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About this mod
Combines the amazing pine tree replacer from David and the aspen tree replacer from Tamu75 into one mod, but also adds billboard, passthru files for 3D lod generation and other things to improve it and making it a All-in-one lightweight and beautiful tree replacer!
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
First of all, big thanks to following authors:
David for his amazing pine trees:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/77330
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/5588739
Tamu75 for his beautiful aspen trees:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/62849
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/5357888
Vurt, who allowed me to include his textures from the original two mods:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/41808
Pfuscher, that gave me permission to include his great bark texture for the optional aspen replacer, from 4K Parallax Skyrim:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49661
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/212132
Ga-Knomboe Boy and his GKB Green Trees from which I use the maple branch and brown aspen branch textures for the optional file:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19268
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/150026
Also thanks to Sheson for DynDOLOD and his documentation about ultra lods, Gamerpoets for his DynDOLOD and billboards video, as well as Daralima and LossRec, who went over the page once, to check for typos. Thank you!
Please check out and endorse their mods and give the authors some Kudos. Without them, this mod couldn't have been possible!
I present:
A beautiful and lightweight, All-in-one tree replacer
About this mod:
It actually started as a little project for myself, because I loved both David's pine trees and Tamu75's aspen trees.
But the problem: Neither of them had any billboards nor files for 3D lod generation. So I decided, let's make some. After that, I edited a bit here and a bit there, I made some edits to have winter aspen variations and then I made some ash pine tree models, and before I even noticed, I had a tree replacer covering all pine and aspen trees in the game.
Now I decided to share it for everyone who loves the trees too, or is looking for some refreshing alternative to SFO or EVT (which both are amazing mods btw.) or is looking for a lightweight alternative, cause they can't handle any of the heavier tree mods, and doesn't want to look at the hideous vanilla trees anymore :P
What's included?
- Model replacer for all pine trees and aspen trees, this includs:
- Skyrim: treepineforest/dead/deadsnow/deadsnowl/snow/snowl 01-05; treeaspen01-06 (plus 2 alternative optional versions)
- Dawnguard: dlc1treepineshortheavysnow/01; dlc1winteraspensnow 01-05; winteraspen 01-06
- Dragonborn: dlc2treepineshortheavysnow/01; treepineforest/ash/ashl/deadashl 01-05
- New models for the pineshrub 01 and 02, as well as its snow and ash variations
- Two optional aspen version, one for green aspen trees and one that turns the aspen trees into tall maples with brown bark (maybe not the most
accurate maple tree but it does look quite nice)
- patch for the aspen trees, that removes the parallax effect if you either don't want it or don't use the parallax shader fix.
!!!That means, if you want to have parallax you need the SSE Parallax Shader Fix for it to work properly. If not, install the optional patch!!!
- Billboards for all the tree as well as passthru mesh files for 3D lod generation, for seamless transition between the trees and lods.
Note about the 3D lods:
I decided to create static lods and not hybrid lods. If you don't know the difference:
Static lods are the actual tree mode, but without animations and some other shaders, Hybrid tree lods are a mix between a flat trunk and 3D branches, thus being more performance friendly.
The reason I choose static over hybrid was, that the tree models from david and tamu are already very light and I simply didn't see a reason to spend a couple hours on creating Hybrid lods for all of the trees. I might optimize the lods in the future, but this isn't my current priority.
About the ash tree of Solstheim:
I am not a texture editor or graphics designer, so don't expect an absolutely amazing job with the trees textures. I do think I did a pretty decent job, but I'm pretty sure someone with more experience can create some way better textures. But so far, they look pretty okay ingame and on solstheim, so I hope they aren't too shabby and you like them.
Installation:
Download the main file called "David's pine and Tamu75's aspen trees Redux - Main" and the second main file called "David's pine and Tamu75's aspen trees Redux - billboards" for lod generation.
Why two seperate files?
For a better overview of everything and for easier location of the files. Plus smaller files for a faster download. You can also download one of the two optional files of you want a green forest instead of a fall one. :)
Install them like any other mod, check that you don't have another tree overhaul installed. Make sure to install: first the main file, then the billboards and then one of the optional files (make sure it overwrites both the main file and the billboards file)
You are done.
Generating Lods:
It's a very easy process to setup and generate DynDOLOD. I highly recommend watching this video from Gamerpoets (who, btw, makes some absolutely amazing and high quality videos for modding, if you haven't already, subscribe to his channel), if you never used DynDOLOD before:
Here is also the SE video:
It doesn't mention how to generate 3D lods, so here are the steps required to do so:
1. Go into your DynDOLOD folder and find the DynDOLOD_SSE.ini. It should be located under:
DynDOLOD\EditScripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini
2. Delete the cache folder, located in DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\
3. Open the ini, and look for the setting: "TreeLOD=1", set this to 0, to replace the flat tree lod to static ones. Save, and close it.
4. When starting DynDOLOD, set up your configuration, settings, high, medium or low etc. then check that this setting says "static":
When you choose high, this should be all setup correctly already, if you choose medium or low tho, it will not use a static lod as default, so you have to make an edit here. Right click on that line, and click on on "edit".
A window should open up. There you should make some changes. It should look like this:
Click okay, and start generating your lods. The rest from then on will be just like always. Congrats! You generated some 3D lods! :D
Okay. Wooow. So I went through aaall of this, just for slightly better lods?
No. You don't just get slightly better lods. You get lod that are actually worth looking at for a couple hours. Let me explain, and show:
Skyrim uses a flat, 2x2 mesh with a texture applied to it for it's tree lods. This wouldn't be to much of a problem, I mean, both TW3 and Oblivion have flat lods, and they look a lot better, but Skyrim has:
1. Awful lighting (This is fixed by ENB tho, and ENB even got a feature that allow you to edit the shaders for distance lod to fit to every weather)
2. Many heights and depth (This is bad, because you can directly look at all the trees from a quite bad angle, plus see a lot of the distance all the time)
3. Very sparse forests (bad because this makes you clearly see each individual tree model)
All of these 3 factors, can make your distance, and distance tree lods simply look god awful.
Okay, well DynDOLOD does already do a pretty great job, even with flat lods. And if you put some effort and work into your billboards, you can get quite some great outcomes, but not everyone puts so much effort into them.
But if you can spare a couple fps, you definilty want 3D lods.
Now here are some pictures, that show you what I mean, when I say "seamless transition":
Now before you start sobbing, close your mouth. I know it paralyzingly beautiful.
This is what your lods could look like. Simply perfect.
Still not convinced? Still thinking you don't need 3D lods or DynDOLOD? Well, here is a picture of what Skyrims lods without DynDOLOD or 3D trees looks like:
Horrible right?
But let's be serious again. If you have some fps to spare, get 3D lods. They are absolutely worth it, really. You will never want to go back to flat lods ever again!
But, if your system can't handle 3D lods, 2D lods can be just fine too. But generating DynDOLOD is an absolute must. Imo, it's the second most important graphical change after ENB. It has an insane impact on your game's look.
Btw. before this topic is closed and you slowly get to the finish of the modpage, here is a Fun-Fact:
"In the second picture, while editing, I couldn't tell at first where the lods and where the actual trees are. Only as I noticed the shadows I knew it."
!!!Attention!!!
If you happen to edit, I dunno, some shaders or vertex colors or anything on the tree meshes, you will very likley to have to regenerate the CRC32 values for its passthru lod, or else DynDOLOD won't take the file for the lod generation, and you end up with a mix of flat lods and 3D ones.
But do not worry! It is quite easy to fix it.
In the folder DynDOLOD\Docs\trees.ultra\tools is a file called "DynDOLOD_CRC32Gen.pas" it's an xEdit script. Take it, and place it into your sseEdit\Edit Scripts folder.
Start xEdit, load up the esm the tree you edited is from, so Skyrim.esm, Dawnguard.esm or Dragonborn.esm, wait till it is finished loading. Then go to the tree records, and look for the tree you edited.
When you find it, right-click on it, apply script and choose the DynDOLOD:CRC32Gen.pas. In the messages tab should now stay, for example:
\Data\DynDOLOD-Source\treepineforest01_passthru_lod.nif for E:\Programme (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\Data\meshes\DynDOLOD\lod\trees\treepineforest01_FAEC5159passthru_lod.nif
You now need the last part, which is "treepineforest01_FAEC5159passtrhu_lod.nif" copy that name to the passthru lod, located in meshes\DynDOLOD\lod\trees
Plans for the future/updates:
- maybe optimizing the lods a bit further but this isn't much of a priority for me.
- maybe some better textures for the ash pines
- animating the trees. Yes. I really want to give the trees a bit more movement. Even tho tree, grass and plant animations aren't linked to theweather in
anyway, which is quite sad, I think giving the trees some more movement will look great and add a lot more to the atmosphere of the game. This will
take some time, since it is very tedious. I don't know when I will start seriously working on that, or if I even have a lot of time to do it. But I will try
my best
Compatibility:
Everything that doesn't replacer the same already. But you can of course also overwrite the files, if you, for example, want completlty different aspen trees or snow trees or etc.
Textures: Both Davids and Tam75's tree use their own textures, so they won't use the vanilla texture path. Only the aspen trees use your current branch texture, same with the winter variations. The 2 models of the snowy trees will also use your snow textures for the bumpy snow cover.
Some mods I recommend or which nicley complelment the mod:
- Plants and reachtreebranch textures from SFO. SFO got some great plant textures and really nice bush models, aswell as an absolutly stunning texture
for the reachtreebranches which will look great with the mod below
- 4K parallax tree bark. Great textures, with parallax, for some trees. I only use the reach trees and tundra trees, which look breathtaking. (You can use
its textures just fine in SE, just make sure not to use the meshes.)
- A great grass mod is always required for Skyrim. Cause face it, the vanilla grass is quite hideous. Let's fix that. Here are some recommendations:
Veydosebrom Regions
Verdant
Northern Grasses (also make sure to grab this fix)
Fantastic Grasses (SE version avaible in it's file section)
But SFO itself, also got some very pretty grass
- Some overhauls for landscapes, architecture, dungeons etc. Here are a couple recommendations:
Noble Skyrim
Skyland - All in one
- And here are a couple mods I recommend to get even better looking lods.
HD LOD Textures (I personally only use the textures)
Terrain Lod Redone
If you are looking for some mods mod recommendations or must have mods, check the page of fantastic grasses
Wohooo, you made it to the end of the page!
What? Are you expecting some kind of price? A cookie? No. Those are mine. Get your own.
