Having trouble getting correct textures in LOD...

[VanGohman]

I am really new to this (and by "new" I mean I've been trying to figure this out for 3 years now).

I'm trying to get all of this to work with Skyrim VR using Mod Manager 2 (portable mode).

I believe I have gotten DynDOLOD to "work" partially, in that I managed to get the lod for Azura's statue to match the "Sexy Statues" version I have installed by including a rule at the bottom of the rules list.

This seems to show up in game just fine.

I think the tree lods have worked for my "3d Trees and Plants", "3d Landscapes", and "Trees Addon SSE" (plus it's cities trees beta), and all seem to be visible in the lod.

I also believe that I'm seeing the improved LODS for objects such as houses, because I can now see lod for things like Elysium Estate, which adds a player home just outside of Whiterun, because I now see this player home much sooner than I would have without using DynDOLOD.

But for some reason, the LOD textures for all homes all seem to look like "vanilla" textures, while I'm using a combination of "Skyrim Realistic Overhaul" textures with "Noble Skyrim" set to overwrite the former, and then "Majestic Mountains" (including the "complimentary textures" and it's own "Lod pack for Dyndolod" set to overwrite both.

When I'm close to Honningbrew Meadery, it has the darker textures that come with Noble Skyrim (I think), which includes additional arch detail on the left building over the door, but as I walk backwards over the bridge that takes me along the whiterun wall it eventually switches to what look like vanilla textures.

The other issue I'm wondering about is I have a mod called "Immersive Fallen Trees" that adds "Fallen Trees" all over the place, many spanning rivers etc. And I don't see the tree models it adds in the lod, at least not very far off lod. There is one tree in particular I've been testing with, and it appears on the river just above the bridge you go to with the console command coc Whiterun.

Does DynDOLOD create additional lod models for terrain object modes like "Immersive Fallen Trees"? If so, how far would I be able to see them?

I've been resisting the urge to post here for weeks now, pouring over the manuals, additional information, guides, and tutorial videos, so if this is a simple thing, I apologize in advance.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you can help, even more thanks in advance!

-VanGohman

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by VanGohman

[sheson]

The tools do not change how the game works.

 

The switch from LOD model to full model is always visible, especially if the LOD model uses one of the two snow LOD shaders and the full model uses a slightly different full snow shader which can have unlimited variations.

 

FAQ: Game: Rectangular holes in LOD 

 

A: Caused by vanilla pre-computed occlusion. Has nothing to do with the LOD data itself. Either use xLODGen or DynDOLOD to update the data. See the 'TVDT - Occlusion Data' section in ..DynDOLOD\Docs\DynDOLOD_Manual.html and https://forum.step-project.com/topic/14250-skyrim-tvdt-occlusion-data/

[VanGohman]

Cool, thanks again for everything Sheson, this stuff really makes such a huge difference, especially in VR where every little thing that isn't realistic just stands out like a sore thumb in 3D. :D

[VanGohman]

I've re-installed my load order from scratch, toned back on the mix and match textures, and just stuck to Noble Skyrim, The HD Lod pack for it, Nordic Snow, Just Ice, and Majestic Mountains, to keep things simple, and now I'm getting some great results. I think part of my problem is I was also trying to use Majestic Mountain's "complimentary textures" pack, which were competing with the ones I wanted. Now that I've taken them out of the mix, things are really starting to click in the terrain.

I'm getting great tree lods, the only thing I still have to figure out is how to even out the brightness between the full-size and lod trees.

I've started playing around with the brightness settings on DynDOLOD, and it seems I can make the lod brighter, but at the expense of contrast.

Is there a known method or setting that is known to work  the best?

[sheson]

If the tree LOD billboard brightness setting in the advanced options does not have the desired results, you can always try to modify the billboard textures with an image editing program. Or create new billboards from scratch.

 

Or test 3D tree LOD for the nearest LOD level.

[VanGohman]

Looks like I can't just load them up in my ancient version of paint shop pro. I also just tried gimp, but even after downloading it's dds plugin, it's telling me it can't open files with this type of compression.

Is Photoshop the majority choice here?

Looks like I can get a "cloud" version for a $3 a month subscription, do you know if that will work?

I'm also looking into nifscope (per a video I found on creating my own billboards), in which case I've managed to load up and look at nif files, but not sure if this is a good method?

Also, the Forests of Dibella mod seems to come with it's own Textures\Terrain\LODgen folder full of dds files and matching txt files inside of Skyrim, Dawnguard, and Dragonborn esm folders.

Is this possibly pre-made stuff I can somehow sub in without having to worry about generating my own billboards?

I apologize in advance for not being image editing savvy.

Edited September 22, 2020 by VanGohman

[sheson]

DDS files in Textures\Terrain\LODGen are the source billboards I suggest to edit directly in case the brightness setting does not have the desired results.

 

Sounds like the textures are in BC7 format, which was introduced with Skyrm Special Edition. There should be plugins or methods to open these, also for GIMP.

 

You can always use a command line tool TexConv to convert to any supported texture format like uncompressed dds for editing. And then convert it back afterwards if so inclined.

Edited September 22, 2020 by sheson

[VanGohman]

Looks like Gimp's latest DDS plugin isn't good enough for the new format, but Paint.net with it's Gimp plugin already included in the latest version worked a treat (at least I was able to open the dds file).

Now I'm off to try and brighten them up.

Thanks again Sheson!

[VanGohman]

I've been able to brighten up the dds image, and save it back out, but I don't believe I'm seeing the results in the game when I load it up.

I'm trying to edit just the one dds file from this path within the DynDOLOD generated folder after installing it into my mod oganizer2:

D:\Modding Tools\MO2\mods\DynDOLOD_Output_High_3DLod - Brighter\Textures\Terrain\Tamriel\Trees\TamrielTreeLod.dds

Am I in the wrong place to effect the snow trees I'm looking at by Anga's Mill?

I'm not sure if this matters, but in DynDOLOD, I'm trying to generate the full 3D tree lod by setting TreeLOD=0 in the DynDOLOD_SSE.ini file.

Maybe this only works for regular lod settings (aka TreeLOD=0)?

Edited September 23, 2020 by VanGohman

[sheson]

If you edit billboard textures, you need to generate LOD afterwards so LOD texture atlasses are updated with edited textures.

 

If you edit the tree LOD texture atlas Textures\Terrain\Tamriel\Trees\TamrielTreeLod.dds directly, then the effect should be visible immediately in the game if traditional tree LOD is used.

If ultra tree LOD is used, then there should be no TamrielTreeLod.dds in the output and only the object LOD texture atlasses in Textures\DynDOLOD\LOD\*.dds

The object LOD texture atlasses will always contain some tree LOD billboards in any case.

[VanGohman]

Oh, so I need to brighten things up before I do the lod generation?

So if I'm doing xLodgen, then TexGen, then DynDOLOD, I should be brightening up the billboards before all of that? Or just before DynDOLOD?

At what point should I be trying to manually brighten things up?

And which dds files should I be trying to brighten up if trying to use full 3D Lod trees?

Should I be brightening up the source billboards from the mods I'm using?

I just realized there is a doc included about Ultra 3D trees. I think part of my problem is I've been trying to follow third party you tuber instructions.

So it looks like DynDOLOD comes with pre made hybrid tree lod support for a handfull of mods, and if I want to use hybrid trees in other mods, those mods need to have pre-made support for hybrid tree lod?

Perhaps I should stick to traditional lod for Forrests of Dibella? He is offering an HD and and UHD version, but as I read over his page more, it looks like the Ultra in this case is just referring to higher resolution textures, not Ultra 3D tree lods, he mentioned that he included billboard for DynDOLOD, but I'm now guessing that's only good for traditional flat billboard generation?

Since I last posted, I've actually switched over to the trees being used by the youtuber's 3D Ultra Tree Lod guide I was following along with, which would be Enhanced Vanilla Trees SE (Large Custom), the Enhanced Landscapes Oaks SE, Green and Lush Aspen Trees SE, Reach Tree Replacer SSE, alongside various tree placement mods such as the Blubbo's Trees mods, Trees Addon SE, Whiterun Forest Borealis.

Going over the doc included in DynDolod, it looks like these may be better candidates for my full Ultra 3D hybrid tree lod dreams?

[sheson]

You either edit the source billboard or the generated atlas from those textures, whatever you prefer. However, typically it is better to edit the assets being used for LOD generation so you only do it once.

 

Tree LOD billboard textures are only used when tree LOD and object LOD are generated.

 

You edit the billboard textures that you deem necessary you need to edit manually for whatever reason. Every tree has only one matching billboard texture. See DynDOLOD FAQ: Game: Tree LOD: LOD trees do not match close-up full model trees.

 

3D tree LOD models are required for 3D tree LOD. You can try the full model fallback, but you see all the warnings about it, so, yes specially crafted 3D tree LOD models are required.

 

From the DynDOLOD_Manual.html "Terminology" section:

 

Billboards are a simple 2D texture representation of trees and an optional text file defining width, height and other parameters used for tree LOD.

 

Obviously they can only be used for 2D billboard tree LOD.

 

Any tree mod for which 3D tree LOD models already exists is a good candidate or just vanilla trees, obviously.

[VanGohman]

Okay, that makes sense. I'm definitely having a better time with these tree mods.

I may circle back to Dibella down the road and just do the regular flat billboard lod, but for now it doesn't look like I need to brighten up my new 3d hybrid lod, everything just looks good right out of the box.
 

As I was recklessly adding new mods, I came across Enhanced Landscapes, and they talk about how they are using a DynDOLOD ini file to automatically patch things for other mods (such as Routa playerhome outside of Windhelm). Can you point me towards more info on how that works? I got the impression I just install both Enhanced Landscapes and Routa, and somehow DynDOLOD would just make it work together, but for me after all lod generation, Routa is still being messed up by Enhanced Landscapes...

 

Thanks again Sheson.

Edited September 23, 2020 by VanGohman

[sheson]

Just look at one oft The ini files in Enhanced Landscapes like DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_enhancedlandscapesesp.ini

 

It contains sections for other [pluginesp] and then just adds mesh rules for form ids as plugin.esp;00123456 of object references to disable ("Delete")

 

You need to make sure to press low, medium, high buttons for mesh rules to load.

[VanGohman]

Oh wow, this is happening with a lot of my mods.

So I should be hitting one of the quality setting buttons each time I run DynDOLOD with a new load order?

I had modified these settings with the Azura full model rule rule and saved off that setting which I kept loading for each new run instead of hitting one of the quality preset buttons, but is that just reloading the rules for the mods I had when I created the saved profile and then not taking into account anything new in my load order?

[sheson]

These sentences are hidden in a sea of documentation:

 

Rules [...] are added to the mesh rules list automatically if the plugin esp filename is found in the load order when using the 'Default', 'Low', 'Medium' or 'High' buttons.

 

Update the mesh rules by clicking the Low', 'Medium' or 'High' button after checking/unchecking any of the 'Load rules for' options or the 'Generate dynamic LOD' checkbox.

 

Using the preset button will replace any existing rules. It is just not smart enough to individually update only a select list of rules.

 

Have a look at DynDOLOD_Mod_Authors.html "How to add rules for your own mod"

Edited September 24, 2020 by sheson