Couple of question from a newb.

[DKomar]

Hello there, I just got into modding Skyrim a week ago or so, but I've been really consumed by it for the past few days and I wanted to finish it with getting DynDOLOD because the game looks hideous without it.

I somehow got through the basics and managed to get it to work for regular trees, but I'm really not satified by them and wanted to try the 3D tree LOD. That's where my troubles started because I am not the most experienced person in this kind of a thing.

Do I have to do everything from the scratch if I went to switch to 3D trees? From the scratch I mean getting rid of my current DynDOLOD, TexGen, reinstall all the patches and billboards for them including the tree mod I'm using which is "Enhanced Vanilla Trees". I've tried doing it without that and DynDOLOD popped some sort of an error and then it stopped working. To play it safe I also disabled all the ESPs not related to what I'm working on (Though it still had the same result). Do I have to do that?

[DKomar]

Don't want to spam, but can't see the edit option anywhere. I reinstalled everything again and here's my bugreport https://pastebin.com/NZDxsYbe

[sheson]

To replace the existing tree and object LOD with object LOD and 3D tree LOD in object LOD, the currently installed output should be removed first. Then generate from scratch.

 

TexGen only needs to be run again if full textures changed.

 

DynDOLOD Resources or Patches do not need to be reinstalled if nothing changed them in the first place like when using a proper mod manager like MO.

 

Install mods according to their instructions.

 

Do not randomly disable plugins unless you understand exactly why.

 

The error message is:

File not found: textures\lod\ictowerlod01.dds

 

File not found error message are self explanatory... The file is part of the required DynDOLOD Resources installation.

Edited March 23, 2020 by sheson

[DKomar]

To replace the existing tree and object LOD with object LOD and 3D tree LOD in object LOD, the currently installed output should be removed first. Then generate from scratch.

 

TexGen only needs to be run again if full textures changed.

 

DynDOLOD Resources or Patches do not need to be reinstalled if nothing changed them in the first place like when using a proper mod manager like MO.

 

Install mods according to their instructions.

 

Do not randomly disable plugins unless you understand exactly why.

 

The error message is:

File not found: textures\lod\ictowerlod01.dds

 

File not found error message are self explanatory... The file is part of the required DynDOLOD Resources installation.

Thanks a lot for the response, I really appreciate it. You were right! I had it installed, but I must have overwritten it or something during my clunky troubleshooting attempts because after reinstalling it, I no longer get any errors.

 

Unfortunately I don't think it works as intended. Trees still look like cardboard until I'll get close to them https://i.imgur.com/AfXr8Po.jpg https://i.imgur.com/XIQ6M0Q.jpg

I'll try to reinstall everything that's related to trees and DynDOLOD again.

[sheson]

Read DynDOLOD\Docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html

 

Make sure 3D tree LOD assets are installed for the tree mod(s) you are using.

 

Change the INI setting to disable traditional 2D tree LOD.

 

Set the 'tree' rule to Static LOD 4 for LOD4.

 

Then check the DynDOLOD log for the tree report that the 3D tree LOD models were found.

[DKomar]

Read DynDOLOD\Docs\trees.ultra\DynDOLOD-Trees.html

 

Make sure 3D tree LOD assets are installed for the tree mod(s) you are using.

 

Change the INI setting to disable traditional 2D tree LOD.

 

Set the 'tree' rule to Static LOD 4 for LOD4.

 

Then check the DynDOLOD log for the tree report that the 3D tree LOD models were found.

I went over all of those again just to be sure and it still doesn't work. Maybe it's related to my installation order?

It was: EVT, DynDOLOD resources, Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards, EVT Billboards, DynDOLOD patches, TexGen and DynDOLOD.

Also if I'm on a clean Skyrim installation, do I need to install 2D trees DynDOLOD and then do it again with the settings for 3D or am I overthinking it out of confusion?

 

[sheson]

Check the DynDOLDO log tree report what tree LOD assets are found. 

 

You do not need to generate 2D tree LOD before 3D tree LOD. There are no hidden or missing steps in the instructions.

Edited March 24, 2020 by sheson

[DKomar]

Check the DynDOLDO log tree report what tree LOD assets are found. 

 

You do not need to generate 2D tree LOD before 3D tree LOD. There are no hidden or missing steps in the instructions.

I'm not sure what I've done differently this time, but reinstalling DynDOLOD again asked me to overrite an EVT file and it finally seems to work now! Thank you for the excellent support, your mod is amazing.

[DKomar]

I actually spoke a bit prematurely, it does work for most trees, but not for all of them unfortunately. I suppose that has something to do with those lines in the log? https://pastebin.com/d6B3uG92 I wonder why that happened since EVT has 3D models for that. Maybe something to do with the billboards I've been using for vanilla Skyrim trees? Namely those https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/62698?tab=files Actually, do I even need those if I'm using EVT?

[sheson]

FAQ: DynDOLOD.exe: Note: textures\terrain\lodgen\skyrim.esm\treepineforest01_0001306d_n.dds normal map not found, using flat replacement 

A: Ignore. A handful of trees can not have traditional tree LOD for technical reasons and will be done as static object LOD. Static object LOD uses the normal _n.dds textures, but LOD tree billboards do not have one so the flat replacement is used, just as traditional tree LOD does. 

 

As the manual explains, billboards for the vanilla trees are always required. Obviously only choose one of the listed options.

 

Again, check the DynDOLOD log for the "Static tree LOD used meshes and billboards" report that tells you exactly for which tree 3D LOD models and billboards have been found. As explained in DynDOLOD-Trees.html, it looks like this:

TreeAspen01 [TREE:0006A9E6] meshes\landscape\trees\treeaspen01.nif
	Billboard found, 3D LOD found 
	LOD4: meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\treeaspen01passthru_lod.nif
	LOD8: textures\terrain\lodgen\skyrim.esm\treeaspen01_0006a9e6.dds using internal
	LOD16: textures\terrain\lodgen\skyrim.esm\treeaspen01_0006a9e6.dds using internal

 

 

If some trees do not have 3D LOD it typically means that a 3D LOD model was not was not installed for them.

 

Check the description/instructions of the 3rd party tree mod.

Edited March 24, 2020 by sheson

[DKomar]

I messed something up with the installation of EVT and that's why it didn't work for those trees, BUT... I still can't get it to work with tundradriftwood01.nif.

The log message says:

 

 TreeTundraDriftWoodTree01 [TREE:000B8F53] meshes\landscape\trees\tundradriftwood01.nif
                    Billboard found, replaced tree, 3D LOD not found <tundradriftwood01_04E4DBCF> fallback Billboard
                    LOD4: textures\terrain\lodgen\skyrim.esm\tundradriftwood01_000b8f53.dds using internal
                    LOD8: textures\terrain\lodgen\skyrim.esm\tundradriftwood01_000b8f53.dds using internal
                    LOD16: textures\terrain\lodgen\skyrim.esm\tundradriftwood01_000b8f53.dds using internal

 

The billboards for EVT seem to have a 3D LOD for it though, I thought that maybe something was wrong with them and they couldn't install it properly so I extracted it and tried to place it in game files manually, renaming it, all possible combinations for that. I think I generated DynDOLOD output at least 6 times trying to get it to generate 3D LOD for this particular tree and still nothing unfortunately.

[sheson]

You have a mod that replaces the vanilla tundradrifwoood01 tree. If you want 3D tree LOD for it you need to install the required 3D tree LOD billboard for it that matches the shown name tundradriftwood01_04E4DBCF.

 

Use a proper mod manager like Mod Organizer. Installing things manually will just end in confusion.

Edited March 25, 2020 by sheson

[DKomar]

Of course I don't expect you to look through every mod's contents, but could you please just take a peek at my modlist? Maybe some mod's name has come up often in troubleshooting situations https://pastebin.com/EJXWKV31 I looked through the archives of mods that alter trees and I couldn't really find any tundradriftoowd01 file.

[sheson]

Instead of trying to randomly find a mod, look up which mod is the last one to supply the model of the tree.

 

Load the entire load order in xEdit.

 

Enter the form ID 000B8F53 of the tree into the FormID field top left and hit Enter.

 

In the right window find the row Model, unfold it if required so it shows the path/to/model.nif

 

If there are other plugins than Skyrim.esm listed in the columns, then the most right one is the last one to overwrite the record. Any of the plugins is a candidate which might replace the vanilla tree model.

 

Start the xEdit Asset Browser with CTRL+F3

 

Enter the found filename like TundraDriftWood01.nif into the Filter field

 

Check the Containers column for the sources. The first one to be listed is the winning one. If it says "Data", then it is a loose file.

 

If it is a loose file, use MOs right window data tab to drill down the path to the file. It will then tell you which mod supplies the file.

 

 

If the changes to the tree are minuscule, you could just simply copy the 3D tree LOD model included in DynDOLOD Resources to the new filename. Read DynDOLOD\Docs\trees.ultra\tools\DynDOLOD_CreateStaticTree.html to learn how 3D tree LOD can be created and about the CRC32 of the full model tree being used to match them.

[DKomar]

I got really frustrated with not being able to fix such a simple issue and I removed all the mods relating to trees and flora in any way. Then I reinstalled EVT with billboards and generated new DynDOLOD output and everything works now! Thank you for your patience, I wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of this without your pointers.