If you experience some shadow pop where a large tree in front of the player will have shadow flicker when panning the mouse around, put this in your Skyrim.ini under [Display]:
fMaxHeightShadowCastingTrees=10000.0000
The default value is 5000. You may need to tweak this value, but for me 10000 did the trick.
MISMATCHED LOD (half trees in distance, purple trees, other LOD issues like pop-out) IS NOT AN ISSUE WITH THE MOD, IT IS A CONFLICT WITH ANOTHER MOD THAT ALSO ALTERS TREE LODS.
Sorry to make that so big and bold but I'm hoping to clarify that. A lot of texture or landscape mods have been including LOD tree textures and meshes, which will conflict with this, especially if they're loose files, which will overwrite my BSAs. You will have to read the descriptions for the mods you have installed to determine if they include distant tree LOD or not. A more brute-force method could be to extract my BSAs and overwrite everything in your meshes/textures folder, tho that's not recommended.
solangel777's original Simply Bigger Trees No Clip Patch has now been directly integrated into this mod. HUGE thanks to solangel777!
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING! Questions or issues covered here will be ignored! <3
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS / SOLUTIONS - F.A.Q.
In general, numerous issues that have been raised are just how the vanilla game behaves, which is made more obvious by having the trees 2x as big and in your face, and from paying extra attention with a new mod installed. Things like TAA anti-aliasing motion blur, SSAO artifacts, tree pop-in, etc. are already present and not part of this mod (and can all be tweaked via INI settings.) If there is something you're concerned about, it's best to confirm by re-testing (in the EXACT same spot, save your game looking at the same area) without the mod installed to make sure you're not just reporting vanilla behavior. That is a huge help and avoids wild goose chases on both our parts :)
Q: I am using the old Skyrim Classic version in SE, why should I upgrade? A: MANY REASONS!
• You can update to this one at any time without any issues • Using the oldrim version in SE has weird shadow flickering, this proper version does not • Skyrim SE has improved and more lush meshes, which are used in this new version • The included plug-in has lots of little clipping / positioning fixes for trees that were going thru cliff edges and such • Collision and culling parameters improved • Includes full LOD trees (far-away) to match the new tree size, with better HD textures that make them look like full meshes
Q: The LOD is messed up! Halp! (not quite a question but still) A: 100% guaranteed that you have a conflict, even if it isn't obvious. The last 5 people who insisted there was no conflict came back 15 minutes later to report that there indeed was, due to a mod that they did not realize had LODs packaged in it. This is going to be an issue between ANY mods that have their own LOD until users are able to generate LOD for their own specific load order. Feel free to ask for further help, I'll see what I can do, but I'm tellin ya!
Q: I see extra branches popping in when I get close, is that a bug? A: No,this is normal, Skyrim has several levels of tree detail and only shows the full branches and animations when you are close. It's more obvious when the trees are bigger. Please see this fantastic detailed guide for more info and settings to adjust this http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Tree_Settings
Q: Will this come to XBOX or PS4? A: XBOX yes, but it might cripple performance. PS4, no, since new assets (meshes) are not allowed. Sorry :( working on alternate ideas
Q: Will this affect performance? A: It can, due to shadows being higher quality in SE, and tree meshes being denser; but settings can be tweaked to address and compensate for this (I have 60+FPS everywhere). See the PERFORMANCE GUIDE section of the description.
Q: Can I install this mid-game? A: Yes, it can be added or removed at any time.
Q: Can you make a 1.2x, 1.5x, 1.6x, etc version? A: LOD generation, and combos of LOD for compatibility would make doing that a big undertaking, to be honest. It would gridlock me from making any significant updates. After patches and everything are settled, I may do a "mid" version but that's about it. Sorry :(
Q: Is this compatible with SFO? A: Partially. SFO replaces all pine trees, but if you load SFO after this, you'll get all the SFO stuff, but will get my big aspen and reach trees. See COMPATIBILITY section of the description for more details.
Q: Why use this instead of another tree overhaul? A: Variety is the spice of life, and it's a matter of preference! This mod touches only trees, and keeps the vanilla feel. Tree animations are also retained, which most tree mods loose as a result of their new meshes. If you aren't sure you want new trees, grass, new textures, etc. that other tree mods offer, this might be the one for you.
Q: Is there LOD? A: YES! Fully packaged. There is now HD, performance-friendly, and perfectly-sized LOD.
Q: Does this affect navmesh? A: None that I've ever seen or reported in the couple of years this was out for classic. The size of the trees is increased yes, but the vanilla navmesh is big enough that NPCs still move around them just the same.
Q: What mods are you using in the video? A: NONE, just SBT. Skyrim SE looks great out of the box (mostly) and I think people are already modding it too much before observing the improvements Bethesda made :)
IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING LODs / USING COMBOS OF TREE MODS
One thing to keep in mind: This is all packaged up nicely in a BSA. If you have mods that contain loose files that have conflicting meshes, LOD files and LOD textures that, they will take precedence over SBT since they are loose (this is how the game is designed) regardless of install order. If you have choppy LOD or the sizes don't match, this is likely why. Please let me know what other tree / texture mods you're using if you experience this. I may need to include a "loose" files version so you can hard-overwrite those files.
Detailed patches and tutorials are in the works to better accommodate working with other tree mods!
For now, I highly suggest removing other tree LOD mods. The LODs included in here are some of the best I've ever seen, if I'm going to be honest. Massive shout-out and thanks to PaleRiderx for the HD tree billboards.
I have made the Realistic Aspen Trees version loose files to better account for this.
In general this mod is going to require a modular installer to accommodate those who have cherry-picked tree setups. Patience is appreciated while I sort this out!
I have a question... I use Skyrim Flora Overhaul in combination with Simply Bigger Trees. didn't really love the tree bark textures so I also added the HQ Tree Bark mod. everything looks really beautiful now. except after adding HQ Tree Bark the sway speed of branches is too fast again. is there a way to keep the slower sway speed from the SBT mod, but with the textures of HQ Tree Bark? or can i manually set sway speed somewhere?
[edit] I think I found a solution. not sure of its the right way, but it seems to work. I downloaded SSEedit (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/164) and used that to open all ESPs in the left windows you select Skyrim Flora Overhaul, open it up and select Trees. you get a list of all trees in game. select a tree and you'll see a bunch of values in the right window, together with all mods that affect those values. somewhere you'll see a value called Branch Flexibility. and you'll see that SFO gives it other values than SBT. i copied the values from SBT to SFO and that fixed my problem. still have beautiful big trees, nice bark textures from HQ tree bark and the branches sway smooth and slowly :)
For anyone trying to get DynDOLOD set-up, along w/ RAT (Realistic Aspen Trees) and SBT (Simply Bigger Trees), allow me to share the resource that I found that wound-up being the exact guide that I needed to get set-up.
Also, there was a comment made deep within the posts of Indistinguishable Billboards for Skyrim SE that I likewise found extremely helpful.
Spoiler:
Show
(edited this a bunch of times as I experimented, but here's the final result)
Asar00's method summarized (without HQB): Extract Indistinguishable Billboards (IB) into a separate folder (eg: \IB_Extract\) Extract/copy the DDS and TXT files from RAT into IB_Extract Extract/copy ONLY the TXT files from SBT Billboards for RAT into IB_Extract Zip up this folder and drop it in your favorite mod organizer's download folder. Install RAT ,SBT Loose, SBT Billboards, Install the new IB archive from IB_Extract
If you have Vortex (tested with beta version): Install IB, RAT, SBT Loose, SBT RAT Billboards. Vortex will then give you warnings about conflicts (use the red lightning bolt on the right hand side for these steps). You'll click on each one, define a rule for which files have priority, and then the lightning bolt will be marked green. eg: https://i.imgur.com/kfThvEN.png
I've included all the subsequent rules below, but they should auto-complete as you walk through them.
IB should load --> BEFORE --> SBT Billboards for RAT (or just SBT Billboards) IB should load --> BEFORE --> RAT (or your favorite tree texture mod) RAT should load --> BEFORE --> SBT Loose RAT should load --> BEFORE --> SBT Billboards for RAT RAT should load --> AFTER --> IB SBT Loose load --> AFTER --> RAT SBT Billboards for RAT --> AFTER --> IB SBT Billboards for RAT --> AFTER --> RAT
eg: https://i.imgur.com/wKykHYS.png
From here, load up IB's conflicts (the now-green lightning bolt), and click on '114 conflicting files.' * A pop-up listing these files will appear, and you'll scroll down to the bottom to "Edit Individual Files." * A second window will show up giving you files you can change priority that will supersede all other rules. * For every DDS file, click the dropdown on the right and change it to use IB.
This may seem daunting, but it can easily be done in a few minutes. eg: where some are not yet marked https://i.imgur.com/IayjTHL.png. You can also type '.dds' in this window to have the relevant lines highlighted.
Deploy your mods, sort, and then run your LODGen. It'll be a while.
Also, the DynDOLOD's FAQ post helped me figure out a couple issues I had to solve using xEdit.
These three resources together are exactly what I needed to get my DynDOLOD set-up to work with SBT and RAT. Be advised, though, that the latter portion of this second dude's instructions (regarding editing individual conflicts) only pertains to NMM/Vortex users, not MO2 users).
I'm posting this information here just in case it helps somebody else so that they don't need to spend 4 hours researching the internet just trying to find clear, concise, and up-to-date SSE modding resources.
I'm having an issue where distant tree LOD pops in, even after generating LOD with Dyndolod. I installed Indistinguishable Vanilla Trees medium, let it overwrite Dyndolod Resources, and let it in turn be overwritten by the vanilla billboard for SBT. Am I supposed to skip the Indistinguishable billboards, even though Dyndolod instructs otherwise? I thought for sure I'd solved it this time, but after another Lodgen- the distant pop in is still there. They are tall as theyre supposed to be, and they stay in existence upon approach- but theyre just not there from afar. Plzhalp
Edit: fTreeDrawDistance or whatever it's called wasn't set high enough apparently. Switched it to 100,000 and it seems to have fixed the pop in issue as many have suggested. Awesome work, many thanks! (Previously endorsed :D)
I've been planning on going thru the cities and scaling down the problematic ones. Mods that add trees to cities won't be affected without a patch though.
I always browse through other tree mods but somehow, I always come back to this one. There's just something magical about this mod that makes the game feel alive for me.
So I use the Simply Bigger Trees SE (Realistic Aspen Trees - Loose) version and I noticed something about the bottom of the trees and I wanted to ask if it would be possible to remove the super low res roots that are connected to the pine trees? In some areas like around Orphan Rock they are visible and really stands out when you have higher res textures. I took some screenshots for reference: Normal Tree https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/36697728027110342/E1EA9E283E55485DDB63E3AE26B81D5F8E6B890E/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false Snow Tree https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/36697728027110587/1B4BBE91DABBF8D7A37183D6E9955FB250D97070/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
On the tree models that "root skirt" is part of the branch model, so it would take a lot of editing to remove them, which would break the skinning for animation on the branches.
However, that texture uses an alpha channel. So blacking out that part of the alpha in the branch texture would eradicate them.
Oh I see, I didn't realize it would be that complicated or involve so much effort to remove those "root skirts" on the trees, let alone break the tree models. Thank you your explanation and insight. I am still learning how modding works. Maybe one day I'll be able to make a patch or something that removes or makes them looks better. Thank you again, this is one of my favorite mods for Skyrim!
I don't know what I've done wrong, the trees are all fine in the landscape, except for the 'tree lod' in the reflection of the water, which flickers wildly.
the trees in riften (havent looked outside yet) have their texture repeated vs what i would imagine would have been stretched out (or something). I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if it's something like a known conflict or if there is a fix? thanks so much :)
So I installed the bigger plants file and now all the shrubs are purple. I use SSELODGen. Deleted all LOD files and verified game files. Nothing works. Any fix? Re-installing the plants file fixes this so its 100% that
Purple means missing textures and these are just vanilla plants scaled up. When you've got custom LOD and running your own LODGen etc. that's where something is going wrong. Re-installing the mod appearing to fix it just means it's overwriting what was broken, so you're just adding to the confusion.
Deleting LOD files and verifying game files and still having the problem means your custom LOD stuff is still active somewhere. It's not the fault of the mod.
Ok well thanks for your reply! Guess I have more to look for
EDIT: You were indeed right. Been modding for 5yrs and made a noob mistake lol. Switched to this and plants file but ran LogGen with Happy Little Shrubs still installed. My bad. Apologies for wasting your time!
Is there a way to fix the mushrooms on the trees, some are floating now? The half tree across the river where the fishing spot is in Riverwood left of where the mud crab spawns that half tree has mushrooms floating even after harvesting them.
After almost a year using dyndolod and having problems with itm.speciwlly everytime I had to rerun, install a land mod or simply trying to correct some flickering bug I gave up and came back to the simplicity of this mod.. Works out of the box...
I really love this mod, it absolutely changes the entire feel of the game for the better and I have been using it for years!
It there a way to tweak it for certain mods? For example Autumn of Whiterun: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10864 or really any mod where someone would not want certain trees scaled up in certain areas? I can go into CK or ssedit and make the changes, I just don't know what I should be looking for.
Hey thanks! Yeah I was pretty shocked at how different this made the game feel all those years ago when I was experimenting. Glad you enjoy it.
The way this mod works is by scaling up the size of the meshes, so any mod using trees will also be scaled up.
To get around this, you would need to change the scale on each reference in the plugin of the mod.
I made an xEdit script a while back that will do this. You'll need to open xEdit, expand the "Worldspace" section of the mod, select all the Placed Object of type TREE (i.e. TreePineForest01), right click, and run this script. It will ask for a multiplier. Put in 0.66 to reduce those references to the size they would be prior to SBT scaling up the meshes.
I would make a backup of the plugin first so you don't accidentally mess anything up. If you want to make it a patch instead, select all the trees in the mod Worldspace, right click and choose "Copy as Override" and make a new plugin, then run the script on THOSE references.
You can always go into the CK and edit the references directly, but if you aren't running the SBT mod in your live folder it will be hard to tell their true size in the CK. You would have to click on each one and multiply the scale by 0.66 to set their approximate size for SBT.
1192 comments
If you experience some shadow pop where a large tree in front of the player will have shadow flicker when panning the mouse around, put this in your Skyrim.ini under [Display]:
fMaxHeightShadowCastingTrees=10000.0000
The default value is 5000. You may need to tweak this value, but for me 10000 did the trick.
EdmondNoir is working in a fantastic fix to move every floating moss BY HAND. Download it here!
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42649
Sorry to make that so big and bold but I'm hoping to clarify that. A lot of texture or landscape mods have been including LOD tree textures and meshes, which will conflict with this, especially if they're loose files, which will overwrite my BSAs. You will have to read the descriptions for the mods you have installed to determine if they include distant tree LOD or not. A more brute-force method could be to extract my BSAs and overwrite everything in your meshes/textures folder, tho that's not recommended.
solangel777's original Simply Bigger Trees No Clip Patch has now been directly integrated into this mod. HUGE thanks to solangel777!
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING! Questions or issues covered here will be ignored! <3
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS / SOLUTIONS - F.A.Q.
In general, numerous issues that have been raised are just how the vanilla game behaves, which is made more obvious by having the trees 2x as big and in your face, and from paying extra attention with a new mod installed. Things like TAA anti-aliasing motion blur, SSAO artifacts, tree pop-in, etc. are already present and not part of this mod (and can all be tweaked via INI settings.) If there is something you're concerned about, it's best to confirm by re-testing (in the EXACT same spot, save your game looking at the same area) without the mod installed to make sure you're not just reporting vanilla behavior. That is a huge help and avoids wild goose chases on both our parts :)
Q: I am using the old Skyrim Classic version in SE, why should I upgrade?
A: MANY REASONS!
• You can update to this one at any time without any issues
• Using the oldrim version in SE has weird shadow flickering, this proper version does not
• Skyrim SE has improved and more lush meshes, which are used in this new version
• The included plug-in has lots of little clipping / positioning fixes for trees that were going thru cliff edges and such
• Collision and culling parameters improved
• Includes full LOD trees (far-away) to match the new tree size, with better HD textures that make them look like full meshes
Q: The LOD is messed up! Halp! (not quite a question but still)
A: 100% guaranteed that you have a conflict, even if it isn't obvious. The last 5 people who insisted there was no conflict came back 15 minutes later to report that there indeed was, due to a mod that they did not realize had LODs packaged in it. This is going to be an issue between ANY mods that have their own LOD until users are able to generate LOD for their own specific load order. Feel free to ask for further help, I'll see what I can do, but I'm tellin ya!
Q: I see extra branches popping in when I get close, is that a bug?
A: No,this is normal, Skyrim has several levels of tree detail and only shows the full branches and animations when you are close. It's more obvious when the trees are bigger. Please see this fantastic detailed guide for more info and settings to adjust this http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Tree_Settings
Q: Will this come to XBOX or PS4?
A: XBOX yes, but it might cripple performance. PS4, no, since new assets (meshes) are not allowed. Sorry :( working on alternate ideas
Q: Will this affect performance?
A: It can, due to shadows being higher quality in SE, and tree meshes being denser; but settings can be tweaked to address and compensate for this (I have 60+FPS everywhere). See the PERFORMANCE GUIDE section of the description.
Q: Can I install this mid-game?
A: Yes, it can be added or removed at any time.
Q: Can you make a 1.2x, 1.5x, 1.6x, etc version?
A: LOD generation, and combos of LOD for compatibility would make doing that a big undertaking, to be honest. It would gridlock me from making any significant updates. After patches and everything are settled, I may do a "mid" version but that's about it. Sorry :(
Q: Is this compatible with SFO?
A: Partially. SFO replaces all pine trees, but if you load SFO after this, you'll get all the SFO stuff, but will get my big aspen and reach trees. See COMPATIBILITY section of the description for more details.
Q: Why use this instead of another tree overhaul?
A: Variety is the spice of life, and it's a matter of preference! This mod touches only trees, and keeps the vanilla feel. Tree animations are also retained, which most tree mods loose as a result of their new meshes. If you aren't sure you want new trees, grass, new textures, etc. that other tree mods offer, this might be the one for you.
Q: Is there LOD?
A: YES! Fully packaged. There is now HD, performance-friendly, and perfectly-sized LOD.
Q: Does this affect navmesh?
A: None that I've ever seen or reported in the couple of years this was out for classic. The size of the trees is increased yes, but the vanilla navmesh is big enough that NPCs still move around them just the same.
Q: What mods are you using in the video?
A: NONE, just SBT. Skyrim SE looks great out of the box (mostly) and I think people are already modding it too much before observing the improvements Bethesda made :)
One thing to keep in mind: This is all packaged up nicely in a BSA. If you have mods that contain loose files that have conflicting meshes, LOD files and LOD textures that, they will take precedence over SBT since they are loose (this is how the game is designed) regardless of install order. If you have choppy LOD or the sizes don't match, this is likely why. Please let me know what other tree / texture mods you're using if you experience this. I may need to include a "loose" files version so you can hard-overwrite those files.
Detailed patches and tutorials are in the works to better accommodate working with other tree mods!
For now, I highly suggest removing other tree LOD mods. The LODs included in here are some of the best I've ever seen, if I'm going to be honest. Massive shout-out and thanks to PaleRiderx for the HD tree billboards.
I have made the Realistic Aspen Trees version loose files to better account for this.
In general this mod is going to require a modular installer to accommodate those who have cherry-picked tree setups. Patience is appreciated while I sort this out!
I use Skyrim Flora Overhaul in combination with Simply Bigger Trees.
didn't really love the tree bark textures so I also added the HQ Tree Bark mod.
everything looks really beautiful now. except after adding HQ Tree Bark the sway speed of branches is too fast again.
is there a way to keep the slower sway speed from the SBT mod, but with the textures of HQ Tree Bark?
or can i manually set sway speed somewhere?
[edit]
I think I found a solution.
not sure of its the right way, but it seems to work.
I downloaded SSEedit (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/164) and used that to open all ESPs
in the left windows you select Skyrim Flora Overhaul, open it up and select Trees.
you get a list of all trees in game.
select a tree and you'll see a bunch of values in the right window, together with all mods that affect those values.
somewhere you'll see a value called Branch Flexibility. and you'll see that SFO gives it other values than SBT.
i copied the values from SBT to SFO and that fixed my problem.
still have beautiful big trees, nice bark textures from HQ tree bark and the branches sway smooth and slowly :)
Also, there was a comment made deep within the posts of Indistinguishable Billboards for Skyrim SE that I likewise found extremely helpful.
Asar00's method summarized (without HQB):
Extract Indistinguishable Billboards (IB) into a separate folder (eg: \IB_Extract\)
Extract/copy the DDS and TXT files from RAT into IB_Extract
Extract/copy ONLY the TXT files from SBT Billboards for RAT into IB_Extract
Zip up this folder and drop it in your favorite mod organizer's download folder.
Install RAT ,SBT Loose, SBT Billboards,
Install the new IB archive from IB_Extract
If you have Vortex (tested with beta version):
Install IB, RAT, SBT Loose, SBT RAT Billboards.
Vortex will then give you warnings about conflicts (use the red lightning bolt on the right hand side for these steps). You'll click on each one, define a rule for which files have priority, and then the lightning bolt will be marked green. eg: https://i.imgur.com/kfThvEN.png
I've included all the subsequent rules below, but they should auto-complete as you walk through them.
IB should load --> BEFORE --> SBT Billboards for RAT (or just SBT Billboards)
IB should load --> BEFORE --> RAT (or your favorite tree texture mod)
RAT should load --> BEFORE --> SBT Loose
RAT should load --> BEFORE --> SBT Billboards for RAT
RAT should load --> AFTER --> IB
SBT Loose load --> AFTER --> RAT
SBT Billboards for RAT --> AFTER --> IB
SBT Billboards for RAT --> AFTER --> RAT
eg: https://i.imgur.com/wKykHYS.png
From here, load up IB's conflicts (the now-green lightning bolt), and click on '114 conflicting files.'
* A pop-up listing these files will appear, and you'll scroll down to the bottom to "Edit Individual Files."
* A second window will show up giving you files you can change priority that will supersede all other rules.
* For every DDS file, click the dropdown on the right and change it to use IB.
This may seem daunting, but it can easily be done in a few minutes. eg: where some are not yet marked https://i.imgur.com/IayjTHL.png. You can also type '.dds' in this window to have the relevant lines highlighted.
Deploy your mods, sort, and then run your LODGen. It'll be a while.
Also, the DynDOLOD's FAQ post helped me figure out a couple issues I had to solve using xEdit.
These three resources together are exactly what I needed to get my DynDOLOD set-up to work with SBT and RAT. Be advised, though, that the latter portion of this second dude's instructions (regarding editing individual conflicts) only pertains to NMM/Vortex users, not MO2 users).
I'm posting this information here just in case it helps somebody else so that they don't need to spend 4 hours researching the internet just trying to find clear, concise, and up-to-date SSE modding resources.
Edit: fTreeDrawDistance or whatever it's called wasn't set high enough apparently. Switched it to 100,000 and it seems to have fixed the pop in issue as many have suggested. Awesome work, many thanks! (Previously endorsed :D)
I've been planning on going thru the cities and scaling down the problematic ones. Mods that add trees to cities won't be affected without a patch though.
Normal Tree
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/36697728027110342/E1EA9E283E55485DDB63E3AE26B81D5F8E6B890E/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
Snow Tree
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/36697728027110587/1B4BBE91DABBF8D7A37183D6E9955FB250D97070/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
However, that texture uses an alpha channel. So blacking out that part of the alpha in the branch texture would eradicate them.
Purple means missing textures and these are just vanilla plants scaled up. When you've got custom LOD and running your own LODGen etc. that's where something is going wrong. Re-installing the mod appearing to fix it just means it's overwriting what was broken, so you're just adding to the confusion.
Deleting LOD files and verifying game files and still having the problem means your custom LOD stuff is still active somewhere. It's not the fault of the mod.
Custom LOD gets tricky!
EDIT: You were indeed right. Been modding for 5yrs and made a noob mistake lol. Switched to this and plants file but ran LogGen with Happy Little Shrubs still installed. My bad. Apologies for wasting your time!
Works out of the box...
It there a way to tweak it for certain mods? For example Autumn of Whiterun: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10864 or really any mod where someone would not want certain trees scaled up in certain areas? I can go into CK or ssedit and make the changes, I just don't know what I should be looking for.
The way this mod works is by scaling up the size of the meshes, so any mod using trees will also be scaled up.
To get around this, you would need to change the scale on each reference in the plugin of the mod.
I made an xEdit script a while back that will do this. You'll need to open xEdit, expand the "Worldspace" section of the mod, select all the Placed Object of type TREE (i.e. TreePineForest01), right click, and run this script. It will ask for a multiplier. Put in 0.66 to reduce those references to the size they would be prior to SBT scaling up the meshes.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/prbwlxytxg3iq480j2foq/Change-Scale-of-Object-References.pas?rlkey=hrha4w330cel4dxm1k3ctxmsi&st=regh3dbf&dl=1
I would make a backup of the plugin first so you don't accidentally mess anything up. If you want to make it a patch instead, select all the trees in the mod Worldspace, right click and choose "Copy as Override" and make a new plugin, then run the script on THOSE references.
You can always go into the CK and edit the references directly, but if you aren't running the SBT mod in your live folder it will be hard to tell their true size in the CK. You would have to click on each one and multiply the scale by 0.66 to set their approximate size for SBT.
Hope that helps.