Turning off Pre-culling

[indycurt]

Hey Everyone!

 

I'm having issues with the scenery popping in an out as I run around Abernathy Farm. It is the only place in the game that this happens.

 

After a lot of research, I found that if I use the TPC console command when I'm there, the popping stops. But my question is this: What effect will this have on my entire game world? Should I turn it back on when I leave Abernathy? Does leaving the pre-culling off really hurt anything? While I had it turned off, I went to a couple of other places and there didn't seem to be any adverse affects.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited August 19, 2017 by indycurt

[subtleshade]

I remember you could use it as a tweak in most earlier games from beth, i just don't recall using it myself.

I found the tech regarding it here: Precombined References & PreVIS

I am guessing you are talking about the last option here?

-if not, which setting is it?

.

[General]bUseCombinedObjects=0bPreCulledObjectsEnabled=0

.

I have been having some texture/object-popins myself recently, and i suspect that the game is somehow not utilizing the available memory properly.

Edited August 19, 2017 by subtle_shade

[indycurt]

Subtle Shade:

 

Thanks for the response. Looked at the technical and is WAY over my head. I also noticed that you listed a question using some .ini file info. I have not touched the .ini files. I simply used the console command "TPC" which turns off the pre-culling in the game (or for the actual settlement cell). I've read that you can use this in the settlement cell only, but you have to remember to turn it back on when you've left the cell.

 

My main question is does turning off "pre-culling" with the console have an ill effect on the game. I've not noticed any, but that doesn't mean that it's not hurting my game somehow.

[subtleshade]

Ok i figured out what you mean.
The preculling you are talking about is

 

bUseCombinedObjects

Which is not advisable to turn off, as it is geometry-related.
And yes, you indeed need to turn it back on before leaving the settlements.
It does seem like it could be used safely, but you never know with these games. :D

 

Are you using it to remove stuff that normally can't be removed/disabled?

I was talking about load-time pre-culling, which is something else.

Edited August 20, 2017 by subtle_shade

[MissingMeshTV]

Hey indycurt-

 

Have you scrapped or disabled anything that you aren't able to normally scrap or disable? That's the only thing that really should be causing what you've described. It generally happens if you scrap, disable or remove an object that wasn't meant to be removed from the game.

 

The way the optimization system in FO4 works in the most basic of terms, is that is calculates what can be seen at any given angle and only renders what you actually see. If you scrap or disable an item (like a big rock) that was blocking something else (like a tree for example) that tree could blink in and out of existence. The object might be gone, but the data that the game uses for rendering is still active and renders as if the rock is still there, hence the blinking tree. The most common example I can think of is if you scrap some of the hedges in Sanctuary, this is what happens. If you have a car partially buried in the ground, only the part of the car that is visible actually gets rendered. The goal is to cut down on the number of polygons the game has to render to improve performance.

 

By turning off preculling, the engine renders everything in full, even the bits that you can't see like those parts of something partially buried or blocked by another object. It takes care of things blinking in and out, because it disables part of the optimization system that handles the visibility so everything, and I mean everything gets rendered in totality. That will cause a huge performance hit in the most densely structured parts of the map, like downtown. Like so many other console commands, it likely exists only for debugging as was never intended to be used in gameplay.

 

Leaving it TPC on also used to cause issues with sprinting IIRC. Not sure if that issue has been resolved but I seem to think there were .ini edits that could work around it.

[indycurt]

Hey Red!

 

Thanks for your reply! Actually, what you describe is not happening (though I've seen it happen like you describe). For example in Sanctuary, yes, I did disable the hedges. But I've never had the problem you describe there. That's the weird part.

 

What is actually happening is when I am at Abernathy Farm or coming close to it, entire chucks of the whole world disappear. Looking ahead of me when it happens is like looking at the complete void. And ironically, I've not disabled anything at Abernathy. LOL And the other weird thing about it when it happens is that if I face one direction it happens, if I turn around and move in another direction it doesn't happen. So it seems to only affect one view. Weird huh?

 

So, from what you have said, it looks like while I'm screwing around building at Abernathy, I will keep the TPC off. Once I leave the settlement, I'll just turn in back on.

[MissingMeshTV]

What direction are you coming from when you see this, and what direction are you facing when it happens? Do you have any mods that change any landscape or features in the path you are traveling? Changes to one cell can have very odd effects on surrounding cells even if they don't seem to be related. Maybe posting a screenshot or two might help?

 

You could try COCing into Abernathy Farm from the main menu and see if you can replicate it. If it still does it you can at least rule out it being something to do with your save. If it doesn't happen, soemthign in your save is causing it.

 

Yeah it is weird, but I recently encountered something similar on the other side of the map while testing mod. Coming south from the Nakano residence. There is an overpass towards Parson's Creamery on which the middle section will blink in and out, but here's the weird part, only if I'm facing south. Facing any other direction, I can't replicate it. And, after lots of futzing around determined it is in fact a problem in the base game. But I can't think something as drastic as what you're seeing being chalked up to being baked into the base game files.

[7OVO7]

The challenge for modders is in handling mods with overlapping areas since only one set of precombined/previs data can exist. For DLC, Bethesda just stayed away from areas that other DLC touched, but that won't work for modders. One possible solution for modders is to combine mods in a way that the precalc data is merged together. SOURCE: https://www.creationkit.com/fallout4/index.php?title=Precombined_References

I was looking for something that could fix some FPS drops and I found this very interesting