Skyrim

About this mod

A must have update for Tropical Skyrim by Soolie
New LOD makes for some great long views and some very pretty scenery
New textures & lots of recolors - TS is even more vibrant than before
New lighter mesh for the 3 big trees - your PC will love em
A mega ton of tree fixers & culling
New plant models
Solstheim

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs


Description
If you currently run Tropical Skyrim by Soolie or are thinking of doing so then Tropical Skyrim Enhanced ("TSE") is a must have.
The much maligned LOD is fixed, and with lots of new colors Skyrim is even more vibrant than before, and all together with that Soolie trademark of "color and light everywhere" it makes for great scenery and some very pretty long views.
This mod also brings new mesh for the three big tropical trees,  now they are "lighter" meaning less work for your PC but look identical to the old ones.
There is a change of color palette to several areas,  plus new textures & recolors to many other things. There are some new plants & trees, and a mega ton of tree & shrub culling & adjustment. Finally the DLCs ... DG & DB get some attention, including a total makeover for Solstheim, the ice, the snow, the ash are all banished.


Changes in Detail
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LOD Options -
TSE provides three LOD options for you to pick the best match to your situation :-
1/. Vanilla game equivalent object LOD with standard 2D tree LOD & made to be used with full TSOP [see Requirements below]
2/. Slightly better than vanilla object LOD with standard 2D tree LOD  (not recommended to be used with TSOP )
3/. Way better than vanilla object LOD with standard 2D tree LOD (not recommended to be used with TSOP )

Explanatory Notes & Guidance
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Compatibility
Soolies TS comments on incompatibility are still valid.
Textures, vegetation and LOD being the most obvious areas of incompatibility, together with lighting & weather.

As this mod changes additional vanilla textures to the "warm" TS tones there may now be additional texture clashes not present before with TS. There are texture changes to many areas, including bridge textures, imperial textures, road textures, stockade textures, farmhouse textures, soil textures, tree & plant textures, grass was ice/snow, etc. Clearly, if you want my textures then you will need to over write your existing ones. The changes are a mix of recolors and new textures, the recolors are at the same TS or vanilla game resolution, but the new replacer textures are generally to a high level.

The main download will overwrite the bridge models, which means users of SMIM will be switched to my new textures & bridge look, these are 2k textures and I think are a good substitute quality wise. Also the Dragon Bridge model is overwritten to remove a poorly matching dirt strip.

Overhauls to Solitude and Whiterun surrounds may be effected by clipping of newly replaced/added vegetation, that is different to TS.

It should also be noted that any "mod added" dungeons and the like that use vanilla vegetation may well have trees and shrubs in unwanted places due to the way TS/TSE works, meaning small inconsequential plants are converted to TS trees or shrubs which have collision and can block your progress. You may need to use console commands to remove obstructive vegetation. See "FORUM" Tab area ....re  "My path is blocked by a tree, what do I do ?"
 
More.....
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Requirements....
Essential .....
Tropical Skyrim -- A Climate Overhaul by Soolie
To work as intended the DLCs are required: - Dawnguard & Dragonborn.

Recommended if you select LOD Option 1 ....
Tropical Skyrim Optimised (TSOP)
this mod removes a significant number of trees from the game thus reducing the work load on your PC.
It is recommended but not essential for LOD Option 1 [but not advised to be used with LOD Options 2 & 3].
See also my comments on TSOP in the Compatibility section under the "More..." spoiler tab

Most Highly Recommended
ENBoost or recent ENB binary plus either Crash Fixes or SKSE Memory Tweak
Technically not a hard requirement for this mod or DynDoLOD but if you do not install these tweaks there is a very good chance you may not be able to reliably start and/or run TS with DynDoLOD/TSE. We are talking here of getting around limitations in the game engine, not how good your PC hardware is. DynDoLOD places extra demand on your game memory so just do it and save yourself some grief.

More Explanation .....
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Installation
There are no scripts in TSE and it should be fine to add/swap mid game, provided you do not cause your load order to change. TS, TSOP, & TSE should all be loading near last in any case.
Wrye Bash
is a great tool that can be used to check if your load order has changed to that in your SAVE.

It is HIGHLY recommended that installation should be via a mod manager. TS installs as loose files and thus TSE must do likewise, and there are a great number of files which will need to overwrite your existing ones. So if you ever wish to cleanly uninstall TSE, or even  temporarily uninstall so you can trial another TSE  LOD option, you will want to be sure it is done properly, or there will be issues, getting your LOD files out of sync will not look pretty.

Choose & install only 1 of the 3 main LOD options.
When prompted on installing ... just say "yes" to override

Install the main ESP file. This ESP works with all 3 LOD options, be sure to activate it as well as the DynDoLOD.esp contained in the LOD download. 
When prompted on installing ... just say "yes" to override
If you downloaded version 1.0.0 of the "TSE Main File" earlier , it is in error, please download the latest version 1.0.2
You will also need the TSE_Essential_Patch.

Also install the "textures & models" package it is essential no matter which LOD option you select.
When prompted on installing ... just say "yes" to override


If you run SMIM then you are using a replacer bridge model, and if you want my textures you will need to let TSE overwrite your existing bridge nifs. I could make a patch but it would ultimately use the same textures and look pretty much the same anyway. My new texture is 2k and looks good in game, plus the TSE bridge model removes the roadside dirt strip, which makes for a "cleaner" look and fits better with the TS colors.
I am not using the latest SMIM version so I am unaware if there are other newly introduced models that potentially clash, however almost all the other models that TSE changes are either trees or plants and you would need my replacements for TSE to work as intended.

Also just a word of warning its not TS per say that breaks HF but the optional TS Birds ESP, so if you want to build the three HF homes do not enable the TS Birds ESP. I probably will release a fix patch in due course.

Install Order >>>> TS then TSOP then TSE.

NB for LOD Options 2 & 3 there will be no TSOP !!!

These mods should all be near last in your load order, I place the DynDoLOD.esp after  TropicalSkyrimPGPTreeCull.esp [the main TSE esp] and just above my Bashed Patch [which is last].

Whats a Bashed Patch ? >>> google it OR go to my Forums Tab >> and find  >>> "Some Good Sources of Information".


UnInstall
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Performance Impact
TS formerly ran simplistic 2D billboard tree LOD, but will now be using LOD generated using DyndoLOD, and at Medium setting a lot more objects are now added into the distant views and this places more demand on your hardware. With 3 possible options, your choice of LOD [download] will determine the impact on your PC. This is why its so important for weaker PCs to run full TSOP to lighten the work load, and for all users to apply the "tweaks" outlined in Requirements Section above.

The impact will vary for each user according to their hardware, their mod list & "other" textures (think HiRes), possible use of an ENB, screen resolution, what game settings & ini tweaks are active, extra skeletons, physics & body jiggle mods, number of followers in custom bodies & gear, general PC loading (non game background activity), STEAM overlays, etc, etc, etc, and despite my best efforts TS together with TSE will still remain a "heavy" mod, and its possible some users with low end PCs will not be able to run it no matter what. LOD Option 1/ is about equivalent in impact to standard TS, before including any beneficial effect of my lighter tree mesh, and TSOP.

For those who have never run DynDoLOD, be aware that you no longer need to run certain LOD mods so there is a saving to be had there. The following mods are replaced by DynDOLOD, they should be removed from the load order ......
Skyrim Distant Overhaul - SDO - both the static object LOD *.bto and all *.esps.
Skyrim Distant Detail and Distant Detail Hearthfire Edition
Expand Object LODs

Just some random thoughts ....
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FAQs & Further Information
In the "FORUM" Tab area I have included material that may be helpful for the curious or technical minded .... some links to a few good information sources and several Guides on good modding practice and how to make your game stable, plus some primers on how LOD works and some associated performance issues.



Permissions
TSE contains repurposed Bethesda assets, modders resources, models & textures I have created and/or modified, together with assets for which I have been granted permission, and mixtures of the above. If you wish to use any assets from this mod you must contact me first for permission. It is probable in time that most of what I have created in the making of this mod and for which I have the power to do so will be released as standalone mods, but only when I am sure everything is working as intended and no further adjustments are required.



Credit & Thank you
"for such an original & vibrant landscape overhaul" .........Soolie
Tropical Skyrim -- A Climate Overhaul

"for the fantastic new LOD building tools" ....... sheson, Zilav
Dynamic Distant Objects LOD
TES5LODGen
Tree LOD billboard creator for xLODGen

"for the great models & textures and other assets" ....... muppetpuppet, Ga-Knomboe Boy, eduadodom,
Massycraft, Tamira (& original creators Yughues & Birdy)
tree and foliage model sample
GKB Green Trees
Natural Grass Texture Floor
Tropical Skyrim Optimised (TSOP)
New Plants 1_3
"for TS-II and earlier work of patching Tropical Skyrim" .........fredlaus, Tcz
"to the clever people that made the bedrock tools that make moding possible" ..........
Nifscope , SKSE , PapyrusUtil , TesEditV , ... apologies to those I left out
"for the tweak software that has become an indispensable part of our game ........ Boris Vorontsov, meh321
Crash fix ENBoost by Boris Vorontsov and ENB Binaries
Crash fixes by meh321
"for inspiration & awesome makeovers" ...... AceeQ, Vert, 32cm, and others
"for such a great game" ........... Bethesda
"credit also for the mesh & texture tools & interface software so freely available
and so necessary in the making of this mod" ...........GIMP , Blender