Community Shaders

Community Shaders is a SKSE core plugin for community-driven advanced graphics modifications.

Tree LOD Lighting

Standard tree LOD has about a dozen limitations. While all of these limitations are addressed by (in some cases enforced) ultra tree LOD, the limited lighting can also to a degree be addressed by the Tree LOD Lighting community shader in case there is a reason to not use the more comprehensive ultra tree LOD with Billboards.

The Tree LOD Lighting mod requires a "complex" tree LOD atlas texture. A "complex" texture means that both the diffuse textures and normal map textures are combined into a single texture.

To generate normal map textures for standard tree LOD billboards with TexGen, set TreeNormalMaps=1 in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\TexGen_[GAME MODE].INI. Then run TexGen as usual with Tree checked. Install the TexGen output as usual.

To generate "complex" tree LOD atlas textures for standard tree LOD, set TreeLODComplexAtlas=1 in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_[GAME MODE].INI. Then run DynDOLOD as usual with Tree LOD checked. Install the DynDOLOD output as usual.

Note that ultra tree LOD with BillboardX already utilizes HD tree LOD billboards that have normal map textures and typically has better visual results.

When using ultra tree LOD, the standard tree LOD is disabled and the Tree LOD Lighting shader is obviously not affecting anything.

PBR

Physically Based Rendering - Work in Progress

Since LOD shaders are still vanilla, they do not support parallax and/or PBR textures. A simple conversion of PBR sRGB diffuse textures is done by xLODGen, TexGen and DynDOLOD on the fly.

All LOD generation is supposed to work automatically out of the box without having to manually modify anything in the load order. Do not try to fix issues or problems without reporting or discussing them on the official DynDOLOD support forum first. This is work in progress, the tools are alpha and beta version and constantly improved upon.

Do not overwrite vanilla or linear texture with PBR textures. Do not modify LOD models to use PBR textures. Instead report any problems.

Terrain LOD generation with xLODGen uses Texconv to convert sRGB textures to linear before using them LOD texture generation. The gamma is fixed. In case of terrain LOD consider using the gamma (brightness, contrast) settings for each LOD level for fine tuning. Remember to use a neutral noise texture.

Run ParallaxGen before TexGen and DynDOLOD, as they will use the CRC32 information from its ParallaxGen_Diff.json file to match LOD models that use CRC32 of the original full model, like for 3D tree LOD models. For best results there should be no patched full models in the load when running ParallaxGen, so it can generate the CRC32 information for all original full models. Also keep the default setting of ignoring meshes in ..\LOD\.. folders. ParallaxGen output should overwrite the full models in DynDOLOD Resources.

TexGen and DynDOLOD will both automatically create linear texture versions of the LOD textures for object and tree LOD in case the full model uses PBR textures. The gamma for the conversion can be adjusted by changing sRGBGamma=2.2 in ..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\[TexGen|DynDOLOD]_[GAME MODE].INI. Use lower values to darken the LOD textures derived form the PBR textures.

A known issue at the moment is that the placed LOD models of the walled cities that can be see from the outside still use "vanilla" textures. This will be addressed in a future update.

In case of any issues and for latest discussions see the PBR WiP thread on the official DynDOLOD support forum.