Oblivion Elder Scrolls; First Impressions

Post by **BongoTrumman** » 30 Mar 2006, 01:47

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?

You can get your current fps shown to you with FRAPS. You can even set it to do a min/max/avg between any time interval you want. You can also record movies. It has some nice features. Give it a try.

neoWidescreen · Post by **neoWidescreen** » 30 Mar 2006, 13:57

You should deffinately be able to get better than that, ...
Youll just have to turn the settings down :(

LOL... that's a great joke... hahaha..... turn my settings down.... :lol: lol.... oh wait, you weren't joking? :?

i'll upgrade before i have to turn settings down. :P although i won't be upgrading unless i decide it's worth *buying* this game

....back to gameplay discussions. :D

Widescreen Guy · Post by **Widescreen Guy** » 30 Mar 2006, 15:02

Why can't i use HDR? I have a X850XT, which can handle HDR just fine. Anyone? I've disabled both Bloom and AA, but the HDR option is still grayed out :?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 30 Mar 2006, 16:59

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:

I tried both methods... the first made text vanish period, the second made it align wrong and the quest arrow on the compass vanish.

I'm chuffed it runs on Win2k, though... :D it'd really piss me off not to be able to play it on my gaming box... ;)

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 30 Mar 2006, 17:32

That's odd ... fov 90 at the console works fine for me ... :?

funch · Post by **funch** » 30 Mar 2006, 20:37

Having been posting much due to this game.

Man, best game I have played in years.

Only thing I wish they had more voice over actors. Seems like theres just 4 actors.

Anyway, Aloha to you haoles.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 30 Mar 2006, 20:39

Maybe that is a problem with Win 2k...? I dunno - and I'm not all that bothered, it runs great. :D

I lost count of the number of hours I lost to Morrowind... I think Oblivion is going to be similar... ;)

Post by **Gilly** » 30 Mar 2006, 23:20

Why can't i use HDR? I have a X850XT, which can handle HDR just fine. Anyone? I've disabled both Bloom and AA, but the HDR option is still grayed out :?

HDR on oblivion will presumably be PS3.0, a standard your card doesnt support. I could be wrong tho :)

IIDX · Post by **IIDX** » 31 Mar 2006, 00:28

Having been posting much due to this game.

Man, best game I have played in years.

Only thing I wish they had more voice over actors. Seems like theres just 4 actors.

Anyway, Aloha to you haoles.

Weird...I don't usually pay attention to those types of things so it might just be me, but I haven't noticed that at all.

kjk437 · Post by **kjk437** » 31 Mar 2006, 02:20

45 hours logged so far. Anyone else?

IIDX · Post by **IIDX** » 31 Mar 2006, 19:47

45 hours logged so far. Anyone else?

I'm around 45 too :D So great. I have barely done any of the main quest too...just closed one gate and did a few quests after.

I've really been liking the dark brotherhood quests, they are really unique and fun, and you get amazing rewards.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 01 Apr 2006, 12:40

Only thing I wish they had more voice over actors. Seems like theres just 4 actors.

Yeah, I've noticed that, too... it seems they spent so much money getting Patrick Stuart and Sean Bean to do VO work that they had to skimp on the rest... I've listened to conversations where three people were talking in a group, and I swear all of them had the same Voice Actor...! :lol: Like having an argument with yourself! :lol:

I've not logged much time on it, yet - about 8 hours. Just not had the time! :cry:

I'm a bit put off with the Arena... I hear the announcer say the exact same thing twenty times, I get pissed off and bored and go away again. I've only just closed the first Oblivion gate - been enjoying wandering around dungeons and killing skeletons and other things... I was pretty lucky, I found a silver sword in pretty short order... very useful against ghosts and other nasties...

IIDX · Post by **IIDX** » 01 Apr 2006, 18:46

I'm a bit put off with the Arena... I hear the announcer say the exact same thing twenty times,

Actually he says something unique about every single battle...he talks about what armor or weapon they are using, or their name or strategy or something...he just says some little unique quip about each guy. I thought it was pretty neat.

I just got to the head of the dark brotherhood and it was a really sweet quest line...all this murdering and 2 plot twists...now I have a source of income as the head of the DB as I can recruit people etc. It's cool.

I'm level 20 now and I'm starting to find some completely sick gear...I also randomly put +9 STR on every single piece of armor I have so that I can carry like 600 weight and I run insanely fast.

Ice[DDZ] · Post by **Ice[DDZ]** » 02 Apr 2006, 06:48

I wanna know why a monster computer like Paddy's can't even run this game at 1920x1200????... What's the sense in upgrading if you can't play oblivion perfect? :roll:

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 02 Apr 2006, 07:57

Yeah ... I get jumps and stutters even at 1920x1200 ... :shock: ... but it is no better if I play at 1440x900 ... :shock:
... the framerates go up but I still get the jumps and stutters ... :?

I think the game-play is great ... but the game has some big problems ... particularly with the medium to distant textures (which are really CRAP) ... and the way the new ones pop/jump in to the scene ... :?
If I turn the view distance down just one notch ... I'm in fog ... what's that all about ? ... :shock: :(
The scenery in Men of Valor was better than this ... and more realistic.

Its a great game but I have now dumped it until they sort it out ... :roll:

Tempus · Post by **Tempus** » 02 Apr 2006, 08:02

I think some of you guys forget how high a 1920X1200 res really is. Most people play at 1024X768 in most games. Supportable resolutions over 1280X1024 are a very recent event and the system demands of a game like Oblivion or FEAR are tremendous and "iffy" at best unless you're running the same system with the same configuration that the designers were running when they built the game. Even console games get framey and jerky at times .

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 02 Apr 2006, 08:12

I get the jumps and stutters even at 1024x768 ... :shock:
and ... EVERY other game I play at 1920x1200 with everything at maximum has none of this ... it is the game ... :|

F.E.A.R. ... runs like a dream at 1920x1200 everything at max ... but it took a patch to get there ... :wink:
Even Far cry's loading of the distance is better looking ... that plays perfect at 1920x1200 everything at max.
Even if I do a few tweaks to massively increase the view distance it still loads better than Oblivion and the distant textures etc. look better than Oblivion with or without that tweak ... and how old is it ?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 02 Apr 2006, 13:43

Actually he says something unique about every single battle...he talks about what armor or weapon they are using, or their name or strategy or something...he just says some little unique quip about each guy. I thought it was pretty neat.

At the start of the match he does... at the end, it's always, "Go now, Victor from the blue team, and rest. You've earned it." I've heard that so many times I'm booooorrrrreeed. :lol:

Unless the US and EU versions are different there...

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 02 Apr 2006, 13:56

With respect to the stuttering you're experiencing, Paddy, I think it might be something to do with Dual Core CPUs... my box is perfect on Oblivion, and while it's not exactly a pile of crap, it's not quite up there with yours. Close though. ;)

As for the distance looking crap, go into the ini file and change a couple of settings... they don't impact performance too greatly on my box, but make the game a whole lot smoother...

These are taken and adapted from Atomic PC Australia's Oblivion Tweaking Guide. Google for it if you want. I'm leaving out things I didn't use, or found to be more of a hindrance than a help. Load times are increased with some of these options...

Code: Select all

fDecalLifetime=1000.0000  (default 10)

   

   iMaxDecalsPerFrame=400  (default 10)

   

   uGridsToLoad = 9   (default 5)

   

   uExterior Cell Buffer=100  (default 36)

   

   iPreloadSizeLimit=104857600 (default 2621440)

   

   bUseWaterReflectionsMisc=1  (default 0)

   

   bUseWaterReflectionsStatics=1 (default 0)

   

   bUseWaterReflectionsTrees=1  (default 0)

   

   bUseWaterReflectionsActors=1  (default 0)

   

   uSurfaceFPS=15     (default 12)

   

   bForceFullLOD=1  (default 0)

   

   iMinGrassSize=130     (default 80)

   

   fGrassEndDistance=9000.0000   (default whatever you set in game)

   

   fGrassStartFadeDistance=8000.0000 (default whatever you set in game)

   

   Allow30Shaders=1  (default 0)

The DecalLifetime and MaxDecalsPerFrame control how much blood etc is left before it vanishes. GridsToLoad and Exterior Cell Buffer mean that the distance looks miles better. PreloadSizeLimit increases the amount preloaded into memory during the first load (from the menu) - it increases load times dramatically if you set it too high. WaterReflections etc improve the look of the water. ForceFullLOD increases how good trees look. MinGrassSize increases performance by not loading the 'tiny' grass textures... it doesn't drop the quality much, and can improve framerate a shedload. Grass...Distance helps stop the 'popup' grass. Allow30Shaders turns on Pixel Shader 3.0 support. Improves performance a little with no drop in quality.

These are the ones I've tweaked, and that improve the look or the performance for me. Each system is different, though, so mileage my vary. ;)

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 02 Apr 2006, 14:25

Thanks mate ... 8)

I think you are right it's a dual core thing ... :(

I have tried all of those tweaks already ...

Using the uGridsToLoad = 9 I get odd reflections in the water ... :?
Even with the ... uNumDepthGrids=3 set at 1 ... which is supposed to help it ... and a strange cut off of the water in a circle around my character ...

Here's a pic ...

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