As a returning player, I got excited about reinstalling oblivion (and hopefully finally finishing the main quest). In my previous games, I had a large yet stable mod list which was fun.

Now I need to re-read a boatload of readmes as I settle on, download and build my new mod list, and write myriad wizards for Wrye Bash. This allows me to play with SI, nGCD, Fundament, and ... that's all. Pure Vanilla-ish!

(UOP and USIP go without saying)

In starting from the very beginning, I was curious about the different official patches. I had always believed that the Shivering Isles v1.2.0416 patch was the only one I needed (Or the Oblivion v1.2.0416 without SI). However, in http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1473775-an-up-to-date-fcom-guide/ thread and the corresponding document, it is optionally recommended to install the Oblivion v1.1.511 patch before installing SI, then install the Shivering Isles v1.2.0416 patch after installing SI. The OP of that thread responded:

Rather than derail that thread, I decided to ask in this one.

With the Oblivion v1.2.0416 patch being 5,216 KB, and the Shivering Isles v1.2.0416 patch being only 1,110 KB, are there any other differences between the two patches, aside from textures (and the launcher)?

(Incidentally, the Oblivion v1.1.511 patch is only 1,601 KB.)

edit: clarification

I asked your question in that thread. I don't know the answer, and I'd like to hear where the info was coming from.

Also, you say you never installed the 1.5 patch before. What version is your game? The bit you quoted would seem to indicate that without 1.5, your launcher should not have the options Low Medium High. Which I have never encountered anyone saying.

I suspect confusion is being introduced where there was clarity before.

Just did a little test:

Installed Oblivion, patch to 1.1.511 - Five buttons for preset video configuration settings (under options on launcher)

Installed Oblivion, patch to 1.2.0416 - Five buttons for preset video configuration settings (under options on launcher)

Installed Oblivion then SI, patch to 1.2.0416 (SI Version) - No preset configuration buttons

It has been a while since I played, and I vaguely recall something about this. However, it was so minor that I dismissed it. (The buttons were never used, anyway)

What interests me is what other differences might exist between the two patches, given the size disparity.

It seems reasonable that textures are absent from the SI 1.2.0416 version, although the Oblivion 1.1.511 patch is not much bigger than the SI 1.2.0416 patch.

Ultimately, this is more of a curiosity than anything, as my game seemed fine with only the SI 1.2.0416. I will most likely add a texture pack to my mod list anyways.

Perhaps this is a case of "you didn't know you needed it, until you had it"

I have another question about the official patch. Since we started a new thread I will ask it here.

TECOSI says to install the 1.2.0416 official patch even if you have GOTY. That seems redundant since GOTY comes with the 1.2.0416 patch.

Does anyone know why TECOSI suggested to install the official patch even if you already have it?

EDIT: I may have answered my own question. From TESCOSI: "The SI v1.2.0416 patch does not patch the original textures BSA or OblivionLauncher.exe"

But as you guys mentioned above, the textures will be replaced if you replace all your textures and the additional buttons in the launcher are not used much anyway, so there seems little reason in worrying about installing the 1.2.0416 patch if you have GOTY.

If you have the GOTY version, then patching is taken care of. If you have the original game disk and the original expansion disks, then you need to follow the patching order.

Perhaps for you it was never used but for anyone with a 5700 series ATI card it is used everytime a change is made to the game or your video card drivers are updated making the game launch the auto detect on launch -- The main reason they added the setting was due to the old NVIDIA FX57xx series video cards which Nvidia had modified some portions of the shader implementation to get better benchmarks -- thing is those shortcuts also resulted in problems in the implementation of some of the shaders used by Oblivion that made the game drop to less than 1FPS in game when in an area that used those shaders (IIRC the refraction shader used by OB gates and also the fires) so Beth came up with the ULTRA LOW setting that disabled those shaders so that the FX series cards could play the game. And all was well until ATI later introduced the 5700 series cards that the games autodetect thought were NVIDIA FX57xx cards based on the auto detect script which causes the game to auto detect those ATI cards as the older Nvidia cards and set the game to ULTRA LOW settings and disables the shaders -- which these new cards do not have problems with but without the presets there is no way to reactivate the shaders (no setting in the ini file for enabling them) so the only way for people with these ATI cards to be able to reset the game to Ultra High and enable the shaders is to use the presets that as mentioned are only in the earlier patch -- thus users like me that have an ATI 5770 have to have the intermediate patch installed to gain access to the preset if we want to play the game at all as the Ultra low default setting completely destroys the graphics making the game unplayable on these cards that actually run the game well on Ultra High with the shaders enabled.

So yeah the intermediate patch is needed if you have an ATI 57xx video card and thus need those presets -- not sure if there are any other differences since I always have used the earlier patch any way !