Enhancing Performance Helper

[Shadowcran]

Enhancing your Oblivion Performance.

 

What this attempts to do:

1- Limit CTD's(crashes to desktop) as much as possible.

2- Limit corrupted Saves as much as possible.

3- Limit in game freezes as much as possible.

4- Limit the "black screen" as much as possible.

 

 

You are an Oblivion player seeking to make a great game even greater through mods. However, problems in Vanilla Oblivion will follow into the mods if not addressed. CTD's, corrupted saves, game freezes, These and more are almost standard in any PC game and are completely unpreventable from ever happening. This means they will happen no matter what. The goal of this information contained herein is to cut down on them as much as possible and keep Oblivion a great playing experience, if not a perfect one.

 

The following additions take into account low end machines as well. The advice I'm going to give is designed to help ALL the different computers and their Oblivion playing.

 

Step 1: DL and Install The Latest Oblivion patches. If you are playing with Shivering Isles(SI) then download the patches for this as well.You get these OFFICIAL patches off of the Bethesda site.

 

Step 2: DL and Install the Latest Unofficial patches. If you use Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, get the unofficial patches for these as well.

 

 

Unofficial Oblivion Patch v3.2

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/theelde.../mod/27022.html

 

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10739

 

Unofficial Knights of The Nine Patch

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12146

 

Step 3: For load order, Dl and install FCOM helper with the LATEST database for it. This is a small mod that fixes your load order in mere seconds.

FCOM Helper. Download the 1st and 4th file on the link.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/download.php?id=31497

 

Step 4: DL and install Wrye Bash. Seriously, I can't stress using this utility enough. Learn to use it slowly if it seems too complex. Before long, you'll master the use of it and realize all it's benefits.Wrye Bash contains some utilities to "clean up" your saves. It contains ways to look at your mods in detail. It has a NVIDIA fog fix that you can use on all your mods and thus prevent that. It has a ton of useful utilities. Wrye Bash requires the DL of 3 small mods. Don't forget to get Python and wxPython so that Wrye bash will work.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/User:Wrye

 

For Wrye Bash you'll need to DL and install these small programs.

 

http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5/

 

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading...se_mirror=voxel

 

Step 5: Dl and install the latest OBSE(Oblivion Script Extender)

http://obse.silverlock.org

 

Step 6: DL and install the latest OBMM(Oblivion Mod Manager) when you first start playing with mods, you may mistakenly think that only this is needed to add mods. I cannot stress getting out of dependance of this mod as soon as you can and get used to Wrye Bash. Wrye Bash does a ton of things that help out in fixing later on that OBMM doesn't. Plus Obmm reads conflicts where there are none. However, when you first start to use mods, this is an invaluable tool. Later, it can still be of use, if in a diminished capacity.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097

 

Step 7: DL and install Streamline 3.0. Do not get the 3.1 version as it has too many problems that will NOT be addressed or fixed in the future. Streamline also has an alternative to Quick and auto saves. Quick and auto eventually lead into CORRUPTED SAVES, so I stress not using them and instead use manual or streamlined saves instead. The reason 3.1 is buggy and incomplete is the modder of it has since stopped modding completely.(which is a shame, but it's the way the world works)

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10400

 

Step 8: Learn to make BSA files for the textures, sounds, and mesh folders that come with most mods. I've been doing this for the past few weeks and not only do I have almost no "missing textures or meshes" I also seem to have better performance. It's actually simpler than it looks. The Oblivion Mod Manager has utilities that do this better than the BSA commander.

 

Step 9: The following mods will help performance by usually getting rid of a component you truly don't need in the game or one that is a resource hog like the high polyed grass that Vanilla Oblivion contains.

 

Low Poly Trees:

http://oblivionmodgods.de/rpg-blackdragons...trees-t245.html

 

Low Poly Grass:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12280

 

No lights flicker:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6150

 

No Wind:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2578

 

Quiet Feet:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13016

 

Oblivion Poly Overhaul:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6981

 

Optimized Illumination:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6331

 

Operation Optimization:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6331

 

Hrmns Oblivion Script Optimization:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13092

 

Duke Patricks Script Effect Silencer:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15677

 

OAF (Oblivion Animation Fixer)

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5127

 

De-Parallaxer:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3209

 

Step 10: Avoid the major texture mods if you have a low end machine. You may have "the best looking Oblivion ever" but that's small comfort if you can only see it for 5 seconds before it crashes. I'm not saying do not get any of these. I'm just saying be smart with it and use the KISS method when selecting(KISS-Keep it simple, stupid, from Battle for Wesnoth philosophy). Be careful and get one that replaces something that annoys you.

 

 

There is a few mods that are all great mods, but you should never have both of them running at the same time due to occupying the same or too near the world space. I recommend getting both mods I list of these, but of course not running them together. Save one for another game.

 

Cybiades and Abacean Pirates. Cybiades is an awesome quest mod, Pirates a good faction mod. However, the boat to Cybiades is too close to the Pirates base of operations.

 

Haunted House(The dungeon mod, not the quest one) and Tumbderdon. These mods are almost right on top of each other. Use only one at a time.

 

Mithril Island and The Dragon Citadel. Believe it or not, you can actually run these 2 at the same time, but it'll look and act goofy. They occupy basically the same world space but since the Citadel is accessible by magic ring, this is negated. The citadel will appear OVER the mithril Island mod. You'll notice odd occurances because of this like fish spawning on land, but except for a few minor things, they both work....wierd, I know.

 

****Anvil. Vanilla Oblivion is a great game, but when it came to Anvil, things seem rushed. Quite a few major bugs NOT CAUSED BY MODS take place in or near this city. My advice is to save VERY often when doing a quest or adventure connected to Anvil. Also, when adding mods, be wary of adding too many to this area. Since there's not another town that is good enough for "water related mods" without building an entire port city from scratch, then Anvil is host to too many mods. Be careful of mods around Anvil as there's a good chance they'll conflict, especially those that add different ships. My advice is if the mod appeals to you, then by all means DL it, but be prepared to "save it for a later game" if it conflicts.

 

If you know of any more PERFORMANCE enhancing mods, please feel free to list them. I can't have possibly covered them all. Your help will be appreciated by me and probably by anyone who reads this and wants to boost their game.

[pedantic]

Setting virtual memory (the Swap File to old farts like me) to 1.5 times your whotsit ..erm, memory and setting both minimum and maximum virtual memory the same has significantly reduced CTD for me. Since doing so, I once again confidently use autosave on teleport and sleep, reasoning that my 'save' can no longer be splattered in multiple ...... erm, get fragmented.

 

For those who despise math. it's 1536MB per GIG of Memory.

 

Of course, I still get CTD, most recently today - by trying to sell Ardelene the contents of her shop :biggrin:

[Shadowcran]

Thanks Pedantic. Yes, CTD's are inevitable and will always occur somehow. I'm not promising an end to that, I'm promising it'll happen less.

 

Thanks again for the advice.

[myrmaad]

Thanks Pedantic. Yes, CTD's are inevitable and will always occur somehow. I'm not promising an end to that, I'm promising it'll happen less.

 

Thanks again for the advice.

 

Did you happen to see this when you posted your reply to the thread?

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=606401

 

IMO: unofficial patches are completely unnecessary, unless you really want something they change in your game, but they are not necessary to eliminate CTDs.

[pedantic]

That was an interesting read myrmaad.

[myrmaad]

That was an interesting read myrmaad.

 

I'm glad you found it somewhat useful :).. I did want to add: I just checked my savedgames -- I'm on number 1299, I also use the default autosave feature and I've only ever had one corrupted savegame.

[Shadowcran]

Myrmaad, The unofficial patches do help out a lot of players by fixing bugs, hence why I mentioned them as a performance helper.

 

Maybe you don't have corrupted saves, but others do. I'm trying what has worked in the past to help others as best I can. I have no trouble anymore with them due to me knowing how to avoid them. Others, especially new mod players, don't know much about it if anything and so I'm trying to help them. I'm running over 1k mods(merging using Gecko) with no save game bloat, no unearned CTD's(meaning while I'm playing the game and alt + tab out to check on a thread, a site or whatever I'll get a CTD sometimes when I go back to play, so therefore I earn it,lol) and few other problems. But to get to this point I had to endure finding information scattered everywhere.

 

I still think you or Dezdimona(perhaps both) should have a Mod order type list from a female perspective. I've seen your load orders countless times, and I feel you would know certain types of mods and how they work BETTER than a male perspective. Not one posted in the threads but posted similar to these:

 

http://ballofflame.googlepages.com/balloff...oblivionmodlist

 

http://antiochforever.com/files/members/En.../Mod%20List.htm

[ianfreddie07]

INI Tweaks are your friend. As long as you know what to do. :)

[Shadowcran]

I've been afraid to mess with that Freddie...if only there was a reliable guide on how to do them and just what it is you're doing/changing and specifically how to UNDO them(I'm thinking just simply have another copy of it somewhere else in your system, but am I right)....(hint, hint)

[myrmaad]

I've been afraid to mess with that Freddie...if only there was a reliable guide on how to do them and just what it is you're doing/changing and specifically how to UNDO them(I'm thinking just simply have another copy of it somewhere else in your system, but am I right)....(hint, hint)

 

There are several very reliable guides, and yes, you save your pristine untouched copy somewhere else, or in the same directory with a unique name, like "Oblivion._inioriginal"

 

I actually compared the tweaks from three guides, read very carefully what each tweak does, to decide if I wanted or needed it, and had made a bakup in advance.

 

I found one on UESP.wiki, and one I could have sworn was linked here by Bben way back in the early summer. There was one other I found by googling.

 

The test for whether it's a good guide: It explains what each tweak does and why you would (or would not) need it.

 

For example I have a dual core system, and it takes a different ini tweak to maximize it's potential with Oblivion then if I had a single processor. Oblivion wasn't designed with dual core technology in mind.

 

On a related note, I noticed someone said something about why Bethesda doesn't support Vista and "that should tell you something"; but the reason why Bethesda doesn't support Vista, is because it was built and released prior to Vista's release. I worked in software technology myself, not only did bethsoft support tell me that's the reason, it's the exact same logic my company used. Any current releases are compatible with latest technology for best practices purposes, but you can't mind-read future technology.

 

Oblivion works just fine on my Vista computer, and not just mine, but many others, so people shouldn't be discouraged from loading Oblivion on Vista. The biggest hurdle is figuring out to turn off UAC. I personally think that should never have shipped with the system, as it's one of Vista's greatest flaws, provides what I believe to be a false sense of security when it is enabled, and security is done better by a good internet security suite, anyway.

 

READ CAREFULLY, Before doing:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_8.html

http://cycophant.50webs.com/OblivionTweak.html

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Tweaking