Object LOD is the combined meshes and textures for objects that do not change and are not animated, like buildings or landscape features like mountains and rocks.
Object LOD is typically build from optimized object LOD models and textures (LOD assets). However, with xLODGen/DynDOLOD using full models is supported, too. Certain game engine limitations apply. For example, no animations, limited shader support and a fixed alpha threshold of 128. When object LOD is generated, there is no automatic decimation or LOD model creation. The models are used as is.
For each new or updated full model that should have a matching LOD representation a new or updated optimized object LOD model is required. They need to be created with tools like Blender, 3DS Max etc. just the same as the full models.
Object LOD combines the LOD for objects for the different LOD levels of 4x4, 8x8 or 16x16 cells. The vanilla game does not contain object LOD combined for 32x32 cells. If they are generated they can only be made visible on the map with the uLockedObjectMapLOD setting. Setting uLockedObjectMapLOD=32 without generating object LOD level 32 files, can cause stuck object LOD in active exterior cells or object LOD to be missing entirely. To generate LOD level 32 object LOD, set Level32=1 in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_[GAME MODE].ini.
Object LOD typically uses object LOD texture atlasses, which is a texture that contains as many of the used textures (full textures, stitched object LOD textures, rendered object LOD textures, tree/grass LOD billboards) in one single texture. Using an atlas texture allows for more models to be combined into a single shape.
Object LOD uses the single texture in case the UV coordinates of a 3D shape do not allow the use of the object LOD texture atlas. Sometimes this is done on purpose, like for the mountainslab rock textures, so LOD for mountains in the nearest LOD level uses the full textures.
Settings
The distances of the object LOD levels can be controlled with below INI settings - either in the DynDOLOD SkyUI MCM or the Prefs INI.
[TerrainManager]
fBlockLevel0Distance=max distance for object LOD Level 4 in game units
fBlockLevel1Distance=max distance for object LOD Level 8 in game units
fBlockMaximumDistance=maxdistance for object LOD Level 16 in game units
LOD Assets
Vanilla object LOD models:
..\Meshes\LOD\*_lod*.NIF
..\Meshes\DLC01\LOD\*_lod*.NIF
..\Meshes\DLC02\LOD\*_lod*.NIF
DynDOLOD or a mods object LOD models may also be in:
..\Meshes\DynDOLOD\LOD\*_lod*.NIF
..\Meshes\[MOD NAME]\LOD\*_lod*.NIF
Vanilla object LOD textures:
..\Textures\LOD\*.DDS
DynDOLOD or a mods object LOD textures may also be in:
..\Textures\DynDOLOD\LOD\*.DDS
..\Textures\[MOD NAME]\LOD\*.DDS
Sometimes mods do not adhere to these folder and file conventions. DynDOLOD makes use of any *_lod*.NIF it finds in the Meshes folder and whatever texture path they define.
DynDOLOD tries to match the full model filename to the LOD model filename. As a back up the traditional LOD definitions on the STAT base record are used. More details can be found in the DynDOLOD Reference and in the explanations for Mod Authors.
Generated Object LOD Files
Object LOD meshes:
..\Meshes\Terrain\[WORLDSPACE]\Objects\[WORLDSPACE].*.*.*.BTO
Object LOD atlas textures used by vanilla object LOD meshes:
..\Textures\Terrain\[WORLDSPACE]\Objects\[WORLDSPACE].Objects.DDS
Object LOD atlas textures used by object LOD meshes generated by DynDOLOD:
..\Textures\DynDOLOD\LOD\DynDOLOD_[WORLDSPACE].DDS