Just wondering if the DistantLOD files that are included in some mods. The one in question right now is Castle Seaview which includes a DistantLOD folder, and I am wondering if the DistantLOD folder is no longer needed if running RAEVWD?

If I take what RAEVWD + TES4LODGEN do together is that TES4LodGEN goes through your whole Oblivion folder locating any mods and generates distant lod for them automatically?

I may be wrong, so please let me know if the distantlod folders included in mods are still needed or not?

Thank you

-J

EDIT: Are these Unique Landscape LOD's necessary as well if using RAEVWD + TES4LODGEN? ( http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27495 )

I'm right on the limit of my knowledge here, I'm going to post what I think happens, hopefully someone who really knows their stuff will be able to confirm/correct.

I'm pretty certain that a given mod's LOD files are needed even if both TES4LODGEN and RAEVWD are used.

My layman's understanding is that TES4LODGEN searches through the loaded mods and main Oblivion file for LOD files, then ensures that those distant objects appear in game. It doesn't generate distant objects from the detailed main models. If it did there would be no need for RAEVWD.

Similarly RAEVWD only makes available low poly versions of vanilla architecture etc (plus stuff for Elseweyr if you download that option) for TES4LODGEN to pick up. Again it does not automatically generate low poly versions of stuff.

So if you installed Castle Seaview without the distant LOD folder, installed full RAEVWD and ran TES4LODGEN you would get views of distant vanilla forts and ruins but Castle Seaview would pop up only when you got close to it.

I am now preparing to be shot down in flames by Arthmoor or Vorians.

I'm sure Arthmoor could weigh in more authoritatively but, as I understand it, teslodgen handles architecture not land meshes. It should be able to reach into the the data files of architecture mods and pull out and create the Distant LOD information. it will not handle land meshes and so the LOD information for mods like UL or elsweyr or Tamriel Heightmaps are still needed.

Oh hey and look what two attempts at searching rendered!! A reason for this thread to not exist. http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=959683&hl=elminster

However - it should be noted that any change in LOD meshes or actually any change to your load order should be followed with a new run of teslodgen. Takes mine about 2 minutes to run.

I am pretty sure you don't need its DistantLod folder if you have RAECWD installed and run TES4LODGen after Castle Seaview installation. But it doesn't hurt either, as TES4LODGen's default behaviour is to delete all that's currently in the folder before creating the new files.


Correct, but only for objects that are built up of meshes that have a _far counterpart. What RAEVWD does is to provide such _far files for vanilla meshes that lack them, and to provide better optimized versions of those few vanilla meshes that already had _far versions.

So whether Castle Seaview's distant LOD is generated by TES4LODGen is dependent on whether it is built of meshes that you have _far versions of, either from installing RAEVWD or from Castle Seaview itself. My guess is that you do have them, as it would be really stupid by the creators of Castle Seaview to use new meshes, create _far versions for TES4LODGen, but not include those _far files with the mod.


Yes, those are still necessary, because this is something else, this is LANDSCAPE LOD files, i.e. new files to get the distant landscape (terrain) to look more like the new terrain provided by UL. TES4LODGen only creates the objects like ruins, big stones etc., not the actual landscape. Without this folder, the relevant terrain would look like vanilla from afar (but with all trees, stones etc. placed correct according to the UL - thus floating in the air, etc.), but suddenly change to UL formations when you get close.


You are mostly right, but as said above, there are three possibilities for Castle Seaview architecture:

1. It uses vanilla meshes - in which case running TES4LODGen creates the correct distant LOD objects.
2. It uses custom meshes and includes the _far versions in the install - in which case running TES4LODGen creates the correct distant LOD objects.
3. It uses custom meshes but doesn't include the _far versions the creators made in order to make the distant lod files in the first place - in which case running TES4LODGen will remove its distant lod files.

I can't believe they would choose 3., so there should be no need for the folder.

Well, that's me corrected. Interesting information here, thank you for the clarifications Psymon and TheNiceOne.

Castle Seaview does come with _far.nif files. So no problem there.

Thank you for the responses S' lider, Psymon, TheNiceOne, and Arthmoor! Answered all my questions and more. The separate UL LOD's explains why I saw aleswell sitting on the side of a cliff the other day . I did not know that LOD's were needed for UL.

I did a few searches before posting this, but could not find a RAEVWD official thread and none of the previous posted threads had this specific info in it, so that's why I created a new thread.

Thanks for the clarification! (and the link to TES4LODGEN, haven't updated that in a while)

-J