You guys will have to cut me some slack since I don't play Oblivion very often. I've reinstalled it and have already found myself hard at working trying to squeeze as much performance out of the game as possible. My system isn't too bad...although the single core Pentium 4 processor leaves much to be desired.

I've already put in the usual optimization mods, polygon reducers, reduced grass density, the works. I find most of these mods to just be snake oil remedies, however - providing an additional 2 or 3 frames per second to some users, but not necessarily doing anything groundbreaking to improve performance as a whole. I figured that if there's any one aspect of the base game that can be edited to improve my framerate, it'd be the distant land. Even with the optimized mesh, I feel as if it causes an unrealistic amount of strain on my system. I know that I can and should keep it running, however - whilst Morrowind looks great with the mysterious atmosphere provided by thick fogging and loses much of its intrigue with MGE distant land, Cyrodiil looks much nicer with it on.

So I was wondering, whether through .ini tweaking or a third party program, if there's any way to edit the render distance of the game's distant land? So that instead of, say, being able to see from one end of Cyrodiil the other, I could halve the distance and have my view fully fogged around the Imperial City or so? Can this be done, or is Oblivion's distant land...distance hardcoded? Looking forward to any insight on this.

Streamline should help take care of the endless view issue. See the *Random* section near the bottom of the opening post of the TESIV:POSItive thread (second link in my sig.) You will find a number of performance-related links there. You may find that you have missed some performance-related mods or some of the other optimization methods.

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10400 is what you are looking for. I find that is improves my performance pretty drastically while using RAEVWD and a low grid count. I actually thing it looks better then the vanilla game on top of that, too.

There is a Streamline INI help page on the site too.

It's funny - but earlier today I found myself walking through Cyrodiil with maximum render distances and a steady 25+ FPS, even in combat. I've used Wiseman's Reduced Textures and Operation Optimization with particularly great desire in the past, but when I last played Oblivion I was trudging along at about half the frames and consistently crashing, despite then-using low video settings. Not sure if it's any additional engine stability to be found with Shivering Isles (when I last played, I only had the vanilla game) or what, but everything seems to be running smoothly.

I've taken a look at Streamline, and the dynamic view adjustment based on weather and performance seems to be particularly interesting. I'll have to give it a shot - thanks.

My favorite feature is probably the auto-saving, but the distant fog is cool too. You should look into PyFFI optimization as well.

Streamline INI setup - http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/index.php?page=streamline_ini_setup

Massive bump inbound! I figured I'd repost in this thread since it's kind of relevant:

So, when I first resumed playing Oblivion, I was surprised to have at least 30 frames per second walking around the City Isle. Even in more foliage-dense areas such as Chorrol, I had at least 25 FPS at all times (as previously stated). Now, after many hours of playing, I've noticed a gradual but shocking decline in framerate. It doesn't really go beyond 12 now, regardless of location. Could it be a memory-related issue? My hardware is probably fully intact as I've had no decline in performance for other applications. This is quite frustrating, though.

Aside from the Unique Landscapes replacers, I don't think any of the mods I use would be particularly process intensive:

Oblivion.esmFrancesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esmKvatch Rebuilt.esmTNR ALL RACES FINAL.espTNR - ShiveringIsles no helms.espUnofficial Oblivion Patch.espUOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.espOblivion Citadel Door Fix.espDLCShiveringIsles.espUnofficial Shivering Isles Patch.espBetter_Water-1830.espOscars_Nicer_Grass-3346.espSI Living Economy.espFrancesco's Optional Files.espKvatch Rebuilt.espKnights.espKnights - Unofficial Patch.espxuldarkforest.espxulStendarrValley.espxulTheHeath.espXulEntiusGorge.espxulFallenleafEverglade.espxulColovianHighlands_EV.espxulChorrolHinterland.espxulBeachesOfCyrodiilLostCoast.espxulBravilBarrowfields.espxulLushWoodlands.espxulAncientYews.espxulAncientRedwoods.espxulCloudtopMountains.espxulArriusCreek.espxulPatch_AY_AC.espxulRollingHills_EV_withoutWheat.espxulPantherRiver.espxulRiverEthe.espxulBrenaRiverRavine.espxulImperialIsle.espxulBlackwoodForest.espxulCheydinhalFalls.espxulAspenWood.espxulSkingradOutskirts.espJump_Adjustment-2211.espStolen_Goods_Unlock_Limited-2628.espRenGuardOverhaul.espFrancesco's Slower skills x1.5.espFrancesco's 7 days respawn time - 1-20 day lenght rescale.esp[GFX]_Initial_Glow-all.espStreamline 3.1.esp