as what the title says..which graphic mods could I use with FCOM? I was thinking of using OBGE(I love the POM effect),Detailed Terrain,Bomret SI textures,Vibrant textures,Bomret normal maps+Really textured normal maps, and,at the end,qarl texture pack.The fondamental question is:which qarl version would be better to run?I recently switched to redimized but I think I may need to use a reduced version;the one by pk_ seems to be great! In fact,it seems that there are no visible differences(at least,I don't see any) and I could save about 100mb of vram! Waiting for your opinions

You could, especially if you are going to add a lot of extra content to the world, try a "non-hi-res" texture pack and/or normal map replacer. Vibrant Textures, for example.

What is the specific graphics card in question? And are you thinking about Distant LOD texture / normal map replacers? If so, keep in mind that the hi-res versions of those also reduce available VRAM.

You could probably do high-res (up to 2048 X 2048) Distant LOD textures and normals, but you will likely struggle with texture packs like QTP3 and Bomret SI, even if you opt for the full reduced version of QTP.

Uhm..well I was thinking of using the modified qarl 2048 LOD mod.The video card is an ATI RADEON HD 2600 XT;also I have a intel quad core q6600 2,40ghz and 3gb of ram.If I avoid the hi res LOD mods?Consider also that I'll use plyffied meshes(if this can matter :/)


I still don't understand how even guys with 1gb vram can have problems with oblivion graphics mods..it's because of the engine right?

That is a rather old card. I would be hesitant to replace anything with hi-res alternatives. See how you go without first, then maybe think about one or two. But I would consider a PC upgrade, if I were you.



No, not really. It is because of silly amounts of polygons (from added content and more complex meshes) and very hi-res textures (lots of these at once, in particular). Once you start adding 4096x4096 textures to a game, you cannot expect to get away with 1GB for very long.

I am going to update the card for skyrim well,I could run qtp3 full(without fcom) without any problem.I guess that I have to install graphics+FCOM and see if is playable..OSR and Streamline and Pyfflied meshes should help

I recommend staying away from any QTP variants and use Vibrant Textures. They look very good overall... but some things do get blurry up close. I decoded to go with them along with RAEVWD, FCOM and other textures/mods with a gtx460 1GB because I didn't want to deal with any hassles. VRAM sits between ~500-800 depending on where I am and stability is great. I'm very happy!

Oh god.So I won't be able to run even FCOM?It's strange...any suggestion?I already tried vibrant textures and them are good but..since I've tried qtp3,vibrant doesn't look beautiful to me xD Btw,if FCOM gets too much VRAM,of course I'll use vibrant.The mod that uses the major part of the VRAM,should be MMM right?Maybe I could try to install MMM+qtp3 redimized firstly..just to do some testing before the ooo 1.35 release

FCOM will not chew up very much VRAM, per se, at all. But it will cut into FPS nonetheless, due to stressing the CPU a fair bit more. It probably adds the odd bunch of polygons here and there - I suppose it must. Even so, hi-res replacers (including for distant land) is the most dangerous area, by far.

If using BAIN, you can always easily try anyway, should you wish to. No harm done, then: if it suits your graphics card (and system in general), keep it; otherwise, ditch it (and use another instead, or not). There's even nothing in those kinds of "mods" that will mess with saves or whatever else. So, in fact, I suggest playing around with various textures/normals/meshes combinations, and seeing what happens.

I'll do these test once the ooo 1.35 release is out I'd like someone with a 512mb graphic card to post his opinion,which mods uses..

2 years ago I had a 9800gtx+ 512ram (which AFAIK is a bit stronger than a 2600 XT) and used QTP Redimized and Reduced to the max with FCOM (plus other stuff), but no RAEVWD (which makes a HUGE difference as far as immersion goes). It was pushed to the max and I'm sure some instability resulted just from the graphic load. I persisted though and had a character with hundreds of hours... until the gpu died (I'm not saying this occurred because of running OB like this). Then I took a break from OB.

This time round my #1 priority was stability. I want to actually play the game, and besides, OB looks beautiful with VT anyway, plus All Natural and AWLS, Unique Landscapes, etc, and whatever OBGE enhancements. Compromise has to come from somewhere...

Anyway, find what works for you!

See my response. I'm on a 512Mb card right now and QTP3R is really pushing it even with an all vanilla setup.

512Mb cards simply do not have enough memory to buffer in all those high-res textures. The best I can do is 2048 X 2048 DistantLOD, and maybe high-res sky textures.

I used to run an HD 2600XT as well, and QTP3R was pushing it for me - RAEVWD pushed it over the edge. Earthling, arafel and Thomas Kaira are correct all the way down the line, imho - the 2600 was a nice card in 2008, but it lacks the vram/speed to cope with everything available for Oblivion, especially in the hi-res texture dept. FCOM was never a real video-card-killer for me, but the really beefy textures brought my pc to its' knees.

ATI 3650 512 vram gddr2 < - the gddr2 is the weak point beside the 128 bit memory interface..

has I could not Run QTP3 or QTP3R and RAEVWD and enjoy other mods has well like FCOM, Better Cities, UL,

And there was no vanilla texture replace out their so I created the Vibrant Series..

Vram is around 380-420 depending on location becaue of RAEVWD..

with Vibrant ALL, Really Textured Normals, Bomret Detailed Normals, AWLS, All Natural (Real LIghts) and RAEVWD (no city plugins)

You have to think about all the textures that get loaded for all the Creatures and Npcs from FCOM has well that get added into VRAM usage has well..It can add up after all..But using Spawn Rate Plugins will help that and not going overboard on the fish mods has well like some do..

Better Cities pushes my RIG right to limit on VRAM usage ..but most of the TIme I do not use BC..

How can this be possible?I searched over the internet and some guys were playing with a 512mb card with qtp3 and so on mods..>_< Somehow I think that is strange..I am able to run hi res mods for fallout 3,why oblivion is "unstable"?Are you using high screen resolutions?Would mods that reduce polygons help?

Likely due to going fairly light on the rest of the mods. Once you start adding in things like UL and Better Cities and RAEVWD, and various other beautification mods, your VRAM usage is going to skyrocket.

And yes, resolution counts for a lot. You can utilise "hi-res" replacers (scare quotes applied for a reason) while playing at a low resolution, but... it is, in a sense, pointless.

I was assuming "Full HD" or higher, which was by no means the norm (if it was even doable) in the early days of Oblivion and modding for same.

Well, you will have to try it out and see if it is playable. I am running an old machine, however I think it is probably slightly more powerful than yours, in terms of video graphics performance. Using an AMD Athlon x2 5600 2.6Ghz CPU + Radeon 3870 512Mb + 4GB DDR2 RAM. I am using Open Cities Reborn, QTP3 Redimized, FCOM, quite a few mods. Also running 1920x1080 resolution, and I have to say. I don't really lag alot. I get quite steady FPS tbh. It depends a alot on the individual computer and setup. You will ahve to play about with the mods/graphics.

Also, moving the resolution down really makes a lot of difference in terms of increasing FPS/playability.