Automata LodMod 0.77.5 (2025 update)

[Havoc]

2025 update: v0.77.5 is now available which fixes some of the remaining LOD issues, happy new year!

Download: https://www.nexusmods.com/nierautomata/mods/165/

[y_Sensei]

Originally posted by Fantabulous Fencer:

I get this intermittently, seems to be some timing issue while loading DLL:
...

Think you've been on the right track here ... because I finally managed to get v0.6 working with a little help from Kaldaien by changing

When=Plugin

to

When=Lazy

in the [Import.LodMod] configuration section.

[Havoc]

Uploaded LodMod 0.61 to hxxps:/www.mediafire.com/file/gr0jrp425f8xi8t/automata-lodmod-0.61.zip/file

This adds a CommunicationScreenResolution setting that can change the resolution of the 3D render shown when characters contact you.
By default game renders this at 256x256, increasing this didn't really have much difference for me, but decreasing to a low value like 32 (and checking with RenderDoc) shows that it definitely takes effect, maybe could be more useful for people that run at high resolutions or something.

There's not really much point changing it but figured some might want to adjust it. haven't tested this much yet myself but hopefully shouldn't cause any issues.

Also added a missing xinput1_4 export, NieR doesn't use it so there's no real difference, just improves the wrapper a little.

Originally posted by y_Sensei:

Think you've been on the right track here ... because I finally managed to get v0.6 working with a little help from Kaldaien

Huh neat find, maybe this could help with the gamepass ver too?

BTW if you have write access to the game dir there's not really any need for using SK's plugin system to load it, just naming LodMod as xinput1_4 and copying next to EXE should work fine, should still let SK's global mode work etc.

[y_Sensei]

Originally posted by Havoc:

BTW if you have write access to the game dir there's not really any need for using SK's plugin system to load it, just naming LodMod as xinput1_4 and copying next to EXE should work fine, should still let SK's global mode work etc.

Ikr but I don't want to modify the game's directory, if I can avoid it. Basically, that's the point of having a global injection setup - having all mod-related stuff in one place and not mess with any game's files/folders directly.
Besides, thanks for all the work you put into this. It's really appreciated. :-)

[Havoc]

Uploaded LodMod 0.62 to hxxps:/www.mediafire.com/file/vyezu84g21d7o98/automata-lodmod-0.62.zip/file

It seems not every shadow-map level was being updated (shadow-map has 4 levels/quadrants for different distance ranges, with each level containing a larger shadow-distance, but worse quality as a result)

Previously only the first level was being updated, sometimes resulting in the lower-quality levels overriding the better-quality one we updated because the distance set for it was lower. Now all levels will get updated, using mostly the same scale the game itself used (x4 for second level, x20 for third, x40 for fourth)

Maybe updating these levels can help push shadow distances even further too, would be interested in any feedback about this change, if needed I could probably add a toggle to disable it.

[Aemony]

I'll take it for a spin with the MS Store version later tomorrow or so 👍

[Lilium]

Originally posted by Havoc:

NieRAutomata.exe+1029840 -> 80000000 can enable a freecam mode via controller, M/KB will still move the character around, might be good for something machinima related maybe. (press in LS and move RS to move camera up/down)

NieRAutomata.exe+10297C0 stores "STA" flags, seems to be state related, eg. there's flags for being in pause menu, being in cutscenes, attacking...
The debug EXE has the names for some of these flags, "STA_PAUSE" "STA_EVENT" "STA_SOFT_EVENT" "STA_BUNKER" "STA_QTE" "STA_HACKING_TRANSITION" ...

NieRAutomata.exe+10297F0 stores "GAME" flags, debug EXE mentions stuff like "GAME_HACKING", "GAME_PLAYER_9S", "GAME_LOADING_LONG", "GAME_LOADING_SHORT", "GAME_LOADING_HACKING"...

Maybe the STA/GAME stuff would come in useful for SK's FastLoad, if they aren't already. debug EXE doesn't have the values themselves easy to find tho (likely different in here anyway), but probably wouldn't be too hard to find them out manually.

pressing RS and moving LS gives you horizontal and vertical control too!
you also can use SQUARE (X on xbox controllers) to place your character :D https://i.imgur.com/kuHQbzV.jpeg

the STA and GAME flags really helped me finding all the specific places in the game where the game needs to be locked to 60fps if you want to play with unlocked fps. the next FAR version will cover all those :)
I also documented about 1/3 of all the flags.

[Havoc]

Originally posted by Lilium:

pressing RS and moving LS gives you horizontal and vertical control too!
you also can use SQUARE (X on xbox controllers) to place your character :D https://i.imgur.com/kuHQbzV.jpeg

the STA and GAME flags really helped me finding all the specific places in the game where the game needs to be locked to 60fps if you want to play with unlocked fps. the next FAR version will cover all those :)
I also documented about 1/3 of all the flags.

Oh nice, glad it came in useful!

Have you looked at the other flags like DBDISP / DBGRAPHICS / etc too? Didn't seem like this build was checking many of them, but there was stuff like the freecam mode still available, so wouldn't be surprised if more things were in here too.

Aemony mentioned the unlockable debug menu seems to work on some of these flags, and https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/168677-nier-automata/answers/542313-what-is-the-deal-with-the-flag-tools-in-the-debug-menu does mention that flags are displayed as "DBG_PL_HP_1" etc, matching the debug EXE names.
I saw there was some struct array in this builds EXE (around 0xCF1490) that tied a few flag names/bit-positions together, but seems not for all them (eg I didn't see freecam flag named there), guessing this is for that debug menu, wonder if it could be extended to cover the other flags too.

BTW do you know if FAR's FastLoad is being updated too? I still get issues with it making pause/shop menus & other UIs run at 120fps+ until I close and open it again, seems I always need to open UIs twice for FAR to realise that it's not a loading screen :/

[flow]

First off, thanks for the absolutely stellar work in fixing the LOD and AO issues. The game finally looks the way it's supposed to at least in those regards!

I have noticed a few issues where the game forces a specific perspective looking directly into bright light sources though, like the broken double bridge just outside the Castle: Royal Chamber access point, some parts of the Tower, and especially the Engels vs Pascal fight.

It looks like the bloom in those scenes is completely out of control, which is weird because I didn't think this mod touched that at all. I've tried it with and without SK so it's not that either.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2557934771

[Havoc]

Originally posted by flow:

like the broken double bridge just outside the Castle: Royal Chamber access point, some parts of the Tower, and especially the Engels vs Pascal fight.

It looks like the bloom in those scenes is completely out of control, which is weird because I didn't think this mod touched that at all. I've tried it with and without SK so it's not that either.

Huh, was just at that Engels fight and it didn't look anything like the pic you posted, also never noticed any issue outside the Royal Chamber besides godrays being broken (which 0.52 should have fixed), strange.

Could you try setting DebugLog=true in the LodMod.ini & then visit those scenes, and after that upload both LodMod.log & LodMod.ini to pastebin?

I see the pic you posted is at 2160p too, after doing the DebugLog stuff could you maybe try lowering the resolution to 2560x1440 and see if it makes any difference? (of course I don't mean to stay at 1440p though, just want to see if it does have any effect for you)

[Alpha.Floor]

I had similar issue with sun and projectiles when I set ShadowMinimumDistance=100

I didn't have dark background though

[flow]

Originally posted by Havoc:

Could you try setting DebugLog=true in the LodMod.ini & then visit those scenes, and after that upload both LodMod.log & LodMod.ini to pastebin?

I see the pic you posted is at 2160p too, after doing the DebugLog stuff could you maybe try lowering the resolution to 2560x1440 and see if it makes any difference? (of course I don't mean to stay at 1440p though, just want to see if it does have any effect for you)

I didn't change anything in the .ini if I remember correctly: https://pastebin.com/kphaX6dq
Here's the log file: https://pastebin.com/XqUZ3RAA

Here's the Engels fight again in 1440p, same thing
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2557975375

I could be wrong about the lighting on the Royal Chamber bridge being a bug, but it looked even brighter than I remember it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2557975273

[flow]

Just tested it again with lodmod disabled, and yeah it seems to be caused by it somehow:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2557984387

[Havoc]

Hmm, can you try setting ShadowResolution to 2048 & ShadowMinimumDistance to 0, and see if that helps with Engels fight? If that fixes it, could you also set them back to 8192/70 and then try them separately to see which helped?

I'm thinking it could be ShadowResolution, if setting that to 2048 does help then maybe there's some issue stopping 8192x8192 shadowmap from working properly, which GPU are you using btw?

I've thought the forest lights were brighter than normal a few times too, haven't seen anyone else mention it before now though so didn't really look into it, maybe I'll have to take a closer look at that.

[flow]

ShadowResolution 2048 on its own didn't help, so I changed ShadowMinimumDistance to 0 as well and that fixed it.
Just to be sure I tried ShadowResolution 8192 and ShadowMinimumDistance 0 and it was still fine. (presumably because it doesn't matter what the resolution is set to if they're disabled, duh)

I'm using an RTX 2080 Ti

[Havoc]

Originally posted by flow:

ShadowResolution 2048 on its own didn't help, so I changed ShadowMinimumDistance to 0 as well and that fixed it.
Just to be sure I tried ShadowResolution 8192 and ShadowMinimumDistance 0 and it was still fine. (presumably because it doesn't matter what the resolution is set to if they're disabled, duh)

I'm using an RTX 2080 Ti

Oh interesting, not really sure why the shadow distance would affect it, maybe need to look at what the default distances are for that scene.

Strange that I didn't have any issue there when I played it earlier though, but I do use a smaller shadow distance/resolution than the LodMod.ini defaults since my card doesn't handle 8192 that well, could you see if ShadowResolution 4096 / ShadowMinimumDistance 40 is fine for you too?

Maybe I'll reduce the defaults for now til I can get a look at that scene again.