ok, simply this for me please

[mjc1976]

ok, im moderatly new to elder scrolls modding. i started off on skyrim, and had started to get my head around it to some small extent. i got mods in, working, and was happy enough. i still was having issues tho with the occassional CTD's. but anyway, i digress.

 

i was getting a little fed up with it. a little cos of the ctd's, but also because skyrim is still too recent for me,i e: not that long since finished it on xbox. then i though about oblivion. i havent played it since it launched on xbox, so it will be a pretty fresh experience to go back to. also, a quick online check says that my pc is waaaay over the recommended for oblivion, whereas it was showing at a teeny tiny bit under recommended for skyrim. so i should have a better time of it (i was doing a LOT of graphical compromises on skyrim)

 

now, i have spent a bit of time reading up on OBBM, OSE, OBGE, WYRE BASH, and BOSS. and, as such, my head is getting around it slowly but surely. so, whilst i continue to learn and understand whats what with all them, can someone do me a little favour. all im asking is a very simple quick bullet guide from "heres my vanilla" to "heres oblivion with the crap modded out of it". im already getting an idea of the mods i want, so im not asking for help there (though any 'under-rated/easy to miss' performance ones u can recommend wouldn't go amiss). its more a case of, because my head is spinning taking in the reams of info about all the bits n peices, a nice little handy guide of "do this, this and this in this order" would be nice to go back to, especially once i start doing it. just to get the routine of it down, so to speak

 

i hope that makes sense

 

thanks

Edited March 19, 2013 by mjc1976

[Striker879]

My standard response is Noob up and running. The first post is updated with all of the conclusions and recommendations that are outlined through the thread's discussion. It's primarily focused on improving the graphical aspect of the game.

 

Best advice of my own is to get the game installed and patched to version 1.2.0416. If you are using the disk version and own the Shivering Isles DLC as well make sure you install SI before applying any of the official patches. If you have the disk Game of the Year version installing SI will also get your game patched up to 1.2.0416. If you have an older disk version as well as SI then after installing SI be sure to download and install the correct patch (language version and SI version patch). Even if you have no intention of playing through the SI content you will find many mods that require SI to work (not that they take place in SI but use SI assets in their mod). Once you have the non-SI version patched to 1.2.0416 you need to uninstall before adding SI.

 

With just the vanilla game (plus SI if you have it) play through the tutorial dungeon right up to the point where you can see the sewer exit in the distance. Make a save, using either 'manual' save from the Esc menu or a 'named' save using the console command 'save <YourSaveNameHere>' (without the quote marks and without the brackets). Get into the habit of always saving in a new slot or name (i.e. MySave1, MySave2 etc.). Never use quicksave (F5 by default) as it's a known corrupter of save files.

 

After you get your before the sewer exit save (which will come in handy when you want to start a new character but don't want to redo the tutorial) go through the character finalization menu and exit the sewer. Make another save. Fine tune your graphics setting to get the best trade off between looks and performance. Just because your machine is fairly new and can run Skyrim doesn't mean you'll get outstanding performance in Oblivion. It's an old game and doesn't take advantage of many of the features of modern hardware. This save will be the one you can use once you get the game tuned to your liking.

 

Go to the Market District of the Imperial City during the day and check your performance with lots of NPCs around. Make another save. This will be your mod testing save (plus many armor/clothing mods are plunked in the Market District). Now start adding mods one at a time (or in groups of 'required' mods when a mod requires others that aren't yet installed but remember that mod install order is as important as load order ... read the mod install instructions).

 

On the subject of installing mods be sure to have utilities like Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) installed and working before installing mods that require it (and many more recent mods will require it). OBSE will not work with any version of the game except the disk versions or Steam. If you have the GameStop/Impulse or Direct2Drive versions of the game it just won't work ... period.

 

Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) is an older more often supported method of installing mods. Many Oblivion mods will install just fine with Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) but there are also plenty that will not (without a lot of manually restructuring file and folder structure ... at which point you could just manually install with copy and paste). If you are interested in using NMM (perhaps because you are familiar with it) get in the habit of reading mod comments to get a feel for what mods will work with NMM and which will not (this will only work with mods that have been popular more recently, since NMM came out). You can use more than one method for installing mods (i.e. NMM for this mod, OBMM for another and manual install for yet others).

 

Wrye Bash (WB) is required to get some mods working (read the mod description and install instructions) and may be required once you get a lot of mods installed. One of the utilities offered in WB is the 'bashed patch', which takes overlapping/conflicting records from multiple mods, decides which one to use and places all those records in the bashed patch (which is just a 'mod' you update every time your rebuild your bashed patch). WB uses BOSS to sort your load order and get tags it uses for building the bashed patch. WB and BOSS aren't something you need right from day one modding Oblivion, unless one of your early 'must have' mods requires it.

 

Oblivion Graphics Extender (OBGE) is covered in more detail than I could give in the Noob up and running thread. I'm no good at bullet lists ... hope this helps.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Striker879

[mjc1976]

excellent post and reply. thankyou very much.

 

all a bit daunting when starting from scratch really :blink: i will work it out though.

 

im not really tied to the NMM. have used it so far, but im sure i can work out the rest. besides, places like this and google are my friend.

 

but again, thanks for that. some nice little tips in there that i will definatly be utilising. (to clarify, i have already extended all the relevent progs and whatnot. have loaded from obse already, and that works fine)

[Striker879]

Having the game patched to 1.2.416 and started with OBSE is an excellent start. If you edited your Oblivion desktop shortcut so that it uses obse_loader.exe instead of Oblivion_launcher.exe something to keep in mind is you won't be presented with the vanilla game launcher that gives you 'Data Files' as a method to activate mods any more. All you see is the two small black windows and then the game's main menu screen ... the Steam version of OBSE works the same as before I believe, perhaps a Steam user could comment on that.

 

Installing and activating mods using OBMM will work the same as before (OBMM recognizes that OBSE is installed). A trick I use to activate mods that I have installed manually (the 'copy and paste' method) is to use the Windows Start menu shortcut to bring up the vanilla game launcher menu (I haven't edited that shortcut to point to obse_loader.exe). Just remember, after you activate the mod that way using the launcher 'Data Files' close the selection dialogue and then exit the vanilla launcher. The mod will be activated, but if you try launching the game with the old launcher it will fail after OBSE is installed and you try to load a save that needs OBSE.

 

Start with simple mods and then use Windows Explorer to get familiar with the folder structure the game needs. You'll see that mesh files have the '.nif' extension and are found in subfolders of 'Oblivion\Data\meshes', textures are .dds and go in 'Oblivion\Data\textures' etc. If/when you run into a problem we're here to help. We all were new to this a some point, and I know it can be a lot to swallow at first ... chew slowly, small bites.

[mjc1976]

thanks.

 

an artice i was reading (following from the link you provided, and then one further from that) makes mention of increasing RAM usage. however, the article only really offers a guide for oblivion/steam users, and the link he provides with the file required is talking about 64bit windows rather than the 32bit i have.

 

now, i havent downloaded anything to this end, but it did intreague me. is this something i should be looking at?

[Striker879]

Unfortunately 32 bit operating systems can't use any RAM above 4 GB (without using advanced things like RAM drives that use excess system RAM as though it was a hard drive ... but there are lots of things you need to work around with systems like that). The operating system itself will need some of that 4 GB which generally leaves programs running in 2 GB or less, depending on how many things you have starting automatically at boot up and that you leave running in the background while gaming (virus scanners, browsers, instant messaging etc. all take RAM and system resources).

 

If you have 4 GB RAM I'd suggest just minimizing background tasks as much as easily possible. If you have 2 GB like me and you want max performance create a separate Windows log-in for gaming and use guides like Korosh Ghazi's Tweaking Companion (pick the one for your OS), The Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide (don't miss the links on page 2 specific for your brand of video card) and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Tweak Guide to optimize your system and game install as much as possible.

 

That's not advice to go in and implement every single suggestion. It helps to understand as much as possible about each suggestion before implementing it. I've been building my own machines for years and use the first two guides whenever I set up a new machine, but even I don't follow suggestions I don't understand. I also have a bunch of those 'Everything you wanted to know about Windows' books (you know the ones that have 1200 pages and weigh about 3 pounds). Sure I haven't read every page on all of them, but when I run into something I don't understand I have a library at home to refer to for more info.

 

Get the vanilla game up and running, use the Oblivion Tweak guide to work out how much of the 'pretty' your machine can deliver and still be playable for you. Don't be a slave to frames per second ... this isn't some on-line first person shooter where he who has the best FPS wins. Play the game, fight some bandits, visit some cities and then decide it you went too far with your tweaks and/or modding.

[mjc1976]

just a quick update

 

this has been slow going as i had initially installed into the program files folder. bit stupid, but hey ho

 

one uninstall/install later.....

 

ok, so i have all the dlc and unofficial patches loaded up now. however, the battlehorncastle unofficial patch is not playing ball. not sure what to do about that.

 

i have the qt3p redemized and further reduced (plus patch), bomreats textures 4 shimmering isles, and MEAT installed as i type this.

 

and a quick check shows im running at 60 fps and (i think) 250mb ram usage

 

edit: installed a rather large LOD replacer - still near to 60fps and ram usage has just over doubled. looking sweeeeeeeeeeet so far though

Edited March 20, 2013 by mjc1976

[Striker879]

I'm not certain on what may be the problem with the Battlehorn unofficial patch, but it could be a load order situation. This might be a good time to start using BOSS to sort your load order (it would make sure that your Battlehorn unofficial was after your Battlehorn ESP for example ... and anything else it needed to be after). I'm getting the impression that you'll be using some of the more complicated to get running type mods too (not sure what 'MEAT' is for example). It may be a good idea to start getting familiar with Wrye Bash. The Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide can help with that.

[mjc1976]

i have already been using boss and wrye bash (although the latter less so)

 

different question for you. i've been looking at the "noob up and running" you have linked, and am kinda follwing it (and another guide i am finding helpful). anyway, it recommends installing only the 'habitats' from 'natural environments'. how do i go about enstalling just that aspect?

 

oh, and regarding that unofficial patch, i have already ran boss on it. didnt help. never mind, not that important right now

[mjc1976]

nevermind. i got it :biggrin: