FO4LODGen

[sheson]

Hi again Sheson, hope you are still active here. I been using the tool and its been fine, after my initial learning curve and many questions. But recently, I have tried to create coupe of new flat LODs for trees I got working from Skyrim resource pack and add them to Fallout 4. I have always made my flat lods using gamer poets video tutorial but these recent once are getting the white outline, as if AA has been left ON in nifskope. Do you think new Nvidia drivers could be causing this? its frustrating coz its a like 3 step prcess before you can even see if your billboard capture has the white line when applied to the nif, so trial and error is taking some time. 

 

Windows 10 recently updated too and I notice if HDR setting is on, simple screenshots coume out looking over high in contrast. So that is off atm, but will try it with on and try fiddling with AA setting in Nvidia control panel too. Just wondering if anyone else has reported this or you have an answer that might save my time and sanity. Thanks. 

Fill the transparent background with a color matching the parts of the tree itself. Make sure to use texture compression formats that support an alpha channel (like 8888, DXT5, BC7 but not DXT1).

 

Check textures like Textures\LOD\Trees\ElmBranchesLOD_d.DDS which simply fill the transparent areas with a solid color.

[Oynlen]

hmm. I see what you mean, the elm branch looks like it has no colour but there is some. So fill with solid colour first, reduce transparency and then paste on billboard image I guess. I'll try this. thanks. Its weird I have done others and they have been fine in the past. 

[Oynlen]

Just returning to say thanks. This method worked for me. 

[xThehavok]

Im sure im missing something but i cant figure out how to get this to work. I can get LODgen to load the FO4 and dlc files but i cant get it to see my mod. It loads it in the "log" but i wont give me the option to check a box to generate LOD for it. From what i have gathered its because i dont have a LOD settings file and someone on another forum told me i can us the CK to get it but then didnt give any details on how to go about getting it. I need to know step by step how to make xLODgen see my mod. If anyone can help me out it'd be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[sheson]

Im sure im missing something but i cant figure out how to get this to work. I can get LODgen to load the FO4 and dlc files but i cant get it to see my mod. It loads it in the "log" but i wont give me the option to check a box to generate LOD for it. From what i have gathered its because i dont have a LOD settings file and someone on another forum told me i can us the CK to get it but then didnt give any details on how to go about getting it. I need to know step by step how to make xLODgen see my mod. If anyone can help me out it'd be greatly appreciated, thanks!

The requirement of a lodsettings file is printed at the bottom of the options window.

 

It can be created with https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10896

[xThehavok]

Thanks for the reply, the program instantly crashes i have no UAC settings enabled, running as an admin and compatibility mode does not work. I was messing around with this late last night and generated lod using the creation kit and it gave me a LOD settings file (yay) renamed the file inside of it to my mod name and still xLODgen wont see my mod. 

[sheson]

Thanks for the reply, the program instantly crashes i have no UAC settings enabled, running as an admin and compatibility mode does not work. I was messing around with this late last night and generated lod using the creation kit and it gave me a LOD settings file (yay) renamed the file inside of it to my mod name and still xLODgen wont see my mod.

It is a command line tool that needs to be started from a windows command prompt.

It works perfectly fine here. If you have problems with a third party program I suggest to ask its author.

 

Do not rename the lodsettings folder or the *.lod file CK created. The filename is the EditorID of the worldspace.

[TheDoc]

Hi guys,

 

first of all thank you for your amazing work. I can't thank the whole team enough for this wonderful tool. You guys are the only reason why I didn't give up on creating my own worldspace, because I need to see and feel the world when I create things and the CK LOD generation wasn't working for me and was terribly slow when it partially worked, whereas your tool makes it super easy. I usually generate new LOD daily so your tool is the foundation of my work.

 

Unfortunately I'm getting some weird LOD bugs which I don't understand and I don't have anyone else to ask, so I thought you guys could maybe help me or give me an hint of what's going on. I noticed that sheson said that the LOD either completely works or not so my problem might be related to something else? Anyways, here is my problem:

 

Certain areas in my worldspace don't load LOD from time to time. This happens sometimes after I walk through some pretty crowded cells(unfortunately most cells of my worldspace are highly detailed and packed with objects) - dunno if that's related. I'm currently testing everything without precombined meshes and vis, but I had it generated yesterday(not sure if the generation was 100% flawless though) and the LOD bug still appeared.

 

Late edit:

The bug was fixed. It appears that turning the esp into an esm somehow fixed the LOD issues.

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2021 by DocMoebius

[sheson]

Hi guys,

 

first of all thank you for your amazing work. I can't thank the whole team enough for this wonderful tool. You guys are the only reason why I didn't give up on creating my own worldspace, because I need to see and feel the world when I create things and the CK LOD generation wasn't working for me and was terribly slow when it partially worked, whereas your tool makes it super easy. I usually generate new LOD daily so your tool is the foundation of my work.

 

Unfortunately I'm getting some weird LOD bugs which I don't understand and I don't have anyone else to ask, so I thought you guys could maybe help me or give me an hint of what's going on. I noticed that sheson said that the LOD either completely works or not so my problem might be related to something else? Anyways, here is my problem:

 

Certain areas in my worldspace don't load LOD from time to time. This happens sometimes after I walk through some pretty crowded cells(unfortunately most cells of my worldspace are highly detailed and packed with objects) - dunno if that's related. I'm currently testing everything without precombined meshes and vis, but I had it generated yesterday(not sure if the generation was 100% flawless though) and the LOD bug still appeared.

 

Here are some screenshots so you can see what I mean.

 

 

LOD not loading correctly:

 

 

LOD loading correctly

 

 

I also noticed some cracks in the ground of my worldspace. I don't know if that's somehow related:

 

 

I really hope that you guys can help me so that over a year of work wasn't for nothing. If you're interested to see more WIP pics of my mod, I've some screenshots under my profile on the nexus(same username as here) and the project is called "Fallout Vitruvia". In either case, keep up the awesome work, guys :).

 

I am not aware of any FO4 engine troubles that sometimes cause LOD to not load. However, I am not doing really doing anything with FO4 so I am not well versed in all its issues.

If the *.BTO for the area works, then there is typically no reason for it to sometimes not work, meaning the trouble is most likely not caused by the *.BTO itself.

 

Gaps in the terrain height data should not cause anything. The terrain LOD generation routine should close them in the *.BTR.

[TheDoc]

I am not aware of any FO4 engine troubles that sometimes cause LOD to not load. However, I am not doing really doing anything with FO4 so I am not well versed in all its issues.

If the *.BTO for the area works, then there is typically no reason for it to sometimes not work, meaning the trouble is most likely not caused by the *.BTO itself.

 

Gaps in the terrain height data should not cause anything. The terrain LOD generation routine should close them in the *.BTR.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I tested a few other things but it seems that I can't get to the bottom of the problem. It seem as if I need to abandon my worldspace :(.

[sheson]

Thanks for the clarification. I tested a few other things but it seems that I can't get to the bottom of the problem. It seem as if I need to abandon my worldspace :(.

That's seems drastic. Not sure why you are not doing some basic troubleshooting first? I mean, obviously I would test without any mods, without high res texture pack and with default INIs.

 

Check if here are any very large BTO. If it only happens in one specific area or not and how to replicate the problem with certainty / if quick save/reload "fixes" it.

Any difference if the plugin addingthe new worldspace is flagged as ESM or not.

Doubecheck wordspace settings in xEdit - like object bounds being extremely high due to wild edits. Check plugin for errors with xEdit.

Double check lodsettings SW corner and stride are sane values.

Then see what happens with LOD meshes/textures properly put into BSAs.

Generate object LOD with the CK for comparision.

Edited November 6, 2019 by sheson

[TheDoc]

That's seems drastic. Not sure why you are not doing some basic troubleshooting first? I mean, obviously I would test without any mods, without high res texture pack and with default INIs.

 

Check if here are any very large BTO. If it only happens in one specific area or not and how to replicate the problem with certainty / if quick save/reload "fixes" it.

Any difference if the plugin addingthe new worldspace is flagged as ESM or not.

Doubecheck wordspace settings in xEdit - like object bounds being extremely high due to wild edits. Check plugin for errors with xEdit.

Double check lodsettings SW corner and stride are sane values.

Then see what happens with LOD meshes/textures properly put into BSAs.

Generate object LOD with the CK for comparision.

Thanks again for all the useful tips. I will definitely try most of the things you mentioned. The thing is that I'm working with a clean installation of Fallout 4 with only its DLCs and the default ini without any other mods at all, so there should be no interference there as far as I can tell. I've already checked the esp with xEdit and found a few errors but since I'm a total newb at xEdit, I can't really tell how serious certain errors are(except for the obvious ones where I edited a commonwolth cell by accidentally moving an object). I will definitely read some guides on xEdit and further investigate my mod.

 

Another thing is that I recently found out how to do proper heightmap import(which I still could add now) whereas I modelled everything by hand before and after ~2 years of on and off working on the worldspace I'm not really satisfied with some stuff that I did in certain areas of the space in the beginning, since I want to have a high quality worldspace for the players(altough the current version would probably already easily be considered above average). So I'm on the verge of just starting all over again and using buildings/SCOLs/Packins from my old worldspace.

Edited November 6, 2019 by DocMoebius

[HULKHOD3N]

Hello sheson, i got a question.

 

So, i have some custom tree lod meshes and i'd like to use the "use source alpha treshold" option for these, but it's "greyed out".

 

I just could change the default treshold, but this'll mess up vanilla tree lod etc.

 

So, anything i'm missing here?

 

Forgive me if this is a waste of time, i did some searching but couldn't find an answer for it.

[sheson]

Hello sheson, i got a question.

 

So, i have some custom tree lod meshes and i'd like to use the "use source alpha treshold" option for these, but it's "greyed out".

 

I just could change the default treshold, but this'll mess up vanilla tree lod etc.

 

So, anything i'm missing here?

 

Forgive me if this is a waste of time, i did some searching but couldn't find an answer for it.

The "Use source alpha threshold" setting requires a diffuse texture compression format that supports an alpha channel.

[HULKHOD3N]

Ahh, gotcha. Totally makes sense. No wonder it didn't work with DXT1. 

 

Sorry and thanks for the quick reply!

Edited February 25, 2020 by HULKHOD3N