Just bought PC Oblivion

[Striker879]

I agree on the nice to have wireless (though my desktop keyboard is still wired I couldn't go back to a wired mouse).

 

After reading through your Skyrim thread you may find Koroush Ghazi's explanation of the 'max pre-rendered frames' helpful: Oblivion Tweak Guide

[Page 13] Neat Stuff & Conclusion. I wonder if a setting of 2 or 1 may be worth a try.

 

Considering that you're having the same issue with a new controller makes my idea that your controller may be failing a no go. Looking through my own Oblivion.ini [Controls] section I see only one entry related to deadzone ... iXenonMenuStickDeadZone=15000. Have you tried any other values for that variable?

[GnatGoSplat]

To help alleviate the 'in your face' look in the dialogue screen edit your Oblivion.ini 'fDlgFocus' (found in the [interface] section) to a larger number (mine is fDlgFocus=5.9500 which is almost completely unzoomed). Be aware that if you use the HGEC body without also using a stock clothing/armor replacement mod that converts the vanilla stuff to HGEC compatible you'll notice some weird effects (e.g skin on arms not matching hands, neck seam even more obvious etc.).

 

Yeah, I've already noticed that problem. When my character was wearing only bottoms, there was a gap between that and her top. I guess she won't be running around in just a bra!

 

I wonder if the drifting you're experiencing is related to the way your character and NPCs slide when on uneven ground. The effect is most noticeable on steep slopes but you can get it some places you don't think are that steep (some cave floors for example).

 

I don't think that's it. The drifting occurs even on level ground within the Imperial kingdom and I can usually make it stop by gently touching the left stick.

 

Sounds to me like the two of you should be poster guys for wireless keyboard and mouse setups ... lounging on the couch, controller in hand with keyboard and mouse next to you. "Honey, can you bring me a drink ... if I get up it will move the mouse!"

 

No couch lounging for me! My wife hogs the couch. ;) I'm actually sitting right in front of the PC at my desk. It's just that I greatly prefer controller gaming.

 

I don't know the exact buttons off the top of my head, but xbox 360 uses the bumpers and triggers for everything as far as navigating through all those menu folders. I can't think of a way to make xpadder do that because in PC Oblivion the cursor actually has to go down there. I think you'd have to edit the core code to make this work.

 

Ah, I did have some success! I've got left and right triggers able to navigate between the stats, inventory, magic, and quests menu. How I did it was in Xpadder, I set left trigger to right mouse (block) + shift + left arrow. Right trigger is set to left mouse (attack) + shift + right arrow. I now have X reliably dropping inventory items as well, I think. I believe I have it set to shift + enter in Xpadder, and configured in the Oblivion joystick menu as draw weapon, so now it draws weapon in normal mode while dropping items in inventory mode. A button works great for selecting items in inventory, but doesn't work reliably for taking items from an object/corpse inventory. It takes maybe 2 or 3 attempts. I usually just stick to the enter key when I need to take something. I'll have to tweak it a bit more in Xpadder.

 

I love the stream lined menus in Skyrim. I want a full screen map and separate menu screens for everything so I don't have to cycle through 8 pages in one menu to find things.

 

I still have to use the keyboard to drop things which is annoying. If I could assign the shift key to something I might be able to avoid that. I don't ever have to use my mouse though. My gamepad operates the mouse cursor. Not knowing what setup you originally used, I don't know what you've got going on, but I tried to set mine up based on Oblivion XBox and not Skyrim. I followed this template: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Controls

 

I set attack to the M key, and changed activate and attack in the Oblivion game settings to M and Enter, respectively. I also assigned the left click to the A button in xpadder. I cleared all other joystick settings from Oblivion's game settings. The rest basically follows what's on that page.

 

I'm able to use my right stick to move my camera and work the mouse in the menus.

 

Yeah, Skyrim's UI is definitely controller-optimized. I tried to use those instructions, but they didn't work well for me. I did use that page as a reference on how to map my own controls, it does appear as though most Xbox 360 Oblivion controls do match Skyrim. I used a combination of Oblivion's joystick settings and Xpadder to get fairly passable results.

 

All my controls match the Xbox 360 Oblivion except the following still doesn't work.

- Cannot dismiss "Continue" dialog boxes (but all other dialog boxes work, odd how Continue ones are different).

- Taking items from objects/corpses using A button is unreliable.

- Cannot move around in maps.

- Cannot do anything in that speechcraft menu (don't really quite understand how it works anyway).

- Cannot lockpick.

 

I still have to use mouse (or keyboard) for those things.

 

I think I was mislead from what I was hearing about the mods available. I kept hearing about how updating Morrowind and Oblivion with mods made it as good as Skyrim and how the modders were fixing everything Bethesda didn't.

 

Yeah, I had heard the same thing - how with mods, Oblivion looks just as good as Skyrim. From what mods are out there, I think what people may have meant is that with mods, hentai anime girls look just as good in Oblivion as they do in Skyrim. :biggrin:

 

I REALLY wish I could get that Unofficial Official mod patch so I could get all the game fixes, but Fonger seems to have given up on me. I tried ommitting each package one by one to see if one was causing it to crash, but never found a culprit, which tells me it's probably a combination.

 

Mine actually doesn't crash too much, but I run a pretty vanilla game. Only mod I have is that HGEC body mod that I installed because a custom race required it (and I removed that custom race because it didn't look as good as advertised). I did have the game freeze on me while loading an area after quick-traveling. The progress bar filled up, but nothing happened. Only happened once though.

 

Well, whatever was going on before was a total placebo effect. It's back to being just as bad as ever. I don't understand it. I think I see what the problem is, but I don't know how to fix it. When I go into the dead zone settings, or even under Win 7's controller test menu you can see what the gamepad is doing. The thing is super sensitive in the center of the stick where the slightest bump is drifting it off center. But when you move away from the center zone, the sensitivity drops to normal. I think that's what the problem is. It's almost as if the joystick is too loose. There's got to be a way to desensitize it. I think that slight movement in the center zone is what's causing the drifting and pulling.

 

Yeah, I think Xpadder's dead zone settings have no effect on the sticks in game since the game is reading the sticks directly. I have my dead zone in Xpadder set to 100% and mapped to arrow keys, but that didn't affect the stick function in game. All that did was allow me to move left stick to navigate menus. If Win7 let you set the dead zone, then it would probably work, but the default driver has no such settings. Mine is the same way, just a tiny touch of the stick gets the character slowly drifting. Did you try changing your stick multipliers to 0.5000? I still have drift, but when the character drifts, it's real slow. It's annoying, but I'm not sure anything can be done. I think we'll just have to live with the twitchy movement.

[Stemin]

Yeah, Skyrim's UI is definitely controller-optimized. I tried to use those instructions, but they didn't work well for me. I did use that page as a reference on how to map my own controls, it does appear as though most Xbox 360 Oblivion controls do match Skyrim. I used a combination of Oblivion's joystick settings and Xpadder to get fairly passable results.

 

All my controls match the Xbox 360 Oblivion except the following still doesn't work.

- Cannot dismiss "Continue" dialog boxes (but all other dialog boxes work, odd how Continue ones are different).

- Taking items from objects/corpses using A button is unreliable.

- Cannot move around in maps.

- Cannot do anything in that speechcraft menu (don't really quite understand how it works anyway).

- Cannot lockpick.

 

I still have to use mouse (or keyboard) for those things.

 

It sounds like you need to setup your right joystick for the mouse. It would eliminate a lot of these issues. Not all, but a lot. I'm able to move the map around by grabbing it with the a button and scrolling through it with my right stick. My right stick moves my mouse pointer around when necessary. Also, setting the a button to space, enter, and left mouse fixed my problems with taking items from corpses. I also set "activate" in the Oblivion menu to enter, and that helped with a few menu issues as well.

 

I wasn't able to do anything with speechcraft either. I couldn't even exit the feature and had to reload. I also don't understand how it works.

 

Yeah, I had heard the same thing - how with mods, Oblivion looks just as good as Skyrim. From what mods are out there, I think what people may have meant is that with mods, hentai anime girls look just as good in Oblivion as they do in Skyrim. :biggrin:

 

Tell me about it. I don't trust myself to discuss some of those threads. I really find it pathetic that everything has to be skimpified or made nude. I'm just gonna leave it at that before I get myself in trouble.

 

Yeah, I think Xpadder's dead zone settings have no effect on the sticks in game since the game is reading the sticks directly. I have my dead zone in Xpadder set to 100% and mapped to arrow keys, but that didn't affect the stick function in game. All that did was allow me to move left stick to navigate menus. If Win7 let you set the dead zone, then it would probably work, but the default driver has no such settings. Mine is the same way, just a tiny touch of the stick gets the character slowly drifting. Did you try changing your stick multipliers to 0.5000? I still have drift, but when the character drifts, it's real slow. It's annoying, but I'm not sure anything can be done. I think we'll just have to live with the twitchy movement.

 

I didn't know about the stick modifiers. I think I'm gonna run another game in xpadder later and see if I get the same results with the cursor. But I'm just about ready to give up on this. I went out over the weekend and bought a new video card and that fixed my Skyrim problems, so now I'm able to play Skyrim on PC, which is 10X better than Oblivion any day in my book. For some reason I'm actually reluctant to try modding, but we'll see.

 

I'm just way ready to give up on Oblivion, which is a damn shame. I can't believe there isn't a fix for my issues, but in the grand scheme of things PC players are set in their ways and they don't care about gamepads. Well I can't play that way, so I guess I miss out.

[Striker879]

If you and Gnat are talking about how to 'play' the speechcraft mini-game I can help, but it may be easier for you at first if you breakdown and use the mouse until you get a handle on what I'm describing.

 

When you start the persuasion mini-game by clicking the icon with a head from the dialogue menu you're presented with a pie chart with different size 'filled' quadrants. Click the Start button and then hover the mouse pointer over one of the four options (either Admire, Joke, Coerce or Boast). If you move your hover over each in turn without clicking and watch the NPC's face you'll see their individual reaction for each option. The trick is to click a full pie on something they like and an emptier pie on something they don't. When you click on one of the quadrants the filled/unfilled quadrants also rotate. All the while the timer is timing down, resulting in a smaller benefit to getting the 'right' selection (so quickness is somewhat of a benefit as well).

 

What I do after starting the mini-game is make a quick hover check on the four quadrants to see what that NPC likes and dislikes strongly and mostly disregard the two less extreme reactions. Then I try to plan my selections so that when the full pie is on their like I can click it and the emptiest pie is on their dislike I can get that one. The 'Rotate' button gives you one chance to rotate the options one slot around the circle. When you've clicked on four quadrants the mini-game round ends and you'll be able to exit the menu or try again. Once you get the hang of it you won't need to use the 'Bribe' option ... getting their disposition maxed is just a matter of keeping at it until you succeed. There are some quests were the NPC's disposition must be over a certain threshold before you can proceed or get all that they'll tell you.

 

Stemin no matter how this turns out for you I must commend you for your persistence. You don't have an awful lot of 'give up' in you.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Striker879

[Stemin]

Wait, so you have to do all four actions in a certain order basically?

[Striker879]

The order you click on the Admire, Joke, Coerce and Boast sections will be determined by which section has the appropriately sized pie piece in it currently. For example if my 'hover check' shows that an NPC likes (smiles) when I hover over Boast and dislikes (sneers) when I hover over Joke (with Admire and Coerce being one of the lesser reactions) but the pie pieces started out with one of the smaller ones at Boast and one of the larger ones at Joke I'd click on one of the other two (either Admire or Coerce whichever had a more appropriate sized piece at the time). When I click the pie slices rotate which may now put either the largest one on Boast or smallest one on Joke. When i see one of the best sized pie pieces on one of the highest or lowest reaction options I click it. Sometimes you'll use the rotate button to either avoid having to click a bad sized slice on your final click (e.g the larger sized slices on Joke in my example above) but using Rotate isn't required just an option. To complete a round in the mini-game you must click once on each of Admire, Joke, Coerce and Boast in any order.

 

It's a strategy mini-game (as opposed to a dexterity mini-game like that @%^%!&* lockpick mini-game ... guess you can guess which one I prefer).

[GnatGoSplat]

It sounds like you need to setup your right joystick for the mouse. It would eliminate a lot of these issues. Not all, but a lot. I'm able to move the map around by grabbing it with the a button and scrolling through it with my right stick. My right stick moves my mouse pointer around when necessary. Also, setting the a button to space, enter, and left mouse fixed my problems with taking items from corpses. I also set "activate" in the Oblivion menu to enter, and that helped with a few menu issues as well.

 

Yep, you're right, setting up the right joystick as mouse did the trick. I had resisted because I thought it would conflict with the "look" function, but it doesn't seem to. I don't really like it on the right stick, but it doesn't work to make the left stick the mouse. I had done the same thing to the A button the night after I posted. It does work reliably now, though it will auto-close object/corpse inventory after taking something. Not perfect, but I can live with that.

 

I didn't know about the stick modifiers. I think I'm gonna run another game in xpadder later and see if I get the same results with the cursor. But I'm just about ready to give up on this. I went out over the weekend and bought a new video card and that fixed my Skyrim problems, so now I'm able to play Skyrim on PC, which is 10X better than Oblivion any day in my book. For some reason I'm actually reluctant to try modding, but we'll see.

 

I'm just way ready to give up on Oblivion, which is a damn shame. I can't believe there isn't a fix for my issues, but in the grand scheme of things PC players are set in their ways and they don't care about gamepads. Well I can't play that way, so I guess I miss out.

 

The stick multipliers are in oblivion.ini, I think I posted them earlier. My multiplier settings work fairly well, I think. It's playable. The annoying intermittent change in direction gets annoying, but I can live with it. I agree, I think Skyrim is considerably better as well, though I'm enjoying Oblivion as well despite the controller annoyances. I've gotten to the point in Skyrim where I've knocked out all the main quests, most of the side quests, and am not receiving any new quests, so it's nice to start a different game where most of the game is still ahead of me rather than behind me.

 

I've always been a predominantly PC player and have had to play games both ways. The Xbox 360 controller is a fairly new addition for me (within the last 2yrs), and I really like it when a game fully supports it. I really don't understand why most PC players prefer keyboard+mouse. I wish Bethesda had come out with an Oblivion update to provide full Xbox 360 controller support.

 

I didn't mod my Skyrim until recently, I just played it vanilla. I was enjoying it enough that I didn't need mods, but as my quests started dwindling down and I found myself unable to find anyone who would present me with a new quest (other than radiant quests, which get repetitive), I decided to play around with the Creation Kit to make my own NPCs, which is fun. I also made a chicken follower mainly because the idea of it sounded silly, so I wanted to see if it could be done. I also added a mod so I could have all my custom NPCs as followers at the same time. So now I have a small army plus a chicken, but sadly, no quests to complete. They get to stand around and watch me improve my smithing skills.

 

Striker, thanks for the tips on the Speechcraft mini-game. I think I get it, but I guess it takes a lot of practice because I don't seem to be accomplishing anything! So we want the number in the wheel higher, but do we want the bonus number to be higher, or lower? Every time I bribe, that number decreases, so I was thinking maybe if it's lower, that'll take less bribing for the NPC to like me, but I'm doubting it works that way.

[Striker879]

The number in the center of the mini-game wheel is they're current disposition towards your character. The majority of the time you'll be trying to get that number higher. With merchants that will allow you to push them to giving you better prices for loot you're selling and lower prices for goods they're selling using the Haggle mini-game (bring along lots of cheap stuff for that ... iron arrows or flax etc. and then sell one at a time and keep edging the slider up a notch at a time 'til they squeal). So for merchants it's always play the speechcraft mini-game first until you have their disposition maxed and then haggle the heck out of them.

 

If you also pay attention to how an NPC reacts to the two less extreme reaction choices (the small smile and slight frown) and try to match an appropriate pie size for that click as well you can make faster progress at increasing their disposition. I find it hard to tell the less extreme reactions on their faces so mostly I just ignore those and only concentrate on getting the largest pie on their like (big smile) and smallest pie on their strong dislike. I don't tend to bribe, so I'm not sure how that one affects the overall goal of getting the center number higher. A quick look at the UESP Wiki for bribery doesn't lead me to anything worth linking (but it does provide some more info on disposition in general).

 

When I say 'the majority of the time you'll be trying to get that number higher' I'm implying that it is possible to lower an NPC's disposition towards you using the mini-game. For most NPCs there's not much purpose in trying to do so (unless you like seeing them scowl whenever your character is nearby) as they have a low aggression assigned to them. If their disposition number is more than 5 points lower than their aggression number they'll initiate a fight. If you're in Leyawiin and feel like stirring the pot a little find Cingor (he's usually wandering around). Play the mini-game only in reverse, clicking the biggest pie piece on his strong dislike and smallest on his like. Get his disposition down to 9 or less. When you close the mini-game after that final round get ready to rumble (or stand back and see if maybe you'll get a chance to score some free Leyawiin city watch armor after Cingor kills one of the city watch ... I have all kinds of personal 'mini-games', e.g. bring along a convalescence spell and keep him buffed while he does your 'dirty work'). Don't fret over him dying ... he'll likely attack you later when you're doing the Main Quest anyway ... you're just getting him a bit ahead of schedule.

[GnatGoSplat]

Striker, thanks for the tips on the Speechcraft mini-game. I completely understand it now, I think. I've been maxing out my disposition with people even where it doesn't matter, just for practice. I haven't run into Cingor yet, but I'll be sure to play the minigame in reverse when I find him.

 

So far, I'm enjoying Oblivion more than I initially thought I would. Controls are still clunky and NPCs still look ugly, but I'm used to it now. One thing I had noticed, is I felt more lonely in Oblivion, than Skyrim. I always had followers in Skyrim, but in Oblivion they've only been temporary ones for quests. Last night, I decided to download Companion Vilja. What a great mod! It's fun to have her tagging along, making me feel less alone in those dark, creepy Oblivion towers and dark caves. I think her chattiness and accent are quite charming. Now having to close the bazillion Oblivion gates that I've yet to close, seems like less of a chore. She's also very good at distracting the bad guys so I can sneak behind them and hit them with 6x sneak damage.

 

One thing I did notice is the graphics look a little dull and lifeless with HDR off, but with HDR turned on, peoples' faces tend to get badly washed out by even the smallest light source. Is there any way to adjust the HDR?

[Striker879]

I avoided HDR for the same reason and then a member shared his Oblivion.ini settings. They didn't completely eliminate the problem, but it did make a big difference. Unfortunately I'm not at home (babysitting my brother's dog for him while he's out of country) so I don't have access to my gaming machine (and thus my Oblivion.ini). I'll be back home on May 10 ... if I can't find the post where he gave me his ini settings beforehand, you'll get a PM and I'll post them here when I get home.

 

I agree about Vilja. She's been my old guy's companion for quite a while now. My new guy could go meet her and get her to join up but he managed to get introduced to the Dark Brotherhood while doing the Hackdirt quest (a bit of collateral damage did the trick ... my old guy hasn't done the DB and probably won't). I do find it a bit lonely while playing the new guy, likely the reason the old guy gets as much play time as he still does.

 

Something to keep in mind when taking companions (including Vilja) into Oblivion gates ... make sure they are right beside you and not fighting any enemies before you grab the sigil stone. Kill everything in the Sigil Sanguis then grab the stone. If Vilja gets left behind and you use her summon spell she'll lose anything she had in her inventory except her starting inventory. Once she learns some better spells and can keep you healed she's an invaluable ally. I can't remember the last time my old guy used a healing spell on himself (his job is to use convalescence spells on her and Wolfgang).

 

Sounds to me like you'll be master of speechcraft before any other other skills.