VWD mods have black textures or not visible at all

[TheKingArthur]

Whenever I try to load a VWD (Visible When Distant) mod, either the distant geometry is entirely black, or is completely invisible. See screen shots below. Now I have tried almost every different version of these mods; Tamriel VWD, AEVWD, RAEVWD, Enhanced AEVWD, but I always get the same result. I have tried to load this mod with no other mods, I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling oblivion along with wiping out the data folder and oblivion.ini file. I have tried the TES4LODGen program, (which is needed to show the LOD meshes, but after using this program they are all black in texture, before use, they are invisible.) I have also tried OBMM's Archive Invalidation with both BSA Alteration and Redirection settings. I can't seem to get anything to work.

 

If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, that would be spectacular!

 

I stumbled on a site that mentioned something about missing textures possibly being a fault of Vista file access privileges, but it didn't go into detail or suggest a fix for the problem. I am running Vista 64. I have also tried two different video cards; Ati 4850x2 and an Nvidia 8800GT, same thing.

 

Once again, any help would be much appreciated! Thanks.

[Khet]

To fix the UAC (User Account Control) issue with mods and Vista, you have two choices. Disabling it entirely, or reinstalling Oblivion to a new directory EXCEPT for C:/Program Files. UAC Only affects programs in the Program Files directory, so if you reinstall to C:/Games, no more issues.

 

To disable it, you go to Control Panel (home, not Classic View) User Accounts and Family Safety, User Accounts, and finally Turn User Account Control on or off. HOWEVER! Only turn off UAC if you or very trusted people are the only ones that use your computer as this can cause a bunch of security holes if someone knows what they're doing. Personally I have UAC turned off (mainly because my computer requires two passwords to boot up, and one to log into my account)

[bben46]

This is not a pure vista problem. I had it on my xp system also. It was fixed by turning off both the HDR and AA in video properties. One of those caused the black textures, the other one caused something else. I lose a little in my video beauty, but actually gained a couple of FPS - though not much.

[Khet]

You mean with the NVidia control panel? I didn't think it was possible to set HDR and AA just in game, but if memory serves correctly AA is disabled by default with the nVidia CP

[TheKingArthur]

Thanks for the tips guys! I already have UAC turned off long before doing any of this stuff. Generally I have it off all the time. I have tried the AA thing and no results. Wasn't using HDR already so no problem there. Something else weird though, after enabling Qarl's Depth of Field mod, when I move the camera/view around the textures flicker on, then instantly right back to black... Strange. Check the screenshots below. I'm going to try installing Oblivion to a folder other than the Program Files folder. Maybe that will work. (Incidentally I actually tried this but just moved the install from the "Program Files x86" folder to the "Program Files" folder. I guess they are both protected.) Anyway, I'll let you guys know what happens. Thanks again for the help!

[TheKingArthur]

Thanks guys, it appears that installing the game to a directory other than Program Files in Vista has fixed the problem of the black textures. I can use HDR or AA but not Bloom however. With Bloom enabled, all distant buildings are invisible. But that's ok, cause Bloom isn't that great anyway. :thanks: