Oblivion first time modded or vanilla

[visions]

If we dig far enough, we'll find out that people used to live in caves some time ago. Thats not the point.
The dwellings and cities in this game doesnt look like someone lives there. Where are public bathrooms or shitholes in Imperial city, where potters, butchers, farmers, hunters, where goats, cows, chickens or whatever the fuck their fantasy equivalents?
Okay, lets just assume that emperor levitated to shit in the woods. Oh wait, they cut it out.
Maybe, if he could levitate he would still be alive.
The same game design then traveled to Fallout3 and Skyrim. They just do not hold out the comparison with Gothics, Witchers, FaloutNV, KCD, which clearly were done by far more competent people.

Don't really give a fuck about Oblivion per se (hated it in 2006, found it pretty pointless still when I tried it again in 2021). It's just how I rationalize the lack of things like toilets in games, which is a very common omission in general.

 

[BruceVC]

I am having such fun in Oblivion since I have stabilized the game and their are very few CTD

For those who ask " why do you enjoy Oblivion" their are several reasons but, for example, since using Maskars Overhaul my level increase speed has slowed down dramatically. I am 45 hours into the game and Im only on level 3 as a Battlemage, This means I explore the map to get experience and its great to " have to visit every ruin and dungeon " and also their is no irritating level scaling so I often am forced to run away from certain enemies. Just having that constant risk from death in combat enhances the overall experience

Also the Oblivion game world feels so huge and I love the sandbox design

 

[Funposter]

So I decided to give in and install Oblivion Reloaded E3, and I have to say, it stutters like hell. Moonbased directional lighting causes heavy performance strike even at daytime, and even setting down lightpoints to 4, any forest is going to make my FPS crawl.
But on other hands, it's really neat shadows. Now if only it could run better

So I'm running it on a Ryzen 1700 with a GTX 1080 and the performance is OK, but not great. I'm running 12 interior light points and 8 exterior. My main observations would be that:

• Texture quality makes no difference to performance. If it does, it's in the range of 1-2 FPS and is imperceptible.
• Vanilla locations are rarely populated with enough light sources to completely crush performance. A mod like Real Lights would change this.
• Modded locations can be hit or miss. Chorrol Hinterland, normally a super performance-intensive area, really isn't that bad even with the exterior point shadows because it doesn't have too many light sources. Something like Bravil Waterfront slows to a crawl (15 FPS or less), and I think that I'll need to delete it from my load order, unfortunately.
• Dropping light points doesn't really have a big effect until you get under 4 or so.
• Make sure to follow the recommended ini tweaks such as disabling light flicker.

The Imperial City Market District generally sits around 27-32 FPS with Redbag's IC mod and all of the pretty textures etc. Chorrol is comfortably around 25-30 FPS with lots of NPCs roaming about thanks to the Radiant AI mod. Interiors generally sit around 25-30 FPS, although I do get around 23-24 in the Oak and Crosier which is when you begin to see noticeable slowdown, so it's sitting right on the edge. Wilderness exterior locations are comfortably above 40 FPS at pretty much all times. Dungeons can be difficult to judge. Vilverin was around 25-35 FPS but I've had some drop down to the point where slowdown was present, although that may have been when I was still using Real Lights. Really it depends on how comfortable you are with a somewhat sluggish framerate. I'm happy to sacrifice performance in order to make the game look pretty, since it's not like Oblivion (or indeed any TES game) requires the exact timing and reactions afforded by a consistent 60+ FPS.

 

[Berengar]

Always start with vanilla then start injecting your mods a couple hours in.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Did they ever make a mod that allows you to use mods that don't crash your game once you hit that 4GB memory limit with the NTCore 4GB patch? I use to actually have an OSR in-game that monitored my system ram and I felt powerful and omniscient, like the Amazing Criswell, knowing the exact moment when Oblivion would crash on me once I hit 4GB.

 

[Late Bloomer]

So I'm running it on a Ryzen 1700 with a GTX 1080 and the performance is OK, but not great. I'm running 12 interior light points and 8 exterior. My main observations would be that:

The Imperial City Market District generally sits around 27-32 FPS with Redbag's IC mod and all of the pretty textures etc. Chorrol is comfortably around 25-30 FPS with lots of NPCs roaming about thanks to the Radiant AI mod. Interiors generally sit around 25-30 FPS, although I do get around 23-24 in the Oak and Crosier which is when you begin to see noticeable slowdown, so it's sitting right on the edge. Wilderness exterior locations are comfortably above 40 FPS at pretty much all times. Dungeons can be difficult to judge. Vilverin was around 25-35 FPS but I've had some drop down to the point where slowdown was present, although that may have been when I was still using Real Lights. Really it depends on how comfortable you are with a somewhat sluggish framerate. I'm happy to sacrifice performance in order to make the game look pretty, since it's not like Oblivion (or indeed any TES game) requires the exact timing and reactions afforded by a consistent 60+ FPS.

I can't believe people think like this.

 

[Funposter]

Did they ever make a mod that allows you to use mods that don't crash your game once you hit that 4GB memory limit with the NTCore 4GB patch? I use to actually have an OSR in-game that monitored my system ram and I felt powerful and omniscient, like the Amazing Criswell, knowing the exact moment when Oblivion would crash on me once I hit 4GB.

A big part of Oblivion Reloaded is its memory management. There's also the memory purger function for if you want to manually do things. You can set it up to purge memory at regular intervals or even bind it to a key and do it yourself.

Edit: This means that if you really want, you can run OR without any of the shaders active and use it purely to handle memory management.

 

[BruceVC]

Did they ever make a mod that allows you to use mods that don't crash your game once you hit that 4GB memory limit with the NTCore 4GB patch? I use to actually have an OSR in-game that monitored my system ram and I felt powerful and omniscient, like the Amazing Criswell, knowing the exact moment when Oblivion would crash on me once I hit 4GB.

Yes, they did. Its called the 4GB Ram Patcher and Im using it at the moment

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45576

 

[Funposter]

Did they ever make a mod that allows you to use mods that don't crash your game once you hit that 4GB memory limit with the NTCore 4GB patch? I use to actually have an OSR in-game that monitored my system ram and I felt powerful and omniscient, like the Amazing Criswell, knowing the exact moment when Oblivion would crash on me once I hit 4GB.

Yes, they did. Its called the 4GB Ram Patcher and Im using it at the moment

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45576

That's just the NTCore patcher uploaded to Nexus.

 

[BruceVC]

So I'm running it on a Ryzen 1700 with a GTX 1080 and the performance is OK, but not great. I'm running 12 interior light points and 8 exterior. My main observations would be that:

The Imperial City Market District generally sits around 27-32 FPS with Redbag's IC mod and all of the pretty textures etc. Chorrol is comfortably around 25-30 FPS with lots of NPCs roaming about thanks to the Radiant AI mod. Interiors generally sit around 25-30 FPS, although I do get around 23-24 in the Oak and Crosier which is when you begin to see noticeable slowdown, so it's sitting right on the edge. Wilderness exterior locations are comfortably above 40 FPS at pretty much all times. Dungeons can be difficult to judge. Vilverin was around 25-35 FPS but I've had some drop down to the point where slowdown was present, although that may have been when I was still using Real Lights. Really it depends on how comfortable you are with a somewhat sluggish framerate. I'm happy to sacrifice performance in order to make the game look pretty, since it's not like Oblivion (or indeed any TES game) requires the exact timing and reactions afforded by a consistent 60+ FPS.

I can't believe people think like this.

Why what is hard to believe about how he thinks? Its seems perfectly normal when we discussing mods, in-game aesthetics and performance ?

 

[Valdetiosi]

snip

If it's any interest, I found the issue: I used my driver settings to force Anti Aliasing, as turning HDR on disables AA from Oblivion launcher. That has caused massive stutters for me. Now that I turned it off, I get same results as you. I do have Intel Core i5-12400F with GTX 1060.

UPDATE: Also the day/night interior lighting of E3 causes CTDs with Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul if you transfer time at your own houses or load a save from it.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Did they ever make a mod that allows you to use mods that don't crash your game once you hit that 4GB memory limit with the NTCore 4GB patch? I use to actually have an OSR in-game that monitored my system ram and I felt powerful and omniscient, like the Amazing Criswell, knowing the exact moment when Oblivion would crash on me once I hit 4GB.

Yes, they did. Its called the 4GB Ram Patcher and Im using it at the moment

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45576

Er, I thought I said that. But my point was that even with that 4GB memory patch, Oblivion used to crash when it hit that 4GB limit with mods, especially with texture packs, so extensively modding it with all the major mods was fucking useless, at least back then it was. But it's been years since I last played modded Elder Scrolls IV and now funposter claims above modders are finally taking into account memory management (like Viva New Vegas does) so I guess there's hope for modern players that want to play a homegrown "remastered" version. In fact, it's the only way I'd ever recommend playing it, to answer the question put to this topic.

Note: I had to correct a typo above where I said "overmastered" instead of "remastered" but likely it was more of a freudian slip.

 

[Funposter]

Er, I thought I said that. But my point was that even with that 4GB memory patch, Oblivion used to crash when it hit that 4GB limit with mods, especially with texture packs, so extensively modding it with all the major mods was fucking useless, at least back then it was. But it's been years since I last played modded Elder Scrolls IV and now funposter claims above modders are finally taking into account memory management (like Viva New Vegas does) so I guess there's hope for modern players that want to play a homegrown "remastered" version. In fact, it's the only way I'd ever recommend playing it, to answer the question put to this topic.

Note: I had to correct a typo above where I said "overmastered" instead of "remastered" but likely it was more of a freudian slip.

It's worth noting that the limit isn't even 4GB, but actually 3.3GB. Playing with ORE3 I have seen little evidence that crashes are a result of memory issues and not just...Oblivion being Oblivion, and there's pretty much no performance impact from everything being 2K. The only problem now with visually overhauling the game is that there aren't high quality replacers for all architectural styles which is where I find them most noticeable. The upscaled textures are good, but can only do so much. Currently the big things which need proper texture overhauls are:

• Chorrol
• Bravil
• Cheydinhal
• Fort/ruin exteriors
• Priories

The first three have 1K replacers of middling quality from 2011. Fort exteriors have a couple of 2K replacers but they don't actually cover everything, although the author of Arboretum is preparing to go back and revamp Ruined Ruins, so that may not be far away. The Priory folder has no dedicated texture overhaul.

If anyone ever gets around to those (likely VKVII) then all architecture will be covered. Weapons will just never happen, but honestly they look fine with the upscaled textures apart from a few weird meshes. It's too bad that Insanitysorrow's Weapon Improvement Project didn't meet its full potential.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Er, I thought I said that. But my point was that even with that 4GB memory patch, Oblivion used to crash when it hit that 4GB limit with mods, especially with texture packs, so extensively modding it with all the major mods was fucking useless, at least back then it was. But it's been years since I last played modded Elder Scrolls IV and now funposter claims above modders are finally taking into account memory management (like Viva New Vegas does) so I guess there's hope for modern players that want to play a homegrown "remastered" version. In fact, it's the only way I'd ever recommend playing it, to answer the question put to this topic.

Note: I had to correct a typo above where I said "overmastered" instead of "remastered" but likely it was more of a freudian slip.

It's worth noting that the limit isn't even 4GB, but actually 3.3GB. Playing with ORE3 I have seen little evidence that crashes are a result of memory issues and not just...Oblivion being Oblivion, and there's pretty much no performance impact from everything being 2K. The only problem now with visually overhauling the game is that there aren't high quality replacers for all architectural styles which is where I find them most noticeable. The upscaled textures are good, but can only do so much. Currently the big things which need proper texture overhauls are:

• Chorrol
• Bravil
• Cheydinhal
• Fort/ruin exteriors
• Priories

The first three have 1K replacers of middling quality from 2011. Fort exteriors have a couple of 2K replacers but they don't actually cover everything, although the author of Arboretum is preparing to go back and revamp Ruined Ruins, so that may not be far away. The Priory folder has no dedicated texture overhaul.

If anyone ever gets around to those (likely VKVII) then all architecture will be covered. Weapons will just never happen, but honestly they look fine with the upscaled textures apart from a few weird meshes. It's too bad that Insanitysorrow's Weapon Improvement Project didn't meet its full potential.

Yeah, it's definitely more a problem with Oblivion because i never noticed the same issue with other Bethesda games with a similar engine (ie Fallout 3/FNV) that were heavily modded, but in Oblivion's case it always crashed at exactly the moment where it exhausted its 4GB (3.3GB?) limit with the NTcore patch. Without. Fail. I would look at my OSR and notice I was just a few MBs away from 4GB ram capacity and I could have done a countdown; 5... 4... 3... 2...1! Annnnnd CRASH! I'm happy some modders are less retarded these days and are actually addressing the issue apparently at least.

 

[Funposter]

Produced a patch for Weapon Types - Redone and Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul, and also fixed up the meshes from Weapon Improvement Project and InsanitySorrow's Ebony and Umbra Sword replacers to work with it. Just waiting on the mod author to get back to me, since I'm asking if he wants them hosted on the main page or if he wants me to host independently.

WEPON might be on the list at some point, but it's a monumental task since you need to go through and change every single enchanted weapon entry, not just the base item. So it's not as easy as "all Mithril and Orcish Longswords are two-handed, Claymores are Blunt and War Axes are Blade" along with some quick edits in nifskope. You actually need to go through one-by-one and say "OK, the Longsword of Flames is two-handed, now the Longsword of Shock, now the Longsword of Soul Trapping" etc. It would probably be about 1-200 edits in the CS, based on the original mods promise of 650+ extra weapons. It also doesn't help my motivation that I don't actually use WEPON, since the base game + Maskar is more than enough for me.

 

[BruceVC]

Produced a patch for Weapon Types - Redone and Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul, and also fixed up the meshes from Weapon Improvement Project and InsanitySorrow's Ebony and Umbra Sword replacers to work with it. Just waiting on the mod author to get back to me, since I'm asking if he wants them hosted on the main page or if he wants me to host independently.

WEPON might be on the list at some point, but it's a monumental task since you need to go through and change every single enchanted weapon entry, not just the base item. So it's not as easy as "all Mithril and Orcish Longswords are two-handed, Claymores are Blunt and War Axes are Blade" along with some quick edits in nifskope. You actually need to go through one-by-one and say "OK, the Longsword of Flames is two-handed, now the Longsword of Shock, now the Longsword of Soul Trapping" etc. It would probably be about 1-200 edits in the CS, based on the original mods promise of 650+ extra weapons. It also doesn't help my motivation that I don't actually use WEPON, since the base game + Maskar is more than enough for me.

Are you a modder, what I mean is do you create mods yourself ?

 

[Funposter]

Produced a patch for Weapon Types - Redone and Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul, and also fixed up the meshes from Weapon Improvement Project and InsanitySorrow's Ebony and Umbra Sword replacers to work with it. Just waiting on the mod author to get back to me, since I'm asking if he wants them hosted on the main page or if he wants me to host independently.

WEPON might be on the list at some point, but it's a monumental task since you need to go through and change every single enchanted weapon entry, not just the base item. So it's not as easy as "all Mithril and Orcish Longswords are two-handed, Claymores are Blunt and War Axes are Blade" along with some quick edits in nifskope. You actually need to go through one-by-one and say "OK, the Longsword of Flames is two-handed, now the Longsword of Shock, now the Longsword of Soul Trapping" etc. It would probably be about 1-200 edits in the CS, based on the original mods promise of 650+ extra weapons. It also doesn't help my motivation that I don't actually use WEPON, since the base game + Maskar is more than enough for me.

Are you a modder, what I mean is do you create mods yourself ?

I've really only done patching or some very basic tweaks for my own benefit that were never released. Most of my ideas are too grand or would require learning the script extender, which I don't have the time for. Still on the backburner is a Morrowind+Tamriel Rebuilt Armour rebalance mod using the MWSE Auto Balancer, but it would require hours of manual entry into a lua document. The most experience I've had with actual, proper modding was patching Crowded Cities to work with Open Cities Reborn, which required actually editing exterior locations, placing markers for AI packages and I ended sprucing up the interiors a bit too. I've also been looking at maybe doing some texture work since I have all of the tools at my disposal and it would be a useful skill to learn since I am a vaguely competent digital artist IRL.

Edit: This is me if you want to look at the very small and crap mods I've released.

 

[BruceVC]

Produced a patch for Weapon Types - Redone and Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul, and also fixed up the meshes from Weapon Improvement Project and InsanitySorrow's Ebony and Umbra Sword replacers to work with it. Just waiting on the mod author to get back to me, since I'm asking if he wants them hosted on the main page or if he wants me to host independently.

WEPON might be on the list at some point, but it's a monumental task since you need to go through and change every single enchanted weapon entry, not just the base item. So it's not as easy as "all Mithril and Orcish Longswords are two-handed, Claymores are Blunt and War Axes are Blade" along with some quick edits in nifskope. You actually need to go through one-by-one and say "OK, the Longsword of Flames is two-handed, now the Longsword of Shock, now the Longsword of Soul Trapping" etc. It would probably be about 1-200 edits in the CS, based on the original mods promise of 650+ extra weapons. It also doesn't help my motivation that I don't actually use WEPON, since the base game + Maskar is more than enough for me.

Are you a modder, what I mean is do you create mods yourself ?

I've really only done patching or some very basic tweaks for my own benefit that were never released. Most of my ideas are too grand or would require learning the script extender, which I don't have the time for. Still on the backburner is a Morrowind+Tamriel Rebuilt Armour rebalance mod using the MWSE Auto Balancer, but it would require hours of manual entry into a lua document. The most experience I've had with actual, proper modding was patching Crowded Cities to work with Open Cities Reborn, which required actually editing exterior locations, placing markers for AI packages and I ended sprucing up the interiors a bit too. I've also been looking at maybe doing some texture work since I have all of the tools at my disposal and it would be a useful skill to learn since I am a vaguely competent digital artist IRL.

Edit: This is me if you want to look at the very small and crap mods I've released.

Wow, you have done some interesting work. Are you developer?

 

[Valdetiosi]

Had to stop using both ORs linked above and hunt for 6.5. Some effect on both of those latest ones causes crashes inside interiors of player made houses brought by Maskar's Overhaul, if you load a save inside the interior or wait/sleep inside it.
Best bet is that day/night light system it has.

 

[Funposter]

I mean you could always just not build a cabin in the woods and purchase a nice manor in Chorrol or Skingrad instead

 

[Funposter]

Patches for Weapon Types - Redone are now published for anyone interested in using the mod together with Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul or any of InsanitySorrow's replacers.

Edit: I didn't bother with 'Weapons of Morrowind' because all of those are already included in MOO

 

[Valdetiosi]

I mean you could always just not build a cabin in the woods and purchase a nice manor in Chorrol or Skinhead instead

Cabins are better.

 

[Funposter]

Load order is sorted out for now. I originally was going to go with Ascension but Maskar's Overhaul is just so much better due to the amount of variability and how customizable it is. I'm sure that there's some cool mods that I'm missing or have just totally forgotten about, but I'm enjoying my time with the game and most of that has really just been running random dungeons apart from starting the main quest. Speaking of which, people who fast travelled from Weynon Priory to Cloud Ruler Temple really missed out on one of the game's best moments. It's a very picturesque stroll and the Orange Road doesn't really get used for much else. When you aren't running dungeons, I still think this game's best quality is just rambling around the overworld and picking flowers/mushrooms. I actually picked Alchemy as a Major Skill and worked it into my class idea less because of the gameplay utility (although it is a VERY good skill) and mostly because of said rambling being enjoyable.

Load order (some of this shit is merged so it's like 73 active plugins):

Spoiler

Oblivion.esm
Av Latta Magicka.esm
Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp
Oblivion Citadel Door Fix.esp
DLCShiveringIsles.esp
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp
DLCHorseArmor.esp
Knights.esp
Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp
EVE_ShiveringIslesEasterEggs.esp
EVE_StockEquipmentReplacer.esp
APFA_Refined.esp
EVE_KnightsoftheNine.esp
NAO.esp
NAO-Brighter Nights.esp
LINK.esp
Ultimate Leveling.esp
Oblivion_Character_Overhaul.esp
Kart Hair Replace v01.esp
VA_FemmeDaedricHelmet.esp
WindowLightingSystem.esp
BetterLorgrenBenirus.esp
OCO_Eyes_Fix.esp
xulCorboloRiver.esp
Region Revive - Lake Rumare.esp
Weapon Types Redone - Vanilla.esp
CheydinhalGarden.esp
RadiantAI - NPCs Alive - Cyrodiil.esp
DialogTweaks.esp
Alternative Beginnings.esp
IC Circular Canal.esp
JungleHasMoreGroundcover.esp
LessMoreGroundcover.esp
Gottshaw Village.esp
Glowing Wonders.esp
Tales of Cyrodiil.esp
Diverse Chapels Vanilla.esp
Improved Fires and Flames - Increased Sound.esp
Glowing Fractured Soulgems.esp
Alluring Wine Bottles.esp
CM_Better Wine_SI.esp
GreyPrince.esp
The Imperial Water.esp
MigLockpicking.esp
Enemy Weapons dont drop.esp
Dynamic Map.esp
Simple Horse Utilities.esp
Simple Set Bonuses.esp
County Gates.esp
ImprovedSigns.esp
Herne - Daedra United.esp
NPC Hair Matches Beard.esp
Av Latta Magicka - Rebalance Complete.esp
PotionReplacer.esp
Av Latta Magicka.esp
Divine Magicka.esp
Wooden Bow Names.esp
Practical Training.esp
Fast Travel Costs.esp
Idle Dialogue.esp
lVWD for Leyawiin.esp
ExpandedGreetings.esp
DialogTweaksTweakedTrespassing.esp
Mehrunes Seducers.esp
Morphoid Daedra - Daedra United.esp
Improved Chests.esp
DownsidesToShields.esp
Extended Dialogue.esp
Cadlew Caverns.esp
Consistent Beggar Voices.esp
Unique Landscapes.esp
Basic Physical Activities.esp
xulTheHeath.esp
xulEntiusGorge.esp
xulChorrolHinterland.esp
xulBeachesOfCyrodiilLostCoast.esp
xulAncientYews.esp
xulCloudtopMountains.esp
xulPantherRiver.esp
xulRiverEthe.esp
Bashed Patch, 0.esp
Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul.esp
Weapon Types Redone MOO Patch.esp
LegionCombatAdditions.esp

Pretty screenshots thanks to Oblivion Reloaded E3 and texture replacers:

Spoiler

One thing I do with that I could get working with OR is a workable Depth of Field and something to achieve that sort of "soft focus" look you get with a lot of Skyrim ENBs. People on Codex probably hate it, but my brain has been rotted due to hours upon hours of modding Skyrim and then spending more time doing sightseeing than really playing it.

 

[Valdetiosi]

Looks nice, though I myself stopped giving shit about graphics mods and just went with Upscaled textures and OR.
So mod load order for me is like 20 plugins. Mainly its because Maskar's Overhaul does so much already I don't feel I need any other mod to go with it. It's the overhaul that gives the content to the game that it lacks, but without having multiple mods installed, just one package.

 

[Funposter]

Looks nice, though I myself stopped giving shit about graphics mods and just went with Upscaled textures and OR.
So mod load order for me is like 20 plugins. Mainly its because Maskar's Overhaul does so much already I don't feel I need any other mod to go with it. It's the overhaul that gives the content to the game that it lacks, but without having multiple mods installed, just one package.

I could probably cut my load order in half and barely notice tbqh, which is usually the way that things go with modding. You have 5-10 plugins doing all of the heavy lifting and then a bunch of minor additions to fill in the gaps. MOO increases enemy variety a lot but there's mods to add Dark Seducers to Oblivion Gates, and then mods to add Herne and Morphoid Daedra into the game. 3 whole plugins just to slightly increase enemy variety in one particular dungeon because it's the type that MOO changes the least. None of those Unique Landscape plugins are strictly necessary but they make the overworld a nice place to run around in. All of those dialogue tweaks are pretty much pointless, but I like them. If you put a gun to my head and told me to use 10 plugins or less (not including official DLC and the unofficial patches), I could probably cut it down to MOO, OCO, Radiant AI Overhaul and Ultimate Levelling.

It might seem like a big list, but after 10 hours or so it's been very stable. The only crashes I've had were a random one, early on in the Imperial City (none since) and then the rest all came when I kept reloading a save game over and over to try and beat a Wanted NPC that I was definitely way too underlevelled to fight.