ACCEPTED Grass Cache Fixes (by DoubleYouC)

[z929669]

Discussion topic:
Grass Cache Fixes by DoubleYouC
Wiki Link

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Use a SSE 1.5.97-created grass cache in SSE 1.6.xxx without NGIO dependency to allow grass LOD in SAE.

Related Topic s - Please do not post here about downgrading or swapping between SSE/SAE.

• Get 1.5.97 without a backup
• Run 1.5.97 and 1.6.xxx on same PC via MO
• Kezyma's Root Builder for Mod Organizer 

[Mousetick]

This topic might quickly degenerate into tech support for switching back and forth between SE and AE runtimes and for installing appropriate engine extensions 

Kezyma's Root Builder for Mod Organizer could prove useful for this, although it's not really newbie-friendly either. 

[DoubleYou]

To be clear, you do NOT need this to use grass LOD. This is only useful in the ability to load the grass cache, gaining the other benefits baked into the pregenerated grass cache by NGIO, such as no grass growing through objects. It is mainly a fix for areas where the user may have not generated a grass cache file which will cause the game to use the bugged grass cache files included with the game in Skyrim - Misc.bsa. NGIO works around this issue by renaming them .cgid instead of .gid, and loading only .cgid files.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, DoubleYou said:

To be clear, you do NOT need this to use grass LOD. This is only useful in the ability to load the grass cache, gaining the other benefits baked into the pregenerated grass cache by NGIO, such as no grass growing through objects. It is mainly a fix for areas where the user may have not generated a grass cache file which will cause the game to use the bugged grass cache files included with the game in Skyrim - Misc.bsa. NGIO works around this issue by renaming them .cgid instead of .gid, and loading only .cgid files.

So to be even clearer, without using this, you can gen grass cache in 1.5.97 without NGIO, but to get the benefits of "NGIO" you must pregen cache with NGIO and use taht output to override the vanilla *.gid files in 1.6.xxx, which is what this mod does?

[DoubleYou]

7 hours ago, z929669 said:

So to be even clearer, without using this, you can gen grass cache in 1.5.97 without NGIO, but to get the benefits of "NGIO" you must pregen cache with NGIO and use taht output to override the vanilla *.gid files in 1.6.xxx, which is what this mod does?

You're almost right.

The game has shipped with a bad pregenerated grass cache within Skyrim - Misc.bsa since Oldrim was released. In Oldrim, using it caused the infamous floating grass bug. In SSE, using them causes extreme graphical glitches, as illustrated in the included screenshots on the page. 

This mod overrides these bad grass gid files with one's that will simply display 0 grass. 

You then add an NGIO generated grass cache on top of it, and use the vanilla bAllowLoadGrass method to display it. 

You can always just not use the grass cache, and Skyrim will create it every time you enter a new cell (bAllowCreateGrass method).

[z929669]

Got it, thanks

[burnersaurus]

17 minutes ago, z929669 said:

You can also see this grass LOD guide, which discusses how to resolve. This assumes use of NGIO and its mechanics, but that is not supported in SAE yet. In SAE, a different approach can be used.

To keep this topic from going off topic, please post replies on the topic linked at the top of that guide and on the other topic linked.

So am I understanding this right; getting a smooth transition between generated grass and LOD grass requires that I run NGIO, but this is not supported in AE?
I'm beginning to regret bying the anniversary eddition... Is NGIO still being supported?  

[z929669]

1 hour ago, burnersaurus said:

So am I understanding this right; getting a smooth transition between generated grass and LOD grass requires that I run NGIO, but this is not supported in AE?
I'm beginning to regret bying the anniversary eddition... Is NGIO still being supported?  

NGIO depends on .NET Script Framework, which has not yet been updated to support SAE. See this mod OP for the workaround.

Precaching grass is required for grass LOD to work.

[burnersaurus]

8 hours ago, z929669 said:

NGIO depends on .NET Script Framework, which has not yet been updated to support SAE. See this mod OP for the workaround.

Precaching grass is required for grass LOD to work.

Doesn't .Net Script Framework work fine, as long as you use the DDL plugin loader workaround? or is it just dead in my loadorder? I don't get any error messages from Loot, and the game runs fine...

I've already made a grass precache (by downgrading to SE), and used it to generate grass LODs in DynDOLOD (in AE), and it works great btw.

The issue I'm having, is that I get a gap between the loaded grass and the LODs, that I can't seem to "fill out" no matter what I do.
But, if .NET Script Framework really is dead in my LO, I suppose that explains why NGIO doesn't seem to do anything..

Edd.
Just spent som time on .NETs nexuspage, and well, I see it's there plain as day "Doesn't work with anniversary edition".. One of these days I really need to slow down and read things properly the first time round.. thanks for being patient with me, I'll take a note from that book and be patient with the author of .Net Script Framework, until they have time to update the mod, I'll just live with my slight graphic inconvenience.

cheers  

Edited January 20, 2022 by burnersaurus

[DoubleYou]

4 hours ago, burnersaurus said:

Doesn't .Net Script Framework work fine, as long as you use the DDL plugin loader workaround? or is it just dead in my loadorder? I don't get any error messages from Loot, and the game runs fine...

I've already made a grass precache (by downgrading to SE), and used it to generate grass LODs in DynDOLOD (in AE), and it works great btw.

The issue I'm having, is that I get a gap between the loaded grass and the LODs, that I can't seem to "fill out" no matter what I do.
But, if .NET Script Framework really is dead in my LO, I suppose that explains why NGIO doesn't seem to do anything..

Edd.
Just spent som time on .NETs nexuspage, and well, I see it's there plain as day "Doesn't work with anniversary edition".. One of these days I really need to slow down and read things properly the first time round.. thanks for being patient with me, I'll take a note from that book and be patient with the author of .Net Script Framework, until they have time to update the mod, I'll just live with my slight graphic inconvenience.

cheers  

Set fGrassStartFadeDistance to 6144 in SkyrimPrefs.ini. Set fGrassFadeRange to 14128 in Skyrim.ini. Generate DynDOLOD with grass lod on mode 1 using your existing grass cache. That will eliminate any gap. 

[burnersaurus]

2 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

Set fGrassStartFadeDistance to 6144 in SkyrimPrefs.ini. Set fGrassFadeRange to 14128 in Skyrim.ini. Generate DynDOLOD with grass lod on mode 1 using your existing grass cache. That will eliminate any gap. 

Thanks for the tip DoubleYou, though I had already played withe ini files, and the specific values you mention doesn't seem to change the issue.

I did notice however, that the grass distance didn't only follow my position, but also my angle of view.  What I mean is, that when I look straight at the spot where the the grass fades it's fairly stable, but if I tilt the camera up or down, it creeps a bit towards the character, and if I turn my head left or right, at the corner of my eye, it grows up to, and perhaps even overlaps a bit with, the grass LOD.

This seems strange, if the issue is caused by a limit to where the grass is loaded in the gameworld in relation to my characters placement, doesn't it?
Could it have something to do with the ultrawide monitor setup I'm running? some limitation build into how the game is rendered on screen?

[DoubleYou]

Could you make a video? 

[z929669]

I vote to accept this

[TechAngel85]

We'll have to have this one for the Grass, so vote yes.

[z929669]

Marked Accepted