Grass Cache¶

Grass cache generation is used to add grass to the game and to ensure it's not placed inside objects and is not floating. Any time a cell significantly changes, the grass cache for it needs to be regenerated.

NGIO is the mod used to generate grass cache. After the cache is generated, Grass Cache Helper NG is used to load it and provide season support.

Grass is generated per cell. To see which cell you are in, open the console and hit Tab to switch to the cell view. You'll see cell coordinates there. To easily view cell borders, you can install the Debug Menu mod.

Generation Types¶

There are two ways of generating the grass cache:

• Partial:
  • Allows spot-patching specific cells
  • Much faster than full if you only need to update a few cells
  • Easier to set up
• Full:
  • Generates an entire worldspace or several worldspaces
  • Fully automated when ran with MO2
  • Takes a long time

Partial generation is generally recommended unless you need a full regen. You only need to fully generate when you either add a new worldspace, or change the grass models. Changing grass textures does not warrant a regeneration.

File Overview¶

The files generated by NGIO have the extension '.cgid' and the files will be referred to by this extension.

The CGID files generated by NGIO follow this naming pattern: {Worldspace}x{x}y{y}.cgid, where {Worldspace} is the worldspace the grass is for (Tamriel for mainland Skyrim), x is the cell's {x} coordinate, and {y} is the cell's y coordinate. Both coordinates are always four numbers with leading zeroes. For negative coordinates, the first zero is swapped for a minus sign.

Examples:

The files contain grass placement data for the cell, as well as which model the grass uses.

When NGIO fails to generate grass, it will make a '.fail' file and try again automatically. You should remove those files.

Seasons¶

To generate seasonal grass, you need to force a specific season in Seasons of Skyrim. The configuration file is data\skse\plugins\po3_SeasonsOfSkyrim.ini. For generating non-seasonal grass, force the season to none.

GTS only uses a single seasonal grass, winter. All other seasons use the regular, non-seasonal grass.

This means that GTS requires two runs of grass generation. One for non-seasonal grass, and another for winter grass.

NGIO itself does not support seasonal swaps, Grass Cache Helper NG is used for that purpose. The seasonal grass must follow the regular Seasons of Skyrim nomenclature. A CGID file for non-seasonal grass would be Tamrielx0010y0005.cgid, and the winter variant would be Tamrielx0010y0005.WIN.cgid.

You have to rename the files manually, but it can be done with a single terminal command. For windows use: ren *.cgid *.WIN.cgid, for Linux use mv *.cgid *.WIN.cgid. These commands will rename all '.cgid' files to '.WIN.cgid' in the current directory.

Before Generation¶

Temporarily remove any and all content from the AE Upgrade. Only Fishing, Rare Curios, Survival Mode, and Saints & Seducers are to stay.

All GTS AE content should also be disabled. You can easily find it by searching "Anniversary Edition Upgrade".

When you start the game with NGIO enabled, it will create default it's configuration file, data\skse\plugins\GrassControl.ini.

Generation¶

Pick the appropriate method for your needs as described above. NGIO generates directly into data\grass\, so it's best to use MO2 to capture the output, as described in Generation