== Autumn Trees v1.1 ==

This mod adds Vacuity's falling leaves particle effects to the trees in the northern regions of Cyrodiil (the ones that look like autumn trees). I always thought Vacuity made a great effect there, but I haven't seen it used anywhere yet.


= Installation =

Put the 'meshes' and 'textures' folders as well as the 'PTAutumnTrees.esp' into your data folder and check the 'PTAutumnTrees.esp' in the launcher. If you want more or less falling leaves check the instructions below.


= Altering the amount of leaves =

In the archive is a folder called 'LEAF_FREQUENCY_VARIATIONS'. In this folder you will find 5 different frequencies of falling leaves, ranging from 0 (DISABLE, means no falling leaves) to 4 (ULTRA_HIGH, means crazy amount of falling leaves). Now you can pick a frequency for each type of tree and copy it over the nif in the meshes\VC\PTFallingLeaves folder. That way you can disable leaf effects for certain trees or increase/decrease frequency. The higher the frequency, the bigger the performance impact is obviously. By default the english oak has high frequency (since it is more spread out than the other trees) and all other trees have medium frequency.


= Compatibility and Bugs =

This mod places the particle effects directly so any mod that heavily alters the northern areas of Cyrodiil (by adding and most importantly removing trees) may conflict. This is probably mostly true for Unique Landscapes - Lush Woodlands and Unique Landscapes - Arrius Creek. The mod will still work however, but some trees might not be affected and if the author removed any trees then falling leaves may come out of nowhere. You just have to try, I don't think it will look bad even with UL loaded.

Due to the way particle effects work the leaves have no normal map and thus are not affected by fog. This may look a bit strange during a thunderstorm or foggy weather.


= Changelog =

v1.0

- intital release

v1.1

- added leaf effects to young trees and english oaks so the mod covers the whole northern part of Cyrodiil (transition area between green trees and snowy trees)
- added more leaf frequencies and the option to disable certain leaf types


= Credits =

Vacuity for his (her?) awesome falling leaves particle effects

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35590


= Permission =

The particle effects are a modder's resource made by Vacuity so if you use them give credits to Vacuity and not me! You can do with this esp whatever you want.

In fields where grass grows tall
Golden carpets swell and whisper
Autumn trees will weep



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPjYXJ7-MOs

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36561

That's sweet. Are those the vanilla tree textures, and what grass settings do you have in that video? I loved the scenic feel. I mean, it was a scenic video, but it is more scenec-y...never mind...

very nice I think this adds that touch that the game has all ways been missing. How much of a frame hit does this have on a game?

Heheheheh. :biggrin:

So did you use some kind of automatic placement system or did you seriously place them all by hand?

Vac

What?

Wow. Does this only work with certain trees?

How about rain that looks like it is moving behind you as you run toward it - or snow?

The idea is great and the effect is astonishing. The frecuency of the falling leaves is too high tough. Of course making it too realistic would also make it little noticeable. It's a very interesting work.

I think the default low effect looks ok. Less than that and you would have a hard time seeing the effect. I agree that the high effect is a bit too much - the trees would have no leaves left after one day at that rate. But it looks prettier.

I used a trick. Search and replaced all trees with their appropriate particle effects, saved, duplicated the plugin, then searched and replaced the particle effects with the trees again. In the duplicated plugin with the particle effects I selected all effects cell by cell and copied them with ctrl-d. Then I merged both plugins, giving the tree plugin a higher priority. So I was left with both the trees and the particle effects placed exactly where the trees are with exactly the size the trees have. Finally I cleaned the plugin with TES4Edit to get rid of the changes to the trees. Took about 20 minutes (plus an hour for testing other methods).

I used a trick. [snip]

I think the default low effect looks ok. Less than that and you would have a hard time seeing the effect. I agree that the high effect is a bit too much - the trees would have no leaves left after one day at that rate. But it looks prettier.

Thanks for the comments!



Just vanilla textures and vanilla grass with a draw distance above maximum slider settings and point lighting enabled.

I used a trick. Search and replaced all trees with their appropriate particle effects, saved, duplicated the plugin, then searched and replaced the particle effects with the trees again. In the duplicated plugin with the particle effects I selected all effects cell by cell and copied them with ctrl-d. Then I merged both plugins, giving the tree plugin a higher priority. So I was left with both the trees and the particle effects placed exactly where the trees are with exactly the size the trees have. Finally I cleaned the plugin with TES4Edit to get rid of the changes to the trees. Took about 20 minutes (plus an hour for testing other methods).

This is awesome. I'll certainly try this when I get home from work. Would it be possible to create a script that adds the effect to all trees in the game (Or perhaps only "green" trees).

Ah-hah, yes, I wondered if a "search and replace, then replace the trees" method would work, but I kinda assumed it would be fiddly as you'd be swapping persistent refs for temporary refs. It seems I was overly cautious. Seeing as that's not too difficult, I may replicate that on my own copies of the ULs. And I should really finish off making the autumn versions of the other trees. I've got kinda bogged down with textures for the regular green versions of the trees and shrubs. I am *not* a texturer and it's really slow and painful work for me to do that kind of work. Particle effects are easy. Textures are hard. :banghead:
Realistically, even the "low" version of the meshes is pretty heavy, but the medium and high versions are much prettier. :biggrin: If people don't like the version Phitt's used, they could always download the original resources and swap the meshes used in the CS/TES4Edit, it shouldn't be too hard. Much easier than placing all the meshes in the first place, or making the effect meshes from scratch. If that's still not low enough, you could customise the effect meshes.

Vac

Edit: Fixed some pronouns...