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Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - pre 2.xx

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sheson Akatosh

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Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - DynDOLOD

 

Finally I can see my house from here

 

You know the price for my mods: blood, sweat and tears. Oh, and your first born.

If you want to help other authors of quality mods then donate to them directly.

For latest information and instructions see the DynDOLOD 2.18 UPDATE POST

What is this?

DynDOLOD is a set of tools based on TES5Edit and TES5LODGen to automatically create a Skyrim mod based on the load order which adds distant LOD for objects to Skyrim. By combining DynDOLOD with TES5LODGen users can create drastically enhanced traditional static LOD plus tree LOD and the new, optional dynamic distant object LOD in a few 'simple' steps.

DynDOLOD is meant for enthusiast modders who are familiar with using TES5Edit. Enthusiast modders have a general knowledge of computers, folders and files, especially Skyrims 'Data' folders and how to install mods safely with a manager or manually.

To fully expand the visual experience and use the additional features offered by TES5LODGen the DynDOLOD package comes with over 1000 new or updated LOD models for objects that were badly missing from the original game like the Skyhaven Temple or landscape features like roads, smaller rocks and dirt cliffs that simply make the distant landscape look much more natural and alive.

What does it do?

It makes Skyrim look like this

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59721-1-1427419467.jpg59721-2-1427419467.jpg59721-3-1427419468.jpg59721-4-1427419468.jpg

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59721-1-1427470182.jpg59721-2-1427470183.jpg59721-3-1427470183.jpg59721-4-1427470183.jpg

59721-1-1427470235.jpg59721-2-1427470235.jpg59721-3-1427470235.jpg59721-4-1427470236.jpg

 

Requirements

SKSE

PapyrusUtil 2.8 or higher

DynDOLOD Resources - Make sure to use DynDOLOD Resources version only with matching or higher DynDOLOD Standalone versions but never with older versions.

Vanilla Skyrim LOD Billboards from TES5LODGen or Indistinguishable Vanilla Tree Billboards. If using tree mods that do not include billboards, check TES5LODGen for ready-to-use tree LOD billboards for some tree mods. For STEP users all billboards are included in STEP Texture Compilation.

Download

Download standalone and resources from Nexus or use Mega links from the update post

There are quickstart instruction in the main folder. Also check the folder called 'docs' for additional information. See the update post for latest installation information and guides.

CC BY-NC-SA

=======================================================================

Updating DynDOLOD

=======================================================================

Read the update posts for each new version for version specific information and update instructions.

Also read the manual how to update an existing save game, watch the video or check DynDOLOD SkyUI MCM.

[spoiler=DynDOLOD-Changelog.txt]

=======================================================================

DynDOLOD - Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - Sheson

=======================================================================

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Credits

 

TES5Edit Team in general

 

Ehamloptiran and Zilav for TES5LODGen and LODGen for trees

 

Bethesda for the game, models and textures

 

NifTools

 

DynDOLOD includes LOD assets based on models and/or textures from:

 

Holy Cow I fixed Skyrim - Sheson

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sheson
sheson

Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - DynDOLOD   Finally I can see my house from here   You know the price for my mods: blood, sweat and tears. Oh, and your first born. If you want to

sheson
sheson

fBlockLevel0Distance - the distance when LOD8 starts, so everything before that is LOD4 fBlockLevel1Distance - the distance when LOD16 starts everything before that is LOD8 fBlockMaximumDistance - the

MontyMM
MontyMM

Yes, I think you probably did.   I just wanted to say thanks for the great work on the memory patch, and this mod also looks like another major improvment.   I shall make a blood sacrifice of a troll

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  On 9/4/2015 at 11:51 AM, Pretendeavor said:

I'm considering using the 128 res texture variants in the next run, would you consider this a waste on the High preset? As in: "Why would you use the High preset if you're not going to use the 256 res textures?!?!"

Not at all, because it addresses a different performance problem than reducing objects. Testing this can be done quicker by simple resizing the atlass textures in Textures\DynDOLOD\LOD\DynDOLOD_Atlas_Tamriel.dds and DynDOLOD_Atlas_Tamriel_n.dds

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 11:51 AM, Pretendeavor said:

How do I check if these 'rock' files even have LOD8 and LOD16 settings? For all I know these rules I added might do nothing because they only have a LOD4 version which then doesn't get used.

check the LOD meshes filenames themselves in Meshes\lod\rocks\ Not all rocks have a LOD8 version, so setting LOD8 is a simple trick to not generate LOD for the smaller rocks.

_0 = LOD4

_1 = LOD8

_2 = LOD16

 

if there is no _0 it automatically uses _1 for LOD4

if there is no _0 or _1 it automatically uses _2 for LOD4 and LOD8

 

You can also rename the LOD files yourself to your liking. But creating specific rules is more future proof since you can save the preset and reuse it later.

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 11:51 AM, Pretendeavor said:

Furthermore, off the top of your head, do you have suggestions which keywords I should look to tweak first when trying to improve performance? I know I could look at the mesh rules in the different presets but as someone who has a lot of experience in tweaking these presets you'd probably know about the ones crippling performance the most.

Actually I don't. I really only test with only a few mods all the time and performance is fine then. The mesh_count.txt is still the best bet.

You might also want to turn your attention to the dynamic LOD and check if dialing back some of the fires and smaller waterfalls features helps performance. The simple test to see if there is potential is to run the game without the esp and only use the static/tree LOD to see the impact of dynamic LOD.

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 11:51 AM, Pretendeavor said:

Then a small question about merged mods. I have merged quite a number of mods so before I continue tweaking I'd like to know if there are any pre configured mesh rules that I'm missing because the merged plugins are not recognized. I was wondering if there is a list of mods that have preconfigured mesh rules? I think there is no such list in the manual (or maybe I'm blind). Should I look at mods with a '1' listed in the description of the Nexus page? I know I could also use all the original plugins and then start up the script but I'd rather not if there is another way :P

The rules are in TES5Edit\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\rules\

Each mod has a file. The manual has a section about merged mods. The best you can do is to also merge the rules into a new file with the merged filename. If the manual is not explanatory enough how to do that let me know.

 

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 11:51 AM, Pretendeavor said:

I realize that my questions are not necessarily helping you further your development and I can probably figure out some things on my own, so I hope you don't mind me asking them.

Actually your questions are perfect for this thread and will hopefully help other people also looking for more details about fine tuning.

Edited by sheson
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Pretendeavor Knight

Pretendeavor

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Thank you for the reply! About the merging, it looks like I don't need to bother, the relevant mods in my load order are not merged. After re-reading the merging part in the manual I think people can figure out how to solve it. It seems to come down to simply renaming, the only tricky part might be how to deal with changed form ids. Mostly figuring out what the new form id is.

 

Then about performance issues: if I understand correctly a good way to go about it might be to make sure your game isn't already very 'stuttery' without the dynamic lod. So start with disabling the dynamic lod (esp) and if the static objects are already pressing the video memory and causing many stutters, you can try using the 128 res texture variants or resizing DynDOLOD_Atlas_Tamriel.dds for example. I assume running a simple texture optimizer will do the trick as long as aspect ratios are kept intact? I also noticed that tamrieltreelod.dds was twice the size of the one provided by Realistic Aspen Trees (which I would use without this mod) so this might be a potential target to resize too?

After making sure that it runs relatively smooth and stable, the esp can be enabled to determine the impact of dynamic lod.

 

Then there's one more thing I'm wondering about, what if I'll determine that dynamic lod has the most impact on my load order and I'd rather just have the static lod. Then I'd miss out on the animated waterfalls and windmills I guess. Instead of reverting to Skyfalls, how would I go about setting up dynamic lod to only touch waterfalls and windmills?

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  On 9/4/2015 at 9:09 PM, Pretendeavor said:

Thank you for the reply! About the merging, it looks like I don't need to bother, the relevant mods in my load order are not merged. After re-reading the merging part in the manual I think people can figure out how to solve it. It seems to come down to simply renaming, the only tricky part might be how to deal with changed form ids. Mostly figuring out what the new form id is.

 

Then about performance issues: if I understand correctly a good way to go about it might be to make sure your game isn't already very 'stuttery' without the dynamic lod. So start with disabling the dynamic lod (esp) and if the static objects are already pressing the video memory and causing many stutters, you can try using the 128 res texture variants or resizing DynDOLOD_Atlas_Tamriel.dds for example. I assume running a simple texture optimizer will do the trick as long as aspect ratios are kept intact? I also noticed that tamrieltreelod.dds was twice the size of the one provided by Realistic Aspen Trees (which I would use without this mod) so this might be a potential target to resize too?

After making sure that it runs relatively smooth and stable, the esp can be enabled to determine the impact of dynamic lod.

Correct on all accounts.

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 9:09 PM, Pretendeavor said:

Then there's one more thing I'm wondering about, what if I'll determine that dynamic lod has the most impact on my load order and I'd rather just have the static lod. Then I'd miss out on the animated waterfalls and windmills I guess. Instead of reverting to Skyfalls, how would I go about setting up dynamic lod to only touch waterfalls and windmills?

Consider lowering the Far and Near grid sizes. For example a grid size of 21 means 441 cells with potential dynamic objects are "on". With 19 it is 361. So potentially quite a few objects less.

You can also move some objects from the Far grid to the Near grid so the objects only show when closer.

 

To be like SkyFalls/SkyMills (but even better since things turn off when outside the grids) remove all rules that have a setting in the "Grid" column

 

Keep "fxwaterfallbody" (that is the 3 types of of waterfalls skyfalls does)

Keep "farmhousewindmillfan", "solituderotor", "sfarmhousemillfan" and "waterwheel"

 

Now the last rule "/" also has a Grid setting which means, any object that has static LOD but is dynamic in some way (quest enabled) is automatically done as dynamic LOD. You need to keep the "/" in general with LOD4/8/16, but you can set the Grid empty, but I recommend keeping it.

 

It should be OK to keep the _byoh rules (Hearthfire) as well. Most of those house objects are not active all the time and if you have a house you want to see it. :)

 

After a world is scanned, the log writes a line like "Setting up xxxxx cells with xxx active cells for xxxx dynamic LOD objects for DynDOLOD"

I think there typically is around 4000 dynamic objects in Tamriel for high. You can use that as an indicator how changing the rules changes the number of objects.

Edited by sheson
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Pretendeavor Knight

Pretendeavor

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Very informative! I think I'm getting a grasp on the basics now, time to keep myself busy experimenting for a while :) Think I'm going to aim for two presets and compare how they 'feel' while actually playing the game: one preset based on the default High one tweaked slightly for performance for my load order, and one very minimal SkyFalls/SkyMills-esque preset.

 

I appreciate your quick and detailed responses. Even though it is no rocket science like Elianora is saying, I have to admit that the amount of detail involved can be a bit intimidating for 'casual' modders like me. Nothing that can't be solved through patient reading I guess and your manual already addresses many things, but I like seeking confirmation every now and then ;)

Edited by Pretendeavor
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zilav Knight

zilav

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  On 9/4/2015 at 10:41 PM, Pretendeavor said:

Even though it is no rocket science like Elianora is saying

Generating LOD is not a rocket science for a user, but creating new missing LOD meshes is ::D:

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  On 9/5/2015 at 7:49 AM, zilav said:

Generating LOD is not a rocket science for a user, but creating new missing LOD meshes is ::D:

All I ever wanted to do was to "see my house from here". Look what happened...

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Carboniac Watcher

Carboniac

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Sheson! I just installed Dynlod, and while the script ran successfully, and the mcm says everything is ok ingame, I have run into a few anomalies that I hope you can help me with. Everything else looks great btw, as far as I can tell.

 

First, two trees from JK's Whiterun Exteriors have lods that won't disappear when I approach them, the lods are also not matching the trees. Picture: https://i60.tinypic.com/1z14rgo.jpg

I have read your FAQ, and JK's plugin is not dirty, it has no ITMs, and I even loaded it up in T5E and double checked to be sure.

 

The second is a weird blob of lods hanging in the sky over Whiterun plains. They're not objects but lods, they disappear when I approach them, and using tfc in console I cannot target them either. Picture: https://i59.tinypic.com/xonzu0.jpg

 

Do you know what's going on and how to remove them?

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sheson Akatosh

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  On 9/5/2015 at 8:34 PM, Carboniac said:

Sheson! I just installed Dynlod, and while the script ran successfully, and the mcm says everything is ok ingame, I have run into a few anomalies that I hope you can help me with. Everything else looks great btw, as far as I can tell.

 

First, two trees from JK's Whiterun Exteriors have lods that won't disappear when I approach them, the lods are also not matching the trees. Picture: https://i60.tinypic.com/1z14rgo.jpg

I have read your FAQ, and JK's plugin is not dirty, it has no ITMs, and I even loaded it up in T5E and double checked to be sure.

 

The second is a weird blob of lods hanging in the sky over Whiterun plains. They're not objects but lods, they disappear when I approach them, and using tfc in console I cannot target them either. Picture: https://i59.tinypic.com/xonzu0.jpg

 

Do you know what's going on and how to remove them?

 

Regarding the stuck tree LOD check if TES5Edit\TES5Edit_log.txt contains lines like "Get xEdit 280715 or newer in case there are LOD trees in loaded cells."

If that is the case download the latest xEdit and generate tree LOD again.

 

The floating static LOD object is probably a wild edit to a town child world. That is why it disappears when you are in the Tamriel parent world. The location is the center of the map so at cell 0,0

You could check TES5Edit\Edit Scripts\LODGen_Tamriel.txt for an object where x (column 3) and/or y (column 4) are 0 by chance. Trouble is it might not be exactly zero.

 

It may be easier to just travel into Whiterun, Solitude, Riften or Windhelm (not Markarth) and tcl to the center of the map until the object stays and you can get the form id. Let me know the mod I can add a rule to ignore the object. Also notify mod author.

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Carboniac Watcher

Carboniac

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  On 9/5/2015 at 11:08 PM, sheson said:

Regarding the stuck tree LOD check if TES5Edit\TES5Edit_log.txt contains lines like "Get xEdit 280715 or newer in case there are LOD trees in loaded cells."

If that is the case download the latest xEdit and generate tree LOD again.

 

The floating static LOD object is probably a wild edit to a town child world. That is why it disappears when you are in the Tamriel parent world. The location is the center of the map so at cell 0,0

You could check TES5Edit\Edit Scripts\LODGen_Tamriel.txt for an object where x (column 3) and/or y (column 4) are 0 by chance. Trouble is it might not be exactly zero.

 

It may be easier to just travel into Whiterun, Solitude, Riften or Windhelm (not Markarth) and tcl to the center of the map until the object stays and you can get the form id. Let me know the mod I can add a rule to ignore the object. Also notify mod author.

There were no such messages in the log, also, I just downloaded that version of T5E today, so it would be weird if it asked me to upgrade.

 

I checked all the 4 cities you mentioned there, and none of them had such a blob hanging in the sky or anywhere I could see.

 

What's even worse though, before I read your reply, I removed dyndolod as per the instructions (interior, saving etc), and reinstalled it by running the script again. Now all my lods are purple and textureless, and the esp won't activate in the mcm, while I get a messages that some files are not belonging to this esp.

 

Edit: Removing each and every file from dyndolod, textures, scripts, meshes, esp and terrain finally got rid of the purple textures and the anomalies - but I don't know if I dare take another round of this. And I'm on NMM, not MO ..

Edited by Carboniac
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Carboniac Watcher

Carboniac

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Sheson, I did a complete reinstall, and the lods are at least functioning now. The static blob is back, but on an earlier save I found that this time it's not just lods, it's objects too.

 

I have a gate that's coming from Windstad Mine - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57879/?

 

And a lot of clutter that comes from this merchant mod - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33566/?

 

Does that help anything? The objects were definitely not there before running dynlod.

 

As for the up-and-close tree lods at Whiterun, they're still there. I ran complete new tree lods on all mods before running dynlod, and I didn't get any messages like that in the log, so I don't know what other options I have?

Edited by Carboniac
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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  On 9/6/2015 at 12:57 AM, Carboniac said:

There were no such messages in the log, also, I just downloaded that version of T5E today, so it would be weird if it asked me to upgrade.

 

I checked all the 4 cities you mentioned there, and none of them had such a blob hanging in the sky or anywhere I could see.

 

What's even worse though, before I read your reply, I removed dyndolod as per the instructions (interior, saving etc), and reinstalled it by running the script again. Now all my lods are purple and textureless, and the esp won't activate in the mcm, while I get a messages that some files are not belonging to this esp.

 

Edit: Removing each and every file from dyndolod, textures, scripts, meshes, esp and terrain finally got rid of the purple textures and the anomalies - but I don't know if I dare take another round of this. And I'm on NMM, not MO ..

 

Using NMM makes things a bit trickier in terms of quick tests and mod separation. No worries.

 

I tested with JK's Whiterun Outskirts v.1.1 (that is the one, right?) about the trees and by itself I could not replicate.

If you still have TES5Edit\TES5Edit_log.txt and could upload it somewhere for me to check. It also lists all mods in the load order so that will help me as well.

 

Also upload TES5Edit\Edit Scripts\LODGen_Tamriel.txt. Could you tell what the object in the middle of the world was? I can't really tell it from the screenshot.

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Carboniac Watcher

Carboniac

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Posted (edited)
  On 9/6/2015 at 9:28 AM, sheson said:

Using NMM makes things a bit trickier in terms of quick tests and mod separation. No worries.

 

I tested with JK's Whiterun Outskirts v.1.1 (that is the one, right?) about the trees and by itself I could not replicate.

If you still have TES5Edit\TES5Edit_log.txt and could upload it somewhere for me to check. It also lists all mods in the load order so that will help me as well.

 

Also upload TES5Edit\Edit Scripts\LODGen_Tamriel.txt. Could you tell what the object in the middle of the world was? I can't really tell it from the screenshot.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ur1uhyctbguw115/TES5Edit_log.txt?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ibkoa5zglofmv19/LODGen_Tamriel.txt?dl=0

 

These links should work, otherwise let me know.

 

I found out the two mods that the objects were from, there was a fence from Windstad mine (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57879/?), and something that looked like 8 pieces of wood from the merchant mod that were clumped together (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33566/?) though as for the last mod, I'm using an edited esp that the author sent to me, not the one from nexus. Also some clutter like a rabbit corpse, a wine bottle, some frost miriam, a tankard etc.

I took a cluseup screen - https://i62.tinypic.com/ifbtrd.jpg - as you can see it's some kind of wooden plates cluped together around a door, and inside are some clutter items. Then the gate from Windstad Mine a little farther into the distance.

 

The trees are from that JK mod yes, i just double checked. Maybe I can just manualle delete those lods? I don't really need them anyway, but I'm not sure if that's possible.

 

Also, I don't know if it's important or not, but I'm running the patcher form Enhanced Landscapes alongside this, though that one doesn't patch neither the merchant mod nor windstad mine, nor JK's Whiterun outskirts.

Edited by Carboniac
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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  On 9/6/2015 at 10:31 AM, Carboniac said:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ur1uhyctbguw115/TES5Edit_log.txt?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ibkoa5zglofmv19/LODGen_Tamriel.txt?dl=0

 

These links should work, otherwise let me know.

 

I found out the two mods that the objects were from, there was a fence from Windstad mine (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57879/?), and something that looked like 8 pieces of wood from the merchant mod that were clumped together (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33566/?) though as for the last mod, I'm using an edited esp that the author sent to me, not the one from nexus. Also some clutter like a rabbit corpse, a wine bottle, some frost miriam, a tankard etc.

 

Regarding tree LOD. Are you certain you completely overwrote existing Tamriel tree LOD (Meshes\Terrain\Tamriel\Trees\*.*) with the one generated by DynDOLOD? I see previous generations by TES5LODGen. Maybe files got mixed somehow.

Also was the stuck tree LOD present then?

 

 

I quickly tested a Small-Town Marchants version and did not have floating objects. From the description of the clutter objects I assume they are always there regardless of DynDOLOD.

The LOD objects in static LOD are also done by mod number 2B - which is rorikstead_merchant.esp

2B00DAAB

2B00DAAC    

2B00DAAD    

2B00DAAE

2B00DAAF

2B00DAB0

2B00DAB1

 

The gate from Windstad mine is always there floating in the air in the middle of the world, regardless of DynDOLOD.

 

I suggest to just remove those objects from the mods with TES5Edit. The authors should be notified and clean their mods from wild edits.

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Carboniac Watcher

Carboniac

Posted
Posted

Removing the objects from the cell in TES5E finally removed my weird object UFO, thanks! The lods are still there, I assume I have to run dynlod once more to remove them? If I do, will I just have to overwrite the old input from dynlod with the new?

 

As for the trees, I completely removed the folder 'terrain' before running first T5lodgen and then dynlod, so everything in that folder is generated today. I also found a tree in Solstheim (from enhanced landscapes) with the persistant and mismatching lod. The rest of the trees work fine, but one or two trees have persistant lods.

 

Completely removing all dynlod files and the terrain folder and the esp (going back to before I installed dynlod) got rid of the whiterun exterior lods, I did that yesterday when installing dylod from scratch.

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  On 9/6/2015 at 12:23 PM, Carboniac said:

Removing the objects from the cell in TES5E finally removed my weird object UFO, thanks! The lods are still there, I assume I have to run dynlod once more to remove them? If I do, will I just have to overwrite the old input from dynlod with the new?

 

As for the trees, I completely removed the folder 'terrain' before running first T5lodgen and then dynlod, so everything in that folder is generated today. I also found a tree in Solstheim (from enhanced landscapes) with the persistant and mismatching lod. The rest of the trees work fine, but one or two trees have persistant lods.

 

Completely removing all dynlod files and the terrain folder and the esp (going back to before I installed dynlod) got rid of the whiterun exterior lods, I did that yesterday when installing dylod from scratch.

Yes you will have to generate LOD again from scratch after removing the wild edits that got picked up into LOD.

I guess if you do the same cleaning process first for Solstheim it will take care of the stuck tree LOD.

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