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Arboretum - tree-hugging mod. Higher quality trees for Oblivion
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Description
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Recently we've seen a few excellent architecture retextures, grass retextures, shrub retextures, even cloud retextures, but when you raise your eyes you are are often met with those old low-res leaves which instantly break immersion. This is a growing mod that replaces the default tree foliage with new textures that were designed to make trees appear more realistic while still remaining performance friendly. The aim is to continue until there's not a single old, ugly leaf left in Cyrodiil.

As true to the original as reasonably possible - meaning if it's an oak, mine's an oak too, not a giant daffodil.

For now this mod doesn't replace anything that's included in Improved Trees and Flora mod, or in (now I think it partially does) The Imperial Ecology (unless it's for the sake of extra variety). (I'm sure now they overlap - you can still use those other mods, of course, but install this one last if you want to see Arboretum trees and shrubs in your game).
Now, when it comes to Lush & Gaudy Floriana Gloria, it's more complex because Brittainy has made really radical changes to nearly everything, so filling the gaps in her mods with vanilla flavoured plants would be hardly possible.

Don't forget to get discovery1's weeping willows - which are a part of Verdant Anthesis.
Since Discovery1 has sadly passed away, taking his mods with him, I'm adding his weeping willow for now as an optional download here. (As of November 2021 I've included it in the main package.) Before his departure he granted me access to a few of his mods. Verdant Anthesis was one of them. That's why I hope he doesn't mind me bringing his best tree back. With time I'll make my own, but as they say, if it ain't broken, don't try to fix it. As a reminder, you can still download Discovery1's Verdant Anthesis repacked for Wrye Bash by TesaPlus
I also highly recommend Tree Bark HD Reduced.


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Installation
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Wrye Bash:
1. Highlight the Arboretum.7z package in the Installers window.
2. Install.
3. Start the Oblivion and play.
4. Enjoy!

Manual:
1. Extract the files to a temporary location.
2. Copy the files to your Oblivion Data folder.
3. If prompted to overwrite the texture select yes to overwrite the default textures.
4. Start the Oblivion and play.
5. Enjoy!

In either case running Archive Invalidation right after installation is always a smart decision.

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Uninstallation
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Use Wrye Bash,
or
just delete (or overwrite) the following files:

in Data/Textures/trees/leaves:

shrubenglishhollyleaves.dds
shrubmugopineleaves.dds
treeenglishoakleavessu.dds
treegreypoplarleavessu.dds
treejuniperleaves.dds
treeredwoodleaves.dds
treewillowoakleavessu.dds
treeyewleaves.dds (completely remade from scratch in Nov 2021)
WillowOakLeaves01.dds
WillowOakLeaves01_Fall.dds
WillowOakLeaves02.dds
WillowOakLeaves02_Fall.dds
treesugarmapleleavessu.dds
treescotchpineleaves.dds
treeeasthemlockleaves.dds
treeblacklocustleaves.dds (this tree is scheduled for revision)
treeenglishoakleavesfa.dds
treedeodarleaves.dds
shrubvinemapleleavessu.dds
treewhitepineneedles.dds (this is another tree scheduled for revision)
treejapanesemapleleaves.dds (remade in Nov 2021)
treeweepingwillowleavessu.dds (this is Discovery1's creation)
shrubeuonymusleavessu.dds
treedogwoodleavessu.dds
shrubvinemapleleavessnow.dds
shrubvinemapleleaveswi.dds
shrubazalealeavessu.dds
shrubazaleapinksu.dds
shrubdaphnesu.dds
shrubgenericdaphneleavessu.dds
treequakingaspenleavesfa.dds
treequakingaspenleavessu.dds
treeyewleaves.dds

in Data/Textures/trees/branches:
treedogwoodbark.dds
treedogwoodbark_n.dds
(This is a quick teaser. I just wanted to match the original bark to the tree. As for other trees, I'll take this bark business more seriously towards the end of the project.)

in Data/Textures/trees/billboards:
treeenglishoakforest01su.dds
treeenglishoakforestsu.dds
treeenglishoakfreesu.dds
treeenglishoaksaplingsu.dds
treeenglishoakunique01su.dds
treeenglishoakyoungsu.dds
treegreypoplarforestsu.dds
treejapanesemaple.dds
treesugarmapleforest01su.dds
treesugarmapleforestsu.dds
treesugarmaplefreesu.dds
treesugarmaplesaplingsu.dds
treesugarmapleyoungsu.dds
treewillowoakforest01su.dds
treewillowoakforestsu.dds
treewillowoakfreesu.dds
treewillowoakyoungsu.dds
treeyewforest.dds

in Data/Trees:
treedogwoodsu.spt
treeeasthemlock.spt
treedeodar.spt
ShrubVineMapleSnow.spt
ShrubVineMapleSU.spt
treeyewforest.spt

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Incompatibility
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Since it's just a simple texture replacement, it shouldn't conflict with any mods that don't change the same textures. Lush & Gaudy Floriana Gloria removes some trees, swaps others, so these two mods are only partially compatible, as long as you use only models and textures from L&G (no esp), and overwrite some of them with corresponding Arboretum files.

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Partial solution to incompatiblity with L&G
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I've uploaded vanilla maple and scots pine spt files for those of you who use Lush and Gaudy mods, or any other mod which replace these trees with other plants.
Please, don't reupload these files anywhere else, as they're vanilla assets, and property of Bethesda. (As for my textures, you still can do with them whatever you like, just don't claim them as your creation because it wouldn't be cool.)
Install these spt's with your favourite manager. As always I recommend Wrye Bash because it's easy to use - really! - and there's no easier and safer way to restore L&G files if you decide you preferred them after all. If you don't want to use WB, make sure you back up your spt files.
These vanilla packages include the following files:

treescotchpineforest.spt
treesugarmapleyoungsu.spt
treesugarmaplesaplingsu.spt
treesugarmaplefreesu.spt
treesugarmapleforestsu.spt
treesugarmapleforest01su.spt

Of course you can always unpack them somewhere safe, and restore only some of them for extra variety.
But L&G introduces so many fundamental changes to Tamriel's flora that you can expect more oddities - like stretched textures, leaves growing on a wrong tree, or an odd placement of a tree (whenever it looks good with Brittainy's textures, but not so good with remade vanilla).

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Change Log
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- This is an initial version which will be expanded with new files until all trees in Cyrodiil are covered.

- A number of users pointed out that with certain settings early version of Arboretum trees looked too dark when you looked at them from the distance. Thanks to discovery1 now we have got an optional version with brighter mipmaps. It's so good that I prefer it to originals and placed them as the main download. New packages will have only this brighter version. Great job Discovery! I owe you one :)

- I haven't made billboards for these trees yet. I'm leaving this for the last stage. But I mostly tried to stay pretty close to vanilla design choices, so these billboards don't look tragically different. (Billboards are basically 2D models - textures, really - that represent these trees in large distance.)

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Credits
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Most of the times I've used my own photos, but some textures use elements from various photos available on the internet. Thanks to all people who upload their images for whatever reasons - educational, social, or artistic.
A big thanks to Bethesda for creating the Elders Scrolls series, and making Oblivion such a great game for modding.
And thanks to Nexus for providing an invaluable resource to mod authors.

If you need my work for anything you work on, help yourselves. No need to ask, although a shout with a link (so that I could see it in your mod) would be super nice.