Oblicion Crashes at Various times (With Modlist)

[Autre31415]

I haven't played Oblivion in quite some time, but I was feeling nostalgic so I decided to reinstall it and browse what mods are really good nowadays, I've installed a bunch of mods that I've seen as either popular or suggested, and I'm pretty sure they are compatible with each other just fine. I've also used BOSS of course to get the right order, cleaned all dirty edits (Especially with those official DLC) and have updated my bashed patch every time I've added a new one. I made a new character (A Mage actually) and I haven't had many issues with crashing, but lately I'm getting them quite a bit, they seem to mostly occur during loading screens (For example I'm getting recommendations from the mages guild halls and sometimes I'll get a crash when I go through a door to transit to a new floor, like Mages guild living quarters). I'm also getting a crash sometimes when I fast travel (While it's loading, and it will usually crash right when the loading screen comes up), I've gotten a crash walking into an armor store in Bruma (Again the moment it starts to load), and one crash I've gotten without a load screen involved was when I clicked on the enchant recharge service on an NPC in the mages guild hall. I can always bring the game back up again, load my save and repeat my action where I got the crash and I get through fine, but inevitably I'll always get a crash from a new door transition, fast travel, etc.

 

Here's my load order I pasted from Wyre Bash, perhaps someone can spot an issue I'm not aware of.

 

Active Mod Files:

 

00  Oblivion.esm
01  SoVvM.esm
02  All Natural Base.esm  [Version 1.34]
03  Mart's Monster Mod.esm  [Version 3.8b1]
04  Armamentarium.esm  [Version 1.35]
05  Artifacts.esm  [Version 1.1]
06  Better Cities Resources.esm  [Version 5.2.5]
07  Knights - Revelation.esm
08  Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp  [Version 3.4.3]
09  UOPS Additional Changes.esp
0A  DLCShiveringIsles.esp
0B  Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp  [Version 1.5.2]
++  USIPS Additional Changes.esp
0C  Better Cities .esp  [Version 4.7.0]
0D  Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp
0E  All Natural.esp  [Version 1.34]
0F  All Natural - SI.esp  [Version 1.34]
++  All Natural - MMM Patch.esp  [Version 1.3]
10  Immersive Interiors.esp  [Version 0.8.1]
11  Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp
12  OBGE - Liquid Water.esp
13  Sounds of Cyrodiil.esp  [Version 1.1]
14  WindowLightingSystem.esp
15  ClocksOfCyrodiil_BC_OBC_OC_OCLR_Vanilla.esp
16  Reznod_Mannequin.esp
17  Oblivion Graphics Extender Support.esp  [Version 0.42]
18  DLCHorseArmor.esp
19  DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.8]
1A  DLCOrrery.esp
1B  DLCOrrery - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.5]
1C  DLCVileLair.esp
1D  DLCVileLair - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.9]
1E  DLCMehrunesRazor.esp
1F  DLCMehrunesRazor - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.6]
20  Sounds of Cyrodiil - Mehrune's Razor Add-On.esp  [Version 1.0]
21  DLCSpellTomes.esp
++  DLCSpellTomes - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.1]
22  CapesandCloaks.esp
23  DLCThievesDen.esp
24  DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.11]
25  DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch - SSSB.esp  [Version 1.0.11]
26  Sounds of Cyrodiil - Thieves' Den Add-On.esp  [Version 1.0]
27  Alluring Potion Bottles v3.esp
28  Alluring Wine Bottles.esp
++  ArmamentariumLL.esp  [Version 1.35]
++  ArmamentariumLLMagic.esp  [Version 1.35]
29  ArmamentariumArtifacts.esp  [Version 1.35]
2A  Mart's Monster Mod.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
++  Mart's Monster Mod - Shivering Isles.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
2B  Mart's Monster Mod - Additional Enemy NPC Vars.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
++  Mart's Monster Mod - Diverse Imperial Armor.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
2C  Mart's Monster Mod - Gems & Gem Dust.esp  [Version 3.7b7]
2D  Mart's Monster Mod - Hunting & Crafting.esp  [Version 3.7b7]
++  Mart's Monster Mod - Looting NPCs & Creatures.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
2E  Mart's Monster Mod - Durability & Damage.esp  [Version 3.7b7]
2F  Mart's Monster Mod - Dungeons of MMM.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
30  Mart's Monster Mod - More Wilderness Life.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
++  Mart's Monster Mod - More Passive Wildlife.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
31  Mart's Monster Mod - City Defences.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
32  Mart's Monster Mod - Extra Wounding.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
33  Mart's Monster Mod - Farm Animals.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
34  Mart's Monster Mod - Diverse WaterLife.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
++  Mart's Monster Mod - Diverse Runeskulls Loot G&GD.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
35  Artifacts.esp  [Version 1.1]
++  Artifacts - ArmaCompleteAddon.esp  [Version 1.0]
36  Better Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.esp  [Version 3.21]
37  DLCBattlehornCastle.esp
38  DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.8]
39  DLCFrostcrag.esp
3A  DLCFrostcrag - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.8]
3B  Knights.esp
3C  Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.1.3]
3D  Knights - Revelation.esp
++  Mart's Monster Mod - Knights.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
3E  Sounds of Cyrodiil - KOTN Add-on.esp  [Version 1.0]
3F  Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp
**  Alternative Start by Robert Evrae.esp
40  MidasSpells.esp
++  Soolie'sBetterEnchantmentEffects.esp
41  1em_Vilja.esp  [Version 4.04]
++  Mart's Monster Mod - Resized Races.esp  [Version 3.8b1]
42  Better Cities Full.esp  [Version 5.2.5]
43  Better Cities - VWD of the IC.esp  [Version 5.2.4]
44  Better Imperial City.esp  [Version 5.2.4]
45  Better Cities - All Natural.esp  [Version 4.9.5]
46  Better Cities - Knights of the Nine.esp  [Version 5.2.4]
47  Better Cities - No LEYAWIIN Flooding.esp  [Version 4.9.0]
++  Better Cities - Open Better Cities.esp  [Version 4.9.5]
48  Bashed Patch, 0.esp

 

 

 

Thanks for any help!

 

EDIT: Wow, nasty typo in the topic title, though I'm not sure how to change it. :/

Edited February 3, 2013 by Autre31415

[talveren]

This is one of the harder ones to track down. There could be several items that cause these crashes in different places. It's entirely possible you have more than one of the things that cause this issue going on.

 

1. Oblivion will crash if it exceeds its memory allotment. On a 32 bit system, that allotment is 2 Gb. On a 64 bit system, you can patch the game to use 4GB.

 

2. You have better cities Open Better cities but you don't have Open cities. I think that particular .esp is the integrator for the two. You have Clocks of Cyrodiil, but you don't have the Better Cities replacer for it. I'd suggest you go through the Better Cities documentation again and make sure you understand what .esp files are patches or replacers and double check that you have all the ones you need installed, and all the ones you don't need removed.

 

3. When you did your mod cleaning, did you include Midas? I know it deletes a few things Better Cities is looking for.

 

4. Go read this website. http://preventcrashesinoblivion.page.tl/ It documents a lot of the common ways to fix these kinds of problems.

 

Good luck. I'd love to know how it went. I had the same problem, and it took a while to track all the problems down and fix them.

[Autre31415]

Well I actually just reinstalled Better Cities to see if I could stop some crashes before making this post, and at the same time added Clocks. When I ran BOSS afterwards though the BC replacer file for clocks had a big yellow warning under it that said "Deactive clocksofcyrodiil.esp" So I took that off. As for running Open Cities I'll have to look into that and see what's going on there, most crashes seem to be related in some way to cities do that definitely could be a culprit.

 

The good news is since my OP yesterday I discovered the 4GB patch and applied it, and since then my crashes have been MUCH less frequent. I still am getting them from time to time, but not 5 minutes after loading the game, but still anything I can do to assure a stable game is of course worth it.

 

As for Midas BOSS wasn't reporting any dirty edits in there, should I backup the file and try cleaning it anyway to see what happens?

 

Also thanks for the suggestions.

 

EDIT: Just for some more detail here is what BOSS says about clocks:

 

ClocksOfCyrodiil_BC_OBC_OC_OCLR_Vanilla.esp Active

 

Warning: Deactivate CLocksOfCyrodiil.esp

 

-And also I wanted to add that I did add a bunch of additional music to the game by manually sorting them into the available music folders and not using a mod. All the tracks seem to be working though and I'm not sure if that would be relevant.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Autre31415

[talveren]

For Midas, yeah, I'd back it up and do the un-delete and disable. If I remember right, when I did it there were less than 5 entries and I think they were all around where the store and the fraternity got added.

 

You might also look into Oblivion Stutter Remover and Streamline. The Streampurge part of streamline helps a lot with the memory problem. I personally used the Heap replacement part of Stutter Remover.

Edited February 4, 2013 by talveren

[Autre31415]

Alright I'll give Midas a shot and see what happens.

 

I have the stutter remover installed, and it seemed to help at first but those cities still like to have very low fps (Funny thing is I play Skyrim with tons of mods and it has a better fps lol), I want to install Streamline but it seems like there is quite a bit of work involved in getting it working (Like edits with using all natural that I have yet to understand.) I'm definitely planning to get around to it though because that smoothing feature may make cities much more tolerable. The ironic thing is I opted out of the fps patch in Better Cities for the Imperial city, and that city gives me no problems at all, every other city turns into an fps deadzone unless I aim at the sky (Especially Skingrad)

 

I am going to read some more about streamline, I grabbed the 3.1 version. If you have any tips for it as well I definitely appreciate them too.

[talveren]

For streamline, I'm using streampurge, streamsave, and streamview. If you enable the extreme clipping option and use the fog settings you can gain some fps at the expense of distant viewing. That's what I did before I upgraded my video card.

 

Liquid water is a killer on the FPS, especially around the water front. I decided I liked the look more because I don't get into a lot of combat on the water front. The lowest I'm getting is 9 fps on the water front when I look towards the right coming from the Temple district. Outside that, when I look at lake Rumare, I'm getting ~15 fps. If I turn away from the water, I get 37-65 fps depending on the complexity of the images. You can really up the fps if you turn off the reflections on the water. At the moment, I've decided on the aesthetic and kept the reflections. I may get tired of the poor fps and disable it at some point, but right now, I like the view. :)

 

My current video card is a Gigabyte Nvidia 660 ti. I'm not maxing out its vram, but I am maxing out its gpu when I look toward the water.

[Autre31415]

Wow that water is a killer than, I'm running a GTX570 and I imagine that my fps is around the same in those situations (I haven't been checking it but it's definitely low) I did end up setting up streamline, the settings weren't as imposing as I thought they would be. I set the fog settings for 15 from oblivion.ini and the fps did increase there which is nice. But I'll definitely try that trick with the reflections in the water.

 

I also did some cleaning on Midas, it removed 13 UDRs and 11 dirty edits if I remember correctly, and I haven't noticed any issues with that. The nice thing is since doing all this my crashing seems to have gone down a lot. I might have found a definitive cause though, after examining my load order I spotted the alternate start mod in the list with a big dot next to it rather than a check, perhaps I uninstalled it wrong, so I went into the data folder and deleted the files for it and then it no longer showed up, that along with your suggestions and the 4GB patch really seemed to make the difference. :biggrin:

[talveren]

The dot means that it's been integrated into the Bashed patch when you build it. A dot is a import a + is a merge. That's good because the bashed patch takes care of conflicts in the items it contains.

 

I don't remember the difference between merged and imported right now, but it should be in the Wyre Bash Documentation.

 

When I want to see my FPS in game, I use a utility called Fraps.

[DrakeTheDragon]

As far as I know, "merged" is when the entire mod is merged into the bashed patch, "imported" is when only the "tagged" features got imported. I could be mistaken though. It's been a while. Edited February 7, 2013 by DrakeTheDragon