Combining 3d and 2d tree LODs

[Alexanderman95]

Hello there.

 

So I am playing through Bruma at the moment and wonder if there is any way to combine 2d LODs and 3d LODs?

 

I am using 3d trees and Aspens Ablaze, wich both have 3d LOD resources, but Bruma's trees don't. Is there a way to exclude 3d trees and Aspens from generating 2d LODs? Because at the moment I have 3d LODs overlaping with 2d ones and don't look that good. 

I thing I have seen somewhere how to do so, but can't remember where exactly, so I need help.

Thanks.

[sheson]

If there is traditional tree LOD showing together with 3D tree LOD models, it probably means the traditional tree LOD is not "disabled" for that worldspace.

 

If ultra tree LOD was generated correctly, there should be an empty (1 byte file size) meshes\terrain\BSHeartland\trees\BSHeartland.lst in the output folder and no other files.

[Alexanderman95]

I apologize, didn't make myself clear. I did it in purpose so that I would have all the tree LODs in the Bruma worldspace. If I generate 3d LODs alone, there won't be any tree LODs for the forest below Bruma (trees that come with Bruma mod itself), because there are no resources for them to be. In this case I have only LODs for the trees that are replaced with 3D Trees and Aspens Ablaze, wich are in Skyrim. So I have to generate both 2d and 3d lods, because not all trees have 3d LOD resources. So the question is how to generate the traditional LOD only for certain trees, in this case trees that come with Bruma mod, and not for others, in this case those trees, that are from Skyrim itself?

[sheson]

As is well known, LOD in the far away areas can not be generated because the data for the placements is missing from the plugins, not because of missing LOD resources.

 

Traditional and ultra tree LOD generation can only cover the same area and ultra tree LOD makes use of tree LOD billboards. So if there are no tree LOD billboards they will be missing for both LOD types.

 

Only generate ultra tree LOD and keep using the tree LOD included in the mod that covers the areas that were cut from the plugins and LOD can not be generated for.

 

In that case an "empty" *.btt  needs to overwrite the existing included BSHeartland.bsa for the areas that have ultra tree LOD to disable traditional tree LOD just for that area.

 

So, for every meshes\terrain\BSHeartland\Objects\BSHeartland.4.*.*.bto in the output, an "empty" meshes\terrain\bsheartland\trees\bsheartland.4.*.*.btt needs to exist.

 

You can use meshes\terrain\bsheartland\trees\bsheartland.4.0.56.btt from BSAssets.bsa as a template. Its file size is 4 bytes - which equals to "empty".

[Alexanderman95]

I think we are talking about different areas.

I mean tree LODs for the trees in the playable area, wich is within the boundaries of the mod itself. I understand that areas that are beyond that won't have any LODs, because it's not finished in general.

Some screenshots to explain even better. https://imgur.com/a/NwDPpSX

On the first shot are only 3D LODs with the trees that have resources by mod authors. As you can see there are no Bruma's trees visible at all.

On the second shot are 3D LODs with 2D ones so that Bruma's trees appear and now it looks how it's supposed to be (kinda).

On the third shot is the problem itself, when 3D lods of the trees form the 1st shot are overlaping with 2D ones after generating for the 2nd shot.

I tried to do the steps that you wrote, because I thought that replacing 2D lods of the trees from the 1st shot with empty files would do the trick, but after that all the 2D LODs dissapeared and it looks again like in the 1st shot.

Or maybe everything's much easier and there is a way to make DynDOLOD generate those brigh green trees' LODs as static objects as well? 

[sheson]

Ultra tree LOD always replaces traditional tree LOD. Ultra tree LOD simply means that all tree LOD is done in object LOD.

 

As the manual explains, ultra tree LOD uses either 3D tree LOD models or the same tree LOD billboards that are required for traditional tree LOD generation. If no 3D tree LOD model is available, it automatically falls back to use the tree LOD billboard instead.

 

Which means, if certain trees have no LOD, no tree LOD billboard and no 3D tree LOD model is installed for that tree. The log details what resource were found and used.

Simply install the missing tree LOD billboards. See https://forum.step-project.com/topic/11997-dynamic-distant-objects-lod-dyndolod-227/page-13?do=findComment&comment=204312

Edited September 29, 2020 by sheson

[Alexanderman95]

That's the problem, I have read that it falls back to tree LOD if 3D LOD is no available, but it doen's happen in my case for some reason.

And I have installed Bruma Billdoards, because, if I'm not mistaken, I would not be able to generate right LODs for the replaced trees without them, in the first place.

However, on the Bruma Billboard mod page it's written to ''Only generate static tree LOD''.

[sheson]

In case a 3D tree LOD model does not exist for a tree it falls back to use its billboard in object LOD. It does not fall back using the traditional tree LOD system. Tree traditional tree LOD is being disabled by creating the empty *.LST file.

 

If a tree reference does not have a LOD representation it means that neither a 3D tree LOD model or a billboard were found for it. The log details which 3D tree LOD model and billboards were found for a tree base record.

 

The manual/FAQ explain how to find out if a billboard for a tree is installed. Basically, just search the log and textures/terrain/LODGen folder for the zeroed form id of the tree base record for a tree that does not have LOD.

Zeroed means the first two digits of the form id are zero.