Oblivion lags in combat

[Striker879]

If you are running Vista (and I assume Windows 7, though I don't have access to a machine running Win 7 at the moment) open Control Panel (off your Windows Start button menu) and then open Programs and Features. You will need to be logged in on an account with administrator permissions. After the list of installed programs loads, scroll down and single left click on 'Realtek High Definition Audio Driver'. At the top of the list select the 'Uninstall' button. After the driver is uninstalled you'll need to go through a reboot. If Windows goes through it's 'Discovered new hardware' thing cancel out of it. Download the latest driver from the Realtek site (see my previous linked post for a link to the site) and then run the exe file (make sure you get the right file for your version of Windows, 64 bit according to your first post). It will prompt you to reboot after the install.

[xatra]

New audio drivers changes nothing. But, i noted something-the map in the background of the game menu lags, her movement isn'n smooth. And in the game is the same-not smooth, i dont know, how to describe this, but one word-microstuttering describes it perfectly. Before instal of new audio drivers it was the same, because i had oldblivion(no background map), i can'n see this stuttering :( microstuttering is "acceptable", but really BIG combat lags makes the game unplayable, with one enemy have i big problem, combat with more than one enemy is unplayable. Edited November 29, 2011 by xatra

[Striker879]

Do you have many processes running in the background while you're playing? Anti-virus software can chew up a lot of CPU cycles, especially if you have it monitoring file accesses and processing for suspicious activity. I'm running a Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz myself. The game can't take much advantage of multi-cored CPUs, but one advantage those CPUs have over ours is that you can use the extra cores to run background processes. That brings up another avenue to explore ... have you assigned any higher priority to any processes on your machine, or tweaked the affinity? I'm an old Windows XP dinosaur myself, so I don't have any hands on with this type of stuff, but I know you can do a lot in Windows 7. Here I'm not so much suggesting you change any of that as much as asking if you've done any of that in the past on this machine, and maybe now Oblivion isn't getting enough of it's share of CPU cycles to play smoothly.

[xatra]

When i can run Skyrim on high settings with no lags, i can't run oblivion with oldblivion smoothly? With oldblivion looks oblivion like...morrowind. In task manager can i set high priority for oblivion, but no change, the game lags. My antivirus is Panda cloud, other games and processes runs with no problem. When i turn antivirus off, nothing happened. As you say, i can set affinity for processor cores. When i cancel one of CPU cores, nothing happened. Before installation of oblivion, i dont'd change any settings of cpu/operating system.

EDIT: I found this: when oblivion run in window, i have NO microstuttering, only combat lags remains.

Edited November 29, 2011 by xatra

[xatra]

Thanks for answers, but...when i can run Skyrim on high settings with no lags, i can't run oblivion with oldblivion smoothly? With oldblivion looks oblivion like...morrowind. In task manager can i set high priority for oblivion, but no change, the game lags. My antivirus is Panda cloud, other games and processes runs with no problem. When i turn antivirus off, nothing happened. As you say, i can set affinity for processor cores. When i cancel one of CPU cores, nothing happened. Before installation of oblivion, i dont'd change any settings of cpu/operating system.

[Striker879]

Is there a reason you're running Oldblivion? On a machine that can handle Skyrim wouldn't you run either OblivionLauncher.exe (for non-OBSE games) or obse_loader.exe (for non-Steam users wanting Oblivion Script Extender support)?

 

You can always tell when my troubleshooting is running out of ideas ... I start looking in more unlikely places.

 

- Edit - Are you running at your monitor's native resolution (applicable only if you are not using an old CRT monitor)??

Edited November 29, 2011 by Striker879

[Striker879]

Under the category of looking in the less likely places, here's some stuff quoted from Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide:

 

Shadow Filtering: This is a very important setting if you have enabled any of the shadow-related options above (Striker's note - Here Koroush is referring to the settings in Self Shadows, Shadows on Grass and Tree Canopy Shadows). See an animated screenshot comparison by clicking this link: Obl_ShadowFilter.gif (556KB) - pay close attention to the outlines of the horse's shadow at each setting. Essentially this option controls how smooth the edges of shadows are, and thus how realistic and visually pleasing they appear. However this setting can take quite a bit of graphics processing power if enabled and hence can have a significant performance impact. Shadow Filtering affects all shadows cast as a result of the Int Shadows, Ext Shadows, Self Shadows, Shadows on Grass and Tree Canopy Shadows settings (all covered further above). Its most noticeable impact is on Self Shadows, whereby if set to Off, the shadows cast by characters on their own faces will appear very jagged and unpleasant. In most other instances, the difference between the High and Low settings is difficult to distinguish, and thus Low is recommended for most people who have any shadows enabled. If you have no shadows enabled, or if you really need the additional performance, setting this option to Off is recommended. Also check the iShadowMapResolution and iCanopyShadowScale variables in the Advanced Tweaking section for more ways of adjusting general shadow quality to gain performance.

 

Specular Dist: This slider controls the distance at which Specular effects are visible - namely the shininess/reflectivity of the surface of appropriate objects, like metal swords, shields, armor, glazed bricks, etc. See an animated screenshot comparison by clicking this link: Obl_Specular.gif (668KB). As the slider is moved to the right, objects further away start to show more reflective characteristics (especially noticeable in HDR mode). Pay close attention to the shields and armor of the characters in the animated comparison for example. Specular effects can have a noticeable performance impact on many graphics cards, and thus moving this slider to far left to disable specular can help increase FPS in most areas, as well as in combat. Note that if you operate in 3rd person view, removing the specular effects on your own armor/weaponry (i.e. moving the slider to the far left) can also give a noticeable performance boost. Also see the bDoSpecularPass variable in the Advanced Tweaking section.

[xatra]

It will look stupid, but i think, when i can't run normal oblivion(for mystery reason), i can run oldblivion. I have 22' LCD monitor, native resolution is 1600*900. With oblivion have i tried different resolution from 640*480 to 1600*900. Nothing, combat lags remains.

Shadow filtering and specular distance-when i have maxed these options, i have combat lags, when i tried lowest setings, i also have combat lags :(

I do not think it would be graphic settings, because when i run oblivion in a window(1600*900) and set in oblivion.ini backgroud sound to zero, the game runs very good, playable on higest settings. But without background music the game loses a massive part of her atmosphere.

[Striker879]

As far as I know Oldblivion was developed to allow the game to run on hardware that didn't meet the minimum specs at the time the game was released (it had pretty high minimum specs back then when compared to what most normal people had for CPU and graphics). I don't know what sorts of compromises were made to the game code to achieve that. When you say you can't run the normal Oblivion.exe for a mystery reason, is it giving you any indication of what the errors are?

[xatra]

It must be a mistake. Normal oblivion.exe can i run, but with combat lags, without error messanges, graphical glitches, or etc. I tought mystery reason=reason of my combat lags. Naturally i tought that oldblivion helps me, but oldblivion did not help me with combat lags.