Far Harbor 3D Tree LODs

Before:

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After:

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Description

Far Harbor 3D Tree LODs adds 3D tree models and HD Billboards for the pine trees in Far Harbor that feature a balance between visuals and performance while reducing the pop in effect typically seen upon transition. This does cost a small amount of fps, but I think that it is worth it, especially since my Far Harbor performance is quite good in comparison to other areas.

The Vanilla Far Harbor tree LODs are low quality billboard models and were designed to be overly thick in order to hide the fact that there wasn't much to see off in the distance. This causes tree pop in (or perhaps more technically "pop out") when the full size tree is loaded, which has about half the leaf structure. Also, vanilla LODs were likely created earlier than the final models in the design process, as a lot of the LOD textures are significantly brighter than their full model counterparts. This is especially apparent on the beach pine trees.

Videos showing the bad vanilla tree LOD pop in:

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I have hand-created these 3D LODs based on the original models and textures, so they will be more geometrically correct and of proper leaf/branch size to nearly eliminate pop in.

Now with my 3D LODs:

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InstallationInstall and activate like any other mod. By itself, this mod does nothing. You must regenerate Object LOD using FO4LODGen to see the new models. Please see my Usage guide here for basic instructions.

Compatibility

TexGen can be used to make this work for nearly any tree mod. Without TexGen, this is only compatible with tree mods that provide TexGen generated textures for use with this.

Special consideration should be given during the Materials portion of the FOMOD installer to set a threshold that works for your tree mod to minimize pop-in. The default settings are optimized for vanilla trees, but most mod added trees will look best with an increased threshold.

The HD Billboards are only compatible with tree mods that provide updated textures to match in any case that they differ from vanilla appearance. Otherwise do not install the HD Billboar