ACCEPTED Aspens Ablaze (by mindflux)

[z929669]

Discussion topic:
Aspens Ablaze by mindflux
Wiki Link

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See mod page for screen compares for all versions. Those screens were created under Step WIP 2.0.0.

I think "Autumnal" is the most vanilla-friendly option, and I think it is also the most realistic.

[DoubleYou]

@z929669 Do we need the last option of the fomod installed if using your Aspens Ablaze Addon?

[z929669]

On 8/9/2021 at 4:03 PM, DoubleYou said:

@z929669 Do we need the last option of the fomod installed if using your Aspens Ablaze Addon?

No, not needed but will not hurt as I describe in the Description of the Add-On. We should keep it unticked in the mod page though.

[DoubleYou]

I love the look, but I'm not in love with the animation of the trees. The wobble seems strange. 

Nevermind the performance issue, as that is an LOD issue I need to correct.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, DoubleYou said:

I love the look, but I'm not in love with the animation of the trees. The wobble seems strange. 

Nevermind the performance issue, as that is an LOD issue I need to correct.

Yeah, anims are basically vanilla and part of the base mod meshes, which are totally custom and look great but lack the NiNode magic that allows better anims. It doesn't bother me personally. See EVT aspen models to see the structural diff, which is one way to get better anims. Complicated, IMO.

The LOD performance is also an issue with the base crowns, which are high poly to correct for lighting issues that impact deciduous trees in particular. Normal faces must always face a light source to look right, so higher poly count helps to correct. Pines don't have the issue, because their branches basically always are radial at 45 degrees-ish. I spoke with Vurt at length about this issue with my aspen mod, which has lower poly count and suffers quite a bit from this limitation.

IMO, the AA mod itself should further optimize polys and reduce by half again to fix both full and LOD performance. Just correcting the LOD crowns alone would mean more noticeable transition. Could be done though, but I am still learning how to use 3DsMax.

Anims and polys issues are both special problems of deciduous trees I think.

[DoubleYou]

I just made a mesh rule to remove the treeaspen from LOD and it mostly fixed the LOD performance issue. If I tll, the performance is fine, so that was how I knew it was LOD. If we use this, it would be good to improve this, as that is quite the fps hit.

[z929669]

9 minutes ago, DoubleYou said:

I just made a mesh rule to remove the treeaspen from LOD and it mostly fixed the LOD performance issue. If I tll, the performance is fine, so that was how I knew it was LOD. If we use this, it would be good to improve this, as that is quite the fps hit.

For me, LOD is the whole point though, so removing it from LOD is just a bad idea, IMO. Better to just set billboard for Aspen LOD

[DoubleYou]

Agreed. It was just a test to see if that was the issue. Need to regen again with modified rule for it.

[z929669]

One of the users for the add-on mentioned that he may optimize the LOD meshes ... makes much more sense to optimize the fill ones though, since they are the same exact thing. I may give it a try at some point if he doesn't.

[TechAngel85]

I vote we accept this one with the new optimization, it's not worse than the Marsh.

[DoubleYou]

Using the Billboard4 works well, and it looks good. I agree.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, TechAngel85 said:

I vote we accept this one with the new optimization, it's not worse than the Marsh.

Agree

[Greg]

I think the detailed instructions should be updated. The instructions currently instruct the user to install the main file and then hide all the LOD assets. The current version uses an FOMOD installer so all this can be skipped by not selecting the LOD Assets option as shown in DoubleYou's screenshot in the second post.

[z929669]

31 minutes ago, Greg said:

I think the detailed instructions should be updated. The instructions currently instruct the user to install the main file and then hide all the LOD assets. The current version uses an FOMOD installer so all this can be skipped by not selecting the LOD Assets option as shown in DoubleYou's screenshot in the second post.

Agree. I will get to it over the weekend unless someone beats me to it. TG family arrival today.

[z929669]

Updated wiki instructions to merge the "Aspens Ablaze - No Interior Modifications" Optional File. This will hopefully improve compatibility with RS and alleviate some added patching for that.

EDIT: I created a version of the "Aspens Ablaze - No Interior Modifications" plugin for the DynDOLOD add-on, so merging the "Aspens Ablaze - No Interior Modifications" Optional File from the main mod is probably redundant. I will leave this instruction there for anyone who isn't going to generate DynDOLOD.