ACCEPTED Cathedral Landscapes Complex Grass for ENB (by z929669)

[z929669]

Discussion topic:
Cathedral Landscapes Complex Grass for ENB by z929669
Wiki Link

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Shamelessly plugging this one ... well I made it specifically to see if it could be done, since the mod we had been testing just wasn't working out for Step. After much testing behind the scenes, this one is a good fit. Just install it with ENB and be sure to toggle enablecomplexgrass=true in ENBSeries.ini.

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Screen compares of the 'final' product. All of these shots have direct sunlight behind the player at approx 10 AM (i.e., sunlight reflecting directly on the grass for player to see with shadows apparent from trees in most)

• CG = complex grass
• Step = Cathedral standard grass + grass LOD

The screens use the default ENB-CG settings.

enbseries.ini (defaults):

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[COMPLEXGRASS]
SpecularMultiplierDawn=1.0
SpecularMultiplierSunrise=1.0
SpecularMultiplierDay=1.0
SpecularMultiplierSunset=1.0
SpecularMultiplierDusk=1.0
SpecularMultiplierNight=1.0
SpecularMultiplierInteriorDay=1.0
SpecularMultiplierInteriorNight=1.0
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountDawn=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountSunrise=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountDay=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountSunset=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountDusk=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountNight=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountInteriorDay=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountInteriorNight=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountDawn=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountSunrise=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountDay=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountSunset=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountDusk=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountNight=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountInteriorDay=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountInteriorNight=0.2
BasicGrassFakeLightDawn=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightSunrise=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightDay=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightSunset=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightDusk=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightNight=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightInteriorDay=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightInteriorNight=0.0
FakeLightDawn=0.0
FakeLightSunrise=0.0
FakeLightDay=0.0
FakeLightSunset=0.0
FakeLightDusk=0.0
FakeLightNight=0.0
FakeLightInteriorDay=0.0
FakeLightInteriorNight=0.0

 

First, testing how close the CG grasses are to CL default (CG settings are at ENB defaults, so they can be improved by slightly increasing SSS and Fake Lights):

Step  >>  Step + this mod

No ENB

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Step  >>  Step + this mod

ENB, EnableComplexGrass=false

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Step  >>  Step + this mod

ENB, EnableComplexGrass=true

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So I think this demonstrates that this mod closely matches standard CL grass.

 

Now here's compares with current Step (Cathedral standard grass + grass LOD):

Step (ENB, EnableComplexGrass=false)  >>  Step + this mod (ENB, EnableComplexGrass=true)

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[z929669]

Decent DynDOLOD settings for matching Cathedral grasses

UPDATE

We have 'found' better methods for matching LOD when using ENB Complex Grass. The instructions further below can be disregarded in favor of the new method.

 enbseries.ini

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[COMPLEXGRASS]
SpecularMultiplierDawn=1.0
SpecularMultiplierSunrise=1.0
SpecularMultiplierDay=1.0
SpecularMultiplierSunset=1.0
SpecularMultiplierDusk=1.0
SpecularMultiplierNight=1.0
SpecularMultiplierInteriorDay=1.0
SpecularMultiplierInteriorNight=1.0
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountDawn=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountSunrise=0.4
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountDay=0.8
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountSunset=0.4
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountDusk=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountNight=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountInteriorDay=0.2
SubSurfaceScatteringAmountInteriorNight=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountDawn=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountSunrise=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountDay=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountSunset=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountDusk=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountNight=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountInteriorDay=0.2
BasicGrassSSSAmountInteriorNight=0.2
BasicGrassFakeLightDawn=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightSunrise=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightDay=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightSunset=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightDusk=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightNight=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightInteriorDay=0.0
BasicGrassFakeLightInteriorNight=0.0
FakeLightDawn=0.1
FakeLightSunrise=0.2
FakeLightDay=0.25
FakeLightSunset=0.2
FakeLightDusk=0.1
FakeLightNight=0.0
FakeLightInteriorDay=0.0
FakeLightInteriorNight=0.0

 

 

 

 

 

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Original method (updated method above is better)

Sun behind PC  >>  sun in front of PC

Clear TU weather (10 AM)

Cloudy TU weather (10 AM)

 

The following settings (screens above) give reasonable results that vary a bit by weather (since ENB [COMPLEXGRASS] does not impact LOD grass).

TexGen

..\DynDOLOD\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\DynDOLOD_SSE.ini

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; grass LOD brightness multipliers
GrassBrightnessTopR=0.415
GrassBrightnessTopG=0.365
GrassBrightnessTopB=0.315
; make bottom darker to fake shadowing
GrassBrightnessBottomR=0.245
GrassBrightnessBottomG=0.195
GrassBrightnessBottomB=0.140

 

[z929669]

I think this has passed for acceptance in 2.1.0 so marking Accepted. It will be optional for ModGroup 21

[Mercury71]

WTH! I ran the LOD-part yesterday after installing Step 2.3 from scratch. And today you update this mod! 

Worth update and run DynDOLOD again? Will my old eyes see the change?

[z929669]

  On 3/18/2025 at 6:52 PM, Mercury71 said:

WTH! I ran the LOD-part yesterday after installing Step 2.3 from scratch. And today you update this mod! 

Worth update and run DynDOLOD again? Will my old eyes see the change?

Expand  

It's hard to say. It correlates with the ENB settings mostly, which can impact how you run DynDOLOD. I'm still working on the optimal ENB/DynDOLOD settings, so only mess with it if you notice the grass transitions are worse. The trickiest transitions to match are at midday.

[Mercury71]

  On 3/18/2025 at 7:14 PM, z929669 said:

It's hard to say. It correlates with the ENB settings mostly, which can impact how you run DynDOLOD. I'm still working on the optimal ENB/DynDOLOD settings, so only mess with it if you notice the grass transitions are worse. The trickiest transitions to match are at midday.

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I'll just update and look ingame. I am currently testing the different Step ENB with different BetINI settings.

[z929669]

I made some significant updates to this mod:

Version 1.2.0

• Optimized the ENB-CG trigger pixels (for real this time). Color management had been altering the intended outcome previously, and this has been resolved finally.
• Corrected hue and saturation of snowy grasses.
• Optimized the white balance of snowy grasses. Snow grasses should complement snowy landscapes much better now.
• Optimized mipmaps for all grasses so that full grasses don't fade out at the maximum render distance and yet don't bleed into the alpha borders.

[z929669]

I'm toying with another update with focus on aspen leaf litter 'grass'. I quite like the result and plan on adding all the CL leafpile grasses into the mix. The only drawback is that use of anisotropic filtering 4x (or higher) is required to prevent mipmap artifacts associated with the normals at steep viewing angles as described in the sticky on Nexus.

Here's the compares:

CL with CG (but not aspen leaves) CL with CG (including aspen leaves)

CL with CG (but not aspen leaves) CL with CG (including aspen leaves)

CL with CG (but not aspen leaves) CL with CG (including aspen leaves)

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I think the updated normals yield more neutral and tempered lighting that doesn't bias the scene. I made them very noisy (as I've found works best for all CG... otherwise, they are way too shiny)

Also, the aspen CG is more visible at distance, due to the improved mipmaps, which I rebuilt as with all other CG in this mod. Note the distant ground for comparison in the first two sets.

Lastly, the leaves are more detailed and not so like plastic as the originals. One could argue that there's too much noise in the normals, but it's a necessary compromise to diffuse the reflected lighting.

PS: AF 4x is enabled in all screens, so the only difference is the updated meshes and textures.