- Morrowind Grass Mod -

This mod covers various regions of Morrowind with grass. The grass was placed using a utility made by Yacoby, which can place meshes automatically across the landscape based on various random settings. 

This release includes the regions of the Bitter Coast, Ascadian Isles, West Gash, Grazelands, and Tamriel Rebuilt's Maps 1 & 2. Each region has it's own esp file so you can choose which regions you want grass. The same 2 grass types are used through all regions, but this won't be the case in the next release. If you're using Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGE), you also have the option for the grass to be animated. 

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Downloading & Installation

- Choose either one of these -

For Standard Grass:
Download the Grass_Standard zip file, and extract to the \Morrowind\Data Files\ folder. Tick the esps in the Morrowind Launcher and run game.

For Animated Grass:
Download the Grass_Animated zip file, and extract to the \Morrowind\Data Files\ folder. Follow the instructions in the FAQ below to install. Note that it requires MGE to use animated grass.


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FAQ

* Is this release any different than the beta version?
No. I uploaded it at PES so that it has a permanent home. I figured I'd call it v1.0 as it's no longer being tested, but nothing has been updated yet.


* When will the next version be released? 
Probably as soon as some new grass textures are made. If anyone wants to help out with making grass textures, send me (Vality7) a PM at the official forums. I'm not currently working on this mod but if I can get some help then I will get back into it and update it.


* What might the next version include? 
- 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, and all Tamriel Rebuilt maps as they're released.
- 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)


* Do you need MGE to run this mod?
No, you only need MGE if you want animated grass.


* How do you get animated grass?
Animated grass is done by using Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGE). The animation sways according to the weather conditions, and it runs a lot better than rendering it through Morrowind, for some people there is no fps hit at all. 

1. Download and install the latest version of MGE (or any version from v3.6.0 onwards) from here (http://sourceforge.net/projects/morrgraphext/files/).
2. Download and extract the Grass_Animated file.
3. Launch MGE, then run the Distant Land Creation Wizard.
4. Tick the mods that you want to create distant land for, including all the grass esps that you want.
5. Once you've completed the distant land creation, close MGE and make sure that the grass mods are not activated in the Morrowind launcher. Then you can run the game and enjoy.


* I don't want animated grass anymore, how do I go back to the normal grass?
Reinstall the standard version, making sure to overwrite any files, then tick the esps in the Morrowind Launcher, and run the game.


* I've got the animated grass working, but why can't I walk through it?
Make sure that the grass esps are not ticked in the Morrowind launcher. MGE renders the grass, so Morrowind doesn't need to. The reason the MGE meshes have collision, is that to optimize the meshes we removed the no-collision node.


* I've got the animated grass working, but why does the grass texture have a weird floating bits above it?
You need to make sure you've installed the animated version and not the standard version. The animated version includes meshes that were edited specifically to suit MGE, so they need to be installed. 


* Can I render the grass through MGE without using having to use distant land?
No, it's part of the distant land. A simple solution is to use distant land, but set the fog level very low. This way you get the original Morrowind fog, but with the animated grass as well as MGE's water and other MGE features.


* How can I make my game run faster while using this mod? 
When rendering the grass through MGE, it runs with little to no fps hit, so I suggest using MGE if you can. MGE also has the option to lower the grass density, which you'll find on the last tab of the distant land creation wizard.

To make the esps lighter you could load up the esps in the construction set 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 personally reccomend using FPS optimizer to help with performance - it has a 'hide small objects' feature which can really help.


* Why is there grass in places it shouldn't be?
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, but don't be suprised if you see meshes in odd places, I didn't clear them all. 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. The Tamriel Rebuilt grass esp hasn't yet been optimized like the other regions.


* 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 for example...grass_01.nif on tx_bc_moss.tga, as well as 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 generated 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 trees, rocks and other kinda of flora. 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 here (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23065). Note that you don't need to download or use this to play this mod, this is the tool I used to place the grass.

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Permissions: Please wait until the next release before releasing any mods using this grass, and please don't upload any of this elsewhere thanks.


Credits:
Vality - Grass meshes/textures & esps
Yacoby - Grass placement generation utility
Liztail - Animated grass