Oblivion Reloaded for dummies

[1Mac]

An updated version of this guide is now on Nexus! Check it out for more detailed explanations of features, ini settings, and more.

Oblivion Reloaded is a fantastic mod that is unfortunately confusing to many modders, myself included. This guide hopefully will resolve some of that confusion.

First question to ask: What exactly does Oblivion Reloaded do? Part of the confusion is that Oblivion is really a suite of disparate features. These features can be divided into a few groups:

-A set of shaders and other graphical enhancements that grew out of an older project called Oblivion Graphics Extender, or OBGE. These are certainly the most sought-after features of Oblivion Reloaded.

-A few stability enhancements, namely Memory Purger and a Framerate Manager.

-Several different gameplay adjustments.

So the next question to answer is, what do you want? For most people the answer is definitely yes to the first, possibly yes to the second. The third set of features are a matter of taste.

Let’s take a look at the actual Oblivion Reloaded files. Go to the Oblivion Reloaded website, register an account, and download either version 6.2 or 6.3. Version 6.3 is the latest version as of this writing, but 6.2 is a little better understood. I’ll be looking at version 6.3, so some of the things I’m talking about might not be in your version.

Unpack the archive. We’re going to look at what’s here, describe what it does, and decide if we really need it. We’ll then delete what we don’t need to make installation simpler.

-Docs: Contains the .html Oblivion Reloaded readme file. Definitely keep, and be sure to consult as needed.

-Menus: These are necessary if you’re using DarNified UI (which I recommend). Otherwise you can discard them.

-Meshes: Contains new models and animations for several features, including an infamous “ninja flip” animation. These tend to be pretty buggy features, and even if you disable them, the presence of these meshes can cause instability. Recommendation: delete.

-OblivionReloaded.esp: Absolutely essential.

-OblivionReloaded.Weather.esp: I haven’t tried this new weather feature yet, but it seems unnecessary and possibly in conflict with weather mods like All Natural. If you’d like to try it, keep it. Otherwise discard.

-OBSE: contains the OblivionReloaded.dll plugin and the OblivionReloaded.ini. Absolutely essential. This is a good time to mention that OBSE is required for Oblivion Reloaded, so install it now if you haven’t yet.

-Shaders: the heart of Oblivion Reloaded’s graphical features. Absolutely essential.

-Sound: These contain files for OR’s Low Health and Fatigue (“LowHF”) system. I didn’t particularly like this feature, but you may. Keeping these files doesn’t hurt anything if you think you’d like to try it, but deleting them keeps things simple if you think you wouldn’t. Up to you!

-Textures: These are also essential for OR’s Shaders, so keep them for the most part. However, the new weather system adds a bunch of textures to the /Textures/Sky/ folder that need to be deleted if it isn’t being used. Otherwise they create some weird effects with other weather mods. In this case, delete all the files inside this folder except raindrop.dds and sunglare.dds.

Now you have exactly the files you need and none you don’t. With these you could either do the recommended manual install, or you can repackage the folder into a new archive (On Windows: right-click, Send to, Compressed. On Mac, right-click, Compress <filename>). You can then use this archive to install in Wrye Bash and probably other mod managers.

But before you do this, there are some instructions to follow! Let’s take a look at the Oblivion Reloaded page again and see the instructions. Look under Install, the 3rd step after the all-caps warnings.

-Remove DarNified UI if any: This is because DarNified UI makes changes to Oblivion.ini, and Oblivion Reloaded wants a default ini to start with.

-Remove old OR version if any: Perhaps you are reading this guide because your previous attempt at installing OR didn’t go so well. Unfortunately Oblivion Reloaded is very difficult to uninstall, and I’ve found that trying to do so leads to some unfortunate instability. You may have to resort to a clean install of Oblivion.

-Delete the Oblivion.ini to reset settings to default: Don’t delete Oblivion_default.ini! Delete the actual ini file in your /My Games folder. Again, we need a clean ini to start with, hence this step.

-Run the launcher and set etc.: Here they mean run the OblivionLauncher.exe. Click “Options,” set your preferred monitor resolution, and click “Ultra-High” for graphics. Leave anti-aliasing off.

-Run the game and set up the recommended ingame video option: Here you need to scroll up to “Required and Recommended Ingame Video Options.” Oblivion doesn’t do fullscreen very well, so obviously reading these while setting them up will be tricky. Memorize, or read off another device, or write or print them. The recommendations here are fine, but you don’t need the recommended View Distance and Distant object settings if you won’t be using the Framerate manager. Same goes for Blood Decals and Blood Shaders.

-Exit the Game and set up the recommended Oblivion.ini settings: Let’s put these in the order they actually appear in the ini file so they’re easier to find. I’ve also added some recommended ini settings, not all of which are essential, but now’s a good time to do it. (SIntroSequence= and SMainMenuMovieIntro= turn off the intro movies when loading Oblivion, and bBorderRegionsEnabled=0 turns border regions off. fDefaultFOV=75 is essential, I've found.)

SIntroSequence=

SMainMenuMovieIntro=

bBorderRegionsEnabled=0

uGridDistantTreeRange=30

uGridDistantCount=50

iPreloadSizeLimit=104857600

fDefaultFOV=75.0000

iShadowMapResolution=512

bUseWaterReflectionsStatics=1

bUseWaterReflectionsTrees=1

fJumpAnimDelay=0.2500

fLODTreeMipMapLODBias=-0.5000

fLocalTreeMipMapLODBias=0.0000

iPostProcessMillisecondsLoadingQueuedPriority=100

iPostProcessMilliseconds=25

-Install DarNified UI if you want: Now that we’ve got the ini the way we want it, we can let DarNified UI make adjustments to it.

-Copy the zip content: Despite the warnings, we can totally install using Wrye Bash etc. instead, so long as we’ve followed this guide and removed the stuff we don’t want. Dismiss the warning in Wrye Bash about installing .dll files.

-Remove the file …main_menu.xml etc.: We’ve already addressed this step earlier in this guide. Don’t do it if you’ll be using DarNified UI.

-Invalidate your BSA archives: I think Wrye Bash does this automatically. You can do so in another mod manager just to be sure (in OBMM or TESMM, click Utilities, then Archive Invalidation. Make sure BSA redirection is selected, then click “Update Now”).

-Activate the esp files: i.e., check them in the mod manager of your choice. You obviously won’t have OblivionReloaded.Weather.esp if you deleted it earlier.

-Set SaveSettings to 0/1 in the OblivionReloaded.ini: This file is in your /Data/OBSE/Plugins folder. Set to 1 if you’re using the Framerate Manager. Otherwise set to 0 as it’s kind of a pain to never be able to change your ini settings. We’ll look more at the OblivionReloaded.ini later in this guide.

-Reboot the machine (to clear caches): An important step! Otherwise OR’s shaders will behave very strangely, and water will throttle your performance.

-If you have the retail version, run the game by the obse_loader.exe: This goes for the GOG version as well (make sure you have the “latest loader”). Don’t change anything for the Steam version.

Now let’s take a look at the OblivionReloaded.ini. Again, it’s found in your /Data/OBSE/Plugins folder.

The first 112 lines are just comment code with keyboard codes. These are useful for setting up a few keyboard shortcuts in the ini file but aren’t the most essential thing. The first area we want to look is [Main]. The defaults here are mostly fine, though I’d set FoV (Field of View) to 75 like in the Oblivion.ini. OR’s screenshot tool is pretty nice; you can set ScreenshotKey to determine which key takes screenshots, using the codes at the top of the document. Again, I’d change SaveSettings to 1 unless you are using the framerate manager.

[CameraMode]: This changes 1st person view to look like how it’s actually rendered in the game world. This means that weapons and such appear in 1st-person exactly as they would in 3rd-person, just zoomed in. It also means conversations don’t zoom in on the participant. Recommendation: set Enabled to 0.

[EquipmentMode]: The idea is that equipment you use doesn’t just disappear into your inventory when sheathed. So weapons, shields, quivers, are all visible on your character even when not in use. As of 6.3 it’s still super-buggy, plus we already deleted the meshes this feature needs earlier in the guide. Recommendation: set Enabled to 0.

[FrameRate]: This changes your distant loads in a responsive way so that your framerate is always constant. I find this screws with distant loads to an unacceptable degree, but some people find it useful. If you do use it, make sure your in-game distance settings are set to max, and set SaveSettings to 0 in your OblivionReloaded.ini. If you don’t use it, set Enabled to 0.

[GrassMode]: It makes more grass appear than would otherwise. Apparently can cause stuttering. Recommendation, set Enabled to 0.

[MountedCombat]: Makes it so you can actually attack from your mount just as you would in ground combat. Cool idea, but requires new meshes, and given how well those work in EquipmentMode: Recommendation, set Enabled to 0.

[sleepingMode]: You can watch your character sleep in bed. Huh. Recommendation, set Enabled to 0.

[WeatherMode]: This is the bit that requires OblivionReloaded.Weather.esp. I haven’t tried it, but I worry about conflicts with other weather mods. Recommendation, set Enabled to 0.

[shaders]: Here we are! I’m not going to dive into the particulars here, because other folks understand this better than me. I’ll link to some recommendations at the end of the guide. I keep Blood and NightEye disabled, and POM doesn’t work well with the textures from Qarl’s Texture Pack.

[Effects]: Another key section. The graphical stuff is again a bit beyond my ken, so I’ll link to those recommendations. I keep MotionBlur, BloodLens, and LowHF (Low Health and Fatigue effects, which requires the Sound data from the installation archive) off. SnowAccumulation and WetWorld (permits snow and rain to accumulate, respectively) can apparently cause some performance issues, so I keep them off as well.

[Menu]: Configures the ingame menu for OblivionReloaded. I’d just leave this alone.

[LowHFSound]: The aforementioned Low Health and Fatigue feature, enabled or disabled under the [Effects] section. You can turn on or off health or fatigue independently here and set when the effects (panting, blurred vision, that sort of thing) are triggered based on how low your health or fatigue are.

[Purger]: A memory purger that clears the game’s cache periodically to boost performance. You can set a keyboard key that lets you do it manually, using the key codes at the top of the document. Recommendation, set Enabled to 1.

[Gravity]: Sets gravity to behave more like real-world gravity, or if you change Value, like some completely otherworldly place. I have no recommendation one way or the other, but I keep it off.

[Dodge]: Turns the Dodge ability that’s only available to certain characters by default so that it’s on for everyone. Recommendation, set Enabled to 0.

[Develop]: This is related to tools for developing your own custom shaders in Oblivion Reloaded. Probably best to leave these all set to 0

Many of the graphical enhancements have their own ini files, found in their own individual folders in the /Data/Shaders/OblivionReloaded folder. The particulars of these are a bit above my head, so instead, check out Bevilex’s guide if you use ENB (not Enboost) (scroll down to the ENB & Oblivion Reloaded section of the guide, and download his ini files by clicking on the files tab). If you don’t have ENB, maybe read Bevilex’s guide anyway, then check out DassyD’s OBGE Preset. Many of these ini files can overwrite your exiting ini files, but DassyD’s OblivionReloaded.ini and Water.ini files must be manually entered into your existing ini’s since the layouts are not quite the same. EDIT: be sure to compare these ini files to see that they are truly compatible before overwriting; i.e. they have the exact same parameters to be adjusted. You'll have to manually enter new values if they aren't.

There’s also an in-game menu for trying settings in the game world itself. Enter the letter O (not zero) to open or close the menu. Use the arrows keys to navigate and + or - to adjust setting, and hit Enter to save settings. Not everything is adjustable here, but it’s still very handy if you aren’t sure what a particular effect does.

Do mention if you have any questions, or if I got something wrong here. I hope this guide is helpful!

Edited July 3, 2018 by 1Mac

[Macbone]

Thanks for this write-up! It's very helpful as I struggle through with my Oblivion modding.

[hfffoman]

Nicely written. Clear, helpful and not condescending. Thanks

[theskyrimnewbie]

Straight, neat and perfectly described. But I still wonder what the ScreenshotType = function in Data/OBSE/Plugin/Oblivionreloaded.ini at [Main] settings related for. I went to the official page and nobody talked about that function.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Straight, neat and perfectly described. But I still wonder what the ScreenshotType = function in Data/OBSE/Plugin/Oblivionreloaded.ini at [Main] settings related for. I went to the official page and nobody talked about that function.

 

As far as I know you can change the screenshot file type from JPG to PNG or BMP or whatever else is also supported. But don't quote me on it, it's been a while since I last read the documentation.

[1Mac]

Straight, neat and perfectly described. But I still wonder what the ScreenshotType = function in Data/OBSE/Plugin/Oblivionreloaded.ini at [Main] settings related for. I went to the official page and nobody talked about that function.

As Drake says, it's the file format of the screenshot. Check OR's documentation file in the your Data/Docs folder.

[Rannussion]

Does anyone know if there will be problems if I install the Official/Unofficial Oblivion Patches before I install Oblivion Reloaded? Should I wait and install those second?

[1Mac]

Does anyone know if there will be problems if I install the Official/Unofficial Oblivion Patches before I install Oblivion Reloaded? Should I wait and install those second?

It shouldn’t be a problem either way. You can check to be sure by looking for conflicts in Wrye Bash, if you pack OR as an installer like I recommend.

[strikerdrone]

Extremely helpful, thanks for this.

[RoryKenneigh]

Anyone know how I can revert back to the original title screen? Or at least the music. I'm not all fond on the one that replaced it