Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines

Loading Screen Mod
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
thale5  [developer] 2 Jul, 2019 @ 5:47am
Guide: Very large LOD texture
Cities Skylines puts all asset LOD textures in a common texture atlas (a large texture) that has a limited maximum size. If the atlas does not have enough space, the game scales down all LOD textures.

Because of the limited-size atlas, LOD textures should not be very large. Having many large LOD textures may result in poor LOD quality for all assets. LOD texture size also has a significant impact on FPS.

LSM is able to alleviate the problem of oversize LOD textures: whereas the base game loader often puts the same texture many times in the atlas, LSM does that far less often. Notice that 'Share materials' must be enabled in mod options for this to work.
Last edited by thale5; 3 Jul, 2019 @ 11:46am
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Showing 1-15 of 16 comments
thale5  [developer] 6 Apr, 2020 @ 8:09am 
@Mountain Jew No. Like the guide says, the problem is visual (scaling down all LOD textures).

The null reference exception is something completely else. I recommend checking your mods. Also, if you have unsubscribed assets (especially buildings or nets) that are still in use, that might be it.
norbertlepsik 7 May, 2020 @ 4:00am 
I have the same issue as Monte does. I rechecked the assets report and I have no missing files.
Even if I start a new game, I got the error message immediately..

Do you know what can cause this issue?
thale5  [developer] 11 May, 2020 @ 7:56am 
System.NullReferenceException basically means "something went wrong". More specific information, if available, is in the output_log.txt file generated by the game.

Typical reasons are:
- obsolete mods
- save game corruption (caused by obsolete or buggy mods)
- missing placed (i.e. free-standing custom assets), nets in particular
- running out of memory.

So, usually it's mods-related.
Future 25 Jun, 2020 @ 4:45pm 
I'm going through the report for my city, and I have a few questions since I'm dumb:
-what LOD texture size would you say is the cutoff for acceptable size/large size but minimal impact (idk about the assets with multiple LOD warnings)?
-does the in-game size of the asset have some sort of affect on the LOD texture?
-how many assets with a large LOD/the maximum size could we get away with without affecting performance too much? (Or does LSM prevent it from affecting fps? I'm a bit confused about the description above)

This is a great mod and its saved me from soooo much fustration and pain with LSM errors! thanks for making it!
Last edited by Future; 25 Jun, 2020 @ 6:00pm
thale5  [developer] 2 Jul, 2020 @ 8:06am 
If I like an asset a lot, I'm willing to accept its 512 x 512 LOD texture. Larger than that is not acceptable for me.

There is no direct relationship between visible asset size and texture size. But of course very small assets can use small textures and still look sharp.

Performance-wise, the worst situation is probably an asset with a very large LOD texture or LOD mesh that is placed really many times. Every placed copy of the asset needs to be rendered, so they stress the GPU. If the asset is placed a limited number of times, then it is not that bad.
Makk 8 Feb, 2021 @ 2:31am 
So, what is that limited maximum size? 512*512? Thanks.
raybap 8 Mar, 2021 @ 6:03pm 
Following the LSM warnings, I edited the LOD texture sizes of a building style package I use, reducing their size from 512x512 to 64x64 pixels. However, when I run the MeshInfo mod, I notice that some of the assets in that package are now loaded with 64x64 pixels LOD while others are loaded with 32x32 pixels LOD (no clear correlation with number of tris or asset size). According to this topic description, I expected all assets to show the same 64x64 pixels LODs in game or that all of them would show reduced 32x32 pixels LODs (indicating all LOD textures have been equally scaled down). Is there an explanation for the selective downscaling of some of the assets, but not all of them? Thank you.
thale5  [developer] 10 Mar, 2021 @ 9:17am 
@Makk The LOD texture atlas grows up to 4096 x 4096. It is not much, really. Some asset packs fill most of it, unfortunately.
Sorry for the late reply.
thale5  [developer] 10 Mar, 2021 @ 9:21am 
@raybap About that texture LOD downscaling, you did that outside of the game?
The asset loader in the game does not downscale, it just loads the textures like they are.
raybap 10 Mar, 2021 @ 7:13pm 
@thale5: Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I did it outside the game and created new versions of the assets with the reduced 64x64 pixels LOD models. I am reaching about 100 modified assets; all of them work fine. I am just puzzled by the fact that the MeshInfo mod reports about half of them as having the correct 64x64 pixels LOD, but the other half as having 32x32 pixels LOD. As I am still in the process of replacing old assets by new ones with reduced LOD, this behavior may happen because, in some cases, I have one modified residential version with reduced LOD and one commercial version of the same asset model still with 512x512 LOD. I will report back here when I finish the whole process of asset conversion.
Fishwy Gaming 22 May, 2021 @ 12:54am 
Hmm why "allow" props that have this error and Very large LOD mesh in the first place?
Or is it also dependable on your GPU performance and can you actually modify assets made by others to "repair it"?
thale5  [developer] 1 Jun, 2021 @ 10:32am 
@Fishwy Gaming This mod does not modify custom assets while loading them (mesh sizes or texture sizes).

But the key thing is: LSM should load all assets that the base game is able to load. This is important for compatibility.
Fishwy Gaming 26 Jun, 2021 @ 1:45am 
Ok thanks for the info. cheers!
Last edited by Fishwy Gaming; 26 Jun, 2021 @ 1:46am
eberkain 14 Oct, 2022 @ 4:08am 
With very large vram becoming more common, could the atlas size not be increased? I have a 3060 with 12gb, seems silly to have such a restriction.
ASOM30 14 Feb, 2023 @ 3:19pm 
Get rid of all Failed ones would that help out in Blue screen or so on Error.
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