So I'm finally getting around to testing new PyFFI'd meshes BSA and my first impression is that it seems to make the game snappier in response time, but that if a crash happens it just happens faster.

And yeah I've got crashes again. Not going to thread that out though as I'm sure I will get to the source eventually.

Anyway - does anyone else also notice that some of the meshes look a bit off. Walls look less detailed. Armor looks muted. Things like that.

For instance this guard in the IC. Granted I'm using EVE, an IC texture replacer, and I think MEAT for the armor - still you can see her helmet looks detailed while the armor looks muted. http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo54/psymon11b/Meshcheck1.jpg

It is not so bad as I'm going to undo anything - just wondering if I'm seeing things that are different or only thinking I am.

What happened to utilizing dual and quad cores. I remember I had settings that really brought up my fps but I can't remember the exact process of optimization again.

Cheers for the patch, I decided to Pyffi the meshes again this time taking extreme care when repacking them into the BSA and the game now at least loads, im going to have go to do some running around the game to see if its stable anyway. Just out of curiosity you wouldnt happen to have any suggestions on where in my load order the patch should go. Also since I replaced the meshes all the save games i've made since then are now coloured purple in Wrye Bash whereas before they were green, is that a problem?

Does BAIN show mismatched texture replacers for those armors. That definitely does not look normal. Check the formIDs of those items too.



Nothing happened. There are not any INI tweaks or anything for Oblivion for taking advantage of multiple cores.


Purple is good, as well as blue. That patch does not conflict with anything as far as I am aware. However, given the nature of the patch, it should probably load after the UOP.

What do you mean mismatched replacers?

A texture replacer is a texture replacer.

Do you mean like I accidentally put cupboard textures into the armor folder? ....C'mon now ... These are replacers (in this case MEAT) that I've used long before PyFFI.

Since I'm planning to repack all my textures BSAs and test for stability with just the optimized meshes I will be taking out all replacers today and will post if I see anything weird looking with vanilla.

Okay great thanks for all your help, hopefully my game will be a lot smoother now

Well, since we're on the topic of PyFFI'd BSAs crashing Oblivion, I thought I'd chime in. I have recently tried many times (and failing) to PyFFI and decompress the meshes.bsa. Just like Trooper described, it would always crash when loading. It was only today when I finally got it working right. Apparently, it had everything to do with the bit flags. OBMM wasn't generating them, and BSA Commander was shoddy at setting them. The solution was to manually enter the bit flags as 00000783 for the archive flags and 00000041 for the file flags in BSA Commander. Only after I did this did the game actually load properly.

I don't know why OBMM doesn't seem to care about bit flags, or why setting flags in BSA Commander doesn't seem to stick, but I'm thinking we might need a new method for creating BSAs.

Tomlong75210, any chance my http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26638 can be added as another alternative to http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/stabilization/outdatedmods

Hey folks,

Firstly my apologies if this has been answered already. Perhaps if it has been answered already, maybe the TESIV:POSItive page could be updated then?

It might seem like common sense, but I want to ask just to clarify and make sure I'm doing things right:

So, I'm at the start of my FCOM install and i'm OMOD'ing my packages. @ FRAN's - The final step of the optional new items/creatures package asks 'do you want to register the bsa in the ini'. My thought would be to say no, seeing as we're going to uninstall after this anyways ... why mess with the ini if we don't need to?

Anyhow, its not clearly stated one way or the other, so I would just like to clarify whether I should say yes or no. And maybe if the answer is yes, perhaps you could enlighten us as to why?

Thanks heaps,
Dodgy Bob


PS - If this does make it to the TESIV:POSItive page as an update, could I ask also that the order of steps for the first FRAN's package be updated too? Its just that I would think it would be more helpful if what is on the site lines up with how the package actually unfolds!! This is the order of things I get using the latest packages of FRAN's (which most people would be using nowadays, correct?):

- yes to SI version
- yes to lyrondor combat behaviour
- yes to mobs
- yes to harcore loot
- yes to living economy -BUT- if you are going to use another economy enhancer then NO
- uncheck ALL in the "which components..." window; and then check
- leveled guards, stronger enemies, stronger bosses, more enemies (normal version), and new items add-on
- DO NOT merge files - keep files separated
- cell respawn to original game default (can be edited via Wrye Bash)
- day length rescale to game default (can be edited via Wrye Bash)
- skill progression to game default (use an alternative skill mod i.e. OblivionXP)
- language to english

Thanks folks

I'll look at your mod tomorrow. If I do not add it to the outdated mods page, I could at least add it to the downloading mods page. The "outdated" mods page is largely for avoiding "bad" stability or performance trade-offs.



Yes. The Fran section definitely needs to be updated (dually noted in the "Redisign" thread) but thank you for pointing out specific muddled points.


I should be a regular against, starting this week. The new site is coming to a landing spot. It is nearing 3AM, and I've just finished moving the old FCOM guide. Things, like usual, have not gone is planned, but the rest of the mod guides will be moved tomorrow. I will also start the first round of editing, gathering the comments from the various threads. I also have about three weeks of Nexus downloads to go through (for updates.) Also, some of the formatting is a bit off after my first quick round of editing, code-side.


http://www.tesivpositive.animolious.com/index.php?page=rlo_database&lo=vegtabill

Hi Tomlong - glad you're going to be back with the new site soon!

I've read some performance optimizations in your site about PyFFI some time ago.
Now I have been using another method with PyFFI.
If you consider it useful to put it on the site I'd be glad to share my ideas it with you.

Thanks for working on the site. It is one of the best guides I've come across for a long time!

Share away! I feel like I have been out of the loop for quite a while, anyway. Due to other plans that I kind of need to attend, the edit/update round I will be doing tonight has to be fairly straight-forward. In other words, the more specific the feedback, the more likely I may act on it tonight and tomorrow. (Note: Fran section of the FCOM guide will definitely be updated. I may even do that on my lunch break.)

Just one (tiny) niggle, about the System Requirements page there - for the "Modded Oblivion (Good)" and "Modded Oblivion (Great)" you recommend a 2.8GHz Core2Duo, and a 2.66GHz quad core CPU, respectively. Thing is, that 2.66 quad could be, say, a [C2Q] Q8400 (ugh), or an i5 750, for example. Not to mention whatever AMD quads (old or new) might run at that clock speed by default. In the case of the Q8400, you'd be better off with your recommendation for the less demanding setup (i.e., a C2D at a higher clock speed) because of Oblivion's almost complete "disregard" for multiple cores, or so it would seem.

As I said, it's a trifling detail, really. But hey, thought you might want to fix it anyway.


edit: A good representation of Intel and AMD CPUs would be good, as well as Nvidia and ATI graphics cards of at least the three most recent "generations". Ideally...

I have to add a lot more information to the hardware pages. I just wanted to get the base pages up there. However, the C2Qs were not on my mind when I wrote that. The i5-750 is awesome, however, and would definitely outperform a 2.8GHz or Core2Duo. I have a 3.16GHz (stock speed) Core2Duo, and I will be upgrading to the i5-750 this summer. Although Oblivion ignores the other cores, your system does not, and Oblivion is not ever the only process running. Plus, the newer architecture at the "same level" per-say offer better performance. The hertz definitely do not tell the full story. Anyway, I would put up info on the latest families, but there are already some convenient Intel pages that I can link to supplement that information. Hmmm...I guess I should be more specific with the quad core though, as they are definitely not all equal.

What AMD quad that you would put in a gaming machine runs at 2.66GHz stock, haha? Yeah...I will have to put up different numbers for the AMD processors.


Thank you for the input.
- Tomlong75210

Hey, that's nice!
I've been posting on the PyFFI thread and the reasons for this are explained there.

• Unpack Oblivion - Meshes.bsa to e:\optimized
  
• Copy e:\optimized\meshes\characters folder to a safe place outside e:\optimized
  
• python.exe scripts\niftoaster.py --jobs=4 --noninteractive --skip="helmet hood nightmotherstatuebase roothavok" optimize e:\optimized > e:\optimized\PyFFI_log.txt
  
• python.exe scripts\niftoaster.py --jobs=4 --noninteractive --only=_far modify_makefarnif --exclude=NiSourceTexture e:\optimized > e:\optimized\PyFFI_log_far.txt
  
• Copy original "characters" folder to e:\optimized\meshes (this restores the original "characters" folder, along with hairs and other things PyFFI should not touch).
  
• Pack e:\optimized directory to bsa.

This method does give a few false positives. The helmet_gnd.nif files can be optimized without harm. If you want to do them, after step 3. then do this:

• python.exe scripts\niftoaster.py --jobs=4 --noninteractive --only="helmet_gnd" optimize e:\optimized >> e:\optimized\PyFFI_log.txt

Don't forget the logs - if you don't want to pack them into the bsa just delete them. Compressing them with 7z reduces file size immensely since it's text.

All true, except that quad core CPUs really don't do anything at all for Oblivion, even if a few things are happening in the background - that's where a dual core will be quite enough (the game is that old, yep).

Still, I think the i5 would probably walk all over my CPU (an e8400 @ ~4GHz) , if it was also overclocked a bit perhaps. Somewhere between 3.2 and 3.6, would be my guess. Because of, as you say, superior architecture. Hz ain't Hz, iow. More or less my point before, actually

I'll have to track down some benchmarks for Oblivion with (hopefully) a wide range of CPUs, including new ones, like the i5, i7 and Phenom II ranges. Unless you do first, of course. :ninja:

Regardless, I still think your website is one of the best out there, for Oblivion. And, so long as you don't mind, I'll probably keep posting links to it, nearly every time I visit here.

I agree with you. (I just rearticulated it your one spec does not say all thingy, I guess. I am seriously lacking sleep right now, haha.) For Oblivion, the "good" and "great" modifiers do not make much of a difference, at least when you are overclocking your Duo . I have been all over the benchmark charts. One of my hobbies is checking up on those sorts of things. The information is in my head, I just need to put it to paper. I will add links to the sites I use and articles that are particularly informative as I run across then. Well, when the site is at a point where I can make casual updates. Only a couple of the RRs ("Related Resources") are tagged at this point, so most of them do not show up anywhere on the site yet.

Man, I love my Duos. Now, (since I made a slight upgrade last summer) we have an E8400 (in my sister's, my old, machine) and an E8500 (in my machine) running. Great processors, there.


Edit: I want to try overclocking (for the first time) this summer. I am not interested in doing anything crazy. I just want my Lynnefield to run near 3.0GHz as the Duos do.

Woah! Good catch. I have to make special note of this one. Geez... I think I got it right on the Popular Outdated Mods page. I'll check that page too. Thanks.

I like the old color scheme a lot better. Much easier on the eyes. B)

Yay, another blue fan. ^___^ Do not worry. I love blue-green too much to not create a scheme that uses those colors. I will not worry about alternate color schemes until I get that user setting code running, however. The white took some time for me to get used to too. It was a little to bright for me. I asked "my designer" to use off-white, at least for the page background. Making a color scheme with some of the old colors should not be difficult once the new skin is in place. The physical layout of the site will be changed a bit once the new skin is applied because I want to have nav bars, and I will not bother making structural changes until I see it. That would be a nice chunk of time kicked to the can. I could script a quick toggle function for a darker layout if "my designer" does not look like she is going to move on the project this week. We'll see...


Thanks for the feedback!
- Tomlong75210

No problem. I can still get to the old site for now.

FYI: I am planning on killing that site. ^____^ It will be a while though, but I can create a similar color scheme for the new site. It is just a few hex numbers (once I verify that I did not lose my mind and include color changes outside of the main CSS file.)

The color scheme option sounds nice!
By the way, your "Install Guide for Aesthetic Overhauling" was very helpful along with CorePCs install instructions for "Vibrant Textures". I'm going to try an alternative to QTP3 using:

-- 122 - ==UNOFFICIAL PATCHES==.7z (00000000) (Not Installed)
++ 123 - SM_Plugin_Refurbish_1-30-11474.zip (0E9AD5B7) (Installed)
++ 124 - Unofficial_Oblivion_Patch_v3_2_5_BAIN-PyFFI-5296.7z (5A141D1E) (Installed)
++ 125 - UOP_Supplemental_v326-PyFFI-27710.7z (2687631A) (Installed)
++ 126 - Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch v1_4_0-BAIN-PyFFI-10739.7z (7714582E) (Installed)
++ 127 - Unofficial_Official_Mods_Patch_v15_BAIN-PyFFI-9969.7z (E639FE77) (Installed)

-- 153 - ==CITY & WORLD AESTHETICS==.7z (00000000) (Not Installed)
++ 154 - AliveWaters-BF1-2-BAIN-PyFFI-6914.7z (540C6DB3) (Installed)
++ 155 - Ambient_Town_Sounds_Edited_1dot0-BAIN-Cln-14344.7z (BC7AE925) (Installed)
++ 156 - ArenaAlive24HrV2-PyFFI-13099.7z (0287DA55) (Installed)
++ 157 - Better_Cities_4-5-2b-16513.7z (1FA1466D) (Installed)
++ 158 - Better Cities Resources BSA 4.5.2.7z (ECBBC52B) (Installed)
++ 161 - Cities_Alive_At_Night-11434.rar (5DAB7953) (Installed)
++ 162 - Clocks_of_Cyrodiil_v1.0-Compatible.7z (85653720) (Installed)
++ 164 - ImprovedSignsComplete-PyFFI-9498.7z (567F525A) (Installed)
++ 165 - More_Immersive_Sound_Edited_1dot0-BAIN-Cln-19038.7z (CD21F5D1) (Installed)
++ 166 - New_Roads_and_Bridges_v455-20218.7z (7C90B004) (Installed)
++ 167 - Oblivion_Stereo_Sound_Overhaul-5861.7z (F9CD7730) (Installed)
++ 168 - Phinix Waterfix v1.2-BAIN-6680.7z (EB81B13A) (Installed)

++ 169 - Optimised_Distant_Land_MAX_1_1-PyFFI-15278.7z (96437F88) (Installed)
++ 170 - Bomrets_Detailed_Normal_Maps_for_Vanilla_Version_1_1-18430.7z (93950EE6) (Installed)
++ 171 - RPG-BlackDragons_LowTriPolyGrass-12280.7z (99959C68) (Installed)
++ 172 - Harvest_Flora_v3_0_1-BAIN-Cln-2037.7z (0927C486) (Installed)
++ 173 - Vibrant_Textures-18677.7z (3ED4F125) (Installed)
++ 174 - Vibrant_Textures_Architecture-18677.7z (ECEE6591) (Installed)
++ 175 - Vibrant_Textures_Clutter_and_More-18677.7z (1893A8F1) (Installed)
++ 176 - Vibrant_DistantLOD-18677.7z (78CF45A4) (Installed)
-- 177 - Vibrant_DistantLOD-2048--18677.7z (712515A4) (Not Installed)
++ 178 - Vibrant_Distant_Normal_1-31-18677.7z (1FED75BE) (Installed)
++ 179 - Vibrant_Grain_Filter-18677.7z (A5754A9C) (Installed)
++ 180 - Vibrant_Textures_Oblivion_Realms-18677.7z (C845F6A4) (Installed)
++ 181 - Vibrant_Weather_Textures_1-3-18677.7z (2FD1A557) (Installed)
-- 182 - Vibrant Textures156.7z (521CD6DC) (Not Installed)
++ 183 - AWLS_-_Meshes_v5-1-9-PyFFI-19628.7z (5D084966) (Installed)
++ 184 - AWLS_-_Brumbek_Mixed_Textures_v5-1-2-19628.7z (0D97C8A1) (Installed)
++ 185 - Harvest_Containers-3979.7z (60E9CF7F) (Installed)
++ 186 - Koldorns_Cave_Textures_2_v1_1-BAIN-9208.7z (C8AB3440) (Installed)
++ 187 - Koldorns_Sewer_Textures_2_v1_1-BAIN-PyFFI-9080.7z (320B28B0) (Installed)
++ 189 - Landscape_LOD_Normalmap_Fix__MipMap_Fix-5217.rar (B67D6409) (Installed)
++ 190 - RAEVWD_v1_7-BAIN-PyFFI-20053.7z (F507D0EC) (Installed)

Then I want to add Ampolex's Mods (AMP, ATP).
Do you think Optimised_Distant_Land_MAX_1_1 should be after Bomrets_Detailed_Normal_Maps_for_Vanilla_Version_1_1? Assuming that Bomrets is taking the place of QTP3.

Unlike QTP3, Bomret's mods only replace textures. Optimized Distant Land MAX will not touch Bomret's Normal Maps mod. There is no reason to use that mod's texture component. I have only ever used the main mod, the optimized mesh replacer. That should be quite a different experience. If you look at My BAIN Package List you will see that I have Optimized Distant Land MAX placed very early.


Happy gaming!
- Tomlong75210


Edit: Optimised Distant Land MAX is at spot 277: http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/index.php?page=my_bain_package_list That list really needs color. I will put that on my TODO list. ^___^

Opps! :facepalm: Good point.

? your are comparing Optimized Distant Land MAX to ?

Sorry, couldn't resist. :rofl: