Help! Weird distant textures!

[JacobKirwin]

Hi all,

 

I've run into a very odd issue with my distant textures. They look all kinds of messed up from a distance. Then they turn normal when I get closer. Here's some photos of what I'm seeing:

 

(I zoomed in on some of the "from a distance" photos, but my guy is actually standing far back)

 

Bridges from a distance

https://ibb.co/YPxCqXy

 

Bridges as I get closer

https://ibb.co/Fn6QGvH

 

The Prydwin from a distnace (yikes!)

https://ibb.co/5LvKp0v

 

And then normal looking as I get closer

https://ibb.co/bJWYb6J

 

City buildings at a distance

https://ibb.co/98m4TzC

 

And again, normalized once I get closer

https://ibb.co/9yfLQzM

 

Does anyone know what this is? A corrupt texture issue? An LOD issue that requires an ini tweak? Something to do with previs? I've tried using Bethini suggested settings to see if that would fix it. No luck. I'm still learning and a bit new to these issues. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks!!

[HeyYou]

Installed any mods?

[JacobKirwin]

Installed any mods?

Yes. I have a bunch installed via Vortex and sorted via LOOT. This wasn't an issue for a long time; I just happened to notice one day. My guy is level 134, so I've been playing for a bit. I'm pretty good about trouble shooting the normal oddities (and I have a decent grasp of setting mod priorities and such), but this distant texture issue is just odd. It eludes me and I can't seem to find anyone with a similar issue on Reddit. More than anything, I'm hoping someone has run into something similar and can point me to the right "basic" direction (i.e. is this a texture issue where I should start disabling texture packs to see what's wrong, is this an ini issue and I need to bust out Notepad and make some tweaks, is this an LOD issue that has a specific fix, etc.). I'm lost.

[StormWolf01]

The changes in the textures has to do with LOD. Or Level of Detail.

What you're seeing is when the game takes too long to convert from the low graphics textures used when you see them at a distance, to the normal textures used when you see them up closer.

 

First question is whether or not you have a mod that affects these textures, in a way to optimize, enhance, replace, or assist game performance.

 

Second thing to check would be your game thru the game itself. Fallout4 Launcher.exe

 

Third would be to check all of your .ini files for references to LOD.

 

If everything there checks out, Fourth would be to run a diagnostic on your video card.

[JacobKirwin]

The changes in the textures has to do with LOD. Or Level of Detail.

What you're seeing is when the game takes too long to convert from the low graphics textures used when you see them at a distance, to the normal textures used when you see them up closer.

 

First question is whether or not you have a mod that affects these textures, in a way to optimize, enhance, replace, or assist game performance.

 

Second thing to check would be your game thru the game itself. Fallout4 Launcher.exe

 

Third would be to check all of your .ini files for references to LOD.

 

If everything there checks out, Fourth would be to run a diagnostic on your video card.

 

Thank you so much!!! This was driving me nuts. I hope you don't mind me asking a few follow up questions:

 

1st - I do have one mod that specifically impacts LOD - I use Borealis's optional file for LOD for Boston Natural Surroundings. It worked great when I installed it, but I suppose something could have happened. I tried to reinstall it, but that didn't seem to fix the issue. Should I try deleting it and just using the non-Borealis distant textures again?

 

1st/part B - I do use a couple of performance mods: Insignificant Object Remover and FPS dynamic shadows - Shadow Boost + it's fix:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1822

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/52327?fbclid=IwAR3W6ycE6Z5FYX84arQnH6UL7vkaC415FqpSAVf8lBB82c8UYGmJ07DAZ8I

 

I actually forgot about the shadow boost mod until you mentioned performance. I installed this a long time ago and it's one of the few times I tweaked ini per the suggestions in the mod. Could this mess with LOD texture ini settings? It worked fine and I had zero LOD issues back when I first installed it.

 

2nd - How do I check my game through Fallout4 Launcher.exe? Am I looking for something specific?

3rd - I'll dig through my ini files. Thanks! If I find items that impact LOD, can I just delete them and then let the game regenerate the stock stuff again? I'm a newb at this part, so apologies upfront. I've heard some folks say they've deleted their entire ini folder and allowed the game to rebuild it. I've been hesitant to mess with it, but I'm willing to dig in and try. So far my only ini tweaks have been for Dynamic Shadow Boost and one for making the 3rd person camera center on my guy to avoid blur from ENB.

 

Thanks again for your help!

[StormWolf01]

Heyas jacob! Not a problem, glad to try to help you out with this! :)

Hahaha I don't mind at all, as long as it's something that I can answer ;) Otherwise, I hope you don't mind getting "ummm... I dunno :unsure: "

:laugh: :laugh:

 

If you had been running the Borealis mod fine before, I would think that it would be more likely that you've installed something new that is conflicting with it.

I don't know if you are using a mod manager or not, or if so, if your manager shows you any kind of dates on files that were installed. But, you could definitely go in, DEactivate the borealis mod, and test out on a new character, to see if the problem is still there.

If the problem isn't there in your test, you can then REactivate it, move it down to the bottom of your load order, (Make note of where it's currently at tho first! You may wanna move it back again) and try on the test char again to see if the LOD problem is still there.

Moving it to the bottom "may" resolve the conflict if there is one. But it will then override the mod that it was conflicting with....

 

Insignificant Object remover I don't think would be a problem. I have used it for years. It also does not affect the textures of buildings. It only affects small objects strewn about the ground. I've been meaning to install the Dynamic Shadows mod, the next time that I play. I dunno if it would affect LOD or not, but my understanding is that it gives you the option to set a specific target framerate. If your framerate drops below the target level, it goes in and resets the settings for the shadows GFX to a lower level, until your FPS gets back to target level.

 

For checking your .ini files.... once you've got them open in notepad, or whatever editor that you're using, you can just press and hold the CTRL key, and then tap the F key. That'll open a search box. Just type in LOD into the box, and press enter. That will autosearch for references to the LOD settings. ;)

 

However. Here comes that "I dunno". WHAT the actual settings ARE, and which way that you would need to adjust them.... That... I dunno :( :(

Mine are set like this.

 

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=3500.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=2000.0000
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fDecalLOD0=800.0000
 
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=4.5000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=2.5000

[StormWolf01]

Ok. That's wierd. The code box ended up at the very bottom of my post. :wacko:

[JacobKirwin]

Ok. That's wierd. The code box ended up at the very bottom of my post. :wacko:

 

Well, I think I made it worse :huh: . I tried reinstalling my tree and Borealis lod texture packs, but it didn't help. I deleted all LOD labeled ini files from my ini preferences folder to no avail. Then I apparently did something silly and tried installing Far Area Reform to see if that would help with the distant textures. Now my tree trunks are pink and distant buildings are just pink blocks. Uninstalling FAR and reverting to a prior save does nothing to fix the new weird that I've invoked. I assume that something residual is sticking around in my files, but I have no clue what or where. The odd thing is that everything still pops back to normal when I get close enough. I think I may just need to put my level 134 hero to sleep and purge my mods for a fresh install. If you have any "may as well try this" ideas, I'm open to suggestions. If not, I'm thinking it may be time for a fire sale lol.

[HeyYou]

Uninstall any mods pertaining to LOD, see if it reverts back to vanilla. Should be ok to remove texture mods without an adverse effects.

[JacobKirwin]

 

Ok. That's wierd. The code box ended up at the very bottom of my post. :wacko:

 

Well, I think I made it worse :huh: . I tried reinstalling my tree and Borealis lod texture packs, but it didn't help. I deleted all LOD labeled ini files from my ini preferences folder to no avail. Then I apparently did something silly and tried installing Far Area Reform to see if that would help with the distant textures. Now my tree trunks are pink and distant buildings are just pink blocks. Uninstalling FAR and reverting to a prior save does nothing to fix the new weird that I've invoked. I assume that something residual is sticking around in my files, but I have no clue what or where. The odd thing is that everything still pops back to normal when I get close enough. I think I may just need to put my level 134 hero to sleep and purge my mods for a fresh install. If you have any "may as well try this" ideas, I'm open to suggestions. If not, I'm thinking it may be time for a fire sale lol.

 

 

Sadly, no luck so far. I think Far Area Reform must have left a loose file somewhere. Removing it and deleting the archive with my mod manager didn't fix it and sadly the mod creator has turned off comments and turned off the bugs area of his mod, so I can't ask for direct help. If I knew where the suspected rogue file was, I'd just go in and delete in manually. There's surprisingly little info online about where to look. Lots of folks have apparently had similar issues, but they don't tend to get replies from folks that actually found fixes for it.