Oblivion Elder Scrolls; First Impressions

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 27 Mar 2006, 22:33

Ive turned up the tree distance and grass distance up to full (move the slider in the video menu all the way to the right).

It loads the entire area (the "loading area" text) instead of constantly loading whats ahead of you. It seems to take the load off the cpu, and so long as your graphics card can cope with the on screen objects, it runs VERY smooth!

My computer used to struggle loading everything as i ran forward (especially when on a horse) but now its smooth with everything at max, with HDR on.

Ive got some screenshots ill post now...

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 27 Mar 2006, 22:34

[quote]For anyone having problems with low framerates and lots of stuttering in the woods... try turning up the tree and distance (i know, sounds odd :)). Seems to access the hard drive less, and therefore the game runs a neck of a lot smoother for me. Of course you need a graphics card that can cope with it ;)

Defragging your hd could help with the stuttering problem outside. Since it loads the world "on the fly" it is important that the location of the files are optimized to decrease read times.

Yeah, people with RAID setups should notice it less, but setting everything at max really does help, and makes sense too, as everything gets loaded into the RAM.

IIDX · Post by **IIDX** » 27 Mar 2006, 22:44

I wish us 360 users got a few things we could tweak here and there...maybe turn down a setting here in exchange for a bit of boost there...oh well, it still runs decently well.

Post by **BongoTrumman** » 27 Mar 2006, 22:46

Yeah, people with RAID setups should notice it less, but setting everything at max really does help, and makes sense too, as everything gets loaded into the RAM.

Regular users with no raid should notice a little better performance too. It wonÃ‚Â´t be perfect smooth but I think it will help a bit. When you were talking about it loads everything in the RAM what data did you mean. Yes it loads the data into the ram and gfx ram but it will have to read it from the disk and into the ram as it canÃ‚Â´t hold the entire game in the ram so defragging should help on the fly loading. Or where you refering to something else with the ram?

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 27 Mar 2006, 22:52

It appears to me that the game is split into a series of areas, as as you walk, youll notice the "loading area" text.

I think if you set the tree distance to full, it loads the tree position, aswell as details of all the objects too, and the positions of the grass, and grass types, into memory as you enter the area.

If you have these details on low, if only loads them as you get nearer them, hence they appear from nowhere, but the game stutters more, as its loading these details from the disk.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 27 Mar 2006, 23:09

Ok, here are some screenshots ive taken with FRAPS, all the framerates are visible. Ive only taken shots at high detail levels, and i havent turned the textures or view distance down (or the distant land, trees or buildings) in any setting. Note these are not running on my normal X2 4200 but on a 3200+ Winchester. Id imagine id get better performance with the 4200 but until i get the dual core problems on NFS sorted im sticking with this :)

Screenshots in the Woods
(HDR, 1920X1200, Everything maxed)
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-02-32.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-07-40.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-11-98.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-28-50.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-28-39-12.jpg

HDR VS Bloom +AA
Screenshots from Anvil Dock
(All taken at 1920x1200 with everything maxed)

Bloom + 2x AA:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-41-47-43.jpg

Bloom + 4x AA:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-41-47-43.jpg

HDR no AA:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-43-02-42.jpg

Personally, i prefer the HDR over the AA, i had a run around with both on and the performance seemed about the same, but i really do like the HDT lighting effects in this game.

Detail comparison:

Towns seem to take quite a hit when object distance is high. Here is a comparison taken in Anvil town.

Everything Maxed:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-47-09-89.jpg

Object distance and shadows lowered:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-48-10-10.jpg[/b]

PCMusicGuy · Post by **PCMusicGuy** » 28 Mar 2006, 02:16

For those that cannot play without AA, it is possible to tweak the Bloom settings in the .ini file so that it looks nearly ientical to HDR. Nice captures btw.

Post by **ctrlsteef** » 28 Mar 2006, 07:42

I've tried it with AA now. I get about 20fps in the woods with 2x aa and the rest at max.
I prefer HDR though and don't really bother about the small jaggies.
I get way better performance with aa off, hdr on and the rest maxed so i'm sticking with that.

Then there is another thing. Do any of you guys have these crappy shadows on the characters? (yourself, guards, citizens, horses)
I have these really weird bands of shadow instead of nice soft shadows. :?

Post by **BongoTrumman** » 28 Mar 2006, 13:11

framerateuk, I get it now. Interesting. Thanks.

PCMusicGuy, share.

BoJangles · Post by **BoJangles** » 28 Mar 2006, 13:19

Yeah I have those shadows too, as does a friend of mine with an old 9800 256

Post by **ctrlsteef** » 28 Mar 2006, 13:19

Do you also have an Ati card? I'm under the impression it's an Ati problem.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 28 Mar 2006, 21:48

I havent noticed any bad shadows on mine. But if you put self shadow on, theres an irritating shadow that covers peoples faces when you talk to them!

Witkin · Post by **Witkin** » 29 Mar 2006, 13:40

I havent noticed any bad shadows on mine. But if you put self shadow on, theres an irritating shadow that covers peoples faces when you talk to them!

I have the exact same problem. At first, I thought it was the lack of power in my 7800GTX 256mb card, but since you're running a X1900 card, it has to be a software issue. Hopefully, we'll be getting a patch to cover that.

neoWidescreen · Post by **neoWidescreen** » 29 Mar 2006, 15:09

ok... i admit i obtained a pirate copy of oblivion -- not because i want to play it (RPG's aint my thing) but because i wanted to see what all you guys are raving on about.

The graphics do look fantastic, but it makes my system obsolete. My P4 3.2GHz w/ HT, 2GB RAM, 6800GT 256MB was fine most games - even FEAR - but Oblivion PUNISHES my computer. :?

I am in the first dungeon (i just want to get out an see what the externals look like)... and my frame rate is probably 10-15fps. I've turned off bloom/hdr, dropped the resolution back to 1024x768 (which looks like crap on a 2405 btw. :P ), no shadows.... and it's still bad. It seems the AI is causing the grind.

Any suggestions on improving the speed... or does it require a 7900GT?

btw, this game doesn't look that bad... it's almost a fps... i might even buy it. providing piracy isn't all bad. ;)

Post by **ctrlsteef** » 29 Mar 2006, 15:12

Well, if it's the AI that causes the low fps you shoud get a new proc.
But i can hardly imagine a 3.2 gig can't handle Oblivions AI calculations.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 29 Mar 2006, 18:04

You should deffinately be able to get better than that, i got the game running smooth on my Centrino 2.0 laptop (at 800x600 though) with a 9700 card.

Youll just have to turn the settings down :(

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 29 Mar 2006, 22:17

Two things I've noticed since getting to my X1900 box and testing out Oblivion on it...

1) Despite what it says, Oblivion installs and runs without issues on Windows 2000.

2) Changing the FOV messes up the text alignment and the quest arrow on the compass.

That's all for now... must get back to playing Oblivion... ;)

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 29 Mar 2006, 23:02

Are you changing the fov in the cfg ? ... as I found that messes things up too but if you change the FOV in the console its ok ... type ... fov 90 ... or whatever FOV you want.
One problem though ... you have to re-enter this if you change the view to 3rd person and back again or reload/restart.
When in 3rd person use your mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out ... just in case you didn know ... :wink:

IIDX · Post by **IIDX** » 29 Mar 2006, 23:11

So...back to gameplay discussion :P

My guy is like a crazy powerhouse now...he was pretty weak at first being a thief, stealthy type guy, but I'm level 17 now and the loot tables are great.

I stuck a bunch of random +6 str enchants on all of my equipment and light armor doesn't encumber me anymore, so I can hold tons. I also have my agility at 102 constantly and have a ton of amazing sneaking gear from dark brotherhood quests (which are insanely cool by the way, even if you are a bigass orc that can't sneak worth a damn, do these quests!)

I'm also becoming rich which is nice...I have the dreadmere (or something like that) evil horse and I own a dumpy little shack in the imperial city :D

tomservo6 · Post by **tomservo6** » 30 Mar 2006, 01:26

OK. A couple of stupid questions. I am way behind in playing games; I'm still working on Morrowind and want to finish it before I get into Oblivion. However, I installed Oblivion to see how my rig could handle it. It detected Ultra High settings when it loaded but that, of course, wasn't at the 1680x1050 res that my monitor is.
So is there a way to do the autodetect again after you pick the resolution? I'm pretty sure that it can't handle Ultra High at that resolution.

Also, how are you people getting accurate fps readings? Is there a console setting that I'm overlooking or something or are you just guessing?

Finally, I'm tired of having to restart every time I change a setting. Can anyone recommend settings that would give me decent fps (30) in both in and outdoors considering my graphics card? I'd probably trade off a little bit of resolution size for quality if the quality totally sucks at that res.

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