Snowy Landscapes in Snowy Regions
Snowy Landscapes in Snowy Regions repaints non-snowy landscape textures used in snowy regions to their snowy counterparts (think dirt to snow, dirt path to snowy path, etc.). Along with this, it replaces non-snowy landscape-based object references (roads, rocks, rockpiles, etc.) used in snowy regions to snowy versions.
Besides the obvious, SLSR also:
- Adjusts the position of many road references to create smoother road surfaces
- Repaints all vertex colors along edges and under road references to be pure white for the best blending possible
- Repaints vertex colors under foliage and objects along the road for a more natural, subtle shadowing (brighter vs vanilla's vertex colors in these areas)
Compatibility
Snowy Landscapes in Snowy Regions(SLSR)is designed to avoid large reference bugs. This means the mod is presented in an ESM/ESP combination. The ESM handles any edits to vanilla and newly added large references and updates the RNAM data for affected cells. This prevents large reference bugs.The ESP provides changes to Landscape records, and must be loaded after other mods that affect the the same Landscape records.
Majestic Mountains' ESM (landscape edits) and Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (reference edits)are built into SLSR. Though these mods' edits are built-in, they are not required. Users will simply get the benefits of the fixes from these mods in the affected cells.
Compatible
SLSR is compatible with anything that doesn't edit the same landscape or references that SLSR does.
- All snow texture mods
- Better Dynamic Snow SE
- Blended Roads
- Capital Windhelm Expansion
- Cutting Room Floor (patch provided)
- Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods (provided as separate version)
- Majestic Mountains (load SLSR's ESM after MM's // LOOT sorts correctly)
- Skyrim Landscape and Water Fixes
- Smooth Shores - patch provided on Smooth Shores Patches (only needed for vanilla version)
- Stave Church of Skyrim (patch provided)
- Thanedom of Anga's Mill (patch provided)
Not Compatible
Mods that conflict with the same Landscape records as SLR may not be compatible without a proper patch. Such patches must be created using the Creation Kit to merge the Landscape records and address any issues from the merge.
- Mods that expand/overhaulAnga's MillorFort Hraggstadmay not be compatible (please report any issues)
- Snowy Roads for Snowy Regions - consider SLSR an expansion upon the original concept of Snowy Roads for Snowy Regions. This mod is not needed when SLSR is installed.
Installation
- Install one of SLSR's Main Files with your mod manager
- Install patches, if applicable
- Sort with LOOT
- Run xLODGen to update landscape LOD
- Run DynDOLOD to update object LOD
Failing to run xLODGen and DynDOLOD will result in mismatched LODs. The new terrain and references will "pop-in" when the cells are loaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered a large reference?
Object references that are included in a cell's "supermesh", thus have RNAM data. RNAM data is hidden in xEdit by default, but can be viewed by unticking "Hide never shown" in the settings. See the DynDOLOD documentation more information about large references and what causes bugs.
What's the difference between SLSR andSnowy Roads for Snowy Regions?
Additional areas were added that weren't covered in the original mod. Some of these areas are small (1 cell), but others span a good size of the map:
- Small patch of road outside Fort Dunstad
- Corrected several dirt paths to snowy paths
- Roads in snowy areas in Haafingar Hold (Solitude)
- Swapped out several road references that were missed in the originally covered areas
- Extended snowy roads outside Wolfskull Cave and a few other places for better blending
Couldn't this be incorporated into Better Dynamic Snow? Aren't they doing the same thing?
While BDS does replace non-snowy object reference to snowy versions, the goals of the two mods are slightly different. Editing landscape records is outside the scope of BDS, therefore it could never fully accomplish the goal of SLSR. There is no overlap between the two mods.
Why hasn't the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch fixed this?
It's beyond the scope of their project to edit landscape records.
Why does this mod edit cells where nothing has changed?
It's frequently necessary to include adjacent cells to the cell where actual work is taking place. This is mainly due to texture or vertex seams along the border of these cells. The only way to correct these issues is to balance and blend their seams across their cell borders. Consequently, SLSR may include adjacent cells to the actual cell being edited, which are simply getting some blending along their edges to remove texture or vertex seams.
