Talk:World LOD

AutoWater generation error

"you will get in some cases big surface holes in the Water-LOD and it's not easy to fix them"

I am having problems with : AutoWater generation error in cell (...) (Whatever I am building or not the World LOD, in fact)

Let's create a (totally new) worldspace, with water custom data (and waterLOD enabled - or not !) ...Everything is working fine as long as we have only a few cells of created landscapes (Logically, everything else in the worldspace remains waters)

But, soon the AutoWater generation error occurs while using Landscape Editing Category:Landscape or Heightmap Editing to make the landscape bigger...

• ...Sometimes it happens while :
  • Still shaping the terrain (Most often while shaping a far-from-camera cell, in the render view)
  • Saving the .Esp file (After any shaping without errors at this time)
  • Testing the world in game (No error messages, but auto-water generated cells aren't be rendered as these should be: Landscapes are above waters, where it should'nt or, even worst, there is no water-rendering at all while the water is although here)

• PlaceableWater used in the worldspace, or in any other outside worldspaces with auto-generated waters will provoke a lot of errors.

Note: All of these tests have been made with clean backups each time. I searched a lot any work-around to prevent this to happen, or at least to fix it once happenned, but I did find nothing yet... Then, I searched everywhere for peoples having the same issue, but without success. Any help would be appreciated, THX. --dZastreux 13:37, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

LOD generation deleting landscapes

ATTENTION!!! LOD creation may simply delete your landscapes for no appearent reason... Jaysus 15:11, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Weird LOD Mesh Errors and Other Observations

Based on some preliminary experiments with LOD generation in small world spaces, I've noticed that LOD meshes generated using cells that fall outside the range of modified cells (ie. beyond the 'border') are prone to strange errors: cubic, rectangular shapes, often missing faces with seemingly random elevations. LOD meshes within the borders of modified cells do not seem to exhibit these tendencies. This would not be a problem except that these LOD meshes are visible beneath the water. In a very small world space, LOD is not required, so this problem could be avoided, but it seems like a good policy to make larger world spaces enclosed with land as opposed to water.

Also, it seems that sometimes the LOD mesh is visible projecting from parts of the real land mesh even when you are standing right on top of it (or floating beside it underwater, as was the case for me).

• Edit: On reflection, it occurs to me that because the LOD mesh is an approximation of the actual mesh (but with less detail), these visible protrusions are likely the result of the compromise produced by the decimation; it just appears that the LOD mesh is not removed by the engine, but concealed by the original mesh. This seems like an optimization new to the FO3 engine which explains the floating LOD trees. To get rid of those, you would have to delete the vanilla LOD tree meshes (the data located in the data\meshes\landscape\LOD\wasteland\trees, for example) and regenerate the LOD tree data. *speculation* Truant 20:33, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I also noticed that if you swim beyond the border of modified cells, any LOD object meshes that you have get stuck in a permanent 'on' state and do not disappear when you reapproach the mesh. You can not get rid of these meshes by reloading; you actually have to exit Fallout completely and restart it.

Plus: does anyone know anything at all about the *.DLODSettings file? I looked at it in a hex editor, but that didn't reveal anything to my untrained eye. Truant 06:20, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I've been messing around with DLODSettings quite a bit in a hex editor, and it controls whether object LOD, land LOD, or both are shown or not shown. The file can also hide all LOD for a worldspace, and controls how many (and which) blocks of LOD are shown. ElijahHouck 12:56, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

I'd love to know more about this. Out of curiosity, does it reference tree LOD as well? Truant 10:12, 2 October 2011 (EDT)

Square Landscapes and LOD Generation

Another wild speculation: based on multiple LOD generations, I'm getting the feeling that world spaces that use square layouts in powers of two (eg. 8x8 cell grids, which is as far as I've tested so far) may be optimal for LOD generation. An irregularly shaped world space used more *.lod meshes, took longer to generate, and had more errors than the 8x8 world space I just generated. Just wanted to make a note of it before I forgot. Truant 20:33, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

World LOD generation duration timey wimey thingy

Hello! I am just Wondering, Approximately HOW long would it take for a Landmass with 683 Terrain Chunks to have Distant Land generated?

Not as long as it will take for someone to answer this. Try it and see. :) Truant 00:17, 15 August 2011 (EDT)