Multi-Core CPUs for Oblivion? : IV

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:12 pm

Hi guys!

I was wondering, after reading somewhere that Oblivion only uses a single CPU, is there anything out there to allow, 2 or more?

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:39 pm

Post Removed !

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:00 am

It will only ever used one core. That's how the engine works and nothing can be done about it.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:09 am

No I dont think there is, the game engine would not use more than one core.

Core-2-Duo with high specs is the best option for Oblivion. One core being used by the OS for a few background processes and one core for the game.

4 Cores at 2.5ghz each core would be good if the game would use three of them, but as it is a Core-2-Duo @ 3Ghz each core would be far better.

Some people in the OSR threads have had some success with process prioritisation, but for the gains you are likely to achieve out of such complicated investigation you may aswell just remove one mod, or cut down on how much you use from MMM for instance, adding loads of creatures or NPC's for any given area is the biggest balk with the games old engine. Lights too, including torches, and overloading your machine with high res graphics in all of your mods ... Just cut back on something.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:48 pm

Todd claimed in an interview around the time of Oblivion's release that Oblivion did take limited advantage a second CPU. As I recall he claimed a dual-core user ought to see a small performance boost over a single-core user. But, as they've never advertised this much (in fact that one interview is the only mention of it I've ever come across) I did not get the feeling that it was significant enough to brag about.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:10 pm

Post Removed !

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:38 pm

If you have a Dual/Quad core Processor or a processor with Hyper-Threading, then set these values to this:

bUseThreadedBlood=1 (default 0)
bUseThreadedMorpher=1 (default 0)
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1 (default 0)
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1 (default 0)
bBackgroundPathing=1 (default 0)
bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1 (default 0)
iNumHavokThreads=3 (default 1)
iThreads=10 (default 3)

Otherwise leave them at the default.

However, it should be noted that an article on FiringSquad found no benefit in using these settings. Whatever the configuration of these INI variables, it is generally acknowledged that Oblivion makes very little use of additional CPU's/CPU cores. This may be because all of the functions that these variables enable multithreading for are not CPU intensive tasks, there appears to be no variable related to enabling multithreading for the main scene renderer, which would most benefit from such an optimization. Things such as the Particle System and Shader Effects are not used in excess in Oblivion, so using multiple threads for processing related to them will likely not have much benefit.

Despite dubious significance to performance, these options can effectively prevent or at least reduce crashes on multi-core systems.

I used those tweaks but also I cannot say that the performance is significantly better than without those tweaks.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:47 am

I guess some did not get my post.
Here the explanation:

Oblivion will use
1 core on a Single-Core-CPU.
2 cores on a Dual-Core-CPU.
3 Cores on a Tripple-Core-CPU.
4 cores on a Quad-Core-CPU.
Almost all games or applications do this.

Incorrect. Oblivion uses 1 core on a Single Core, Dual Core, Tri Core or Quad Core CPU.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:46 pm

Post Removed !

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:05 pm

I guess I am the only one then where Oblivion uses more then 1 core on a Multi-Core-System.

And how do you know this?

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:04 pm

Post Removed !

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:03 am

I think Oblivion uses one core and can benefit from a second core, but not very much.
If you have more than one core Oblivion could use one core exclusive, no sharing the limited processing power of one core with OS and other programs.
I have a six core (with ht virtual 12) cpu, but oblivion doesn't use six cores or four.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 7:57 pm

Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 3.0GHz

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/JustinCoherent/Elder%20Scrolls/StandingStill.jpg?t=1314547529 | http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/JustinCoherent/Elder%20Scrolls/RunningAroundAnvil.jpg?t=1314547528

I'd used this http://www.prnwatch.com/prio.html app to set Oblivion's Priority to high. Not sure if that makes the difference or not, but all four cores seem to be sharing the load. Affinity is at its default (all cores). Also, all the bThreadedThisAndThat settings in my .ini are set to 1.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:44 am

By looking at the CPU usage in the Windows Task-Manager.

That's not, by any means, a reliable information to tell if the process can run in multithreaded mode. You are misleaded by the fact that each CPU performance graph shows some CPU usage when the game runs, but multithreaded processing doesn't work that way. What you see in the graphs it's just an info that tells you that the process is running on all cores and it's load-balanced across all cores, but that's a feature of the CPU which is used by the OS, not by the process itself. You can tell that Oblivion doesn't actually take advantage of the other cores by setting the affinity to the core 0 only while the game is running: your performance won't drop by a single bit. You guys are confusing multi-core processing [of which ANY process can take advantage as long as the OS can support it] with multi-threaded processing spread across two or more cores, which Oblivion can't do because it's not hardcoded in its exe.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:28 pm

By looking at the CPU usage in the Windows Task-Manager.

Unfortunately Windows is deceiving you. Oblivion lacks the multithreading and synchronization necessary to run using multiple cores. However, the Windows kernel will still divide up Oblivion's operations somewhat among the cores, usually with a single core being dominant at any one time. However, the total CPU usage for Oblivion should not exceed I.E. 25% total in a quad-core system, meaning 100% usage of a single core. If you're seeing Oblivion consistently use more than 100% worth's of a single core, then tell us how to accomplish that

.

Edit: Oops, ninja'd

.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:05 am

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:34 am

Just to make it clear and to avoid any confusion-- there is no debate, Oblivion doesn't perform any better with multiple cores. Any ini tweaks that supposedly allow it to take advantage of multiple cores actually accomplish nothing. If you want Oblivion to perform better in CPU-intensive situations, you're going to want a higher clock speed; the number of cores is irrelevant.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:30 am

Some genius should make an OSR-like mod which hooks into the game engine and adds multicore support

.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 4:50 pm

I'm guessing that's impossible unless Bethesda releases the source code?

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:53 pm

I'm guessing that's impossible unless Bethesda releases the source code?

Pretty much. Which ain't gonna happen.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:08 pm

I guess I am the only one then where Oblivion uses more then 1 core on a Multi-Core-System.
It clearly spreads its workload over all cores.

The fact that Oblivion jumps to 100% often from one core to another doesn't mean it uses all 2 or more cores. A TRUE multicore app would look like all the core load indicators are in green and at 100% use at the same time.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:06 pm

Imagine what the modders could get done if Bethesda released the Source Code. :cryvaultboy:

One can dream.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:49 am

The solution to your problem is called "Buying Skyrim."

It's possible that Skyrim will actually run faster than Oblivion did just because it's made to handle modern hardware, regardless of the intensification of its resource needs.

» Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:29 pm

The solution to your problem is called "Buying Skyrim."

It's possible that Skyrim will actually run faster than Oblivion did just because it's made to handle modern hardware, regardless of the intensification of its resource needs.

Haha, we can wish, but considering Bethesda's ability to massacre 2011 gaming monster machines with a 2006 game... I don't hold out too much hope

.

» Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:19 am

Haha, we can wish, but considering Bethesda's ability to massacre 2011 gaming monster machines with a 2006 game... I don't hold out too much hope

.

True, however Fallout 3 was a big improvement, I'm thinking Skyrim will run a lot better.

Like you said, this 2006 game gives me 19fps in the waterfront with a few mods on my high range PC. It's a joke.