sheson Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 3 hours ago, KRZ said: Guess I got it backwards somehow, thank you for clarifying! That makes it slightly more confusing. If I got that right, it's supposed to be a regular texture that does or doesn't come with grass mods? I've just checked some of the meshes used in the grass mod and it doesn't seem to have a backlight/glowmap texture nor flag set. Yet I'm still seeing an effect applied when changing backlightmask values, did I misunderstand something? It's gotta be scaling something, when the grass seems to changing when using backlightmask (even though no texture seems to be set). Grass LOD in object LOD uses a billboard NIF to display the billboard textures. Certain billboard NIFs define a backlight texture. It can be kept or overwritten with the GrassBacklightMask or ComplexGrassBacklightMask setting. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Internal-Billboards-and-External-Billboards The shader settings in full grass NIFs are typically irrelevant and not used by the full grass shader AFAIK. It will just get the diffuse texture and then do its thing.
sheson Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 4 hours ago, DDCrusader said: Log: https://ufile.io/n0niy2g6 1. I replaced the .exe, cleared logs folder; 2. I changed the ExportLANDBinary to 1. Run finished successfully, results are in DynDOLOD_SSE_log.zip. I did original run on 3rd of March and it did not generate 'debug' log, so I thought something is wrong. Just in case I tried to regenerate LOD again today, but the result is the same, there was no 'debug' log file. Great. Thanks for reporting back that it works as intended now. The debug log is saved right after the normal log if you let the tool shutdown normally. Since it is working OK now, don't worry about it. 1
sheson Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 44 minutes ago, SiSaSyco said: Hi! I'm trying to get my grass LOD to match the complex grass but after days of experimenting with different values I wonder if it is even possible? The main problem is, that I can't get the distant lod grass color match at 12 noon. I provide example images ... As you can see, in the morning and afternoon the grass lod matches quite well. But regardless of the settings I try at 12 o'clock noon (sure before and after 12 o'clock, too) the grass gets dark. It seems to me that the lod meshes do not get light if the sun is straight above? I read all the documentation regarding Complex grass lod, set ComplexGrassBillboard=5 and tried different ComplexGrassBrightness*** Before I put any more time into it, I thought I'd ask for some advice here. I've already done a lot of research and suspect it's due to the ENB preset I'm using (Silent Horizon 2 Universal Core) which uses high values for direct lighting at day. Lowering the DirectLightingIntensity in ENB seem to reduce the color mismatch. But then the whole ENB Preset does not look any good which is obvious i guess. I already had to reduce the FakeLight*** values under COMPLEXGRASS in the ENB Preset to 0.00 (0.01) because the grass was way too bright compared to the lod grass otherwise. My question now is whether it should actually work, or whether there is already someone who has had a similar problem. Moved to the DynDOLOD 3 Alpha thread. See the first post and/or https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs wich TexGen and DynDOLOD log and debug log to upload. Search finds: https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/20141-dyndolod-300-alpha-190/page/680/#findComment-283928 which ended up being something with ELVAS. I still suggest to test modifying the used billboard NIF. If it is set to 4 = DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt1_lod.nif, edit that file in NifSkope and add "SphereNormals" to the "PassThru" string in the header, so it is "PassThru Spherenormals" for a test.
KRZ Posted March 8 Posted March 8 (edited) On 3/8/2025 at 11:14 AM, sheson said: Grass LOD in object LOD uses a billboard NIF to display the billboard textures. Certain billboard NIFs define a backlight texture. It can be kept or overwritten with the GrassBacklightMask or ComplexGrassBacklightMask setting. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Internal-Billboards-and-External-Billboards Apologies, then I must have misunderstood something. I've been using ComplexGrassBillboard=5, so it is no surprise that it happens. I just fail to understand what gets modified. DynDOLOD_SSE.ini states a 4x4 pixel grayscale texture is generated for values other than 0 or 100. But where is stored? Cause that makes it sound like it could be part of the Atlas texture. But changes I made weren't reflected when 'Rebuilding Atlas'. From your explanations I now understand such data can also be stored in the mesh. Am I correct to assume grass object LOD billboard NIFs (what a word, holy hell) of type alt2 just dim a white.dds depending on the ComplexGrassBacklightMask value chosen and I should be 'Executing LODGen' instead for an quick and easy update? In case anyone ever comes across this searching for the same answer, the texture is textures\DynDOLOD\maps\gray_*.dds. * is equal to whatever has been set in DynDOLOD_SSE.ini for ComplexGrassBacklightMask/GrassBacklightMask and probably works similiarly for GrassGlowMap/ComplexGrassGlowMap. Example: ComplexGrassBacklightMask=25 -> textures\DynDOLOD\maps\gray_25.dds The texture can be edited (don't rename) and doesn't require re-running DynDOLOD. In case a suitable value has been found, update the value in DynDOLOD_SSE.ini for future runs. Edited March 10 by KRZ
SiSaSyco Posted March 8 Posted March 8 2 hours ago, sheson said: Moved to the DynDOLOD 3 Alpha thread. See the first post and/or https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Post-Logs wich TexGen and DynDOLOD log and debug log to upload. Search finds: https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/20141-dyndolod-300-alpha-190/page/680/#findComment-283928 which ended up being something with ELVAS. I still suggest to test modifying the used billboard NIF. If it is set to 4 = DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt1_lod.nif, edit that file in NifSkope and add "SphereNormals" to the "PassThru" string in the header, so it is "PassThru Spherenormals" for a test. Thank you for your suggestions. I tried with/without EVLAS but it does not make any difference for me. I changed PassThru to PassThru Spherenormals and this changes quite a bit. But it does not really help either because with PassThru Spherenormals the grass is now much much too bright at 12 o'clock I'll keep trying out some things. I also posted on discord channel of the author of silent horizon enb (who is also the author of EVLAS) perhaps I get some infos there too.
sheson Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 47 minutes ago, SiSaSyco said: Thank you for your suggestions. I tried with/without EVLAS but it does not make any difference for me. I changed PassThru to PassThru Spherenormals and this changes quite a bit. But it does not really help either because with PassThru Spherenormals the grass is now much much too bright at 12 o'clock I'll keep trying out some things. I also posted on discord channel of the author of silent horizon enb (who is also the author of EVLAS) perhaps I get some infos there too. You could also try "PassThru FixedNormals", though it will probably be similar to the SphereNormals, probably even brighter. Or put it back to the default and experiment with setting the normal vectors in the NIF manually to certain angles.
SiSaSyco Posted March 8 Posted March 8 3 minutes ago, sheson said: You could also try "PassThru FixedNormals", though it will probably be similar to the SphereNormals, probably even brighter. Or put it back to the default and experiment with setting the normal vectors in the NIF manually to certain angles. Yeah! I'm already experimenting and maybe I get some good results with SphereNormals. Just had to reduce ambient a lot and use ComplexGrassBrightness**=0.5 ... still not sure, but maybe it will get better now.
SiSaSyco Posted March 8 Posted March 8 (edited) Hey Sheson! Thank you so much for your suggestion to set "PassThru SphereNormals"! I could get my settings quite perfect now! It can be summarised as follows ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TexGen / DynDOLOD Complex Grass ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wildlands Renewal ENB Preset Silent Horizon 2 Universal Core EVLAS (Need to disable EVLAS sadly) Change the name of the NiTriShapes to "PassThru SphereNormals" in DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt2_lod.nif in DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD Use following settings in TexGen GrassHDBillboardsDirect=45 GrassHDBillboardsAmbient=95 Use following settings in DynDOLOD_SSE.ini ComplexGrassBillboard=5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomR=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomG=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomB=0.5 GrassBacklightMask=25 (Not sure if this is crucial, used 100 but do not see any difference) Edited March 9 by SiSaSyco Clarify to not use EVLAS
sheson Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 29 minutes ago, SiSaSyco said: Hey Sheson! Thank you so much for your suggestion to set "PassThru SphereNormals"! I could get my settings quite perfect now! It can be summarised as follows ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TexGen / DynDOLOD Complex Grass ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wildlands Renewal ENB Preset Silent Horizon 2 Universal Core EVLAS Change the name of the NiTriShapes to "PassThru SphereNormals" in DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt2_lod.nif in DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD Use following settings in TexGen GrassHDBillboardsDirect=45 GrassHDBillboardsAmbient=95 Use following settings in DynDOLOD_SSE.ini ComplexGrassBillboard=5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomR=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomG=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomB=0.5 GrassBacklightMask=25 (Not sure if this is crucial) That are great results. Thanks for letting us know.
z929669 Posted March 9 Posted March 9 3 hours ago, SiSaSyco said: Hey Sheson! Thank you so much for your suggestion to set "PassThru SphereNormals"! I could get my settings quite perfect now! It can be summarised as follows ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TexGen / DynDOLOD Complex Grass ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wildlands Renewal ENB Preset Silent Horizon 2 Universal Core EVLAS Change the name of the NiTriShapes to "PassThru SphereNormals" in DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt2_lod.nif in DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD Use following settings in TexGen GrassHDBillboardsDirect=45 GrassHDBillboardsAmbient=95 Use following settings in DynDOLOD_SSE.ini ComplexGrassBillboard=5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopR=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopG=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessTopB=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomR=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomG=0.5 ComplexGrassBrightnessBottomB=0.5 GrassBacklightMask=25 (Not sure if this is crucial) Thanks for the info. 2 hours ago, sheson said: That are great results. Thanks for letting us know. I am planning to have a look at using "SphereNormals" in the shape name of the DynDOLOD NIFs, but I will first ask if my efforts will be redundant if you plan on adding logic to do this when CG is detected (or when ComplexGrassBillboard is changed from default). I never imagined these keywords worked for grass, but it seems obvious now that I know. Alternatively, let me know if you want more data and any testing relating to this and the specifics of that testing. I have found that ShereNormals KW is a solution for EVT trees where the normal faces at the top are more horizontal than vertical as they are in the lower branches. Radial normal faces seem to solve several issues in LOD foliage, it seems.
sheson Posted March 9 Author Posted March 9 11 hours ago, z929669 said: Thanks for the info. I am planning to have a look at using "SphereNormals" in the shape name of the DynDOLOD NIFs, but I will first ask if my efforts will be redundant if you plan on adding logic to do this when CG is detected (or when ComplexGrassBillboard is changed from default). I never imagined these keywords worked for grass, but it seems obvious now that I know. Alternatively, let me know if you want more data and any testing relating to this and the specifics of that testing. I have found that ShereNormals KW is a solution for EVT trees where the normal faces at the top are more horizontal than vertical as they are in the lower branches. Radial normal faces seem to solve several issues in LOD foliage, it seems. The vanilla complex grass with the default ENB settings for complex grass and every other effect disabled still matches fine at noon with the default billboard NIF 4, perpendicular normals and settings. Though I might change the default to billboard NIF 5 (still perpendicular normals) and use a bit of backlighting and reduce the brightness multipliers a bit for slightly close matching at dusk/dawn depending on view direction. The hole thing of complex grass with a normal map texture was that it - unlike the vanilla grass - that the LOD billboards required 4 planes with perpendicular normals to match what ENB does. The first question to answer would be what ENB settings or mods change that. 1
SiSaSyco Posted March 9 Posted March 9 (edited) Hey! I've to admit, the look of distand grass lod in contrast to the near grass is still dependent on the current weather and time of day. With some of the weathers the grass looks really good. Others not perfect. It seems that you can not make it fit to all weathers and time of day. It is always some compromise to get it looking good in most situations but not all. Important! I have gained new insights. It turned out that EVLAS had been interfering after all. I had to switch off EVLAS, so there are no more problems with different lighting of LOD Grass in the distance. Edited March 9 by SiSaSyco New findings
Mooserton Posted March 9 Posted March 9 Generated texgen and lod for new load order with JK's Raven Rock and this walll is disappearing and what portion has no lod. Is this is occlusion thing and can I do anything about it?
sheson Posted March 9 Author Posted March 9 3 hours ago, Mooserton said: Generated texgen and lod for new load order with JK's Raven Rock and this walll is disappearing and what portion has no lod. Is this is occlusion thing and can I do anything about it? 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 Make a useful screenshot of the full model with more informative console as explained in https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#In-Game-Screenshots "This wall" does not tell us anything. https://dyndolod.info/FAQ#Something-does-not-have-LOD For something to have LOD, a LOD model or a LOD Billboard is required to be installed in the load order. Check the ..\DynDOLOD\Logs\DynDOLOD_[GAME MODE]_Object_Report.txt to find which LOD models have been found and which models are used for LOD representation. If a LOD model does not exist, mesh mask / reference rules can be used to use the full model for LOD. If a mod ships with new full models that should have LOD, it either requires new LOD models as well or rules that utilize the full models for LOD. As https://dyndolod.info/Help/Occlusion-Data explains, LOD occlusion disables LOD in the distance. Placed occlusion planes/boxes typically make close up full models dissapear. https://dyndolod.info/FAQ#Full-models-disappearing-going-in-and-out-of-view
aazz Posted March 14 Posted March 14 Hi I had an issue where all the dyndolls disappeared in the game after running dyndolod. I tried setting Level32=1 to fix it by following the guide, but dyndolod generation is running for over 10 hours. It didn't stop. Because I just finished the falskaar world. This didn't happen when I used the previous version. What did I miss? I don't use seasons. https://mega.nz/file/qV5C3DKK#xhLNIL-aE4WvZXTsWS68nVcPeD3ysbw7t0jU09HiG8U This is a debuglog, but it is too large, so I am uploading it here.
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