DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 182

[vrnord]

Can I make a suggestion for a possible future feature tweak?  Grass LODs are really awesome: having grass beyond the active cells is a whole other level of immersion because I don't have to tell my brain to ignore bald terrain that is often very visible.  I will downgrade other things so I can keep my grass LODs.  A challenge is that, to balance performance with visuals, I need to set a fairly low grass LOD density so Pine Forest and Fall Forest areas run smoothly.  I can get away with that visually, because there is enough tree density and shadows in those regions to distract from or obscure the patchy LODs - you get a nice impression of distant grass detail but don't really focus on it.  However that leaves the Tundra and Reach with patchy grass LODs too, where it is much more noticeable and distracting because of the lack of trees.  The irony is that the lack of trees and other forest clutter means I could have afforded denser LODs there.

I wonder if there could be an option to add a rule to Dyndolod to override the overall grass density for certain regions, maybe by landscape texture?  So if the rule is Reach = 50 density (but overall density is 35), then Dyndolod knows Reach = Reachgrass01, Reachmoss01, Reachdirt01 and Reachmossyrocks01, and finds the corresponding grasses to override from the overall density setting: all other grass types would be 35. 

Alternately, is there a way to run Dyndolod by region "chunk"?  That way I could output Dyndolod with 35 density, then change to a higher density to output just the Tundra and Reach mesh chunks and have that override the overall output in MO2.  

Thanks for all your work on this awesome tool!

[Modslave]

So, sorry to bring this here but I'm kind of not clear on what's happened here and its very concerning.

I recently updated Dyndolod and its resources to 3.0 Alpha 169 and over the last two days had some very concerning lodgen sessions with it.

Prior Dyndolod sessions would take me around 13 to 20 minutes generating a file on the average of about 2.5gb in total compressed size.

But yesterdays session generated a compressed Dyndolod Output of 11.2 GB in size and it took about an hour and a half. It was mostly fine in the general Tamriel worldspace and then I got near Whiterun and the giant fight at the farm and it was such a simulation slide show that even Aela was saying her lines well after they appeared on my screen. I have an insanely high spec PC running a 3080 Ti, 64GB of RAM on a 4.5ghz clocked I7-9700 running at 1440p on a Nvidia G-Sync monitor and surprisingly it all held together and eventually settled down enough for me to be able to walk again but it was really awful so something was obviously wrong cause normally I can run Skyrim with another game or app in the background without a problem.

So I dug into my modlist and removed a few texture and mesh addon mods, specifically Traverse the Uvenwald and Wigfrids Trees (both mods I've had in my load order in the previous 2.5 GB outputs and have been in my mod list for months) and cut some base object swapper mods for farmhouses as well. Leaving my prior install shorter on details.

And I just ran Dyndolod again and it took another hour and a half and this time the compressed Output file is literally 19.2 GB compressed and 39.4 GB uncompressed which is quite literally 3 times the size of the entire game unmodded.

Something is dreadfully wrong here and I can't figure out what. The only changes I've made should have reduced the total mesh and texture load, not increased it, and the only custom rules I'm setting in the expert level config are the ACMOS default billboard setttings for tree and /, everything else is just default run on High as I've always done.

[sheson]

2 hours ago, Modslave said:

So, sorry to bring this here but I'm kind of not clear on what's happened here and its very concerning.

I recently updated Dyndolod and its resources to 3.0 Alpha 169 and over the last two days had some very concerning lodgen sessions with it.

Prior Dyndolod sessions would take me around 13 to 20 minutes generating a file on the average of about 2.5gb in total compressed size.

But yesterdays session generated a compressed Dyndolod Output of 11.2 GB in size and it took about an hour and a half. It was mostly fine in the general Tamriel worldspace and then I got near Whiterun and the giant fight at the farm and it was such a simulation slide show that even Aela was saying her lines well after they appeared on my screen. I have an insanely high spec PC running a 3080 Ti, 64GB of RAM on a 4.5ghz clocked I7-9700 running at 1440p on a Nvidia G-Sync monitor and surprisingly it all held together and eventually settled down enough for me to be able to walk again but it was really awful so something was obviously wrong cause normally I can run Skyrim with another game or app in the background without a problem.

So I dug into my modlist and removed a few texture and mesh addon mods, specifically Traverse the Uvenwald and Wigfrids Trees (both mods I've had in my load order in the previous 2.5 GB outputs and have been in my mod list for months) and cut some base object swapper mods for farmhouses as well. Leaving my prior install shorter on details.

And I just ran Dyndolod again and it took another hour and a half and this time the compressed Output file is literally 19.2 GB compressed and 39.4 GB uncompressed which is quite literally 3 times the size of the entire game unmodded.

Something is dreadfully wrong here and I can't figure out what. The only changes I've made should have reduced the total mesh and texture load, not increased it, and the only custom rules I'm setting in the expert level config are the ACMOS default billboard setttings for tree and /, everything else is just default run on High as I've always done.

Read the first post and/or https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs which entire DynDOLOD log and debug log to upload when making posts.

See https://dyndolod.info/FAQ#Long-running-time-or-output-several-GB-in-file-size
In particluar:
Beware of mods adding or defining full models or not really well optimized LOD models for LOD.
Check ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\DynDOLOD_[GAME MODE]_ModelsUsed_[WORLDSPACE].txt for a list of meshes and their total contribution to the object LOD meshes file sizes.

It is unclear what the actual content of the archive or the output folder is, you are just reporting the size. Checking the actual content and finding and reporting the largest folder and files might help to narrow it down, in particluar if textures are involved. Make sure the output folder is empty before generating new DynDOLOD output from scratch.

[Modslave]

 

Apologies for the delay.  I'd already started a fresh texgen/dyndolod output after trying to eliminate potential issues and even downgrading the Dyndolod script package to the last version and noticed the log requirements after that. I just had to sit through a 2 hour  Dyndolod output to ensure I have the logs required. One hour and 44 minutes of that literally being generating the Tamriel LODGen.

Here are the relevant logs I believe.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j2puHpv6JfE2sszQkgj_TQQXpOqbWeRj/view?usp=drive_link

The debug log alone is 185mb something is very not right here.

The largest asset folder in the output is the \DynDOLOD_Output\Meshes\Terrain\Tamriel\Objects folder, which is coming in at a whopping 27.6 GB uncompressed.

Here is the Tamriel ModelsUsed.

https://pastebin.com/Sa5REP8n

The strange part of this is I haven't added anything that should be doing this, I've actually been removing things that add objects. And its not helping.

My Texgen output.....by comparison, is literally less than 130 MB.

Edited April 10 by Modslave

[sheson]

1 hour ago, Modslave said:

 

Apologies for the delay.  I'd already started a fresh texgen/dyndolod output after trying to eliminate potential issues and even downgrading the Dyndolod script package to the last version and noticed the log requirements after that. I just had to sit through a 2 hour  Dyndolod output to ensure I have the logs required. One hour and 44 minutes of that literally being generating the Tamriel LODGen.

Here are the relevant logs I believe.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j2puHpv6JfE2sszQkgj_TQQXpOqbWeRj/view?usp=drive_link

The debug log alone is 185mb something is very not right here.

The largest asset folder in the output is the \DynDOLOD_Output\Meshes\Terrain\Tamriel\Objects folder, which is coming in at a whopping 27.6 GB uncompressed.

Here is the Tamriel ModelsUsed.

https://pastebin.com/Sa5REP8n

The strange part of this is I haven't added anything that should be doing this, I've actually been removing things that add objects. And its not helping.

My Texgen output.....by comparison, is literally less than 130 MB.

The size of the debug log is irrelevant.

From DynDOLOD_SSE_log.txt (which shows the top 10 from DynDOLOD_SSE_ModelsUsed_Tamriel.txt)
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforest05_6396fa85passthru_lod.nif used 3770 times, ~ 2647.68 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforest03_adaf1a95passthru_lod.nif used 3462 times, ~ 2130.19 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforest02_d20290f1passthru_lod.nif used 2217 times, ~ 1557.00 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow05_1e583551passthru_lod.nif used 2846 times, ~ 487.41 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treeaspen03_038d0d94passthru_lod.nif used 1396 times, ~ 440.27 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treeaspen01_26002b66passthru_lod.nif used 1053 times, ~ 332.10 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow02_abdadffbpassthru_lod.nif used 2121 times, ~ 299.71 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow03_8606344epassthru_lod.nif used 2624 times, ~ 254.38 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treeaspen04_78718205passthru_lod.nif used 747 times, ~ 235.58 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow04_3101733epassthru_lod.nif used 2311 times, ~ 230.90 MB
Just these 10 not really optimized 3D tree "LOD" models occupy 8615.22 MB = 8.4GB of the object LOD for Tamriel
Just as example, the vanilla 3D tree LOD model for the vanilla tree treepineforest05 is ~8kB, while the 3D tree "LOD" model above is  ~720kb. Almost a 100 times more. If you can not find better optimized 3D tree LOD models, consider using Billboard4 (for some) instead.

Also check the DynDOLOD_SSE_log.txt for messages similar to the one below which lists that the full model is used for LOD
<Warning: LOD model meshes\lod\windhelmsurjamte\wheeltowerbridge_lod.nif has same CRC32 2B781726 as full model Meshes\surwindhelmcustommeshes\architecture\wheeltowerbridge.nif WindhelmSSE.esp WHgate2WHNew [STAT:311BE6AA]>
Each one by itself does not seem much with ~1 or 2 MB. However, actual properly made LOD models are often much less than 100kB.

Grass LOD is being generated. Lowering the grass LOD density will help to reduce BTO files size.

Object LOD Level 32 for the map is being generated.
Some specific rules define to use full models for object LOD Level 32.
The last / rules defines to use LOD models meant for object LOD level 4 for the LOD Level 32.
Typically the map uses object LOD 16 that is much less detailed with LOD models made for LOD level 16 and none for smaller objects.
Note the total size of all object LOD Level 32 files. Stick with the default object LOD 16 for the map instead if necessary.

[Modslave]

3 hours ago, sheson said:

The size of the debug log is irrelevant.

From DynDOLOD_SSE_log.txt (which shows the top 10 from DynDOLOD_SSE_ModelsUsed_Tamriel.txt)
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforest05_6396fa85passthru_lod.nif used 3770 times, ~ 2647.68 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforest03_adaf1a95passthru_lod.nif used 3462 times, ~ 2130.19 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforest02_d20290f1passthru_lod.nif used 2217 times, ~ 1557.00 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow05_1e583551passthru_lod.nif used 2846 times, ~ 487.41 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treeaspen03_038d0d94passthru_lod.nif used 1396 times, ~ 440.27 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treeaspen01_26002b66passthru_lod.nif used 1053 times, ~ 332.10 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow02_abdadffbpassthru_lod.nif used 2121 times, ~ 299.71 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow03_8606344epassthru_lod.nif used 2624 times, ~ 254.38 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treeaspen04_78718205passthru_lod.nif used 747 times, ~ 235.58 MB
Meshes\dyndolod\lod\trees\landscape\treepineforestsnow04_3101733epassthru_lod.nif used 2311 times, ~ 230.90 MB
Just these 10 not really optimized 3D tree "LOD" models occupy 8615.22 MB = 8.4GB of the object LOD for Tamriel
Just as example, the vanilla 3D tree LOD model for the vanilla tree treepineforest05 is ~8kB, while the 3D tree "LOD" model above is  ~720kb. Almost a 100 times more. If you can not find better optimized 3D tree LOD models, consider using Billboard4 (for some) instead.

Also check the DynDOLOD_SSE_log.txt for messages similar to the one below which lists that the full model is used for LOD
<Warning: LOD model meshes\lod\windhelmsurjamte\wheeltowerbridge_lod.nif has same CRC32 2B781726 as full model Meshes\surwindhelmcustommeshes\architecture\wheeltowerbridge.nif WindhelmSSE.esp WHgate2WHNew [STAT:311BE6AA]>
Each one by itself does not seem much with ~1 or 2 MB. However, actual properly made LOD models are often much less than 100kB.

Grass LOD is being generated. Lowering the grass LOD density will help to reduce BTO files size.

Object LOD Level 32 for the map is being generated.
Some specific rules define to use full models for object LOD Level 32.
The last / rules defines to use LOD models meant for object LOD level 4 for the LOD Level 32.
Typically the map uses object LOD 16 that is much less detailed with LOD models made for LOD level 16 and none for smaller objects.
Note the total size of all object LOD Level 32 files. Stick with the default object LOD 16 for the map instead if necessary.

Hrrrm well this is all very curious because the tree and grass models I'm using are the same ones I've been using since 2022. There was an update for them recently which I did update to, but they've never done this before....the passthru lods there seem to be being generated as a reference object from nifs but with much larger file sizes because Veydogolt is no where near that size for the passthru lods's in its own files.

The only level32 considerations are for ACMOS. Billboard 6 for Tree and Level0 for /

 

[sheson]

31 minutes ago, Modslave said:

Hrrrm well this is all very curious because the tree and grass models I'm using are the same ones I've been using since 2022. There was an update for them recently which I did update to, but they've never done this before....the passthru lods there seem to be being generated as a reference object from nifs but with much larger file sizes because Veydogolt is no where near that size for the passthru lods's in its own files.

The only level32 considerations are for ACMOS. Billboard 6 for Tree and Level0 for /

The screenshot shows that the 3D tree "LOD" file treepineforest05_6396fa85passthru_lod.nif has a file size of 720kB.
The log you posted shows the tree occurs 3770 times in the object LOD of Tamriel. That means the LOD for these 3770 trees accounts for almost 2.6GB file size as reported by the logs. 

ACMOS contains more than the two mesh rules you mention. It also sets a good number of full models being used for LOD Level 32.

[Modslave]

Okay well this is all far more arcane than I've ever had to deal with with this system, I didn't just download a collection yesterday and have no idea what I'm doing I've been using Dyndolod with these resources now for several years.

While I appreciate you taking the time to answer me you're not really telling me anything you're just telling me something that used to work doesn't work like it did literally 2 days ago and to RTFM.

So I guess I'll just uninstall everything and start over cause this is getting me no where.

EDIT to add: I just tried a Dyndolod session backing down Vedogoit Trees from 10.1 to 7.5 and got similar long period LODGen and high file sizes under Alpha 169.

I have now backed down Dyndolod itself to Alpha 167 which was the last working version I had that generated outputs in about 20 minutes and am trying a new output now, will report back once I see what the results are.

Edited April 10 by Modslave

[sheson]

10 hours ago, Modslave said:

Okay well this is all far more arcane than I've ever had to deal with with this system, I didn't just download a collection yesterday and have no idea what I'm doing I've been using Dyndolod with these resources now for several years.

While I appreciate you taking the time to answer me you're not really telling me anything you're just telling me something that used to work doesn't work like it did literally 2 days ago and to RTFM.

So I guess I'll just uninstall everything and start over cause this is getting me no where.

EDIT to add: I just tried a Dyndolod session backing down Vedogoit Trees from 10.1 to 7.5 and got similar long period LODGen and high file sizes under Alpha 169.

I have now backed down Dyndolod itself to Alpha 167 which was the last working version I had that generated outputs in about 20 minutes and am trying a new output now, will report back once I see what the results are.

I looked at the logs that were provided and explained several factual reasons that are causing large object LOD files. I did not mention or made comparisons to older generations, since no other logs were provided. I did not tell you to RTFM in the last two posts here or here. That was only in the first post to refer to the explanations which log files to upload and to the already existing FAQ answers for this issue.

Let me summarize the reasons for large object LOD files I already wrote about in the past posts contrary to your claim I did not tell anything:
Ultra tree LOD with way too large 3D tree "LOD" from third party mods cause huge object LOD files requiring at least a dozen GB. 
Mods use or set full models to be used for object LOD.
Grass LOD is being generated.
LOD Level 32 is being generated.

[Olindrax]

I'm guessing that this has been asked several times already, so hopefully I'm posting in the right place. I followed the STEP guide for Fallout 4, but TexGen throws an access violation error: "Read of address 00000000."

Bug report from my most recent run: https://paste.ee/p/ALJHD

TexGen FO4 log: https://paste.ee/p/iZSsG

The debug log was huge, so I uploaded it to Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tNgY87OXyMvkK01qm17BXeZSrYh79V3mTcWcUISFnkQ/edit?usp=sharing

[sheson]

3 hours ago, Olindrax said:

I'm guessing that this has been asked several times already, so hopefully I'm posting in the right place. I followed the STEP guide for Fallout 4, but TexGen throws an access violation error: "Read of address 00000000."

Bug report from my most recent run: https://paste.ee/p/ALJHD

TexGen FO4 log: https://paste.ee/p/iZSsG

The debug log was huge, so I uploaded it to Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tNgY87OXyMvkK01qm17BXeZSrYh79V3mTcWcUISFnkQ/edit?usp=sharing

Use the x64 version as explained by the installation instructions https://dyndolod.info/Installation-Instructions

Upload new log, debug log and bugreport.txt if problem persists.

[Olindrax]

Ah, my mistake. That was silly.

[103Vault]

Sorry to bother you but I noticed that DynDOLOD.esp added the Has DIstance Lod tag to many statics, yet the texture sets is not carried over from Skyrim.esm, leading color changes to many statics, for example, the texture of TundraPond01.nif.

https://i.imgur.com/emujdVg.png

[sheson]

7 hours ago, 103Vault said:

Sorry to bother you but I noticed that DynDOLOD.esp added the Has DIstance Lod tag to many statics, yet the texture sets is not carried over from Skyrim.esm, leading color changes to many statics, for example, the texture of TundraPond01.nif.

https://i.imgur.com/emujdVg.png

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. Also upload ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\DynDOLOD_SSE_Object_Report.txt

Report the actual problem in the game. Provide useful screenshots of the full model with more informative console as explained at https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#In-Game-Screenshots

The MODT - Model Information element is not the same as the MODS - Alternate Textures element.
The entries of MODT - Model Information are not Texture Sets.
The entries of MODT - Model Information list the textures the vanilla model uses. The entries do not affect which textures the model uses in the game. That is what MODS - Alternate Textures entries do.

[Devo]

Hello sheson,

First of all, thank you for the amazing job you're doing on our Skyrim and, most of all, your efforts to help & support the community's troubles aound DynDOLOD !

I'm coming here because I'm searching for my 3 holidays around LOD's troubles - Ulvenwald 3.3 trees.

I only have this trouble with Ulvenwald trees (last version 3.3)

The 3D LODs here : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/107214

Everything is ok with TexGen/DynDOLOD and I'm using the very last version.

When I'm approaching, the terrain/trees are lately popping so I though it might be a resource graphic card trouble but it's definitively not a VRAM trouble or something

(i9 13700 + RTX 4090).

I'm playing on 1.5.97 and the mod might simply be incompatible with this version as even the Ulvenwald's author said he only tested on 1.6xxx version.

But I also noticed terrain LOD troubles around those trees areas so I'm not certain about that. 

Can you help me sheson, please ?

Regards.