installed oblivion on laptop with Vista

[suzypike]

We are going to look at this thread together and decide. Thanks for giving us so many options. We all stay signed in under the same name and so UAC is unnecessary. However I still want to be conservative about changes. It's his brand new laptop. I don't want to mess it up just so we can play Oblivion on it. Even though we both really enjoy it.

Of all these solutions, which ones will either not affect other programs or actually make all of it run more smoothly? Other than internet, music gets the most use-namely ITunes.

There seem to be lots of excellent suggestions and deciding which to use is going to be the hard part.

suzy

[HeyYou]

If you have the game installed to program files, UAC WILL be a problem. It protects the program files folder, not the users...... (which can become a right pain in the keester if you start using mods.....) Installing outside of program files negates the requirement of a bunch of hoop-jumping to get things to work as intended.

 

Gamebooster, or apps like it, just turn off a bunch of stuff that you don't need while playing. It turns them back on when you are done, so, has zero net effect on the machine as a whole.

 

Going thru one of Blackvipers tweak guides, is relatively permanent. Whatever you turn off, STAYS off, until you turn it back on. Given that you have a Dell laptop, there is a boatload of bloatware that dell installs on there, that really doesn't do anything for you, aside from eat up resources you would rather use elsewhere. That kind of stuff, I usually kill off right away. (of course, I consider myself a rather advanced user too......) Not to mention some of the more useless 'features' in Vista/Win7, like superfetch, and the fast search service. ( the service formerly known as Indexing Service.....) There is a good bit of all around performance to be had going this route, that will help you everywhere. Not just in games.

[Telyn]

UAC is a security feature. Even if you only have one account, what it does is protect programs in certain folders from being changed by "suspicious" programs. Unfortunately, modding a game is something UAC may consider suspicious. It does do a decent job of doing what it is intended to do, which is making it harder for malware to do as much damage or silently install. UAC is deeply integrated with the operating system. I don't know about Vista, but on Windows 7, even if you "disable" it, you can't actually stop it from causing problems with games/modding in all cases unless you *hack it out of the registry* and that is something I don't really recommend for a home computer.

 

To help you decide, this is Microsoft's explanation of what UAC does in Vista.

http://technet.micro...207(WS.10).aspx

[eric31415]

Ready Boost is super easy to use and makes a huge difference both in and out of Oblivion. Windows 7 comes with it installed, it was probably a recomended windows update for Vista. Just stick in a flash drive, select it, click on properties, and see if there's a ready boost tab.

The 4gb patch goes in the Oblivion folder and only affects the game. I can't begin to say how much better the game runs with this, and its easier to install than most mods.

Streamline 3.1 is a highly recomended Oblivion mod. It will go a long way toward smoothing out your game.

Some other tips from a laptop user;

Turn off the music by opening the Oblivion ini file in Documents/My Games, scroll down to audio options, and change the line "music enabled" from a 1 to a 0. This makes a huge difference on a laptop, but i do miss the intro music.

In the ingame options menu under video, set poly size to large. This won't improve performance, but the detail will be much sharper. Laptop graphics just can't handle any finer rendering.

Two other mods that will help a lot;

RPG Black Dragon's Low Tri Poly Grass. Grass rendering is a big performance killer, this mod makes it shorter and reduces its complexity.

Quiet Feet Max. For the same reason turning off the music helps.

Edited May 11, 2011 by eric31415

[bben46]

UAC is intended to protect all files installed in the program files folders from being changed by an unauthorized source. NO antivirus or firewall is perfect. The first thing a virus will do if it manages to get past your firewall and antivirus program is disable your antivirus so it can make changes without letting you know it is doing so. It will then block your antivirus from detecting it, and probably block the antuvirus updates - So, UAC IS needed as it does protect from these kind of changes.

 

Unfortunately, Microsoft was overzealous in implementing UAC so it also protects programs that do not need this kind of protection from changes - such as games. :rolleyes:

 

Best solution, uninstall the game completely and install it outside of the program files folders. I recomend creating a C:\Games folder and placing all games in it - such as C:\Games\Oblivion. and even installing the Steam client there for any steam games you have, or get in the future - C:\Games\Steam

 

How to Move your Steam to another location Without having to reinstall anything.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?p_faqid=231

 

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

 

It allows you to preserve any saves and mods, or remove them completely - your choice.

[suzypike]

Ready Boost is super easy to use and makes a huge difference both in and out of Oblivion. Windows 7 comes with it installed, it was probably a recomended windows update for Vista. Just stick in a flash drive, select it, click on properties, and see if there's a ready boost tab.

The 4gb patch goes in the Oblivion folder and only affects the game. I can't begin to say how much better the game runs with this, and its easier to install than most mods.

Streamline 3.1 is a highly recomended Oblivion mod. It will go a long way toward smoothing out your game.

Okay we installed Game Booster, it did make a difference, but didn't work miracles. Could you explain Ready Boost? I don't understand. Just put in any jump drive and check? That sounds way too easy!

Also, I did a search for 4gb patch and Streamline 3.1 and had zero matches. Could someone post a link or a search term for those downloads?

We are working on it one thing at a time. I think I need to print out this thread just to keep up with the suggestions! I am going to use Bben's Reinstall Procedure, but that's gonna have to wait till this weekend.

Thanks again.

suzy

[eric31415]

The 4gb patch can be found at http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

Streamline and the other mods i mentioned are on TES4Nexus.

Ready Boost really is that easy. Insert a flash drive and the option should come up in the windows auto play dialog. Or you can open the start menu, click on computer, select the USB device, open its properties and select the ready boost tab. I just did some checking and Vista limits you to using a single device for a maximum of 4gb extra memory.

Edited May 12, 2011 by eric31415

[MarkInMKUK]

Readyboost is, in effect, a very fast virtual memory. As you run out of conventional memory, data is swapped out to hard drive - the "page file". What Readyboost does, near enough, is swap to the much faster solid state drive instead. If you plug a memory device that is too slow (such as a USB 1.1 drive or an old, slow memory card) it won't let you use it for Readyboost as the internal drive is faster. Edited May 12, 2011 by MarkInMKUK

[bben46]

Streamline: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10400

The first description says 3.0, However when you open the files the 3.1 beta is there. It will never be more than a beta as the author vanished not long after posting the 3.1 beta. Just prior to disappearing, he was very active on the Bethsoft forums and just suddenly stopped posting at all - anywhere.

 

The 3.1 beta is actually a debugged version of the 3.0 and is more stable. It is a complex mod with many features beyond the simple trade visual eye candy for FPS on the fly that it is best known for. Read the documentation - its fairly long but very comprehemsive.

 

Yes, ready boost really is that simple. Plug in a USB, SD card, CF card or any other kind of portable flash memory device and select 'ready boost' - The only catch is you need to dedicate that device to ready boost only and leave in in the slot all of the time. So on Vista, using a USB that is bigger than 4Gig will waste the rest of it.

[Poulscath]

How to Move your Steam to another location Without having to reinstall anything.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?p_faqid=231

If you're using the new Steam screenshot facility, remember to back up your screenshots first since the above article hasn't been updated to account for them. (The local copies are stored in a directory you're told to delete).