Importing old Oblivion files

[turbonl64]

Hello all,

 

I'm a long time Skyrim player and it's the first elder scrolls game I actually seriously made use of the nexus mods. However, the interest in Skyrim was sparked by Oblivion, a game I wish to revisit now after 6 years of not playing it.

 

Now, my issue is: instead of immediately starting a new character, I'd like to reuse my old game files for now, but I'm hesitant: the files were originally installed on a completely different, 32bit computer. And, the old game files actually had a mod installed (Dibella's Watch).

 

My question is: If I fully reinstall Oblivion, replace it with the old files and put the save files in the appropiate directory on a totally different computer, will that work?

 

Also, some pointers to good mod guides and whether there are memory/stability mods out there would also be highly appreciated!

[Striker879]

I would install Oblivion (including Shivering Isles), then install OBSE and Dibella's Watch and then put your old save in your Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves folder. Note the other recommended mods from the Dibella's Watch mod description.

 

Edit - I suggest a "one step at a time" approach. First install the game including SI and then start the game and get your game settings set to your preference on your new machine. Then install OBSE and start the game. Make a save and then check in your Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves folder and confirm that you have two saves with the same base name and different file extensions (e.g. MySave09.ess and MySave09.obse) ... this is to confirm that OBSE is working (i.e. if you only have a single save each time you save then OBSE is not working).

 

Then add the remaining Dibella's Watch required and recommended mods and confirm they are working (the Elys Silent Voices will be hard to test without a mod requiring it ... that test will take place after you install Dibella's Watch). Lastly install Dibella's Watch and copy your old save file to your Saves folder.

 

It's not entirely clear to me from your post ... do you want to continue playing with Dibella's Watch on the new computer?

Edited May 15, 2017 by Striker879

[turbonl64]

Hello Striker879,

 

Thanks for the tips. First off: yes, I want to continue playing Dibella's Watch. What I remember from it is an awesome and expansive mod.

 

I'll certain follow your tips. I have a question though: back in 2011 I installed the game from DVD discs. Now I checked and Steam offers the game with all of its expansions for 20 euro's, which I think is worth as I would never have to worry anymore about the discs. However, is the Steam version compatible with the save files based on the dvd version?

[Surilindur]

One would assume the savegames work with both versions. It would make no sense to change savegame handling for another distribution system. I also loaded an ancient savegame back from when I used the disc version (still had a couple of them laying around, yay!) and it seems to work just fine. Well, except for the whole mod setup being different and the like, but the savegame loaded and the character and everything seemed to be fine.

 

Have you ever worked with virtual drives and disks? That would be one alternative: creating a virtual disk of the game and mounting it in a virtual drive for the game to check? For example I have virtual disks made of basically all my older games like Battlefield 1942 and such, so that I do not need to use the real physical disks. It will take some time, might work or might not, and is probably not the most straightforward process, though. But it is an option, if you have ever worked with virtual disks. It should be possible to make one out of the Oblivion one.

 

Also something to note might be that Steam has sales every now and then, and you could theoretically get Oblivion at a lower price, too, it if comes on sale. Summer sale should happen at some point, I cannot remember when, exactly, but at some point. :thumbsup:

[turbonl64]

One would assume the savegames work with both versions. It would make no sense to change savegame handling for another distribution system. I also loaded an ancient savegame back from when I used the disc version (still had a couple of them laying around, yay!) and it seems to work just fine. Well, except for the whole mod setup being different and the like, but the savegame loaded and the character and everything seemed to be fine.

 

Have you ever worked with virtual drives and disks? That would be one alternative: creating a virtual disk of the game and mounting it in a virtual drive for the game to check? For example I have virtual disks made of basically all my older games like Battlefield 1942 and such, so that I do not need to use the real physical disks. It will take some time, might work or might not, and is probably not the most straightforward process, though. But it is an option, if you have ever worked with virtual disks. It should be possible to make one out of the Oblivion one.

 

Also something to note might be that Steam has sales every now and then, and you could theoretically get Oblivion at a lower price, too, it if comes on sale. Summer sale should happen at some point, I cannot remember when, exactly, but at some point. :thumbsup:

Rationally, you are completely right to wait for something like a summer sale (I was hoping I actually could got a reduction when buying it with Morrowind, but no such luck... .).. That being said, I'm really into a nostalgic mood and I got myself quite excited with checking and looking for tips etc. So I'm going to throw rationality out of the window and hit the buy button on Steam :tongue: .

 

I'm a bit familiar with virtual disks (we all have a past on this, let's not deny it). Still, the issue with virtual disks is you can still loose them through drive breakdowns. DVD's can get scratched. Steam atleast provides an option of longetivity.

[Striker879]

The only thing of note from my perspective on Steam version vs disk version is the difference on how you install OBSE and get OBSE working properly.

 

Other than that the other difference is in getting archive invalidation (i.e. BSA Redirection) working with Steam ... just a matter of putting the vanilla game BSA files (e.g. Oblivion - Meshes.bsa and Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa) back to year 2006. That can be simply done either using Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) or from what Contra has told me, using Mod Organizer (MO).

[Surilindur]

Indeed! The main differences between the disc version and the Steam one (excluding the fact that the Steam one is completely up-to-date out of the box, but requires Steam) are the way the game is launched with OBSE and the need to use a utility to change the BSA timestamps to something older, like Striker mentioned. And yes, MO also has the button in it to back-date BSAs, but OBMM also works, especially if you are not up to a moderate challenge (MO is not necessarily too straightforward with Oblivion, more like manual installation into discrete directories and then running everything through MO).

 

The only difference in launching the game with Steam is that you need to remember to also install the OBSE Steam loader DLL (included in the OBSE download, and I think disc people also install it without even thinking about it...) and launch the game from Steam.

 

There are two Steam versions, last I checked, that are completely the same, except that one of them only has Oblivion + KotN + SI, but the other one also has all the small DLC (like Fighter's Stronghold, Orrery, Frostcrag Spire, Horse Armour, Spell Tomes, etc.). The one with the small DLC (the GOTY Deluxe ) seems to be 20 euros (the one without them is less). So if you want the small DLC, remember to pick the right one (also anyone else reading this thread later).

 

And yes, I must confess that I might have bought a game or two in the past somewhat early, without waiting for them to be available at a discount, just because I wanted to get the games at that time. I suppose it is fine, as long as it does not become a habit. :P

[turbonl64]

Alright so I got it set up with OBMM. I actually use MO for Skyrim, but given guides refrained people from using it for Oblivion as OBMM is overall more user friendly with more or less the same functionality, I refrained from MO. Keeps things nicely separated anyhow.

 

The old save files work like a charm. Half a hour of trying things out and no crashes. Only crash I had was when exiting the game, something I read is actually quite common.

 

I'll be trying out a longer session today. If things keep going well, I'll look into using more mods to put the game into a fresher jacket. Seems like a lot of Skyrim solutions concerning memory hacks and stability solutions have gone to Oblivion as well.

[Striker879]

Sounds like you are well on your way, and it also seems to me you have a valuable tool in your toolkit ... you are a reader (pretty hard to come up with a question that has never been asked about Oblivion, the common ones have been answered hundreds of times).

[turbonl64]

So small update: everything works fine! Installed some stuff like Oblivion Reloaded, general texture mods, character retextures and of course the unofficial oblivion patches. Last but not least the kvatch rebuilt mod. No random/mod-related crash, just the usual save game loading/exit game crashing (I think I got the latter fixed though by an OBSE plugin). Overall this set up is close to Skyrim's standard regarding textures and quality.

 

The one thing I do lament is the rather small pool of good quality, lore friendly armor mods (there are a few) on the nexus, while this game, like Skyrim, has no shortage of skimpy armor mods.