DrJacopo's - 3D Landscapes and Grass Library

Features 

1. A grass overhaul created from the very biomes that inspired the game. All grasses are constructed from photos of plants that I’ve captured while trekking through Iceland, the Alps, the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. This library has cost me over $20,000 USD just to acquire the source photos. Nearly 900 hours have been spent producing the textures and models from these photos. Your donation is appreciated! https://www.patreon.com/DrJacopo.

2. Lightweight 3D models that perform better than traditional billboard grass, though overall performance will depend on the mod author's judicious use of assets.

3. Complex grass textures designed for ENB and CS when beneficial

4. Hundreds of new grass models

Instructions

Mod Users, there are two main files. The "Library" is a resource for other mods. The "3D Grass Overhaul" is a stand-alone grass mod.

Mod Authors, please read carefully. Please download the Cathedral Grass Library Resource Textures file. You will include these textures in your mod, along with an esp, esl, or esm file to distribute the grass types across landscape. You will need to edit these textures (recommendations below), optimize them with compression (Cathedral Asset Optimizer) and include them in your mod. Your mod must require the main file from this page.

Tips for Mod Authors

1. I recommend you use GIMP, which natively supports DDS files, to edit, colorize, resize, and generate mip maps.

2. The mip map algorithm is critical. When exporting, select "preserve alpha test coverage" and set the "alpha test threshold" to a value of 0. 9 or higher. This is necessary so that thin blades of grass do not fade to transparency as you move away from the grass. This also very significantly improves performance by decreasing overdraw.

3. Use Cathedral Asset Optimizer to compress files to BC7. Disable Mip-Map generation at this step to preserve the mip-maps you created in step 2. Of note, you will no longer be able to view the files in GIMP after compression to BC7 without a 3rd-party plugin. You can ask me how to do this if needed.

4. In the Grass record, use "Min Slope" and "Max Slope" to cluster certain grass types to grow together in patches. This looks more realistic than completely randomized plant growth.

DrJacopo's 3D Grass Library

The list below is no longer maintained and does not include many of the assets in the library.

Aegopodium: Found in the Alps growing around 1500m (5000 ft) of elevation. They were growing in a pine forest amongst dense and lush grass. They also are the most pervasive flower in open fiel