If I understand correctly, this gives you the extended grass view without having to have NGIO running (although you would still need it to generate the grass cache)?
Saw that. I know I am being thick. But what does this mean exactly then?
It enables the usage of grass cache files generated via No Grass In Objects (NGIO) without requiring NGIO to be active on the game version being used. This is useful if NGIO is not supported for theruntime of the game being used, be it on Skyrim VR, a new patch from Bethesda such as the AE update, or any other relevant use cases.
It means that, when you follow the instructions, you can use the grass cache created by NGIO, preserving the positions and size of the grass as calculated during caching. While this doesn't allow you to use the extended grass distance feature, all other features of NGIO can effectively be used. Features of NGIO that will be embedded into the grass cache:
Grass not growing through objects
SuperDenseGrass ability is preserved if used (I don't personally recommend it)
ExtendGrassCount ability is preserved if used (not really necessary for most users, but may be for others, especially if using SuperDenseGrass)
GlobalGrassScale ability is preserved if used (recommended to use this to increase the size of grass without impacting performance)
If you use DynDOLOD 3 and generate grass LOD, you effectively have "extended grass," in that you can see grass as far as object LOD 4 is displayed, which is really as far as you can see (see the pictures).
Without DynDOLOD 3:
With DynDOLOD 3:
The purpose of this mod is to eliminate bugs with using the grass cache in areas where, in the mod user's setup, no grass cache was created due to there simply being no grass there.
If the desired effect is to have grass fade disabled when using grass cache and DynDOLOD 3.0 grass billboards, the recommended settings are fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=20272 and fGrassStartFadeDistance=20272 due to an issue reported in the DynDOLOD 3.0 forum.
Using AE - GOG version so I can't use NGIO for grass cache generation but downloaded grass precache from here (using Northern Cathedral Regional Grass), followed your steps and it works like a charm.
Hey! Thank you so much for this mod, although I've been really excited to try to get this to work, I have been at this for 2 days now and have followed 2 full seperate guides to try to get this to work with precached grass for AE, and I have simply not managed to make it work despite double checking every step. My grass lods do not change when I run dyndolod, even if it recognizes the cache files, and all my dyndolod settings are correct, and the files are renamed to gid. My lod grass becomes spotty, almost as though it can only recognize one type of precached grass, see provided screenshot. Any help with this would be more than greatly appreciated and thanks again! https://imgur.com/a/gXcW5hL
I've tried 2 seperate times to follow a guide you linked here that was excellent where I created a grass bounds data mod, and made sure I followed the directions for this properly. Sadly doesn't seem to work, I am unsure if this is related, but when using "Getini "bAllowCreateGrass:Grass" in the game, it returns 0, despite my MO profile specific ini stating 1. Is this a cause for concern?
Edit: Went down that rabbithole and found conflicting inis that were being drawn from by the game, fixing this fixed everything else. Thanks again for the mod, endorsed!
I have a question about this section from the instructions:
"Step 6: Set fGrassStartFadeDistance in your SkyrimPrefs.ini to 6144. Ensuring that fGrassStartFadeDistance=6144 and fGrassFadeRange=14128 will make grass extend all the way to the maximum distance for uGridsToLoad=5."
What values should I use for StartFadeDistance and FadeRange when I use a uGridsToLoad value of 9?
Set fGrassStartFadeDistance to (uGridsToLoad - 2)(2048). So 14336. Set fGrassFadeRange to (uGridsToLoad + 2)(2896) - fGrassStartFadeDistance. So 17520. Set iGrassCellRadius to (uGridsToLoad - 1)(0.5). So 4.
Yes and no. Increasing uGridsToLoad causes the game to process characters, physics, and events in an exponentially increasing number of cells around the player. This comes with a few intrinsic drawbacks:
- Your CPU will be processing significantly more information, especially at higher uGridsToLoad values. This can be a problem for lower-end systems. It was a much bigger issue back when Skyrim and SSE were released, as even high-end systems in their respective times (2011 and 2016) weren't nearly as powerful as modern PCs.
- Events that trigger when a certain cell loads will activate sooner than intended, which can potentially break quests. I haven't had issues with this yet, but it is something that you should keep in mind when messing with uGridsToLoad.
- The setting is baked into your save, so you can't just change it back if you run into issues partway through your playthrough. If something breaks to the point of needing to revert to default ini settings, your save file is screwed.
For these reasons, it's only advised to change this setting if you know what you're doing. Most modern PCs can run at uGridsToLoad=7 without much issue, and higher-end systems can run at a value of 9. It is never recommended to increase the setting above 9 due to the sheer number of cells being processed and events being triggered too early.
I've actually reverted to uGridsToLoad=5 since my last comment, as DynDOLOD 3 + grass LOD made the distant views nice enough to make uGridsToLoad not worth the performance hit. If you're using DynDOLOD and a grass mod with pre-cache available on Nexus (or if you're willing to generate your own grass cache in 1.5), I'd say to just keep it at the default value.
I feel so stupid, following this comment I tried to get my grass to render in full quality in ugriddstoload=7. did my research, changed all the ini files accordlingly but put the grasscellradius setting in skyrimprefs.ini instead of skyrim.ini. took me 2 hours of troubleshooting and perusing many a reddit thread to find this out >.<
This fixed the giant lod gap for me, maybe thats helpful for s1
How did you get it to work? I got through DynDOLOD just fine (Or at least I think so) and I can check the grass lod option on DynDOLOD, but it seems like the game is not detecting my cache so there's just no grass in my game period.
This problem was reported by a lot of other people there as well. What fix would you recommend to make it work? Because currently, it overwrites all the changes made by that mod due to how Grass Cache Fixes changes the ini from bAllowCreateGrass to bAllowLoadGrass, which draws from the grass cache
You cannot expect that a pregenerated grass cache that you download from someone else who didn't use the mod in question to display the changes from that mod, as grass changes are baked into the cache at generation time. You MUST generate your own grass cache.
Hi. Need help. Not sure if this is a grass issue or a lod issue. But thought I would start here. This is a new issue for me. Not sure what is going on. Basically, for large areas on the tundra (might be be other places, as well), the close up grass goes missing entirely until I apply the stuck lod fix. Then the grass reappears. But since the issue relates to close up grass, I have no idea why the lod fix works. Grass missing:
Spoiler:
Show
After the lod fix is applied:
Spoiler:
Show
I have rerun both xlodgen (for terrain) and DynDOLOD, disabled this mod (along with the grass cache), reverted .inis back to vanilla, etc. But the issue remains.
I would appreciate any insight into this issue, as I am clueless how to fix.
Thanks.
edit: All set. This was purely user error. When I reverted to vanilla .inis to test, I lost some of my settings.
I believe I am having the same issue, I have grass Lod that will then go to blank terrain and then load the full grass model only when close not sure why this is happening, either
I've downgraded my Skyrim to 1.5.97 and .NET Script Framework is not working anymore, even though my game is at its required version. Everything, and I mean everything that works for my game version works normally - except for the bloody NSF. I don't get it
Consequently, I can't generate grass by the same principle as before. Do I need to follow this entire method for AE now? ...even though technically I am not on AE.
Ah crap, I think I know where the holdup is. When I updated and then downgraded Skyrim, the file binkw64.dll was replaced. And that thing is required for NSF to work (DLL Plugin Preloader). Engine Fixes part 2 as well. This is why NSF wasn't working... I'll try again.
EDIT: Yep, that was it. Restored those files and grass was precached without issues. Now I can proceed with your fix
170 comments
Q: Can this be used to have extended grass distance NGIO feature?
A: No. That isn't possible without NGIO.
If you use DynDOLOD 3 and generate grass LOD, you effectively have "extended grass," in that you can see grass as far as object LOD 4 is displayed, which is really as far as you can see (see the pictures).
Without DynDOLOD 3:
With DynDOLOD 3:
The purpose of this mod is to eliminate bugs with using the grass cache in areas where, in the mod user's setup, no grass cache was created due to there simply being no grass there.
Thank you for this mod!
My grass lods do not change when I run dyndolod, even if it recognizes the cache files, and all my dyndolod settings are correct, and the files are renamed to gid.
My lod grass becomes spotty, almost as though it can only recognize one type of precached grass, see provided screenshot.
Any help with this would be more than greatly appreciated and thanks again!
https://imgur.com/a/gXcW5hL
Edit: Went down that rabbithole and found conflicting inis that were being drawn from by the game, fixing this fixed everything else.
Thanks again for the mod, endorsed!
"Step 6: Set fGrassStartFadeDistance in your SkyrimPrefs.ini to 6144.
Ensuring that fGrassStartFadeDistance=6144 and fGrassFadeRange=14128 will make grass extend all the way to the maximum distance for uGridsToLoad=5."
What values should I use for StartFadeDistance and FadeRange when I use a uGridsToLoad value of 9?
Set fGrassFadeRange to (uGridsToLoad + 2)(2896) - fGrassStartFadeDistance. So 17520.
Set iGrassCellRadius to (uGridsToLoad - 1)(0.5). So 4.
- Your CPU will be processing significantly more information, especially at higher uGridsToLoad values. This can be a problem for lower-end systems. It was a much bigger issue back when Skyrim and SSE were released, as even high-end systems in their respective times (2011 and 2016) weren't nearly as powerful as modern PCs.
- Events that trigger when a certain cell loads will activate sooner than intended, which can potentially break quests. I haven't had issues with this yet, but it is something that you should keep in mind when messing with uGridsToLoad.
- The setting is baked into your save, so you can't just change it back if you run into issues partway through your playthrough. If something breaks to the point of needing to revert to default ini settings, your save file is screwed.
For these reasons, it's only advised to change this setting if you know what you're doing. Most modern PCs can run at uGridsToLoad=7 without much issue, and higher-end systems can run at a value of 9. It is never recommended to increase the setting above 9 due to the sheer number of cells being processed and events being triggered too early.
I've actually reverted to uGridsToLoad=5 since my last comment, as DynDOLOD 3 + grass LOD made the distant views nice enough to make uGridsToLoad not worth the performance hit. If you're using DynDOLOD and a grass mod with pre-cache available on Nexus (or if you're willing to generate your own grass cache in 1.5), I'd say to just keep it at the default value.
This fixed the giant lod gap for me, maybe thats helpful for s1
also works with lod, for infinite grass
I have rerun both xlodgen (for terrain) and DynDOLOD, disabled this mod (along with the grass cache), reverted .inis back to vanilla, etc. But the issue remains.
I would appreciate any insight into this issue, as I am clueless how to fix.
Thanks.
edit: All set. This was purely user error. When I reverted to vanilla .inis to test, I lost some of my settings.
Consequently, I can't generate grass by the same principle as before. Do I need to follow this entire method for AE now? ...even though technically I am not on AE.
When I updated and then downgraded Skyrim, the file binkw64.dll was replaced. And that thing is required for NSF to work (DLL Plugin Preloader). Engine Fixes part 2 as well. This is why NSF wasn't working... I'll try again.
EDIT: Yep, that was it. Restored those files and grass was precached without issues. Now I can proceed with your fix