Will someone rescue me from the woes of LOD.

[DylanHollis]

Alrighty Folks, I would love it if some of you could lend me a hand to help figure this out...

 

I'm nearing the end of my new Quest Mod to be released soon.

It's got three new world spaces which are quite small.

But the final one is a bit bigger; and has quite an important building that needs to be seen - From a distance.

 

I've generated terrain and mesh LOD fine - And I didn't have to worry with object LOD for the other world spaces because they're small.

But like I said; I need to generate object LOD for this final worldspace.

 

I've read up on Bethsofts pages about LOD and how I need to find the LOD meshes for the Items I want, and The LOD textures and convert them to TGA - Which is all done.

 

All I need to do now is put them in the File path directory for the Geck to find them. - And I'll be damned If I know where to put them!

 

--

 

I'm aware they need to be in the same structure as the game uses... But I cant find these fabled: Source/Textures TGA/etc... file path!!

And I need your help :((

 

-- Can someone tell me where to put the TGA LOd textures and meshes for the geck; and then where to put them once they've been generated. -- Thank you so much :)

[TrickyVein]

If the 'source' folder does not exist, then you have to create it in the parent directory for the 'fallout New Vegas' folder.

 

Typically, both the 'source' and 'fallout new vegas' folders are contained in a folder called 'bethesda softworks.' Here is where the 'source' folder should be.

 

Make another folder in the 'source' folder called 'textures TGA.'

 

Then copy over whatever .tga textures you're using to this parent directory (while preserving their parent directories). So, for instance, if you had a .tga texture located at 'landscape\roads\roadwasteland01_lod' you would have to create a folder called 'landscape' and then another folder inside of this one called 'roads' for the final 'roadwasteland01_lod' to be placed in its proper directory in the 'source' folder.

 

All LOD meshes are located in the same folder where their corresponding world models are located.

 

After this is completed, run the 'generate world objects' command in the GECK. It may give an error if something is missing from the data structure outlined above.

 

Once this is successful, navigate to the 'source\textures tga\landscape\LOD\[name of your worldspace]\blocks'

 

Here you should have two .dds textures named '[name of your worldspace].buildings' and '".buildings_n'

 

Move these over to the regular data folder for New Vegas: 'textures\landscape\LOD\[name of your worldspace]\blocks'

 

Again, if any of these folders do not yet exist, then you have to make them and name them correctly. That's it - as always, the devil is in the details and the GECK is completely unforgiving. Good luck! :thumbsup:

[DylanHollis]

Alright! Thank you so much! - But I've still got a slight problem

 

After getting all the .tga texture together in their proper folders - The geck no longer gives me errors on them.

However, now the geck is telling me that the LOD meshes.nifs cannot be found. - I wasnt very sure where I should put the .nifs?.

 

The two dds textures did pop up in your said folder however - But it seems the generation didn't work.

 

I'm now a hell of a lot closer than I was before though! - I wish I could give kudos twice haha!

[DylanHollis]

Geck tells me I should put them in a - Data/Meshes/architecture etc....

 

-- Is this referring to my actual data - Or one that should be created in the source folder?

[TrickyVein]

The .nif files for the LOD meshes have to be placed in the same folder as the world objects, in 'Fallout New Vegas\Data.' You'll notice this is actually where they've been packaged in the .bsa archive. For instance, the LOD model for 'whatevermesh.nif' is called 'whatevermesh_lod.nif' and both are located in 'Fallout New Vegas\data\meshes\whatever.'

 

You're doing everything else correctly if the GECK is generating the atlas textures for you. :thumbsup:

 

Remember that if you're importing your own .nifs into the GECK to check the box 'visible when distant' in the properties for the world reference. It is necessary to also check 'high priority LOD' if you want to be able to view the LOD for the world model from more than a few cells away.

 

And if you want to regenerate world LOD, delete your LOD settings from 'data\LODsettings\[name of your worldspace] before loading your .esp in the GECK. Simply overwrite your existing atlas textures with the new ones from the source folder after generating world objects.

[DylanHollis]

Huzzah! - She works!

 

I hereby knight you Master of the LOD.

 

You've been a great help dude!

I would have been still stuck in the mud if it weren't for you!,

 

I hope you'll give the Mod a try when it comes out!

 

Peace!,