DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 182

[User77111]

7 minutes ago, sheson said:

If you have a question or want to report a problem, then read the first post and/or https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs which DynDOLOD log and debug log to upload when making posts.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZTr6s83idVRMZpVZBhxrwDsHHYtmjy_/view?usp=sharing

All log files

[sheson]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

If you have a question or want to report a problem, then read the first post and/or https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs which DynDOLOD log and debug log to upload when making posts.

Check ..\Meshes\Terrain\Tamriel\Objects\Tamriel.32.0.-32.bto that the mountain rocks have BSSubIndexTripShape names like objSnow. If so, then check what plugin changes the snow LOD shader.

[User77111]

6 minutes ago, sheson said:

Check ..\Meshes\Terrain\Tamriel\Objects\Tamriel.32.0.-32.bto that the mountain rocks have BSSubIndexTripShape names like objSnow. If so, then check what plugin changes the snow LOD shader.

The mountains have objSnow, but so do the objects like dungeons that display with snow on the map. The only difference between the mountain rocks and the dungeons is the mountain rocks have vertex colors.

[sheson]

19 hours ago, Mousetick said:

DynDOLOD 3a155 SSE - Combine Worldspaces for LOD

About a month ago, I used Combine Worldspaces for LOD to put Skyrim LODs into Solstheim. When I initially set up and incrementally tweaked the DLC2SolstheimWorld_Combine.ini configuration, I used minimal DynDOLOD options to speed up generation for testing. Everything looked as expected in-game.

Then once I was finally happy with the Combine.ini configuration and results, I re-generated all LODs for all worldspaces with DynDOLOD, using a larger set of options - including Underside.

The final results in-game were unexpected and disappointing, to say the least. I didn't understand what could be causing the visual defects. But I had spent so much time making the Combine.ini "just right" for my taste, I didn't feel like troubleshooting and just postponed it until later...

Then I saw your recent comment:

Which gave me an idea. What if the underside was the culprit? So I did a quick test:

Without | With /meshes/terrain/dlc2solstheimworld/dlc2solstheimworld_underside.nif

In the picture on the right, you can see parts shaped like the original/vanilla DLC2SolstheimWorld terrain from Dragonborn.esm.

Does the underside mesh generation take into account Combined Worldspaces for LOD? It looks like it does not.

• Underside log: LODGen_SSE_DLC2SolstheimWorld_TerrainUnderside_log.txt
• DynDOLOD log and debug log: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ssrM9OwD-gSECDe9VrwLA5Szcdawq535/view
• Combine.ini: DLC2SolstheimWorld_Combine.ini

Note: If the issue is caused by either a bug in DynDOLOD or a fault on my side, I'm not available for testing/troubleshooting at this time. But I'd appreciate getting your input on the issue.

Thanks.

This should be fixed next Alpha version.

[User77111]

16 minutes ago, User77111 said:

The mountains have objSnow, but so do the objects like dungeons that display with snow on the map. The only difference between the mountain rocks and the dungeons is the mountain rocks have vertex colors.

When setting both SnowLODMaterial and  SnowLODMaterialHD to 255, 255, 255, the SnowLODMaterialHD is noticably darker on the map when applied to the mountain meshes. 

[sheson]

24 minutes ago, User77111 said:

The mountains have objSnow, but so do the objects like dungeons that display with snow on the map. The only difference between the mountain rocks and the dungeons is the mountain rocks have vertex colors.

You are setting Level0 LOD models to be used on the map. Then you force the non HD snow shader on them. This seems to be the result.
Typically set AllHD32=1 to force the HD shader.

You could test creating an options file in (virtual) ..\Data\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE_LODGen_Options_Tamriel.txt and add a line
GenerateVertexColorsLOD32=False
so that nothing has any vertex colors in LOD Level 32 and then generate as usual and see if that helps.

Other than that, look into the INI settings that are used for the map.

[User77111]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

You are setting Level0 LOD models to be used on the map. Then you force the non HD snow shader on them. This seems to be the result.
Typically set AllHD32=1 to force the HD shader.

You could test creating an options file in (virtual) ..\Data\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE_LODGen_Options_Tamriel.txt and add a line
GenerateVertexColorsLOD32=False
so that nothing has any vertex colors in LOD Level 32 and then generate as usual and see if that helps.

Other than that, look into the INI settings that are used for the map.

When setting AllHD32=-1 and GenerateVertexColorsLOD32=False I get this:

It is perfect! Thanks sheson

 

As for the skyrim 3d trees 3d LOD, just don't use them?

 

17 minutes ago, User77111 said:

When setting AllHD32=-1 and GenerateVertexColorsLOD32=False I get this:

It is perfect! Thanks sheson

 

As for the skyrim 3d trees 3d LOD, just don't use them?

Well... actually is there a way to generate vertex colors for only the trees?

[sheson]

17 minutes ago, User77111 said:

When setting AllHD32=-1 and GenerateVertexColorsLOD32=False I get this:

It is perfect! Thanks sheson

 

As for the skyrim 3d trees 3d LOD, just don't use them?

 

Well... actually is there a way to generate vertex colors for only the trees?

I am still looking into the 3D tree LOD.

Currently the GenerateVertexColor setting is an all other nothing setting. You could make _lod_3.nif without vertex colors from the ..\Meshes\lod\mountains\mountain*_lod_*.nif with NifSkope.

[User77111]

17 minutes ago, sheson said:

I am still looking into the 3D tree LOD.

Currently the GenerateVertexColor setting is an all other nothing setting. You could make _lod_3.nif without vertex colors from the ..\Meshes\lod\mountains\mountain*_lod_*.nif with NifSkope.

I'm thinking for now I could just create vertex colors manually for the trees for now.

Also I lowered the terrain underside mesh about 150 and it still has the black lines, it is just lower now:

[sheson]

34 minutes ago, User77111 said:

I'm thinking for now I could just create vertex colors manually for the trees for now.

Also I lowered the terrain underside mesh about 150 and it still has the black lines, it is just lower now:

Doublecheck it is the underside, tll in console to turn off LOD, then click the underside mesh and disable it, tll in console to turn on LOD,  artefacts are gone?

Lower the underside further and/or increase its quality or increase terrain LOD distances.
Oh, and make sure to generate terrain LOD xLODGen, too, so it has equal quality.

[User77111]

58 minutes ago, sheson said:

Doublecheck it is the underside, tll in console to turn off LOD, then click the underside mesh and disable it, tll in console to turn on LOD,  artefacts are gone?

Lower the underside further and/or increase its quality or increase terrain LOD distances.
Oh, and make sure to generate terrain LOD xLODGen, too, so it has equal quality.

I set the terrain underside to the highest quality, and set it to the lowest possible.

https://imgur.com/a/FAa3FV1

Dosn't seem to be affected by the settings in this area.

Also I think I finally figured out the map situation. 

I regenerated the textures with xLODGen with half the gamma and left on vertex coloring. Also set AllHD32=1. It gives the most usable image.

The only problem when using AllHD32=1 is some objects are completely white:

[sheson]

1 hour ago, User77111 said:

I set the terrain underside to the highest quality, and set it to the lowest possible.

https://imgur.com/a/FAa3FV1

Dosn't seem to be affected by the settings in this area.

Also I think I finally figured out the map situation. 

I regenerated the textures with xLODGen with half the gamma and left on vertex coloring. Also set AllHD32=1. It gives the most usable image.

The only problem when using AllHD32=1 is some objects are completely white:

The video does not show how things look with the underside disabled via console.

Check with xEdit that the z position value of the reference for the underside is the negative value of the drop down after generating from scratch. If it is, change the value further down manually.

You know from the manual that the HD snow LOD shader uses the vertex color alpha channel.
These LOD models do not have vertex colors with alpha channel, so the engine assumes 1.0.

Instead of changing the brightness of terrain LOD textures, I suggest to adjust overlays textures being used for the map. Otherwise you are going to see brightness change between the LOD levels when running around the game, unless you push LOD Level 32 terrain LOD past the max render distance.

[sheson]

On 11/13/2023 at 12:07 PM, User77111 said:

Also getting this issue with skyrim 3d trees as well when using DynDOLOD, and not when using 3d tree LOD generation on xLODGen:

https://imgur.com/a/cTsPoSH

This happens for only one tree snow model. s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow04.nif

This happens because of the s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_[0|1|2].nif 3D tree LOD models setting a wrong normal map texture. That adversely affects pre-processing of the diffuse texture that is used by the other LOD model.

From your log:
[00:19] <Warning: Filename textures\landscape\s3dtrees_and_plants\lod4\treepineforestsnow04_lod_0.dds does not adhere to file naming conventions. Used by meshes\landscape\trees\s3dtrees\s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_0.nif S3DTrees NextGenerationForests.esp TreePineForestSnow03 [TREE:0005C070]>
[00:19] <Warning: Filename textures\landscape\s3dtrees_and_plants\lod4\treepineforestsnow04_lod_0.dds does not adhere to file naming conventions. Used by meshes\landscape\trees\s3dtrees\s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_1.nif S3DTrees NextGenerationForests.esp TreePineForestSnow03 [TREE:0005C070]>
[00:19] <Warning: Filename textures\landscape\s3dtrees_and_plants\lod4\treepineforestsnow04_lod_0.dds does not adhere to file naming conventions. Used by meshes\landscape\trees\s3dtrees\s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_2.nif S3DTrees NextGenerationForests.esp TreePineForestSnow03 [TREE:0005C070]>

If you fix the paths to treepineforestsnow03_LOD_0_n.dds as intended the LOD for the other trees won't fade to black.

[User77111]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

This happens because of the s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_[0|1|2].nif 3D tree LOD models setting a wrong normal map texture. That adversely affects pre-processing of the diffuse texture that is used by the other LOD model.

From your log:
[00:19] <Warning: Filename textures\landscape\s3dtrees_and_plants\lod4\treepineforestsnow04_lod_0.dds does not adhere to file naming conventions. Used by meshes\landscape\trees\s3dtrees\s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_0.nif S3DTrees NextGenerationForests.esp TreePineForestSnow03 [TREE:0005C070]>
[00:19] <Warning: Filename textures\landscape\s3dtrees_and_plants\lod4\treepineforestsnow04_lod_0.dds does not adhere to file naming conventions. Used by meshes\landscape\trees\s3dtrees\s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_1.nif S3DTrees NextGenerationForests.esp TreePineForestSnow03 [TREE:0005C070]>
[00:19] <Warning: Filename textures\landscape\s3dtrees_and_plants\lod4\treepineforestsnow04_lod_0.dds does not adhere to file naming conventions. Used by meshes\landscape\trees\s3dtrees\s3dtrees_treepineforestsnow03_lod_2.nif S3DTrees NextGenerationForests.esp TreePineForestSnow03 [TREE:0005C070]>

If you fix the paths to treepineforestsnow03_LOD_0_n.dds as intended the LOD for the other trees won't fade to black.

This fixed the issue! Now I can fix it myself but I do not have permissions to create a patch for others that use the automated modding guide. I cannot get into contact with mathy I have tried for the last 5 months as I needed permissions from him for other reasons. Hopefully a patch can be made by someone with granted permissions.

[sheson]

On 11/13/2023 at 12:07 PM, User77111 said:

When generating 3d tree LOD with the latest version of DynDOLOD 3.0 the LOD tree branches look like this:

It adds an outline to the leaf textures when using DynDOLOD. 

The black outline exists in the diffuse LOD textures shipping with the mod.

The reason this is so obvious is because some LOD models set an alpha threshold of 0 instead of the default 128 and so the diffuse textures are adjusted when they are added to the texture atlas to reflect that setting.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/3D-Tree-LOD-Model
Note that LOD only has binary alpha with a fixed threshold of 128. DynDOLOD reads the alpha threshold from the NiAlphaProperty from the models used for LOD and adjusts the textures before it is added to the atlas texture. The final result in game may be to thick or thin like certain objects seem to be missing or transparency looks off. Try adjusting the NiAlphaProperty in the 3D LOD model. 

Previewing the LOD models in NifSkope shows the black outlines as well - it should look very similar to what you see in game. Changing the threshold from 0 to 128 of the affected LOD models should mitigate that.