iMaxHiPerf variables in Oblivion.ini

[TheMastersSon]

I was fooling around with settings in oblivion.ini and stumbled on a few (in the [Combat] section) that appear to make a substantial performance difference. But I've never seen them mentioned in any of the tweak guides I've read. The three variables are:

iMaxHiPerfNPCTargetCount=4
iMaxHiPerfPCTargetCount=4
iMaxHiPerfCombatCount=4

I'm wondering if someone who's in a position to know (i.e. has access to Oblivion's source code) can explain what the settings do exactly, and whether increasing their values has any effect in the game. They sure seem to. I tried doubling all of them (to eight), maybe it's just wishful thinking but heavy combat scenes seem a lot smoother now.

Thanks in advance for any info!

Edited January 3, 2017 by TheMastersSon

[LuxDivinity]

That's fascinating.

I'm surprised of lack of responses in this thread, maybe only to me maximizing performance of this game, different .ini tweaks were things of interest.

 

I tried applying this and have found a slight improvement as well, will have to investigate more when I'll create the definitive mod list for my game, though.

Edited February 10, 2017 by LuxDivinity

[Surilindur]

Maybe the lack of responses has something to do with how the question is put, as in, "can someone with actual knowledge of the game engine's inner workings explain how these values are treated by the game". It is a somewhat efficient way to narrow down the number of people who could actually answer the question.

 

As for the settings... assuming they have an effect on something, why would increasing some (presumably) AI-related limits increase performance? Especially on a game that seems to choke when enough stuff is crammed in it. Of course I will also immediately test those when I have the time (just out of curiosity) but still. :huh:

[bevilex]

Perhaps you could ask Alenet, the author of Oblivion Reloaded, I think he has a lot of knwoledge on how the engine works. He wrote an article about his study of the Oblivion.ini settings, using the reverse engineering method.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/articles/44178/?

[TheMastersSon]

Maybe the lack of responses has something to do with how the question is put, as in, "can someone with actual knowledge of the game engine's inner workings explain how these values are treated by the game". It is a somewhat efficient way to narrow down the number of people who could actually answer the question.

Exactly. One definitive answer is more valuable than 10 or 1000 or a million opinions and best guesses.

Edited February 11, 2017 by TheMastersSon

[TheMastersSon]

Perhaps you could ask Alenet, the author of Oblivion Reloaded, I think he has a lot of knwoledge on how the engine works. He wrote an article about his study of the Oblivion.ini settings, using the reverse engineering method.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/articles/44178/?

The larger point is, even people who sometimes claim to have definitive knowledge have been wrong, and logically the only people who actually KNOW the answer about a game are people who have access to its source code. No exceptions.

Edited February 24, 2017 by TheMastersSon

[TesaPlus]

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS LLC
1370 Piccard Drive
Rockville, MD 20850
(301) 926-8300
[email protected]

 

No, I'm serious.

<Late edit>
I'm sorry. I meant to say, "No, I'm serious. ;)"

[TheMastersSon]

Official inquiries generate official and usually canned responses, i.e. "Sorry, that game is no longer supported blah blah". Can't say I blame them, as Oblivion is 10+ years old now.

 

I've been fortunate to have other questions answered by Nexus users who have access to the game's source code. At least they claimed so in their posts. I'd actually pay for these peoples' time to get several more definitive answers about Oblivion.

Edited March 1, 2017 by TheMastersSon