So I just bought this game and would like to know what gfx mods will make this game look it's best. I don't want to change the gameplay I just want pure graphics bliss.

Hardware

2xGTX480 WC
I7 920@4.5GHz WC
6GB ddr3 1800MHz

I think I am good for whatever the mods can dish out. Or well I can play Crysis on high settings.
Thanks

Check out http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/obliviontextureoverhaul.html site. It has some good texture replacers.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1098425-relz-really-aevwd-thread-6/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1116976-the-unique-landscapes-project/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1118450-oblivion-and-memory-usage/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1118959-relz-wipz-immersive-interiors/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1119930-relz-weather-all-natural-thread-29/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1120083-relz-cava-obscura/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1120859-oblivion-graphics-extender/

http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/?page=intro_to_mods

Whats the best option for just installing one ot two mods?

Grab Wrye Bash, because there's no way that you're stopping with just one or two, and learning Bash early on will save you headaches later. It's also not particularly difficult to grasp the basics of, though there's a lot of complexity there when you need it.

Prepare to have Oblivion chew your system up and spit it out. While you may have a decent rig that can run Crysis on High Settings, thats no where close to Oblivion. Crysis is more thoroughly optimized that Oblivion and adding a lot of graphic mods can really burn up your processor and graphics display card as Oblivion cannot tap the full potential of both, especially since you can only use one of those graphic cards (Oblivion only takes feed from one IIRC.) Best bet would be to find stuff thats playable.

Decent is an understatement. It's the top of the line hardware. If you can point me in the direction of the graphics only mods that will chew this system up and spit it out I would love to check it out. I havent found anything that even comes close.

Check out Dev Akm's TOTO and grab every single high-res texture pack, then look for newer ones on the Nexus. Remember to include stuff like LOD replacers too, not just straight texture replacers. If you're still OK after that, then there's always the OGE shaders (SSAO especially) to try, and failing that I'd like to see you play with MTAEVWD installed.

Now that's throwing down the gauntlet

I built this system for just this sort of thing. I will start grabing this stuff and report back. BTW does anyone know of an SLI patch for Oblivion?

Don't believe so. I actually got better performance disabling SLI. Oblivion is CPU intensive and SLI will grab cycles as well, so I was better off disabling it. ymmv

Well I am looking and I keep finding like four different kinds of the same thing. Any easy way to find the best of the best?

I'd go with wrinkly's advice and focus on http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/obliviontextureoverhaul.html if you're looking for major overhauls that will cripple your system How much graphics memory do you have on those cards? You'll want a 1 gig on each... The one thing you may find with QTP 3 is that it makes textures too sharp. I don't run that one, not because I can't, but because I don't like the effect. It will be good to stress test your system, but you might find others more to your taste and I think they are all smaller resource wise as well, as it turns out.

As far as I know and I experimented with almost all mods, that improve the visuals, there are only two mods that are able to drop your FPS drastically. That is the full setup of "Really AEVWD" and some effects like godrays or SSAO with "OBGE". I have a E8500 @ 3.4 Ghz and a Radeon 4890 and these mods (even alone) make my FPS drop from 60+ to 30! All other mods activated at the same cost almost no fps. Of course, battles make my FPS dip but I guess that`s a problem of Oblivion and its combat scripts. I can recommend you the following mods for visual improvement:

- QTP3 Redimized or QTP3 (needs a lot more VRAM!)
- Deathb0rns Modified Qarls LOD Normal Maps
- PK LandscapeLOD Color
- Detailed Terrain
- Enhanced Water
- Water Reflection Blur
- Enhanced Vegetation (with vanilla textures, but 150% scaling for dense woods)
- Beaming Sunglare
- Fintilgin`s ForeverView
- Improved Trees and Flora
- Improved Fruits, Vegetables and Meats
- Improved Facial Textures and New Face Textures
- OBGE Motion Blur
- Immersive Interiors (installation of this can be tricky though, if you have zero experience with Oblivion mod installations)

Also, if you want to try:
- Really AEVWD

This mod makes a huge difference, because you can see all building from very far. Unfortunately it comes with a big performance hit, but I think your PC can handle it. If he cannot, try to install only the core files, the ayleid ruins, the forts and the wilderness architecture.

If the game runs well with Really AEVWD, you can raise the value of viewing distance by chaning UGridDistantCount in the oblivion.ini up to 40. With this value you can see everything from virtually any place:

http://www3.pic-upload.de/19.10.10/gom8onswhndg.jpg

The screenshot was not (!) shot with Really AEVWD enabled, expect it to be even more awesome with this excellent mod. You can find all this mods on TESNexus.

read http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1065678-does-everyone-use-qtp-3/ that started a while ago with some recent comments

I've never played any of these but I'd say the first two to get if you want to push your system and get a great looking game would be QTP3 (you might want to try redimized unless you're really confident) and REAVWD. Grab those two, and if your computer hasn't exploded yet download OBGE and try out some of the shaders (have fun with SSAO!). For interiors get All Natural and Immersive Interiors because their performance impact is relatively low yet well worth having.

My 480's have 1.5gb ram per card. Not sure how much it will need.

So far I have QTP3 and AEVWD downloaded and tryng to figure out what next.

You better get Really AEVWD than the normal AEVWD, because it is optimized. You can get it here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20053.

How much FPS do you get and have you tried to raise the DistantCount value?

:D I kinda forgot the OP saying he wanted good looking mods when he said his system should be able to handle everything, so I was just throwing out the most intensive stuff.

So yeah, OP, if you want a pretty good looking game, you can either go with that or go with a more realistic set of mods like RAEVWD. Someone mentioned All Natural - I was actually doing one of my few playtests without it yesterday, and had saved inside an interior - when I loaded up, I was apalled at the loss of ambience and general quality of the lighting - this was in Arborwatch if anyone's interested. AN definitely makes a huge difference, and it's been so long since I was able to fully appreciate it.

In fact, it might be a good idea to switch off your mods once in a while, once you've got them, to see how un-awesome the game is without them. It's a big difference.

Yes thats what I have. I won't get to install any of this untill tonight when I get home.

Anyone recoment a good body mod for the player and npc?

For male bodies:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28646

(Installation is quite complex though)

For female bodies I prefer this one with underwear:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10168

Robert's for male (link above), and I prefer Robert's female (search for Roberts Female Body on Nexus). Get the fixed version - there is an error in one of the meshes of the original.

Another absolute must-have imo, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16513

Enjoy and let us know how your rig handles

Actually for taxing it should be Open Better Cities.

True..

Let's throw in some good armors addon, like http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8440 (even if won't be playable until level 20)

Anyway, hoping OP is using at least the 4gb patch and some form of quietfeet..
Or the first wolf he meets while riding on shaded QTP3's backgrounds will smash even his juggernaut setup