Oblivion, nVidia, Ambient Occlusion

[Foina]

I have an Nvidia card, a GTX 770
My display driver is version 320.49

Only yesterday I notice that Ambient Occlusion is available for Oblivion as well (thought it was only for Skyrim, silly me).

So I activated it, and set it to Quality.

But I find the effect extremely subtle. It's pretty much NOT there. See for yourself...

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/s372/ph0cs/TES%20IV%20-%20Oblivion/OblivionAO_zps1d7709e4.jpg

^^ (click to enlarge) The doorstep of Wavnet Inn, near the IC.

On the left: no Ambient Occlusion.
On the right: with Ambient Occlusion set to Quality.

The very same effect adds dramatically to Skyrim, and it's everywhere on screen. Why is it so poor in Oblivion?

Can it be enhanced?

Edited January 25, 2014 by Foina

[lazyskeever]

Perhaps through OBGE?

[Foina]

Thanks, but the OBGE plugin for SSAO doesn't give good results, IMO. Some sort of grid pattern is visible through the shaded areas, and it appears to affect snowflakes and raindrops too.

 

Other ideas?

 

 

The nVidia implementation of Ambient Occlusion wouldn't be bad if only it was thicker. On a very foggy Oblivion-day the screen areas affected by the Ambient Occlusion filter are clearly visible. The filter is everywhere on screen. It just is too subtle to spot when the textures aren't brightened up by the fog.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Foina

[lazyskeever]

I have forced ambient occlusion on mine and I think it definitely becomes noticable in foggy distances, so it's certainly there like you say. In fact that's probably why I don't like the effect very much when it acts that way, since the occlusion doesn't seem to interact with the fog it makes things appear more visible than they really should...

 

http://i.imgur.com/J1ZBXmL.jpg

[TheMastersSon]

Geforce posted a useful article on this:

 

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/ambient-occlusion

 

Two quality settings, and differences are more obvious in some examples than others. I actually like the performance setting better on a few of these samples, which is a good sign. :) If it doesn't impact fps imo it's a nice visual improvement.

 

I'm still unclear on whether AO is something games have to be written to use, or is software independent. I assume from Oblivion's addition to the list it must be the latter of those. If that's the case, unless the game has specific settings (like Oblivion does for HDR) I don't think there's a way to enhance the effect.

[lazyskeever]

Polygon surfaces often aren't smoothed out in Oblivion with AO on as well which makes them look like blocky early 3D models. Overall the implementation just looks way too crude for my liking.

[Rennn]

I'd rather use OBGE's HBAO, honestly. Not very noticeable, but at least it's relatively free of visual bugs. And you can probably tweak OBGE's HBAO however you want.

 

That said, OBGE eats video cards for breakfast, so you'll have to be careful even on a 770.

[astrob0y]

You can use an ENB and its SSAO. I would suggest http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/44838/?

 

Also, 320,49...you are missing many sweet fps by using that old driver. Update to 334,89

[Rennn]

 

Also, 320,49...you are missing many sweet fps by using that old driver. Update to 334,89

 

False. Oblivion gets virtually no performance return from new drivers.

[whaes]

I'm trying for days to get a decent SSAO to work, tried several OBGE shaders, no luck, everything still looks bright and shadingless

 

 

You can use an ENB and its SSAO. I would suggest http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/44838/?

 

Also, 320,49...you are missing many sweet fps by using that old driver. Update to 334,89

Tried this, makes absolutely no difference.