Lite Brite on by default, landscape issues

[ItsTheSasquatch]

So, I recently reinstalled Oblivion and have been having trouble getting it running correctly. I never had a problem with it before, even with all the most memory-intensive mods and running everything at max settings. I'm beginning to think there's something corrupted on the disk itself.

 

My first problem is that "Lite-Brite" is somehow on by default, and has to be turned off via console ("tlb") every time the game is loaded. I've uninstalled and reinstalled upwards of five times, scouring my computer each time for absolutely every Oblivion related file and deleting it before reinstalling (it never removes the .ini files on its own for some reason). I've even deleted every existing save and started from scratch, just to see if the save file was corrupt. No luck.

 

The second, which I can't fix even temporarily, is the landscape textures. It's easier to show a picture of the problem than describe it, so here's two pics, the first with "Lite-Brite" on (as it appears every time I load), the second with it manually disabled:

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr345/a...ScreenShot0.jpg

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr345/a...ScreenShot1.jpg

 

As of the last 4 reinstallations, it's running completely 100% vanilla. Not even Shivering Isles is installed. I'm about one reinstallation away from microwaving the disk and using the damn thing as a mod-art coaster. Anyone know what's going on?

 

HD5770 GPU, Windows 7, Quad-core processor and 8GB RAM, if that matters. Doubt it's the GPU, though, since all interior cells are totally fine (with the exception of the "tlb" issue).

 

EDIT: Here's what happens when I turn up the grid value from 5 to 15.

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr345/a...ScreenShot3.jpg

[bben46]

First, try deleting your Oblivion.ini file - the one in the C:\Users\your user name\my documents\my games\Oblivion folder.

Then start the game. it should be able to set your video to medium, don't worry about that, you will make changes later. Make a save to allow it to save the new Oblivion.ini it just created. The Oblivion.ini looks at tour Hardware and makes setting based on that - if you have changed ANYTHING such as Video card, Ram, Sound card etc, it needs to be rebuilt.

 

I have never seen a problem with Lite-Brite, and it does not show in the ini. I think it may be a graphics card setting, but I'm not sure. Check you graphics card documentation to see if there is anything on this. It may go by a different name in the Graphics card settings.

 

An OBSE A script can toggle it. But there shouldn't be any scripts running for this if you have no mods installed. Try uninstalling OBSE, making a save, then reinstall the latest version - If there is a mod active that requires OBSE it may crash when you try to run the game without it - that will tell you something.

 

Look in your Oblivion\data\OBSE\Plugins folder copy the contents to a temporary folder so they are not triggered when the game runs - see if maybe one of the files there isn't giving a problem (you may not have anything there, or even have the plugins folder - if not don't worry about it.

 

If that doesn't work - Then reinstall - using the complete uninstall reinstall to a location outside of the default Program files folder - Most people use C:\Games

 

Here is a link to my complete uninstall/reinstall procedure located in the articles section of the Nexus

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=240

 

This procedure not only removes the ini, it allows you to keep all saves and mods - and original ini in a back up. Plus, it cleans the registry of all Oblivion entries that a normal uninstall doesn't even try to remove. Then shows you how to make a clean backup so you don't have to reinstall again.

[ItsTheSasquatch]

I've done all of that; most of those steps I've done 5-6 times. Even with every trace of Bethesda Softworks removed from my PC, installing to a different directory, and even an entirely different copy of the disc, it's the same thing. Oblivion installs, auto-detects my hardware, sets graphics quality to "Very Low" (despite this being a $2000+, two month old gaming PC), and loads up with lite-brite on. I deleted all my saves and don't feel like going through the intro again, but I can only assume the outside textures are still broken.

 

The only variable left is my GPU, and that seriously pisses me off. It's brand new, it was expensive, and I have no idea what's wrong with it.

[LFact]

I heard Radeon 5xxx can be misidentified as way older GeForceFX 5xxx. First, can you reconfigure graphic setting in the launcher?

[ItsTheSasquatch]

I heard Radeon 5xxx can be misidentified as way older GeForceFX 5xxx. First, can you reconfigure graphic setting in the launcher?

 

Yes, it lets me reconfigure the settings. I can max everything, even with Qarl's texture pack, etc., installed, but it still loads up with lite brite on and the ground textures screwed up.

[ItsTheSasquatch]

UPDATE: Running the program in compatibility mode (set to XP Service Pack 2) seems to have made all the problems magically disappear. I'm not sure why I didn't have to do that last time I installed it (when it worked perfectly for about a month), but as it seems to solve the problem, I guess I can leave that question unanswered. Thanks for your help.

[Ragnarocrow]

Sasquatch, others,

 

I'm having the exact same problem - reinstalls, still the light brite effect and tiling terrain - we even have the same card; an HD5770. But compatibility mode won't work for me. ..any suggestions?

 

Thanks

[Striker879]

When you open your RendererInfo.txt (located in your My Documents\YourUserName\MyGames folder along with your Oblivion.ini) does the correct name for your video card appear at the top of the file (right below 'Renderer Device Information:'). I'm thinking that Oblivion isn't recognizing your video card and defaulting to 'Lite Bright'. Here's a quote from Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide:

bFullBrightLighting=0 - If set to 1, alters the global lighting method to one which is far less detailed and doesn't use complex shaders, hence is much less strenuous for older cards. The results are graphically unpleasant as most textures look terrible, and there will be some graphical glitches, but this should allow older cards to run Oblivion more smoothly.

If I'm correct (not a certainty) bFullBrightLighting is your 'Lite Bright'. It would make sense that if Oblivion doesn't recognize what card you're using it would default to a low powered solution that would allow the game to run. Perhaps a video driver update will help. Is your Control Panel reporting the correct card in Windows?

[Ragnarocrow]

Striker,

 

I took a look and it seems that Oblivion in fact recognizes my GPU- I took a screenshot of the RendererInfo.txt right here. Yet the hardware information in the technical support tab of the launcher doesn't show the GPU[/url] (but I'm not sure it even should) here:Launcher Hardware Information

 

Although, I think you're onto something, because when I load the oblivion graphics settings from the launcher the program tells me that my graphics card is unrecognized and sets Oblivion for "very low quality." It even automatically tweaks my .ini to have LightBrite on. Do you know anything more on that topic..? -that seems most reasonably to be the cause.

 

Some more information for you: yesterday I reformatted my hard drive and did a completely clean install of Oblivion - I still have these exact same bugs. GPU drivers are up to date

 

EDIT: I fixed this. For anyone who has the same problem,

1) load the oblivion launcher, allow the system to detect and change your graphics settings (this change obviously created the problem) and then

2) copy-paste your oblivion_default.ini from the program file (Oblivion/Data) to your My Games/Oblivion and rename it to oblivion.ini

3) manually tweak for graphics

Edited February 28, 2011 by Ragnarocrow

[Striker879]

Looking at your screenshot techsupport.jpg I see no difference to what I see on the same panel in my game (beyond the difference in CPU info ... my GPU info doesn't show there either). Comparing your rendererinfo.jpg to my RendererInfo.txt file the only thing that jumps to mind is that you are using 3.0 shaders, which is the same as me. When I enabled 3.0 shaders I used this section of Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide:

bAllow30Shaders=0 - If set to 1, this option allows (but does not force) the use of Shader Model 3.0 on graphics cards which support it, namely Nvidia GeForce 6600 or newer, or ATI X1000 series or newer. This can potentially improve performance when using HDR rendering for example. Check your RendererInfo.txt file in your \Documents and Settings\User\Documents\My Games\Oblivion directory to see if your card supports SM3.0 next to the option '3.0 Shaders'. Note however that even by enabling this option, Oblivion still appears to use 2.0 shaders (check the 'PSTarget' and 'VSTarget' lines in Rendererinfo.txt). In any case, if you have one of the cards mentioned above, it cannot hurt to enable this option.

 

Update: To force the actual use of 3.0 Shaders after making the above change, you will also need to check your RenderInfo.txt file (see above), and on the last line of the file check which shader package it uses (e.g. Shader Package : 13). Then go to the \Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\Shaders\ folder and rename that particular package to something else (e.g. rename shaderpackage013.sdp to shaderpackage013._bak. Now copy shaderpackage019.sdp and paste it back into the same directory, and rename this new copy to the package name your card uses (e.g. rename it to shaderpackage013.sdp in this example). This will force Oblivion to use the Shader Model 3.0 shaders in the game, which may increase (or reduce) performance and typically shows no image quality difference.

Basically what you're doing is replacing a shaderpackagexxx.sdp with one you've renamed. I have no idea if this will make a difference, but if you make sure to save a backup of the file you're replacing (which in your case would be shaderpackage007.sdp) in a separate directory you can easily revert back to original (I always create a MyBackups directory and then subdirectories for each thing I'm backing up, often with a text file for notes on what was done).

 

When you look in your Catalyst driver page I take it everything is OK and recognized and you get no errors when you run dxdiag.exe (I love it when someone else is on WinXP and I can look through my own machine for the names of things :thumbsup: ). When you say you reformatted, I take it that Oblivion is installed outside your C: so no Windows re-install took place (I use a separate physical drive for games myself ... and no I'm not suggesting a re-install of XP). The only other suggestion I have is make sure you're running the latest Catalyst drivers. Quite often store bought machines (even expensive ones) come with the default off the drivers disk or even older video drivers installed. If need be you can roll-back your driver later if it doesn't fix your problem and causes other problems (unlikely ... newer drivers are always a good bet, just follow the instructions for making the upgrade). The Oblivion Tweak Guide linked above has an imbedded link to instructions on doing this if you need them. I myself prefer to not allow the Microsoft Update site to make my video or sound driver updates ... been screwed by them a few times. Download from ATI and install using their and Koroush's instructions.

 

About all I can think of ... good luck.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Striker879