- Morrowind Grass Mod -

Yacoby has made a program which can place meshes automatically across the landscape based on various random settings, and I have made all the new grass meshes and textures. This will be released as a mod which covers Vvardenfell with grass, this beta release includes Bitter Coast, Ascadian Isles, West Gash, Grazelands - Solstheim and other regions will be released eventually.


BETA RELEASE

What this Beta release includes:

• 4 seperate esps for 4 regions - Bitter Coast, Ascadian Isles, West Gash, Grazelands
  
• So far only a Medium-Heavy version has been made, I may make a Light version.
  
• 2 grass meshes, and 4 textures (at 512x512)
  
• The same 2 grass types are used through all regions, this won't be the case in the proper release

After generating grass on each region, I've gone through and cleared out many stray meshes, such as around doorways, buildings and towns, outdoor fireplaces/campsites, and cleared some paths. Don't be suprised if you see meshes in odd places, I went to a bit of effort to clean it up, but I no doubt missed a lot. You will very likely see grass sticking out of rocks, trees and buildings etc, but this is unavoidable at this stage. You may also find the odd floating mesh on the tops of hills, though if you see any floating meshes around towns or flat areas, then it's likely that you're using a mod which alters the landscape, as the meshes in this mod are placed based on the default morrowind.esm heightmap.

So try it out and see how well it runs, please post some feedback and some screenshots if you can - I'm interested to see how it looks on different people's setups. If it runs slow for you then you'll probably need to make it a bit lighter. What you could do to make it lighter is load up the esps and delete some of the grass mesh types, they're grouped according to landscape texture, and can be found under the statics tab with a prefix of GRS_. Some other tips to help with performance, update your graphics card drivers, turn off or turn down AA (Anti-Aliasing) and AF (Anisotropic Filtering) in MGE (if you use it) or in your graphics card's control panel, also perhaps turning down your screen resolution if you must, or even reducing the resolution of the textures may help. I reccomend using FPS Optimizer to help with performance - it's 'hide small objects' feature can really help improve performance.


- http://vality.xtreemhost.com/mods/grass.html (note that some grass types seen in the screenshots aren't in the Beta release)

- http://www.adrive.com/public/667f1db9b85cbefc6f020b1863617d2fb337f77b3433a4ee89bb86d498e6e708.html

- http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=884102&view=findpost&p=13353003

Permissions for Beta Release: For now this is just to play with and to test out, wait till the v1.0 release before making any mods using my grass, and please don't upload any of this elsewhere thanks.



What the Version 1 release will/may include based on feedback that I get from the beta:

• More grass textures for more variation between the regions (this is definate)
  
• It will be better and more complete (hopefully)
  
• All regions, all seperate and optional esps - Bitter Coast, Ascadian Isles, West Gash, Grazelands, Solstheim, Sheogorad/Azura's Coast, Ashlands/Molag Amur/Red Mt, Tamriel Rebuilt 1-6
  
• Revised generation settings (if necessary)
  
• Light, medium and heavy version (maybe)
  
• Different texture resolutions ranging from 1024 to 256 that you will able to pick from depending on how well it runs (maybe)

FAQ

* When will version 1.0 be released?
Once some new textures are made - I'll work on new grass textures so we have some variation between regions. The first release will probably feature just a few grass types, and when I've made some more textures then I'll update the mod.


* How do you get animated grass?
If you download one of the the latest versions of MGE (from 3.6.0 onwards), and follow the setup instructions http://vality7.googlepages.com/mgegrass, you can render the grass through MGE. Not only does it run a lot better, but it's animated and sways according to the weather conditions. Note that you can't render the grass through MGE without using distant land, as it's part of the distant land.


* Do you need MGE to run this mod?
No, you don't need any external programs, unless you want animated grass (see above), although I personally reccomend using FPS optimizer to help with performance. You don't need to download the generator unless you plan to make your own mods.


* How does Yacoby's Mesh Generator work?
The program will place meshes randomly on the landscape, based on texture placement, based on the heightmap of the esp, and based on settings you input. So you can tell the program to place say...grass_01.nif on tx_bc_moss.tga, how randomly to place it and how often, then run the generator. It will go through whichever mods you want it to and place grass accordingly. So for this mod I will be generating grass on average of 3-4 textures per region. Note that this program can be used to place any kind of mesh and not just grass, for example I've used it to make a Grazelands tree mod much like my other tree mods, which I may release after I've released the grass mod. You will be able to use the Mesh Generator to generate grass onto any landscape mod such as Tamriel Rebuilt, Ald Vendras, Havish etc.

* Where can I download Yacoby's Mesh Generator?
Latest version is http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23065. (Note: You don't need to download or use this to play this mod, this is the tool I used to place the grass)

Latest updates if anyone is wondering, I haven't really made any new textures, but I've done all regions of Vvardenfell now, including:

* Solstheim - the snow grass has a slightly different colour, a bit grey, it's not final though. Some pics: http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/sols25.jpg -http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/sols27.jpg - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/sols29.jpg - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/sols31.jpg -http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/sols10.jpg

* Azura's Coast/Sheogorad region, which is in one esp as they share landscape textures and can't be bothered splitting them up. Here's how it looks atm: http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/azuragrass1.jpg - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/azuragrass2.jpg

* Ashlands/Molag Amur/Red Mt - again one esp, it's a red/grey ashgrass type grass, here's a http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/shus03.jpg. It looks a little dense there as that's the little area along the odai river between the two bitter coast regions, but it's not like that everywhere. For people that don't like the idea of grass in these places, it is of course optional as are all the regions.

* TR Map 1, I'll release the other TR map addons as they're released. Pics: http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/tr01.jpg - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/tr07.jpg - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/tr13.jpg - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots3/tr24.jpg

I think the Solstheim grass is PERFECT like that. ^^

Great and lovely mod. My problem is now solved. The Grass.esp was ruining it for me And I followed the instructions to the letter but I missed that darn Grass.esp. Now it works wonders.

Thanks again for your patience with my former problem.

And I agree with Dirges.

Nice, downloading and installing!
[EDIT]ops, I think I wrongly assumed a updated release... will have to wait, keep up the great work!

Wow, that's some really impressive work! When I first found about the grass mod, it was only an idea and Yacoby was at the beginning of writing the generating program. My thanks and commends to both of you Vality and Yacoby !!! :clap:
A bit off the topic: I'd ve very interested in what MGE settings (haven't found them on your website) you are using and your PC config. I tried to use the enhanced effects (Bloom, Occllusion, etc.) but it dramatically slowed down my rig (Q6600 + 4GB + 8800GTS 640MB) with even worse settings than your ini file.

Btw. your web gives 404 error right now. .... Will try later again.

Vality thx for ur awesome work on this, and now its part of MGE and annimated well its just fantastic u really improved my game! thx for ur hard work!

Any progress on this? Any chance to see some kinda beta2 release with the new regions and recoloured grass meshes?

There might be another release before a version 1 release. No idea when, I'm working on many things at the moment.

i cannot imagine how you'll pull off putting grass in the ashlands or the molag amur

the picture you provided of it...well, i don't know what it is you do to your pictures but it didn't come out that clear at all

still you've been doing great so far so i trust that you'll make it such that grass in a desolate wasteland won't look too out of place

Odd, I installed the grass mods, used the mesh generator, then added everything in the distant land generator and everything went along just fine. I now have beautifull grass everywhere throughout my game, however for some reason the grass is absolutely solid. It seems that each bit of grass has a solid bounding box around it that the player cannot pass through, which is really wierd... Also, they don't seem to be animated.

Any ideas what I might have missed? I think I'm a bit confused as to what needs to be done with the distant land generator exactly... Do I just add the grass.esp along with my MW/TB/BM ESM files, or do I also include the ESP's for all of the various grass mods that you've made Vality7?

Apart from that, everything works great bar ENBseries (enabling it just darkens the screen very slightly and drops framerates to 5 or so). That isn't a big deal and I'll try out some different versions tonight to see what works better. Also, I notice that distant objects don't appear to exist... Beyond the loaded cells' area, there's nothing but baron land. No distant objects or trees or, anything, really. I'm sure I had everything ticked for statics generation. I've been out of the modding loop with MW for some time and I'm probably just missing some critical settings in MGE I guess. This is a fresh install of MW that so far only has those mods listed on your site Vality

Well first and foremost I made it for me, and I am quite happy with how it came out for a quick job, and I know there are plenty of people who will like it. It's 100% optional, so if you don't like it then you don't have to use it.

I don't do anything to my pictures, I'm just using a bunch of ingame effects, and as I said, it wasn't a good example picture. It's slightly similar to Oblivion's bloodgrass that you see in the Deadlands, and it's not everywhere.


If you follow the instructions then it will work fine, animated grass is a little bit different than installing a normal mod.

- Download 3.6.1 and the other necessary stuff stated on http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=880254&view=findpost&p=12905117 - and make sure you read that post thoroughly, the instructions below are a slightly simplified version.
- Download and install my mod.
- Download http://www.liztail.com/grass_meshes.7zoptimised meshes and overwrite the originals.
- Generate distant land (yes you tick MW/BM and any other mods you want generated) and make sure the grass esps are chosen when generating.
- If you're using a static exception list then remove any grass entries from it then generate statics. If you're not using one then don't worry.
- Make sure all grass esps are unticked in the launcher then run the game.

When you say you used the mesh generator, I hope you don't mean Yacoby's mesh generator, because it's not needed to make this grass mod work, I just used it to make the mod.

Ahh, it's all quite clear now, thanks. I was using Yacoby's mesh generator to generate my own grass.esp, but I got a bit lost trying to work out how that was supposed to interact with your grass meshes. But now I know .

When I get back home tonight, I'll make the necessary changes and see how it goes. Thanks again

Vality, this is looking fantastic. I use your currently released grass as is, and couldn't imagine playing without it now. Looking forward to the next release.

Also, I live in the desert, and have to say that the ashlands grass fits right in. Out here, despite being dry desert, there's scrub brushes and brown grass all over the place. Especially in open fields, like that one.

I can't believe what you guys(girls) have done with this old game! Modern view distances, effects and grass!? I remember years ago when the first 2d grass mesh was released and we couldn't cover more then a few feet without massive frame drops. Glad I stopped by to check out these old forums. Glad you are all keeping one of my favorite games fresh. I just reinstalled Morrowind with TRMap1 ...TRMap1 looks pretty lame after you get used to the unlimited draw distance of the mainland though. Can't wait to see all these features on a completed morrowind landmass! Thank you Vality7 and everyone else involved! Keep up the good work! :tops:

How do I add my own textures to the settings editor in the mesh generator?

Nevermind, I may have figured it out..

Absolutely incredible!!!! now i'm ruined forever, i played morrowind with this mod and now i cant play without it! This leads me to my one and only problem. After creating my distant land, and checking "include activators" i go into the game and the grass disappears as soon as foggy weather pops up. I have tried disabling fog but this does not work. The grass comes back when the fog goes away, but this really kills the immersion. Can someone Please shed some light on this problem. Otherwise a minor complaint to an excellent piece of work!! Thanks!!

PROTIP: MGE can generate distant land for mods, including Tamriel Rebuilt maps.

So, who or what ate Vality's homepage?

Do you use a plugin that disables mge's distant land at specific weather conditions? The mge-grass is drawn exclusively along with the distant land/static meshes. If you (or some weather-plugin) disable distant land you will lose the grass too.

I recommend using http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=889756 excellent weather-mod. It produces highly tweakable fogging at the appropriate weather conditions and never disables distant land.

Not the first time this happens, it should be back up in a few days. Googlepage appears not to be a very reliable host...

It isn't Googlepages, it's Vality editing the site. It said "new website coming soon" the last time I went to it so he's probably making a lot of changes. (redesign, new stuff etc.)

Blasted they shall be!

yes i had just such a mod enabled. And now that i have disabled it, the problem is all gone. thank you for the weather tweak as well. i'm gonna use it. one last question. i see people talking about animated trees. i have found such a mod but its old and not complete. is thier something newer that people are using. i have seen the video of balmora completely forested with animated trees on youtube and trying to figure out how that was done. Thanks for all the support!!

The videos you're talking about are mine, they're 'work in progress', not of a released mod. Before the animated trees can be released as a mod, there's some issues that need to be fixed, mainly the collision, and the animation itself needs a little work, though Liztail is no longer working on it so I'm trying to make the changes myself.

As for my site, it will be back soon, with a new host and better look. All my mods are at PES if you want them. If anyone has any questions unrelated to the thread they should PM me, let's keep the discussion on the grass mod.