Grass View/Draw Distance

[Sketchy Fella]

I have my grass draw distance as high as it can go, does anyone know how I can make it higher, because even still with it on high you cant see grass from 100ish yards away.

[ᑓᑌᑎᕬ]

It's simple: mods.
Or you can tinker with the *.ini files ...

[Belanos]

Just look for these lines in your Prefs ini file:

fGrassStartFadeDistance=
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=

The default value for the Max setting is 7000, but you can double it if you want. Any more than that will have no effect though.

[Sketchy Fella]

Originally posted by Belanos:

Just look for these lines in your Prefs ini file:

fGrassStartFadeDistance=
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=

The default value for the Max setting is 7000, but you can double it if you want. Any more than that will have no effect though.

Thanks my man

[Zombie Slayer]

These config settings don't appear to be taking effect for me in game. Not sure why.

[hawkeye]

The settings won't provide full "as far as the eye can see" cover. The only way to really extend it is to increase the ugrids. But that can foul up quests.

An extra ugrids ini setting was added to SE but it doesn't do it either.

There is a a lot of discussion about the problem on the web and nexus forums.

edit: there are some mods that fake it by adding grass and a tile of the same color in the distance. I think Verdant or Skyrim Flora Overhaul might. But grass will still pop as you move forward.

[GoodSmith]

I always prefer to tweak my ini files rather than installing mod plugins.
Here is how I increased my grass draw distance

; SkyrimPrefs.ini settings:

[Grass]
fGrassStartFadeDistance=28000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=28000.0000

; Each 1 uGridsToLoad = 4096 distance


; Skyrim.ini settings:

[Grass]
iGrassCellRadius=3
; iGrassCellRadius should be (uGridsToLoad - 1)/2


[General]
uGridsToLoad=7
uExterior Cell Buffer=64

[Recordist]

Originally posted by GoodSmith:

I always prefer to tweak my ini files rather than installing mod plugins.
Here is how I increased my grass draw distance

; SkyrimPrefs.ini settings:

[Grass]
fGrassStartFadeDistance=28000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=28000.0000

; Each 1 uGridsToLoad = 4096 distance


; Skyrim.ini settings:

[Grass]
iGrassCellRadius=3
; iGrassCellRadius should be (uGridsToLoad - 1)/2


[General]
uGridsToLoad=7
uExterior Cell Buffer=64

Past 20000 there is no difference in visible rendering.

https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/m999o/how_to_max_out_grass_draw_distance_with/

I believe DynDoLOD will increase this however.

[smr1957]

Do NOT change uGridsToLoad from the default setting of 5 - this can lead to the breaking of your game.

Setting uGrid values higher than 5 will potentially break your game (5 is the default setting).

"When you raise your uGrids above 5 you aren't just making your game render things further out, you are making your game process EVERYTHING further out, including scripts and quests. This has a huge impact on your engines stability, and it breaks certain quests which aren't meant to activate that soon and end up bugging out.
Stable uGridsToLoad has a memory corruption issue which puts you at a huge risk for CTDs, broken scripting, rendering bugs and other instability. It is not concidered stable to use. This issue was confirmed by the author of the mod" - from post #9 by Nazenn:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/385429125015580932/#c385429125016910473

also:

"One thing more, if you have changed your Ugrids you cant change it back to 5. You are stuck whit it where you have set it.
Unless you start one new game." - from post #23 by Uncle64[Swe]:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/385429125015580932/?ctp=2#c385429125017736718
(This is due to the fact that Skyrim bakes data into the save - alll the errors created by changing to a higher value remain in the save, despite your changing the uGrids back - and the save CANNOT be fixed.)

Read whole thread for detailed discussion:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/385429125015580932/

Examples of problems:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/133258593405367732/?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/133259227514381006/?

[Recordist]

Originally posted by smr1957:

Do NOT change uGridsToLoad from the default setting of 5 - this can lead to the breaking of your game.

Setting uGrid values higher than 5 will potentially break your game (5 is the default setting).

"When you raise your uGrids above 5 you aren't just making your game render things further out, you are making your game process EVERYTHING further out, including scripts and quests. This has a huge impact on your engines stability, and it breaks certain quests which aren't meant to activate that soon and end up bugging out.
Stable uGridsToLoad has a memory corruption issue which puts you at a huge risk for CTDs, broken scripting, rendering bugs and other instability. It is not concidered stable to use. This issue was confirmed by the author of the mod" - from post #9 by Nazenn:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/385429125015580932/#c385429125016910473

also:

"One thing more, if you have changed your Ugrids you cant change it back to 5. You are stuck whit it where you have set it.
Unless you start one new game." - from post #23 by Uncle64[Swe]:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/385429125015580932/?ctp=2#c385429125017736718
(This is due to the fact that Skyrim bakes data into the save - alll the errors created by changing to a higher value remain in the save, despite your changing the uGrids back - and the save CANNOT be fixed.)

Read whole thread for detailed discussion:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/385429125015580932/

Examples of problems:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/133258593405367732/?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/133259227514381006/?

Wasn't that only an issue in oldrim? And if not, doesn't unofficial patch solve this?

[GoodSmith]

There is a way to change uGridsToLoad to a smaller value and I confirmed it myself, but I have been playing for 400+ hours on uGridsToLoad 7 and wasn't much bothered by quests or events being triggered far away from me.

To lower uGridsToLoad:
1- While in the game, ALT+TAB and edit Skyrim.ini, change uGridsToLoad and save
2- ALT+TAB to game, open the console and enter the command refreshini
3- Save. The new save will be on the lower uGridsToLoad value

[smr1957]

No, this is an issue with both games, and it has to do with (as stated) the game loading everything - thus causing things to trigger when they are not supposed to. A major game-breaker that we have seen all to often in the forums and, of which, a player may not be aware of until they start encountering unexplained CTDs, and, eventually, total game failure.

[smr1957]

Originally posted by GoodSmith:

There is a way to change uGridsToLoad to a smaller value and I confirmed it myself, but I have been playing for 400+ hours on uGridsToLoad 7 and wasn't much bothered by quests or events being triggered far away from me.

To lower uGridsToLoad:
1- While in the game, ALT+TAB and edit Skyrim.ini, change uGridsToLoad and save
2- ALT+TAB to game, open the console and enter the command refreshini
3- Save. The new save will be on the lower uGridsToLoad value

No - as constantly explained. The damaging information is baked into the save - this cannot be undone.

[Magicktech]

Originally posted by smr1957:

Originally posted by GoodSmith:

There is a way to change uGridsToLoad to a smaller value and I confirmed it myself, but I have been playing for 400+ hours on uGridsToLoad 7 and wasn't much bothered by quests or events being triggered far away from me.

To lower uGridsToLoad:
1- While in the game, ALT+TAB and edit Skyrim.ini, change uGridsToLoad and save
2- ALT+TAB to game, open the console and enter the command refreshini
3- Save. The new save will be on the lower uGridsToLoad value

No - as constantly explained. The damaging information is baked into the save - this cannot be undone.

These fools don't listen. Its like they are trying to find the truth about conspiracies. Google it, believe what you read, done.

[hawkeye]

Originally posted by GoodSmith:

There is a way to change uGridsToLoad to a smaller value and I confirmed it myself, but I have been playing for 400+ hours on uGridsToLoad 7 and wasn't much bothered by quests or events being triggered far away from me.

To lower uGridsToLoad:
1- While in the game, ALT+TAB and edit Skyrim.ini, change uGridsToLoad and save
2- ALT+TAB to game, open the console and enter the command refreshini
3- Save. The new save will be on the lower uGridsToLoad value

On LE I used the change for over 1000 hours without issue. I decided to try it as I like scenery modding. If it stuffed up, big deal, but it never did (or I never noticed if it did). It didn't draw grass "to the horizon" by the way.

I think DOF, god-rays and Blur are Bethesda's way of hiding the problem.

(I also think that in the past the ugrids issue got associated with the stableugridstoload mod. This is an old LE-specific mod which is 32-bit, requires SKSE and doesn't exist for SE, so I don't know why it was even referred to here.)

I also followed some info on nexus about correct ini settings (and mandatory memory tweaks to prevent crashing which were 32-bit specific).

[Magicktech]

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Originally posted by GoodSmith:

There is a way to change uGridsToLoad to a smaller value and I confirmed it myself, but I have been playing for 400+ hours on uGridsToLoad 7 and wasn't much bothered by quests or events being triggered far away from me.

To lower uGridsToLoad:
1- While in the game, ALT+TAB and edit Skyrim.ini, change uGridsToLoad and save
2- ALT+TAB to game, open the console and enter the command refreshini
3- Save. The new save will be on the lower uGridsToLoad value

On LE I used the change for over 1000 hours without issue. I read a load of discussion about it and decided to try it. If it stuffed up, big deal, but it never did.

I think the ugrids issue incorrectly got associated with the stableugridstoload mod.

I also followed some info on correct settings and memory tweaks.

Nonetheless I wouldn't change the settings unless I knew the risks.

Right. If you knew anything you would know the setting isn't even needed.