Please help with mods...LOD Textures on top of actual textures/flickering.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

I just spent about 100hrs following guides and making a mod list. Everything works swimmingly (even the perks, believe it or not), except some textures (about 90% of city roads and buildings) are being covered by additional LOD textures/meshes. I used xLODGEN hoping that would fix it, but it didn't. I tried DynDOLOD hoping that would fix it, but I'm not smart enough to get that working-I spent about 12hrs trying to get it to work, but it wouldn't.

From what I understand, this is a symptom of the textures and meshes I want (cleaned vanilla + SMIM) are being overwritten. The problem is that I've spent so much time on getting to this point, that my brain can't comprehend this stuff anymore, and I'm at the point of permanently giving up and never trying to play Skyrim again if I can't get some sort of solution. Any help would be appreciated, thanks everybody.

The mod list: https://pastebin.com/g42sWtsP

[Hitokiri-X]

Since you have the LOD Unloading Bug Fix mod installed, trying using the fix LOD option through it's MCM.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

Originally posted by Hitokiri-X:

Since you have the LOD Unloading Bug Fix mod installed, trying using the fix LOD option through it's MCM.

I have it set to run on load and travel, but I tried the manual "fix LOD' button to be sure, and I'm still getting bad LODs in cities and the Western Watchtower. For example, the segments of the watchtower have the LOD separator so you can't see the stairs and Whiterun's streets are patchy LODs AND regular textures. Any good way to manually check these textures one by one to make sure they're not being overwritten by LODs?

[Hitokiri-X]

I use MO2 and it warns of any conflicts in the left panel. If you're using MO2, try deleting any textures in the overwrite folder.

Also, try disabling the official HD textures from Beth and any SKSE plugins that modify graphics such as Community Shaders, Soft Shadows, etc.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

Originally posted by Hitokiri-X:

I use MO2 and it warns of any conflicts in the left panel. If you're using MO2, try deleting any textures in the overwrite folder.

Also, try disabling the official HD textures from Beth and any SKSE plugins that modify graphics such as Community Shaders, Soft Shadows, etc.

I appreciate the reply! I tried it out, but that didn't fix it and broke other mods.

[Hitokiri-X]

You can always reinstall the HD Pack. The LOD fix worked for me, but I had to manually use it every time I went to a new area even with the auto options applied.

I think I managed to permanently fix the issue by removing A Clear Map of Skyrim mod and any ACOS related mods and going back to A Quality World Map. I also extracted the BSA and deleted the esp to clear up plugin space.

[Ozymandias]

It may be unpleasant to read, but the problem here is that you've installed so many mods without realising that 90% of the city was messed up. It should be obvious as long as you test your growing mod list, then there would only be a few mods that you suspect.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

Originally posted by Ozymandias:

It may be unpleasant to read, but the problem here is that you've installed so many mods without realising that 90% of the city was messed up. It should be obvious as long as you test your growing mod list, then there would only be a few mods that you suspect.

I tested it right before I ran LOOT and the LOD utilities, and Whiterun was fine at the time. Not that I would use one cell to consider the whole game fine, there are probably other underlying issues I haven't seen yet.

[xybolt]

sometimes you need to run texgen, then lodgen and then dyndolod. It's something for modders that already have built lots of experience with modding the game. Even for a seasoned modder, generating lods is a difficulty spike a person has to overcome. I even had a problem with LOD and after two hours of searching I found my problem.

My knowledge on this topic is gathered by reading https://dyndolod.info/ and various trial and error, experimenting with it. I see you have fixLOD.esp, a plugin I consider optional because I don't have such troubles. I also am not a fan of that plugin because of using "pcb" as a part of the "fix" process.

But ...

Originally posted by LazerDickMcCheese:

The mod list: https://pastebin.com/g42sWtsP

I am missing some stuff. Did you really ran DynDOLOD (I hope v3) ? Because it produces various plugins such as DynDOLOD.esm, DynDOLOD.esp and - if occlusion is used, recommended for v3 - Occlusion.esp
These aren't there.

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by LazerDickMcCheese:

I tested it right before I ran LOOT and the LOD utilities, and Whiterun was fine at the time.

Didn't you try xlodgen and dyndolod to fix the already existing issue? Was it something else?

Anyway, removing mods to go back to a tested and working mod list is the logical thing to do. Always start a new game when you test such things, not just after removing mods, because some stuff won't update properly when you add new mods. BTW do you use a mod manager?

Also when you tried xLodgen and dyndolod, did the output folder point directly to the game data folder, making it near impossible to remove, or was it out of the way? Note that those tools are used to improve what's already working, there's no need to bother with them until you're satisfied with your mod list.

(edit: as Xybolt said, it's not clear what you did with those tools, whether they were properly installed (with the output and all), or you've removed them completely)

A couple remarks about your mod list, though I didn't check it thoroughly of course, and it's probably unrelated to your issue anyway:
- it's already substantial, so it's bound to have lots of conflicts, and I don't think available patches are enough since they rarely deal with more than 2 conflicting mods. Personally I more or less follow The Method[tes5edit.github.io], so the good conflicts are filtered with modgroups, and the others are patched.

- speaking of patches, I've seen some "qw_..." plugins, aren't those from the Quasipc compendium? If so, it's outdated AFAIK. Just be careful, mods with lots of downloads/endorsements don't disappear when they become obsolete. Like Amazing Follower, it might still work but in the end it's an old mod ported from Oldrim, unlike NFF.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

Originally posted by xybolt:

sometimes you need to run texgen, then lodgen and then dyndolod. It's something for modders that already have built lots of experience with modding the game. Even for a seasoned modder, generating lods is a difficulty spike a person has to overcome. I even had a problem with LOD and after two hours of searching I found my problem.

My knowledge on this topic is gathered by reading https://dyndolod.info/ and various trial and error, experimenting with it. I see you have fixLOD.esp, a plugin I consider optional because I don't have such troubles. I also am not a fan of that plugin because of using "pcb" as a part of the "fix" process.

But ...

Originally posted by LazerDickMcCheese:

The mod list: https://pastebin.com/g42sWtsP

I am missing some stuff. Did you really ran DynDOLOD (I hope v3) ? Because it produces various plugins such as DynDOLOD.esm, DynDOLOD.esp and - if occlusion is used, recommended for v3 - Occlusion.esp
These aren't there.

Yes, I used xLODGen. TexGen, then DynDOLOD v3 according to the Step Guide for 4k resolution. And I agree, fixLOD.esp was an attempt to force the game to work as I tested it over and over again.

Thank you for the link, I'll read through it today.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

Originally posted by Ozymandias:

Originally posted by LazerDickMcCheese:

I tested it right before I ran LOOT and the LOD utilities, and Whiterun was fine at the time.

Didn't you try xlodgen and dyndolod to fix the already existing issue? Was it something else?

Anyway, removing mods to go back to a tested and working mod list is the logical thing to do. Always start a new game when you test such things, not just after removing mods, because some stuff won't update properly when you add new mods. BTW do you use a mod manager?

Also when you tried xLodgen and dyndolod, did the output folder point directly to the game data folder, making it near impossible to remove, or was it out of the way? Note that those tools are used to improve what's already working, there's no need to bother with them until you're satisfied with your mod list.

(edit: as Xybolt said, it's not clear what you did with those tools, whether they were properly installed (with the output and all), or you've removed them completely)

A couple remarks about your mod list, though I didn't check it thoroughly of course, and it's probably unrelated to your issue anyway:
- it's already substantial, so it's bound to have lots of conflicts, and I don't think available patches are enough since they rarely deal with more than 2 conflicting mods. Personally I more or less follow The Method[tes5edit.github.io], so the good conflicts are filtered with modgroups, and the others are patched.

- speaking of patches, I've seen some "qw_..." plugins, aren't those from the Quasipc compendium? If so, it's outdated AFAIK. Just be careful, mods with lots of downloads/endorsements don't disappear when they become obsolete. Like Amazing Follower, it might still work but in the end it's an old mod ported from Oldrim, unlike NFF.

Yes, I've been using MO2. I've only used it on a few games so far, but I'm a big fan. This is the only problem I've had while using it. I have the tools set up to output into empty MO2 mods so they're isolated from the game files.

My main issue aside, I appreciate comments on the overall list regardless! I'll be removing/replacing those because I didn't know that, thank you.

[LazerDickMcCheese]

Problem solved! Moral of the story: don't use A Clear Map of Skyrim and Other Worlds.