DynDOLOD 3 Grass LOD help?

[chazzranger]

Can't get grass LOD to work, what am I doing wrong?

Installed Cathedral Landscapes Grass Pre-Cache because I'm on 1.6.353
Installed Grass Cache Fixes
Set AllowLoadGrass=1 in Skyrim.ini as per Grass Cache Fixes
Ran TexGen with HD Grass checked
Ran DynDOLOD

But no grass LOD :confused: Anyone know what steps I'm missing?

Edited January 23, 2023 by chazzranger

[Algabar]

You can't have grass LOD right out of the box in 1.6.353 (or any other "AE" version of the game).

 

You need a grass cache generated with "No grass in objects" (NGiO), which doesn't work with AE.

 

The way to go would be to downgrade to 1.5.97 first and create a grass cache with NGIO. BTW, you don't need to "downgrade" every mod you want to use. Just make sure, you have all mods that make changes to your landscape, all your texture replacers and your grass mod enabled.

 

You can use a grass cache from NGiO and most of its features in AE, but you need "Grass Cache Fixes" for it. TBH, that's what I'm doing. And it works well.

 

Once you got a grass cache, you can have Dyndolod create grass LOD. IMHO, it's not really worth it. You need quite a strong computer, since grass LOD can be very demanding on system resources (OFC depending on your settings). The visual difference to a "normal" setup with a large grass fade distance is rather minor. And generating the grass LOD takes a lot of time... I tried it once or twice and then decided not to use this feature...

[chazzranger]

Hmmm according to the Cathedral Landscapes Grass Pre-Cache mod page this mod takes the place of needing NGiO: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/78246
I noticed the mod page also says to run xLODGen, but I thought that wasn't necessary anymore with DynDOLOD 3?

I've gone through the No Grass LOD checklist, not all of it makes sense but a few things for sure - CGID grass cache files are being generated, grass LOD billboards are being generated. I'm not sure where in the whole process something goes wrong or is missing...

Edited January 24, 2023 by chazzranger

[Algabar]

Hmmm according to the Cathedral Landscapes Grass Pre-Cache mod page this mod takes the place of needing NGiO: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/78246

 

This is basically a prebuilt grass cache for Cathedral Landscapes - and no other mods, that make changes to the landscape. As soon as you add in other mods (e.g. player homes or other buildings, landscape changes etc.) or use a different grass mod, you will have some issues. So, IMHO, this is of rather limited use. If you have a more "custom" load order, you'll have to create your own grass cache to match that mod setup.

 

 

I noticed the mod page also says to run xLODGen, but I thought that wasn't necessary anymore with DynDOLOD 3?

If you want custom terrain LOD, xLODGen is still required - even with Dyndolod 3.x. Dyndolod creates object LOD. If you want terrain LOD, use xLODGen.

 

From the Dyndolod documentation:

"At the moment DynDOLOD does not create, update or otherwise change terrain LOD or water LOD."

Source: https://dyndolod.info/Help/Terrain-LOD-and-Water-LOD

 

Unfortunately I'm currently out of my wits why you don't have grass LOD. Sorry....

[chazzranger]

Thanks for the help! Yeah not sure where the issue is but I'll keep poking around. Only using Cathedral Landscapes and other Cathedral environmental mods - but I am using Cathedral 3D Pine Grass and ENB Complex Grass for Pine Grass, maybe those are the culprits :mellow:

Edit: just found this! https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/81824

Fingers crossed :cool:

Edited January 25, 2023 by chazzranger

[Deleted3576383User]

Apologies if I misread, but do you have NGIO installed? I think a necessary step is setting the Dyndolod setting in the NGIO ini to 1 or 2 (corresponding with how you plan your LOD). It will read from the cache. I don't think it is enough to have just the cache and Texgen billboards for everything to appear after running Dyndolod. I'm on 1.5.97 so I haven't looked into what options the recent versions have.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Guest

[chazzranger]

dionysist's Grass Pre-Cache for LOD mods are pre-generated grass cache for certain grass mods: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/32474590?tab=user+files

So NGIO is not needed, assuming you only need NGIO to generate grass cache...

It appears xLOD should be run first before TexGen, but not sure if it's a hard requirement.