Striker879

From my understanding of the Anthology version you need Steam to activate any of the games it includes ... even ones that predate Steam's existence. I was an old Half Life/Team Fortress Classic player (from way back when you bought disks and used the included CD keys to install). I'm the type who owns more copies of games I like than I have machines to put them on ... I like to have backup disks. Granted I normally waited until the games I wanted extra copies of were deeply discounted, but still I've always been a supporter of games I like. When Valve created Steam they put Half Life under it's "protection" and I could no longer get updates without a Steam account. To run Steam I needed to disable my antivirus software but still needed to maintain my internet connection. Went through a number of messages back and forth with Steam Support about this. I wasn't left with a good taste in my mouth ... they have received zero dollars from me since. Unfortunately Valve/Steam's vision of world domination has come true. In a way I've gained by that ... the last game purchases I've made are my extra copies of Oblivion GotY and some Oblivion DLC disks I was able to find on a discount rack. Because I don't run any more recent games I haven't really required any hardware upgrades (my systems are always built as gaming machines). Saves me money on the games I don't need to buy, saves me money on the computer hardware/operating systems I don't need to run the games I don't have. Works out for the retired guy ... sucks for the computer industry. Laptops are the pits for maintaining ... they are designed to be just another disposable bunch of plastic and metal. You could get that CD/DVD drive replaced but it would cost you most of what you'd pay for a new laptop (all be it not a new gaming laptop ... but that's a whole 'nuther rant I could get on). Something dies on my desktop and it's a simple open the case and replace the part (which is why I'm running the video card I'm running ... it was bought way back for use in a SLI for my next computer and got pushed into service on this one when it went through the death of a couple of video cards). External CD/DVD drives aren't the fastest, but then again CD/DVD drives in general are about the slowest piece on any computer. As far as I know the game (once installed) will only need to do it's startup disk check so the external shouldn't be a slowdown issue during gameplay. You will need to connect the external drive every time you want to play however.

No you're OK with having it posted here (it could have gone into Oblivion Technical Support, but with so little traffic on the Oblivion Forums these days any who look to give a hand are used to looking at all and any posts). The 4GB patch is to allow the game to use more RAM than it was originally designed to use. This game was designed back in the 32 bit OS days, so will only use a little less than 2GB of RAM even on a 64 bit OS with 4GB RAM or more. Using the 4GB patch when you only have 2GB RAM doesn't make any sense as the game is by default using all of the RAM that the OS will allow. If you want to do something to help in that area you need to shut down everything you can before starting the game (so no browser etc. left running when you start the game). I know that plenty of people have had problems after upgrading to Win10 (but just as many or more have the game running on Win10 without issues). I personally will never have any Microsoft OS after Win 7 on any machine I build so to be honest I've spent very little time learning anything about Win10. The only thing I can think to suggest is to force the game to build a new Oblivion.ini and then immediately turn all the settings to minimum. To force a new INI just rename the file Oblivion.ini (found in Users\[username]\ Documents\My Games\Oblivion ... NOT Oblivion_Default.ini found in the Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion folder). I usually change the name to Oblivionini.old, but you will get the OS squawking about changing the file extension ... OblivionBU.ini would work equally as well (the key is that the name is no longer Oblivion.ini). Start the game and it will build a new Oblivion.ini using default values based on what it finds for hardware (and at that point it is usually lost because none of today's hardware existed in 2006 so it will give you fairly low settings for screen resolution etc). Exit to the desktop and then restart the game and change all the sliders to minimum (but stick with your screen's native resolution ... it actually puts more strain on the system to display less than your native resolution than it does to display the resolution your screen was designed for). If you have a save from before exiting the sewers then you won't need to run through the entire tutorial to get outside ... otherwise remember to make a save in a new slot just before you exit this time. Then as soon as you exit make another new slot save (which will be your starting point save once you start testing raising the settings and eventually start adding mods).

I'm not seeing anything about graphics in that dxDiag report, but the CPU will be marginal lower end for the game, and like my old desktop your 2GB RAM isn't helping you at all. It's an old game, unable to take advantage of modern multi-core processors, and with the RAM bottleneck you're snookered for using tricks like the 4GB patch to get the game to at least use some of what your 64 bit OS can deliver. For a frame of reference, I'm running an old 3.0 GHz Core2 Duo, 2GB RAM and an nVidia GTX 275 with 896MB VRAM and I don't have all the sliders maxed. Been quite a while since I looked but I do remember doing a lot of "try this and then test" to find a sort of sweet spot. If you aren't running a dedicated graphics card your CPU and RAM are doing double duty (so you're taking a marginal situation and pushing it past marginal by asking too much of the very hardware that is part of the bottleneck). Make a save outside of the sewer on minimal settings and then roll up the sleeves on your "testing shirt", put on a pot of coffee and have at it. - Edit - ... and to MrMayhem's point ... that save outside the sewer should be pure vanilla Oblivion. Get the base game running how you want and then add ONE mod at a time. Once you have a reasonable set of settings that work for vanilla you'll be able to tell which mod brought you down to a crawl or worse.

I'm an old Windows XP dinosaur myself, so this may or may not be something that newer versions of Windows has, but I use Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Device manager. Look at Display Adapters to find out which video card and Processors to find out which CPU. I build my own desktops so I have a very good idea of what components I have (well I used to build my own desktops back before I retired, now I mostly try to save enough money to build my next desktop). I've never used them myself, but there are utilities you can download such as Belarc Adviser 8.5.3.0 (overkill for what you need) or perhaps FreeSysInfo 1.5.4 or FuturemarkSystemInfo 4.45, all available as free downloads at MajorGeeks: System Info Tools. If it's a loaner machine from a school I doubt it'll turn out to be much of a gaming box. Probably pretty slow CPU and little RAM along with the Intel graphics (that isn't really a graphics chip ... it just routes things to use your CPU and RAM).

If you're talking about the options when building a bashed patch I've always used the default selections myself (but my mod list, while not all that short, isn't filled with difficult to resolve conflicting type mods). My understanding is that the bashed patch will be a combination of the records marked with bashed tags, those records that need to be in the bashed patch based on the selections that are ticked in the dialogue that pops up when you build it and any other conflicts that WB finds ... and that load order is how it determines which record will win a conflict, be it two or more mods using the same bashed tags, multiple mods having records that are covered by the BP dialogue selections, or other conflicts it finds. That is why it is so important to run BOSS and then rebuild the bashed patch. Set Wrye Bash up so that you run BOSS from within WB and set it to lock the load order or be sure to turn off lock load order if you prefer to run BOSS from outside of WB (otherwise Wrye will mess up the desktop run BOSS load order as soon as you start it ... simplest way is run BOSS from the button down near the bottom of the WB window).

Gamer ... just download the top listed download on this page to a folder and extract it to that same folder. You will now have a file named obmm_setup.exe ... just double left mouse click on it and it will run. Providing you installed the game Oblivion before you run obmm_setup.exe it will find your game install and install OBMM exactly where it needs to be installed. It doesn't matter where you download and extract the "obmm 1_1_12 full installer" download to ... if the game Oblivion is installed on that same computer it will find it and take care of installing itself. If you are missing any of the required things like .NET 2.0 it will tell you and offer to download it for you. @PixeledGuy ... do not hijack GamerSince1992's thread, start your own thread.

I think it would depend on what made the Mayu mod incompatible with Roberts v3. The differences between Roberts v3 and Roberts v52 are mainly in refining the body meshes and textures. A tool that's useful for seeing what conflicts mods may have between one another is TES4Edit, You just load the mods you want to compare and the colour coding in the different sections will show where they conflict and how.

You've got it.

No, what I meant is you need to install Oblivion first, then when you install OBMM it will find the registry entries that Oblivion creates when you install it and find the proper folders to install itself. Use the installer version of OBMM unless you are an expert and know exactly what files go in what folders, and what prerequisites are needed and how to install those (as outlined in the OBMM mod description).

Almost everything I know about Wrye Bash I've learned from the two readmes ... Wrye Bash General Readme.html and Wrye Bash Advanced Readme.html (both found in the Oblivion\Mopy\Docs folder). So are you saying that you already used BOSS to sort that load order? My guess (and it's only a guess) is that your problem is mod conflict and WB alone will not be able to resolve that without BOSS's help. WB uses a combination of bashed tags and load order to resolve conflicts (which all go into the bashed patch, which is why it needs to go at the end of your load order). On a side note, anything in your load order that is after the bashed patch is ignored by WB (hence the reason that Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul.esp must go after the bashed patch to work).

Good thing you did your own detective work on that ... I'm a total non-Steamer (some would even go as far as to call me an anti-Steamer). The source I used when first learning how to get the game set up was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Tweak Guide at TweakGuides. I suggest you don't do any of the Oblivion.ini tweaking until after you get the game to run stable with only the settings adjustments found on the Video Options menu sliders. The key to troubleshooting is only change a single thing at a time once you get the game running and are looking for how high you can get the settings. When you find something that starts to create problems you can either back it off a little or if it's something you'd really like to get better then you'll have a very specific question to post. What specific hardware are you running?

Oblivion ... this is the Oblivion Forums after all (Oblivion Mod Troubleshooting to be exact).

Use BOSS to sort your load order and Wrye Bash to build a bashed patch.

It installs to the same folder as you find Oblivion.exe ... by default in the Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion folder. You do need to have the game installed first and then it should find the correct folder when you run the installer version (extract the ZIP file and run obmm_setup.exe).

The tutorial dungeon doesn't put much strain on your system, but once you step out that door look out. I'd advise to lower your setting a bunch just before you exit and then gradually raise them up until you are either maxed or run into problems. Often systems (even desktops) don't have a dedicated graphics card (and the Intel graphics don't perform well with this old game ... can be done, you just need to find out how much it an handle). Also note that adding mods while in the tutorial dungeon is a sure fire way to set yourself up for frustration. Exit the sewer and make a save. Then start adding mods one at a time. When you run into problems it will be trivial to figure out where to start troubleshooting (whereas when you add 50 mods and then the game won't even start you have a plate of spaghetti to try to sort out).

I also have used Oblivion Music Overdose for quite a while (and have loved it). Recently I learned about Oblivion Symphonic Variations Music Suite and have been using it for that past month or so along with Overdose. With Overdose I quickly got to the point where I couldn't be certain if a track was vanilla or Overdose (they follow the original music style that closely in my opinion). The Symphonic Variations doesn't quite meet that standard for blending in with the vanilla, but is still quite similar in style and is quality work. The other thing I learned about from the Variations mod description and use is Silent Tracks Expanded, another fine addition that adds more than you'd first expect. - Edit - Forgot to mention another important part of the music equation ... Trifle. I mainly only use the music control part of it and have it set so that the combat tracks don't end immediately when combat ends (so you hear the combat track that is currently playing until it ends) and have the distance set to quite close before the combat track starts (so you don't get that "prewarning" that an enemy is nearby).

Answered in the Oblivion Character Overhaul v2 mod comments.

I believe that's how Maskars Oblivion Overhaul works, and then it has a system that only allows you to use equipment you are qualified to use (a feature that can be turned off in the INI, along with most everything else in the overhaul). It may be more than you care to have in your game, but you could have a look at how Maskar accomplishes the task.

Sorry ... you're asking stuff way above my pay grade there. I only started using the base COBL for this character as some of the mods I wanted to use had extra content that required COBL. My guy has even studiously avoided "the luggage". I've sampled the new brews, tried some of the new foods, use the sorter as a regular container, haven't ground up a thing in the grinder. Guess I'm about one half step removed from a vanilla guy.

I use COBL without any of the race related stuff alongside OCO v2 without issue.

Lanceor moved on to other things.

I don't have a very capable machine myself (an old Core2 Duo 3Ghz CPU is plenty good for the game, but 2GB RAM and only 896MB VRAM on my video card) so I tend to stay within the limitations that come with that. What that means is I stay away from the large scale "beautify all of Tamriel" type mods and stick with some that only improve certain aspects of the game. For characters and NPCs I use Oblivion Character Overhaul v2 along with RobertMaleBodyReplacerV52 and EVE HGEC Eyecandy Variants Expansion for females, but neither of those are required for OCO v2 (it will work just fine with the vanilla bodies). Read through the mod comments and you'll avoid most of the common problems with installation. If you do want to beautify all of the game the current state of the art is Oblivion Reloaded - OBGE v4. I'm told my machine could probably handle it (if you can use that as any sort of a gauge) but I'll wait until I get around to building a new computer (I'm retired so I have time, just not money). It is highly configurable, which also makes it more complicated to understand ... be prepared for plenty of reading readmes and manuals, and lots of trial and error while figuring out all of it's ins and outs. The DarNied you were looking at earlier is for the game menus and stuff like that. I personally don't have any huge issues with the vanilla interface, but I haven't had any hands on with any of the interface replacers so perhaps I don't know what I don't know. I do use HUD Status Bars but that's just to make it easier for me to keep track of some gameplay things added by some of the mods I use (hunger, thirst, diseases etc). The key point to keep in mind when installing mods is to work slowly (i.e. one at a time) and test thoroughly in between. That way troubleshooting is easier and you'll get a good feel for how each mod affects how the game runs and plays.

I think what Oblivionaddicted may have been referring to is make your own using NifSkope. For it to useful the mesh needs to have separate parts (as opposed to all one connected mesh). Just be sure to use "Remove Branch" for removing the parts you don't want (and I always work on a copy of the mesh in a non-game related folder, usually a subfolder of where I downloaded the source mod).

Now that I look at the BPA and RF INIs I see that all that I've coordinated between them is jump_min and jump_max along with walk_min and walk_max (down near the bottom of each INI ... mine are 64 and 164 for the jump and 105 and 150 for the walk variables ... I think the key here is to make sure you have the same for each of those variables in both mods). In RF I have aaRealisticFatigue.mode to 1 in the Simple Fatigue Settings section (but I believe that only affects the player) and set aaRealisticFatigue.healthDrainGain to 1.07 (so that health is very close to death before the NPC collapses ... other than creating custom vanilla spells I don't use any insane weapons/spells). Fatigue drains and damage become an important tool for either poisons, spells or enchantments and I've also had good success with damage strength + damage endurance poisons (neither of those regenerate, and NPCs don't have spells or potions to restore either). I "soften" them up with a couple of spell hits with custom weakness to magic 100% (weakness to magic hits stack so if you put in a long enough timer that would mean 200% weakness to magic) and then follow that up before the timer runs out with a custom weakness to poison 100% (I don't think it stacks, and in any case with the first two hits anything more would be even more overkill). A single poisoned arrow or blade strike and within seconds they are down and stay down with hardly any health loss. You'll need to have fairly high alchemy skills to make a single poison for damage both strength and endurance ... two separate poisons delivered before the spell timers run out will be just as effective (and available at lower alchemy levels, just less convenient to deliver). You could also do it without the "softening up" but I don't want to spend all my time running around picking ingredients to make tons of poisons. You don't really need to be Mages Guild to make your own spells. There is either Frostcrag or what I mostly use ... Emma's Leyawiin Lake House (or you could opt for Red Rose Manor for something more conveniently located). Until my destruction skill gets high enough I use less that 100% weakness to keep the timer high enough for the weakness to magic to stack and still allow time for the next spell/poison delivery.

But didn't you hear ... the less it covers the more it protects! What I'd suggest is to download your wings mod (I guess providing you can find one intended for males as well ... ya, good luck with that eh?) and then using the Construction Set and the meshes and textures from the wings mod create your armor (right click in the Armor category and select New, and in the window that comes up give it a unique Form ID, a name and select the stats and body slot, then use the buttons to navigate to where you put the meshes/textures/icons in your game's Data folder ... I'd stick to the same folder structure as the wing mod originally came with to avoid missing textures problems). Place it where you want in the game world (if you are just going to have it lying around be sure to assign a ground mesh ... the _gnd.nif part from your wings source mod) and then save your ESP.