Occlusion generation crashes my computer in the same place every time - I've tried a couple things...

[S-Matrix]

Hi, I'm here to report on a battle I seem to have lost. Successful occlusion generation by means of xLODGen or DynDOLOD has proven to be a task I am not equal to.

"[Tamriel] Updating height map from object LOD meshes"

After this message pops up in DynDOLOD's progress window, or in xLODGen's, my computer freezes. If I wait long enough before forcing my computer to shut down completely, I get a Blue Screen of Death. I've stopped counting how many times I've watched that message appear in the DynDOLOD progress window with dread, but also some (foolish) hope over the past ~11 hours.

I close all applications except for Mod Organizer 2, and here's a timeline of what I did after this:

1. I move DynDOLOD Resources down in the left pane of MO2 so that it wins every conflict indicated, except the conflicts the DynDOLOD packs made specifically for Enhanced Rocks and Mountains, and HappyLittleTrees 3D LOD Add-on.

2. Following the config advising of the STEP Guide (v2.2.0), I sort my entire load order with LOOT, and activate "SSE Terrain Tamriel Extend", making sure the plugin is stationed as high as possible in the right pane. I run xLODGen on my load order (attached to this post in plugins.txt), still following the exact STEP Guide settings; xLODGen finishes with no problems encountered whatsoever, and I activate a mod containing its files in the left pane.

3. I precache grass with NGIO, following the guide for Grass LOD currently hosted by STEP; it takes a while, but the process eventually comes to a finish without any issue. I once again drop the generated files into a new mod and activate it in the left pane.

4. Once more in accordance with the STEP Guide's settings for HD (down to the letter), I use TexGen to generate textures/billboards for my load order, including grass (HD Grass specifically, since I'm using ENB Complex Grass) - this is completely smooth, it only takes like 10-15 minutes. I drag and drop the files into a new mod and tick it in MO2's left pane.

5. Finally, the big one: I start up DynDOLOD itself, once again following the STEP Guide's rules for HD setups. I am also generating Occlusion, with quality set to 3, and the plugin box ticked... or so I think I am. About one hour into running DynDOLOD, upon reaching the Occlusion generation for [Tamriel], the worst comes to pass. My screen freezes, my cursor is stuck, no keyboard inputs are received. At the time, I thought it was a weird fluke, and I'm hesitant to run the whole process again, so:

6. Instead of running it all again, I run the same HD settings except I choose to NOT generate an occlusion plugin. After a little while, it finishes with no problems (but it definitely threw a lot of warnings, so here are those logs) - so at this point, I have every part of DynDOLOD active, including the plugins in the right pane. Great!

7. I try and fail to generate occlusion independently, but this time I reduce the quality, so that quality=2, and I set OcclusionMaxThreadsObjectLOD=1 in the DynDOLOD_SSE.ini (which I've also attached to this post). My computer crashes in the same place as before, after apparently generating occlusion successfully for some other worldspaces that came before Tamriel.

8. I reduce the quality again, now quality=1 inside the ini file. Same result.

9. I try it again, but this time, I use xLODGen's implementation of the feature, just for funsies. Same result, same computer freeze at [Tamriel] occlusion gen.

10. I check that my CPU drivers are all up to date. Then, I update some of my laptop's software so that it is up to date with the proprietary version releases of the manufacturer (Razer), and I download ThrottleStop to monitor any remaining CPU limiters more precisely. My CPU temps are very high when I get to the [Tamriel] portion of occlusion generation, before everything freezes.

11. I repeat steps 8 and 9, but I set RealTimeLog=1 in the DynDOLOD_SSE.ini so that I could generate a log file before the freeze to attach to this post. No luck, as expected. At this point, I'm absolutely exhausted, and really don't feel like restarting my computer again for no reason.

(My CPU is an i7-9750H)

So, I'm a little lost - is there anything else I can try in order to generate occlusion? Am I hardware-limited? Should I attempt to generate occlusion without the Tamriel worldspace being included? Would that even be worth the trouble?

Thanks for any help in advance!
 

plugins.txt DynDOLOD_SSE.ini

Edited April 13, 2023 by S-Matrix

[sheson]

See https://dyndolod.info/FAQ "BSOD - Blue Screen Of Death"

[S-Matrix]

On 4/15/2023 at 1:21 AM, sheson said:

See https://dyndolod.info/FAQ "BSOD - Blue Screen Of Death"

Hey! So I managed to generate an Occlusion.esp file for my load order. I disabled the following prior to generating occlusion via xLODGen: the Happy Little Trees 3D LOD Add-on, the Enhanced Rocks and Mountains DynDOLOD Add-on, along with the DynDOLOD.esp I made and mentioned in this post from a few days ago. The occlusion generation process took about 4 minutes, at quality=2. It's almost too good to be true, so I'm wondering: is it too good to be true? Is this allowed?

Edited April 16, 2023 by S-Matrix

[sheson]

it is not possible to fix the actual cause of BSOD by disabling plugins.

Disabling plugins means their changes to worldspace or cell records - if any - are not going to to part of the occlusion patch plugin.