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Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - pre 2.xx

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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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

59721-1-1427159829.jpg59721-2-1427159829.jpg59721-1-1427289504.jpg59721-4-1427159830.jpg

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

59721-1-1427465578.jpg59721-2-1427465579.jpg59721-3-1427465579.jpg59721-4-1427465579.jpg

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

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

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

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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Posted (edited)
  On 12/18/2015 at 11:32 PM, Nebulous112 said:

Hi Sheson,

 

I'm thinking of adding a player home or two to my new playthrough, as well as a mod that adds a bookstore in Solitude.

 

I'm wondering if these mods are compatible with DynDOLOD out of the box. I did not find any mention of them in the (lengthy) compatibility list.

 

New Bookstore in Solitude:

Books of Skyrim (by MannyGT)

 

Player homes:

Druid's Den - Collector's Edition (by Saerilith and Icecreamassassin) [major update / rewrite uploaded yesterday. Now v3.2]

Jaggarsfeld (by xJACKTHERIPPERx and DarthXile) / Jaggarsfeld Extended (by TechAngel85) [The Extended mod requires the original Jaggarsfeld]

Lakeview Manor Evolved (by mrpdean) [recently came out of beta, now v1.1]

 

Thanks for your time, I do appreciate it.

 

Cheers,

 

Nebulous

You will have to test yourself to know for sure...

 

Just by quickly looking at the mods, Books of Skyrim should be OK because it seems to use a standard building - but It will be more or less hidden from view behind the walls anyways, so no loss if something goes wrong.

If I remember Jaggersfeld correctly it has its own little worldspace that does not require LOD. The cave entrance it adds to Tamriel should be added without problem.

I think I did look at Lakeview Manor Elvolved once and it is mostly OK, but may need a couple rules for some objects I think to be "complete".

Just looking at Druids Den screenshots most of it should be fine, but I am not sure about the  stone eagle LOD from the Skyforge, so it probably could use some custom rules too.

 

I've added all mods to my long list of mods to check so they may show up in the next update.

Edited by sheson
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Ghostwise Noble

Ghostwise

Posted
Posted

Hey folks,

 

I just wanted to say that currently LOOT doesn't push DynDOLOD.esp far back enough.

 

For instance the PerMA_USLEEP master patch.esp , PerMA-Hunterborn.esp, the Pre PaMa WAFR CCR CCOR Patch.esp and the T3ndOs SkyRe Standing Stones and Races.esp end up after DynDOLOD.esp if I let LOOT manage my load order.

 

At least one of these presumably contains textures that get magicked into LODness by DynDOLOD. The issue vanishes as soon as I manually push DynDOLOD.esp to the very end of my load order.

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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Posted (edited)
  On 12/19/2015 at 4:38 PM, Ghostwise said:

Hey folks,

 

I just wanted to say that currently LOOT doesn't push DynDOLOD.esp far back enough.

 

For instance the PerMA_USLEEP master patch.esp , PerMA-Hunterborn.esp, the Pre PaMa WAFR CCR CCOR Patch.esp and the T3ndOs SkyRe Standing Stones and Races.esp end up after DynDOLOD.esp if I let LOOT manage my load order.

 

At least one of these presumably contains textures that get magicked into LODness by DynDOLOD. The issue vanishes as soon as I manually push DynDOLOD.esp to the very end of my load order.

Once DynDOLOD.esp contains masters, LOOT will sort it to be loaded after them. *.esm/*.esp files contain game data but not meshes or textures.

 

However LOD may use meshes, textures from *.bsa files and their load order can change because the matching *.esm,*.esp order changed, LOD may be affected.

 

Since there is no DynDOLOD.bsa and all meshes and textures shipping with DynDOLOD are loose files, the load order priority of DynDOLO.esp does not affect the load order of its resources like meshes or textures. Loose files always win.

 

If you use MO the order of *.esm/*.esp or MOs mod priority may or may not affect load order of *.bsa resources in unconventional ways depending on the use of the managed archive feature. This is probably what you are seeing.

 

Note MO managed archive feature is famously incompatible with tools like TES5Edit, so when generating LOD meshes/textures may be different files compared to when the game loads. Not all textures are baked into the LOD texture atlas and dynamic LOD always uses single files.

 

In any case, if you think there is a problem with LOOT you should post in an official LOOT support thread.

Edited by sheson
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jonkyb Watcher

jonkyb

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I'm having an issue where DynDoLOD 1.46 doesn't seem to create any object LOD for the Tamriel worldspace, but does do so for other worldspaces. 

 

The DynDoLOD Worlds script successfully completes in TES5Edit, and the meshes, skse, and textures folders are all created and populated as expected. The only exception seems to be the meshes/terrain/Tamriel/Objects folder - this folder is created, but there are no .bto files in it. As a result, there is no additional object LOD added to the world. There are .btt files in the trees folder, however.

Weirdly the .bto files are created for the other worldspaces. Here's a shot of what I mean: https://imgur.com/Dze4GGn. In game, this looks really weird around Whiterun for example, where the Windmill sails are all properly placed and visibly rotating from a distance, but not attached to any buildings. In addition, other object LODs (like LODs for the Skyrim Bridges mod) don't seem to show up either.

 

Do you have any ideas, or is there any other info that might help?

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  • Author
Posted (edited)
  On 12/19/2015 at 10:10 PM, jonkyb said:

Hi all,

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I'm having an issue where DynDoLOD 1.46 doesn't seem to create any object LOD for the Tamriel worldspace, but does do so for other worldspaces. 

 

The DynDoLOD Worlds script successfully completes in TES5Edit, and the meshes, skse, and textures folders are all created and populated as expected. The only exception seems to be the meshes/terrain/Tamriel/Objects folder - this folder is created, but there are no .bto files in it. As a result, there is no additional object LOD added to the world. There are .btt files in the trees folder, however.

Weirdly the .bto files are created for the other worldspaces. Here's a shot of what I mean: https://imgur.com/Dze4GGn. In game, this looks really weird around Whiterun for example, where the Windmill sails are all properly placed and visibly rotating from a distance, but not attached to any buildings. In addition, other object LODs (like LODs for the Skyrim Bridges mod) don't seem to show up either.

 

Do you have any ideas, or is there any other info that might help?

LODGen.exe (command prompt window that is started in the background once the texture atlas has been generated) will either report an error or crash for some reason while trying to generate *.bto for Tamriel. See if TES5Edit\LODGen_log.txt shows something like file not found or other errors. If it crashes there should be a "stopped working" pop-up I think so it should not go unnoticed - but I am not sure if that happens on all platforms.

Edited by sheson
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jonkyb Watcher

jonkyb

Posted
Posted
  On 12/19/2015 at 10:47 PM, sheson said:

LODGen.exe (command prompt window that is started in the background once the texture atlas has been generated) will either report an error or crash for some reason while trying to generate *.bto for Tamriel. See if TES5Edit\LODGen_log.txt shows something like file not found or other errors. If it crashes there should be a "stopped working" pop-up I think so it should not go unnoticed - but I am not sure if that happens on all platforms.

Thanks, Sheson. I just checked the log, and it does have this at the end of the file: 

  Quote

 

Skyrim Object LOD Generator v0.9

Created by Ehamloptiran and Zilav
Updated by Sheson
 
Log started at 5:49 PM
Game Mode: TES5
Fix Tangents: False
Generate Tangents: True
Generate Vertex Colors: True
Merge Meshes: True
Remove Faces under Terrain: True
Remove Faces under Water: True
Use HD Flag: True
Ignore Materials: False
Global scale: 1.00
Specific level: No
Specific quad: No
file not found c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data\meshes\options\highhrothgarwindowglow\meshes\lod\highrothgar\highhrothgarentrance01glow_lod_2.nif
Log ended at 5:49 PM

Is this a vanilla file that I'm missing? Should I verify the integrity of my steam cache, or is this mod-related?

 

Thanks again!

  • 0
sheson Akatosh

sheson

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
  On 12/19/2015 at 10:58 PM, jonkyb said:

Thanks, Sheson. I just checked the log, and it does have this at the end of the file: 

Is this a vanilla file that I'm missing? Should I verify the integrity of my steam cache, or is this mod-related?

 

Thanks again!

That is a file that ships with DynDOLOD. However, you should not install the 'options' folder into Skyrims data folder like this. You need to move the contents and all subfolders of

 

c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data\meshes\options\highhrothgarwindowglow\*.*

to

c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data\*.*

 

Repeat for any other files/folders in c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data\meshes\options\ if there are any, until \options\ is empty and then remove it. Then generate Tamriel.

 

The error happens because there is 2 /meshes/ folder in the path, which confuses the tools.

Edited by sheson
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Ghostwise Noble

Ghostwise

Posted
Posted
  On 12/19/2015 at 8:56 PM, sheson said:

If you use MO the order of *.esm/*.esp or MOs mod priority may or may not affect load order of *.bsa resources in unconventional ways depending on the use of the managed archive feature. This is probably what you are seeing. Note MO managed archive feature is famously incompatible with tools like TES5Edit, so when generating LOD meshes/textures may be different files compared to when the game loads. Not all textures are baked into the LOD texture atlas and dynamic LOD always uses single files.

 

(Google google) Ah yes, page 50 of this thread, got it. Thanks !

  • 0
I_Am_Nova Watcher

I_Am_Nova

Posted
Posted (edited)

So I generated the LODs at high, and I was impressed by the results. Then I discovered the enhanced landscapes mod and wanted to try that. Regenerated the LODs again and was impressed even further.

 

Here are some screenshots-

 

Without enhanced landscapes 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Performance is decent. 50 fps mostly with enb on, and mostly 60 fps with it off.

 

A big thanks to you, Sheson, for this incredible mod.

Edited by I_Am_Nova
  • 0
sutex Thane

sutex

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well thought I drop in and say , finally got Dyndolod , third attempt , up and running , well it says so when I went outside. ( looking for something to view that gives me ah its working ) Have followed the step guild on the first two attempts  , but with one add exception  , on the last one, I used the merge.esp in TESedit ,Following the Step video guide . Game seems to be working well , I not sure about my ini files given there are some changes I made ,again following the Step video have posted about this. Hopefully the Step guide masters :) will streamline all those ini tweaks Step guide & videos into (spINI) so Dyndolod has the best settings

 

There was one issue coming out of the cave on the Hircine's Ring quest , my follower would not ride her horse , and later on killed a dragon ( down the road) no soul , So re-loaded a save , re-did the quest , and  the problem went away. No-idea if this is Dyndolod related ,  just letting you know.

Edited by sutex
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Dammal19 Citizen

Dammal19

Posted
Posted

Hi Sheson, 

 

I tried now to replace the Hybrid trees by Full Model SFO trees (version 2.x). I can't get it to work.

 

Here is what I did: I made static SFO meshes exactly as you desribed in the manual you gave me a couple of days ago (copy&paste NiTriShape branches into the empty nif file, name the new mesh [name of the tree mesh]_lod.nif. The BSShader still points to the texture files of the SFO mod.

 

I put these full model lod files into meshes/DynDOLOD/lod/trees, overwriting your hybrid models.

 

When I use this mesh rule: 

  Quote

 

mesh mask - "tree"

LOD 4 - "full modell"

LOD 8 - "static LOD 8"  

LOD 16 - "static LOD 8"  

VWD - checked  

Grid - "far LOD"  

reference - "unchanged"

and further change the LOD 8 entry in the last "\" rule to static LOD 4,

 

then I should get full model trees in the fBlockLevel0Distance. But trees dont show up there, this area is just empty. Behind, starting from fBlockLevel1Distance-range, your custom 2D-flat meshes from the vanilla trees do show up though (I know the vanilla 2D-flat models dont fit to SFO trees anyways, this is just for testing purposes for the future)

 

What am I doing wrong? 

 

I tried to change LOD 4 - "full modell"   to  LOD 4 - "static LOD 4"  in the tree mesh rule to see if that was my mistake, but this just resulted in TES5LODGen running forever, continously giving the error "index was out of range. must be nonnegative and less than the size of the collection" for a ton of references (I guess these are all the tree references).

 

Regards,
Dammal19

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korporalkabbage Watcher

korporalkabbage

Posted
Posted

Hello Sheson, thanks for this awesome mod. I had a quick question, but it might be insignificant. After running dyndolod and loading up alternate start, choosing the camping in the woods option, and loading into the game I noticed that the dragons (alduin) flightpath is significantly altered with dyndolod activated. Normally he flies right over the area that alternate start loads you up in but not so when dyndolod is activated. Is there some kind of potential problem I am encountering or is it no big deal? Thanks again!

  • 0
Piranhaha Citizen

Piranhaha

Posted
Posted

I figure if this were possible it would already be done, but I might as well ask...

 

In the DynDOLOD mesh list when selecting the grid, I noticed there's a "Full" option which is described as "Full model even if LOD is available". Is there a set of meshes that comprise ground/landscape that I could apply this rule to so as to push back the "landscape pop" that occurs during the LOD->Full transition without having to increase ugrids?

  • 0
sheson Akatosh

sheson

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
  On 12/21/2015 at 2:39 AM, sutex said:

Well thought I drop in and say , finally got Dyndolod , third attempt , up and running , well it says so when I went outside. ( looking for something to view that gives me ah its working ) Have followed the step guild on the first two attempts  , but with one add exception  , on the last one, I used the merge.esp in TESedit ,Following the Step video guide . Game seems to be working well , I not sure about my ini files given there are some changes I made ,again following the Step video have posted about this. Hopefully the Step guide masters :) will streamline all those ini tweaks Step guide & videos into (spINI) so Dyndolod has the best settings

 

There was one issue coming out of the cave on the Hircine's Ring quest , my follower would not ride her horse , and later on killed a dragon ( down the road) no soul , So re-loaded a save , re-did the quest , and  the problem went away. No-idea if this is Dyndolod related ,  just letting you know.

No correlation.

 

  On 12/21/2015 at 3:46 PM, Dammal19 said:

Hi Sheson, 

 

I tried now to replace the Hybrid trees by Full Model SFO trees (version 2.x). I can't get it to work.

 

Here is what I did: I made static SFO meshes exactly as you desribed in the manual you gave me a couple of days ago (copy&paste NiTriShape branches into the empty nif file, name the new mesh [name of the tree mesh]_lod.nif. The BSShader still points to the texture files of the SFO mod.

 

I put these full model lod files into meshes/DynDOLOD/lod/trees, overwriting your hybrid models.

 

When I use this mesh rule: 

and further change the LOD 8 entry in the last "\" rule to static LOD 4,

 

then I should get full model trees in the fBlockLevel0Distance. But trees dont show up there, this area is just empty. Behind, starting from fBlockLevel1Distance-range, your custom 2D-flat meshes from the vanilla trees do show up though (I know the vanilla 2D-flat models dont fit to SFO trees anyways, this is just for testing purposes for the future)

 

What am I doing wrong? 

 

I tried to change LOD 4 - "full modell"   to  LOD 4 - "static LOD 4"  in the tree mesh rule to see if that was my mistake, but this just resulted in TES5LODGen running forever, continously giving the error "index was out of range. must be nonnegative and less than the size of the collection" for a ton of references (I guess these are all the tree references).

 

Regards,

Dammal19

 

Since you created a LOD version of the full model tree, you need to set LOD4 to static LOD 4.

 

If there is an index error in nifs created with nifskope it most likely has to do with invalid index numbers for strings.

 

When unfolding a NiTriShape its first entry in the block details is usually Name with a Value of TXT .... [x]

[x] is a number after the text and needs to a be valid string index defined in the nif header. If you used empty_lod.nif it only has 2 string with the index 0 and 1, so if you see a higher number you need to update the entry to a valid index or add strings to the header list.

If you double click TXT you can select/add a string from/to the list. If you double click the string text (it will just show the last entry if the index number is too high) you can enter a new valid index number.

 

Send me one of those nifs and I can double check the cause and also make LODGen.exe more robust versus the error.

 

  On 12/21/2015 at 4:37 PM, korporalkabbage said:

Hello Sheson, thanks for this awesome mod. I had a quick question, but it might be insignificant. After running dyndolod and loading up alternate start, choosing the camping in the woods option, and loading into the game I noticed that the dragons (alduin) flightpath is significantly altered with dyndolod activated. Normally he flies right over the area that alternate start loads you up in but not so when dyndolod is activated. Is there some kind of potential problem I am encountering or is it no big deal? Thanks again!

No correlation.

 

  On 12/21/2015 at 7:01 PM, Piranhaha said:

I figure if this were possible it would already be done, but I might as well ask...

 

In the DynDOLOD mesh list when selecting the grid, I noticed there's a "Full" option which is described as "Full model even if LOD is available". Is there a set of meshes that comprise ground/landscape that I could apply this rule to so as to push back the "landscape pop" that occurs during the LOD->Full transition without having to increase ugrids?

Pop-in is objects appearing from nothing when cells attach. So, it already has been done in the most optimized way possible. The high setting increases the number of static LOD objects shown outside the attached cells from 14k to over 75k in Tamriel. In addition a few thousand dynamic/animated objects are added to dynamic object LOD.

 

Landscape is terrain and large bodies of water, DynDOLOD does tree and object LOD only.

 

The setting "Full model even if LOD is available" is a setting for dynamic LOD to change a LOD model which is displayed outside the attached cells to a full model. Since there is a LOD model shown already there is no pop-in from nothing. The equivalent setting for static LOD is setting LOD4 to "Full model". Using full models for LOD can have a significant performance impact mostly depending on number of textures used and if these textures can be atlassed.

 

Using full models for LOD can lessen the transition effect from LOD to full model. Test for certain large mountains.

Edited by sheson
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