366 replies to this topic

[Site Bot]

TES4LODGen

One-Click DistantLOD Generator

[LHammonds]

This sounds awesome! Thanks for creating and sharing with us.

I'd recommend including a readme file. I've created one for you if you'd like to use it:

TES4LODGen Readme.txt

Name: TES4LODGen
Version: 1.2.44 BETA
Date: 3/7/2008
Category: Utilities
Requirements: None
Compatibility: Windows XP/Vista
Author: ElminsterAU
RELz Forum: http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=818420
Source: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15781

Description
===========
TES4LODGen is a One-Click DistantLOD Generator.

Installation
============
Not necessary.

Usage
=====
Usage couldn't be easier:

1. Start TES4LODGen.exe - It will automatically find your Data Folder, list of active Modules and Oblivion.ini, load all active modules, load all associated BSAs and generate DistantLOD data for all worldspaces in all active modules.
2. Close the application once it's finished.
3. Play.

History
=======
1.2.44 BETA, 2008-03-07, Initial release.

Future
======
Nothing specific.

Contact
=======
You can find me on the official Elder Scrolls forums as 'ElminsterAU'
You can find me on TESNexus as 'ElminsterAU'

Licensing/Legal
===============
This program is provided as-is with no warranties expressed or implied.
I won't be held liable for any damage related to it's use.
There is nothing that can be considered malware in this program such as virus, trojan, adware, or spyware in it's original distribution.
If this program gets romantically involved with your significant other and runs away with him/her, I won't be held responsible for that either!

LHammonds

Edited by LHammonds, 07 March 2008 - 07:30 PM.

[ElminsterAU]

Thanks, I've updated the download with the readme included.

[LHammonds]

Oops. I noticed your RELz Thread a bit too late then. I added it just above the "Source" line but you can add that in with your next release.

EDIT: Here's a picture present for you.

Edited by LHammonds, 07 March 2008 - 09:55 PM.

[Bubbs]

Oh my god! Thank you so much. I have tried forever to get the LOD to work on my maps. I followed all the tutorials I could find and still no luck. I hope this works.

[Sinblood]

Sounds cool! Do you plan an option for choosing the mod we want to have LOD? Actually I only want a LOD for my mage tower and because my computer is not enough powerfull I can't permit my game having so much lODs files

[ElminsterAU]

LHammonds,
thanks for the pictures!

Bubbs,
this program will generate the information in the DistantLOD folder (required to have objects and trees show up in the distance). It will currently NOT generate lod landscape meshes or textures.

e-bride,
you can't generate DistantLOD information "just for one mod". That doesn't make any sense. The .lod files contain information about any object in a specific cell which should be visible at a distance.

It's also important to realize that this program doesn't NOT in any way generate new _far.nif's (low-poly meshes that are used to render objects if they are in the distance). Running this program will not magically make new types of objects visible in the distance. If you create new DistantLOD data with this program on an otherwise vanilla installation (no additional _far.nif's installed) then you might even get a performance increase.

As for the number of .lod files, that says absolutely nothing about how many objects are visible in the distance. There are 9944 .lod files contained in your Oblivion - Meshes.bsa and another 922 in DLCShiveringIsles - Meshes.bsa.

TES4LODGen mainly creates replacements for these files, only in rare cases will you get actually additional ones.

There has to be 1 .lod file for each cell that contains anything that's distantly visible (which is pretty much all exterior cell's).

EDIT: Just to make sure it's mentioned: this program is not really intended for mod authors to pre-generate DistantLOD information which is then distributed with their mod. The purpose of this program is to do away with pre-generated .lod's completely and have end users generate appropriate DistantLOD data for their specific combination of mods.

Edited by ElminsterAU, 08 March 2008 - 09:43 AM.

[evok99]

I really don't get what this does. I have Qarl Lod and qarl's normal maps installed. They work fine as they are. What will this do for me?

[ElminsterAU]

napalmmatt,

There are 2 possible reasons for the behavior of the trees. Both start with the same fact: TES4LODGen places the trees exactly at the same position where they are if the CELL is fully loaded. As a result

1) If you have modules which makes changes to the landscape height map in a cell, then these changes are normally only visible if that cell is loaded. They don't automatically show up in the distantly visible land. The reason for that is that the distantly visible land comes from special landscape lod meshes which need to be generated using TESCS (TES4LODGen can't do that yet). Most mods, even if they make landscape changes, don't come with a newly generated landscape mesh. And even the ones that do have the big problem that each landscape mesh covers an area of 32x32 cells, so if there are 2 mods that make changes to the landscape in the same 32x32 cell region then only one of these will be the last one to install an updated landscape mesh file. Because of this it can happen that the landscape that's visible in the distance does not actually match the landscape that you see when the cell is loaded. But the trees will always be in the "correct" position.

2) The whole point of the landscape mesh is to have a low resolution version of the distant landscape. Where the full heightmap data in a CELL has 32x32 height points inside that single cell, the landscape mesh might have only one or two points inside the area of that cell. That means that the surface you see in the distant landscape does not perfectly match the landscape surface you would see up close. I assume that TESCS compensates for that and adjusts the position of distantly visible objects and trees by the difference in the z axis between the detailed landscape surface and the surface as described in the landscape mesh. TES4LODGen can't do that currently.

[jochem100]

I love this. cool tool!!

you say tes4lodgen can't generate vwd land lod mesches YET. are you planning on importing this feature te tes4lodgen?

second thing; it would be great to be able to generate vwd (lod land and buildings, basicly everything) for one mod only. that way possibly you could release your mod (i.e. a new worldspace) with the proper vwd data included.

anyway, good work
i sure be following this handy tool

tnx