Is the game supposed to be this dark?

[emeraldHunter121]

Does this lighting look right? I swear I remember the game being brighter than this.

I don't have any mods installed that change the visuals of the game other than some texture packs. 

[emeraldHunter121]

If so, is there any way I can improve this blackcrush, its really distracting and almost looks like something is wrong visually, my brightness is set to 50% but if I increase it, it just washes out the screen, and doesnt really increase the brightness of anything. 

[Moksha8088]

Changing the gamma values?  What about increasing the brightness along with the saturation (via a ReShade)?

[QuestSolver]

On 4/30/2025 at 2:10 AM, emeraldHunter121 said:

If so, is there any way I can improve this blackcrush, its really distracting and almost looks like something is wrong visually, my brightness is set to 50% but if I increase it, it just washes out the screen, and doesnt really increase the brightness of anything. 

There are several mods that will change colour scaling and/or how bright areas in game. Dungeons can have its own light and fog (which some like and other dislike as it makes light diffuse and spread in a way that it wont when there is reduced or removed fog in dungeons).

Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul have settings (there are several ini files for MOO - you can download MOO without installing just to see what options there is as most of settings are explained) for this and probably some other overhaul like OOO etc. Then there is also lightning mods and other mods like ENB or Oblivion Reloaded and all version of OR like ORL and ORC etc) which can control how different section of game will look (interior vs exterior).

I use have instead of using ENB or OR used AIINATO in combination with Nvidia App filter which took some time to adjust to a level where colour would look more vivid, but not too bright independent on day/night, weather or indoor or outdoor including dungeons. 

Nvidia Apps filter will be possible to bring up if you enable Steam Overlay (and sometimes one have to toggle ALT+TAB to refocus game window as game will be run in window even when you use Fullscreen or Borderless - this have been changed from where fullscreen meant all resources where locked up to that app [game] - just make sure to have journal or use Escape before using ALT+TAB as that put game in another mode then when in active gameplay).

For AMD CPU there is probably also same type of filter option that can be controlled while game is running is what impact it will do and I would expect Intels GPU (discrete GPU) have also driver and app to control such features today.

You can download Maskar's Overhaul (MOO) and just check out ini files to see that there is a section where you can adjust how dungeons should or should not have fog, what kind of light (make it brighter or darker) etc.

I use also AllNATO - NAO with All Natural Interior Weathers which is based on NAO in combination with All Natural Light mod. It isn't perfect as some places indoor [interior] you might have too much light (as it will be defined from outdoor [exterior] weather and day/night time, but it works great to give impression of real light sources (shadows that moves from light source like candle light or fire etc).

 If you are against using any mod, then I would suggest to turn off Ambient Occulation (AO) as that will add a thin layer below or between surfaces (shadow) to create impression of depth and that can make game look darker. It is possible that AO is enabled from your video card drivers and you don't find that in Options>Video settings, but it is still active while running game, same for shadows that I know is options for using sliders and disable/enable filtering etc. The same happens with Qarls Texture Pack III Redimized or any of Qarl's texture packages that creates an impression of depth in 3D on a 2D surface, that also will add darker elements to create a visual impression of surface that aren't flat.

In your picture it is clear that you are using a texture pack as bricks on wall have higher details compared to vanilla Oblivion. From that you can see darkness between bricks which indicate that you are using both shadows and AO which can make game look much darker in some places, but also create a depth that will you loose when you disable those features and everything will instead look flat or plastic as surface.

Lightning mods (like All Natural Light or other mods will do the same by creating light sources where shadows and darker part of each object is part to create illusion of depths and do also add different ambient light which can make dungeons look better even with some darker parts where light wont reach completely, but still be bright enough to make out contours of surrounding objects.

Don't forget that you also have settings on your display that can change everything from gamma level, brightness and colour level (usually named Warm where red is the more dominant colour and Cold where blue is the more dominant).

Colour is also something that can be calibrated in MS Windows settings, so it is complex to give precise suggestion as what you see as "dark" can also be depending on what your monitors/display use for technology. OLED have each pixel as light source, while TN have background light which then get filtered through crystals. IPS have a better representation of colour in general then TN, and VA are in general darker then IPS based display (which can cause blackness crush) and so on, so what we see on our screen isn't necessary the same as you will see on your screen as it also depends on different level of darkness/brightness and colour settings that are used.

Here is an overview of different display technologies: https://www.electropages.com/blog/2020/07/oled-vs-lcd-vs-led-vs-tn-vs-ips-vs-va

This should give enough understanding that it is hard to give advice on what is a vanilla Oblivion supposed to look like as for darkness and colour scaling and mods that are based on creating light sources will also take into account that each display can have different level of how good they are on representing true blackness (in some cases it is only LCD that have been turned off where surrounding LED or light from other pixel are still bleeding through) and don't forget not everybody have even bothered to calibrate their screen (true calibration can be expensive).

Edited May 22 by QuestSolver