Lightweight Grass & Landscape Overhaul

The grass found in this mod is far lighter and more efficient than the
vanilla grass. We have created dense grass that renders on 3x as many
surfaces as vanilla as well as on steep mountain slopes, so regions like
the Reach become blanketed in grass. This grass also comes with
landscape textures and terrain LOD that has had grass and other ground cover baked in so your grass will blend seamlessly into the distance.


Features

Performance-friendly Grass: Our grass is performance friendly for three reasons.

• Our grass textures have a lot of grass on them which allow you to render
  fewer models and textures. In addition, by increasing the density of
  grass within the textures, we have massively reduced GPU overdraw. 
• Our grass models decrease your poly count. These models consist of only 3 triangles. For perspective, most grasses in vanilla game or mods consist of 12 to
  200 triangles. Grass is 2D, and adding a whole bunch of extra polygons
  isn't going to change or improve that, so by simplifying the models we
  have improved performance at no visual cost.   
• We provide matching landscape textures which make grass appear denser than it actually is, for example.
  

3D Ground Cover: We've made low lying ground cover so you'll have 3D ground. Here's an example of 3D ground with small plants. Notice how cohesive the landscape texture and ground cover is. This is a true
3D effect, and the result is stunning on both 2D monitors and VR. Here's an example with piles of aspen leaves. Similar approaches in alternate mods use 100's of polygons to accomplish a lower quality result. We also have 3D lupins which use only 3 triangles per flower.

Seamless Grass Transitions with Terrain LOD: We provide HD terrain LOD which has been baked with our grass textures so that the transitions are seamless. 

HD Landscape Textures: We provide matching HD landscape textures which confuse the mind to make
grass appear denser than it actually is. Our landscape textures have
also been specially edited to reduce tiling, so that you don't see the
same patterns repeated over and over. Cathedral Landscapes includes Cathedral Snow. 

No Grass Growing Through Camps or Settlements: Grass mods tend to add grass to all the barren landscape, at the cost of
growing grass through many spots that were meant to be grass-free. We
have a simple and highly compatible solution. Ground is highly
irregular, except where people settle. The ground of towns and camps is
almost completely level. If you tell grass not to grow where ground is
flat, you prevent clipping while keeping the wilderness lush. In order
to achieve maximum grass coverage of landscape, we have only applied
this fix to terrain which was not supposed to receive grass in the
vanilla game (Records with "_NoGrass" suffix which are used
predominantly for camps and villages). You can see before and after shots here, with the mod "More Bandit Camps" active. Recommended

Unfortunately, landscape and grass are illuminated by different variables, and thus
seamless transitions between grass and LOD can be broken by weather mods
and ENB if they change the balance between grass illumination and
landscape illumination. For best results, use Cathedral Weathers, designed specifically for this grass mod.


Compatibility

• Cathedral Plants and Mushrooms are not included
• Mountain textures are not included
• Standard Blended Roads is included by default. To use Really Blended Roads, select the option during install.
• Not compatible with other landscape or terrain LOD mods for aesthetic purposes.
• Compatible with A Quality World Map : Load QWM after Cathedral Landscapes.
• Compatible with Majestic Mountains : Load MM before Cathedral Landscapes.
• Compatible with trees mods and with DynDOLOD.
  

CATHEDRAL MODDING

There are two primary philosophies when it comes to modding, Parlor and Cathedral, originally coined by the former modder, Wrye.

In the Parlor view, we consider mods as privately owned works of art displayed in a
modder's parlor. We invite others to come appreciate our work. We
directly receive compliments and endorsements, encouraging us to produce
further work. 

In the Cathedral Concept, we consider modding a joint effort. We share our work with each other
to foster further mod development, to keep the community alive, and to
contribute in the construction of mods of monumental
scale. Individually, our contributions may be small and not worth doing
for themselves, but by each person contributing something, we construct
something larger and more worthwhile than any of us could do on our
own. 

The following authors have contributed to this mod. Consider that modifications have been made
and this mod does not necessarily reflect the authors' original works. Please download, endorse, donate, or leave comments of support to the
following authors for their contributions to Skyrim modding. 

SSE Texture Pack - Osmodius by Osmodius
Landscape Overhaul HD by Luxor8071

 Majestic Landscapes by T4GTR34UM3R
Veydosebrom - Grasses and Groundcover by Merkcy and by extension elinen, joshezzel, AnOldFriend and Pfuscher 
Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin by Preeum and by extension Vurt, Josh Ezzell, Aceeq, 32cm, Tamu75 and elinlen 

 Skyrim Flora Overhaul by Vurt and by extension Darkstorne

 Unique Grasses and Groundcovers by joshezzell

 Pine Forest Landscapes by Spooknik

 High Poly Fern Meshes by Mindflux