FaceGen causing abrupt FPS drop when facing NPCs

[Mangoloid]

Hello everyone,

 

After hours of researching and experimenting, I found the underlying problem that has been causing sudden drops in frame rate around multiple NPCs. The FaceGen system in Oblivion's engine is responsible for this, not insufficient hardware, as most commonly misconceived.

 

I found that disabling the FaceGen altogether (via Oblivion.ini, namely setting bUseFaceGenHeads to 0) made my FPS consistently above 60, regardless of NPCs (whether 3 or 300). The problem is, all of their heads were missing.

 

Logically, the next step would be altering the FaceGen system without disabling heads in game altogether: I found a fix used in Fallout: New Vegas, but unfortunately it was unable to port to Oblivion.

 

Specifically, the solution is known as the "d3d9.dll" fix, whereby the altering of the FaceGen system would rather rely on GPU power, instead of limited CPU power, the culprit of the frame rate drop around NPCs.

 

Now, I am wondering if there is such a fix suited for Oblivion, or if you can let me know of anyone knowledgeable in porting the d3d9.dll fix to Oblivion. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you,

Mangoloid