DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 180

[sheson]

7 hours ago, DarthVitrial said:

Thanks, I found the cause:
[06:24] [BuildReferences] <Debug: Swapped [REFR:1D00AFB5] (places HagravenHouse01 [STAT:000ACB04] in GRUP Cell Temporary Children of GHCradelVillage00 [CELL:1D00AC32] (in zGHCradleWoodsWorld "Cradle Woods" [WRLD:1D00AA1A] at -2,2)) to Dynamic Things Alternative.esp dtaHagravenHouse01 "Tent" [FLOR:FE06F85D]>

I'll remove Dynamic Things Alternative and rebuild DyndoLod.

No need to remove the entire mod permanently. Just remove this swap in case the large reference bug is visible in the affected cells.

4 hours ago, DarthVitrial said:

Hm, this is an odd one, while rebuilding I got an "Access violation at address 000000000002A1A8 in module 'DynDOLODx64.exe'. Read of address 0000000000000000 while processing Skyrim.esm [REFR:000AA0E4] (places MountainCliff03 [STAT:00027D1F] in GRUP Cell Temporary Children of [CELL:00009736] (in Tamriel "Skyrim" [WRLD:0000003C] at 31,-13))" error
I've zipped up all the logs including the normal dyndolod log and the debug log. Still a bit too big for here so I uploaded to mega.

https://mega.nz/file/kxcwzJTZ#A5fIu2rizJeFCZ38ZZ-sSaazhbzRNoSBcr9GAyva7yg

 

I'm on alpha 87.

EDIT: forgot the bugreport.txt, attached.

bugreport.txt 505.63 kB · 1 download

Is this repeatable?

[David2408]

Hi Sheson,

I have tried to trouble shoot it myself and looked for similar posts, but I have not found any helpful comments so far, which is why I am addressing it here.

I am using 3D Trees and Plants with the optional "Skyrim3dTrees and Plants 3dLOD Resources". I then ran TexGen to generate Grass and 3d Tree Billboards, and afterwards ran DynDOLOD with Ultra Trees mode enabled. 

Unfortunately, the near 3d tree LOD models of the Pines have really harsh low res textures on them. Specifically, the textures provided by "Skyrim3dTress and Plants 3dLOD Resources" in textures > landscape > S3DTrees_and_Plants > LOD4 seem to be the cause. Even more specifically, the treepineforest[NUMBER]_LOD_0.dds textures. These textures are being forwarded to the DynDOLOD atlas even after generating files with TexGen. Consequently, they show up in the game.

Is it possible to regenerate better quality versions of these textures with TexGen. If so, how can I instruct TexGen to do so?

Thanks,

David

Edited April 6, 2022 by David2408

[sheson]

39 minutes ago, David2408 said:

Hi Sheson,

I have tried to trouble shoot it myself and looked for similar posts, but I have not found any helpful comments so far, which is why I am addressing it here.

I am using 3D Trees and Plants with the optional "Skyrim3dTrees and Plants 3dLOD Resources". I then ran TexGen to generate Grass and 3d Tree Billboards, and afterwards ran DynDOLOD with Ultra Trees mode enabled. 

Unfortunately, the near 3d tree LOD models of the Pines have really harsh low res textures on them. Specifically, the textures provided by "Skyrim3dTress and Plants 3dLOD Resources" in textures > landscape > S3DTrees_and_Plants > LOD4 seem to be the cause. Even more specifically, the treepineforest[NUMBER]_LOD_0.dds textures. These textures are being forwarded to the DynDOLOD atlas even after generating files with TexGen. Consequently, they show up in the game.

Is it possible to regenerate better quality versions of these textures with TexGen. If so, how can I instruct TexGen to do so?

Thanks,

David

Upload the log and debug log as explained on the first post.

It sounds you have a problem with the LOD assets included with the mod / Skyrim3dTress and Plants 3dLOD Resources.
If the LOD textures shipping with the mod are shrunk when they are added to the object LOD atlas, raise the "max tile size LOD"  under the object LOD checkbox to their native resolution.

The textures (and 3D tree LOD models) of Skyrim3dTress and Plants 3dLOD Resources are made with an advanced feature of Simplygon.
If the resolution of the textures are not changed, than there is not really anything else the tools can do about them since they can only be used as is.

Also see https://dyndolod.info/Help/Texture-Resolution. The tests with the single color mipmap may help to determine if the textures would benefit from a larger resolution, though the onyl way to achieve that would be to create the LOD models and larger textures with Simplygon.

I suggested to use  Simplygon to the author, because the crowns are very detailed and the simple hybrid tree LOD creation is not sufficiently reducing the complexity.

[David2408]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

Upload the log and debug log as explained on the first post.

It sounds you have a problem with the LOD assets included with the mod / Skyrim3dTress and Plants 3dLOD Resources.
If the LOD textures shipping with the mod are shrunk when they are added to the object LOD atlas, raise the "max tile size LOD"  under the object LOD checkbox to their native resolution.

The textures (and 3D tree LOD models) of Skyrim3dTress and Plants 3dLOD Resources are made with an advanced feature of Simplygon.
If the resolution of the textures are not changed, than there is not really anything else the tools can do about them since they can only be used as is.

Also see https://dyndolod.info/Help/Texture-Resolution. The tests with the single color mipmap may help to determine if the textures would benefit from a larger resolution, though the onyl way to achieve that would be to create the LOD models and larger textures with Simplygon.

I suggested to use  Simplygon to the author, because the crowns are very detailed and the simple hybrid tree LOD creation is not sufficiently reducing the complexity.

Dyn Debug Log: https://ufile.io/ft8jbd9p / Dyn Log: https://ufile.io/wllu9niz

TexGen Debug Log: https://ufile.io/babcq8iv / TexGen Log: https://ufile.io/x98w21sr

"Max Tile Size LOD" does not appear to be a problem, the LOD textures are 1K, and my "Max Tile Size LOD" setting is also 1K.

I inspected the textures in Photoshop, and the cause for the harsh look is not necessarily resoultion. Instead it is a result of a "black outline" that the branches from treepineforest[NUMBER]_LOD_0.dds textures show. This black outline is the background of the texture not being properly masked out by the Alpha Channel of the texture. When toggling off the Alpha Channel in Photoshop, there are green branches infront of a black background. When toggling on the Alpha Channel, the green branches gain a black outline from the inproperly masked background. (This observation is based on the OG LOD textures provided by the mod)

I assume that this cannot be fixed by me as a enduser... sadly

Edited April 6, 2022 by David2408

[sheson]

2 hours ago, David2408 said:

Dyn Debug Log: https://ufile.io/ft8jbd9p / Dyn Log: https://ufile.io/wllu9niz

TexGen Debug Log: https://ufile.io/babcq8iv / TexGen Log: https://ufile.io/x98w21sr

"Max Tile Size LOD" does not appear to be a problem, the LOD textures are 1K, and my "Max Tile Size LOD" setting is also 1K.

I inspected the textures in Photoshop, and the cause for the harsh look is not necessarily resoultion. Instead it is a result of a "black outline" that the branches from treepineforest[NUMBER]_LOD_0.dds textures show. This black outline is the background of the texture not being properly masked out by the Alpha Channel of the texture. When toggling off the Alpha Channel in Photoshop, there are green branches infront of a black background. When toggling on the Alpha Channel, the green branches gain a black outline from the inproperly masked background. (This observation is based on the OG LOD textures provided by the mod)

I assume that this cannot be fixed by me as a enduser... sadly

Typically Simplygon fills the transparent parts of the textures with the average of the surrounding opaque pixels, so I am not sure why the textures go black for the aeras.

Black/White borders around edges with alpha (and pre-multiplied alpha) and alpha blending etc. is a complex topic. Theoretically it should be possible to use GIMP or Photoshop to do something about the edges but I wouldn't know of the top of mu head. I'd rather make these things are right at creation time, e.g when TexGen renders billboards,which doesn't help you here...

[David2408]

53 minutes ago, sheson said:

Typically Simplygon fills the transparent parts of the textures with the average of the surrounding opaque pixels, so I am not sure why the textures go black for the aeras.

Black/White borders around edges with alpha (and pre-multiplied alpha) and alpha blending etc. is a complex topic. Theoretically it should be possible to use GIMP or Photoshop to do something about the edges but I wouldn't know of the top of mu head. I'd rather make these things are right at creation time, e.g when TexGen renders billboards,which doesn't help you here...

Spot on. The issue is that I (probably) cannot automatically fix the issue of black borders around the Pine branches LOD textures. I could try to change background color and manually paint around the edges, but it involves dozens of textures so does not seam feasable...

[DarthVitrial]

12 hours ago, sheson said:

No need to remove the entire mod permanently. Just remove this swap in case the large reference bug is visible in the affected cells.

Is this repeatable?

Doesn't seem to be reliably repeatable, I've had it happen a few times but I haven't  noticed any common trend in when it does or doesn't happen. I'll keep testing.

EDIT: Huh, i just noticed that after Dyndolod finished running entirely and closed after zipping the output, Taking Your Firstborn.exe remained running until I forced it to exit via task manager. Maybe that's the issue? Dyndolod hadn't fully exited when I re-ran it?

Edited April 6, 2022 by DarthVitrial

[sheson]

1 hour ago, DarthVitrial said:

Doesn't seem to be reliably repeatable, I've had it happen a few times but I haven't  noticed any common trend in when it does or doesn't happen. I'll keep testing.

EDIT: Huh, i just noticed that after Dyndolod finished running entirely and closed after zipping the output, Taking Your Firstborn.exe remained running until I forced it to exit via task manager. Maybe that's the issue? Dyndolod hadn't fully exited when I re-ran it?

In case a second DynDOLOD is still running (even hidden in task manager because it did not shutdown cleanly because of a access violation) it should only cause file access errors like a file can not be used/read/written because another process already uses it.

[DarthVitrial]

Hm. Definitely nothing else opening that file as far as I know. no xedit, skyrim wasn;'t running...

[sheson]

16 minutes ago, DarthVitrial said:

Hm. Definitely nothing else opening that file as far as I know. no xedit, skyrim wasn;'t running...

Taking Your Firstborn = the second DynDOLODx64.exe that didn't close cleanly after access violation. Usually all file handles are already closed in that state so it can not interfere with anything anymore.

[DarthVitrial]

Ah, I see what you mean.
I'm not sure what else could have caused that access violation since I didnt have anything else open at the time, and those were all the logs I had.
If I think of anything I'll post here.

[Zanderat]

Using alpha 87, I am getting this weird double window in Riften, possibly in other places.  I have no idea what is going on.  Don't even know how to begin trouble shooting this.  Thanks. 

[sheson]

8 hours ago, DarthVitrial said:

Ah, I see what you mean.
I'm not sure what else could have caused that access violation since I didnt have anything else open at the time, and those were all the logs I had.
If I think of anything I'll post here.

It is probably a race condition. See if it still happens with the next alpha version.

3 hours ago, Zanderat said:

Using alpha 87, I am getting this weird double window in Riften, possibly in other places.  I have no idea what is going on.  Don't even know how to begin trouble shooting this.  Thanks. 

https://dyndolod.info/FAQ "Out of place or floating objects"

Test with new game. If the problem goes away, the updating of an existing save game with old DynDOLOD plugins went wrong or maybe there was script lag. 

If it happens with a new game, upload log and debug log as explained on the first post. Look up the Ref(erence) form id in xEdit, follow the "pluginname_formid" information found in the Editor ID of the reference to find the plugin from which this reference originates.

[Zanderat]

Thanks, @sheson.  Went back to an earlier save and re-updated DDL.  Seems OK now.  Not sure what went sideways.  First time I ever had trouble updating mid-game.

[nwn9]

Has any of you had your PC crashed as a result of texture or LOD generation? It happens every time I use DynDOLOD or DynDOLODx64.exe, while TexGen is able to sometimes successfully complete the task.