DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 198

[sheson]

12 hours ago, mostwanted11 said:

I'm not sure if you're making a request or a conclusion sorry

Here are the files requested: https://limewire.com/d/u3RTp#wbcQRJAwrt

I have another issue, the grass lods are always properly lit at low sun angles (dawn/dusk) but sooo dark from 9am to 4pm. I tried changing the ComplexGrassBacklightMask to 0 or 90, it made no difference. Uploaded a pic without ENB or CS. 

Making the grass brighter would make the grass too bright at dawn/dusk, I uploaded logs for that worldspace

I requested the files to verify if the result is matches what was reported about the assets in the logs.

There are 2 versions of spruce03_summer.dds on texture atlas, one with alpha channel unchanged for the LOD models that still set a threshold of 110 (left) and one with the alpha channel adjusted for the LOD models that set a threshold of 1 (right).

As you can see the right image is "thicker".

Here is how it looks 2 mipmap levels smaller:

The difference becomes less obvious. However, it is also not really thin either way. You could try to increase the AlphaFactor in the L:\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini. See what happens if you use 0.5 for example.

Otherwise you could create a custom LOD texture in your preferred image program and update the LOD models to use it directly. Though before doing that you might want to experiment using the full texture by adding either "usemipmaps" or "noatlas" to the Name of the BSTriShape "crown" - for example "crown noatlas" to see if it fades better without any alpha adjustment. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/3D-Tree-LOD-Model#Shape-Names

I also colored the two texture red and green in the atlas texture to verify that the BTO in fact uses them both depending on the different LOD models:

To summarize, not all 3D tree LOD have a threshold of 1. The threshold of 1 causes the alpha channel of the texture to be adjusted and to be added to the texture atlas and used. It might simply be not thick enough for your taste for this particular texture. Make sure that the output is really used in the game and not overwritten or wrong paths etc.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Settings

When using complex grass and the side facing away from the light direction is too dark it can be brightened with the backlightmask. In the ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini set ComplexGrassBillboard=5 and set ComplexGrassBacklightMask to a value like 25, which means 25% of the light is applied to the side facing away from the light source. If the result is too dark, raise the value. If the result is too bright, lower the value.

If brightness of the grass billboard sides is fine when the sun is low, then backlighting must be working. Otherwise the grass billboard side facing the sun will be bright and its opposite side facing the other way would be too dark. So you would end up with a mix of bright and dark planes instead of a more uniform brightness. If you do not see any differences in the game between 0 and 100, then the NIF with the backlight is not used  - no complex grass billboards or the output is not active or being overwritten.

See this post https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/19903-dyndolod-300-alpha-198/page/717/#findComment-288563 how to verify backlighting is set/used.
This is the users follow up post: https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/19903-dyndolod-300-alpha-198/page/719/#findComment-288593

Since you set ComplexGrassBillboard=5, you could also test if this ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\  DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt2_lod.nif works better with changing sun positions. Use expert mode to just Execute LODGen again to update object LOD meshes. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Updating

 

[mostwanted11]

9 hours ago, sheson said:

I requested the files to verify if the result is matches what was reported about the assets in the logs.

There are 2 versions of spruce03_summer.dds on texture atlas, one with alpha channel unchanged for the LOD models that still set a threshold of 110 (left) and one with the alpha channel adjusted for the LOD models that set a threshold of 1 (right).

As you can see the right image is "thicker".

Here is how it looks 2 mipmap levels smaller:

The difference becomes less obvious. However, it is also not really thin either way. You could try to increase the AlphaFactor in the L:\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini. See what happens if you use 0.5 for example.

Otherwise you could create a custom LOD texture in your preferred image program and update the LOD models to use it directly. Though before doing that you might want to experiment using the full texture by adding either "usemipmaps" or "noatlas" to the Name of the BSTriShape "crown" - for example "crown noatlas" to see if it fades better without any alpha adjustment. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/3D-Tree-LOD-Model#Shape-Names

I also colored the two texture red and green in the atlas texture to verify that the BTO in fact uses them both depending on the different LOD models:

To summarize, not all 3D tree LOD have a threshold of 1. The threshold of 1 causes the alpha channel of the texture to be adjusted and to be added to the texture atlas and used. It might simply not be thick enough for your taste for this particular texture. Make sure that the output is really used in the game and not overwritten or wrong paths etc.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Settings

When using complex grass and the side facing away from the light direction is too dark it can be brightened with the backlightmask. In the ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini set ComplexGrassBillboard=5 and set ComplexGrassBacklightMask to a value like 25, which means 25% of the light is applied to the side facing away from the light source. If the result is too dark, raise the value. If the result is too bright, lower the value.

If brightness of the grass billboard sides is fine when the sun is low, then backlighting must be working. Otherwise the grass billboard side facing the sun will be bright and its opposite side facing the other way would be too dark. So you would end up with a mix of bright and dark planes instead of a more uniform brightness. If you do not see any differences in the game between 0 and 100, then the NIF with the backlight is not used  - no complex grass billboards or the output is not active or being overwritten.

See this post https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/19903-dyndolod-300-alpha-198/page/717/#findComment-288563 how to verify backlighting is set/used.
This is the users follow up post: https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/19903-dyndolod-300-alpha-198/page/719/#findComment-288593

Since you set ComplexGrassBillboard=5, you could also test if this ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\  DynDOLOD_flat_4x2alt2_lod.nif works better with changing sun positions. Use expert mode to just Execute LODGen again to update object LOD meshes. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Grass-LOD#Updating

 

Quote

If brightness of the grass billboard sides is fine when the sun is low, then backlighting must be working

It's fine regardless of what backlight value I use.

Quote

So you would end up with a mix of bright and dark planes

That's exactly what's happening yea

Quote

See this post https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/19903-dyndolod-300-alpha-198/page/717/#findComment-288563

My gray_70 is being used and it exists in the dyndolod output and its not being overwritten by anything. I don't know how to move to that cell to try if changing it to white.dds would work.

Do custom world spaces receive different grass lods somehow? I just tried grass lods in my custom grass lod testing world space and they looked good with billboard=1 under the same light and ENB but when I went into tamriel with those settings they look completely different. This never happened before

Logs: https://limewire.com/d/Sb7eD#jVGfcWbc80

DyndolodTestTundra is the name of the world space

Can I somehow PM you on discord for this issue instead of using the forum? I'd find a conversation much easier for me to troubleshoot this with you since I don't really grasp everything you say, but it's fine if you don't want to. I'll try the nif you provided next time maybe it'll help.

Here's a comparison of the same grass type under the same weather and ENB but in different world spaces: https://imgbox.com/g/ZSJAQOyBe9

 

I'll try your instructions for tree another time, thanks.

[mostwanted11]

https://streamable.com/fyw86b

Wth, that nif you gave me actually made the lods perfect or something. Thanks so much I can finally sleep lol

[mostwanted11]

The tree tweak worked(setting alpha to .5) I think that did it for me, they're like so much thicker now, thanks again!

Edited Sunday at 08:11 AM by mostwanted11

[sheson]

8 hours ago, mostwanted11 said:

It's fine regardless of what backlight value I use.

That's exactly what's happening yea

My gray_70 is being used and it exists in the dyndolod output and its not being overwritten by anything. I don't know how to move to that cell to try if changing it to white.dds would work.

Do custom world spaces receive different grass lods somehow? I just tried grass lods in my custom grass lod testing world space and they looked good with billboard=1 under the same light and ENB but when I went into tamriel with those settings they look completely different. This never happened before

Logs: https://limewire.com/d/Sb7eD#jVGfcWbc80

DyndolodTestTundra is the name of the world space

Can I somehow PM you on discord for this issue instead of using the forum? I'd find a conversation much easier for me to troubleshoot this with you since I don't really grasp everything you say, but it's fine if you don't want to. I'll try the nif you provided next time maybe it'll help.

Here's a comparison of the same grass type under the same weather and ENB but in different world spaces: https://imgbox.com/g/ZSJAQOyBe9

 

I'll try your instructions for tree another time, thanks.

Grass LOD generation is not affected by any worldspace/weather settings and always the same. 

Not sure how grass LOD is different in the 2 screenshots. Next time use tfc to get closer to LOD.

7 hours ago, mostwanted11 said:

https://streamable.com/fyw86b

Wth, that nif you gave me actually made the lods perfect or something. Thanks so much I can finally sleep lol

Great. For future posterity, this is with ENB and complex grasses right?

4 minutes ago, mostwanted11 said:

The tree tweak worked, they're like so much thicker now, thanks again!

By tree tweak you mean changing the AlphaFactor to 0.5 or something else?

[mostwanted11]

1 hour ago, sheson said:

Grass LOD generation is not affected by any worldspace/weather settings and always the same. 

Not sure how grass LOD is different in the 2 screenshots. Next time use tfc to get closer to LOD.

Great. For future posterity, this is with ENB and complex grasses right?

By tree tweak you mean changing the AlphaFactor to 0.5 or something else?

Yes, enb and a complex grass mod with complexgrassbillboard=5

About the trees, so the two areas with the most glaring mipmap issues were the pine forest in falkreath/riverwood and the marsh in morthal. I changed some of the lod models in the pine forest to have an alpha of 1 and changed all the ones in the marsh but to no avail. I then set alphafactor to 0.5 and then went back and changed the rest of the lod models of the pineforest and re-ran dyndolod but this time everything looks right (in both regions, actually some other regions look better too) so I will say it must be changing alphafactor to 0.5 is what had the most visible effect.

I have a technical question, does playing in 4K or 1080p make a difference regarding mipmaps and whatnot? Does having a mid range card vs a high end one also make a difference?

Also I'm curious, what did you do with that nif you uploaded?

Edited Sunday at 10:03 AM by mostwanted11

[sheson]

59 minutes ago, mostwanted11 said:

Yes, enb and a complex grass mod with complexgrassbillboard=5

About the trees, so the two areas with the most glaring mipmap issues were the pine forest in falkreath/riverwood and the marsh in morthal. I changed some of the lod models in the pine forest to have an alpha of 1 and changed all the ones in the marsh but to no avail. I then set alphafactor to 0.5 and then went back and changed the rest of the lod models of the pineforest and re-ran dyndolod but this time everything looks right (in both regions, actually some other regions look better too) so I will say it must be changing alphafactor to 0.5 is what had the most visible effect.

I have a technical question, does playing in 4K or 1080p make a difference regarding mipmaps and whatnot? Does having a mid range card vs a high end one also make a difference?

Also I'm curious, what did you do with that nif you uploaded?

See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Texture-Resolution. The higher the texture resolution, the more mipmap levels exist.
The hardware, driver and settings can control antialiasing techniques, their strength or quality, mipmap bias and whatnot that all affect image quality.

The NIF sets the SphereNormals shape name to change the direction of the normal vectors. Basically, the planes receive more light from above than the actual direction it faces.
See https://dyndolod.info/Help/3D-Tree-LOD-Model#Shape-Names and the last paragraph and image of https://dyndolod.info/Help/Ultra-Tree-LOD#Internal-Billboards-and-External-Billboards

[Jayombi]

On 1/7/2026 at 5:05 PM, sheson said:

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

Use the Copy message to clipboard link to copy/paste the text of the error message instead of a screenshot as explained in https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Copy-and-Paste-Text

Record [STAT:00000001] in file Skyrim.esm is being overridden by record [REFR:00000001] in file FlyingCrowsSSE.esp.

Click the link Click on this link for additional explanations and help for this message as explained in https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum#Read-Log-and-Error-Messages to open https://dyndolod.info/Messages/Record-Is-Being-Overridden:
Starting with runtime version 1.6.1130, plugins with the version 1.71 can use form ID in the range 0x000 to 0x800. If the reported form ID is less than 0x800, use xEdit to make sure the plugin defines version 1.71. Install Backported Extended ESL Support to use such plugins with older runtime versions or Skyrim VR ESL Support for Skyrim VR.

Install the Skyrim VR ESL support. The unofficial patch works the same regardless of the vanilla game plugins being cleaned or not. There will be many game/quests issues without it. I suggest to follow a modern modding guide that explains how to setup Skyrim VR properly with the current Skyrim SE/AE game file if you want to use mods made for Skyrim SE/AE.

For science I thought I run the question as to my missing crows through ChatGPT and got the following :

 

 

This is a known interaction between DynDOLOD and Flying Crows SSE – it is not your imagination. DynDOLOD is replacing the crow references with LOD billboards, and the mod relies on runtime-enabled references that DynDOLOD treats as static clutter and strips from the active world.

Here is exactly what is happening and how to fix it permanently.

---

Why the crows disappear

Flying Crows SSE works by:

• placing disabled crow references
• enabling them at runtime with scripts
• teleporting / animating them dynamically

DynDOLOD assumes anything that looks like static clutter is safe to convert into LOD.
So when you run DynDOLOD:

• it converts crow references into static LOD
• removes the real references from the loaded cells
• scripts now point to nothing → no crows

This is why everything works until DynDOLOD is installed.

The fix (100% reliable)

We must tell DynDOLOD to ignore Flying Crows records.

 

As intriguing as it is, I was wondering your thoughts on this AI prognosis ?

 

Thanks.

[sheson]

2 hours ago, Jayombi said:

For science I thought I run the question as to my missing crows through ChatGPT and got the following :

As intriguing as it is, I was wondering your thoughts on this AI prognosis ?

Thanks.

Do not post obvious nonsense from "AI" that does not have any "I".

Read the first post and https://dyndolod.info/Official-DynDOLOD-Support-Forum how to make a useful post in case you have a problem that requires help.
Report the actual problem or error message without making unverified assumptions or asking leading questions.

LOD billboards are a tree LOD resource. See https://dyndolod.info/Help/Tree-Grass-LOD-Billboards
DynDOLOD does add tree LOD for something that is not a "tree". DynDOLOD never replaces full models with LOD billboards.

DynDOLOD does not convert everything that looks like "static clutter" to LOD - whatever "static clutter" is supposed to mean.
How DynDOLOD actually works is explained in the documentation.

In this case, DynDOLOD does, what the mesh rule config file shipping with the mod instructs DynDOLOD to do:
Replace the crow references that only show in the active cells with dynamic LOD reference so that the crows show further up to the far grid distance.
The dynamic LOD references use the full models.

The scripts in the mod enable/disable markers and not the crow references. The crow references or their dynamic LOD replacements use the state of the unchanged markers to determine if crows should show or not.

When installing the mod properly with its requirements and then follow the instructions of DynDOLOD, the crows show further away then they do without DynDOLOD. If you remove the mesh rules config file that is shipping with the mod, then DynDOLOD would do nothing to the crow references. They will just show in the active cells.

I suggest to read the description/sticky comments of the mod. It requires DynDOLOD 3 for the crows to have LOD. If you have problems with that, then report the problem as explained instead of this nonsense.

[DoubleYou]

I recently had a user on Discord use TexGen for Fallout 4 who decided to set the output path to the root of their drive containing all their gaming files, thinking it would be easy to grab the output files from there. This naturally was not expected, as TexGen expects an empty folder, and it deleted all the files off their drive when they chose the zip and exit option, leaving behind an empty $RECYCLE.BIN and their TexGen_Output.zip. Perhaps you could add a dummy check to warn users before this happens? I was able to reproduce and can send a log if you want, but they are not very useful at this portion:

[05:05] Exit TexGen, zip and exit, check log or restart?
[05:08] [1B54] [TMessageDialog.Dialog] <Debug: Gathering>
[05:08] [1B54] [TMessageDialog.Dialog] User says "Zip and Exit"
[05:08] User says "Zip and Exit"
[05:08] [BA5C] [TArchiveThread.Execute] Creating R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip
[05:08] Creating R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip
[05:11] [1B54] [dynRenameFile] Renaming R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip to M:\TexGen_Output.zip
[05:11] Renaming R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip to M:\TexGen_Output.zip
[00:00] [87E4] Forced

 

[CrKhan09]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bbwbe4mb8qt8ugg/bugreport.txt/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/zfte0nuyjw211m2/DynDOLOD_SSE_log.txt/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/uwljund64cgtrup/DynDOLOD_SSE_Debug_log.txt/file

Hi, I'm having an issue with dyndolod that I suspect might be related to the windows security update my computer received last night. However, I'm not sure if that is the issue or not. I would appreciate some help in identifying the problem.

I can start Alpha 198, and it starts off as normal, but it appears to stall at about 8 - 10 minutes in.
Normally, I don't worry if it pauses, so long as the elapsed time clock keeps running. However, in this case, I let it run for an hour, and the elapsed time clock never went above 10 minutes. 
It did not give any errors and was still in a running state when I manually exited it, but normally dyndolod finishes with my load order in just under an hour, and there were no additional messages appearing in the window past the 8 - 10 minute point.

Rebooting the computer and checking for corrupt system files did not help.

[sheson]

10 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

I recently had a user on Discord use TexGen for Fallout 4 who decided to set the output path to the root of their drive containing all their gaming files, thinking it would be easy to grab the output files from there. This naturally was not expected, as TexGen expects an empty folder, and it deleted all the files off their drive when they chose the zip and exit option, leaving behind an empty $RECYCLE.BIN and their TexGen_Output.zip. Perhaps you could add a dummy check to warn users before this happens? I was able to reproduce and can send a log if you want, but they are not very useful at this portion:

[05:05] Exit TexGen, zip and exit, check log or restart?
[05:08] [1B54] [TMessageDialog.Dialog] <Debug: Gathering>
[05:08] [1B54] [TMessageDialog.Dialog] User says "Zip and Exit"
[05:08] User says "Zip and Exit"
[05:08] [BA5C] [TArchiveThread.Execute] Creating R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip
[05:08] Creating R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip
[05:11] [1B54] [dynRenameFile] Renaming R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip to M:\TexGen_Output.zip
[05:11] Renaming R:\Game Tools\DynDOLOD Alpha\Edit Scripts\Export\TexGen_Output.zip to M:\TexGen_Output.zip
[00:00] [87E4] Forced

 

https://dyndolod.info#DynDOLOD-3-Alpha
This website and DynDOLOD 3 are currently an ALPHA version to test things and iron out bugs.
Pay attention to all instructions and information on this website and to all log messages and prompts from the tools.
Also read the disclaimer I put at the bottom of pages and docs.

Text under the Select Output Path in TexGen:
To avoid overwriting or deleting existing files, set the output path to a dedicated directory outside of the game and mod manager folders.

https://dyndolod.info/Help/TexGen#Select-Output-Path
Creating an archive will clean the dedicated output folder while all relevant files are packed into the zip file.

https://dyndolod.info/Generation-Instructions#1-Generate-The-Required-LOD-Assets-with-TexGen
Creating an archive will clean the dedicated output folder while all relevant files are packed into the zip file.

Verify that the latest test version from https://dyndolod.info/Downloads/Test-Versions is more idiot proof until they invent a better idiot.

[sheson]

10 hours ago, CrKhan09 said:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bbwbe4mb8qt8ugg/bugreport.txt/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/zfte0nuyjw211m2/DynDOLOD_SSE_log.txt/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/uwljund64cgtrup/DynDOLOD_SSE_Debug_log.txt/file

Hi, I'm having an issue with dyndolod that I suspect might be related to the windows security update my computer received last night. However, I'm not sure if that is the issue or not. I would appreciate some help in identifying the problem.

I can start Alpha 198, and it starts off as normal, but it appears to stall at about 8 - 10 minutes in.
Normally, I don't worry if it pauses, so long as the elapsed time clock keeps running. However, in this case, I let it run for an hour, and the elapsed time clock never went above 10 minutes. 
It did not give any errors and was still in a running state when I manually exited it, but normally dyndolod finishes with my load order in just under an hour, and there were no additional messages appearing in the window past the 8 - 10 minute point.

Rebooting the computer and checking for corrupt system files did not help.

Delete all old logs and bugreport.txt.
Run the latest test version from https://dyndolod.info/Downloads/Test-Versions
Report results, upload new logs and bugreport.txt if issue persists.

[CrKhan09]

The test version worked just fine and was actually several minutes faster than the last time I ran the program successfully. Thank you for your help.

[sheson]

10 hours ago, CrKhan09 said:

The test version worked just fine and was actually several minutes faster than the last time I ran the program successfully. Thank you for your help.

That is great. Thanks for letting us know.