Oblivion.ini settings for modern PC

[Tinien]

Good day to everyone. I want to ask about how to tune some parameters in Oblivion.ini for the most stable gameplay on modern multicore PCs. In particular these lines (default in parentheses):

 

bBackgroundPathing=0
bUseBackgroundPathing=1
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=0
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=0

Is it needed to change 1st, 3rd and 4th parameters to 1 for "locations smoother loading" or they are already set the best way? 2nd parameter appeared after official patch 1.2 and is set to 1 by default.

The same question for multithreading variables by default:

 

bUseThreadedBlood=0
bUseThreadedMorpher=0
bUseThreadedTempEffects=0
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=0
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1

 

Separately worth mentioning parameter iNumHavokThreads=1 which in various sources is recommended to be changed to 3 or to 5. Which value is better for the game stability? Or is it better to leave it be 1 by default? And one more question: why odd values are recommended when all multicore/multithreaded CPUs have even number of cores/threads?

 

And last question about two variables: iTreeClonesAllowed=1, bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1. These are default values. Should they be left like that or is it better to change them to some other value (0 for the second one)? The thing is that my game sometimes (rarely) CTDs in the Great Forest where there are many trees (your Captain Obvious). So I thought that maybe these CTDs are somehow related to trees and perhaps it's worth to change some corresponding parameters in Oblivion.ini.
My PC specs: i7-4790K, GTX 770 (4 GB), 8 GB DDR3.

Many thanks in advance for any help in this matter.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Tinien

[ReverendFelix]

So far as I know Oblivion does not really do multi core threading. It wants power from core 'x' and only core 'x'. If you can sort out different, we'd all love to hear about it!

[RatTech2099]

Are you using an LAA patch at all because that makes a big difference to the game when using a modern computer.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45576

[Tinien]

Thank you for the answers, guys. No, I do not use LAA patch anymore after I had read about that this patch can cause more harm than good. Here's the citation from related topic on steamcommunity:

 

"The 4GB patch could cause an increase in insability as the game was not designed with being large address aware in mind, though I have not observed any increased instability from the patch myself but I have not used it through much of the game either. Some games and applications will totally bug out if the LAA flag is set". End of citation. I left typo in "insability" as is.

 

After removing patched Oblivion.exe and reverting to original Oblivion.exe i've played about one month and there wasn't any decrease of stability of gameplay. Only one CTD has occured so far with error offset 0x0027425e in system log. CTD with this error happened five times in the past year (apart from CTDs with other errors), and every time it took place in the Great Forest. That's why my question about tree variables (iTreeClonesAllowed=?, bUseMultiThreadedTrees=?) in Oblivion.ini has arisen.

 

As for Oblivion not really doing multi core threading and hence not benefiting from it - I know it but these multithreading variables are recommended to enable for better stability on multicore/multithreaded systems: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Ini_Settings --> Multi-core CPU tweaks. But I'm not sure about accuracy of these tweaks since they contradict suggestions in other sources, in particular iNumHavokThreads=3 (5 in other sources), bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1 (0 in other sources as 1 can cause CTDs on some systems).

 

So all in all my questions in OP are still viable. I'd be very grateful for some hints, dudes.

[RatTech2099]

 

Thank you for the answers, guys. No, I do not use LAA patch anymore after I had read about that this patch can cause more harm than good. Here's the citation from related topic on steamcommunity:

"The 4GB patch could cause an increase in insability as the game was not designed with being large address aware in mind, though I have not observed any increased instability from the patch myself but I have not used it through much of the game either. Some games and applications will totally bug out if the LAA flag is set". End of citation. I left typo in "insability" as is.

 

Yes I found that too. My daughter who used to do software troubleshooting for a living said she thought the Steam version of the game has some different addresses in its code as compared to the disc version of the game which is why some patches and utilities don't work properly. I gave the Steam version the toss since there were so many mysterious problems and glitches with it and I'm now running the GOG version which is LAA enabled right out of the box and suddenly all kinds of problems I was having with various mods have just disappeared.

[ReverendFelix]

I have the anthology version and over 300 mods crunched into it. I can tell you it definitely helped my ctd and low fps loads. I just wanted to testify of a successful usage.

[RatTech2099]

I had endless inexplicable CTDs with the Steam version. It all came to a head when I was testing out a mod for a friend and I had so many crashes that the mod's creator was getting worried. So I thought I'd switch everything over to a GOG install of the game and everything was fine. The mod worked perfectly without any problems. Needless to say I'm not going to install a Steam version on any computer of mine ever again.

[Tinien]

Thank you for your time and for your reply. I didn't know about this difference between Steam and disc versions and some different addresses in their code. I use Fifth Anniversary Edition + 8 DLCs. Maybe you would ask your daughter if she would be willing to help with this OP matter? I've thoroughly searched the web trying to find the exact instructions for Oblivion.ini tuning on multicore/multithreaded machines and haven't found the unanimous decision about the most exact settings for modern CPUs so far. Various sources propose various settings as I described above. About LAA patch I want to say that I don't use many mods in my modlist - only 45 plugins (OOO among them), so my game doesn't use very much RAM and doesn't need LAA Patch. It seems to me that after I removed this patch the game became more stable but not completely.

[RatTech2099]

I've only just obtained a pristine copy of 5th Edition, though I haven't tried it yet since I'll have to install a DVD drive in the monster of a dual processor Xeon workstation computer I use as a gaming machine before I can do that. All my Oblivion discs from when I last played the game 3 years ago are older editions and I'm not sure how they would work out with adding DLC and OBSE to them.

So basically I'm not really able to give you any disc based game advice about .ini settings since I'm running the GOG version.

 

I am using this mod though which helps with modern 64 bit systems and modern graphics cards and it seems to work well. I'm using a GTX 960 graphics card with 2gb VRAM which is nothing special, but it does make the gameworld look nice at 1280 X 1024 resolution.

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45266

 

Sometimes crashes can happen if the cache buffer isn't clearing itself properly and wilderness areas with lots of trees are great for causing CTDs.

 

My own game isn't extensively modded and I'm not using any of the big overhaul mods except for Natural Environments. I do have about 30 mods running altogether which are the usual body, hair and eye replacers as well as various smaller tweaks for things related to gameplay.

 

My daughter mostly worked with fixing faulty business systems software and while she is a gamer she hasn't done much at all with poking around under the hood with the games she plays so I don't think she could give any definitive advice on .ini settings for Oblivion.

[Tinien]

So, you have 5th Anniversary Edition too. I have several versions of Oblivion on HDD - 5th Edition, GOTY Deluxe version from WaLMaRT and Gold Edition (Russian localization from 1C). I've tried playing all three of them and do like 5th Edition most of all. About web-versions - I don't like this idea of purchasing game not on physical media but virtually, bying certain passcode to my copy of the game. It seems as if at any moment access to the game can be denied or the internet can simply be disconnected so you cannot play. In any case disc version looks more substantial and reliable. But that is all lyrics and going back to our subject I want to say that I'm already familiar with this mod ENBoost which you proposed, and I don't know if this ENBoost is useful for small modlist which doesn't use very much RAM. I know that ENBoost is used for the same purpose like LAA Patch - to increase the amount of RAM available for the game - but "increases memory even more (can be used together with 4gb patch)", as its readme says. I don't know if ENBoost works in the same way as LAA Patch or differently, so I'm not sure if ENBoost is absolutely safe for the game code and wouldn't cause any side effects as LAA Patch can do. People report about improved stability of their gameplay after installing ENBoost. But as its readme says, "It's only useful when you have many mods installed and high resolution textures, in that case game may run out of memory and crash without this patch". As I said before I don't use many mods and high resolution textures so for my modlist ENBoost will unlikely be of any use. But thank you for your trying to help anyway. This topic is probably of much interest and concern for any Oblivion fan who wants to make his gameplay as stable as possible. So together we will surely find the exact answers to OP questions. Moreover, maybe someone will give an advice about not only Oblivion.ini but some other aspects which can also be improved for the same purpose.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Tinien