DynDOLOD 3.00 Alpha 182

[Zanderat]

6 hours ago, sheson said:

Setting Grass=1 enables grass LOD to be generated for the nearest object LOD level 4, not in the higher LOD levels.

Does this imply that you can set grass to be generated for the higher LOD levels, as well?

[sheson]

6 minutes ago, Zanderat said:

Does this imply that you can set grass to be generated for the higher LOD levels, as well?

It clearly implies the opposite.

[DelightedPenguin]

I cannot seem to figure out where exactly I went wrong or what exactly is missing still. I have tried reinstalling trees (EVT, Alternate snowy pines and aspen) as well as indistinguishable billboards, tried different combinations before generating the LODs. The texgen works perfectly and creates the billboards without any warnings, but as soon as I launch DYNLODx64 it works up to the configuration menu, after selecting my options, as soon as it starts searching for textures, warnings of items not being found start right away. Then as soon as it starts creating LOD trees, it gives an error.

Edited April 5, 2021 by DelightedPenguin
Additional Info

[sheson]

4 hours ago, DelightedPenguin said:

I cannot seem to figure out where exactly I went wrong or what exactly is missing still. I have tried reinstalling trees (EVT, Alternate snowy pines and aspen) as well as indistinguishable billboards, tried different combinations before generating the LODs. The texgen works perfectly and creates the billboards without any warnings, but as soon as I launch DYNLODx64 it works up to the configuration menu, after selecting my options, as soon as it starts searching for textures, warnings of items not being found start right away. Then as soon as it starts creating LOD trees, it gives an error.

Read the log messages. Follow their suggestions.

Common sense would be to reproduce the error messages if help is required understanding them.

[Valour549]

I have an issue where once my character moves a certain distance away, these ugly red patches will start appearing in the ground. When using a scope to snipe from afar (or when free-caming around), you can see them.

It's because a specific ground texture is not loading. Funny enough, the grass and trees textures still all load just fine.

In the video I go from the Sanctuary bridge to the Red Rocket, and by then the ground of the cell in Sanctuary already has the red patches. I turn back and walk to the bridge, but it's not until I go onto the bridge itself that the red patches disappear. (In the video I purposely don't go onto the bridge).

I'm trying to fix this issue using FO4LODGenx64. But the amount of settings is confusing me, because there are settings for LOD4, 8, 16, 32 and each has their own options for quality of meshes, textures, diffuse etc. I've read the Terrain-LOD-Readme file, but it's still unclear to me:

1) Can FO4LODGen fix my issue? As in can it force the ground textures in further cells to load even if I don't enter that cell?

2) If so, what settings do I most likely need to use to get rid of those red patches?

3) Why do the textures for grass and trees load fine as long as they are within my uGrids, but not the ground?

Update: I've tried using Quality=0 and Size=256 for LOD4 through to LOD32, and ticked Protected Borders for LOD4. Seems to have no effect at all w/ regards to my issue.

Edited April 5, 2021 by Valour549

[sheson]

49 minutes ago, Valour549 said:

I have an issue where once my character moves a certain distance away, these ugly red patches will start appearing in the ground. When using a scope to snipe from afar (or when free-caming around), you can see them.

It's because a specific ground texture is not loading. Funny enough, the grass and trees textures still all load just fine.

In the video I go from the Sanctuary bridge to the Red Rocket, and by then the ground of the cell in Sanctuary already has the red patches. I turn back and walk to the bridge, but it's not until I go onto the bridge itself that the red patches disappear. (In the video I purposely don't go onto the bridge).

I'm trying to fix this issue using FO4LODGenx64. But the amount of settings is confusing me, because there are settings for LOD4, 8, 16, 32 and each has their own options for quality of meshes, textures, diffuse etc. I've read the Terrain-LOD-Readme file, but it's still unclear to me:

1) Can FO4LODGen fix my issue? As in can it force the ground textures in further cells to load even if I don't enter that cell?

2) If so, what settings do I most likely need to use to get rid of those red patches?

3) Why do the textures for grass and trees load fine as long as they are within my uGrids, but not the ground?

Update: I've tried using Quality=0 and Size=256 for LOD4 through to LOD32, and ticked Protected Borders for LOD4. Seems to have no effect at all w/ regards to my issue.

1a) Depends if the red splotches are part of the current terrain LOD textures and if the full textures - which xLODGen uses to generate updated terrain LOD textures - do not have them.
It might be possible they are artifacts added onto terrain LOD textures in the game, for example the game applies an overlay textures/terrain/noise.dds. In older games it used to be monochrome, but maybe FO4 uses/supports RGB.
To know if artifacts are part of the old terrain LOD texture,  open one in an image viewer and take a look. Second, try changing the mentioned noise texture.

1b) FO4LODGen is a LOD generator. It generates LOD meshes and textures. It does not change how the engine works or any INI settings.

2) see 1a) no special settings are needed. Do not change brightness, contrast, gamma and the output textures will simply be "exactly" like the input textures. (obviously smaller and splatted accordingly)

3) You will have to ask the programmers at Bethesda for the reasons why the engine works the way it does

 If this problem is not part of the generated LOD meshes/textures I suggest to ask this type of question on generic modding forum/discord for FO4.

[Valour549]

Well if they disappear when I move into the cell, doesn't that mean the red patches are not part of the full textures?

I also don't understand which files I should open with an image view to check; I don't see any files with the name noise.dds

After generating Terrain LOD using Quality=0 and Size=256 for LOD4 through to LOD32, and ticked Protected Borders for LOD4, it seems to make no difference to my issue. So what does this suggest?

Edited April 5, 2021 by Valour549

[Zanderat]

23 hours ago, sheson said:

It clearly implies the opposite.

Thanks.  I misinterpreted what you said.  So basically, 0=off, 1=on.  No other settings possible.

[sheson]

1 hour ago, Valour549 said:

Well if they disappear when I move into the cell, doesn't that mean the red patches are not part of the full textures?

I also don't understand which files I should open with an image view to check; I don't see any files with the name noise.dds

After generating Terrain LOD using Quality=0 and Size=256 for LOD4 through to LOD32, and ticked Protected Borders for LOD4, it seems to make no difference to my issue. So what does this suggest?

Yes, that is why I suggested  to check  if the original terrain LOD textures have the artifacts.

A convenient way to find and open files in the load order including archives is the xEdit Asset Browser started with CTRL+F3. 

That suggest that the game adds visual artifacts onto terrain LOD textures. It takes no time to open a terrain LOD texture to just look at it and check it for visual artifacts.

[Valour549]

OK I'm really new to all this. Which files are original terrain LOD textures? Which files are new terrain LOD textures?

I'm trying my best to understand your instructions but I probably need a step-by-step here...

[sheson]

16 minutes ago, Valour549 said:

OK I'm really new to all this. Which files are original terrain LOD textures? Which files are new terrain LOD textures?

I'm trying my best to understand your instructions but I probably need a step-by-step here...

The original terrain LOD textures are the ones already in the load order, if no mod with terrain LOD textures is installed  that would be the vanilla terrain LOD textures in the games BA2 archive files.

The new terrain LOD textures would be the ones generated by xLODGen.

[Valour549]

Ok but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of files under Textures/terrain, all with extensions .dds

What exactly am I supposed to do? Open them all one by one and look for something that looks like the red patches?

[sheson]

4 minutes ago, Valour549 said:

Ok but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of files under Textures/terrain, all with extensions .dds

What exactly am I supposed to do? Open them all one by one and look for something that looks like the red patches?

Just open one for the area of interest. The video seems to show the Commonwealth worldpace.

First number of the file LOD files is the LOD level. 4 is is the nearest one and means the file covers 4x4 cells.

The other two numbers in the file name are the left/lower x/y cell coordinates for the area that is covered by the file. So the file with 4.0.0 covers the cells from 0,0 to 3,3

You can get the current player location in console with 
player.getpos x and player.getpos y

Divide the position by 4096 = the width of a cell in game units.
Round those  numbers down for the cell coordinates.

[KOWALSKI]

i feel like i did everything right and there is nothing in the logs thats useful any help would be appricated

Edited April 5, 2021 by KOWALSKI

[sheson]

18 minutes ago, KOWALSKI said:

i feel like i did everything right and there is nothing in the logs thats useful any help would be appricated 1.13 MB · 0 downloads

Do not post screenshots of text. Post the text instead.

 Read the first post which log and report files to upload when making posts.