in generation?

Edited March 6, 2018 by sm0kem

[sheson]

I've always followed the rule of disabling everything that isn't related to lod generation (i.e. Leaving only new lands, major texture/model overhauls, major quest ovehauls, trees/billboards, mods that add new structures/objects to the world).

Now by reading above discussion, i am wondering, what approach do you recommend Sheson: disabling unrelated or keeping full load order when running dyndolod? Also, what's your take on cleaning/sorting masters on dyndolod esm/esp if full load was used in generation?

Generally speaking for the main population, it is best to have all plugins active when generating LOD, because then there is no need to worry about overwrite orders for plugins / records.

 

However, for the enthusiast modders I wrote this tip in the manual: If the load order changes often, consider generating LOD only for the base install of Skyrim Legendary and only the mods which are considered essential.

 

LOOT should hopefully be sorting the DynDOLOD plugin to load as early as possible, making sure DynDOLOD is not overwriting records in plugins that were absent with "wrong" data.

 

Enthusiast modders typically double check the result and plugins in xEdit to make the correct decision on a case per case basis.

 

All plugins should be cleaned and free of errors. If a plugin causes errors when generating LOD, it means the plugin needs to be fixed as explained in the FAQ.

Edited March 6, 2018 by sheson

[sm0kem]

LOOT is placing DynDOLOD.esp dead last in LO (i will double check if i don't have any custom rules set for it later today)

 

Does it matter if lean load order used for dyndolod is not continuous? Meaning there are gaps which will be filled with other plugins once full load is enabled. Or do you recommend keeping the continuity of the lod related plugins?

 

By cleaning, i meant stripping DynDOLOD plugins of unnecessary masters IF they were generated with full LO and picked up unrelated masters (i.e. some combat AI mod as an extreme example).

[sheson]

LOOT is placing DynDOLOD.esp dead last in LO (i will double check if i don't have any custom rules set for it later today)

 

Does it matter if lean load order used for dyndolod is not continuous? Meaning there are gaps which will be filled with other plugins once full load is enabled. Or do you recommend keeping the continuity of the lod related plugins?

 

By cleaning, i meant stripping DynDOLOD plugins of unnecessary masters IF they were generated with full LO and picked up unrelated masters (i.e. some combat AI mod as an extreme example).

There are no unnecessary masters in the DynDOLOD plugins. The xEdit Clean and Sort Masters functions are run on them before saving.

 

Are you saying loading a DynDOLOD plugin in xEdit and doing Clean Master from the right click menu removes any additional masters from the DynDOLOD plugins?

 

If that is the case I would like to know the plugin / mod.

Edited March 6, 2018 by sheson

[sm0kem]

Well, to be honest, I haven't done this using latest DynDOLOD, since i've been using "lean" load order for DynDOLOD generation since LE days, and sort of removed the posibility of picking up wrong masters.

But before I started doing that, yes, DynDOLOD plugin was picking unnecessary masters and needed to be manually cleaned (Clean/Sort Masters in xEdit). I still see this surfacing in discussions to this day though, and wanted to get your opinion on manually cleaning DynDOLOD.

 

Also very curious what your thoughts on below are:

 

Does it matter if lean load order used for dyndolod is not continuous? Meaning there are gaps which will be filled with other plugins once full load is enabled. Or do you recommend keeping the continuity of the lod related plugins?

Edited March 6, 2018 by sm0kem

[sheson]

Well, to be honest, I haven't done this using latest DynDOLOD since i've been using "lean" load order for DynDOLOD generation since LE days and sort of removed the posibility of picking up wrong masters.

But before I started doing that, yes, DynDOLOD plugin was picking unnecessary masters and needed to be manually cleaned (Clean/Sort Masters in xEdit). I still see this surfacing in discussions to this day though, and wanted to get your opinion on manually cleaning DynDOLOD.

 

Also very curious what your thoughts on below are:

 

Does it matter if lean load order used for dyndolod is not continuous? Meaning there are gaps which will be filled with other plugins once full load is enabled. Or do you recommend keeping the continuity of the lod related plugins?

There is no such thing as wrong masters, only confusion or not understanding why a plugin is a master. To quote your extreme example of an combat AI mod, that plugin also adds or changes something in a worldspace, cell, reference or base record or it changes a record that is linked by worldspace, cell, reference or base records. In early versions many years ago, DynDOLOD also added masters in case the master changed key values to keep load order consistency. Now it only keeps linked masters (a record referencing another) at the risk of having data in overwrites from plugins long gone from the load order.

 

DynDOLOD is a modified version of xEdit, so DynDOLOD runs the exact same xEdit Clean and Sort Master functions on the plugins before saving. Nothing should change in case someone runs the same functions with xEdit on the plugins again. If it does, I am interested in the plugins names that were removed or their order changed so we can troubleshoot the issue.

 

Gaps do not matter for the DynDOLOD plugins - after all they are very basic and simple. However, changing the plugin load order can cause stuck tree LOD issues  - in case a mod adding tree references is added/removed or the order of plugins that are adding tree references changes.

[sm0kem]

Makes sense. Thanks for detailed explanation.

 

P.S. I will let you know if i spot any masters that shouldn't be there (based on their records)

[sm0kem]

Quick question - is there an option to merge pregenerated tree lod meshes as opposed to generating from billboards?