Aspen Tree Compare for the SkyrimSE Guide

[TechAngel85]

EVT already provides great replacements for the pine and other trees, however, users always seem to want more when it comes to the Aspens. Therefore, below are some compares for aspen trees and their LODs from a few mods. From this, we can decide which is the best option for the Guide. Vanilla compares are not provided because EVT (default) is vanilla with Indistinguishable Billboards. The mods being considered are:

• EVT (aka vanilla)
• EVT (Realistic Aspen Trees from Alt Trees file)
• Aspen Trees by grVulture
• Aspens Ablaze
• Aspen Realism

All shots were taken with full Step SkyrimSE Guide without ENB enabled. (I have the shots with ENB enabled and will get them up later.)

 

EVT (vanilla)  >  Aspen Trees by grVulture  >  RAT  >  Aspens Ablaze  >  Aspen Realism
        
...with ENB.
        

 

EVT (vanilla)  >  Aspen Trees by grVulture  >  RAT  >  Aspens Ablaze  >  Aspen Realism
        
...with ENB.
        

 

EVT (vanilla)  >  Aspen Trees by grVulture  >  RAT  >  Aspens Ablaze  >  Aspen Realism
        
...with ENB.
        

 

EVT (vanilla)  >  Aspen Trees by grVulture  >  RAT  >  Aspens Ablaze  >  Aspen Realism
        
...with ENB.
        

[TechAngel85]

Aspens Ablaze is definitely my personal favorite (whether or not it fits Mandate), but it's painfully obvious the author needs some help with the LODs.

[Greg]

Just looking at the screenshots, I prefer Aspens Ablaze as well, although I agree the LOD in these screenshots need some help. It looks as if this is Aspens Ablaze 2.32 with Autumnal Variety option?

I think EVT (Realistic Aspen Trees from Alt Trees file) is a good runner up.

[z929669]

I like grVulture's aspens and Aspens Ablaze as a vanilla replacer. Of course, I prefer the look of Aspen Realism, but agree that I need to soften the brightness a bit. I will fix that soon.

I can create 3D hybrids for Aspens Ablaze and share them with the author to take care of that ... or upload as a separate mod if the author isn't interested. DynDOLOD 3 will handle the billboard1 and 2 nicely.

[TechAngel85]

11 hours ago, z929669 said:

I like grVulture's aspens and Aspens Ablaze as a vanilla replacer. Of course, I prefer the look of Aspen Realism, but agree that I need to soften the brightness a bit. I will fix that soon.

I can create 3D hybrids for Aspens Ablaze and share them with the author to take care of that ... or upload as a separate mod if the author isn't interested. DynDOLOD 3 will handle the billboard1 and 2 nicely.

Yeah, I thought grVulture was just a bump up from vanilla (slightly better leaf colors), but I would hide the bark.

RAT has always been what I used, if nothing more to rid the Rift of the sea of yellow. The variety of colors is nice.

Aspen Ablaze is what I recently switched to and it's simply beautiful! However, the trees are larger to help with the "why Bethesda make aspens so small" issue and that LOD is a travesty compared to the full models. They also cost between 5-10 FPS vs vanilla so that is a big downside. The option in the shots is the "Autumn Variety", however there are options for vanilla (all orange) and "summer" (all green). That's another thing nice about this one...not only does it have the eye candy, it has options for everyone.
I think everyone would thank you, Z, for hybrid billboards whether we accept it or not. It's been so long since I made them I would have to start from scratch with my knowledge until it came back to me...plus, DynDOLOD v3 may have changed that process anyway.

Aspen Realism is a total change from the vanilla style, though, they look more like real aspens. These trees give the landscape a completely different look because you can now see farther through the trees, however, the tree are much taller so getting high will not help you to see in the distance anymore. I agree they are too bright.

[z929669]

OK, I will work on Aspens Ablaze LOD if we agree to accept this one conditional to that. Agree that it would be the best option for the next Step iteration.

[dreadflopp]

I just love how STEP inspires me to google search pictures of aspen trees for an hour to compare game versions of trees to real ones.

I prefer Aspens Ablaze judging from these screens. They do deviate from vanilla though. If we want something closer to vanilla, I prefer RAT. Aspen Realism isn't how I pictured aspen trees at all, which is why I started googling for pictures, which made me realize that American and European/Scandinavian (which is where I live) aspen trees are different species. When googling for aspen pics, I found this: european aspen , which resembles Aspens Ablaze imo.

[z929669]

I'm going to expose my lack of xEdit and plugin-management prowess here, but I need someone else to confirm:

Examining in xEdit, it appears to me that the Aspens Ablaze plugin is defining but not placing any TreeAspen07, TreeAspen08, or TreeAspen09. TexGen is not creating billboards for these, and I determined it's because they don't have defined Object Bounds, so I used "Recalc Bounds" in CK for these and TreeAspen01-06 (because I assume the MA did not set these for the replaced vnilla aspens either). Can anyone confirm placement and status of object bounds?

I assume that Aspens Ablaze is replacing the vanilla trees, but I don't see the records for these in the plugin, so does this mean that it's only replacing textures and meshes for the vanilla aspens? The mesh bounds are surely different, no? When I recalc bounds in the CK, these 'size' values indeed change, but I am not certain if this is appropriate:

[Greg]

• Run xedit and load Aspens Ablaze.esp.
• Expand Aspens Ablaze.esp
• Expand Trees
• Select aspentree07
• Click the References tab
• Oh my... it's a treasure chest!

You'll see a ton of entries like "places treeaspen07 [xxxxxxxx] in Tamriel worldspace block 3,-2 cell 27,-15". I don't remember the exact text it shows, but it is a treasure chest for finding where things are placed. The problem I have is finding the bloody thing in the game once I know exactly where it is. There must be a mod out there that shows sub-block, cell and coordinates dynamically on the screen. Right now I just move a few feet and open DynDOLOD's "WHERE THE SMELL AM I" page to verify I'm going in the right direction.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, Greg said:

• Run xedit and load Aspens Ablaze.esp.
• Expand Aspens Ablaze.esp
• Expand Trees
• Select aspentree07
• Click the References tab
• Oh my... it's a treasure chest!

You'll see a ton of entries like "places treeaspen07 [xxxxxxxx] in Tamriel worldspace block 3,-2 cell 27,-15". I don't remember the exact text it shows, but it is a treasure chest for finding where things are placed. The problem I have is finding the bloody thing in the game once I know exactly where it is. There must be a mod out there that shows sub-block, cell and coordinates dynamically on the screen. Right now I just move a few feet and open DynDOLOD's "WHERE THE SMELL AM I" page to verify I'm going in the right direction.

Doh! I neglected to look at the references tab ... duh. I was opening up all the subblocks and not finding them.

Thanks!

[z929669]

Just finished the 3D trees for Aspens Ablaze. Shared with mindflux, so hopefully available soon.

I am amazed that this mod only uses one trunk texture and one branch texture having only a couple of branches (both with with normals). All that detail from so little. Meshes handle the color variation.

[z929669]

Note that I created the LOD for the 1.03 main file, which seems to be closest to vanilla of the two downloads. I'm not sure if the 2.32 "Autumnal (single color)" version is identical to 1.03 or not, but I can create LOD for these three as well, I suppose.

[z929669]

Mindflux finally got back to me on Nexus. He really likes the LOD, and gave me full perms to post them on Nexus. Once he is more active, he will probably host them. At least we will have a legit source for the LOD and asset overrides.

I will go ahead and produce the LOD for the 3x 2.32 versions. In the meantime, i will post the 1.03 LOD version on Nexus (probably not until the weekend, but maybe sooner).