I'm pretty familiar with modding Oblivion, but up until now, I could only have the most rudimentary of graphics mods. Since I just got a new graphics card, though, I'm ready to install every single graphics mod in existence.

Unfortunately I don't know any graphics mods; thus, I must beg for some recommendations from you. I must know all of the mods. All of them.

I doubt there is anyone on the planet who knows the names of *all* the Oblivion graphics mods out there, let alone what they are like, etc.

By the way, what are your current PC specs? CPU, GPU, RAM, that kind of thing.

As for recommendations, check out http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/. Also, there's http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/obliviontextureoverhaul.html, which although it's a bit old, still has merit.

Very much a matter of taste, as well, so I have no idea if something that, for example, *I* like... you would also like whatsoever.

What do you / don't you like?


edit: Actually, there is one thing I would suggest trying, regardless, to see if it suits your purposes and preferences - OBGE (that's Oblivion Graphics Extender). It's a plugin that requires OBSE, and gives you the opportunity to experiment with all kinds of shaders, for effects such as Depth of Field, Anti Aliasing, SSAO, various "photographic" alterations, and so on. Whatever textures, meshes and such you end up using, OBGE works just as well - even with vanilla!

Mainly I'd be looking for graphics mods that add something new to my game, rather than just update the textures. I don't really understand the question; what is an example of a graphics mod that some people would like that others would not?

I have a GTX 460 with 1 GB onboard memory, a Core 2 Duo at 2.13 GHz, 3 GB of RAM. I'll probably be limited by my processor, right?

Unique Landscapes, then. Maybe Better Cities. Hm... Alive Waters? I'm struggling to think of purely graphical mods that add rather than replace. Even those I've mentioned so far don't quite qualify. But I'll see what else comes to mind. edit: Oh, of course, there's Elsweyr! how could I forget? And maybe you'd like some of the other new/"new" lands?

Ah, perhaps you'd like some mods from http://oblivionsrealestate.com/?

And if you play a female character, there are lots and lots of clothing mods, if they take your fancy...? Some are available for guys as well though.



It is *all* a matter of taste, just like playstyle mods, or music, art, food, whatever. For example, when it comes to retexturing, some people must have QTP3, whereas others don't care for it at all. And so on...



Specs seem fine, to me. And since you don't want replacers, I imagine you won't have much difficulty, depending on whether you thrash things like scripts/AI.

Not in the slightest, Oblivion doesn't make much use out of multi-cores anyway.

Here's some recommendations from me:

Replacers-

-Qarl's Texture Pack 3 Redimized

Or for something a bit out-of-the-ordinary...

-MTGR's Texture Pack
-Bomret's Detailed Normal Maps

That's what I use, and it looks incredible.

-LowPoly Grass (Grass is a resource hog in this game, this mod optimizes it, and can really help performance outside)
-Beaming Sunglare
-Better Night Sky
-Enhanced Water HDMI

Enhancements:
-AWLS (Animated Window Lighting System with chimneys)
-Weather, All Natural (With Real Lights option)
-Really AEVWD (Be careful with this one, it can have huge effects on performance if you go too far despite it being fully optimized)
-Cava Obscura (If you use Bash) or if not...
-Let There Be Darkness (Both of these remove ambient dungeon lighting)
-Rainbows in Tamriel

Expansions:
-The Unique Landscapes Project (make sure to check for conflicts and download the needed patches)
-Better Cities

Oh, no, that's no rule, that's just a preference, determining which mods I would install first if I could only install a few. Any mod that I couldn't have used before, with a five-year-old graphics card, is fair game for a recommendation in this thread, I think.

Bear in mind that to a certain degree the performance / FPS you achieve are not all dependent on the graphics card alone. Oblivion also is very much CPU dependent (faster clock rate = better) because it is essentially a one-core using engine only. Just to give you an idea, I have a 3 GHz E8400 dual core, and used to have a ATI 3870 512 MB card. Nowadays I have still the same CPU but a significantly more powerful Nvidia 260-216 with 896 MB, but the FPS stay pretty much the same most of the times. If I'd get a superpower Nvidia 580 my FPS gain would still be very much the same, in any case not scale directly with the superior crunching power of the 580... so you must not have super high expectations about your new card, otherwise you will only be disappointed.

True, but a better GPU does mean that you can add more graphic enhancements before your GPU becomes the one that drags down your FPS. The lowest FPS "wins". So if your CPU can only get 25 FPS, and your GPU can get 80 FPS, you'd better start adding some graphic enhancements.

@OP: Out of the mods already listed here, I'd really recommend RAEVWD (Really Almost Everything Viewable When Distant), All Natural, Unique Landscapes and Better Cities.

Before you download any texture replacers, be sure to check some pictures of it. I had downloaded and installed QTP3 Redimized, before I noticed these textures are too bright for me. There are however a lot of people who love it.

Which is why it's a good idea to install texture replacers with BAIN (Wrye Bash) as it makes it easy to install/uninstall them and thus to try out replacers w/o thye hassle of manually uninstalling them.

I too recommend RAEVWD so long as you have the horsepower for it. Bear in mind that is it quite modular, allowing you to activate only some or all of its components. I myself do not run the two inner-city modules requiring ESPs.

AWLS is my other solid recommendation. I think it adds a LOT to the night-time game, at very little computing cost.

You might also want a night-sky darkener, either as part of a weather package or, like me, a small stand-alone mod. I use OC_darker_nights.

Yes, the Unique Landscapes series is quite nice. I use only three of them (Gold Coast, Imperial Isle, Skingrad Outskirts) but each is a gem. The vanilla Imperial Isle area in particular is, in my opinion, woefully lacking in visual interest and needs all the help it can get. My solution, there are others, is a combination of the afore mentioned Unique Landscapes, "Region-Revive - Lake Rumare", AFK_Weye, and Arthmoor's "New Roads & Bridges", along with their various compatibility patches. New Roads & Bridges itself is a nice solid recommendation, game-play wise, as is West Roads.

I think the Imperial City itself looks better with "ImpeREAL IC - All the Districts Merged" and the texture replacer "DarkerIC-Reduced".

If you plan to stick with vanilla cities consider the add-on "ImpeREAL - Unique Castles" which, as the name implies, visually enhances each city's castle.

Sorry for lack of links. I write this in haste on a work day, and don't have time to do the look-ups.

A word on performance. As others have mentioned, Oblivion performance depends on more than just the GPU. I've ran Oblivion on two systems:

Intel i7 930 @ 2.88ghz
6gb DDR3 memory
nVidia GTX470
Windows 7 64-bit

Intel e8500 @ 3.16ghz
4gb DDR2 memory
nVidia 260 core 216
Vista 64-bit

On a purely visual basis, the first combo is far superior to the second, despite its slower CPU. On the other hand, mods whose resource drain is mainly in the A.I. area seem to fare about the same on either system. If anything, the second combo might be slightly better at that.

-Decrepit-

....which is precisely what is to be expected based on the difference in CPU speed.

Not at all, actually. I'm pretty sure, if you put it to the test, you'd find that the superior architecture would more than compensate for ~.3GHz difference. Per core/thread, I mean, not just overall. In the latter case, the architecture is overwhelmingly superior, natch, but even so.

And just to show that I'm not biased here, I'm using an e8400 (albeit OCd to 4GHz...) and yet, I'm well aware that an i5/i7 will kick its butt, even if it's a little "slower" in terms of sheer GHz rating.

Compare a Pentium 4 @ 3GHz with a Core 2 Duo @, say, 2.4GHz - maybe even less than that! - and yes, the C2D will win anything, every time.

Not with Oblivion, no. A P4 at 3GHz is much better than a 2.4GHz C2D. I myself own E4600, which is exactly 2.4GHz C2D, and I cry everytime Crysis Warhead, Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 play just fine while Oblivion stutters.

C2D is better in a sense that you can make Oblivion own the first core and let the other programs use only the second core (thus a full 2.4GHz for Oblivion instead of shared 3GHz) but if you go gaming mode (stop all services, including anti virus) that 3GHz will shine.

Truth be told, once I go gaming mode (stop all services, disconnect from internet, stop anti virus) even that 2.4GHz is pretty good for Oblivion (for the other 3 I mentioned, it doesn't make much difference)

I never understood what people see in dungeon darkening mods. Real Lights darkens dungeons plenty. Why do people not want to see 3 feet in front of them?

Not really what the OP is asking, and not really relevant either.

I use CorePCs vibrant textures, which are the same resolution as the Vanilla ones, so if you're thinking of running RAEVWD, then anything to reduce VRAM consumption will be a bonus

BBC - Adds but replaces many

Silgrad Tower 3.0 -Adds

QTP3 - Replaces

AmpolX's Texture Replacers - Replaces

That all depends on the brightness on your Oblivion ingame settings & your Monitors brightness/contrast settings.

No, you are in fact wrong.

Seriously, it doesn't bother me whether you believe me or not, but do at least make sure you have some research and/or experience to back up your claims. They are, as it stands, erroneous and potentially misleading, you see.

I've done the research, and not only seen, but tested and known the difference between a whole variety of processors. I do a fair bit of this stuff. Really. Again, believe it or not; whatever

I'll just leave it there, because I have this sneaking suspicion some people will always be dazzled by numbers, without knowing what they mean in context. :shrug:

To back you up: check out http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Pentium+Dual-Core+E6800+%40+3.33GHz http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Duo+E8600+%40+3.33GHz http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3+560+%40+3.33GHz. Three Intel, Dual Core, 3.33GHz processors. The Core i3 is about 1.5 times faster than the Pentium Dual Core, the Core2 Duo is somewhere in between. Numbers mean [censored] when you're talking about processors, and a newer 2.4 GHz single core will beat a Pentium 4 @3.0GHz in every way, and then I'm not even talking about a 2.4 GHz dual core like yours.

Just remember, newer is better, even with lower numbers.

Hm. Well I see what you're saying, and I agree, but... those are all new processors. Or at least, one of them is brand new tech (core i3) and the other two are based on C2D tech, despite the Pentium name of one of them. Yes, it can get very confusing. Pentiums ain't Pentiums! :ahhh: Or it might not be confusing - could be I'm underestimating any number of people's knowledge - if so, sorry.

But if you compare an *old Pentium* from the pre-Core days (and therefore, before lower-end new tech started to be rebranded with the same fricking name - gah!) to a slightly more recent C2D, the difference is absolutely staggering. From C2D to something like i3 or even i5/i7 is not quite so dramatic perhaps, with older games like this, but even so, you'd notice it. Frame rates will improve, general smoothness, that kind of thing.

Oops, I said I'd leave this one. Oh well.

tl;dr: agreed, plus a bit.

AI... heh.