Nature of the Wild Lands - forest and trees improvement mod

I've been working hard every day for two years on this update, and the result is a nearly complete rework of the mod.

All tree meshes have been reworked. They now look much more realistic while having fewer polycount, which positively impacts performance. For optimization, I also atlased the tree meshes, reducing draw calls and increasing performance. The collision geometry has been simplified while maintaining sufficient accuracy, and a collision material has been added. This resolves issues with arrows disappearing when hitting trees and adds sound effects when weapons strike them.

The vegetation layout in Falkreath has been completely redesigned. The forest has been transformed not only by new vegetation meshes but also by a more natural placement of objects.

One of the key improvements in version 3. 0 is the work done on NPC navigation. They no longer get stuck in trees, which was a common issue with many mods. This was achieved using navcuts, and I didn't edit the navigation mesh, as doing so could lead to additional incompatibilities with other mods.

Previously, the mod edited the landscape, which caused incompatibilities with other mods. In version 3. 0, I removed these changes, as they created more problems than benefits and required additional patches.

The mod now supports Seasons of Skyrim.

Update 3. 10 also added 3D LODs. At the moment, 120 meshes for the most common trees in the game are ready. The LODs range from 600 to 1500 tris. Compared to LODs from other tree mods, mine are slightly better optimized. Essentially, the LODs are hybrid — the tree trunk remains as a billboard, while the crown has simplified geometry from the full meshes. In this way, I tried to balance between good-looking LODs and optimization. The LODs use textures from the full tree meshes, which are then atlased together with LODs of other objects. Not all trees have 3D LODs yet. From time to time, I’ll be uploading updates that will include new LODs.

The vanilla forests of Skyrim have a very limited variety of tree species and forest clutter. This mod replaces all the original tree meshes with new ones made using photogrammetry, and it also adds a large number of new tree species, plants, and forest clutter. The forests are now diverse and divided into many smaller regions, each distinct from the others. The mod also affects both DLCs.

The tree meshes average around 6,000 tris, which doesn't significantly impact performance, but the forest density has greatly increased. The mod is about 3. 5 GB in size because it's the most extensive overhaul of flora. It doesn't edit the landscape or navigation mesh, prioritizing compatibility with other mods. The tree meshes include navcuts, so NPCs will navigate around t