Striker879

Might not be relevant, but for anti-aliasing to work with HDR it must be set in your graphics card drivers, not the game settings.

Wrye Bash is a program developed to help with some of the problems you can run into when using mods in Oblivion. There are a number of different tools, rolled into one (sort of like the Swiss Army Knife of Oblivion utilities). If you decide to download and install it, you need to also download Python 03a. Install Python first, and then Wrye Bash (use the self installer version of Wrye Bash unless you are confident in how to install it). Unfortunately the readme with install instructions is inside the exe for the self installer, so you need to run that file and install it before you can read the instructions on how to install it (ya, makes sense eh). You can download and extract the archive version so that you can read the readme first, then use the exe version to do the actual installation.

I'm on Win XP but the same trick should work for Vista or Win 7 as long as your game isn't installed in C:\Program Files\... or C:\Program Files (x86)\... and you want to use a limited account for day to day use. From an administrative account turn your day to day use limited account into an administrative one. Install OBMM from the upgraded account and then on the shortcut you use for starting OBMM right click, select properties and then hit the 'Advanced' button. Tick 'Run with different credentials'. Log back onto your normal administrative account and change your day to day account back to limited. Now when you start OBMM from your regular limited account it will prompt you for a user name and password (you do use passwords on your admin account ... right?). Put in your normal administrator account info and you'll be golden. There is also the normally hidden 'administrator' account (you'll see it by default when prompted for a user name and password). That's the account that was used when first setting the machine up and installing Windows (I build my own machines, so my hands get dirty messing with stuff like this). You can start OBMM using that administrative account as well, however I'm not sure what that account's status around password would be on a store bought machine (probably something that gets set up on first boot). When you use the upgraded regular account method all your registry entries etc. get set up properly, and using the prompt for account info on those few programs that insist on running from an administrative account you can still use your normal limited account for day to day stuff.

I'm not up to speed on OBGE but here's a couple of excerpts from Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide that may help (emphasis added):

The way the 'purple paint' looks makes me think of problems I've seen posted that were alpha maps related, but those were armor related problems and I don't really know squat about textures etc. (just read a lot and try to learn).

Are the black patches anything like what's described in this thread? I see you use OBGE, are you also using bloom?

Excellent ... thank you for posting the link.

Your intelligence (without enhancement buffs from enchanted rings etc.) will be maxed at 100 (you will no longer be allowed an option to advance it higher at level up). Any skills advancements you make on skills that would have advanced your intelligence will still advance those skills, just no advancement perk to intelligence. If one or more are major skills they will still count toward the 10 needed to trigger a level up ... if they are minor skills they just count towards getting the advancement perks for novice to apprentice or journeyman to expert etc. The only two skills that work above 100 and actually give you any additional benefit are acrobatics and athletics ... getting the others above 100 just gives a number that doesn't offer any true additional benefit. Here's a UESP Wiki guide on leveling that may help answer your questions, and another on efficient leveling.

If you don't get any help on this thread consider posting your question in the Oblivion Mod Detectives thread ... they're the experts.

The other thing to consider is getting it straight as to which version of Shivering Isles you own. The reason for this is that the Shivering Isles is the only one of the 'expansions' that replaces the Oblivion executable. If your Shivering Isles came from the Direct2Drive or Impulse download services then it is an encrypted version (above and beyond the CD check used by a normal disk install). When you get to installing mods that require Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) that will determine whether or not OBSE will work with your game version (OBSE will not work with either D2D or Impulse versions). If you are mixing download service SI with a disk version of Oblivion you will need to carefully research what official patches you can use and what order to use for doing the patching and installing SI (carefully read the patch requirements for version compatibility).

I found the same thing you did when I tried HDR (plus I thought the contrast was bumped up enough to lose details in the shadows, especially of faces indoors). I don't use any LOD mods or the like. I'm on an SLIed NVIDIA 8800GTS setup ... anything similar there? I know Hickory says he wouldn't touch Bloom with a Kajhiit's tail, maybe he'll pipe in with something.

Must be the Vampire one I'm thinking of then ... Requium or something like that.

Hmm ... thanks, I'm going to keep that in mind. I have been know to delete vanilla things in the CS when I'm modding. Best time to get good habits is when you're learning.

I'll be the odd man out, different viewpoint guy here. I used to get crash on exit almost every exit myself. Collating a number of different tips together I've reduced my crash on exit to well under 10% and I don't use Fast Exit. I always save from the Esc menu, and no longer overwrite a previous save. I don't use quicksave, and only load an autosave when I've neglected to save recently and get a CTD at an 'inopportune' time (I still get the occasional CTD, but even those are far less frequent). I always exit the game from the Esc menu directly to the desktop (not back to the main menu). My understanding from what I've read in various sources is that the game engine does a lot of things when saving and exiting that are of questionable value (I got that from a Wrye's musings I think). My theory is that if the game engine is trying to do a myriad of tasks at game exit and has carried some possibly questionable info into it at load from a quicksave it's more likely to choke. The only other thing that's changed about how I play my game is I don't often bring my CM Partners along for a ride anymore (I used to CTD with them in tow a lot). Maybe it's all just voodoo ... I don't know, but I'm sticking with it.

Thank you for the link HeyYou (bookmarked), and to both thanks for another 'ride along'.

Just another of my 'off the walls' ... could Mart's Monster Mod be getting into this?

You are correct in your assessment regarding NPC encumbrance, they are rarely even remotely close to their limit (few are more than a couple of percent of their limit). That's why without proper stacking Burden spells are a waste of time against anyone but the player.

I'm crushed (not really). I wasn't intending to 'talk down to you' when suggesting possibilities. It's not easy remote troubleshooting a problem, where I can't just click a couple of things and eliminate a couple of possibilities right off the bat. You'd be surprised at how often one of those obvious simple things can be at the root of someone's problem. If you don't eliminate them at the outset you look bad if they turn up as the solution later. When you said: what steps did you take in the "clean install" stage? What I'm getting at here is how thorough was the uninstall that preceded that re-install. Leftover stuff in the registry can play havoc with a 'fresh' re-install. The most reliable and thorough way to uninstall is using the original game disk from a safe mode boot, followed by a registry cleaner like CCleaner. Doing it from safe mode is getting out the big guns, and may not be required in your case, but uninstalling using the DVD is recommended over the uninstall off the start menu or add/remove programs in control panel. Have a look through this guide that bben46, one of the moderators here, has posted and compare it's suggestions to your method. Perhaps you'll see something to try.

Don't forget to locate and disable the dead Lucien who is one of the game's persistent (never goes away by itself) bodies.

One of the things I really like about the 'ride alongs' I do in these forums (well OK, sometimes I throw in my two cents), is the variety of viewpoints on different problems. Back when I worked I always appreciated having 'another set of eyes' on my unit when things were upset. My coworkers would almost always see things I'd missed or have a different solution to a problem. It was never an issue of who's right ... it was finding the best solution. Sometimes that takes a team. It would be really informative and nice to have some detail analysis and explanation of some of the stuff in a DXdiag report though. I for one would appreciate it.

I missed seeing your First Person Legs last night. I've seen it implicated in troubled installations too. The only advice I can offer is to completely uninstall those three mods, get your game working normally with your regular mods and then add each one back in, one at a time and test thoroughly between each. The problem causer will be readily apparent and troubleshooting can start from a different foothold then.

I don't see a bashed patch and do you use BOSS to sort your load order? The expert on this (Hickory) will probably have a look at your problem tomorrow, but in the meantime if you don't use Wrye Bash and BOSS you may want to familiarize yourself with them a bit so you and Hickory (or whoever jumps in on this) can start from a step or two up the ladder. Edit: As for does anyone else have these problems ... yes I've seen plenty of complications getting DR6 working and quite often Dropped Lit is in the same post. You're not alone.

That depends on the body type you're using. I use HGEC and like Ozmo's High Rez Skin Textures for HGEC. It can be a bit of a bear to get installed and working (the author's native language isn't english, so some of the steps are a bit sparse on detail). One of the members here Talonvore posted this step by step guide. Have a look at it if you are considering Ozmo's textures.

Did the creatures health change much when you raised or lowered the level ... you might use that as an indicator while you're looking for the sweetspot. Edit: Looking at the formula again it occurs to me that your level is what is taken into account by the formula, not the creature's. It must be the effect changing it's level has on it's total health that's making the change.

Your leading me on here, or do we have success??