I'm journeying back through Skyrim again, this time with the improved shaders and such of SSE, enjoying myself immensely getting lost in exploration and quests as I do with just about every Bethesda title

I'm looking through the sparkling godrays deep in a forest of little critters darting about in the glow of evening's light when I see these terrible carboard cutouts of trees

imgur com/jmCluQn

imgur com/QLhGIAt

(I have images but seem to be unable to post the links here)

UGH

It's not one particular type of tree and it's not all trees. Only certain trees mingling in and about other trees that are perfectly normal.

The pine trees that have this issue seem to not be loading the mesh shape as they are more obviously cardboard cutouts.

I am a bit at my wits end with fixes I've tried. My game is unmodded and I have not loaded any mods. I've uninstalled, cleared the skyrim directories, reinstalled. My drivers are as up to date as Nvidia has them, as of 11/27. My computer is a pretty standard gaming pc: Intel I5-6600K 3.5ghz 8192 MB RAM Windows 10 Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 Ti ASUS Z170A Motherboad, no overclock, no SLI

I've tried dropping the settings to their minimum and unchecking all options in video settings that are normally checked. No change.

I'm not the only one who has had this problem, in fact in researching this I found a link to back in 2012 when someone had this same issue with the original Skyrim, however I never had that problem with the original, nor do I have this issue in Fallout 4. Most of the people who seemed to have had this issue report doing a driver update, but I'm on 376.09

HELP

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Skyrim.ini

[General]

sLanguage=ENGLISH

sTestFile1=Dawnguard.esm

sTestFile2=HearthFires.esm

sTestFile3=Dragonborn.esm

uGridsToLoad=7


uExterior Cell Buffer=36


[Display]

fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0

fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0

fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0

fLightLODStartFade=3500.0

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

bAllowScreenshot=1

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=9999999.0000

fFirstSliceDistance=2000.0000

fDynamicDOFFarBlur=0.4

fDDOFFocusCenterweightExt=2

fDOFMaxDepthParticipation=10000


[Audio]

fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0

fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0

fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0

fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0


[Grass]

bAllowCreateGrass=1

bAllowLoadGrass=0

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000

fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000


[Decals]

uMaxSkinDecalPerActor=60


[LightingShader]

fDecalLODFadeStart=0.45

fDecalLODFadeEnd=0.5


[Imagespace]

iRadialBlurLevel=2


[GeneralWarnings]

SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.


[Archive]

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes0.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes1.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices_en0.bsa, Skyrim - Textures0.bsa, Skyrim - Textures1.bsa, Skyrim - Textures2.bsa, Skyrim - Textures3.bsa, Skyrim - Textures4.bsa, Skyrim - Textures5.bsa, Skyrim - Textures6.bsa, Skyrim - Textures7.bsa, Skyrim - Textures8.bsa, Skyrim - Patch.bsa

bLoadArchiveInMemory=1

sArchiveToLoadInMemoryList=Skyrim - Animations.bsa


[Combat]

fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0

fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0


[Actor]

bUseNavMeshForMovement=0


[Papyrus]

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0

bEnableLogging=0

bEnableTrace=0

bLoadDebugInformation=0

#################################################################################################

SkyrimPrefs.ini

[Display]

fShadowDistance=10000.0000

iNumFocusShadow=4

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

ffocusShadowMapDoubleEveryXUnit=450.0000

iShadowMapResolution=4096

fDynamicDOFBlurMultiplier=0.8000

fProjectedUVNormalDetailTilingScale=0.8000

fProjectedUVDiffuseNormalTilingScale=0.2000

bEnableProjecteUVDiffuseNormals=1

bUseTAA=1

bIndEnable=0

bSAO_CS_Enable=0

bToggleSparkles=1

bSAOEnable=1

bScreenSpaceReflectionEnabled=1

bIBLFEnable=1

bUse64bitsHDRRenderTarget=1

iSaveGameScreenShotHeighWSt=192

iSaveGameScreenShotWidthWS=320

iSaveGameScreenShotHeight=192

iSaveGameScreenShotWidth=256

iShadowMaskQuarter=4

bVolumetricLightingEnable=1

iVolumetricLightingQuality=2

bEnableImprovedSnow=1

fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000

bFXAAEnabled=0

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=9999999.0000

fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000

fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=999999.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=999999.0000

fGamma=1.0000

bBorderless=1

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1080

iSize W=1920

iScreenShotIndex=0

bTreesReceiveShadows=1

bUsePrecipitationOcclusion=1

bDrawLandShadows=0

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100

iAdapter=0

iNumSplits=2

uBookRatio=2

bForceCreateTarget=0

iReflectionResolutionDivider=2

iVSyncPresentInterval=1

[Imagespace]

bDoDepthOfField=1

bLensFlare=1

[General]

fLightingOutputColourClampPostSpec=1.0000

fLightingOutputColourClampPostEnv=1.0000

fLightingOutputColourClampPostLit=1.0000

iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1

bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

uLargeRefLODGridSize=11

[MAIN]

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000

bGamepadEnable=1

bCrosshairEnabled=1

fHUDOpacity=1.0000

bSaveOnPause=0

bSaveOnTravel=1

bSaveOnWait=1

bSaveOnRest=1

[Interface]

fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000

bDialogueSubtitles=0

bGeneralSubtitles=0

bShowCompass=1

[GamePlay]

bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1

bShowQuestMarkers=1

iDifficulty=2

[Controls]

fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0280

fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=0.6667

bAlwaysRunByDefault=1

bInvertYValues=0

bGamePadRumble=1

bUseKinect=0

[Particles]

iMaxDesired=750

[SaveGame]

fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

[AudioMenu]

fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000

fVal7=1.0000

uID7=0

fVal6=1.0000

uID6=0

fVal5=1.0000

uID5=0

fVal4=1.0000

uID4=0

fVal3=0.5000

uID3=466532

fVal2=0.8000

uID2=554685

fVal1=0.8000

uID1=1007612

fVal0=1.0000

uID0=94881

[Clouds]

fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000

fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000

fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000

fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000

[Water]

bUseWaterDisplacements=1

bUseWaterRefractions=1

bUseWaterReflections=1

bUseWaterDepth=1

[TerrainManager]

fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000

fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000

fBlockLevel1Distance=90000.0000

fBlockLevel0Distance=60000.0000

fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000

bShowLODInEditor=1

[NavMesh]

fObstacleAlpha=0.5000

fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000

fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500

fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000

fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500

fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000

fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000

fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500

fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000

fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000

fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000

fEdgeThickness=10.0000

fPointSize=2.5000

[Trees]

bRenderSkinnedTrees=1

uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=40

[Grass]

fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000

fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[Decals]

bSkinnedDecals=1

bDecals=1

uMaxSkinDecals=100

uMaxDecals=1000

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25

[LOD]

fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=30.0000

fLODFadeOutMultItems=10.0000

fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000

[Launcher]

sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti"

uLastAspectRatio=1

Maybe posting a dxdiag.exe and post the full report in spoiler tags will help.

What happens if you are using the default uGrids of 5.

They look like LOD trees. Have you changed any ini file settings?

skyrim doesn't have pink aspen trees anywhere so its coming from a mod my bet is on fantasy forest overhaul mod which has pink aspen trees and comes with matching Lod's for pink trees. you may have installed it at some point and then didn't removed it properly and now have some files lying around