OBSE and Oldblivion

[Deleted1217574User]

I'm trying to help a friend get started on Oblivion so we can try out the "Oblivion Online" mod (Is that even still active?) But his laptop isn't the best of gaming machines, so I got him Oldblivion. Is it possible to use both Oldblivion and OBSE (and therefore the Stutter Remover) together, even though they both require that they be run from separate .exes?

[Hickory]

I'm trying to help a friend get started on Oblivion so we can try out the "Oblivion Online" mod (Is that even still active?)

 

No, it's a dead mod.

[Deleted1217574User]

I'm trying to help a friend get started on Oblivion so we can try out the "Oblivion Online" mod (Is that even still active?)

 

No, it's a dead mod.

 

Alright, that's what I thought. Does the Beta that's up at least work?

[Sozan]

Is it possible to use both Oldblivion and OBSE (and therefore the Stutter Remover) together, even though they both require that they be run from separate .exes?

Yes it is. You just have to download official Oblivion patch 1.2, unofficial Oldblivion 1.2 and the newest available version of OBSE (don't know if it work on the older ones). Now, install the patch and copy all oldblivion and OBSE files to your oblivion folder. Create a shortcut to obse_loader.exe go into properties of the shortcut and add "-old" (without quotes) at the end of the target field (ex. C:\Program Files\Oblivion\obse_loader.exe -old).

And sorry - I don't know anything about that Oblivion Online mod.

[Hickory]

I'm trying to help a friend get started on Oblivion so we can try out the "Oblivion Online" mod (Is that even still active?)

 

No, it's a dead mod.

 

Alright, that's what I thought. Does the Beta that's up at least work?

 

No, it's a dead mod.

[bben46]

If your system can only run Oldblivion, then it's going to choke with mods. So keep the mods simple, stay away from things like high rez texture packs. Do use streamline. Don't be surprised if it runs with low FPS and crashes a lot. Use something like gamebooster to kill your background processes.

[whateverthefuckever]

When I try to run OBSE with the "old" command argument, the small OBSE black screen pops up, stays for a while, then opens another window saying "Could not load Oldblivion". Why is that? I`ve double checked everything, got the right patch, right OBSE and Oldblivion version. Any ideas?

[slitebg]

Okay, I realize the last post here is from almost a year ago, that the user that posted the last question is banned and that probably noone cares in 2019, but still if there's someone out there with a 'potato PC' like me and is wondering the same as the above poster, namely:

 

Issue:
"When I try to run OBSE with the "old" command argument, the small OBSE black screen pops up, stays for a while, then opens another window saying "Could not load Oldblivion".

 

Solution (kind of):

It's very simple really, it's about following the 'Oldblivion+OBSE' installation instructions to the letter. Meaning you have to put the oldblivion files directly inside your Oblivion folder (where your Oblivion.exe is). There should now be an 'oldblivion.exe', 'config.exe and some other files, in your main folder and as far as I know they don't overwrite anything there at all (which is great and also makes sense).

 

Now, when you've made sure the other files from the oldblivion mod are in their proper place (data/textures and data/meshes etc. CAREFUL they can overwrite other mods' files here), and when the shortcut is properly configured as explained in Sozan's post above, OBSE starts Oblivion with no problem, seems all my mods where working, both texture and most importantly, OBSE based ones.

However, I seem to be getting some weird lag now in-game, not even lag (which is irritatingly still present btw) but everything is kind of in slow-motion. Of course the oldblivion itself seems to be working because the graphics are terrible, but if they work as intended performance wise it would not be an issue. However the mod seems to break my game seriously in ways I didn't expect and now I hope I can uninstall it safely.

 

Last but not least I actually didn't follow the instructions to the letter and did not use the Oblivion.ini provided with the mod since mine is heavily modded already, and the .ini provided, the readme states it's a 'sample' only anyway.

I suspect this mod is what it was labeled all along - a shader fix for older GFX cards who couldn't even use Shader 2.0 (I think). Mine is still old, but seems my lag is due to my ancient single core P4 3.2GHz CPU, not my old GeForce 7950GT, which surely supports Shader 3.0 at least.

Anyway, if someone out there does try this or already did and succeeded using this please share.

EDIT: Had an issue with uber slowdown that was caused by an Oblivion.ini preset and nothing to do with Oldblivion.

Mod is indeed working as intended.

Edited April 17, 2019 by slitebg

[Striker879]

I'm surprised that you are finding your machine is requiring Oldblivion.

 

Back when the game was first released the fastest CPUs were slower than that. In fact Oblivion was one of the "ya, but can it run Oblivion" benchmarks for any new hardware on the CPU/GPU front for years after the game was first released.

 

Your good old P4 has one advantage that newer CPUs don't have ... a nice short execution pipeline with minimal "well let's see if we can just predict what comes next" tom foolery.

 

Such attempts at speeding things up only actually work under two scenarios ... if they are successful in their prediction, or are working on software that is aware and takes advantage of such attempts at prediction. With old software like Oblivion a wrong prediction results in the pipeline needing to be completely flushed and then refilled through as many stages as the pipeline contains (which can take multiple clock cycles) ... all the while any other pipeline that depends on the result of the flushed pipeline's output is left sitting idle, waiting for it's next input.

 

What kind of results do you get with just the vanilla game (no OBSE or mods) on your hardware?

[slitebg]

I'm surprised I actually had a reply to this!

 

I don't really 'require' Oldblivion but I still thought it could bring some more FPS to the table (even at expense of visual quality).

I'm not really competent in the CPU measurements but your description expains it quite well. I'm glad to hear my good 'ol P4 has at least some advantage to modern CPUs hehe :laugh:

Anyway, yes you are correct, vanilla Oblivion without OBSE and my 170+ mods runs okay. Still laggy in some places but definitely playable. It's just that vanilla is unplayable for me without mods, so there's that. Of course the mods seem to drop FPS somewhat.

CLARIFICATION on my above post: Oldblivion seems to run as intended, the uber slowdown was caused by my meddling in the occult (some less known graphics settings in Oblivion.ini). So sorry to blame the mod for my issue there. However, it still didn't help my FPS too much so as I suspected it's not the graphics I can't take but the CPU hit.

Edited April 17, 2019 by slitebg