I've been experimenting with LOD's with poor results except for landmass using Oscape. That has worked well. But Objects and Tree's don't want to play well with Oscape so I decided on a different approach. I have a decent computer that I put together with a Nvidia GTX 470, so I decided after reading some other posts to check "is Full LOD" on some objects and see how that effects the framerate during gameplay. I added a couple of high poly objects I created for this experiment and put them in Skyrim near Whiterun. I then loaded the game and went to the area and I could see them at a far distance which made me happy and it didn't effect the FPS. But I was thinking that this can't be a good solution because it must hurt frame rates in the end if a large group of objects were set to that.

So I decided to try another test and to create my own little island. I created it by hand then created the LOD via Oscape. I added a few LOD textures with another experiment and once that was done I started out slowly by adding a few farmhouses with "is Full Load" checked. (One thing I noticed if the object has a LOD file for it, it will sometimes make it invisible in game. The solution is to copy the nif you want to use and move it to your own working folder, then create a new object in the CK and use that instead. It's the same object just different reference and that will solve the invisble issue.) The results were great again I could see the farmhouse's at a far away distance. Next I wondered if it would work with Trees. So I added a Aspen tree and clicked "is Full LOD" and again it worked great in game, could see it really far away. So I continued and added over 100 aspen trees, some rocks all checked with "is Full LOD". Started up the game and again great results with no out of the ordinary frame rate drops. At the top of a hill I could see all my trees, buildings and rocks and still had 60 FPS. See pic attached.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/848/tesv2012051913072139.jpg/

I created this topic just to pass on the results of my experiment.

Some notes: from a distance like the pic as you can see I have 60 FPS. When I go down to where the trees are at, the framerate drops to around 40 FPS, so it seems that the Engine does do some sort of adjusting of the objects at a distance and up close. The results don't lie, so Bethesda must have done some coding on the engine to handle "is Full LOD".

I don't know if this is any kind of solution for anyone that's trying to create a different landmass mod, but for adding a small island off the coast of Skyrim it might be a solution.

Anyways, will be testing more and passing on the results if anyone's interested.

Here's some more screenshots from different angles with more tree's added.
I haven't finished my LOD textures yet just for 3 quads that's why the difference in land textures.

Way up high you can almost see whole island - FPS at 60
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/tesv2012051915472535.jpg/
Down low behind newly added trees notice that - FPS is still at 58
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/844/tesv2012051915481285.jpg/
Other side of Island - FPS at 60
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/tesv2012051915485754.jpg/
Added some Statics I created you can see them way in the background with more rocks - FPS still at 60
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/tesv2012051916121318.jpg/
Different angle and lower in the sky - FPS still at 60
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/525/tesv2012051916123637.jpg/
From behind the tower and wall pieces I made - still at 60 FPS
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/tesv2012051916134524.jpg/
Last image, right behind the tower and wall pieces - Still 60 FPS
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/716/tesv2012051916141648.jpg/

Making a small island is all very well, not really any kind of strain on the CPU or GPU.

I think the problems start when your GPU has to render a large world with several thousand trees, rocks, mountains,..etc. as well as rendering the landscape, grass, water, clouds,..etc and cities.
All these things soon mount up and will eventually grind the game to a halt.

Most likely. I did state in my original post that it might work for a small land mass. Very few people have the time to create a hugh world, if they do then they have too much free time I'm just passing on my findings, I'm curious more than anything why this seems to be working so I'm going to keep testing and post my findings.

Good to know. Perhaps sparing use of that flag isn't such a bad thing after all. I am only checking it off when an in-game test shows me an invisible building. Otherwise I leave it be. Since my village mods aren't anywhere near the size of your whole island, chances are the difference will be too small to tell.

Now if we could just get https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23navmeshbug fixed....

I keep adding objects and the frame rate doesn't seem to drop. I added a pier a couple more Farmhouses and about 30 Pine Trees and more Rock formations.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/191/tesv2012052123414436.jpg/

just keep in mind ticking Is Full LOD also flags the item as permanently persistent, even if you travel to an entirely new worldspace, your full LOD objects are still loaded in memory

http://i48.tinypic.com/2r437nd.jpg


(under Persist Location, it is flagged "all" - i.e. permanent)

Bethesda's bug hasn't exactly given us a choice on that one.

Just a small update for anyone that might care, by the lack of posts or views I'm guessing not many. Anyways I've added quite a bit since the last update and really no serious issues. Regarding the memory allocation not sure about that so won't comment on it just yet. Anyways here's a pic of what I've completed so far and as you can see the FPS is at 33 and that's on my other medium range computer with a Nvidia GTX260 card. On my gaming rig it's still at around 55 fps. The one cool thing I like is the farther you go away the higher the FPS but you still see all the objects. The only drop I ever get is when I'm closeup to the objects and depending on what's in the direct view. I've actually created a lot of detail in certain areas that can't be seen in this pic.

http://imageshack.us/f/811/tesv2012052514164420.jpg/

I've created a custom worldspace and there was the same problem:
-Tree LOD generated that not disappear in game.
-Object LOD with wrong texture.

I have noticed, after the last beta update, that now the tree LOD is OK.
I didn't find other post that talk about this. Can someone verify this?

If the tree LOD is now ok, the 'Full LOD' solution is the only applicable with object and your test is starting to become interesting

For the tree LOD to dissapear when up close you have to change your .esp to an .esm then create the LOD again. I wrote about that in another thread a while back.
The main reason I gave up on Tree and Object LOD was the inconsistancy of them. I know the full load isn't a solution for a large world but for a smaller one like the one I'm testing on I think it is. Like I've said there hasn't been any ill effects in my world by using full load. I've gone back to Skyrim from my world in game with no ill effects either. The only bug I've seen is the floating grass bug which has been brought up in other posts. I've decided that's not important right now so I keep plugging away with my experiment. I've started adding navmesh and npc's to my little world for more tests, so far so good. I've also created my own grass objects that I've placed by hand, which I have thousand's of them with no FPS issues. The land mass in the background is 1 mile long in game distance and I'm going to start populating that next to see how well the game engine handles it. More pics to come.

I am using the beta. This is for LOD full checked items.
If I start in my modded cell, or fast travel to that cell, everything is there. moving to Whiterun I can still see everything.
If I go to Whiterun then, and enter it (cell load), when I come back out of Whiterun, oddly - it seems the LOD checked items are more likely to be invisible.
As I ride close to my advance camp (nothing LOD checked) it is invisible until the cell loads and it pops up normally (game setting on how many cells load).
As I near my Redoubt, the full LOD items do not pop. Only the non-lod (interior furniture, wall dividers, banners, etc. load - even if I am right there.
If I fast travel away and back to the redoubt, everything is there.
This is kindof the opposite of what I expected.

I am going to make a variant with nothing checked LOD and see what happens.

AGAIN, this is with the beta.