Your favourite tree mod for ultra trees?

[blaa]

I tried 3D trees. Some trees still shape-shift upon approach, creating a pop in effect that is more subtle/less jarring but still there.

 

What tree mods do you use for ultra trees? Anyone know one where the pop-in is basically not noticeable at all any longer?

[DoubleYou]

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Tree_Settings

 

I think you just need to adjust your tree settings.

[z929669]

Maybe one reason, but my first guess is that some of the tree mods used don't have LODgen files, and the DynDOLOD resources don't match. I assume the latest DynDOLOD can generate these though ... based on what sheson told me a while back. I haven't used the latest version at all though.

 

EVT and Myrkvior are examples that have proper LODgen. The doc lists many of those that are fully and partially compatible with DynDOLOD

[blaa]

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Tree_Settings

 

I think you just need to adjust your tree settings.

Yeah that might be it. I thought the reason was more along what z# said, but I haven´t properly configured it, which I will try now. Also I used the latest stable 2.91 but I´ll try the beta now.

 

Thanks guys.

 

E: Might switch to Myrkvior, seems interesting from the description.

Edited February 12, 2021 by blaa

[blaa]

Can´t edit any more, but the values were even higher from some of the LOD stuff in the inis and skinned trees at 200, so that wasn´t it.

[z929669]

Myrkvior is pretty amazing in most respects. Slight deviation from vanilla though. I made an aspen mod that aligns well with it, but that is a vanilla deviation, too.

[blaa]

Okay so I have done the following now:

terrain with xlodgen, ultra trees and grass billboards with dyndo

 

I used 3DTrees again cause I wanted to give it another try with the new beta. And the manual does list it as compatible.

 

Here we see two shape shifters caught in the act:

 

https://streamable.com/j91jqk

 

This moment also kinda captures the issue: Look at the trees on top of the screen. Also, the texture pop in is still very noticeable.

 

https://streamable.com/iablx7

 

I also have some flickering in the mountains going on (zfighting?) and the ini is already with the recommended values.

 

My question is, can this be enhanced upon or have I kinda reached the end of the rope here?

 

 

Other than that, I am very happy with the result:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2392240896

 

Grass as far as the eye can see, wonderful.

 

This is what the grass pop in looks like at it´s best, look at the hill- just a slight color change. In other scenarios it´s a bit more noticeable, but this is great:

 

https://streamable.com/0nh49y

Edited February 12, 2021 by blaa

[blaa]

I generated EVT now and it is much better. Only issue remaining in my game is some flickering in the distance, which is a vanilla issue afaik. The tools work perfectly, both for grass and ultra trees.

Edited February 12, 2021 by blaa

[DoubleYou]

You could improve the terrain LOD pop-in by increasing fSplitDistanceMult. Just remember that this number is multiplied against the fBlock distances for terrain LOD levels, so don't go crazy. You can adjust this easily in the DYNDOLOD MCM menu.

[z929669]

For distant terrain/mountains popping, that is likely reduced by lowering quality settings believe it or not. It really depends on your hardware in combination with certain INI settings as DY indicates. Using quality of 5 instead of 0 may help with this.

 

You LOD popping issues are NOT due to incompatible LOD. It seems to be due to alpha diffs in LOD versus full textures (LOD are more alpha-trimmed). I haven't tried DynDOLOD 3.0 yet, so not sure about those settings, but the doc should have something about this type of alpha-popping stuff. Otherwise, post this behavior to sheson over on that thread. He will likely point you to the doc though, but at least he may point you to the specific doc that addresses this.

 

The alpha popping thing could also apply to billboards if 3D Trees provides those and you also select them in the mesh rules.

[sheson]

What you see in the video is normal for the engine and how it works. DynDOLOD does not change how the engine works.

 

1) LOD model/textures are different than full model/textures, hence a when one fades out and the other fades in a difference is noticeable

 

2) Even if the LOD uses the full model and texture, there will be an obvious switch, because LOD only has fixed transparency and does not cast or receive shadows, has limited shaders.

 

3) The LOD model is only disabled once the full model fully loaded, so for a brief time both models show. This alone can make trees look too thick for second.

 

Since 3D tree LOD comes with its own 3D LOD models and textures (made with Simplygon because the full models are too complex for the hybrid method), so it is what DynDOLOD uses for LOD generation. If the alpha of the first mipmap of those LOD textures is too thick or thin, you can try to edit the texture in an image program.

 

If a hybrid 3D tree LOD uses the same full texture as the full model, then an adjustment for the alpha threshold is applied when the texture is added to the LOD atlas. Since hybrid models also typically uses a 1:1 copy of the leafs/branches, they match more closely - which the bad side effect there is much more noticeable flicker while both models show, because of shadowing.

Edited February 12, 2021 by sheson

[z929669]

Thanks for the clarification here ... LOD can never be perfect then. I suppose I have always noticed a subtle change in the transition and that the diff is subtle vs obvious. Obvious can be tempered using DY's INI methods and/or some of the suggestions sheson mentions.

 

I am always very happy when my LOD tree shapes and branch patterns match full, and I guess I never flinch much if there is a noticeable-yet-subtle transition. It certainly beats a deciduous tree popping in over a pine tree :)

[blaa]

Here is a transition with the EVTs:

 

https://streamable.com/3ef56m

 

Compared to the two shape-shifters I posted earlier (https://streamable.com/j91jqk), this is a world of difference. I wouldn´t really recommend 3D Trees if minimizing pop in is important to you.

 

I´ll try the hint with fSplitDistanceMult and post results later. Currently my ini has fSplitDistanceMult = 4.0

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by blaa

[z929669]

Those pines are pretty much doing the exact same thing as the deciduous trees, but it's not as noticeable since pines are a lot fuller to begin with. It's just the alpha-change pop-in from LOD to full. I think it can be minimized using the mipmap settings in LODgen and DY's INI suggestions. I'd say you are seeing all of the benefits of DynDOLOD either way ... it's just not perfect due to limitations of the game.

[DoubleYou]

If you already have fSplitDistanceMult at 4.0, you probably don't want to increase it further. What that variable is telling the LOD is that you want the terrain LOD to be nicer for 4x the distance of the object LOD, basically. You probably have it as nice as it's gonna get.