Hi,

It's been awhile since I played Oblivion and decided to give it another go and was wondering if there were any new major developments that I'm not aware of, and advice on what my system can handle. I found that there is a 4GB patch that got me excited, but I have a few basic questions I was hoping I could get some insight on. Here are my specs:

i7-720QM
ATI 5730 1GB
4GB Ram
Win 7 64 (This is a laptop)

And the questions:

1) I don't mind if I can't run Qarl's graphics update, but what is important to me is to have a better view distance than what I used to play with. What is/are the best LOD and view distance mods out there today? I want to be able to see major landmarks from far away and not have trees suddenly materialize in the distance. If I can get around it, I'd like to eliminate fog completley

2) I plan to have a lot of heavy duty mods (will be trying to get FCOM working finally) as well as an open cities mod (Banasplit's looks like the best but I might not be up to date) - will my rig be able to handle a multitude of mods with lots of combat going on and effects and still play at a good FPS? I'd ideally like to be able to play at 35-40 FPS minimum - is that realistic? Are there any mods (such as streamline) that I need to be aware of?

3) Are there any new mod lists I should be aware of?

Thanks for reading

Did someone say...mod lists? :lmao: http://www.gamesas.com/?showtopic=1010109&h

• FCOM has several updates: WarCry update and BSA, uFCOM update, optimized Fran's BSAs, MMM major updates. See FCOM thread for all the details.
  
• Open Cities by Arthmoor (Bananasplit does Better Cities) is now being reworked as Open Cities Reborn with new city layouts. See thread for details.
  
• RAEVWD plus TESLODGen is your go to mod for distance viewing. Updates certainly since you've been active.
  
• Tejon has updated several of his mods with new OBSE (get your latest OBSE while you're at it) - nGCD, Birthsigns Expanded, etc.
  
• In addition to Streamline, look at OSR (Oblivion Stutter Remover), an OBSE plugin that smooths performance greatly.
  
• As to the 4GB patch, look at the thread on Oblivion and Memory Usage for details and discussion.

Might I also suggest looking at:

• TheNiceOne's collection of mods - indispensible, most of them, and all of them quite clever and useful.
  
• Oblivion XP has been updated by Andalaybay.
  
• All Natural for all your weather needs, updated recently.
  
• AWLS (lit windows and smoking chimneys), updated recently.
  
• Many new or updated UL (Unique Landscapes) mods.

And, of course, there's a bunch of quest mods updated or new, notable in my eyes are Arthmoor's A Brotherhood Renewed and a recent update to AdenseEpicDungeon.

Welcome back, and have fun!

Thanks for the replies! I will be looking into all of those right now

Can't wait to start up again!

Quick bump:

What kind of mods should I be able to install with my laptop specs? I plan to use the 50+ steps to CTD free gameplay and use FCOM. Here are the specs again:

i7-720QM
ATI 5730 1GB
4GB Ram
Win 7 64

Ah, well, I can guarantee you that with you're specs you're not going to be able to run FCOM, REAVWD and an Open cities mod and be able to get 35-40 fps; even if you use the minimum possible spawn rates on FCOM and have an extremely light install of REAVWD with water reflections off and graphics setting scaled back, do not expect to be getting 35-40 fps all the time (and this is before adding things such as UL mods and texture overhauls).

Oblivion is really about compromising; even if you have a 5ghz i7 processor you wouldn't be able to run absolutely everything at once; you'll run into processor limitations at sooner or later (generally sooner).

My tips would be;

• Set you're goals at 20-30 fps; its a lot more realistic and won't affect the quality of gaming experience.
  
• http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18430 is a much more engine friendly alternative to Qarls if you want textures to look better without performance loss.
  
• Open Cities Reborn will be easier on you're computer than Better Cities (not dissing BC here, just saying that for performance purposes)
  
• Water Reflections+REAWVD will severely damage your performance, and it will get increasingly worse the more of REAVWD you install. Looking at you're processor, I recommend that you choose one or the other.
  
• Try to avoid mods that load the world with creatures and NPC's as this will be the biggest performance killer of all; always choose minimum or near minimum spawn rates for FCOM.
  
• Also, you're not going to be able to make full use of the LAA patch due to only having 4gb of RAM and windows 7 running; you'll struggle to get much past 2.5, from my experience, so be careful how much engine demanding mods you install.

Also, I'd recommend all the mods that gothemasticator suggested looking at. Be warned that the UL's will hurt your performance; alone their not a problem but in conjunction with a whole lot of other performance enhancing mods it can get nasty.

EDIT; before I forget, PyFFing your meshes is a good way to get extra performance out of your game, even if it can be a bit intimidating at first.

Thanks for your input - my machine is much better than what I used to play with, although back then there were certain dungeons that I avoided because I would get 10 FPS tops due to the amount of NPCs.

I'll be honest - graphics aren't that important to me and I am willing to settle for not using the best graphics enhancers to get a smoother game. Qarl's for example, I wasn't even considering putting in because I figured it would be overboard. I'm an old-school gamer and although I do like pretty graphics I have no problem giving up on them for gameplay (one of my fav RPGs of all time is Darklands - and the graphics are nothing to write home about). What I would like to run ideally:

1) FCOM
2) Viewable buildings/towns/landmarks from distance (doesn't need to be super high res, but decent)
3) No fog of war
4) Open Cities
5) Natural Environment, Antimated Window Lighting System with Chimney's,
6) Crowded Cities + Crowded Roads/Tamriel Travelers - mods to make the game a but more populated

I am willing to give up:

1) Shadows - not a huge deal for me
2) Grass if necessary - or using a low poly model... what I don't want is for grass to suddenly "appear" 30 feet in front of me when walking.
3) Water reflection mods, texture packs (if necessary).

I have been reading up on PFFIYing meshes (from the 50+ steps to no CTD thread) and will be doing that. It will be a long setup but I know it will be worth it. Are my goals reasonable to have a smooth framerate of 40-50FPS? 30FPS is playable, but still not that smooth - and I know if it is 30FPS then when it comes to heavy combat it will drop significantly - my dream is to be able to be in big battles with mages summoning and spells flying and not have a CTD or slowdown (something I couldn't do last time I played).

To be honest I disagree on the 30fps smooth issue; I have my fps capped at 30fps by Oblivion Stutter Remover (something else you should look into because it has features that bring major fps improvements as well as removing stutter i.e. making things more smooth, even if you're not interested in capping frame rates). But different people have different standards, so y'know, each to his own (on fps).

Looking at you're list however, you're not going to be getting 40-50 fps anywhere other than a few wilderness areas. If you went for a light install of REAVWD (you're 2) and install an extra low spawn rate plug in for FCOM (which, btw, will still be a higher spawn rate than vanilla), you should be in the 20-30fps zone in most areas (a few city areas may be somewhat lower, but above 15fps, which is the threshold for city areas to me).

The problem btw is going to be the NPC's, particularly with FCOM and 6) running together. What happens when when two travellers from Crowded Roads bump into two bandits from FCOM before a merchant and her guard join the fight from Tamriel Travelers and then two guards from OOO join the fray to take the bandits out. See, slowdown. (now imagine with the default spawn rate of FCOM and its five bandits rather than two bliviongate: :brokencomputer: )

On things you're willing to give up
1) You'll get good performance improvement and probably won't notice anything much different graphically
2) I have never noticed a single fps change regardless of what I put my grass settings to, even without low poly grass, but hey, installing it won't do any harm so...
3) Pretty much essential, since you'll get a CPU bottleneck before anything else.



PyFFing meshes will make a huge difference; that's the right mindset to have going there. However, no, I don't think you're going to be able to have 40-50fps and game that is as well modded and good looking as you are planning on. Also, big combat scenes are simply impossible in Oblivion; it doesn't matter if you have 30fps or 50fps to start with; a large fight scene will bring your computer to its knees regardless (engine and AI problems on the inside).

I don't want to sound like I'm being discouraging, but its just that performance vs mods/graphics in Oblivion is a hard bullet to bite and I've had to make compromises and ultimately you probably will too. But the best advice is to give it a try and see how it turns out; if anything else it will bring you closer to your goal.