OSR and Streamline

OSR is compatible with everything except earlier versions of itself. The only caveat is that Streamline (and other mods that monitor FPS) will not be able to accurately measure FPSes outside of the target range set by this plugin (10 to 30 by default). In fact, even FPSes that merely come close to OSR targets may be difficult to measure. In general, there should be at least a 10% margin between any FPS that you want a mod like Streamline to be able to measure and the OSR target. i.e.

If OSR FPS targets are 10 to 30, then Streamline FPS min should be at least 11 and Streamline FPS max should be at most 27.

Edit Oblivion.ini in your documents\my games\oblivion\ and set:
uGridDistantTreeRange=15
uGridDistantCount=15

This makes all distant trees and other objects (made visible by RAEVWD) disappear at ranges above 15 cells. This will do a lot for your framerate when using RAEVWD.

Then, in Streamline's sl.ini I use:
set SLv.MinDistanceFog to 20000; Min distance before fog starts (0%)
set SLv.MaxDistanceFog to 86000; Max distance before fog ends (100%)

in order to make the fog appear around the same distance.

The net result is better framerates since the engine doesn't have to generate so many distant objects, and more immersive gameplay as the fog not only hides the pop-up of those distant objects, but also makes the world seem bigger when you no longer can see directly from one city to another since the distant lands are covered by fog.

For even better performance, you could reduce the distances even further. If you change the distant settings to 12 (cells), you must set the fog to 17000/71000 instead, etc.

NB - The corresponding values are found in the file "Streamsight Fog Ranges.mht" that comes with the Streamline docs

Ugrids 10 = slv.min 15000 and slv.max 61000

Also make sure to re-initialize Streamline, as it only reads its own ini file after re-initialization.

I use the following features of Streamline:
1. The fog (obviously)
2. Manual streamsaves (I have turned off all automatic saves, and rely on manual Streamsaves most of the time)
3. Purging before each save.

NB - After re-initialising the streamline ini, if you have changed any detail settings in game to suit your setup, the detail settings from the ini will also kick in again - Change them in the ini to your preference before re-initialising

In Game to get Streamline config settings manager and find the option to re-initialize = rCtrl + Home

Dont use the purge on travel option when combined with OSR

The other reason for using streamline alongside OSR is to circumvent the Oblivion hard edge of 2gb ram (no matter how much ram you have), which the game has been found to consistently ctd when reached, OSR does not purge memory buffers but streamline does and constantly keeps that potential problem in check with streampurge.

More on that subject here.... http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1078392-oblivion-and-memory-usage/

It concerns using the LAA flag, personally I havent gone that far with Oblivion (using 32bit OS so its a pointless exercise), streamline does the trick for me after a bit of taming to conform with OSR. And of course streamsaves are consistently more reliable than any Oblivion auto saves which corrupt occasionally.

Wrye bash has an ini tweak to turn off the oblivion.ini autosave functions


So for clarity - If OSR fps min 12 and max 45, Streamline min 15 max 38

For the 10% idea, I deduct a little more than 10% from OSR max for the Streamline max, because streamline also during combat by default will add 3 onto the max fps it uses - In the above example 38 goes up to 41 during combat encroaching a little more on the OSR max fps setting of 45. So still 10% inside of OSR setting during combat.

this looks like one of those nice, simple, does-what-it-says mods. good job

does this change any underwater fog values? I ask, because I've been using SL's streamsight, which alters both land and underwater fog values, and I'd really like to only alter the land and leave the water fog for Enhanced Water.

Arthmoor showed an edit some time ago to prevent streamline from doing underwater and interiors, both of which streamline has issues with. Not at gaming machine so don't have access currently.

Here is a link to the interior fix
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1073686-concern-with-streamline-v-31-open-beta/page__p__15613550&#entry15613550

I don't remember anything about turning off the water fog. Never seemed to be a problem to me since it is customizable unlike the interior fog.

For anyone needing it .. Heres a collection of tips regarding OSR used alongside Streamline (various sources and contributers on this site I threw in a text file for reference)....



Dont take any of the above as gospel settings for your machine, just a rough guide - It needs a bit of personal study/testing for your own use, too many factors with different machines for anyone to say without doubt a particular configuration will work for anyone else as well as it does for them.

Edit: BAIN users - backup the original streamline.ini, and include your final edited versions in the BAIN - Annealing could ruin your day, balanced ini settings overwritten (Been there, got the t-shirt)

Here is a link to the interior fix
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1073686-concern-with-streamline-v-31-open-beta/page__p__15613550&#entry15613550

...I don't like 'em either. They remind me of bad Christmas cards. :hehe:


*runs*


edit: but to clarify, I think the godrays look more subtle in RedBag's screenies than I've seen elsewhere. Still not a fan, but at least they don't remind of http://www.tkstoystand.com/IMAGE1/LT_XM7/lt_box_xm_71868.jpg

Thanks for the link - and thanks to Arthmoor for the info. I had missed that and it's the only issue I have with Streamline so just perfect.

oh well what about http://a.imageshack.us/img96/8711/oblivionshots2.png

~snip~ I encourage you to try and alter the fog settings in CS by yourself, it's relly simple. ~snip

Click on the "World" tab, then select "Weather". A window will pop up with all the weathers listed on the left. You will notice you can alter many settings for each weather, including fog distance. The "near" value is the distance where fog appears, then it grows thicker until the "far" distance value, where you can't see the texture of the objects anymore, as they are completely covered in fog. This is all you need to know, everything else is simple to master.

oh well what about http://a.imageshack.us/img96/8711/oblivionshots2.png

Oh wait - could this also be associated with whatever slv.max setting a user would normally have in streamline ini, for instance if the users optimal value for their machine slv.max 61000 (determined from streamline mht list of ranges) - then all settings for instance Clear/Cloudy/DefaultWeather etc etc could also be assigned a max fog distance of 61000 ?

I might make several versions of this.

Edit: In the above example I would skip any setting with a lesser value than 61000, for instance Fog* which currently has 4096 should be left alone.

Streamline doesn't edit the weather, it only changes the fog distance.
Streamline will determine and use which is closer the actual weather fog or its own MaxDistanceFog. It does the same check with MinDistanceFog.

oh well what about http://a.imageshack.us/img96/8711/oblivionshots2.png

Does fog mods actually affect the FPS?
I guess you also need to decrease the UGrid_whatever values to see actual changes in FPS?

There are three such fog mods that I know and they will conflict with weather mods, but making patches with TES4EDIT is easy.