DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 180

[Youss123123]

This might seem stupid and I am probably doing something wrong but my tree billboards and/or LODs look way uglier than they do in screenshots posted by the mod author, I use Dyndolod 3 and keep ultra checked, I always run Texgen and activate it before Dyndolod, Increasing the resolution doesn't seem to really help, I use happy little trees and its Dyndolod 3 quality addon, I also use Reach Tree Replacer but reach trees are not what I really care about right now 

How they look like in screenshots posted by mod author: https://imgur.com/a/qmLI0hc 
How they look like in my game: https://imgur.com/a/Pj4escW Compare this to the last screenshots in the ones taken by the HLT mod author, He is probably using Level0, 1 and 2 for his LODs but should my billboards really look THAT bad?
Dyndolod 3 TexGen and Dyndolod's settings: https://imgur.com/a/mIKlL16
Plugins and Modlist: https://modwat.ch/u/Youss

Any way to make those look better? I even compared my screenshots to other user's screenshots that use billboards instead of level 1 and 2 for LOD8 and 16, Mine are still terrible compared to them

Edited April 14, 2022 by Youss123123

[sheson]

59 minutes ago, Youss123123 said:

This might seem stupid and I am probably doing something wrong but my tree billboards and/or LODs look way uglier than they do in screenshots posted by the mod author, I use Dyndolod 3 and keep ultra checked, I always run Texgen and activate it before Dyndolod, Increasing the resolution doesn't seem to really help, I use happy little trees and its Dyndolod 3 quality addon, I also use Reach Tree Replacer but reach trees are not what I really care about right now 

How they look like in screenshots posted by mod author: https://imgur.com/a/qmLI0hc 
How they look like in my game: https://imgur.com/a/Pj4escW Compare this to the last screenshots in the ones taken by the HLT mod author, He is probably using Level0, 1 and 2 for his LODs but should my billboards really look THAT bad?
Dyndolod 3 TexGen and Dyndolod's settings: https://imgur.com/a/mIKlL16
Plugins and Modlist: https://modwat.ch/u/Youss

Any way to make those look better? I even compared my screenshots to other user's screenshots that use billboards instead of level 1 and 2 for LOD8 and 16, Mine are still terrible compared to them

See the first post of the DynDOLOD 3 Alpha thread where to make posts.I moved your post.
See the first which TexGen/DynDOLOD log and debug to upload when making posts.

If you have issues with the quality of 3rd party LOD assets provided by third party mods, you need to check with the mods description, comments and ask their author.
Do not install an 3rd party billboards, remove them if there are any. Use TexGen to generate all desired billboards. Check its log that that it did that there are no errors or warnings.

See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Ultra-Tree-LOD
Generate HD billboards and use Billboard4 with ultra tree LOD for best possible billboard visuals. Also set the TreeFullFallBack=4 in the DynDOLOD INI in case 3D tree LOD models do not exist.
Billboards can not reach the same quality as 3D tree LODs. Check the DynDOLOD_SSE_Tree_Report.txt as explained to verify which LOD assets were found and used. Install or create 3D tree LOD assets as needed.

Edited April 14, 2022 by sheson

[Youss123123]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

See the first post of the DynDOLOD 3 Alpha thread where to make posts.I moved your post.
See the first which TexGen/DynDOLOD log and debug to upload when making posts.

If you have issues with the quality of 3rd party LOD assets provided by third party mods, you need to check with the mods description, comments and ask their author.
Do not install an 3rd party billboards, remove them if there are any. Use TexGen to generate all desired billboards. Check its log that that it did that there are no errors or warnings.

See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Ultra-Tree-LOD
Generate HD billboards and use Billboard4 with ultra tree LOD for best possible billboard visuals. Also set the TreeFullFallBack=4 in the DynDOLOD INI in case 3D tree LOD models do not exist.
Billboards can not reach the same quality as 3D tree LODs. Check the DynDOLOD_SSE_Tree_Report.txt as explained to verify which LOD assets were found and used. Install or create 3D tree LOD assets as needed.

Should I still use Level0 for LOD4 or Should I use Billboard 4 for everything?

[sheson]

1 hour ago, Youss123123 said:

Should I still use Level0 for LOD4 or Should I use Billboard 4 for everything?

That depends if you want to use 3D tree LOD (best visuals) for the first LOD Level 4 or not.

[Youss123123]

17 minutes ago, sheson said:

That depends if you want to use 3D tree LOD (best visuals) for the first LOD Level 4 or not.

I know it moslty depends on hardware, But would it be noticeable in the looks if I use level0 for LOD4 and LOD8 but keep it Billboard4 for LOD16 so its hard to notice while far away? and would that affect my performance much? Because using level0, 1 and 2 for LOD4, LOD8 and LOD16 brought me from 70 to 30 fps  

[sheson]

20 minutes ago, Youss123123 said:

I know it moslty depends on hardware, But would it be noticeable in the looks if I use level0 for LOD4 and LOD8 but keep it Billboard4 for LOD16 so its hard to notice while far away? and would that affect my performance much? Because using level0, 1 and 2 for LOD4, LOD8 and LOD16 brought me from 70 to 30 fps  

3D tree LOD typically looks better than billboards. Only you can judge the visual and performance impact that different options have for your load order and setup.

As always, generate the different options, install output into different mods, make screenshots, track FPS compare. 

[DarthVitrial]

After updating to alpha 88 I'm getting an error when generating Winter LOD for the Tundra Homestead CC (tamriel worldspace): Error processing meshes\creationclub\eejsse001\architecture\eej_towerroof.nif Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

 

Other than reinstalling dyndolod resources, I haven't made any changes between this run and the prior (successful) run,only change was going to alpha 88.

Logs are too big to upload here so here's a mega link (there might be remnants from a  prior run in the start of the logs though - I think I cleared out the older stuff but I might have missed one): https://mega.nz/file/ss1SDLQS#SpluHqI8fKtTDdZTUwWEhg7fHmhAR0Ub9NX4NMFumwc
 

(Edit - it seems to be random where that "object reference not set" error happens, rerunning it it happened on Autumn one time and Winter twice, and on different nifs/different worldspaces each time. The common thread seems to be that it's always on a season other than default.)

EDIT 2: definitely seasons specific, turning off season LOD it works just fine.

EDIT 3: Seems specifically caused by the SeasonsCombineAtlas ini setting, when I change that to 0 the seasons lod works too.

Edited April 15, 2022 by DarthVitrial

[Youss123123]

Most of my tree LODs have no leaves but just particles floating around the tree instead of leaves, But the leaves load after I get closer to them, What is the cause for this? I did generate Texgen and Dyndolod, I did download the Hybrid LODs from the mod author's page, I did everything I could possibly think of 

 

[NBBEAST]

On 4/12/2022 at 4:38 AM, sheson said:

It looks like the grass LOD billboards that TexGen generated are not installed in the load order or they are not being found.

Make sure the TexGen output contains textures like textures\terrain\lodgen\tamrielicgrass.esp\tg_pineforest_mixedplants_00000800_1.dds and they are accessible in the game data folder (e.g. MO2 right window data tab).

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#No-Grass-LOD-Check-List

Awesome. Thank you for the response. So I opened the texgen output and I do have the tamrielicgrass.esp folder, and the various .dds files for each grass type within tamrielic grass. So i went to the data tab within mo2 and scrolled to "textures", and then opened up "lod" folder and saw a bunch of files from texgen output. Included in these files were some .dds lod files for the grass. So I have to think it did load the grass in actually, because its all there. 

To be honest with you, I'm pretty sure the grass lod is working for me now. I don't know what happened exactly but a few nights ago as I was playing, the grass lod seemingly loaded in for me. I think If i remember correctly, I deleted the old xlodgen output within mo2. I think that may have been overwriting any grass lod, I also didn't have xlod installed correctly. Either way, Whiterun looks ridiculously beautiful now, with seemingly endless grass. I can attach a couple photos and perhaps you could assure me that the lod is working as intended? I have noticed that I have alot more stuttering now, I think thats because I generated grass lod in mode 2 (and changed the adjacent ini within ngio) right? From what I hear grass lod mode 1 is alot more performance friendly. 

Also thank you Sheson. For being so gracious and helping me out here with my questions. Also great job on dyndolod 3.0, my game has been aggressively astonishing lately thanks to you and hlt, tamrielic grass and ngio. You've really brought Skyrim to a new level. 

Edit: Another question. Sorry. Should I disable "happy little trees addon- dyndolod 3" if i choose to generate hd trees within texgen for ultra trees in dyndolod 3.0? I ask this because I was trying to do just that and it failed on me when It was generating lod for Arnima (Worldspace within Beyond reach mod). Also what is the performance impact of hd trees with ultra trees? Is it much higher than just ultra trees? I imagine I probably shouldn't since my specs are 1050 gtx 1050ti with 4gb ram. I have ultra trees right now and it feels great. Thank you.

Edited April 14, 2022 by NBBEAST

[sheson]

7 hours ago, Youss123123 said:

Most of my tree LODs have no leaves but just particles floating around the tree instead of leaves, But the leaves load after I get closer to them, What is the cause for this? I did generate Texgen and Dyndolod, I did download the Hybrid LODs from the mod author's page, I did everything I could possibly think of 

 

Read the first post which log and debug logs from TexGen/DynDOLOD to upload when making posts

Since almost no information do this obvious test first:
Check that the trees in question are actually LOD by toggling LOD off with tll in console. If the trees remain, they are not LOD but the full models.

If this are 3D tree LOD models/textures from a 3rd party mod (which name you did not mention), check its mod page, comments. If leaves are thinning out in the distance it is typically because of the their textures and their mipmaps. If you want DynDOLOD to fix the alpha of the mipmaps, the UV of the leaves using the textures needs to be between 0.0 and 1.0. https://dyndolod.info/Help/3D-Tree-LOD-Model. Otherwise the mipmaps of the textures shipping with the mod should be created anew with alpha-to-coverage.

[sheson]

6 hours ago, NBBEAST said:

Awesome. Thank you for the response. So I opened the texgen output and I do have the tamrielicgrass.esp folder, and the various .dds files for each grass type within tamrielic grass. So i went to the data tab within mo2 and scrolled to "textures", and then opened up "lod" folder and saw a bunch of files from texgen output. Included in these files were some .dds lod files for the grass. So I have to think it did load the grass in actually, because its all there. 

To be honest with you, I'm pretty sure the grass lod is working for me now. I don't know what happened exactly but a few nights ago as I was playing, the grass lod seemingly loaded in for me. I think If i remember correctly, I deleted the old xlodgen output within mo2. I think that may have been overwriting any grass lod, I also didn't have xlod installed correctly. Either way, Whiterun looks ridiculously beautiful now, with seemingly endless grass. I can attach a couple photos and perhaps you could assure me that the lod is working as intended? I have noticed that I have alot more stuttering now, I think thats because I generated grass lod in mode 2 (and changed the adjacent ini within ngio) right? From what I hear grass lod mode 1 is alot more performance friendly. 

Also thank you Sheson. For being so gracious and helping me out here with my questions. Also great job on dyndolod 3.0, my game has been aggressively astonishing lately thanks to you and hlt, tamrielic grass and ngio. You've really brought Skyrim to a new level. 

Edit: Another question. Sorry. Should I disable "happy little trees addon- dyndolod 3" if i choose to generate hd trees within texgen for ultra trees in dyndolod 3.0? I ask this because I was trying to do just that and it failed on me when It was generating lod for Arnima (Worldspace within Beyond reach mod). Also what is the performance impact of hd trees with ultra trees? Is it much higher than just ultra trees? I imagine I probably shouldn't since my specs are 1050 gtx 1050ti with 4gb ram. I have ultra trees right now and it feels great. Thank you.

xLODGen can only overwrite grass LOD which is part of object LOD, if you generated object LOD with xLODGen. Use xLODGen to generate terrain LOD only.

Happy Little Trees Add-On - DynDOLOD 3 contains 3D tree LOD assets. If you do not install it, then ultra tree LOD will always use the billboards instead. If the intention is to only use billboards, then 3D tree LOD assets do not need to be installed.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Ultra-Tree-LOD
"Billboard1 has 4 triangles per tree, while billboard 4 has 8 triangles per tree." 
This is negligibly if the game runs well above 60 FPS and has headroom or when using grass LOD.

If there is a problem generating LOD, carefully check the error message.

[sheson]

10 hours ago, DarthVitrial said:

After updating to alpha 88 I'm getting an error when generating Winter LOD for the Tundra Homestead CC (tamriel worldspace): Error processing meshes\creationclub\eejsse001\architecture\eej_towerroof.nif Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

 

Other than reinstalling dyndolod resources, I haven't made any changes between this run and the prior (successful) run,only change was going to alpha 88.

Logs are too big to upload here so here's a mega link (there might be remnants from a  prior run in the start of the logs though - I think I cleared out the older stuff but I might have missed one): https://mega.nz/file/ss1SDLQS#SpluHqI8fKtTDdZTUwWEhg7fHmhAR0Ub9NX4NMFumwc
 

(Edit - it seems to be random where that "object reference not set" error happens, rerunning it it happened on Autumn one time and Winter twice, and on different nifs/different worldspaces each time. The common thread seems to be that it's always on a season other than default.)

EDIT 2: definitely seasons specific, turning off season LOD it works just fine.

EDIT 3: Seems specifically caused by the SeasonsCombineAtlas ini setting, when I change that to 0 the seasons lod works too.

I am not able to replicate this. You have the right mesh from DynDOLOD Resources and it is does not seem to have any season replacement.
What is odd that the mesh only sporadically causes a problem. It should always be processed exactly the same for all seasons.

Download https://mega.nz/file/oMBlAAaa#y6nXWUwL6L9rlfKV_5jUhksPmYgJQMLaTqH8q_J5xnE and replace LODGenx64.exe in the Edit Scripts folder. It will print a stack trace to the log. Then run again, upload the LODGen log for whatever season the error happened.

[ArrowFX]

@sheson I have found two things that might be good for you to know(unless you already know them...)

First, After a lot of trial and error, I have found that at least I will always get an access violation error unless I have dyndolod open and in focus for the entire process in which case it will 99% of the time work fine. Don't know if I am just stupid and that is supposed to be the case or if it is a bug or smt.

Second, that 1% of the times that it doesn't work I have narrowed down to it either being because the HTML file that gets generated brings my browser into focus or because of some random one time bug and because I haven't found a way to stop the HTML file from being opened I can't rly find which of them is the cause.

PS: If the first one isn't a bug then to save yourself headaches and also other people's headaches you should probably give some clear warning either on the download page or before dyndolod starts. Also I hope this helps in any way possible! We all love you for making such an amazing tool!

[sheson]

23 minutes ago, ArrowFX said:

@sheson I have found two things that might be good for you to know(unless you already know them...)

First, After a lot of trial and error, I have found that at least I will always get an access violation error unless I have dyndolod open and in focus for the entire process in which case it will 99% of the time work fine. Don't know if I am just stupid and that is supposed to be the case or if it is a bug or smt.

Second, that 1% of the times that it doesn't work I have narrowed down to it either being because the HTML file that gets generated brings my browser into focus or because of some random one time bug and because I haven't found a way to stop the HTML file from being opened I can't rly find which of them is the cause.

PS: If the first one isn't a bug then to save yourself headaches and also other people's headaches you should probably give some clear warning either on the download page or before dyndolod starts. Also I hope this helps in any way possible! We all love you for making such an amazing tool!

Upload the log, debug log and bugreport.txt if it exists as explained in the first post when making reports.

Occlusion calculations (that is what the  bugreport.txt you uploaded a while ago showed)  do not work any differently if the program is in focus or not. Such randomness often  means there could be a problem with the hardware, BIOS setting etc.  for example memory related.

By the time the summary is created or the browser is opened, the occlusion calculations are long done. It could be an entirely different problem or just a secondary problem as the result of another. Needs logs and bugreport.txt using the latest version.

[DarthVitrial]

8 hours ago, sheson said:

I am not able to replicate this. You have the right mesh from DynDOLOD Resources and it is does not seem to have any season replacement.
What is odd that the mesh only sporadically causes a problem. It should always be processed exactly the same for all seasons.

Download https://mega.nz/file/oMBlAAaa#y6nXWUwL6L9rlfKV_5jUhksPmYgJQMLaTqH8q_J5xnE and replace LODGenx64.exe in the Edit Scripts folder. It will print a stack trace to the log. Then run again, upload the LODGen log for whatever season the error happened.

OK, running that now.

As a note, the thing is it seems totally random where it fails on and why, the only common thread seems to be having the seasons option enabled?