Defining / Recalculating Object Bounds As a Best Practice

[z929669]

Just want to confirm what I know is likely true.

per the doc ...

BILLBOARD context:

Quote

TexGen.exe uses the objects bounds to decide if a record and its model qualify for automatic LOD billboard creation. See TexGen Configuration for more.

LARGE REFERENCE context:

Quote

The object bounds volume on the base record and scale of the reference must be larger than the fLargeRefMinSize global

My presumption

All base records defining models in game assets should have object bounds reflective of the bounds defined by the NIF model itself. While this isn't a hard requirement for rendering an object in the game, it IS a hard requirement for assessment of billboard creation and the grass/tree billboard *.txt metadata as well as for the LR definition.

Context

I'm working with a mod that replaces vanilla trees simply by using NIF assets corresponding to models defined in TREE base records of the vanilla plugins. The NIF, treepineforest01.nif, could be any (reasonable) object, like a palm tree or a duck or a wheel ... whatever. As long as the NIF meets requirements for the game, it will be rendered.

The problem is that if the object bounds are not defined accurately in the plugin, then DynDOLOD will use the vanilla object bounds, to possibly make certain 'decisions' about billboard creation and LRs (for now ... maybe more in the future).

So the only way to define the object bounds is to create a plugin for the mod, forwarding the vanilla records, and using the CK to recalc bounds. This is best practice in terms of DynDOLOD (and probably other contexts), correct?

[sheson]

As I already wrote the other day, object bounds are only used to quickly determine if a tree/grass LOD billboard should be rendered as explained at https://dyndolod.info/Help/TexGen-Configuration#Tree-Grass-LOD-Billboards.  Billboards are created from full models and full textures only. Base record object bounds data does not affect how billboard textures look or the content/values of billboard text files. 

As explained at https://dyndolod.info/Help/TexGen-Configuration#Tree-Grass-LOD-Billboards, there is a way to force or disable billboard creation with a "pluginname" configuration file.

I suppose well made mods update object bounds. I dunno if/what the CK, game uses them for in addition to the large reference 0 bounds issue we know.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

As I already wrote the other day, object bounds are only used to quickly determine if a tree/grass LOD billboard should be rendered as explained at https://dyndolod.info/Help/TexGen-Configuration#Tree-Grass-LOD-Billboards.  Billboards are created from full models and full textures only. Base record object bounds data does not affect how billboard textures look or the content/values of billboard text files. 

As explained at https://dyndolod.info/Help/TexGen-Configuration#Tree-Grass-LOD-Billboards, there is a way to force or disable billboard creation with a "pluginname" configuration file.

I suppose well made mods update object bounds. I dunno if/what the CK, game uses them for in addition to the large reference 0 bounds issue we know.

In my view, this is reason enough if only used for filtering/qualifying (as is glaringly obvious with respect to grass LOD in particular) ... as well as the concept of a "well-made mod".

Thanks for clarifying further.