If you still haven't played Oblivion, or would like current experience better READ

[KoHaN69]

many of us know that a mod can make a game.
such historic examples are Ms. Pacman, counter-stike, kung-fu mod for max payne, and many others.

I started playing oblivion when it was released, but it performed poorly on my x800, so by the circumstances, i want to start playing again.

I went through many sites, to find the 'essential' mods that infinitely improve the gameplay, graphics, hud and overall experience.


some sources used:
http://arcadianx.blogsome.com/2006/12/18/22/
http://gnomeslair.blogspot.com/2006/06/ok-oblivion-is-slightly-better-than.html
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/fms/TopRated.php?content=oblivionmods
http://betteroblivion.com/oblivionmodlists.php
http://www.obliviet.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=NewDownloadsDate&selectdate=1164339577

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1128944
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1144545
(Yes, I know it's [T]ard, but those threads are helpful, just don't dare to dwell into the hardware sub-forums and you should be safe.

mod guide:
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?SCID=27&CIID=36919

tweakguide:
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?CIID=36546

There's even a multiplayer mod in development:
http://csusap.csu.edu.au/%7Emloxto01/



TOTO Total Texture replacement, replaces ALL crappy textures to decent looking ones:
http://xpscripts.org/Oblivion/TOTO/
extract with obmm:
http://timeslip.chorrol.com/obmm_download.html

Qarl's replacement pack (newer than TOTO, better performance than with TOTO and not directly compatible)
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2363



I hate the crappy programming of the game, but mods really do help, and after 3-4 hours you really get into the game because it's the most nonlinear open-ended free roaming single player game I ever experienced.

[[cTx]Philosophy]

Can you give us a fps increase with these mods in place?

Like say when outside u used to get 30 now u get 44?

[Chocolate Pi]

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is a must. People that can't stand it always have Fran's instead, but either way, leveling lists are the main thing to fix.

[Soulburner]

Sad that a game from a great developer with such a great potential, has to rely on the community to fix it...

[phelan1777]

Well be it that in past times, the community would often raise the young even when the parents were an active part of the child's life.

Not really much of a difference in the realm of 1's and 0's.

[Omastar]

Sad that a game from a great developer with such a great potential, has to rely on the community to fix it...

Oblivion is a great game, but no game is perfect and all lend themselves to tweaks and optimizations. It's not really a 'fix', per se, just an improvement if you're running on a more dated machine or simply want to put that new 8800GTX to full use.

[KoHaN69]

update:
too many mods caused my game to pop up with random quest messages, etc
if using ooo do not install any other (non texture) mods unless ur sure they will not conflict (use oblivion mod manager)

more sites:
http://www.obliviontweaks.com/agameplaymods.html

[aMp]

I'm about to go pick up the game (no time 'til now), so I've got two questions for you:

Would you recommend these mods right off the bat, or is it worthwhile to play "vanilla" first? Second, are the texture mods realistic given a non-OC'd X1900XTX?

[IFMU]

Forgive my ignorance.. but Ima bit curious.. what do these mods do?

At present ive only played it on the 360, but will be loosing that before long I believe and would like to continue playing it, so will prolly buy it for PC...

So, ahm, yea, what do the mods actually do for the game? :confused:

[flclisgreat]

i just started playing oblivion. haven't looked into any mods for it

[Call me Ugly]

Some sort of balance mod is a MUST IMO. Its just stupid when you fight your way through a whole cavern of armored enemies, then get your ass spanked by a wolf on the way home. Such ridiculous NPC/creature leveling.

Also there is no sense of accomplishment when every enemy has glass armor and weapons at level 15 or whatever, with a Mod like OOO its really satisfying to have to work long and hard for great items. Stock oblivion gives much less incentive to travel to all ends of the earth, ie less replayability and less hours of entertainment.

Also outdoors water is so foggy you can't see 2 feet in front of you, a clear water mod is a great idea.

Also the menus and such are designed for the low res of console + TV. BTmod makes the UI computer friendly, like without it only 4 item at a time fit in the menu.

IMO if you are just starting out those (and maybe I'm missing one or two) are all you really need. Hopefully I've explain it well. With those as a base you can start the game and anything at all you see that could be better there is a mod for it. So:

1. any balance mod in terms of NPC leveling
2. any item rarity mod
[OOO (Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul) will cover 1 and 2]
3. clear water mod (I used 808-Better Water-TESSource.esp)
4. BTmod (adjusts UI to computer resolutions)

There are many great mods, but I think these iron out the games main flaws in terms of playability not beauty. The OP listed a great bunch of texture mods and I recommend starting the game without them so you can see the need with your own eyes. In particular pay attention to distant landscapes, if you think they look like split pea soup read up on the OP's suggestion "Landscape LOD Texture Replacement 1.1b", there is a description and good example images here:

http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2182

I find no noticeable performance hit from this, but every rig is different. With or without mods performance will largely rely on game settings. Tweakguides explain these settings well, but you must play with them to find what works well with you system:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

Yeah, its a great game after a few basic mods. I suggest finding your own preferences after playing for some time with only the few mods I've listed, but to each his own. What is great about Oblivions is that a great many mods can be enable/disabled on every start up, so it almost begs you to experiment.

Have fun guys,
Ugly

[cirthix]

i'd play oblivion, but it's very unstable for me, grrrr

[KoHaN69]

Yup, i got sick of random crashes. i quit. spend 4 days on mods and tweaking.
this shiet is almost as bad as gothic3.
will come back to it in 2 years with me X2900 64 pipelined, 4gb of ddr4 ram and core4tripleduo 4.5ghz with a 12gig ramdrive -it better be good then :rolleyes:

edit: I upped the voltage on my video card, seems more stable now :p:

[lowfat]

I have never had the program crash on me ever. I would get errors on exit, but besides that nothing. The only mods i can recommend are ones that help with inventory and better sounds/graphics. I can't stand actual gameplay mod's that make the game easier.

[KoHaN69]

lowfat- the levelling mods make the game more rewarding in a sense (there's no reason why wolves should be as hard to kill after levelling up)

btw, i still want my shields back :(
edit: im an idiot (2 handed weapon != use shield)


One complaint: it still lags like hell outside during the day,
Yes lags the fps is fine and this happens on any resolution: when I turn around quickly or go to a wide-open area the game's video s-st-sst-tut-tut-ut-ut-ut-ut-utter-ers-ers-ers-s-s stutters

[KennethChong]

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is a must. People that can't stand it always have Fran's instead, but either way, leveling lists are the main thing to fix.

I agree. I also use a different stat modifier than the original. I always thought that having to micromanage your skills or make twisted character skills to get proper stat leveling really takes your focus away from the main game. Also, there are some cool inventory mods for people running higher resolutions that really help the feel and function of the game. The immersive HUD mod is really good as well. But overall, even if you don't like RPG's I would recommend everyone to try it.

One note though. If you get into it, you generally end up spending much more time than you probably ever should playing a game. I took a few too many sick days when I first started playing. :D Same with me when morrowind came out. But some people may be less obsessive than I am. :D Personally, its the best game I've ever played. The sandbox style and its shear immensity make it stunning. Other than the vampire quest.

[KoHaN69]

one word solution: TOTO

http://xpscripts.org/Oblivion/TOTO/Total%20Oblivion%20Texture%20Overhaul%201.0.7z

[THX1138]

I beat the game about a month ago and started playing Gothic 3, all I do now is scare the hell out of my cat when I scream.
Thanks for making this thread KoHaN69 now I have something to look forward to.

[KoHaN69]

I beat the game about a month ago and started playing Gothic 3, all I do now is scare the hell out of my cat when I scream.
Thanks for making this thread KoHaN69 now I have something to look forward to.

Sarcasm?/No sarcasm? good scream/bad scream? :shrug:

[Soulburner]

On a scale of 1-10, Oblivion gets a 9 and Gothic 3 gets a 5 because of its incredibly broken combat system that will drive you nuts...

[KoHaN69]

Performance-wise Gothic get's a 6, Oblivon get's 4.5 and Dark Messiah get's a 8.9 and Half-Life 2 get's a 9.8

My sig is updated :)

[[cTx]Philosophy]

I love oblivion, but dont play it as much as I used to due to the poor performance I get with main Pc

I thought coming form a 2.9 165 and a 7800GT
to a 3.2 allendale and a 7950 GX2 would greatly impreve playability, but it still sucks and for that I call it a day on Oblivion and Knights of the Nine..

[\/icious]

My dark messiah still runs :banana::banana::banana::banana:y like it did from launch

[KoHaN69]

My dark messiah still runs :banana::banana::banana::banana:y like it did from launch

Did you flash/softmod your card to pro? is it 256mb, or at least 256bit memory bus?

If you are getting lag during heavy combat that's probably your cpu not handling physics right. Although you have a low-end system, at 1024x768, low settings it should still perform decently.

This might help:
http://www.tweakguides.com/DMOMM_1.html

cheers :toast:

[IFMU]

Just got Oblivion for the PC along with "Knights of the Nine".

So... looking for some input on this a bit... lol

Not quite sure exactly what the KotN is overall.. expansion/add-on. What exactly does it do for the game?

As for the rest of what has been posted in this thread.. Im curious, what exactly is all this stuff in here? What does it do?

For that matter, maybe a good link to read through to see if I want to mess with any of it. lol

[flclisgreat]

i believe the main oblivion site has a bunch of mods and what they do on it

i have a couple installed at the moment. really are worth it.

[Jodiuh]

EDIT: I quit. A game that I tweak more than playing is not worth it (except Half-Life 2)
Lol, so true. I did the texture overhaul (http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/totoworld) from that page and btmod(GUI enhancements). It def stutters a bit more when loading stuff, but it's sooo pretty. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/jodiuh/Screenshots/06v.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/jodiuh/Screenshots/06p.jpg

[aMp]

OK, I'm going with:

- The texture mods from http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/totoworld
- Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.31
- BTmod 2.20

Anything else I should consider? Maybe one of the realistic economy mods?

[KennethChong]

OK, I'm going with:

- The texture mods from http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/totoworld
- Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.31
- BTmod 2.20

Anything else I should consider? Maybe one of the realistic economy mods?

Yes, Living Economy makes a great difference.

[aMp]

Sounds good, thanks. Also, I thought I'd read somewhere that at some point ATI had integrated the "Chuck" patch into its stock drivers, but I can't seem to enable AA+HDR on an X1900 running Catalyst 7.1s (well, Omega 3.8.330, but it's the same thing).

Man, the sheer variety of mods for this game is downright frightening.

[KennethChong]

Sounds good, thanks. Also, I thought I'd read somewhere that at some point ATI had integrated the "Chuck" patch into its stock drivers, but I can't seem to enable AA+HDR on an X1900 running Catalyst 7.1s (well, Omega 3.8.330, but it's the same thing).

Man, the sheer variety of mods for this game is downright frightening.


Oh God yea. Oblivion is a game thats really just as good looking as your components can allow. There are so many texture and effect mods, that it can bog down pretty much any system if you give it a chance. When you get some decent mods on it, it really is the best looking game out today by far if you have the system for it.

[KoHaN69]

Just got Oblivion for the PC along with "Knights of the Nine".

So... looking for some input on this a bit... lol

Not quite sure exactly what the KotN is overall.. expansion/add-on. What exactly does it do for the game?

As for the rest of what has been posted in this thread.. Im curious, what exactly is all this stuff in here? What does it do?

For that matter, maybe a good link to read through to see if I want to mess with any of it. lol

The links I provided in the original post will get you started.



Oh God yea. Oblivion is a game thats really just as good looking as your components can allow. There are so many texture and effect mods, that it can bog down pretty much any system if you give it a chance. When you get some decent mods on it, it really is the best looking game out today by far if you have the system for it.

But you have to admit it's very poorly programmed - almost as bad as Morrowind.
I mean there's a "oldblivion" MOD so you can run the game on older PC systems, and there are horrid performance problems on the XBOX 360 version as well.

yes it's a huge complex world, but that's no excuse - if valve could do it, others could do it.

[flclisgreat]

one thing you should know is the game is dark. almost everywhere is close to, if not, pitch black

[KennethChong]

The links I provided in the original post will get you started.




But you have to admit it's very poorly programmed - almost as bad as Morrowind.
I mean there's a "oldblivion" MOD so you can run the game on older PC systems, and there are horrid performance problems on the XBOX 360 version as well.

yes it's a huge complex world, but that's no excuse - if valve could do it, others could do it.

Yea I have to agree with that. I played hl2 on my work pc with a GeForce4 MX (if you remember those) but you have to have a pretty decent system to get oblivion running in any acceptable manner. And most of the mods used with the ultra low setting make it look worse than morrowind did. But despite its flaws its still big and beautiful. :D


one thing you should know is the game is dark. almost everywhere is close to, if not, pitch black
Are you sure all your gamma settings are correct? And are you running HDR? With HDR I find that most places never really reach a pitch black. They even have a few fixes out for it. But I like it. Makes it less scary. :D

[IFMU]

Im a bit curious... When I loaded it, it set the video to the minimum settings.
I am presuming that is due to an utter sh*** video card... a 9600 btw.

So no way I am going to bother trying to do any visual mods.. if what I have cant handle the defualt, no way it would handle those.

[KoHaN69]

Im a bit curious... When I loaded it, it set the video to the minimum settings.
I am presuming that is due to an utter sh*** video card... a 9600 btw.

So no way I am going to bother trying to do any visual mods.. if what I have cant handle the defualt, no way it would handle those.

you need this this:

http://www.oldblivion.com/

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

[IFMU]

Cool, Guess I got some readin' to do. lol
Thanks

[SteveLord]

This game is still on my wishlist!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like many of you are first time TES players (graphics?). I have been playing since Daggerfall and if you think this game is buggy then lol. But yeah long timers are kind of used to it and willing to forgive its faults because no other franchise has come close to building a world like TES. Reguarding mods, the most fantastic part of TES is you can mod it anyway you seem fit. There are no general faults un-modded its just the way the Devs inteneded, no possible way to please everyone.

[Cracker]

Oblivion was kinda boring... it needed a rocket launcher or at the very least a machine gun. :p:

[tuskenraider]

I just finished this game the other day and just deleted the two final quest saves I had to add the expansion pack and mess around with that for awhile. With all the extra cash I have(212,000 gold)and potions and spell scrolls, etc. I feel like played the game wrong or something, lol. Yes, I bought every house I could. Great game, but on my average system, it definately struggled at times even only at 1024x768 and I refused to play the game without at least 2x AA. Good thing I've been out of work the last couple of months or I woulda been in trouble.

[DTU_XaVier]

How do you extract the TOTO mod with obmm?? I simply can't figure it out :confused:

Best Regards :toast:

[Andrew LB]

If i recall correctly you hit "load" and then select the .OBMM file for the total overhaul. Once its up on the right side window, you activate it and it spends some time decompressing and writing files to the oblivion game directory.

I'm trying to find a good happy median in which mods to use at the moment. I've been runnning the "make it pretty" mod pack at 1920x1200 with everything maxed and 8xAA and 8xAF. To get decent frame rates at that resolution while using the TOTO package, i have to turn AA down to 4x and turn AF completely off. And i'm running dual 8800GTS cards. lol.

[aintz]

blahhhh so much moding omfg

[BigDov]

All this talk has made me go on a mad downloading spree to get some of these mods and load it up again- thanks! :D

[Eldonko]

Wish I saw this a week ago, I sold the game, couldn't get into it, found it boring..

[Omastar]

So for the QTP3 (http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/totoworld), do you think my 8800GTS 320MB would get bogged down by the bigger textures and so forth? I assume when this guy says 'ideally, you'll want a video card with 512MB or more RAM' he could be referring to just 512MB of any RAM, eg- GDDR2 like you'd find on 7600GS. I'm hoping that with the completely revamped architecture of G80, my card can handle these texture replacements.

[Roger_D25]

Just like many other people, I'm very late getting into this game! Infact I just played it for the first time last night if you can believe that? With that said I'm also a bit overwhelmed by the vast number of mods available for this game and don't know where to start! I realize there are many options on the first page of this thread as well as many other guides, articles, etc. which spell out all the different mods for the game.

So I was wondering if some of you guys would post all the mods your using in the game along with how it works and looks? At the moment I've only logged about 2hrs of gameplay and I'm not even out of the sewers yet! My system is pretty capable of taking advantage of some of the more detailed mods, I just want to be totally immersed in the game while I'm playing (graphics, sound, better and more realistic game play, etc..)! Thanks for any help and suggestions you guys can give a fellow Oblivion player!

[halo112358]

Sad that a game from a great developer with such a great potential, has to rely on the community to fix it...

That's being extremeley generous to bethesda - their last couple of games have been poorly designed bug ridden cripples that were only playable once the community reverse engineered them. With replacements for the textures, models, quests, AI and shaders - plus a week of ini tweaking and a few hundred dollars for new hardware - then Oblvion is worth playing, until something critical breaks and you delete it in frustration. After all of that work I wonder what it was that I paid for exactly.

ps: Go punch your horse and see what happens.... (save first :))

[Jodiuh]

I'm hoping that with the completely revamped architecture of G80, my card can handle these texture replacements.
I saw hitching and slowdown on the 768 variant. It's just a matter of how much you can take...

[Andrew LB]

So for the QTP3 (http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/totoworld), do you think my 8800GTS 320MB would get bogged down by the bigger textures and so forth? I assume when this guy says 'ideally, you'll want a video card with 512MB or more RAM' he could be referring to just 512MB of any RAM, eg- GDDR2 like you'd find on 7600GS. I'm hoping that with the completely revamped architecture of G80, my card can handle these texture replacements.



What kind of resolution are you planning on running? Do you plan to use AA and AF?


Oblivion w/TOTO runs super smooth on my PC using dual 8800GTS 640mb cards @ 1920x1200 with everything cranked to the max except i have AA at 4x and AF at 4x. Any higher and things get bogged down during times like sunset when the HDR is beating my card to a pulp.

[Roger_D25]

Hey Guys,
I just started playing the game a few weeks ago for the first time and I'm loving it! At the moment I have the following mods installed,

1) QTP3
2) BTQ Distance Landscapes LOD (2048 x 2048)
3) Qarls LOD Normals LOD (4096 x 4096)
4) Phinix Waterfix
5) Improved Signs
6) High Resolution Book Jackets
7) Natural Faces
8) BT Mod (In-Game Menu)
9) Immersive Interface (On-Screen HUD)

I play the game at 1920 x 1200 with all in-game settings maxed out (except for AA as I only use HDR) and I'm getting great framerates (mininum of 34FPS-40FPS). Although my framerates are great I do get occational studdering during gameplay while things are loading up. When I only had QTP3 installed I didn't get any studdering at all but after installing the "distance landscape LOD" mods I started getting some studdering. With that said I'm still happy with the mod because it makes things look much more realistic!

I recenlty setup my RivaTuner "hardware monitor" to measure the "video memory usage" and it runs pretty close to 768mb depending on what part of the game I'm in so your very right Omastar about needing a card with some decent onboard memory for playable framerates and less in-game studdering. I know people have said it a hundred times but the game looks so beautiful with all these mods, could be one of the best looking games I've ever played!

[Andrew LB]

Yea... adding distant landscapes and buildings so you can see for example... bruma from the imperial city, causes serious strain on video cards. I still play with it on though since it just looks sooo good.