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Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - pre 2.xx

sheson

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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

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

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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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Dammal19 Citizen

Dammal19

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Posted (edited)
  On 12/22/2015 at 3:18 AM, sheson said:

 

 

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.

 

 

 

You are right. I got it to work by giving random names to the string with the "edit string index" for all the lod meshes. I guess you don't need me to send you the nif file as you can easily reproduce this ? ..   Thanks alot for handholding me through this little experiment!

 

LODGen took quite a while to finish (~an additional 30 min at least after the DynDOLOD process finished in xEDIT).

 

Looks great ingame, but it isn't stable due to the ressource-demanding SFO trees I guess. The game random-CTDs in more forested region, and this when having fBlockLevel0Distance set to only 6000 (it looked like it corresponds to something like ugrids 11/13, dunno.. I could do the math here). 

When I chose the alternate start "camping in the wood" and load into the exterior cell, instant CTD after loading screen.

When I coc to whiterun from the starter prison-cell I can see it working outside of whiterun. I was also able to leave whiterun and start my way to Riverwood. Halfway when the forest really started I CTD'd.

 

This was more a proof of concept of course, I don't plan to use this ingame actually with the SFO trees ^^ But do you know why the game CTDs, or what is the limiting factor when doing this experiment? I tracked Memory blog log of course and made sure it does not exceed. There is also plenty of VRAM. Is the game engine simply not able to handle so much stuff? Is it struggling rather from the high polygon count or the high draw calls? Or another reason?

 

Regards, 

Dammal19

Edited by Dammal19
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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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Posted (edited)
  On 12/22/2015 at 10:49 AM, Dammal19 said:

You are right. I got it to work by giving random names to the string with the "edit string index" for all the lod meshes. I guess you don't need me to send you the nif file as you can easily reproduce this ? ..   Thanks alot for handholding me through this little experiment!

 

LODGen took quite a while to finish (~an additional 30 min at least after the DynDOLOD process finished in xEDIT).

 

Looks great ingame, but it isn't stable due to the ressource-demanding SFO trees I guess. The game random-CTDs in more forested region, and this when having fBlockLevel0Distance set to only 6000 (it looked like it corresponds to something like ugrids 11/13, dunno.. I could do the math here). 

When I chose the alternate start "camping in the wood" and load into the exterior cell, instant CTD after loading screen.

When I coc to whiterun from the starter prison-cell I can see it working outside of whiterun. I was also able to leave whiterun and start my way to Riverwood. Halfway when the forest really started I CTD'd.

 

This was more a proof of concept of course, I don't plan to use this ingame actually with the SFO trees ^^ But do you know why the game CTDs, or what is the limiting factor when doing this experiment? I tracked Memory blog log of course and made sure it does not exceed. There is also plenty of VRAM. Is the game engine simply not able to handle so much stuff? Is it struggling rather from the high polygon count or the high draw calls? Or another reason?

 

Regards, 

Dammal19

Correct, I can reproduce broken index nifs here.

It should not crash just because it has a bit more LOD to load as long as heap memory is not used up.

A next step would be to reduce optimize the meshes by replacing the 3D trunks by 2D flats. May be you want to share the new working static 3D trees?

Edited by sheson
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Dammal19 Citizen

Dammal19

Posted
Posted
  On 12/22/2015 at 11:06 AM, sheson said:

Correct, I can reproduce broken index nifs here.

It should not crash just because it has a bit more LOD to load as long as heap memory is not used up.

A next step would be to reduce optimize the meshes by replacing the 3D trunks by 2D flats. May be you want to share the new working static 3D trees?

You mean I send them to you? Of course I can do that.. 

Or do you mean I shall try to do this next step myself? Problem is really I'm rather a mod user than a modder so far, this means I'm a bloody beginner with 0 knowledge at pretty much anything, be it blender, Nifskope, Photoshop/Gimp or whatever. I know the concept of why it's desireable to put in 2D flat trunks (reduce polygon count and draw calls by atlasing trunk-textures) but I have no clue how to do anything from this.

I would love to contribute something to DynDOLOD by making hybrid models for various tree meshes which are available for Skyrim, I have holidays and time to teach myself some basics of these programs maybe, but I dont know if I am able to learn this stuff so quickly that I can produce such models anytime soon..

 

To the meshes: The meshes I made the full model LODs for are the ones from SFO v2.3b, but some are replaced by older, better looking versions of SFO v2.x, as recommended by AceeQ in his Enhanced Landscapes mod installer. And I think one does need vurts permission to upload his meshes for public, I would have to ask him.

Also, vurts meshes look like they have an absurdly high polygon count for the branches. I dont know how much it helps to just reduce the trunk.

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  • Author
Posted (edited)
  On 12/22/2015 at 11:20 AM, Paolino said:

Hello. I noticed that, enabling the option "Fake Light", in Blackreach appears a strange glow in the moment of transition of the lod. I wanted to know if it is possible to disable the "Fake Light" only on Blackreach without having to turn off all our other options.

 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3j09o2_tesv-2015-12-22-11-44-36-84_videogames

 

Thanks and Merry Christmas to all.

From the manual:

"While the switch from FXGlow LOD to a real light is quite noticeable since the two are complete different things, the FXGlow LOD adds a nice simulation of lights lighting up the air and objects behind it. This works well when looking into cities with a load door.

Check [x] Fake lights selected world to add FXGlow LOD in place of lights in the world that LOD is generated for. Again, this might not work very well and look off when approaching the light source. Typically, leave this unchecked."

 

Uncheck the option "Fake lights selected world" when generating LOD.

 

To apply different options to select worldspaces, only select the worldspaces you want certain settings for and generate LOD. Then change the settins and select the other worldspaces and generate LOD again.

  On 12/22/2015 at 11:55 AM, Dammal19 said:

You mean I send them to you? Of course I can do that.. 

Or do you mean I shall try to do this next step myself? Problem is really I'm rather a mod user than a modder so far, this means I'm a bloody beginner with 0 knowledge at pretty much anything, be it blender, Nifskope, Photoshop/Gimp or whatever. I know the concept of why it's desireable to put in 2D flat trunks (reduce polygon count and draw calls by atlasing trunk-textures) but I have no clue how to do anything from this.

I would love to contribute something to DynDOLOD by making hybrid models for various tree meshes which are available for Skyrim, I have holidays and time to teach myself some basics of these programs maybe, but I dont know if I am able to learn this stuff so quickly that I can produce such models anytime soon..

 

To the meshes: The meshes I made the full model LODs for are the ones from SFO v2.3b, but some are replaced by older, better looking versions of SFO v2.x, as recommended by AceeQ in his Enhanced Landscapes mod installer. And I think one does need vurts permission to upload his meshes for public, I would have to ask him.

Also, vurts meshes look like they have an absurdly high polygon count for the branches. I dont know how much it helps to just reduce the trunk.

Yes, upload somehwere, or send them to me I might do something with them, but no promises.

 

You could copy paste the 2D trunks from the vanilla 3D LOD trees I did, the textures may be close enough. It is more about the draw calls than triangles. If the texture used needs to be tiled then it can't be atlassed. Typically this is the case with the trunks while the leafs are usually fine.

Edited by sheson
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Paolino Watcher

Paolino

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 12/22/2015 at 12:03 PM, sheson said:

From the manual:

"While the switch from FXGlow LOD to a real light is quite noticeable since the two are complete different things, the FXGlow LOD adds a nice simulation of lights lighting up the air and objects behind it. This works well when looking into cities with a load door.

Check [x] Fake lights selected world to add FXGlow LOD in place of lights in the world that LOD is generated for. Again, this might not work very well and look off when approaching the light source. Typically, leave this unchecked."

 

Uncheck the option "Fake lights selected world" when generating LOD.

 

To apply different options to select worldspaces, only select the worldspaces you want certain settings for and generate LOD. Then change the settins and select the other worldspaces and generate LOD again.

Hi and best wishes, dear Sheson. Yes, I know the problems caused by FXGlow and Fake Lights, and are tolerable in Skyrim and other worlds, while they are quite annoying in Blackreach. I wanted to disable Fake Lights in Blackreach (not FXGlow), without having to give up to the others dynamic elements present in this world, for example the waterfalls. I apologize but I did not know it was possible to modify the same esp more than once. I tried just now to create a DynDOLOD.esp in two steps, the first step with all worlds selected, except Blackreach, and all options enabled, the second step with only Blackreach active and all options except the Fake Lights, and so far it seems to work well.

 

Thanks again and we hope that Santa Claus does not forget to bring the new version of the DynDOLOD. ::):

Edited by Paolino
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Dammal19 Citizen

Dammal19

Posted
Posted
  On 12/22/2015 at 12:03 PM, sheson said:

 

 

 

Yes, upload somehwere, or send them to me I might do something with them, but no promises.

 

You could copy paste the 2D trunks from the vanilla 3D LOD trees I did, the textures may be close enough. It is more about the draw calls than triangles. If the texture used needs to be tiled then it can't be atlassed. Typically this is the case with the trunks while the leafs are usually fine.

I tried the SFO trees with the 2D trunks from your hybrids, it is useable, but for some trees the transition to ugrids is rather akward. Performance wise, I feel like the game got somewhat more stable than before (managed to go from Whiterun to Riverwood without CTD), but chosing the alternate start "camping in the woods" still gives me CTD like 1 second after finishing loading screen. (I use a minimalistic MO profile for this testing to ensure CTD doesnt have another reason). So the game still isn't stable with the full model SFO branches. Is it just simply "too many draw calls = CTD"?

 

I sent you the download link as PM here in STEP... I also included the models where I replaced the trunks with the 2D mesh, as I already did the work of adjusting the Translation z-values so the 2D meshes have the same height as the corresponding full model trunks. Dunno if you have a use for it though.

 

 

 

Cheers

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sheson Akatosh

sheson

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  • Author
Posted
  On 12/22/2015 at 5:02 PM, Dammal19 said:

I tried the SFO trees with the 2D trunks from your hybrids, it is useable, but for some trees the transition to ugrids is rather akward. Performance wise, I feel like the game got somewhat more stable than before (managed to go from Whiterun to Riverwood without CTD), but chosing the alternate start "camping in the woods" still gives me CTD like 1 second after finishing loading screen. (I use a minimalistic MO profile for this testing to ensure CTD doesnt have another reason). So the game still isn't stable with the full model SFO branches. Is it just simply "too many draw calls = CTD"?

 

I sent you the download link as PM here in STEP... I also included the models where I replaced the trunks with the 2D mesh, as I already did the work of adjusting the Translation z-values so the 2D meshes have the same height as the corresponding full model trunks. Dunno if you have a use for it though.

 

 

 

Cheers

If heap memory is not the problem the additional triangles and draw calls from LOD just affect FPS. The CTD probably happens because one/more of those new tree meshes are used for dyanmic LOD / neverfades and there maybe still something awkward about them after copy/paste. I will have a look at the files, but it may be a few days/week. In the meantime for a quick test just don't load the DynDOLOD.esp. If it doesn't CTD then you could set the Grid column for 'trees' to nothing or 'Far Full', so it doesn't use the hybrids for dynamic LOD.

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Dammal19 Citizen

Dammal19

Posted
Posted

The CTD was false alarm maybe, I started the alternate start "camping in the woods" 4 more times, followed by walking around in the woods, and 0 CTD. I hate this, its much easier when its reproducable ;p Or is an occasional CTD normal when starting a new game and leaving the prison cell for the first time, because of the initial script mess that is going on with various mods? Maybe that was the reason..

 

Anyhow, it wasn't related to the meshes I guess. If I get no more ideas for questions I might stop bothering you for a little now :D I would love to see an update to make billboard based level 8 tree lod possible, moving trees into object lod is definitly a serious visual upgrade. but its self-evident you can't make promise/ETA for something that specific. The tree.ultra feature isn't really recognized by many users so far I guess :'(

 

Thanks once more for all the support!

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vile83r Thane

vile83r

Posted
Posted

I had no issues using DynDOLOD and getting it all set up. I am getting a "Requires SKSE 1.7.3 or newer" error. I have SKSE 1.9.xx installed.

 

Does anyone know what might be happening or where I'm going wrong?

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Nebulous112 High King

Nebulous112

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think you are confusing the Skyrim official patch (current version 1.9.32.0.8) with SKSE, which is the Skyrim Script Extender. SKSE is required for many Skyrim mods, including DynDOLOD.

 

Download SKSE (current version 1.7.3) from here: https://skse.silverlock.org/

 

Also, FYI Sheson, I just noticed the SKSE link on the Nexus page is linked to this: 

http://.silverlock.org/
Which is a dead link, obviously.

 

Also, the first post of the xEdit development thread at AFKMods currently links back to Nexus for the developmental FO4 version.

Edited by Nebulous112
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zilav Knight

zilav

Posted
Posted
  On 12/23/2015 at 7:23 PM, Nebulous112 said:

Also, the first post of the xEdit development thread at AFKMods currently links back to Nexus for the developmental FO4 version.

New xEdit builds will be uploaded there for a while.

  • 0
Blue36 Watcher

Blue36

Posted
Posted (edited)

Having problems with the dirt cliffs everywhere in the game. The top edge of the dirt cliff appears when I am right on top of the cliff. The vanilla dirt cliffs the top edge appears a good distant from me. I tried taking all of my mods off and redoing DYNDOLOD 1.46 and then started a new game with vanilla ini files. The result are the same by the time I got to Riverwood. Any ideas?

Edited by Blue36
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sheson Akatosh

sheson

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
  On 12/23/2015 at 7:23 PM, Nebulous112 said:

I think you are confusing the Skyrim official patch (current version 1.9.32.0.8) with SKSE, which is the Skyrim Script Extender. SKSE is required for many Skyrim mods, including DynDOLOD.

 

Download SKSE (current version 1.7.3) from here: https://skse.silverlock.org/

 

Also, FYI Sheson, I just noticed the SKSE link on the Nexus page is linked to this:

http://.silverlock.org/
Which is a dead link, obviously.

 

Also, the first post of the xEdit development thread at AFKMods currently links back to Nexus for the developmental FO4 version.

 

Thanks, fixed the SKSE link.

 

  On 12/23/2015 at 8:03 PM, Blue36 said:

Having problems with the dirt cliffs everywhere in the game. The top edge of the dirt cliff appears when I am right on top of the cliff. The vanilla dirt cliffs the top edge appears a good distant from me. I tried taking all of my mods off and redoing DYNDOLOD 1.46 and then started a new game with vanilla ini files. The result are the same by the time I got to Riverwood. Any ideas?

See this post

Edited by sheson
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Ogham Guard

Ogham

Posted
Posted (edited)

Dear Sheson.

 

I moved this comment by me on another thread concerning ILS and an expected association with DynDolod.

I really do want to go and play the game now ^^ so it is not a request for support. But I thought I'd leave this feedback just in case it is useful in anyway.

 

"Alright, another 4 hours of testing.

So in addition to trying all options from Low to High for Dyndolod and setting the DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB= from 768 to 1280 in increments of 128 I only get lucky every now and then (8 out of 10 is ILS)

If I do get an area to load after choosing in the cell from LAL I can play around with no issues. However, restarting Skyrim to load that save, ILS again. I disable DynDolod and try to load that save... it all works.

Knowing it is all working solid except for DynDolod (not working for me that is) I will revert back to SkyFalls and Mills along with S.D.O for the time being and enjoy the game for a while now ^^"

 

Findings:

Leaving the LAL cell

via (I want to leave this cell) works most of the time.

via (I'm camping in the woods) mostly failure.

via Thieves Guild route - I forgot the title, sorry - it works. Haven't left the cell.

via (I got shipwrecked) worked -> just not the best idea with Frostfall installed  ^^

via (I was ambushed) works most of the time.

 

If an area does get loaded I cannot reload it later from a save due to ILS. Except as mentioned by dropping DynDolod.

Edited by Ogham
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