Riften City Grass Remover - FPS

Riften was bad, now good.

Riften has notorious performance issues, and many mods try to solve this problem through various methods, such as removing clutter or intelligent use of occluding planes. These are all well and good, but don't actually address the root cause of low frames, which is grass.

Outside of the Riften's walls, which the player can't see, the game is rendering all the grass, all of it. This on its own doesn't make sense, but when you have a grass overhaul installed it's a killer for a city's performance.

This model simply closes the grass to Riften world space and that's it. I have no doubt this will solve the FPS issues for the vast majority of users, except for those who simply don't have the hardware to run the game (but even then, this should be a big help for those people).

The only visual difference players will really notice is that the small portion of the LOD you can see when you look through one of the locked doors is grass-free, but since that's what Whiterun does, this should probably be considered what the vanilla behavior should be.

compatibility:

Should be compatible with just about everything, water models, weather models, city overhauls, you name it. Just make sure it's at the end of your load order. If the mod doesn't work and you still have grass, open TES5Edit unencrypted and see which mods are conflicting. The relevant changes you want to look for are under the riften worldspace section and the 'no grass' flag.

Unfortunately it won't be compatible with Open Cities as that mod removes world space, making this mod non-functional.

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Riften has notorious performance issues, and lots of mods try to fix this through various methods like removing clutter or smart usage of occlusion planes. These are all well and good but don't actually solve the underlying cause of the low frames, namely grass.

Beyond the walls of Riften where the player can't see, the game is rendering all of the grass, all of it. This would be pointless by itself, but when you've got grass overhauls installed, this is a killer for the city's performance.

This mod simply turns the grass off for the Riften worldspace, nothing more. I have little doubt this will fix the FPS problems for the vast majority of users, besides the ones who simply don't have the hardware to run the game (but even then, this should be a big help for such people).

The only visual difference the player will ever actually notice is that when you look through one of the lock-gates the tiny bit of LOD you can see won't have grass, but since that's what Whiterun does this should probably be considered what the vanilla behaviour was supposed to be.

Compatibility:

Should be compatible with near everything, water mods, weather mods, city overhauls, you name it. Just make sure it's placed right at the end of your load order. In the event the mod isn't working and you still have grass, crack open TES5Edit and see which mods are conflicting. The pertinent change you want to look for is under the riften worldspace section, and the 'no grass' flag.

Unfortunately, won't be compatible with Open Cities, because that mod removes the worldspaces, making this mod non-functional.