ladlon

Ya, I was generally just using thrown spells (fireballs, frost, lightningbolts) as well as healing myself and detecting life. I haven't explored most of the others, and am just starting to. I'm starting to use touch spells, for example. I'm digging the spells that take from the enemy, and give to you. I feel kind of stupid for ignoring those before! I also keep forgetting that I can go invisible (race trait) as well. Stuff like Silence, etc I've previously ignored too. I need to dive into those. For enemy mages, I usually just run to them and quickly hack them with my glass dagger. Big monsters, I tend to just throw fireballs, lightning bolts, or frost spells... whatever seems appropriate. I'm definitely approaching battle one dimentionally. The stuff in Oblivion gate world all seem pretty resistant to that sort of thing, though! I'm usually not quick enough to be clever with counter-spells (silencing mages, etc). My new guy seemed to get powerful spells (and regain mana) much better than my pre-GOTY guy. It was weird going back to my (more established) original guy. I can cast one spell, and that's it (then I have to wait for the mana to grow). My new guy gains mana really fast. Maybe it's the armour (...at least partially). I was wanting to get rid of my old guys armour (and embrace the 'go light, move fast' philosophy I've learned to appreciate), but he's got this great mythral type armour (light?) with almost each piece giving some sort of magical bonus. I also have a bunch of rings and robes that do the same... so it's hard to get rid of anything to lighten the load. I have a frost staff (not sure if it was one I found, or the one I had made), but I'm thinking of losing it. Seems my old guy also was carrying a ton of alchemy stuff... all the equipment, plus tons of ingredients... all good, but also heavy! Argh, it's bad to have multiple interests! (Oddly enough, that is a frightningly accurate mirror to my own life!) I need to get a pack mule, or a home. I thought I actually HAD one with my old character. Maybe I do. I just can't remember where! It's weird rejoinging the 'life' of a character you haven't played in a long while. I have totally forgotten what he's done, what he has, etc.

Wow, you're a dark elf too, eh?! I chose it because I wanted to lean towards magic (but still be able to swing a sword when I screw up and allow the enemy in my face), plus use a bow. Being frustrated by getting over-encumbered every few minutes in my original (non-GOTY) run, this time around, I opted to stay light... favoring manuverablity over armour, which is working out well. Added bonus, which I discovered later... spells are degraded by armour... so another reason to go light. Still, I'm already finding myself with several magical shirts and stuff that are too cool to throw away, yet inevitably end up as forgotter wardrobe weighing me down! And then all those damn scrolls and stones.... I really need to start using them as something other than an anchor on me! But, even though the fresh start (new character) felt great, I then realized just how far my previous character had got, and started to cringe at the thought of having to do all that again to catch up. So, I fired up my last (old) save file, and am back with my original guy again (...although, without some of the mods it used, so I'm not sure if that'll kick me in the butt at some later stage). I may try installing MMM again (as I had it before in the pre-GOTY run), but I'm not keen on running into an enemy every 3 steps, though... and judging by how excrutiatingly difficult my peek into later levels appeared to be, I'm not sure it would be wise! I mean, seriously... how the heck did I acually survive more than 2 minutes in the Oblivion gate realm?! I must have dropped all my armour and items and was just running at top speed through the level! Maybe I'll just continue to blast rats and crabs... let the villagers figure out how to close the portal...

Hehe... Ya, I'm certainly learning a lot about OBMM, and modding installation in general! I was expecting the stutter... sort of. I went with the redimized version of Qarl first, thinking that the regular version might make my machine crawl. I may try and revisit it again. Although, I don't think it really installed before. With the regular version that I have now, you can easily see the difference, whereas with the redimized version, it didn't seem like anything changed. I know that the result should be less drastic than the regular one, but it didn't appear to change anything. So, another mystery to solve there. Even so, the frame rate SEEMED to be holding pretty steady, but you would get a lot of frequent micro stutters, so I'm not sure if that's textures loading in, or what. Definitely doesn't seem to like when there are multiple creatures on the screen. But, the main thing that I'm concerned about is the graphic glitches... The (seeming) grey shadow overlay, which looks low res and weird... and the sliding textures (the Battlefield 3 sandbag effect). Those are bad... I tried turning off self-shading, as I thought the rocks couldn't handle the complexity of that or something... but that wasn't it. Anybody have any experience with these issues, or any advice? (As for playing the game, I tend to wander around and just do little micro outtings, going to a dungeon, having some fun, and often not even saving the progress. I haevn't been following the quests much. Actualy, one thing I tried recently was activating the god mode and managing to shut off the main portal, just to see what the rest of the game provides. I have no idea how you are supposed to survive inside the Oblivion gates realm... there were monsters waiting in line for me there, every step of the way! In my actual (really played, no god mode) game, I'm at the point where I haven't closed the portal yet. It's been a long time since I've played from my original save files (pre-GOTY), so I coudln't even remember what stuff I had done, what I was currently working on, etc. I totally forgot about the whole Oblivion gate realm! When I went in, I thought, oh, this is new! Then, I recognized it, and realized I was in there before... even inside the buildings... although (based on the save game) it doesn't look like I actually accomplished anything in there! Weird that there's no save games INSIDE that realm.) Hey, Striker879... I see by your profile that you are Canadian! Is that so? Wow! I never thought I'd meet up with another Canadian on a forum. Always seems to be people from the US or other countries. Cool! Happy Canada weekend, BTW! Shouldn't you be at some cottage, beer in hand, screaming like you are falling off a cliff? What the hell are we doing on this forum right now?!?! hehehe.... (I actually have a birthday coming up this week, so I'm hoping to do some screaming and such. My neighbours have been doing it almost every weekend, so I'm totally due...)

Okay, for those of you following along, here's the status... Good news: It's finally working. The mod has definitely installed now (my theory was right). I can definitely see the difference. Bad news: This has introduced some pretty bad stuttering. Before I would only really get stuttering when galloping on a horse. Now, I'm getting it sometimes even when walking around. Keep in mind this is the un-redimized version, and I have vsync activated. The debug text is showing 60fps (dipping sometimes briefly to 50fps), but the stuttering is pretty pronounced. Definitely tripping over something... Bonus bad news: I'm getting an odd effect...I believe it's the parallax thing that's causing it. For one thing, there are grey 'shadowlike' patterns on things like stone walls (Fort Caractacus, for example). Even worse, on things like the little half-walls along the side of the external stairways, the textures 'flow' (...an effect I have seen on the sandbag objects in some Battlefield 2 maps). Let's throw in one more bad thing: There's a HECK of a lot of tiling happening in things like grass and cliff textures. I'm kind of not surprised, with all the clear detail. I've found (as in Minecraft), sometimes it's NOT better to have sharp detail! I may try the redimized version again (and see if I made the same mistake with that one, and if the performance is better). Anyone have any comments or suggestions?

Hrmmmm.... I downloaded the uncompressed (regular) versino of Qarl's Texture Pack 3. Before installing it, I removed the Redimized version, and ran Oblivion, just to see the difference between the Qarl version and vanilla (as I didn't notice much of a change going to Qarl).... and to my surprise, it looks the same! So, either Qarl didn't install, or it didn't uninstall now that I removed it. I suspect it didn't install, as it's technically 'deleted' now, yet still seems to have the same results as when I (supposedly) had Qarl installed. Any theories on why it may not have intalled (even though OBMM said everything was fine)? I'm going to try the regular Qarl next, and see if that changes things. UPDATE: The regular Qarl mod seems to have worked... Again, hard to tell without a side by side comparision.... but things like natural rocks seem more detailed. What's does the parallaxing feature do exactly? Simulate multiple layers (depth) in a 2D texture? UPDATE UPDATE: You know what.... I don't think either of them are working. I'm suspecting that what I'm seeing is still the vanilla textures. Any suggestions as to what I can try? I'm thinking maybe the load order? Looks like it's the last in the 3-4 mods I have in OBMM... if I'm understanding it correctly. UPDATE UPDATE UPDA... well, you get the idea: Okay, it seems confirmed. I ran BOSS, and it recognizes 8 mods, and found 0 unrecognized mods. However, the list of mods it recognizes is just the Natural Environments (which shows as several separate mods), the Darnified UI, Shivering Isles and Knights.... and no Qarl! I seem to remember it doing that with the optimized version as well (although it didn't click to me like it did now). So, what now? OBMM shows Qarl as installed and activated, yet the BOSS report doesn't show it as existing at all. Lots of clues... but no theories in my head so far. A WEE BIT LATER: I have a theory (...and it is mine..... (sorry, an obscure Monty Python reference)...). After looking at the contents of the Oblivion directory, I think I know what went wrong. I applied the mod via the Add Archive features... and the archive itself contains an omod file... so, it installed an omod into the root of Oblivion, rather than running the omod. So, I'm installing it over again, the right way this time, to see if that was the case. Hulk is learning...

Yep, for fun, I went into the NVidia control panel, and forced VSync as well as Triple Buffering (which I know know what it is specifically, thanks to that great guide you pointed out... I was reading up on a number of things there. Really great reference!). Now, it may be the yogurt meds speaking, but the game suddenly looks really good. Textures seem sharper and more detailed. Frame rate is smooth (despite the supposed 50% reduction) and holding at 60fps. Not sure if this is just a coincidence (as I can't imagine that VSync and Triple Buffering would do thta), but I can't deny liking what I am seeing. I may try and find that horse anim replacement you were talking about, as the horse walk cycle still staggers. As far as other mods (I'm still running about 3-4), I'd be interested in: -Depth of field -Something that improves the faces (...mostly just the texture, as some of them look like they have a skin disease... I think that's supposed to be 'wrinkles', but it's so blotchy, it looks pretty bad and low-res. The other graphics (water, sky, trees) all look excellent now...) -More creature types (although not more of them appearing at once!) -Additional locations/buildings... always welcome, as long as they are done well -Anything to make things look more real or pleasing (...I recently discovered a mod called LitWithin, or something to that affect, which gives the effect that there is light inside each building, coming out of the windows, which I thought was really great) What I'm not interested in: -Any anime inspired, oversized armour/weapons -Any gawdy coloured armour/weapons/characters (...I was pleased to see SI introduce lightweight armour made with amber, but I hate the look of it (you end up looking like Bumblebee from Transformers!, and I much preferred the traditional look of my old brown leather light armour... so I'm bearing the extra weight, just because of that...) -Silly 'out of place' additions (like Iron Man)... (Hey, I am silly, and goof off in Oblivion too, but I'm just not interested in modding like that) -Over-the-top, frame rate crippling effects/spells -Anything that makes Oblivion a slide show mindless button mash festival I'm an old-school, traditional type when it comes to the aesthetics and monster types... I really love the art direction in Oblivion overall (dungeons, towns)... exactly as I like it. I like spiders, rats and goblins... and not 'special' creatures (all colourful, and having weird powers and attacks). I like stealth, and controlled, stratigic fighting (where you are trying to read what the enemy will do, blocking, attacking when open, etc). I like dirt and stone locations, and not 'glowy, multi-dementional, teleporter-filled' type of environments.

Yep, that pretty much what I figured... Storywise, it makes sense, I guess. I'm just surprised (from a developer standpoint) that they didn't use any of their existing assets, and have this expansion serve as an addition to what is already there, rather than a replacement (so to speak). At least you can travel back to the orignal realm. Still, you'd think there would at least be rats in his world. I just miss fireballing them...

Yep, all the missing attributes were in the proper init. Interesting point about the monitor's native resolution. I'll have to look into that. Not sure what the native res of my monitor is. I think it's 1920x1080. I just set Oblivion to that (it was at about 1300 previously). Well, it certainly LOOKS nicer! Frame rate is still around 60 (going up to over 200 on interiors). I wonder if I should put vertical sync on. Seems to be some tearing sometimes. Not sure how you turn that on, now that I'm not launching Oblivion the regular way (due to the extended script thing). Meh, my textures still look kinda lame... I still am not sure if the Qual textures are even there. Not seeing any real depth, and it still looks kind of blurry... even on the Large texture setting. I'm tempted to download the regular Qual (as opposed to the redimized one I have currently). I'm assuming it'll be my video card that takes the strain, and it should be fine with it, since it's 1 gig of GPU RAM, and it's a half-decent card. I wanted to do the depth-of-field mod, but OBMM claims it conflicts with something. Ya, I'm running 2 XP machines here (a 2.8ghz, my internet machine.... and a dual core, my gaming rig), plus a new i7 system (12 gigs of RAM, baby!) as my new work machine for my 3D/graphics work. I've been VERY tempted to load a game on it to see how the i7 runs it, but I'm keeping the system clean. I hate win7 (and totally skipped Vista). I'm sure win7 is 'powerful and capable', but I hate the interface, and what it THINKS I want (and what it THINKS is convenient). It thinks wrong...

You underestimate me, my friend! Yep, I made a backup of both the default and the proper init. (Extra yogurt for me tonight!) I've restored the default init back to its former glory, and edited the proper init file this time. Not sure if any of the tweeks did anything. I'm getting over 60fps in general as it is (which is nothing to complain about), and I kept my eye on the 'exteriors to load' (or whatever the wording is), and found that it really wasn't what was causing the stutter. So, I'm inclined to think it is that horse animation thing you talked about (and perhaps some other things). It's fairly rythmic, which makes me lean towards the horse anim. Odd thing is, I went to this town, and got off my horse (which normally puts me in 'smooth fps mode'), and oddly enough it was horribly stuttery for a bit. There were a few sheep around, so maybe the CPU was taking a hit from them. After I wandered away from them, it seemed to clear up a bit. I've only seen that sort of thing when using Martin's Monster Mod, and a spider releases it's little spiderling things (...I wish you could turn that off, as it's a slide show inducer). This is where I get a bit stumped, as I'm not knowledgeable enough to really determine/estimate what factors are truly likely of slowing my machine down (be it stuttering, or just holding the fps back). Right now, I have pretty modest settings (medium textures, relatively low resolution, no self-shading, HDR off, etc). Really hard to say where to begin, as there are so many combinations of settings (and each individual one potentially resulting in other settings having different effects on frame rate). I need an IT guy/oblivion expert who is in agonizing need of setting up a config file to my needs! hehehe (I'm not going to hold my breath on that one....) The frame rate is fine (minus the stutter thing when on a horse, and if there are too many creatures), so the only reason I'd want to improve them is to be able to crank some other things up a bit (as well as to have the always-welcome fps headroom anyway). Would Oblivion use more than 2 gigs of RAM on an XP system? I didn't think ANYTHING would use more than 2, unless it's a 64 bit system.

Ah! There we go.... I knew I would manage to screw something simple up! Ya, I'm editing the default one. Mystery solved! Okay, I'll check out the other one then... Thanks! BTW: The yogurt is great, but the experimental meds they randomly put in really give it a metalic/sulfur flavour that is really not to everyone's tastes... and the resulting random halucinations, skin melting, and 'fluid excretions' really kind of take the initial charm out of the whole package.

That could very well be it. Everything else seems smooth. Just so many variables here... strain from shadows, number of objects, buffer sizes, etc... made even more confusing by the fact that I'm not clear on which ones are more likely to cause stutter. The 'fade in' draw-in I'm getting (grass) is fine... Sure, it would be great to have it visible to the horizon, but it's at least not distracting or bad looking. The LOD swapping(?) (things like buildings suddenly popping to a different version) is a bit more concerning, though. Just looks sloppy (because it is sudden, and doesn't have that nice fade in that at least helps it a bit). Ya, I'm funny like that... ;) There's only one init file, right? Hrmm... Who knows what is happening. There seem to be sections that are empty... You have some bracketed titles, but nothing underneath them. I suddenly have a desire for yogurt....

I'm curious... Why don't default/standard creatures from Cyrodiil (ex. rats, crabs, etc) show up in the Shivering Isles? Seems odd that they have all those assets already, yet do not use them in the expansion. The number of creatures in the Isles seems so limited as a result (...and I find myself wandering back to Cyrodiil, just to be back with the rats, crabs, etc...). Just checking to see if that is in fact the case (and that there isn't something wrong wtih my install), and seeing what other people think about that. The isles are great, but just seem a bit limited without all that other stuff. Granted, it's supposed to be a different spot, but you'd think there would be at least a bit of overlap (some 'common' creatures between the two realms). Was it some sort of technical reason?

I'm in the same boat... 2 gigs of RAM (1 gig of GPU RAM), so maybe I'll try the settings you mention. Yep, I've been wearing out the Find feature in notepad. Can't find that preload attribute. Seems like a few things are 'missing'. Maybe they removed them in the GOTY version??? I tried just adding the preload attribute in myself. No smoke or explosions, so I think it worked. I just figured out how to display the frame rate... Started off at 60-70fps... but after a while (approaching a city, and being on a horse), it would drop to 30 (fluctuating all over the place). Seems the frame rate is fine overall anyway... just micro stutters. Trying a few things, like reducing the grass.

Cool, you're right. The advanced section not only has tweeks that sound relevant to my situation, but they conveniently tell me exactly what to set it at! Nice! I've set the interior/exterior cell thing to what they said. I can't find the iPreloadSizeLimit attribute, though. Weird... It's silky smooth (always was) when I'm on foot (even running)... But when galopping on a horse, I get a micro stutter on each cycle of the horse animation... Not a showstopper by any means. Just kind of breaks the flow, and is mildly annoying. Is there something with the gallop itself, or is it just that the travel speed is going beyond the CPU capabilty? Weird too, as the video card should be able to handle it fine... so I'm suspecting that some elements of the draw up are not being handled by the GPU. Then again, maybe it's a 'loading from drive' bottleneck (although it is a clean, uncluttered drive (O/S and a few games cleanly installed, and nothing else). CPU is an intel dual core. Graphics card is a GeForce GTX 460 (1 gig RAM). I'll keep reading and tweeking. Just let me know if I'm supposed to add in any code that the guides indicate, which don't appear in my init file. Does it matter where I put them, or are the groupings merely for organization (easy to find)?

Interesting... I'll look further into the tweek guide. I've only just started going through it today, but I was worried it might be 'obsolete' as far as GOTY. Good to hear it's been updated since. I did a few of the init file tweeks I found both in there and in the Oblivion wiki, and I think it helped a bit. I altered the mingrasssize, bforcefulllod, and threads attributes, as well as turning on (changing 0 to a 1) for busethreadedblood, and usethreadedmorpher. There were several other attributes they said to change, but they don't apepar in the init file. Do I just type those in? Sounds like the cell one might help. I was going to alter that one, but I wasn't sure what to change it to. Interior was 3 and exterior was somewhere between 20-30, I think. It would really probably just be the exterior I'd need to change, but I have no idea what it should be changed to. My graphics card has a gig of ram, so I figure (if it isn't already) Oblivion should be configured to buffer in more stuff while I'm standing around. I'm just not sure how to do that. I guess the cell thing is one of the relevant attributes? One other thing I'm curious about regarding this... If I have the Qual's Redimized Textures (3) installed, do my regular texture size settings have any effect (or by changing them, am I resorting back to the regular textures)? I was on large textures before, but just switched it to medium to see if that helped... but am wondering ow that affects (if at all) my modded (Qual) texutures. Thanks for your ongoing help, Striker879!