⚠️ The Golden Rule of Wabbajack Lists

If you touch the load order, you MUST regenerate every generated artifact.

 

Adding, moving, or removing plugins breaks this alignment—resulting in missing trees, broken terrain, frozen objects, and sudden Desktop crashes (CTDs).

Key Takeaways Before You Start

• Copy Your Profile First: Never work in the list's default MO2 profile.
• Validate Plugins Upfront: Generators crash on the first bad plugin they hit. Fix all broken plugins before starting multi-hour generation passes.
• Order Matters: Each tool consumes the output of the previous tool.
• Ignore Tool Defaults: Stock settings are incorrect for NGVO. Use the list author's settings detailed below.
• Always Keep Backups: Save shipped files as your reference benchmark.

1. Prerequisites & Resource Requirements

• MO2 Profile: Create a duplicate profile (e.g., Testing) and activate it.
• Shipped Tools: Ensure you have access to xEdit (with QAC), PGPatcher, BodySlide, Pandora, Synthesis, xLODGen, TexGen, and DynDOLOD.
• Disk Space: Reserve roughly 15 GB for output folders and temp backups.
• Time: Budget 2 to 3 hours total.

⏱️ Estimated Tool Time Breakdown

Pandora / BodySlide / Synthesis / PGPatcher  ~  5–10 mins total
xLODGen (Terrain Pass)                      ~  25 mins
TexGen                                      ~  40 mins
DynDOLOD                                    ~  30–90 mins

2. Installing Your Mods

1. Install to mods/: Standard MO2 archive extraction.
2. Match Asset Conventions: NGVO uses CBBE 3BA. Selecting UNP defaults in FOMOD installers will cause broken outfit meshes.
3. Flatten Nested Folders: Watch out for Data/Data/ nesting—files hidden inside double Data folders will not load.
4. Watch Case Collisions: Windows ignores case differences (Plugin.esp vs plugin.esp), causing MO2 to silently drop files.
5. Resolve Missing Masters: Fix all missing master warnings in MO2 before opening any generation tools.

3. Pre-flight: Plugin Validation

Validation Methods

• Method A (xEdit): Load your profile, select suspect plugins, right-click and select Check for errors.
• Method B (Automated Scripts): Run the scanners inside __analysis__/ (scan_all_dupes.py, esl_id_scan.py, scan_invalid_ids.py, undelete_refs.py) to audit the entire load order at once.

4. Regeneration Sequence

🚨 Crucial MO2 Rule: Always launch executables through MO2’s top-right dropdown menu. Launching directly bypasses the Virtual File System (VFS).

1. Pandora ──► 2. BodySlide ──► 3. Synthesis ──► 4. PGPatcher ──► 5. xLODGen ──► 6. TexGen ──► 7. DynDOLOD

Step-by-Step Configuration Details

4.1 PGPatcher (ParallaxGen)

• Remove --highmem from MO2 Executable Arguments: Using this flag causes bad_alloc crashes and high memory leaks. Without it, memory remains stable (~20 GB) and completes in minutes.
• "Set Mods" Prompt: When prompted, click Lock to MO2 Loose File Order $\rightarrow$ Okay. Do not let this dialog sit unattended or generation will hang.

4.2 xLODGen (Terrain Pass Only)

• ❌ Untick Objects LOD (DynDOLOD handles object meshes)
• ❌ Untick Occlusion (DynDOLOD handles occlusion)

4.3 TexGen

• Stitched & Rendered Object LOD Textures: Enabled (Base size 256)
• Tree/Grass LOD Billboards: Enabled (Units per pixel 11.0, Size Min 32 / Max 1024)
• HD Grass / Tree / HD Tree / Rendered: Enabled
• Grass: Disabled
• Texture Formats: Default (BC7 Quick)

4.4 DynDOLOD

🛑 WARNING: Do NOT check the "Ultra" preset!

 

Checking Ultra turns tree LOD4 into full 3D trees, ballooning output size from 1.7 GB to nearly 7 GB and causing massive performance hits.

• Object LOD: Checked (High ticked; Ultra, Large, and Level32 unticked)
• Tree LOD: Unticked
• Dynamic LOD / Glow Windows / Occlusion Data: Checked
• Tile Sizes (LOD / Full / Billboard): 1024 / 256 / 1024
• Grid Values (Near / Far): 11 / 21
• Preset File: Load tools/DynDOLOD/Edit Scripts/DynDOLOD/Presets/DynDOLOD_SSE_Preset.ini.

5. Post-Generation & Final Assembly

1. Backup Original Outputs: Copy original shipped outputs to a __temp__/ folder for comparison.
2. Deploy New Files: Move generated contents into their corresponding mods/NGVO - [Tool] Output directories (keep existing meta.ini files intact).
3. Re-Enable Outputs: Enable all output folders in your MO2 left panel.
4. Restore Load Order (plugins.txt😞 Ensure the dynamic plugins are placed correctly at the bottom of your load order:
    
   • DynDOLOD.esm (End of Master block)
   • DynDOLOD.esp (Bottom of load order)
   • Occlusion.esp (Last plugin)

6. Verification Checklist

• [ ] Tile Count Audit: Compare .btr (terrain) and .bto (object) file counts between shipped and new outputs. Baseline counts should remain within a narrow margin (e.g., Skyrim/Tamriel $\approx$ 690-695 files).
• [ ] Average Tile Size Check: Divide total output folder size by file count per LOD. If LOD4 average size jumps above ~700–800 KB/tile, verify that Ultra LOD was not accidentally enabled.
• [ ] HTML Summary Logs: Open tools/DynDOLOD/Summary/. An absence of specific error pages (like DynDOLOD_Summary_DeletedReference.html) confirms a clean generation pass.

8. Quick Troubleshooting Matrix

💡 Pro-Tips for Long-term Maintenance

• Keep Staging Directories Clean: Clear out _outputs_staging/ and internal tool output paths between runs.
• Keep Reference Backups: Keep original shipped files inside a dedicated temp folder—they serve as useful data models when diagnosing missing worldspace files.
• Document Custom Settings: Save a local text file with any custom slider positions you used; tool panels reset to defaults on fresh launches.