LOD billboards are LOD assets required for tree LOD or grass LOD generation.
LOD billboards are diffuse *.DDS textures that show the rendered 3D model from a front view and a *.TXT file with additional information about the width, height etc.
HD LOD billboards are diffuse and normal map *.DDS textures that show the rendered 3D model from a front and a side view. They can only be used with ultra tree LOD and DynDOLOD 3.
The LOD billboards are typically used for a simple 2 plane model crossing like an X if viewed from top.
LOD billboards work the same for any game version and can be interchanged as desired.
All LOD billboards files are in ..\Textures\Terrain\LODGen\*.*.
The billboard path and filename are constructed from the master plugin filename and form ID - the first two (or five in case of a light plugin) digits of the load order ID are always zero - of the base records of the types 'TREE' and 'STAT' with the 'Has Tree LOD' flag set and the filename of the full model (without .NIF suffix). For example, the billboard files for the tree base record 0006A9E6 defining TreeAspen01.NIF becomes ..\Textures\LODGen\Skyrim.esm\TreeAspen01_0006A9E6.*
Automatically Create LOD Billboards
Use TexGen to generate all required LOD billboards for the current load order automatically.
See the TexGen Configuration for more information, including how to force generation of LOD billboards that were not generated automatically.
3rd Party LOD Billboards
Do not install 3rd party LOD billboards. Use TexGen to generate them.
All LOD billboards files are in ..\Textures\Terrain\LODGen\*.*.
The TexGen output will overwrite 3rd party LOD billboards with the ones it generated automatically. See TexGen Configuration for more information, including how to force generation of LOD billboards that were not generated automatically.
Generating all LOD billboards guaranties that they match the currently installed full models and textures.
While 3rd party LOD Billboards will generally still work, they are visually inferior and in some cases can cause warning messages or other issues.
LOD Billboard(s) Not Found
The message means that current TexGen output is not installed, maybe incomplete or access to the data folder to check for the output is prevented by the OS, anti vir or 3rd party software.
Run TexGen before DynDOLOD to update and generate all required/ desired tree LOD billboards for the current load order. Make sure that the checkboxes Tree/Grass LOD Billboards and Tree are checked.
Make sure TexGen completed the generation of tree LOD billboards successfully.
Make sure the latest TexGen output is installed as a mod in the current load order.
The output from TexGen should never be overwritten by anything.