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As I was continuing the optimization work for Veydosebrom Regions I saw an interesting comment involving Grass FPS Boost on one of my uploaded images. So I decided to take a look at what exactly its doing—I'm not calling out or trying to disrespect anyone's work … let's be clear here. I'm just trying to bring some attention to this as grass seems to be a pretty important aspect of the game for people.
Grass FPS Boost seems to only tweak the density value, as suggested on Grass on Steroids (correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am), to a value of 255 … which is well beyond the value of 90 limit allowed by the Creation Kit. This tweak paired with a higher iMinGrassSize setting—usually a value of 60 or greater—is believed to give you extremely lush grass at great performance (and at the cost of vegetation intricacy, since everything is blended together), but after experiment in the CK with grass objects (while building/updating Veydosebrom Regions) I don't think that's the best approach to take … and one that I would not recommend.
Using JonnyWang13's texture and mesh optimization suggestions, a very low iMinGrassSize setting (which Wiki S.T.E.P. doesn't recommend for performance reasons, which I'll address later), such as the default value of 20, and extremely low density values, compared to the 255 value tweak from above, you can get even lusher grass with very similar performance.
Image Details Portion
The image above demonstrates this. The left side is using a single grass object and the settings/tweaks offered by mods like Grass FPS Boost; it rests at 143 FPS. The right side is using the settings from the third paragraph—texture-mesh optimizations, iMinGrassSize=20, and a density value of 30 … not 255; it rests at 139 FPS AND it's lusher.
As I'm redoing the Veydosebrom Regions areas for better performance using the latter methods I realized that there is way more "lush" and variety control with low iMinGrassSize and density values. So, if you're interested in creating a grass mod I suggest sticking with the default iMinGrassSize of 20 and use JonnyWang13's suggestions for textures and meshes. You'll see for yourself that high density values is not needed for lush grass. This will also result in greater control over it, as well as control over the variety seen. Mods that use the 255 tweak blend everything together and ruins the aesthetic intricacy of the ground floor, if that's what's aimed for.
As I said, I'm not trying to flame anyone's work. I'm trying to bring some attention to this since the 255 tweak is somewhat giving false advertising in terms of lush-ness and performance. It's not needed if the grass mod is using assets mindfully and properly.
How To Properly Increase Performance And Retain Lush-Diversity
If you really want to boost the performance of a grass mod then enlarge the cutout (alpha test) so that it covers more of the texture space and, consequently, Skyrim's square-planed meshes (unless you make entirely new meshes that have better UV mapping). Don't use normal maps, as they don't seem to work on grass objects. And don't overload the area with the 255 tweak. Be mindful. You can choose what iMinGrassSize to work with, but for a good, lush look I recommend to work with iMinGrassSize=20 … the default for Skyrim.
I'm bringing these concepts to the next version of Veydosebrom Regions; the performance increase is unbelievable. I gained significantly more FPS than when using Grass FPS Boost … and the aesthetic look remained the same. Check out my previous uploaded image for more details on that.
I'm doing all this, partly, for the Xbox version. It's not as powerful as some PCs can be.
As I was continuing the optimization work for Veydosebrom Regions I saw an interesting comment involving Grass FPS Boost on one of my uploaded images. So I decided to take a look at what exactly its doing—I'm not calling out or trying to disrespect anyone's work … let's be clear here. I'm just trying to bring some attention to this as grass seems to be a pretty important aspect of the game for people.
Grass FPS Boost seems to only tweak the density value, as suggested on Grass on Steroids (correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am), to a value of 255 … which is well beyond the value of 90 limit allowed by the Creation Kit. This tweak paired with a higher iMinGrassSize setting—usually a value of 60 or greater—is believed to give you extremely lush grass at great performance (and at the cost of vegetation intricacy, since everything is blended together), but after experiment in the CK with grass objects (while building/updating Veydosebrom Regions) I don't think that's the best approach to take … and one that I would not recommend.
Using JonnyWang13's texture and mesh optimization suggestions, a very low iMinGrassSize setting (which Wiki S.T.E.P. doesn't recommend for performance reasons, which I'll address later), such as the default value of 20, and extremely low density values, compared to the 255 value tweak from above, you can get even lusher grass with very similar performance.
Image Details Portion
The image above demonstrates this. The left side is using a single grass object and the settings/tweaks offered by mods like Grass FPS Boost; it rests at 143 FPS. The right side is using the settings from the third paragraph—texture-mesh optimizations, iMinGrassSize=20, and a density value of 30 … not 255; it rests at 139 FPS AND it's lusher.
As I'm redoing the Veydosebrom Regions areas for better performance using the latter methods I realized that there is way more "lush" and variety control with low iMinGrassSize and density values. So, if you're interested in creating a grass mod I suggest sticking with the default iMinGrassSize of 20 and use JonnyWang13's suggestions for textures and meshes. You'll see for yourself that high density values is not needed for lush grass. This will also result in greater control over it, as well as control over the variety seen. Mods that use the 255 tweak blend everything together and ruins the aesthetic intricacy of the ground floor, if that's what's aimed for.
As I said, I'm not trying to flame anyone's work. I'm trying to bring some attention to this since the 255 tweak is somewhat giving false advertising in terms of lush-ness and performance. It's not needed if the grass mod is using assets mindfully and properly.
How To Properly Increase Performance And Retain Lush-Diversity
If you really want to boost the performance of a grass mod then enlarge the cutout (alpha test) so that it covers more of the texture space and, consequently, Skyrim's square-planed meshes (unless you make entirely new meshes that have better UV mapping). Don't use normal maps, as they don't seem to work on grass objects. And don't overload the area with the 255 tweak. Be mindful. You can choose what iMinGrassSize to work with, but for a good, lush look I recommend to work with iMinGrassSize=20 … the default for Skyrim.
I'm bringing these concepts to the next version of Veydosebrom Regions; the performance increase is unbelievable. I gained significantly more FPS than when using Grass FPS Boost … and the aesthetic look remained the same. Check out my previous uploaded image for more details on that.
I'm doing all this, partly, for the Xbox version. It's not as powerful as some PCs can be.
3 comments
As you know well, I love your grasses and I look forward to the ongoing evolution of Veydosebrom. /salute