Verdant has reached 2.0! Here's a rundown of all the changes in the latest version.
The reach landscape has been completely overhauled. I was never satisfied with the reach grass ending up being a forest grass clone, so I've given it lots of variety and made it more bushy and less grassy; it feels a little bit more arid and warm, something akin to northern California. Also the occasional poppy field.
The beach grass has been completely redone. Lots of beaches, even beaches in the north, can be pretty grassy like this. Now you can enjoy running through it along the coast.
Lakes and rivers now have cat tails and other grasses along their banks, and this changes with the region. A lot of people requested this, and I think it's a great addition to Verdant.
There are new grasses and wildflowers for the tundra and fall forest regions. The tundra and fall forest grasses haven't changed a lot, but I've more variety to the both of them, and have found places in Skyrim to add some special wildflowers. These updates will be ongoing as I continue to find more suitable places for wildflowers.
The pine forest regions look a whole lot nicer. And greener. I've tried my best to add more diversity to the plants in the region; some are grassy, some are full of wildflowers, and some are weedy and overgrown. All look nice enough to roll in.
Morthals marsh just got a whole lot spookier. And grassier. The marsh grass hasn't changed too much, but I've added a little more variety and a lot of handplaced plants to help add to the creepy vibe.
Speaking of hand-placed plants, I've added a ton. And I'll be adding more in the updates to come. You may fail to notice them, however, since I try to make their placement feel seamless.
I've also fixed a lot of problem areas in the game being too grassy and "mowed" a lot of areas, even ones I thought I fixed previously but failed to realize just how hard it is to get dense grasses cleared out.
You no longer have to use Decrease That Grass, Remove Underwater Grass and Other Stuff Too, etc ...
The new 'No Rock Grass Version' of this mod is doing the same thing and should replace the mod that you have. This version makes sure Skyrim loads NO ROCK/WATERGRASS MESHES WHATSOEVER so you get an even better performance boost compared to just loading empty meshes -- and yes, all waterplants and all rock grasses have been removed, both skyrim's vanilla and mine.
For Full Version and No Rockgrass Version Users: It is extremely important to put Verdant at the bottom of your load order if you want to benefit from the landscaping I've done to this mod, such as cleaning up all the overly grassy areas. Many other mods can overwrite this information, so it's just safer to always keep it at the bottom.
Will there be a short grass version for 2.0?
No, this grass version is already based on the shorter grass version, and I don't intend to make the grass any shorter than it currently is. If you want to see the ground easier, set your iMinGrassSize to a higher number.
Will there be a 1k/512 version?
Currently, you can still install the old 1k/512 texture files and they will still work for MOST of the grasses in Verdant 2.0, but not all. I will get to that in a bit.
How do I update?
Just download the new verdant with your Skyrim mod manager, uninstall the old Verdant and install verdant 2.0. Just make sure Verdant's esp is at the bottom of your load order.
If you like the old Verdant grass better you can by all means still use it, but there will no longer be support for the old 1.6c version of Verdant. In the near future if there are requests I will update the clipping fixes for this version.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND SETTING YOUR IMINGRASSSIZE TO 60 FOR THIS VERSION.
This is a very big update, so I hope you enjoy it!
QUESTIONS? TROUBLESHOOTING? WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN GRASS TWEAKS? CHECK THE FAQ IN THE DESCRIPTION SECTION BEFORE POSTING.
IN ORDER TO USE THIS MOD AS INTENDED, YOU HAVE TO ADJUST YOUR INI ACCORDINGLY.
In order to use Verdant like intended (whether you have SFO or not), make sure that at least "iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=15" is in your skyrim.ini file located in your documents\my games\skyrim folder, and that you adjust "iMinGrassSize" from about 50 up to 70 and even higher depending on how much your rig can handle. Setting it to 70 is a good place to start to see what works best for you in terms of grass density/performance.
I highly recommend people using the full version of Verdant place the Verdant - a Skyrim grass plugin.esp at the bottom of your load order so the spruced up grass areas won't disappear.
If there are other places in Skyrim you would like spruced up, just follow this simple procedure and let me know about it!
Once in the right spot, open up your console (tilde key ~) and click on a tree or a rock in-game that sits as close to the spot as possible. A reference ID should appear. Please write it down and submit it to me. A screenshot in addition to this step would also be helpful!
Spruced up some places (Falkreath Stormcloak camp/Orphan Rock) as well as altered the cattail grass to only show up around lake Ilinalta/Riverwood; the rest of the river grass is a light grass that should not be too much of an eyesore.
I'll no longer be adding different esp versions on this site. You can easily edit this grass mod to suit your own needs following the tutorial and looking for specific grasses.
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE ANY ROCK GRASSES: Open the Landscape Texture section and look for these textures: LRocks01, LDirt01, LDirt02, LRiverbedEdge01, LRiverBottom01, LRiverMud01, LReachMossyRocks01, LReachDirt01, LCaveDirt, LTundraRocks01, LMineFloorDirt01, LFallForestRocks01, LCoastOceanFloor01, LTundraRocks01NoRocks, LRocks01NoRocks, LVolcanicTundraDirt01, LVolcanicTundraRocks01, LVolcanicTundraRocks02, LVolcanicTundraGavel01, LVolcanicTundraDirt01NoGrass, LRiverbottom01NoGrass, LRiverMud01NoGrass, LFallForestRocks01NoRocks, LReachMossyRocks01NoRocks, LRiverbedEdge01PF and remove these grasses: SmallPebbles SmallPebblesFarmingPlots SmallPebblesRiverEdge RiverbedPebbles
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE DARK ROAD GRASS: Open the Landscape Texture section and look for these textures: LDirt01, LDirt02 and remove these grasses: Egrass10_mine Egrass10_mineb
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE UNDERWATER GRASS: Check the River/Coast Landscape Textures and remove these grasses: LRiverBottom01, LRiverMud01, LCoastOceanFloor01 and remove these grasses: EWpLake07 EWpSea03 EWpSea06 EWpSea08 WaterKelpGrass01 (original vanilla water grass)
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE ANY WORLDSPACE EDITS: Just open the dropdown of files for Verdant by clicking on the name, go down and click on "Worldspace" and hit delete. I no longer recommend this (unless you have an extensive landscape overhaul that has edited the ground placement itself); honestly when I made this edit at the time I thought this would be a good idea but I didn't know enough yet about running a stable game, or what causes/doesn't cause a crash. I can honestly say that in regards to stability, the worldspace edits my grass mod makes are minor and I doubt would ever cause any problems for anyone.
What 'worldspace edits' really means is that I've edited some of the landscape textures on the landscape so that this mod can have thick grass but still keep roads/areas clear of excess grass. I've had to make this texture edit because the vanilla grass is not nearly as dense (which is how the Grass on Steroids tweak works, which is why I ask you to put iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=15 in your ini file; the original amount of grasses in Vanilla skyrim is 3).
So I guess if you're paranoid about that sort of thing, you can just delete the "Worldspace" section in verdant's esp, but honestly I'd say just keep it. Even if you have a massive skyrim landscape overhaul and every village mod and enhanced landscapes etc etc, a lot of my texture painting info will be overwritten but a lot of it will still be preserved on the rural roads so you can actually see where you're going. That said, it's your game.
Heads up to everyone that I don't play LE anymore, and haven't for years. This mod as far as I know is still working great in LE and shouldn't have any issues. Don't clean this mod, as it would likely break all grasses. Any issues you have can still be answered in the FAQ or by the community, which is why I'll still keep the comments open for others to troubleshoot, but I consider this mod feature-complete and does not need any further updates for LE. I am considering recreating verdant down the line, so this may not be set in stone, but I work a lot so this might not be for awhile. Thanks for understanding!
I've been modding Skyrim since 2012, and I've found cleaning mods to be a complete waste of time. "Dirty edits" don't cause crashes or compatibility issues. Unsorted load orders do.
Hey, Stompwalker. Check out the SE mod that you attached, "Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods". Look in the Miscellaneous files and you will see that the author created an LE version, too. Pretty soon your clipping issues will disappear - for the most part.
PSA : this mod doesn't play well with Skyrim Flora Overhaul out of the box and needs various tweaks (I'm still figuring these out, will edit as I make progress).
With both mods active and the .ini files tweaked as per the mod author's recommendations, my GPU usage is through the roof: on my 3090, with AA deactivated and no ENB, it goes up to 80% which is crazy. With only Verdant or Skyrim Flora Overhaul, it goes back to 30-40% depending on the situation, which is much more reasonable.
I think it has do with the way Skyrim Flora Overhaul deals with the .ini settings by adding its own file, overwriting changes and potentially causing grassy areas to be much denser than intended with Verdant, tanking the FPS in the process. I would like to get the grass from Verdant and the trees from the other, so I'll try to investigate a compatibility workaround.
EDIT: found it! There was indeed a .ini file in the Skyrim Flora Overhaul mod that had "iMinGrassSize=20", which made the grass patch more than 3 times denser than Verdant intended. Of course that completely tanked the performance.
Simple fix: if you want to use both mods, simply delete "Skyrim Flora Overhaul.ini" file and edit your own .ini files according to preeum's recommendations (see stickied post above).
Apparently,DynDOLOD (not 3.x) says Missing model "meshes\landscape\plants\mixgrass01.nif". mixgrass01.nif is in meshes\landscape\grass. I just copied it over. I think this may be why I've been have issues with pixelated flora.
1948 comments
Verdant has reached 2.0! Here's a rundown of all the changes in the latest version.
The reach landscape has been completely overhauled.
I was never satisfied with the reach grass ending up being a forest grass clone, so I've given it lots of variety and made it more bushy and less grassy; it feels a little bit more arid and warm, something akin to northern California. Also the occasional poppy field.
The beach grass has been completely redone.
Lots of beaches, even beaches in the north, can be pretty grassy like this. Now you can enjoy running through it along the coast.
Lakes and rivers now have cat tails and other grasses along their banks, and this changes with the region.
A lot of people requested this, and I think it's a great addition to Verdant.
There are new grasses and wildflowers for the tundra and fall forest regions.
The tundra and fall forest grasses haven't changed a lot, but I've more variety to the both of them, and have found places in Skyrim to add some special wildflowers. These updates will be ongoing as I continue to find more suitable places for wildflowers.
The pine forest regions look a whole lot nicer. And greener.
I've tried my best to add more diversity to the plants in the region; some are grassy, some are full of wildflowers, and some are weedy and overgrown. All look nice enough to roll in.
Morthals marsh just got a whole lot spookier. And grassier.
The marsh grass hasn't changed too much, but I've added a little more variety and a lot of handplaced plants to help add to the creepy vibe.
Speaking of hand-placed plants, I've added a ton.
And I'll be adding more in the updates to come. You may fail to notice them, however, since I try to make their placement feel seamless.
I've also fixed a lot of problem areas in the game being too grassy and "mowed" a lot of areas, even ones I thought I fixed previously but failed to realize just how hard it is to get dense grasses cleared out.
You no longer have to use Decrease That Grass, Remove Underwater Grass and Other Stuff Too, etc ...
The new 'No Rock Grass Version' of this mod is doing the same thing and should replace the mod that you have. This version makes sure Skyrim loads NO ROCK/WATERGRASS MESHES WHATSOEVER so you get an even better performance boost compared to just loading empty meshes -- and yes, all waterplants and all rock grasses have been removed, both skyrim's vanilla and mine.
For Full Version and No Rockgrass Version Users:
It is extremely important to put Verdant at the bottom of your load order if you want to benefit from the landscaping I've done to this mod, such as cleaning up all the overly grassy areas. Many other mods can overwrite this information, so it's just safer to always keep it at the bottom.
Will there be a short grass version for 2.0?
No, this grass version is already based on the shorter grass version, and I don't intend to make the grass any shorter than it currently is. If you want to see the ground easier, set your iMinGrassSize to a higher number.
Will there be a 1k/512 version?
Currently, you can still install the old 1k/512 texture files and they will still work for MOST of the grasses in Verdant 2.0, but not all. I will get to that in a bit.
How do I update?
If you like the old Verdant grass better you can by all means still use it, but there will no longer be support for the old 1.6c version of Verdant. In the near future if there are requests I will update the clipping fixes for this version.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND SETTING YOUR IMINGRASSSIZE TO 60 FOR THIS VERSION.
This is a very big update, so I hope you enjoy it!
QUESTIONS? TROUBLESHOOTING? WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN GRASS TWEAKS? CHECK THE FAQ IN THE DESCRIPTION SECTION BEFORE POSTING.
IN ORDER TO USE THIS MOD AS INTENDED, YOU HAVE TO ADJUST YOUR INI ACCORDINGLY.
In order to use Verdant like intended (whether you have SFO or not), make sure that at least "iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=15" is in your skyrim.ini file located in your documents\my games\skyrim folder, and that you adjust "iMinGrassSize" from about 50 up to 70 and even higher depending on how much your rig can handle. Setting it to 70 is a good place to start to see what works best for you in terms of grass density/performance.
I highly recommend people using the full version of Verdant place the Verdant - a Skyrim grass plugin.esp at the bottom of your load order so the spruced up grass areas won't disappear.
MY PERSONAL INI SETTINGS
Skyrim.ini:
[Grass]
iGrassCellRadius=2
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0
bGrassPointLighting=1
b30GrassVS=0
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=15
iMinGrassSize=70
Skyrimprefs.ini
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=0
fGrassStartFadeDistance=9000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=9000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000
HELP ME HELP YOU! LET'S MOW THAT GRASS
If there are other places in Skyrim you would like spruced up, just follow this simple procedure and let me know about it!
Once in the right spot, open up your console (tilde key ~) and click on a tree or a rock in-game that sits as close to the spot as possible. A reference ID should appear. Please write it down and submit it to me. A screenshot in addition to this step would also be helpful!
Verdant 2.2 Update:
Spruced up some places (Falkreath Stormcloak camp/Orphan Rock) as well as altered the cattail grass to only show up around lake Ilinalta/Riverwood; the rest of the river grass is a light grass that should not be too much of an eyesore.
I'll no longer be adding different esp versions on this site. You can easily edit this grass mod to suit your own needs following the tutorial and looking for specific grasses.
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE ANY ROCK GRASSES:
Open the Landscape Texture section and look for these textures:
LRocks01, LDirt01, LDirt02, LRiverbedEdge01, LRiverBottom01, LRiverMud01, LReachMossyRocks01, LReachDirt01, LCaveDirt, LTundraRocks01, LMineFloorDirt01, LFallForestRocks01, LCoastOceanFloor01, LTundraRocks01NoRocks, LRocks01NoRocks, LVolcanicTundraDirt01, LVolcanicTundraRocks01, LVolcanicTundraRocks02, LVolcanicTundraGavel01, LVolcanicTundraDirt01NoGrass, LRiverbottom01NoGrass, LRiverMud01NoGrass, LFallForestRocks01NoRocks, LReachMossyRocks01NoRocks, LRiverbedEdge01PF
and remove these grasses:
SmallPebbles
SmallPebblesFarmingPlots
SmallPebblesRiverEdge
RiverbedPebbles
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE DARK ROAD GRASS:
Open the Landscape Texture section and look for these textures:
LDirt01, LDirt02
and remove these grasses:
Egrass10_mine
Egrass10_mineb
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE UNDERWATER GRASS:
Check the River/Coast Landscape Textures and remove these grasses:
LRiverBottom01, LRiverMud01, LCoastOceanFloor01
and remove these grasses:
EWpLake07
EWpSea03
EWpSea06
EWpSea08
WaterKelpGrass01 (original vanilla water grass)
FOR USERS WHO WANT TO REMOVE ANY WORLDSPACE EDITS:
Just open the dropdown of files for Verdant by clicking on the name, go down and click on "Worldspace" and hit delete.
I no longer recommend this (unless you have an extensive landscape overhaul that has edited the ground placement itself); honestly when I made this edit at the time I thought this would be a good idea but I didn't know enough yet about running a stable game, or what causes/doesn't cause a crash. I can honestly say that in regards to stability, the worldspace edits my grass mod makes are minor and I doubt would ever cause any problems for anyone.
What 'worldspace edits' really means is that I've edited some of the landscape textures on the landscape so that this mod can have thick grass but still keep roads/areas clear of excess grass. I've had to make this texture edit because the vanilla grass is not nearly as dense (which is how the Grass on Steroids tweak works, which is why I ask you to put iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=15 in your ini file; the original amount of grasses in Vanilla skyrim is 3).
So I guess if you're paranoid about that sort of thing, you can just delete the "Worldspace" section in verdant's esp, but honestly I'd say just keep it. Even if you have a massive skyrim landscape overhaul and every village mod and enhanced landscapes etc etc, a lot of my texture painting info will be overwritten but a lot of it will still be preserved on the rural roads so you can actually see where you're going. That said, it's your game.
This mod seems perfect, but its just for SE: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9005
Is there an equivalent to the above for non-SE editions?
Check out the SE mod that you attached, "Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods".
Look in the Miscellaneous files and you will see that the author created an LE version, too.
Pretty soon your clipping issues will disappear - for the most part
Landscape Fixes For Grass Mods LE at Skyrim Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)
Literally the only mod I've found that makes any noticeable impact with Verdant.
With both mods active and the .ini files tweaked as per the mod author's recommendations, my GPU usage is through the roof: on my 3090, with AA deactivated and no ENB, it goes up to 80% which is crazy. With only Verdant or Skyrim Flora Overhaul, it goes back to 30-40% depending on the situation, which is much more reasonable.
I think it has do with the way Skyrim Flora Overhaul deals with the .ini settings by adding its own file, overwriting changes and potentially causing grassy areas to be much denser than intended with Verdant, tanking the FPS in the process. I would like to get the grass from Verdant and the trees from the other, so I'll try to investigate a compatibility workaround.
EDIT: found it! There was indeed a .ini file in the Skyrim Flora Overhaul mod that had "iMinGrassSize=20", which made the grass patch more than 3 times denser than Verdant intended. Of course that completely tanked the performance.
Simple fix: if you want to use both mods, simply delete "Skyrim Flora Overhaul.ini" file and edit your own .ini files according to preeum's recommendations (see stickied post above).