SKYRIMLE Unique Grasses - Nature and Landscape Enhancement (by Josh Ezzell)

[johnnyboy88]

Unique Grasses - Nature and Landscape Enhancement by Josh Ezzell

 

I see some grass mods being mentioned lately so I thought I'd mention the latest one. It's looking pretty nice so far.

 

It has good compatibility with other grass mods as well.

 

It adds 22 grass types and increases density for those that can handle grass mods.

Image list of the added grass types

 

Compatibility

- It works great with Vurt's Flora Overhaul. It is not recommended to use my mod with Vurt's 'Overgrown' edition, they are incompatible. Vurt's Summer Edition should be fine. Let me know.

- Compatible with ULTIMATE LUSH OVERHAUL by SkyrimENB

- Compatible with Lush Trees and Grass by SparrowPrince.

- Compatible with Glorious Grasses by jack254

- Compatible with SkyRealism - Grass by IndigoNeko

- Compatible with Grass and Grass by MannyGT

- NOT COMPATIBLE with Dat Grass (which has been hidden by it's author)

- NOT COMPATIBLE with Beautiful Landscapes - Skyrim Grassification Project by Skyrimaguas

- NOT CURRENTLY* COMPATIBLE with Grass on Steroids by Skyrimaguas

 

*A version for 'Grass on Steroids' will be made soon.

 

[Aiyen]

In general I found the textures too green to fit into many locations unless you use one of the serious climate overhauls.

But this is a general issue most grass mods have... they fit very nicely to falkreath but not as good everywhere else since the general theme is not green, but red, brown, snow like.

[johnnyboy88]

True. but if it's just the color that bothers you, you could easily do a hue shift on the texture files; it only adds 22 new ones. Though that would change the look of the ones around Falkreath as well. You may be able to find a balance you like though. *shrug* just a thought at any rate.

[Aiyen]

Oh but I do! :)

 

Guess I should have said that! But at any rate, there are some nice textures among this! and its worth trying out at any rate! If only the textures at least!

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I think there should probably be a Pack for Trees/Grass, just like there's one for Lighting/Weather. There are a ton of these mods and they all look pretty nice.

[rootsrat]

But pack should be a complete, ready to install solution, not a list of mods from one theme. This is my understanding of a pack at least...

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

[mothergoose729]

In general I found the textures too green to fit into many locations unless you use one of the serious climate overhauls.

But this is a general issue most grass mods have... they fit very nicely to falkreath but not as good everywhere else since the general theme is not green, but red, brown, snow like.

Its for this reason that I think Vurts approach is the best. Grasses need to be static objects added by hand in order to be appropriate for the different climates, rather than one grass textures for every place. Also, this mod has some issues with grass appearing where they ought not be, like through floor boards of some buildings. 

[Guest]

I'm probably going to seem biased because I slightly helped with this mod, (NMM installer and feedback) but I really like it. I originally told the author to add a less saturated version because it looked too extreme for me. I don't think the grass through floors can be helped bar making manual edits to the ground. That would make the mod less clean and less compatible.

[vfxninjaeditor]

Hey guys,

 

Glad to see this got posted here. I actually would love input from anyone who offers it.

 

I am working on a big update. Here is my current todo list and changes I have made:

 

- New ground cover textures of plants like this. I have made new textures to ground cover variety to the landscape.

- Aspen leaf piles.

- Add some yellow to the texture to match closer with vanilla textures and lighting (will keep some variety. Some will be more green than others. It helps give depth to the scene).

- Fix wind strength on some of the grasses.

- Add water grasses. This will include pebbles in the rivers to add depth to the ground textures underwater.

- Remove weed grasses to prevent clipping in Whiterun.

 

Once again, there will be many options for people to choose from to prevent people complaining about different densities, grass on roads, or unwanted water plants.

 

My goal is to try and make this as realistic as possible, although I am taking into account that this is a fantasy game and I have some creative license. If you have suggestions for grasses and edits please let me know. Making new grass textures is extremely easy. I am actually trying to take some inspiration from the forest next to my house in the next releases for Falkreath.

[Aiyen]

Extremely easy.... I would not call it that :P

Guess if you have plugins to help you create the transparency map then it is... but otherwise then I would not call it extremely easy!

Even less so if you have to actually cut it out from a photo.

 

Been messing with that for a few weeks... my camera is just not good enough to create a good enough quality sadly. Also I just cant get a good shot on grass, since it tends to... fall over when you try to place it in camera conditions.

 

But nice to hear you update, and welcome here! Looking forward to seeing what you cook up!

[vfxninjaeditor]

Haha, it's all perspective. No, it's not necessarily easy - but in my opinion it's much easier than creating other textures. You don't have to worry about tiling or making normal maps. Only cutting the texture out and making alpha channels. :)

 

As for transparency, very easy to do without a plugin (In Photoshop. I don't know about Gimp as I don't use it). Just take the texture you made that has a transparent background export it as a .dds DTX3. Open it up and copy the alpha from it. Go back to the texture you made and click on the channels tab and add a new channel (this becomes your 'Alpha 1' channel) and copy the alpha from the exported .dds. Re-save with new alpha.

 

If you need a video of the process, I can whip one up in very little time. I am thinking on making a thread in the new mod author forum for this mod. I would like people to offer suggestions and ideas (maybe even collaborate on expanded my flora. I know I will probably need help on my Plants and Trees module.) It would probably be best anyway to keep it isolated there instead of here in the mod discussion area.

 

Thanks for the welcoming. I signed up several months and ago and posted a little, but I got sidetracked for awhile. Glad I came back. So much good discussion, ideas, and mods popping up!

[Aiyen]

Yeah that would properly be the best! :)

 

I do have some flora cuts ready to use... they just need proper alpha channels really.

[vfxninjaeditor]

Okay, I will make a video detailing the process. I will probably make a thread for texture tutorials in the mod authors forum.

 

What are you planning on making with you flora textures? I am addicted to flora mods, haha.

[Aiyen]

No need for a video. I am using GIMP, and there is not plugin for it there sadly.

Hence it all has to be done by hand, and that takes a while.

 

I have made a few grass replacements to some of vurt´s work that just did not agree with my ENB. Used the grass resource on the nexus for that. They had superb alpha channels, so it was just copy paste and then recolor etc.

 

The main texture I was looking to replace before I sorted out my HLSL code was the one called forestgrass.dds, since it was always super green. This made it so that it did not blend well... and it still kinda does not, but it is really difficult to create that complicated a texture from the ground up, again since I have to manually do the alpha channel for it... and that takes forever with such a composite texture.

[phazer11]

Looking forward to it mate. The textures look nice though the only version of those options I like are the the default and bigger and taller (both no-roads versions) though idlly it would not require any mesh edits.