This topic seems similar to the problem I'm having, so I'll try explaining my problem here. I've modded a bit in the past, but am far from an expert. I've been working through https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimSE:2.2.0 using MO2. When I reached the Performance Tuning section, I had excellent fps and was only using 1/2 my vram. However, I had no grass anywhere, just weird oddly colored ground in both Whiterun and Riften. I was concerned as I didn't know why, but since the ENB section implied it would be generating grass, I continued through the 21-Post-Processing section. Based on the benchmarking I decided to try running the Heavy ENB settings. I've never run ENB before and lack knowledge about how the settings interact with it. After adding the ENB section the tundra west of Whiterun looked much better, but Riften had floating leaves like something is missing.
I went through all the mods I knew touched grass and only found one change that I didn't think would cause the problem. I choose Green Tundra instead of Brown Tundra. So I reverted to brown tundra (as instructions suggested). Unfortunately, same problem, just brown instead of green.
Brown Tundra screen shots:
Skyrim.ini
skyrimprefs.ini
skyrimcustom.ini
I'm out of ideas, Can anyone point me in the right direction?
THANK YOU!!!