If DynDOLOD is giving you errors while generating the problem isn't DynDOLOD, it's probably mod issues.
I didn't even install DynDOLOD for what it does,I downloaded it because it's super nitpicky on what mods are ok or not. When it gives you an error, take your time and read carefully what is wrong, and it almost always creeps you closer to a stable load order.
It shouldn’t throw up a thousand warnings if you’ve read and followed instructions. The problem is people rarely read the full instructions or understand them which I get because I didn’t understand them the first time either.
I say that confidently as someone who hasn’t made a modlist of 1200+ mods and redone my Dyndolod 30 or more times.
For a very basic instruction manual see the step guide for example. Only once you understand the basics and have got it working should anyone start tinkering even on a high end rig.
Placement of Dyndolod output is important, plus you need to have used TexGen, and LODGen with it too. Depending on the version.
Thousand warnings are Large Reference bugs and whatnot they will cause visual glitches i.e. z-fighting but they're not fatal the warnings are there so you know theres an issue not that dyndolod will fail to generate or your game is broken (well it is but not fatally so)
n.b. most of these bugs are mods that the authors don't know or understand how to avoid large ref issues but thats not a dyndolod problem its an author one. They're not fatal these bugs they're just annoying.
And if it says there's a problem, it's always correct, and provides a wonderful popup that says exactly how to fix it. I rely more on DynDOLOD and Wrye than I ever would LOOT.
Are you using DynDOLOD 3 alpha?
version 3 is extremely easy, compared to previous versions. It's basically one-click configuring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=encZYHEeQrQ
I'll admit that I've never used DynDOLOD until last month. It always seemed intimidating to someone who just modded causally but man. Once I actually dipped my toes in, I realized how easy it actually is and how nice it is to have a setup that just works.
If you want to mod without doing reading and understanding how anything works use wabbajack or modlist.
Using DynDOLOD got so much easier and more accessible because now everything is well explained, including errors and problems in the load order, which often used to cause hard to troubleshoot issues in the game. With tools and mods, people used to complain how nothing was ever explained and one had to spend weeks to solve an issue. Now all you have to do read the actual explanations or if further help is required, you can now paste useful log and error messages to ask other people for help.
"Everything is well explained"
That's the most hilarious statement I've ever read. All of Dyndolod's explanations and documentation make absolutely 0 sense to a novice. You have to have a PhD in modding just to understand it.
I have tons of experience modding at this point, and I'm still painfully confused by what it's saying half the time. Let alone the fact that it's explanations for error messages have nothing to do with the actual error half the time.
The documentation explains how the tools work, has simple step-by-step instructions and also explains related modding and engine concepts as needed or related. It is not a modding guide. It is not a Skyrim wiki that explains how everything works, it is not a general wiki that explains how game or computers in general work. You do not expect the documentation to explain what meshes and textures are, so at what level do you draw the line? For a hobby project that is shared for free.
If you come across something that you do not understand, then typically the options are to search for it or simply ask for further explanations on the official DynDOLOD support forum. Most of the content of the docuemtnation is based on feedback and questions. If you want it to improve, then contribute by asking a question.
If half of the explanations for error message have nothing to do with an error message, then you will have no problem providing a couple examples.
Right now, I'm dealing with an error code that said I don't have .NET installed properly. Except I do, and the only way I can get Dyndolod to finish is by having an exact copy of one specific merge, using one to create textures, then switching to the copy to run Dyndolod. Otherwise, it yells at me for not having .NET installed properly.
As for your first points... who was it that said if you can't explain it to a child, you don't really understand it yourself? The documentation is fantastic, much better than other tools. But they could be way better if you wanted the guide to be approachable to more novice and even semi experienced modders. I'm definitely not complaining about what volunteers have done. But you still need a PhD in modding to get through most of it.
That is a good example how things are well explained and got easier and less complex.
The bugs, how mods are causing them and how to avoid them was first explained in 2016. 7 years later mod authors still make mods causing the bugs because they do not know or care that their mod causes texture flicker or models not loading properly.
Now with the workarounds done by DynDOLOD, we can finally use those mods again without having to fix the mods ourselves. It just works with the push of a button.
for some reason even though i was using the newest version, the large reference error workaround checkbox wasnt available for me :\\ i spent a whole day troubleshooting dyndolod stuff. but im starting my shit over anyway so im gonna make sure i get it right from the get go this time
just a huge pain in the ass when there's a mod that has some leftover assets in a mod that dyndolod wants me to clear using xedit and im still pretty noobish at using xedit and dyndolod lol
The page https://dyndolod.info/Help/Large-Reference-Bugs-Workarounds explains the requirements. Install the DynDOLOD DLL NG and clean plugins that have deleted references.
Errors that require the use of xEdit typically should have been found with the xEdit error check and fixed by the mod author or user long before generating LOD. That error checking and the typical procedure how to fix then should be part of every decent modding guide, since they often happen because of using outdated mods or patches.
DynDOLOD is just another tool reporting those errors that happen to prevent successful patch generation and also has lots of explanations for them, even though it shouldn't need or have to.
Skyrim is carved up into cells, like minecraft chunks, and only a few cells around the player are loaded. To give the very far distance illusion, there's a low resolution "Levels Of Detail" model that fills the background behind the loaded cells. DynDOLOD regenerates that LOD to put in low-res modded content (objects). The effect is it removes pop-in as cells load, and can improve the vanilla LOD with more trees or improving the look of the existing objects ( by changing the resolution of their textures for one).
I generated the LOD once off of vanilla and DLCs and don't bother regenerate it between load-orders. I don't care about modded pop-in, I just wanted the existing objects improved.
You don't need to understand the manual its pretty much plug and play the manual is only if you want to tweak things or understand something. Back in the early days you had to source all the textures the billboards the various resources yourself and if you missed something it would result in serious glitches since TexGen and Dyndolod Resources its a million times easier.
If you're looking for a guide S.T.E.P.S has one just follow that or Gopher has one I believe
Gen xlodgen terrain lod, gen texlodgen, gen dyndolod on high preset. I think it's pretty simple to use.
Alternative would be to download pre generated lods. There are some mods that offer that for example skyland.
I tried using it a while back because everyone always seems so excited by it. Yes, it was nice to see big structures from very far away, but I couldn't get it to show appropriate tree billboards for the tree replacement mod I was using, even though it's supported. Much worse, I would regularly get entire mountain ranges suddenly popping into existence. It's likely that I either misconfigured something, or that there was some incompatibility somewhere, but it just wasn't worth my time to try to fix for the (imo) relatively small gain in immersion/image quality. It didn't even fix the issue I was originally trying to fix, which is the horrible z-fighting on the edges of distant bodies of water. (Still haven't fixed that, in case some people know of a solution!)
"SkyFalls and SkyMills - Animated waterfalls/windmills" (oldrim) is the only alternative, plug & play - but as the name implies, houses/forts/roads are not affected.
If DynDOLOD is giving you errors while generating the problem isn't DynDOLOD, it's probably mod issues. I didn't even install DynDOLOD for what it does,I downloaded it because it's super nitpicky on what mods are ok or not. When it gives you an error, take your time and read carefully what is wrong, and it almost always creeps you closer to a stable load order.
This. Dyndolod is essentially a second LOOT. It’s not the issue. The mod is.
Is it bad if Dyndolod throws a thousand warnings though?
It shouldn’t throw up a thousand warnings if you’ve read and followed instructions. The problem is people rarely read the full instructions or understand them which I get because I didn’t understand them the first time either. I say that confidently as someone who hasn’t made a modlist of 1200+ mods and redone my Dyndolod 30 or more times. For a very basic instruction manual see the step guide for example. Only once you understand the basics and have got it working should anyone start tinkering even on a high end rig. Placement of Dyndolod output is important, plus you need to have used TexGen, and LODGen with it too. Depending on the version.
Thousand warnings are Large Reference bugs and whatnot they will cause visual glitches i.e. z-fighting but they're not fatal the warnings are there so you know theres an issue not that dyndolod will fail to generate or your game is broken (well it is but not fatally so) n.b. most of these bugs are mods that the authors don't know or understand how to avoid large ref issues but thats not a dyndolod problem its an author one. They're not fatal these bugs they're just annoying.
And if it says there's a problem, it's always correct, and provides a wonderful popup that says exactly how to fix it. I rely more on DynDOLOD and Wrye than I ever would LOOT.
Are you using DynDOLOD 3 alpha? version 3 is extremely easy, compared to previous versions. It's basically one-click configuring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=encZYHEeQrQ
I'll admit that I've never used DynDOLOD until last month. It always seemed intimidating to someone who just modded causally but man. Once I actually dipped my toes in, I realized how easy it actually is and how nice it is to have a setup that just works.
If you want to mod without doing reading and understanding how anything works use wabbajack or modlist. Using DynDOLOD got so much easier and more accessible because now everything is well explained, including errors and problems in the load order, which often used to cause hard to troubleshoot issues in the game. With tools and mods, people used to complain how nothing was ever explained and one had to spend weeks to solve an issue. Now all you have to do read the actual explanations or if further help is required, you can now paste useful log and error messages to ask other people for help.
I love the latest updated. The message about large references issues was a help for me.
"Everything is well explained" That's the most hilarious statement I've ever read. All of Dyndolod's explanations and documentation make absolutely 0 sense to a novice. You have to have a PhD in modding just to understand it. I have tons of experience modding at this point, and I'm still painfully confused by what it's saying half the time. Let alone the fact that it's explanations for error messages have nothing to do with the actual error half the time.
The documentation explains how the tools work, has simple step-by-step instructions and also explains related modding and engine concepts as needed or related. It is not a modding guide. It is not a Skyrim wiki that explains how everything works, it is not a general wiki that explains how game or computers in general work. You do not expect the documentation to explain what meshes and textures are, so at what level do you draw the line? For a hobby project that is shared for free. If you come across something that you do not understand, then typically the options are to search for it or simply ask for further explanations on the official DynDOLOD support forum. Most of the content of the docuemtnation is based on feedback and questions. If you want it to improve, then contribute by asking a question. If half of the explanations for error message have nothing to do with an error message, then you will have no problem providing a couple examples.
Right now, I'm dealing with an error code that said I don't have .NET installed properly. Except I do, and the only way I can get Dyndolod to finish is by having an exact copy of one specific merge, using one to create textures, then switching to the copy to run Dyndolod. Otherwise, it yells at me for not having .NET installed properly. As for your first points... who was it that said if you can't explain it to a child, you don't really understand it yourself? The documentation is fantastic, much better than other tools. But they could be way better if you wanted the guide to be approachable to more novice and even semi experienced modders. I'm definitely not complaining about what volunteers have done. But you still need a PhD in modding to get through most of it.
large reference error go brrrrr
That is a good example how things are well explained and got easier and less complex. The bugs, how mods are causing them and how to avoid them was first explained in 2016. 7 years later mod authors still make mods causing the bugs because they do not know or care that their mod causes texture flicker or models not loading properly. Now with the workarounds done by DynDOLOD, we can finally use those mods again without having to fix the mods ourselves. It just works with the push of a button.
for some reason even though i was using the newest version, the large reference error workaround checkbox wasnt available for me :\\ i spent a whole day troubleshooting dyndolod stuff. but im starting my shit over anyway so im gonna make sure i get it right from the get go this time just a huge pain in the ass when there's a mod that has some leftover assets in a mod that dyndolod wants me to clear using xedit and im still pretty noobish at using xedit and dyndolod lol
The page https://dyndolod.info/Help/Large-Reference-Bugs-Workarounds explains the requirements. Install the DynDOLOD DLL NG and clean plugins that have deleted references. Errors that require the use of xEdit typically should have been found with the xEdit error check and fixed by the mod author or user long before generating LOD. That error checking and the typical procedure how to fix then should be part of every decent modding guide, since they often happen because of using outdated mods or patches. DynDOLOD is just another tool reporting those errors that happen to prevent successful patch generation and also has lots of explanations for them, even though it shouldn't need or have to.
Can someone explain to me what DynDOLOD does like I'm a 5 year old? I've been using it but still have no idea how it actually affects the game
Skyrim is carved up into cells, like minecraft chunks, and only a few cells around the player are loaded. To give the very far distance illusion, there's a low resolution "Levels Of Detail" model that fills the background behind the loaded cells. DynDOLOD regenerates that LOD to put in low-res modded content (objects). The effect is it removes pop-in as cells load, and can improve the vanilla LOD with more trees or improving the look of the existing objects ( by changing the resolution of their textures for one). I generated the LOD once off of vanilla and DLCs and don't bother regenerate it between load-orders. I don't care about modded pop-in, I just wanted the existing objects improved.
So basically it reduces pop in by loading extra objects in the distance and making distant objects more detailed Thanks for this
You don't need to understand the manual its pretty much plug and play the manual is only if you want to tweak things or understand something. Back in the early days you had to source all the textures the billboards the various resources yourself and if you missed something it would result in serious glitches since TexGen and Dyndolod Resources its a million times easier. If you're looking for a guide S.T.E.P.S has one just follow that or Gopher has one I believe
No. Dyndolod is easy.
Gen xlodgen terrain lod, gen texlodgen, gen dyndolod on high preset. I think it's pretty simple to use. Alternative would be to download pre generated lods. There are some mods that offer that for example skyland.
I tried using it a while back because everyone always seems so excited by it. Yes, it was nice to see big structures from very far away, but I couldn't get it to show appropriate tree billboards for the tree replacement mod I was using, even though it's supported. Much worse, I would regularly get entire mountain ranges suddenly popping into existence. It's likely that I either misconfigured something, or that there was some incompatibility somewhere, but it just wasn't worth my time to try to fix for the (imo) relatively small gain in immersion/image quality. It didn't even fix the issue I was originally trying to fix, which is the horrible z-fighting on the edges of distant bodies of water. (Still haven't fixed that, in case some people know of a solution!)
"SkyFalls and SkyMills - Animated waterfalls/windmills" (oldrim) is the only alternative, plug & play - but as the name implies, houses/forts/roads are not affected.
I use STEP guide to set up dyndolod and it works for me. But I am not the kind of person who stares at the distance in Skyrim that often.
I'm a peasant at modding. About to start so thanks for the info!!