Greetings!

Traveling Cyrodiil I've began to notice that mid-distant landscape often looks less than stellar. Close-up stuff is mostly OK, and I know I can try a variety of texture replacers to make it even better. Distant LOD is acceptable thanks to several mods (which I'll list later). It's just mid-range stuff that bugs me.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20errors/OKLODviewJan2011.jpg I wouldn't mind improvement here so long as it's not at the expensive of performance and/or stability. But it's not a priority.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20errors/midground_ugly_jan2011.jpg Notice that the near stuff is just fine (I use AmpolX Makeover for this part of Cyrodill). It's just the mountain that seems odds. There is of course no far-distant scenery shown here.

Here's the Texture / LOD / RAEVWD portion of my BAIN package install list...


Note that several mods provide landscape LOD alternatives to match their terrain changes. These are normally included within the mod-package itself and thus can not be shown here.

What say ye? Can the mid-distance view seen in image two be improved without undue system burden, and if so how?

Thanks in advance!

-Decrepit-

A semi-related update...

While researching ways to lessen mid-distance blahs, I chanced upon this http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18497 at Nexus. Its screen-shots looked good, but I worried that the high resolution would overtax my system. In the end I decided to give it a try.

Wow, what a difference!

Distant landscape looks ever so much better, as seen in http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/LandscapeLODbyBlade_1.jpg. Due to the extra detailing, roads and structures no long stand out as they did, a bit off-putting at first but more realistic. I've been using Koldorn's STRONG noise filter (seen in the linked image) but might switch to the universally more popular MEDIUM.

Surprisingly, I noticed no obvious extra lag or stutters with these textures. The test will come when I next revisit the Jeralls, where AmpolX "Makeover" resides.

I think that in SOME instances mid-distance views are improved but notice areas that still suffer, though possibly to a lesser degree than before. I'll get a better feels for this as I re-explore Cyrodiil.

-Decrepit-

My PC can handle 4096, no problem, and yet, after much experimenting and comparing, I decided to "downgrade" to a particular 2048.

Now, I'm using a (different again) 1024, and am happier with that than with anything that's come before.

I have no idea why it looks "better" (to me) but, yeah, it does. :shrug:

That just looks to me like you've just run into a cell that isn't rendering properly. There's a number of them in the game that don't fully render when they're supposed to, but keep using their LOD textures until you're right on top of them. One thing I see there though is that you're still using the default TerrainNoise.dds file. Look for Koldorn's version, it will make your distant LOD textures look alot better. He has three versions you can choose from, weak to strong.

Yeah, I'm already noticing kinks in this new (to me) Landscape LOD set. When at its best (such as in the Lake Rumare / Imperial Isle region) I find it quite satisfactory, a solid improvement over vanilla and my previous LOD replacement attempts. That said, these can exacerbate any landscape flaws, and the contrast between them and landscape LODs added for compatibility by other mods is quite jarring. The Jerall Mtns look less snow-capped, a mild minus for me. Plus, these don't help my initial problem. If anything, portions of the Jeralls might look worse now (while traveling through them via the mountainous Cheydinhal-Bruma trail). So these aren't likely to be final solutions, much as I like them.


I too have wondered about this. I can recall a time not too terribly long ago when I was content with the game's overall look, landscape included. Either I've become more picky or something has changed for the worse. If the problem is cells not rendering correctly, then there are a LOT of incorrect renders. Oddly, I DO use Koldorn's Terrain Noise Filter, the Strong version.

-Decrepit-

The problem with wanting better "mid-distance" LOD is that the game has no such distinction. You have close up, and you have far away. There's nothing in between. So there are instances you'll run into where you see poor detail because you're just far enough away for it to still be rendered as LOD. This happens a lot near the border regions because most LOD packs don't update those textures.