DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 182

[sheson]

1 hour ago, schmurftdurft said:

Hey there,

excuse me if this seems to be an odd question, but what can Dyndolod really do for me? I am generating outputs for weeks to seemingly solve an issue but i fear that this acutally is not an issue but just a limitation of Skyrim/Dyndolod. So, whats the issue? Trees are visually changing when i come closer to them. I am not talking about the color. I am aware about the color and shadows and weather and enbs and that i am supposed the tweak this, i mean that the tree morphs into a different one when i come closer.

Initally I wanted to use HLT, but the cell transition just looks awful and immersion breaking. Totally different trees when coming closer. Than I tried EVT. Its better but still awful. Then i tried without any tree mod. Just plain vanilla and its bearable, but still odd. I told myself that i did something wrong, despite reading and hanging around on dyndolod.info more than i like to admit (I told my SO that i am working on a very promissing side project. She would kill me if she knew that I havent had time in the evenings the last few weeks because i want to have better trees for a video game).

I went to youtube to find acual videos what it looks like if one uses Dyndolod. Well, i couldnt find a single video where someone is just running through the grid. Just videos from heavilly modded Skyrims with NPC standing around, walking very slowly and changing the view before new cells are loaded and so on. Except this one, where at 0:44 you can see the very same thing i try to fix. The title of the video says "Alpha Advanced setting experiments", so i am not sure if it want to shows something different. But you can cleary see the issue i am having.

As far as I understood I do not need any extra files to use Ultra Tree LOD 3D when using VT or EVT. Still, although the trees are visible in the distance, what I really like, the transitions looks bad. I also tried different mesh mask rules for trees. No luck...

So my questions are: is this the normal Dyndolod behaviour? Or am I doing this wrong? Bonus questions: are there videos showing the player running through the world to see the transition?

Read the first p[osy which logs and debug logs to upload when making posts. Read https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum

https://dyndolod.info
Dynamic Distant Objects LOD (DynDOLOD) is the advanced and easier version of xLODGen to generate a comprehensive LOD mod for the entire load order of the different Skyrim and Enderal game versions for drastically enhanced and better matching tree LOD and object LOD plus optional dynamic LOD (hence the name), glow LOD, grass LOD, occlusion data and terrain underside in a few simple steps.

Read https://dyndolod.info/How-LOD-Works for a basic explanation of how standard LOD works in the game. DynDOLOD does not change how LOD works. E.g. there is always a switch between LOD and full model at some point.

See answers for Billboard tree LOD does not match close-up full model trees https://dyndolod.info/FAQ
If tree LOD does not match full trees, then you have no followed the generation instructions https://dyndolod.info/Generation-Instructions and may have still 3rd party billboards installed.

Consider generating HD tree LOD billboards and to use https://dyndolod.info/Help/Ultra-Tree-LOD with the HD Billboards and/or 3D tree LOD models. 3D tree LOD resources are often an extra download or mod for tree mods.

[AvatarOfEvil]

I've been having issues with DynDOLOD with my most recent mod setup. At first, it never initialized, and so the LOD and models were overlaid everywhere. Then, it would never get past the initial loading screen. After a couple days spent cleaning up various errors, I finally got everything to run again without DynDOLOD, so I tried running it. For two days, it would hang up on generating the texture atlases for Tamriel for over seven hours with no CPU usage, though as soon as I told DynDOLOD to close, one or two processes would kick off that suddenly ate up the CPU, though I always closed them, because by that point, I figured the whole run was a waste. I tried generating the texture atlases without running the full DynDOLOD generation, which worked fine, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to skip the atlas generation on the full run because I already had them. Now, I'm getting this error:

Error: OpenGL: E669E681 framebuffer unknown 0

I've spent something like two weeks now trying to get DynDOLOD to work. It worked fine for an earlier mod setup, but after adding a few more mods and cleaning up the list a bit to get rid of redundant files (i.e. Book Covers when I have Legacy of the Dragonborn), it hasn't been working.

bugreport.txt: https://paste.ee/p/q9KVi

DynDOLOD_SEE_log.txt: https://paste.ee/p/qfZyB

Modwatch: https://modwat.ch/u/AvatarOfEvil

 

New error that hasn't shown before:
Error: OpenGL: invalid operation for 12454F79 while processing 12454F79 (4) while processing textures\lod\falmerhutlod.dds.

Log: https://pastebin.com/brk193wJ

 

It is now getting hung up on Manantis the same way it was getting hung up on Tamriel before. 9 hours with no new files created and no CPU usage. Is it possible to create the various pieces of DynDOLOD output (object LOD, dynamic LOD, Occlusion plugin, and DynDOLOD plugins) piecemeal? It seemed to run through the texture atlas "rebuild" very quickly, so I'm wondering if it's just somehow running out of memory and not knowing how to proceed, somehow, when doing it all at once.

[sheson]

33 minutes ago, AvatarOfEvil said:

I've been having issues with DynDOLOD with my most recent mod setup. At first, it never initialized, and so the LOD and models were overlaid everywhere. Then, it would never get past the initial loading screen. After a couple days spent cleaning up various errors, I finally got everything to run again without DynDOLOD, so I tried running it. For two days, it would hang up on generating the texture atlases for Tamriel for over seven hours with no CPU usage, though as soon as I told DynDOLOD to close, one or two processes would kick off that suddenly ate up the CPU, though I always closed them, because by that point, I figured the whole run was a waste. I tried generating the texture atlases without running the full DynDOLOD generation, which worked fine, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to skip the atlas generation on the full run because I already had them. Now, I'm getting this error:

Error: OpenGL: E669E681 framebuffer unknown 0

I've spent something like two weeks now trying to get DynDOLOD to work. It worked fine for an earlier mod setup, but after adding a few more mods and cleaning up the list a bit to get rid of redundant files (i.e. Book Covers when I have Legacy of the Dragonborn), it hasn't been working.

bugreport.txt: https://paste.ee/p/q9KVi

DynDOLOD_SEE_log.txt: https://paste.ee/p/qfZyB

Modwatch: https://modwat.ch/u/AvatarOfEvil

 

New error that hasn't shown before:
Error: OpenGL: invalid operation for 12454F79 while processing 12454F79 (4) while processing textures\lod\falmerhutlod.dds.

Log: https://pastebin.com/brk193wJ

 

It is now getting hung up on Manantis the same way it was getting hung up on Tamriel before. 9 hours with no new files created and no CPU usage. Is it possible to create the various pieces of DynDOLOD output (object LOD, dynamic LOD, Occlusion plugin, and DynDOLOD plugins) piecemeal? It seemed to run through the texture atlas "rebuild" very quickly, so I'm wondering if it's just somehow running out of memory and not knowing how to proceed, somehow, when doing it all at once.

Moved to the DynDOLOD 3 Alpha thread. Read the first post which entire log and debug log to also upload when making posts. https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum

"Long running time or output several GB in file size" at https://dyndolod.info/FAQ 
Crapware installed with graphics drivers is known to prolong running times. Install only the drivers and not any of the bloatware.

Reinstall the latest graphics drivers only without any of the unnecessary bloat/crapware.
Delete old logs and bugreport.txt and run again. If problem persists upload new bugreport.txt, entire log and debug log.

[AvatarOfEvil]

14 minutes ago, sheson said:

Moved to the DynDOLOD 3 Alpha thread. Read the first post which entire log and debug log to also upload when making posts. https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum

"Long running time or output several GB in file size" at https://dyndolod.info/FAQ 
Crapware installed with graphics drivers is known to prolong running times. Install only the drivers and not any of the bloatware.

Reinstall the latest graphics drivers only without any of the unnecessary bloat/crapware.
Delete old logs and bugreport.txt and run again. If problem persists upload new bugreport.txt, entire log and debug log.

What counts as "bloatware"? The AMD dashboard?

[sheson]

19 minutes ago, AvatarOfEvil said:

What counts as "bloatware"? The AMD dashboard?

Bloatware would be anything optional that is not the driver.

[z929669]

31 minutes ago, AvatarOfEvil said:

What counts as "bloatware"? The AMD dashboard?

I use AMD and have found that simply killing all 'AMD' processes (most notably Adrenaline) prior to launching TexGen/DynDOLOD resolves the 'boatware' lag issue. This allows benefits of said software outside of LODGen processing.

[DoubleYou]

10 hours ago, RainingTacco said:

 

Thanks. How can i know which object uses dynamic lod vs object lod, so i will know where to add LOD32 rules and where to left it as "none"? I already use "/" and "tree" lod32 rules from ACMOS nexus guide. 

There is quite simply no need. I have accounted for all rules in ACMOS provided rules already.

[RainingTacco]

I don't really understand how this settings work, here are the multipliers, i've upped red brightness a little:

ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR=0.8
ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG=0.75
ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB=0.75

How should i change them to increase the redness of the grass LOD? This is just brightness increase, and increasing brightness of red channel had opposite effect in my game, it didn't increase redness. So how to proceed? I wish dyndolod had not only brightness mixer but also just color mixer. 

And also what does execute lodgen and rebuilt atlas do? The guide is not very helpful at explaining things

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Expert-Mode

Should i run execute lodgen or rebuild atlas to only update grass lod with new above multipliers applied?

 

Edit: I've literally set this

ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR=1
ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG=0
ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB=0
; make bottom darker to fake shadowing
ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomR=1
ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomG=0
ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomB=0

According to the setting you would expect every grass lod texture to be red.

but i've rebuilt atlas, compared the DYNDOLOD_tamriel.dds grass subtextures and there's no change of color, brightness, anything. How does this work then?

Edited March 25, 2023 by RainingTacco

[sheson]

54 minutes ago, RainingTacco said:

I don't really understand how this settings work, here are the multipliers, i've upped red brightness a little:

ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR=0.8
ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG=0.75
ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB=0.75

How should i change them to increase the redness of the grass LOD? This is just brightness increase, and increasing brightness of red channel had opposite effect in my game, it didn't increase redness. So how to proceed? I wish dyndolod had not only brightness mixer but also just color mixer. 

And also what does execute lodgen and rebuilt atlas do? The guide is not very helpful at explaining things

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Expert-Mode

Should i run execute lodgen or rebuild atlas to only update grass lod with new above multipliers applied?

As explained on the first post, use search to find similar questions and answers.
https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/17510-dyndolod-300-alpha-120/page/488/#comment-270217
https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/17510-dyndolod-300-alpha-120/page/108/#comment-249656
As explained above the INI settings, they are multipliers. For example, ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR is multiplied with the red vertex color value in the NIF/BTO. Higher values mean the red vertex color is nearing 1.0 in the NIF. Each color channel can be multiplied with a different value, so this is giving full color mixing control.
To make something more red, increase ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR and/or decrease ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG/ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Expert-Mode#Execute-LODGen
The button Execute LODGen starts LODGen for the selected worldspaces again that already have existing object LOD data exported by DynDOLOD in the last LOD generation processes.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Expert-Mode#Rebuild-Atlas
The button Rebuild Atlas updates the object LOD and tree LOD atlas textures depending on the Generate object LOD and Generate tree LOD checkboxes for the selected worldspaces based on the atlas map files of the last LOD generation process.

As explained, the buttons redo executing LODGen or generating atlas textures from the last generation for the selected worldspaces.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Updating
To test different GrassBrightnessTop*/GrassBrightnessBottom* or GrassBrightnessBottom*/ComplexGrassBrightnessBottom* settings, change them in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\Export\LODGen_SSE_Export_[WORLDSPACE].txt, start DynDOLOD in expert mode, select the desired worldspace and click the Execute LODGen button. Then merge the new output with the existing output, overwriting all older files. Remember to also change the settings in the ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini for future LOD generation.

[RainingTacco]

Thanks, i think it should be written in this part

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Object-LOD

that the color/britghness settings influence vertex colors in nifs, and not teexture atlas, hence it would avoid the confusion. I think most people would never guess that this happens, and then would get confused why after rebuilding atlas nothing has changed. 

 

Edit: Regenerating LODs takes too much time and make no sense for me, so i've just opened texture atlas, selected the grass lod subtexture and used channel mixer in photoshop to adjust these. Faster and it works for me. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by RainingTacco

[sheson]

15 minutes ago, RainingTacco said:

Thanks, i think it should be written in this part

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Object-LOD

that the color/britghness settings influence vertex colors in nifs, and not teexture atlas, hence it would avoid the confusion. I think most people would never guess that this happens, and then would get confused why after rebuilding atlas nothing has changed. 

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Object-LOD explains how generic object LOD is generated and works in the game. 

The GrassBrightness* INI setting pertain to grass LOD generation specifically and thus are explained at https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD and right above in the INI.
The function of the INI settings and how to update grass LOD with different values is explained at https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD right were it matters.

[Dersh]

Hey I just wanted to mention this incase anyone else might have had an issue with TexGen just crashing when it went to stage "Creating Textures" here is a quick 2 min video below of what it would look like when I tried to use TexGen and it crashed without producing any logs or debug log.

Because DynDOLOD website just says .NET Runtime 6 or newer for LODGenWin.exe/LODGenx64Win.exe as a requirement I had downloaded and installed both x86 and x64 versions of .NET Runtime 6.0.15 and I could not for the life of me get TexGen to do its thing without crashing without producing logs.

Soon as I installed both x86 and x64 versions of .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15 TexGen runs and finishes without issue. Not sure why that happens but thought id mention it as I spent about 16 hours googling and searching this forum for solutions without success and I just happened to have the idea to try the other .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15 x64 + x86 packages.

 

Edit: to Sheson and crew: thanks so much for making DynDOLOD! I cant play Skyrim AE without this as the game LOD just looks too ghetto and takes me out of the whole experience! 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Dersh
Complementary thanks for DynDOLOD crew

[RainingTacco]

I've executed lodgen with 1,0,0 settings for grass brightness and couldn't see any increase in redness. Are there any comparison photos definitely showing red, green and blue grass when each channel is set to 1, and the rest to zero. I feel like the setting doesn't work properly, or maybe me selecting only object and then grass tickbox in dyndolod and run execute lodgen is not the proper way to do it. i wish there was a preview button like in texgen. 

[sheson]

6 hours ago, Dersh said:

Hey I just wanted to mention this incase anyone else might have had an issue with TexGen just crashing when it went to stage "Creating Textures" here is a quick 2 min video below of what it would look like when I tried to use TexGen and it crashed without producing any logs or debug log.

Because DynDOLOD website just says .NET Runtime 6 or newer for LODGenWin.exe/LODGenx64Win.exe as a requirement I had downloaded and installed both x86 and x64 versions of .NET Runtime 6.0.15 and I could not for the life of me get TexGen to do its thing without crashing without producing logs.

Soon as I installed both x86 and x64 versions of .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15 TexGen runs and finishes without issue. Not sure why that happens but thought id mention it as I spent about 16 hours googling and searching this forum for solutions without success and I just happened to have the idea to try the other .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15 x64 + x86 packages.

Read https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs and what to do in case there is are no log and debug log.

TexGen (xEdit/xLODGen/DynDOLOD) is a compiled Delphi Windows program. TexGen does not make any use of LODGen. That means that .NET is irrelevant to running TexGen. It seems possible that certain unnecessary and interfering crapware uses .NET.

The x86 versions of anything should be irrelevant when using the x64 version of the tools.

[Dersh]

6 hours ago, sheson said:

Read https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs and what to do in case there is are no log and debug log.

TexGen (xEdit/xLODgen/DynDOLOD) is a compiled Delphi Windows program. TexGen does not make any use of LODGen. That means that .NET is irrelevant to running TexGen. Is seems possible that certain unnecessary and interfering crapware is affected.

The x86 versions of anything are irrelevant when using the x64 version of the tools.

First, issue is resolved for me.

Second when TexGen was doing nothing but exiting all I did was install ".NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15" instead of ".NET Runtime 6.0.15" 

I used the x64 version of TexGen from the start. I only installed both x64 and x86 versions  of .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15 to cover my bases for the future for other applications.

Edit: I had no "crapware" running in either situation, only difference was the change in .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.15 package