DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 173

[z929669]

54 minutes ago, BrotherShamus said:

So... I've just done a clean wipe and install of SSE... and I just wanted to make sure I get this right.  I've scoured the forum but find a good deal of it tough to understand so if someone could please let me know if I'm missing any steps here, it would be greatly appreciated.  I'm going to be using a combination of (in order) Dense Nordic Forests, Alpine Forest of Whiterun Hold, Myrkvior, Bent Pines 2 and Skyrim 3D Landscapes for trees and Folkvangr (summer edition with enhanced landscapes included) for landscapes/grass.  My step by step looks like this... theoretically.

1. Download and install Dyndolod/DynDOLOD Resources v3 and the mods (without Indistinguishable Billboards or provided billboards) as per the instructions on Gamer Poets tutorial

2. Generate precached grass with No Grass in Objects (with No Grassias installed)

3. Remove billboards provided by any mods which include them

3. Run Texgen to provide custom billboards

4. Run DynDOLOD with the settings recommended on the Myrkvior page for UltraLOD

5. Enjoy.

I feel like I need to apologize for this post... I'm not trying to 'shortcut' or anything but after months of watching many tutorials that seem to be outdated and trying my level best to understand the advice in these forums and the RTFM manual (I failed grade 9 four times due to an inability to grasp complicated... everything), I've gotten close but have never gotten it right.  I want to create a LO that I can literally play until I die because it's just that beautiful.  So... if anyone can just let me know additional steps... or if I'm doing something wrong, I would genuinely be in your debt.  Maybe even make a video for other dummies like me who just want to enjoy the most perfect Skyrim they're capable of making.

1. Yes
2. yes
3. not necessary, but fine
4. yes
5. should work fine if you follow the instructions
6. probably

... but there is a lot of detail and gotchas in between the steps you've listed. If you know how to run the tools and install mods, then you should be fine. Otherwise, I suggest that you follow along with our setup guide just to be sure you have the infrastructure set up correctly. Else you will be stuck on things that have nothing to do with DynDOLOD. You might also consider running with the beta version, since this is a thread for DynDOLOD 3.00 alpha (for testing and helping out with development).

My advice is to forget about installing multiple tree mods that don't necessarily work together without some custom patching. Myrkvior alone is a big tree overhaul. If you want to learn how DynDOLOD works and how to use it, you don't need any mods at all. If you have a working mod list and just need to get the proper LOD, then you can try your steps above, but it sounds like you could potentially have a lot of questions and issues that are not likely related to this topic.

If a stable LO is what you want and developing a general understanding of how to build one, maybe try following the Step guide as a first measure and post questions on our guide forums for help ... or just follow along with the LOD section in that guide using DynDOLOD 2.xx.

 

6 hours ago, Tekkengod420 said:

i'm getting an error with texgen stating wrong billboard texture path. Any idea how can i resolve/what could have caused this issue?

As sheson will undoubtedly say: See first post about logs to include when posting. Also, see the links above.

[BrotherShamus]

Thank you for replying so quickly and my apologies for being in the wrong forum.  I actually tried to follow those guides a while back and just wound up frustrated but they seem to make a lot more sense to me now (apparently I have learned something the past few months) so I'll give them another go.  I understand what you're saying about multiple tree mods... I think I'm just getting greedy.  Myrkvior is by far the best looking but on it's own, I still found I didn't have the density of trees I wanted.  Then one thing led to another and... yeah.  So I'll try to get it right with vanilla first and go from there.

[sheson]

9 hours ago, Tekkengod420 said:

i'm getting an error with texgen stating wrong billboard texture path. Any idea how can i resolve/what could have caused this issue?

Carefully read the first post what log files to provide. Use search, the message might have been discussed before.

4 hours ago, BrotherShamus said:

So... I've just done a clean wipe and install of SSE... and I just wanted to make sure I get this right.  I've scoured the forum but find a good deal of it tough to understand so if someone could please let me know if I'm missing any steps here, it would be greatly appreciated.  I'm going to be using a combination of (in order) Dense Nordic Forests, Alpine Forest of Whiterun Hold, Myrkvior, Bent Pines 2 and Skyrim 3D Landscapes for trees and Folkvangr (summer edition with enhanced landscapes included) for landscapes/grass.  My step by step looks like this... theoretically.

1. Download and install Dyndolod/DynDOLOD Resources v3 and the mods (without Indistinguishable Billboards or provided billboards) as per the instructions on Gamer Poets tutorial

2. Generate precached grass with No Grass in Objects (with No Grassias installed)

3. Remove billboards provided by any mods which include them

3. Run Texgen to provide custom billboards

4. Run DynDOLOD with the settings recommended on the Myrkvior page for UltraLOD

5. Enjoy.

I feel like I need to apologize for this post... I'm not trying to 'shortcut' or anything but after months of watching many tutorials that seem to be outdated and trying my level best to understand the advice in these forums and the RTFM manual (I failed grade 9 four times due to an inability to grasp complicated... everything), I've gotten close but have never gotten it right.  I want to create a LO that I can literally play until I die because it's just that beautiful.  So... if anyone can just let me know additional steps... or if I'm doing something wrong, I would genuinely be in your debt.  Maybe even make a video for other dummies like me who just want to enjoy the most perfect Skyrim they're capable of making.

The steps are correct. See ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\DynDOLOD_QuickStart.html for the latest requirements/instructions of DynDOLOD 3 alpha.

 

[Illana]

On 5/22/2021 at 5:36 AM, z929669 said:

You need to tell NGIO via the INI, but that mod highly advises to use precached grass to avoid stuttering and other issues. I would precache grass always with that mod, regardless of whether or not you are using it for DynDOLOD grass LODGen. This is our WIP instructions for running without grass LOD:

Precaching grass will still benefit performance. To increase performance further, disable grass LOD generation completely by making the following configuration changes prior to generating (or regenerating) object LOD:

1. In MO, make the following changes to No Grass In Objects GrassControl.config.txt:
   • DynDOLODGrassMode = 0
   • OverwriteGrassDistance - Set to something between 4000 and 24000. Higher values decrease performance while increasing quality. Grass will be full-rendered to this value as per default behavior of fGrassStartFadeDistance in Skyrim.ini
   • OverwriteGrassFadeRange - Set to something between 1000 and 18000 (depending on OverwriteGrassDistance) to transition linearly from full grass to no grass. Higher values increase performance while decreasing quality. Grass will begin fading from this value as per default behavior of fGrassFadeRange in Skyrim.ini
   • ExtendGrassCount - Set to 'False' only if OverwriteGrassDistance ≤ 7000
2. Set Grass=0 in ../DynDOLOD/Edit Scripts/DynDOLOD/DynDOLOD_SSE.ini

Nono I think you're misunderstanding me. I have NGIO set to use the cache only and everything is fine on land cells. I can run around falkreath hold to my heart's content. The issue is when I start loading sea cells, near the coast up north. When I'm up there, even though there's no grass underwater (I have a mod removing it), the game starts freezing as I load new cells as if I didn't have precached grass.

[z929669]

3 minutes ago, Illana said:

Nono I think you're misunderstanding me. I have NGIO set to use the cache only and everything is fine on land cells. I can run around falkreath hold to my heart's content. The issue is when I start loading sea cells, near the coast up north. When I'm up there, even though there's no grass underwater (I have a mod removing it), the game starts freezing as I load new cells as if I didn't have precached grass.

OK, then that seems like a question for the NGIO mod author(s) or nexus posts area. If you learn anything new there, please post back your findings. I personally have not experience this issue, but I also haven't been testing for this.

[z929669]

@sheson I'm working on an aspen tree mod and want to create 3D statics of full models to determine if I can get the trunks to look better. The hybrid trunks turn out well, but when I create the 'full' statics, the LOD trunks are very bright ... almost white, while the trunks of the full-size meshes used to create the statics look fine. For flat trunks, I obviously use the empty_trunk.nif provided, but for 'full' statics, I use the empty_passthru.nif provided.

Do you have any recommendations for 'white' trunk full LOD? I can remove or change the vertex colors or add/remove shader properties on the trunks, but not positive what will yield the correct result. The trunk shader properties are all compatible with LOD I think. I can share the NIF with you if that would be helpful.

I have read through the doc, so please point me to that again if something specific to this 'issue' is addressed there.

EDIT: I found this post, but not necessarily the same issue it seems. I should also note that this mod is replacing vanilla assets only, so no plugin.

[sheson]

2 hours ago, z929669 said:

@sheson I'm working on an aspen tree mod and want to create 3D statics of full models to determine if I can get the trunks to look better. The hybrid trunks turn out well, but when I create the 'full' statics, the LOD trunks are very bright ... almost white, while the trunks of the full-size meshes used to create the statics look fine. For flat trunks, I obviously use the empty_trunk.nif provided, but for 'full' statics, I use the empty_passthru.nif provided.

Do you have any recommendations for 'white' trunk full LOD? I can remove or change the vertex colors or add/remove shader properties on the trunks, but not positive what will yield the correct result. The trunk shader properties are all compatible with LOD I think. I can share the NIF with you if that would be helpful.

I have read through the doc, so please point me to that again if something specific to this 'issue' is addressed there.

EDIT: I found this post, but not necessarily the same issue it seems. I should also note that this mod is replacing vanilla assets only, so no plugin.

To create a trunk NIF/crown NIF for automatic hybrid creation or a 3D LOD model all you have to do is copy the full model NIF to the new filename. Then remove everything but the crown(s)/branche(s) and trunk BSTriShape (or NiTriShape + NiTriShapeData) + BSLightingShaderProperty + BSShaderTextureSet + NiAlphaProperty from the full model.

If the full model uses a NiSwitchNode keep the children from the second NiNode (the one without any Bones, Collision etc.)

You can just copy/paste the children to the root node. Then delete everything else.
Convert the root node from BSTreeNode to NiNode, then convert to BSFadeNode.

Sanitize Collapse Link Arrays, Reorder Blocks, Optimize Remove Unused Strings.

Do not change anything on the shader or textures. Especially 3D trunks typically use the default shader and no other options which are unsupported by LOD. They should  come out more or less 1:1.
If the crown/branches have UV coordinates that are  just slightly outside  0 and 1 move them to be inside to avoid auto re-vu. For the trunk textures it might be beneficial to add a mini atlas creation via a TexGen config file. 

By doing the cop/pasting inside the copied full model it ensures the correct NIF version is kept and I also find it to be quicker.

[z929669]

2 hours ago, sheson said:

To create a trunk NIF/crown NIF for automatic hybrid creation or a 3D LOD model all you have to do is copy the full model NIF to the new filename. Then remove everything but the crown(s)/branche(s) and trunk BSTriShape (or NiTriShape + NiTriShapeData) + BSLightingShaderProperty + BSShaderTextureSet + NiAlphaProperty from the full model.

If the full model uses a NiSwitchNode keep the children from the second NiNode (the one without any Bones, Collision etc.)

You can just copy/paste the children to the root node. Then delete everything else.
Convert the root node from BSTreeNode to NiNode, then convert to BSFadeNode.

Sanitize Collapse Link Arrays, Reorder Blocks, Optimize Remove Unused Strings.

Do not change anything on the shader or textures. Especially 3D trunks typically use the default shader and no other options which are unsupported by LOD. They should  come out more or less 1:1.
If the crown/branches have UV coordinates that are  just slightly outside  0 and 1 move them to be inside to avoid auto re-vu. For the trunk textures it might be beneficial to add a mini atlas creation via a TexGen config file. 

By doing the cop/pasting inside the copied full model it ensures the correct NIF version is kept and I also find it to be quicker.

What I did previously for 3D LOD (not hybrid) is copy past these nodes to the empty_passthru_lod.nif root node:

All trees are this simple, but the trunks are much too bright in the LOD. I had converted these from NiTriShape + NiTriShapeData into BSTriShape, so I have access to both model types (attached all). This LOD model gives very bright trunks though, unlike the full models

BSTriShape (converted): treeaspen02.nif

NiTriShape + NiTriShapeData (original): treeaspen02.nif

LOD model created from BSTriShape model and empty_passthru_lod.nif: treeaspen02_72358853passthru_lod.nif  

[sheson]

6 hours ago, z929669 said:

What I did previously for 3D LOD (not hybrid) is copy past these nodes to the empty_passthru_lod.nif root node:

All trees are this simple, but the trunks are much too bright in the LOD. I had converted these from NiTriShape + NiTriShapeData into BSTriShape, so I have access to both model types (attached all). This LOD model gives very bright trunks though, unlike the full models

BSTriShape (converted): treeaspen02.nif

NiTriShape + NiTriShapeData (original): treeaspen02.nif

LOD model created from BSTriShape model and empty_passthru_lod.nif: treeaspen02_72358853passthru_lod.nif  

If I am supposed to test the result I would also need the textures.

[AshleaUzu]

Hi Sheson, 

I am facing an issue where dynDALOD is unable to read the TextGen Output regardless of what i've tried to do. Attach is a pdf of the steps (with screenshots) that ive used regarding installing textgen. I have also tried manuaDyndalod and TexGen error.pdflly copying the output data over into Skyrim SE's root data folder.

Below is a google drive directly containing the output folder alongside the logs of both DynDALOD and TextGen. I am using the 3.00 Version currently.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tLCNP9Mz3YPEzwLUTPBKxhtMEaTCH_E6?usp=sharing

Thank you

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by AshleaUzu

[sheson]

1 hour ago, AshleaUzu said:

Hi Sheson, 

I am facing an issue where dynDALOD is unable to read the TextGen Output regardless of what i've tried to do. Attach is a pdf of the steps (with screenshots) that ive used regarding installing textgen. I have also tried manuaDyndalod and TexGen error.pdflly copying the output data over into Skyrim SE's root data folder.

Below is a google drive directly containing the output folder alongside the logs of both DynDALOD and TextGen. I am using the 3.00 Version currently.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tLCNP9Mz3YPEzwLUTPBKxhtMEaTCH_E6?usp=sharing

Thank you

 

DynDOLOD checks if specific files exist in the load order. If the OS tells a program that a file does not exist, it means the file does not exist or maybe access is being blocked.

The TexGen log shows log message from 2.x and 3.x. Do not mix installations. Unpack the DynDOLOD Standalone archive into a new empty folder as explained in the manual. Then generate textures with TexGen and then generate LOD with DynDOLOD from scratch.

The TexGen generations in the log show that only rendered object LOD textures were generated.
Generate both stitched and rendered object LOD textures and tree LOD billboards and install all of the output as a mod as explained int the manual.

[z929669]

6 hours ago, sheson said:

If I am supposed to test the result I would also need the textures.

Indeed, sorry: textures.7z

 

[BrotherShamus]

On 6/1/2021 at 2:57 AM, sheson said:

Carefully read the first post what log files to provide. Use search, the message might have been discussed before.

The steps are correct. See ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\DynDOLOD_QuickStart.html for the latest requirements/instructions of DynDOLOD 3 alpha.

 

Thank you!  So far I'm good with creating LOD for vanilla trees... nervous about what might happen with Dense Nordic Forests and Myrkvior together but... that's the fun of modding, right?

[sheson]

7 hours ago, z929669 said:

Indeed, sorry: textures.7z

 

The lighting issue happens because the normal map for the bark is using a signed RGBA BC3 (DXT5) texture format and the native importer is not properly converting it to UNORM so the resulting normal map texture on the atlas is completely wrong. Next version will fix this, until then convert the texture  to a normal RGBA (linear) instead of SRGBA.

[z929669]

5 hours ago, sheson said:

The lighting issue happens because the normal map for the bark is using a signed RGBA BC3 (DXT5) texture format and the native importer is not properly converting it to UNORM so the resulting normal map texture on the atlas is completely wrong. Next version will fix this, until then convert the texture  to a normal RGBA (linear) instead of SRGBA.

Thanks for confirming!

EDIT: Yep, that fixed the issue.