Issue with floating grass

[keriv136]

Just curious what could be causing this. I am using Warbirds Whiterun Metropolis mod and did the full Step setup (all options). In some parts of the exterior of whiterun, there is grass floating, a lot of it in certain parts. Sometimes it is just slightly higher than the ground and sometimes it is like curved as if it would be on a hill or something. Is this because of landscapes and grass mod or something else maybe?

[z929669]

Most likely it's Whiterun Metropolis messing with landscape or objects in those areas. Verify by checking a new game without that or any added mods in the LO. Until grass precache can be generated in AE, it must be done in 1.5.97, and we only support our mod list for that.

[keriv136]

I know it is definitely whiterun metropolis, but I meant is it conflicting with something in STEP. Obviously, without anything else and just that mod there is no floating grass and with step and that mod disabled there is no issue. So there is no other way then?

[Mousetick]

If the game is displaying grass from the STEP-supplied cache, the grass cache doesn't take into account the terrain and landscape changes made by the metropolis mod around Whiterun, like it's not there.

Which variant of the 'Step Patch - Conflict Resolution' did you install?

• Step Patch - Conflict Resolution
• Step Patch - Conflict Resolution - No Grass

[keriv136]

23 minutes ago, Mousetick said:

If the game is displaying grass from the STEP-supplied cache, the grass cache doesn't take into account the terrain and landscape changes made by the metropolis mod around Whiterun, like it's not there.

Which variant of the 'Step Patch - Conflict Resolution' did you install?

• Step Patch - Conflict Resolution
• Step Patch - Conflict Resolution - No Grass

 

If you are talking about the grass cache where it says GID cache and CGID cache, I definitely installed both of those options. Also, when I did all of the Texgen, Dynlod, etc. I did it with the grass option.

[Mousetick]

48 minutes ago, keriv136 said:

If you are talking about the grass cache where it says GID cache and CGID cache, I definitely installed both of those options. Also, when I did all of the Texgen, Dynlod, etc. I did it with the grass option.

Right.

The grass cache is based on a "frozen-in-time" snapshot of the landscape. The cache supplied by STEP is based on the STEP guide landscape. If you, via additional mods, modify the landscape, the grass cache becomes out-of-sync with the landscape: it's still based on the same snapshot and doesn't reflect the landscape changes.

2 hours ago, keriv136 said:

So there is no other way then?

You can try this:

1. Re-install 'Step Patch - Conflict Resolution' without ticking 'GID cache' in the options.
2. Disable all 3 LOD generation mods (left pane of MO2): xLODGen Output, TexGen Output, DynDOLOD Output.
3. Enable the metropolis mod, sort with LOOT.
4. Start new game, test grass in and around Whiterun [Metropolis].

#2 is temporary, for testing the grass in near cells you don't need LODs. If your test produces good results, you'll need to regenerate LODs:

• Either without grass LODs.
• Or with grass LODs but you'll probably have incorrect grass LODs around Whiterun, because of the out-of-sync cache issue.

If you want perfectly matched grass and grass LODs, you'll need to re-generate the grass cache from scratch with NGIO using Skyrim SE 1.5.97 and the exact same mod list, substituting AE-compatible version with SE-compatible version of mods where applicable. Not advised unless you have used NGIO in the past, you're familiar with MO2 instances and/or profiles, and you have a lot of time to spare for setting up, and validating your complete mod list with Skyrim SE 1.5.97. This is way out of scope of the STEP guide so you're basically on your own if something goes wrong.

[DoubleYou]

Simply put, reinstall the Step Patch - Conflict Resolution without installing the GID cache will fix this. I doubt you will notice floating grass in LODs, so you probably can get away with still using it for grass LOD if you so desire.

[keriv136]

Thanks a lot, will try this out.

[keriv136]

By the way, does occlusion need to be done again too?

[z929669]

58 minutes ago, keriv136 said:

By the way, does occlusion need to be done again too?

As mentioned in the guide section on when to regen LOD, occlusion only needs an update if you install a mod that dratically changes the landscape (new lands, terrain/landscape mods, mods that change water bodies/paths or mountains, etc.). Just be sure to disable Occlusion and untick this option in DynDOLOD. Then reenable Occlusion mod when done regenerating.

[keriv136]

Thanks!

[trackho]

It took me sometime to realise it, but MO2 hiding the STEP - Conflict Resolution . bsa which contains the grass .gid files aren't enough, but the included .ini file as well needed to be hidden, or else you'll wind up not having grass rendering at all. And probably as important if trying to NGIO generate a grass cache on your own mod list. Led me to a 'd'oh!' moment when I didn't get anything out of my cache generation attempt.

[z929669]

7 hours ago, trackho said:

It took me sometime to realise it, but MO2 hiding the STEP - Conflict Resolution . bsa which contains the grass .gid files aren't enough, but the included .ini file as well needed to be hidden, or else you'll wind up not having grass rendering at all. And probably as important if trying to NGIO generate a grass cache on your own mod list. Led me to a 'd'oh!' moment when I didn't get anything out of my cache generation attempt.

Which INI file? Because the INI file named like the BSA doesn't load if the plugin isn't loaded (so disabling the plugin also disables its INI). Same is true for the BSA, which contains the GID grass files:

The key here is we use GID and not CGID, so DynDOLOD_SSE.ini needs the correct value for grass.

[DoubleYou]

19 minutes ago, z929669 said:

Which INI file? Because the INI file named like the BSA doesn't load if the plugin isn't loaded (so disabling the plugin also disables its INI). Same is true for the BSA, which contains the GID grass files:

The key here is we use GID and not CGID, so DynDOLOD_SSE.ini needs the correct value for grass.

User has probably deviated from the guide, and therefore needed to regenerate grass cache to prevent floating grass. To do so, he would need to disable the INI file. He wouldn't "need" to disable the bsa file as long as his grass cache overwrites ours.