Beginner-friendly Dyndolod 3.0 guide: how to make Skyrim look crisper at a distance

With the help of modding, Skyrim can compete with current-gen games in terms of visuals. Most of it can be achieved through only a handful of plug-and-play mods. However, one area of this facelift is particularly tricky for even long-time modders: LOD files. Short for 'level of distance,' LOD is essentially the lower-quality assets that render distant landscapes and objects to save memory. The vanilla Skyrim is infamous for its muddy LOD textures and an egregious pop-in issue.

Thankfully, Dyndolod, the gold-standard tool in the Skyrim modding community for LOD generation, can solve this. Dyndolod 3.0 has structurally changed a lot since its past iterations and now even includes automated tree billboard (2D LOD assets for trees) creation.

Dyndolod touches every type of LOD in Skyrim except for terrain, i.e., the actual flat ground textures at a distance. You can use the plug-and-play 'Perfect Terrain LOD' mod on Skyrim Nexus or xLodgen to generate it manually for the terrain.

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Step-by-step Dyndolod guide for Skyrim Special Edition

Step 1) Install all the prerequisites

The complex requirements for Dyndolod are PapyruUtilSE and SkyUI. You should double-check your Skyrim executable version and then download the correct version of PapyrusUtilSE accordingly.

Next, you need to install 'Dyndolod Resources SE 3'. Plug it at the end of your load order in MO2, and select the following options when installing it.

Dyndolod Resources options for average setup (screenshot by Sportskeeda)

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Step 2) Install the Dyndolod application and integrate it into MO2

Download 'DynDOLOD 3 Alpha' from Nexusmods. Extract the archive somewhere that is not:

• the Skyrim game folder
• the MO2 folders
• Steam/program files folder
• folders that require administrative access

Ideally, this should be something like D:/DynDOLOD, where D is not your primary system drive.

The rest of the process is operated through MO2. Open up the configure executables menu from MO2 (Refer to the image below).

The Configure executables button for MO2 (screenshot by Sportskeeda)

Click the 'plus' icon next to 'Executables' as shown below. Select 'Add from file' and navigate to the Dyndolod directory. Double-click 'TexGenx64.exe' to add it as a tool in MO2.

Adding Dyndolod and Texgen to MO2 (screenshot by Sportskeeda)

Repeat the same process for 'DynDOLODx64.exe' before pressing 'Apply' and closing the configuration executables menu.

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Step 3: Generate Texgen ouput

Before proceeding with this step, ensure you have ticked all the mods you will be playing with in your MO2 load order. These mods will be factored into the LOD generation process about the objects they place in the world space.

Select TexGen64 from the right panel drop-down menu next to 'Run,' then run it. Select 'SSE' (third option) and 'Start TexGen.' The default options are generally good to go. Hit 'Start' and wait for the process to take its course. Once it is over, press 'Zip and Exit.'

Closing TexGen (screenshot by Sportskeeda)

Go to MO2 and click 'Install Mod' from the file menu. Navigate to your original Dyndolod directory, go to TexGen_Output, and select the TexGen_Output.zip archive. Enable it at the end of your load order.

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Step 4: Generate Dyndolod output

Run 'DynDOLOD64.exe' from the right panel like you ran TexGen, and select SSE in the prompt. Now the actual Dyndolod LOD generation Wizard will open up.

Although you can fiddle with the Advanced wizard options, it is recommended that you stick to the simplified format for your first time using Dyndolod. Right-click any option under 'Select Worldspaces,' click 'Select All,' and then Click the 'Low,' 'Medium,' or 'High' preset for LODs according to your preference.

The presets dictate which objects are taken into account for distant LODs. The gist is that on 'medium' and 'high' profiles, more minute details crop up in the distant lod. 'Low' is still a significant improvement over the vanilla lod system, and 'Medium' will suffice for most Skyrim players.

Generating object LODs for Skyrim through Dyndolod wizard (screenshot by Sportskeeda)

Be patient, as the process can take a while, depending on the size of your load order. Once it is over, select 'Save, Zip, and Exit.' As you did in the last step for TexGen_Output, install 'Dyndolod_Output.zip' through MO2 and put it at the end of the load order. This finishes the Dyndolod setup, and you are all set to play Skyrim with functional dynamic LODs.