Hi all.
Now when first Skyrim trailer is out, is there any fellow member who made his Oblivion game very similar to Skyrim by using graphic mods or tweaks?
If yes, can you please post the mods that you are using, and the settings of those mods (here I think primarily at OBGE).

- from knots - very detailed overview through high resolution texture mods for Oblivion here; also including instructions on how to configure OBGE.
http://knotstheinane.blogspot.com/p/oblivion-modding-guide.html

- from Matthew_Kane - an overview about some interesting graphic/immersion mods
http://matthewkaine.blogspot.com/

{EDIT} And please try to refrain from modded Morrowind is better than modded Oblivion (or vice versa) thread. The idea of this thread is the attempt to find a way how to make Oblivion most similar to Skyrim (graphically)

I think that's impossible because the gamebryo engine is older than the Creation Engine..I think there is no way,really.Btw I think that a modded oblivion has a rly nice graphic even compared to some of "next gen" games;)

Probably I should reformulate the question. Yes, Skyrim has a new engine, but modded Oblivion (particularly OBGE) looks very similar to graphic from Skyrim. I wanted to ask if there is anyone who found settings which would make Oblivion graphic most similar to one in Skyrim.
If yes, can you please post your settings.

Modded Morrowind looks http://i016.radikal.ru/1103/a9/0f6423677ea5.jpg then Skyrim. So, everything is possible.

What texture mods are you using in Morrowind for that screenshot?

It isn't better..mate skyrim is better atm than modded morrowind;maybe modded morrowind is better than oblivion graphics(even if modded)

Modded Oblivion...
[img]http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/547612-1275663406.jpg[/img]
Actually, there is a texture pack called "Oblivion Retexture 2010" by Darooz,
Its resolution is double of Qarl's texture pack, but it's not completed.
I think it's graphic is better than modded Morrowind.
Darooz is working on another texture project for Far Cry, and he deleted his unfinished Oblivion texture from TesNexous for some reason.
If you are interested, I'll upload some screenshot.

Interesting screenshot. Are u using OBGE v2 in it? And what kind of sky texture are you using?

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1114880-rel-vivec-bump-maps/page__hl__vivec


With http://pikucha.ru/i4pjv and without shadows... no, I don't think so. Maybe you have better screens, but that looks bad.

Um, without shadows? You can just go to options and turn shadows on. That screenshot doesn't look bad at all, it is only missing shadows. There are mods to make distant view better as well. No, modded Morrowind does not look better than Skyrim or fully graphical modded Oblivion.

This thread seems to be degenerating into some sort of my modded game is better than yours [censored]fight. Perhaps it might be best if everybody calmed down?

Artorius.

Unlike Morrowind, Oblivion's statics don't cast shadows at all, only characters do that. Anyway, I'm interested in cool Oblivion screenshots and OBGE settings

Artorius, you are right.
This thread was launched with idea to gather solutions which would make possible for players to enjoy in graphic effects, most similar to those in incoming TES V: Skyrim. Please, try to continue on that path.

I've compiled a list of high resolution texture mods for Oblivion here; it also includes instructions on how to configure OBGE. I'd love to know how complete it is:
http://knotstheinane.blogspot.com/p/oblivion-modding-guide.html

I've also done a guide for Morrowind:
http://knotstheinane.blogspot.com/p/morrowind-modding-guide.html

shadeMe is fixing that.

Speaking of modded Morrowind, though, I'm still blown away by http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3811/birdvvardenfell.jpg recently posted in the OBGE thread...

So did someone actually go to the trouble of making a bunch of _far.nifs for Morrowind or is the VWD/LOD using an entirely different method of going about it?

Hohoho. Morrowind Graphics Extender generates distant LOD based on what plugins you have loaded. It's rather handy, so no matter what replacers you are using etc etc it will create distant land to match based on what is in your /data files/ etc! It has a handy little wizard that does it, so every time you change your morrowind install you just have to regenerate distant land and you're done.

It can even generate terrain and statics in varying complexities for performance; so distant land can be every bit as detailed as near land, or it can be lower poly/resolution etc etc. There are also three "levels" of distant land in addition to Morrowind's base draw distance; near, far, and very far, so you can have 'near' distant land be more detailed and 'very far' distant land be only big things like cities or what have you.

Hey, I took that! And it's actually using an old version of MGE!

Can't wait to see what shadeMe comes up with.

Right, that sounds vaguely like what tes4lodgen does. What I was getting at was wondering if the process is entirely automatic or does someone need to create distant view resources first. If making _far.nif files is not necessary at all, then the Holy Grail of LOD has been in front of us all along.

You're right, I never thought of it that way. Just ran MGE's distantland process on a virgin copy of MW to check - no _far.nif's, looks like a different process, might be a different process entirely between MW and OB. Took less than 5 minutes, all automatic. Arthmoor, you should really check out the MGE forum, or what Hrchamd is up to, quite incredible.

Well that's about the coolest thing ever. Which brings the next obvious question up. How hard would such a thing be to accomplish in OBGE? I guess that warrants asking in the OBGE thread.

Sky texture? It's http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7694 combined with http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18801

I didn't use OBGE, I'll try it out.


Sorry, I got you wrong.

I thought it indicates near objects when you mention "graphic", and the "Oblivion Retexture 2010" also enhances near objects textures only.

And yes, Oblivion is weak in distant land. I enhanced it like http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9211/90654703.jpg, but to be honest, I really don't understand what "shadows" you mean.

Perhaps you can post some good Morrowind distant land screenshots?

You should maybe talk to http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/user/467509-vtastek/ - he's a good liason between the two camps.

How so?

EDIT: Oh, I believe Morrowind and Oblivion's engines are different enough that what they're doing with MGE for distant land isn't at all translatable to Oblivion/OBGE.

A modded oblivion is something really nice btw I just think that we should not stress our oblivion too much,let's wait for skyrim and play a very nice modded oblivion

@Knots very nice site,thx mate

That is what I was trying to convey, the process is entirely automatic. MGE doesn't care which tree replacer, which rock replacer, which texture replacers you have installed. It will find them in /textures/ and /meshes/ (or in Morrowind's BSA if you have no replacers) and translate them into low resolution/low poly variants respectively for MGE's distant land. That means that MGE's distant land feature is full compatible with all mods, retextures and mesh replacers forever.

Not quite the same as LODgen.

You might be able to do something similar but I doubt it would be as easy as just porting the function. I think you'd probably find the .dds and .nif reduction algorithms useful, though.

Actually, I've been hoping for an MGE style implementation of distant land for OB for quite a long time. It would, in my head, work the same as Morrowind's; so you'd have to disable the in-game distant LOD for OBGE to use it's own.

Of course, it might be possible to somehow build on TES4LODgen somehow? It would need to be able to scan the /meshes/ and /textures/ folder and then it would need to be able to reduce them for the _far versions. Since MGE does all of this automatically I don't see where it would be impossible.
He's talking about shadows like in http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1912/mgescreenshot17.jpg screen shot. You can see that the statics are casting long shadows because the hour is late. In Oblivion (and Morrowind before MGE XE came along) only 'actors' could cast shadows. 'Actors' are people and monsters. If you play Oblivion, you will notice that buildings, for example, don't have shadows. Trees have 'canopy' shadows, but the method in which they are casting shadows on the ground is somewhat faked.

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8317/mgescreenshot4.jpg is a good example of Morrowind's distant land. In fact, it is an extreme example; for this screen shot, I have generated distant land so that absolutely EVERYTHING (besides actors), even the smallest rocks, will appear even when distant. Indeed, if you look at the Vivec cantons you can see that even the small lanterns affixed to them are being drawn to distant land. Everything you see in this screenshot is distant land, absolutely none of it is being rendered as it would appear near to my character.