About this mod
A brand new grass overhaul for Skyrim.
Completly made from scratch, it features a new approach of the regions of Skyrim.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
vurt for Skyrim Flora Overhaul
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/141
HHaley for Mojo Grass
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/98476
Josh Ezzel for Unique Grasses and Groundcovers
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/42370
32cm for Tamriel Reloaded Grasses
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59774
Elinen, SparrowPrince, Ztree and Dark Creations for Hoddminir flowers
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/55158
Hein84 for the tundra lod files and the terrain noise from Vivid Landscapes - Tundra Region
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/62801
Pfuscher for his green lods for the (not yet released) green tundra
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60215
Also thanks to
Daralima, Marmotte, LossRec and Xer0t who tested my mod and gave me feedback for changes and edits.
Another special thank you, to LossRec, who made the beautiful new pictures for the main page!
Little showcase of the grasses made by Kruger:
Another great video by Fabricio Siqueira:
Fantastic grasses and where to find them, is a brand new grass overhaul I spend the whole last year on making. I carefully, or sometimes less carefully, picked grass types I liked or looked good combined and slowly turned them into a mod.
What first started as just some edits in xEdit became a big project for me.
I designed the grasses based of how I liked them or how I thought they fit into the game. You will encounter regions with realistic grasses, flat grasses, denser or less dense vegetation. I think there will be something for everyone!
I also tried making the mod performance friendly and lush at the same time. I think I did pretty well. So you can even run the mod with slightly less good systems and still be able to enjoy lush grass.
Q: "Will there be a version for SE?"
A: "Yes. There is a SE version in the files section. It's currently a big archieve and should work with out problems. Just follow installation steps from the files describtion."
Q: "There grows grass in weird places/I have clipping."
A: "Yes. There is. Bethesda uses two types of texture for the grass to grow on "blabla01 and blabla01nograss". Since we want lush and dense grass, and not some bald spots everywhere and in between, we place grass onto the "blabla01nograss" textures. BUT this will of course cause grass to clip here and there since these places aren't supposed to have grass on them. There are a couple of mods that can fix it, 1. landscape fixes for grass mods, which is pretty much mandatory. It's linked on the page. Then, but so far only available for SE, no grass in objects, which is an amazing mod and eliminates grass that grows into objects. Use both these mods (Ngio only for SE) and you will have almost no more clipping."
The different regions:
Next I will explain a bit what you will see in the different places of Skyrim.
Whiterun Tundra:
For the tundra I decided to try making it look a bit more realistic, like and actual fall tundra. Lots of yellow and orange, bushes, and also some flat ground vegetation.
Skyrim being Skyrim it's a bit hard. But I created something I liked. Vurts assets from sfo were especially useful here:
The pine forests were a bit harder to do actually. Lots of trial and error and different approaches. I wanted to create as realistic as possible grasses, but I will keep that idea for another mod maybe. I used a lot of vurts assets again but also from Tamriel Reloaded grasses, unique grasses and Hoddminirs.
You will see similarities with UG2 perhaps. I used some of the same assets it is using, simply because they look too good not to use. You will see clover covered flat and also tall plants. Ferns, flowers and other plans. Also Lupine fields. They are beautiful :D
!!!Since v2.0!!!:
New lupin field that are easier on the eyes and blend in better with the rest of the grasses. New grass types and more grass to make everything lusher. Some new tall plants and ferns as well.
Also, in case you liked the old pine forest grass, I included a optional file. Just install it after the new main file.
Aspen/Fall forest:
The ground of this forest is covered in leaves, making it harder for other plants to grow. Between a thick leaf cover you will find small bushes and twigs, as well as some dandelions trying to make their way up. Large plains are also covered in a dense, orange/brownish tall field grasses. Looks great with realistic aspen forest mod:
!!!Since v2.0!!!:
A couple new grasses and some flowers. I also added a mandatory grass type, I apparently forgot to included in the first upload. Whops. xP
For the fall forest I also have two optional files already, a green one and a more yellow one. For people that have a green forest or use a more yellowish or vanilla look. There are some pictures provided in the gallery.
The Reach:
The Reach was hard. Very for me. The rocky mountain area is the one, I generally hate to visit in Skyrim. Simply because it's so ugly. Barren, dead trees and rocks.
I changed that. I decided to go with a kind of Alpine grass. A lot of flowers and a nice bloomy look. You will find a lot of flowers here and there, but not vibrant or vivid, burning your eyes, or uncomfortable colors. just great to look at. I also added another type of Lupines there, that you will encounter.
!!!Since v2.0!!!:
New fancy and lush ivy fields instead of the weird groundcovers.
Frozen Marsh:
Very lush, simple grass. Got that "frozen" touch to it, thus the name of this region. I added multiple, snowy plants or grasses here. Some taller snow covered plants sticking out here and there as well as iced bluebells and bellflowers. But what I am proudest of, are the reeds on the water edges. I never really bothered but considering it's a marsh and there is water everywhere, there should be a lot of water vegetation? Well apparently not. But my mod fixes that:
Snow grasses:
The grasses in the snowy parts of Skyrim are one of the hardest. I never liked any of the ones from most mods.
So I decided to do something simple. Realistic. The snow grasses are consisted of two things: dead twigs, sticks, pine needles and cones. In my opinion, it looks pretty good.
Coast:
Nothing special. I used the amazing beach grass type from Mojo grasses and the original vanilla one. Looks good and is not too much, and will fit any kind of coast textures nicely.
!!!Since v2.0!!!:
Removed the vanilla grass and replaced it with two new, custom and lush grass types.
Volcanic Area:
Also nothing really special. I decided to got with some green, bushy/mossy type grass with some ferns. I also added 2 types of my handmade ground mushrooms, I made out of edited vanilla textures.
!!!Since v2.0!!!:
Completely new and fresh grasses for the volcanic tundra. There are now dead twigs and bushes all over the place, and some thick conifer bushes. You will also encounter some big ferns here and there.
I included and optional file with the old volcanic grasses in the files section, in case you prefer the old ones over the new ones. Just install it after the main file.
"What ini settings do I have to add?"
"None"
"Really?"
"Yep" Because everything is already done in it's own ini. I added one simply to avoid any problems. You can install it and enjoy. Of course that doesn't mean you might not have to make an edit to it.
It's "base" iMinGrassSize= is 60. Very good balance between performance and density. I would recommend 50 - 60 for gameplay. 40 and not lower for people with high end rigs or screenarchers. Not lower because some grass types will occur to often, and it will get repetitive and start to look off. 60-80 for people with less strong rigs. So if you are fine with the look of the grass it has in your game, no need for any edits. In case you do edit something make sure to not edit the iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure= setting. It has to stay the way it is.
Also There is a setting in your ENBlocal.ini called "generategrassnormals". This can have an impact on how your grass looks. Set it to true, and the grass will be more vibrant. Set it to false and it has a more natural color, a bit faded. Decide for yourself. (On the pictures it is set to true)
Installation:
It's easy. Go to the files section, and click on "download with mod manager" and install what you need.
There is the main file, and the two optional files.
Attention:
When installing, make sure my mod doesn't get overwritten by anything. There are only 2 textures that can be overwritten, named swordfern and reachgrassobj01. If you have some knowledge about this stuff tho, be free to change some textures to your liking.
Mod also includes terrain lod textures for the tundra, thanks go to Hein84, to match the grasses and make it look better. The look there can vary as well so you might have to use a different noise texture, depending on what ENB weather mod combo you use
Optional files:
Green fall forest
Yellow fall forest
Those are pretty obvious. So depending on what kind of fall forest you have, you might wanna choose one of those to make the grass fit nicely. If you use RAT (Realistic aspen trees) or anything else in that direction, you can stick with the default look of the grass.
Old v1.0 pine forest
Old v1.0 volcanic tundra
The old version of these regions in case you want them.
But you can also use these with other grass mods, by simply loading them after it. Both got all assets included.
Planned optional files:
Currently two more. A "traditional" tundra for people who dislike the style I choose here. It will look more like UG2's or Verdant's. The second would be a green tundra. I want to create some nice green fields. Currently those aren't really my priority and I don't have much time to do these. But they will surely come in the future.
Some recommendations:
- a decent replacer for trees or at least some good new textures for them. I personally use a mix of different trees, most from SFO and can always recommend SFOs trees. But I can also highly recommend EVT - Enhanced vanilla trees.
- a good set of textures. A base pack and some nice landscape textures. There are tons on Nexus so choose one and pick the one you like the most. For landscapes it's the same. There are a lot of high quality mods and textures. I recommend using some that have similar colors to the grass. Then they can occur to be lusher, especially helpful to people with less dense grass.
- a good ENB. ENB is a MUST have in 2020. There are tons of great presets even some that are fps friendly. I currently use Patrician ENB by Marmotte, one of the most well made ENBs I have ever seen. I also bow before Rudy ENB, one of my fav ENBs as well. Just stunning and it hits the "golden middle" meaning it fits to most setups and is performance friendly as well.
Now some more specific mod recommendations:
- Realistic Water Two
- SMIM + Ruins clutter improved + Ultimate HD fire effects - absolute MUST HAVES
- Landscape fixes for Grass mods (for SE but has a LE version as well in the miscellaneous files)
- all the texture and model mods from: Rudy102, SDlutz, John Skyrim, FrankFamily, Pfuscher, Kajun, Elsopa, Rallyeator, Gamwich, HalkHolgan, ramccoid
- aMidianBorn Book of Silence
- Enhanced Blood Textures
- Deadly Spell impacts
- Blended Roads
Just mods I recommend and I never could live without :D
Finally.
In case you have some ideas for improvements, see something weird, that looks off or buggy, write it in the comments. With that I do not mean anything like "Uh, I don't like that" or "Uh you have to change that"
No. I spent a year on this mod. I KNOW there are things that aren't perfect. And I WILL fix them, improve them etc.
But I am open for ideas and suggestions, as long as you respect my original view on it. ;D
So, when you are done reading it's time...