Last update Sunday, September 21, 2008
Index


Introduction
Performance-Enhancing Mods
Other Useful And Essential Programs
Various Web Links
General PC Maintenance/Notes
.ini Settings and Tweaks to Consider


Introduction

Welcome to The Oblivion Performance Project. This project is aimed at users who have low-end GPUs and/or PCs, want to play a smoother game, or want to take advantage of graphic-enhancing mods without making Oblivion unplayable. Here, one can find useful information on mods, programs, and .ini file settings that can help increase FPS. This is a community project, so all feedback is welcome. Have you found something else to increase FPS? Let us know! Remember to always make a back-up of you .ini file and/or data folder before making any major changes. If you find this project useful, please post, so this doesn't end up getting lost in the sea of threads. TOPP has a more permanent location on my google pages if you want to bookmark it.

The best other resource for performance tweaking Oblivion is the Oblivion Tweak Guide. It covers quite a bit that was left out of this project to avoid redundancy, so I highly recommend checking it out.

The Oblivion Performance Project was started by Gorgo in 2006, who, with community support and input, collected information and links on improving the performance of Oblivion and shared it all in a single post in a dedicated thread. Gorgo disappeared in November, and the thread, along with its wealth of information, was purged from the forums. Luckily, I foresaw this, saved the thread to my computer before it got purged, and have since revived the project. I have updated the links and notes, improved the organization and presentation, and added the new performance resources I could locate since the project was abandoned. Thus, I present to you the new and improved TOPP. This is, and always has been, a community project, so if you have any feedback or informational contributions to make, I am receptive to all input. Enjoy!


Performance-Enhancing Mods

Optimizers
►Combat FPS Optimizer
This mod changes several .ini settings when you enter combat. It will revert back to you original settings after combat. OBSE is required to use this mod. Made obsolete by Streamline.
►Nearly Perfect Frame Rate FPS Optimizer
Automatically adjusts the detail levels in the video options while playing. Made obsolete by Streamline.
►Oblivion Scripts Optimization
Optimizes in-game scripts to strain CPU less.
►Operation Optimization
Improves performance by optimizing meshes with no quality loss.
►O.R.B. Directory Splitter
Takes an unpacked BSA directory and splits it to a user-defined number of directories which you then can place on separate harddrives for increased performance.
►WHOOSH
Lets you manipulate the game speed, thus allowing you to slow down the speed to stop stuttering and make gameplay smoother.

Polygon Reducers
►LowLowPoly Grass - LowPoly Grass - LowLowPoly Grass for SI - LowPoly Grass for SI - LowPoly Grass for UL: The Dark Forest[/url]
These mods lower the poly count on all grass models. LLPG lowers polys to 4. LPG lowers polys to 8. Vanilla default is 20.
►LowTriPolyGrass
This mod lowers the poly count on all grass models with 12 different levels.
►LowPolyTrees
Reduces the polygon count of trees.
►Oblivion Polygone Overhaul
This mods removes superfluous polygons.
►Optimised Distant Land MAX
Reduces superfluous polygons from distant land.
►Oscar's Nicer Grass
Lowers grass length and density.

Purgers
►HTFpcb - HTFpcb Extended
This mod gives you the option to 'purge' textures from memory. The extended version requires OBSE to work, but basically does the same thing. Made obsolete by Streamline.
►Streamline
Increases performance by clearing memory buffers intelligently and safely. Now with tons more features.

Removers/Reducers
►De-Parallaxer Mod
This mod removes parallax shaders from some in-game items.
►Dimmer Magic Effects
Lowers the magic effect when casting spells
►Large Battle FPS Increaser
This mod is similar to the above mod. Runs mostly in the Arena during battle.
►Music Controller
Makes music play only under certain conditions, allowing bMusicEnabled in the .ini to be changed to 0 for greater frames per second.
►No Lights Flicker
This mod removes the 'flickering' from all light sources.
►No Refraction Gates
This mod replaces the vanilla textures of Oblivion Gates.
►No Refraction Spells
This mod also replaces the vanilla textures, but for spells.
►No Wind and No Wind for SI
Removes the swaying animation from trees and plants.
►Pixelivion
Shrinks textures and removes normal maps to exchange visuals for performance.
►PyFFI - nif optimizer
Optimizes nif files for better performance.
►Spells No Lighting
Removes lighting from spells.
►Quiet Feet
This mod removes the 'footstep' sounds from all non-humanoid creatures to prevent stuttering.
►Quiet Feet MAX
Replaces problematic footstep sounds with a 0 byte or smaller sound file to reduce stuttering.


Texture Reducers
►LowRises Cyrodiil - Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 - Patch
LowRises for OOO - Parts: 1 2 3
This mod retextures almost every in-game with a smaller texture size that appears to be a larger size.
►Wiseman's Reduced Textures - Parts: 1 2 3 - Extras
This mods also reduces the textures of almost all of the in-game items.


Other Useful And Essential Programs

►Driver Cleaner
This cool program removes ALL traces of old drivers. Use this after removing old drivers and before installing new ones.
►Everest Home Edition
Probably considered the best Benchmark utility around. Use this to see how well your PC is performing and/or how it should be performing.
►Oblivion Script Extender
This program 'extends' the amount of scripts in the game. Some new mods require OBSE to run. Follow the link for more details
►Oldblivion
This program is essential for all who have low-end GPUs. It provides support for 1.x Shaders found on older GPU cards.
►Tweak Oblivion
This nifty little program can automatically change your .ini settings and has some pre-set values to choose from. If you are unsure about changing the .ini file yourself, then this program is for you.
►Wrye Bash
Multi-purpose program that can remove bloat from saved games, fix certain glitches, and make mods work better together.


Various Web Links

Antivirus
►Avast Antivirus
Uses less system resources than most antivirus programs.

Defragmenters
►Diskeeper
This cool program is by far the best in disk maintenance.
►jkDefrag
Free defragmentor.
►PerfectDisk 2008
Defragments the harddrive. Free trial version available.
►Ultimate Defrag
Defragments harddrives.

Guides
►Clean Boot
This link will provide you with information on how to perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP.
►Oblivion Mods FAQ
Absolutely essential resource for everything mod-related.
►Oblivion Tweak Guide
This site offers descriptive explanations of the .ini tweaks found here. One can also find other game tweaks here as well.
►Optimising Oblivion
This site also offers a selection of tweaks for Oblivion as well as other games.
►Trim Down Windows to the Bare Essentials
Guide to removing parts of Windows that you don't need to improve performance.
►TuneXP
This site has tips, downloads, and links for tuning-up, tweaking, and optimizing Windows XP.

Other
►AlacrityPC
Temporarily shuts down unnecessary services and programs before running a program and starts them up after you finish.
►Ashampoo
Optimizes system-related settings. Free trial version available.
►CCleaner
Removes temporary data to increase system performance.
►FSAutoStart
Allows the user the ability to automatically shutdown services and programs to save resources. Has other features such as defragmenting. Has a patch here.
►Game XP
Tweaks and modifies various XP settings (cache settings, CPU priority etc.) and optionally disables or stops several Windows services that are usually not needed.
►PC Accelerate 2.1
Free program that prioritizes processes for optimal performance, fixes registry errors, and cleans the system.
►Priority Master
Clean, high quality program with a free limited version. It automatically gives any foreground program very high priority, and LOWERS the background program priorities, freeing up processor cycles. Unlike many other priority programs it is compatible it is compatible with OBSE.
►Winaso Registry Optimizer
An advanced registry cleaner and optimizer for Windows that allows you to safely clean and repair registry problems. Free trial version available.
►Startup Cop
Let's you easily control which programs start upon boot.
►Tuneup Utilities
Incredible program. Optimizes system-related settings, fixes errors in the registry, defragments the registry, and far more things than I will list here. Free trial version available.


Spyware
►Ad-Aware SE
Keeps your PC clean from spyware.
►Pest Patrol
Finds spyware that other programs tend to miss.
►Spybot
Finds and removes spyware and blocks malicious websites.

Video Card Stuff
►ATI drivers and related stuff - get the latest and Official drivers here.
Official ATI Driver Page
ATI Tools - a tweaking and overclocking tool for ATI users. Make sure you fully understand what this does before making any changes.
►Nvidia drivers and related stuff
Official Nvidia Driver Page - get the latest and Official drivers here.
Coolbits - a reg key to enable overclocking of your Nvidia GPU. Be very carefull when attempting to do so ! Make sure you fully understand what this does before making any changes.
RivaTuner - similar to Coolbits, alowing one to overclock a Nvidia GPU. Make sure you fully understand what this does before making any changes. FAQ and guide.
►TweakRus
This site offers a variety of tweaked GPU drivers.


General PC Maintenance/Notes

►Keep in mind that your frames per second (FPS) is determined by your weakest link at any given time, whether that be your CPU, video ram, or whatever.
►HDD Defragmentation - perform routine HDD defragmentations, esp. after installing large programs and/or mods. Fragmentation of a HDD will slow down file access, thus causing performance issues. Windows XP is good with keeping the HDD defragged at all times, but you will need to defrag after those large program installs. I recommend using Diskeeper for all you defrag needs.
►Remove Dust – Some computers, especially laptops, accumulate dust in the fans and vents that lead to blocked air and overheating. Blowing out the dust occasionally can make a surprisingly significant difference. Use a compressed air canister for unbelievably more effective dust removal than old fashioned blowing.
►Avoid Overheating - Overheating can cause your computer to run significantly slower, so make sure vents remain unblocked so heat can escape, and even consider aiming a fan at your computer if the problem is large enough.
►Update Your Drivers - up-to-date drivers can make a difference. However, this is not always the case. Many people use tweaked drivers that are versions behind the official drivers. Ask around and see which driver fits your PC and GPU the best. It might take some time, but is well worth it.
►Virus/Spyware Scan - If you use Antivirus, perform routine scan to ensure your PC is virus free. Most newer antivirus programs scan for spyware as well. On the flip side, it is recommended to disable any antivirus programs will playing Oblivion (or any other game as well).
►"If you're playing with VSync on, it's practically mandatory to also use the D3D Overrider tool that comes with Riva Tuner. It enables triple buffering in Directx games."- Marty81
►"Also people can !WITH CARE! run msconfig and remove non necessary (!NON-NECESARRY!) startup applications, and with care startup services." -Marty81
►Jaga’s dual core computer .ini recommendations:
[codebox][HAVOK]
bDisablePlayerCollision=0
fJumpAnimDelay=0.7500
bTreeTops=0
iSimType=1
bPreventHavokAddAll=0
bPreventHavokAddClutter=0
fMaxTime=0.0167
bHavokDebug=0
fRF=1000.0000
fOD=0.9000
fSE=0.3000
fSD=0.9800
iResetCounter=5
fMoveLimitMass=95.0000
iUpdateType=0
bHavokPick=0
fCameraCasterSize=1.0000
iHavokSkipFrameCountTEST=0
fHorseRunGravity=3.0000
fQuadrupedPitchMult=1.0000
iNumHavokThreads=3
fChaseDeltaMult=0.0500
iEntityBatchRemoveRate=100
iMaxPicks=40
bAddBipedWhenKeyframed=0[/codebox]
And...
[codebox]
[BackgroundLoad]
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
bBackgroundCellLoads=1
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1
iAnimationClonePerLoop=5
bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=0
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
iPostProcessMillisecondsEditor=50
iPostProcessMillisecondsLoadingQueuedPriority=20
iPostProcessMilliseconds=5
bUseBackgroundFileLoader=0[/codebox]
►"Here's another tip for those with two harddrives.
I installed a fresh copy of windows xp on the second harddrive used for playing Oblivion only while having Oblivion installed on my main drive where my primary windows installation resides. Everytime I want to play Oblivion, I would go to the bios to enable my second harddrive to boot as primary so I can load the clean windows installation. While in the second installation, I run Ultimate Disk Defragger to selectively place the Oblivion folder to the outer edge of the harddrive for quicker access. I also set the virtual memory to a fixed 2.0gig on the secondary drive. Playing OB on the second drive reduced stuttering by 300%!!"- jacky89
►"If you have two fisical HD drivers you could copy the half of the BSA files to the other HD. For ex. leave the textures.bsa file in the Oblivion data folder, and move meshes.bsa and sounds.bsa files to the other drive, in a folder like d:\Ob\ Then you change in the Archive section of the oblivion.ini file, the path to the moved BSA files. For ex. meshes.bsa -> d:\Ob\meshes.bsa You can do this with any BSA file (Frans, etc) but ALWAYS checking the resitered path in the oblivion.ini file. It reduce de stuttering when loading new content in the game!!!!"- skeleton
►"Another tip is that you could unpack the BSA files and pack them again without compression. Do this using BSA Commander software. You can get BSA Commander soft here: Again less stuttering, comproved!"- Skeleton
►"Another tip: You install a lot of mods, they add little files to the meshes, textures and sound folders.. Using BSA command, you can pack them in a BSA file. For ex. creating a new texture1.bsa file with the content of the modded texture folder. The same with meshes, sound, etc. AND register them in the oblivion.ini file. If you dont have more space to register (max 255char) change the name of the BSA files. For ex. meshes.bsa -> m.bsa. Sounds.bsa -> s.bsa so you could add more BSA files without problems. Then you can delete all these little files, that you already have in a BSA pack file. And again less stuttering!!!!! comproved!"- Skeleton
►"ALWAYS do a HD defrag after these procedures."- Skeleton
►Skeleton's elaboration:
[codebox]Ok, this is what I did.

Unpacked this the BSA files to another directory (not Oblivion one)
Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa
Knights.bsa (if you have Knight of the Nine installed)
anda all the SI bsa files.

Exclude Meshes, voices and misc bsa files (the original Oblivion ones, not SI)


Copied all the modded files to the new directory (where the original BSA are unpacked), some overwrites will occur, thats all right.

Now packing all again....

If the texture directory is bigger than 1.5 gb, divide it in two or more BSA files, I divide the by class, armor and weapons, clutter and clothes, etc. this way is easiest to upgrade the BSA files later with new content.

The same with the modded meshes, if everything enter in 1.5 its just fine to do only one BSA.

And the same with the voices, and the same with the sound (FX). I packed sound\voice in one BSA and sound\fx in aonther BSA file.

OK - now you have a new set of textures BSA files, new modded bsas files for meshes, sound, and voice, ok.

Tip, when creating a new BSA file use a short name, an ex. for meshes will be: M2.bsa modded voices will be V3.bsa
Texutes. A.bsa, B.bsa
It is for the 256 character limit in the oblivion.ini archive section.


Now installing the new BSA files
------------------------------------------------------------------
Criate a directoy in the second HD, mini is D:\O

Copy the the new VOICE, SOUND and MESHES files there, adn MOVE the original MESH bsa (better rename it to something like M1.bsa) here too.

Then you can rename the original MISC, and VOICE files (like MISC.bsa, and V1.bsa, V2.bsa), leving them where they are.


Ok, now the oblivion.ini changes....

[Archive]
SMasterMiscArchiveFileName=Misc.bsa <-CHANGE TO THE ORIGINAL (RENAMED) Oblivion - Misc.bsa
SMasterVoicesArchiveFileName2=V2.bsa <-SAME WITH Oblivion - Voices2.bsa
SMasterVoicesArchiveFileName1=V1.bsa <-SAME WITH Oblivion - Voices1.bsa
SMasterSoundsArchiveFileName=D:\S1.bsa <-ADDING THE SECOND DISC DIRECORY, AND RENAMED FILE
SMasterTexturesArchiveFileName1= <-BRANK NOT NEEDED
SMasterMeshesArchiveFileName=D:\M1.bsa <-ADDING THE SECOND DISC DIRECORY, AND RENAMED ORIGINAL MESH FILE
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt
iRetainFilenameOffsetTable=1
iRetainFilenameStringTable=1
iRetainDirectoryStringTable=1
bCheckRuntimeCollisions=0
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
bUseArchives=1
SArchiveList=D:\M1.bsa, D:\T1.BSA (HERE GOES THE NEW TEXTURES FILES), D:\S1.bsa, D:\S2.bsa (moddified sounds), V1.bsa, V2.bsa, D:\V3.bsa (moddified Voices), Misc.bsa


Hope this helps.

Ah, before all this unpack and pack the original mesh file without compression, ALWAYS remember to set the correct tags at BSA Commander!!!!!!!!!!

ALL THIS REALLLYYYY HELP ME WITH SUTTERING, NO KIDDING[/codebox]

►"Has anyone else tried patching your Oblivion.exe to be Large Access Aware? I applied the /LARGEACCESSAWARE flag to my Oblivion.exe file using LaaTiDo (after backing up my original, of course!). In short, the /LARGEACCESSAWARE flag enables an application to access up to 4GBs of RAM in a 64-bit OS as opposed to the standard 2GBs for 32-bit applications in 32-bit Windows.
This does seem to help, as I can play a bit longer between CTDs... It may just be a placebo affect, though. Since patching, I've seen Oblivion.exe using up to 2.2GBs (of 4GBs in 64-bit Vista) of RAM. I've also seen 95% total RAM usage using the display on my G15 keyboard while playing. While sitting idle, my system's RAM usage is about 15%, for comparison.
I'm not sure if I can recommend doing this, but it seems to help a bit. Oblivion wasn't designed with this flag, though, so use at your own risk... It certainly doesn't seem to hurt if your system has the RAM to spare, as the game runs at least as well as before, and even works with OBSE." -Valamoor
►"Here's a tip for everyone who is testing various INI tweaks: don't make the changes in the INI directly, it gets too hard to remember everything that was changed. Instead, and OBMM is required, create an OMOD with no files in it. Click on Create Script, and use EditINI to make the changes. This way, you can track your changes, quickly insert or remove your changes by activating/deactivating the OMOD, and can document what you tried in comments." -Asesino

.ini Settings and Tweaks to Consider
(DO NOT simply apply all of these changes without knowing what you are doing, or you will probably cause more harm than good. The default .ini file is actually pretty good pre-tweaked since the 1.2 patch. Input on updated recommended .ini tweaks is welcome! Make sure you not only make a backup .ini, but that you compare frame rates before and after making changes: changes that speed things up on one computer may cause problems on another.)

Recommended (Defaults are in parenthesis.)
1) iPreLoadSizeLimit = 26214400 (26214400*)
2) uGridstoLoad = 5 (5)
3) uInteriorCellBuffer=3-5** (3)
4) uExteriorCellBuffer = (uGrid + 1)^2** (36)
5) bUseJoystick = 0 (1)
There have been many reports of joysticks either not working or crashing the game. This should be disabled.
6) iMaxImpactSoundCount = 16 (32)
7) iMinGrassSize = 100 (80)
Try higher values for low-end PCs. If you're using LowPolyGrass - change it to 120 for
maximum density without FPS loss.
8) iThreads = 1 (3)
9) iNumHavokThreads = 1 (1)
10) bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen = 1 (?)
11) Anything else with "thread" in it (other than the three entries immediately above) should be changed to 0 to reduce stutter
12) bLoadHelmetsInBackground = 1 (?)
13) bSaveonWait = 0 (1)
14) bSaveonRest = 0 (1)
15) bSaveonTravel = 0 (1)
16) bSaveonInteriorExteriorSwitch = 0 (1)
Speeds up loading times.

*Jaga Telesin's explanation:
"iPreLoadSizeLimit is one of those things people thinks work like a regular "cache", when in fact it does not. Larger values in this setting are WORSE for players since the 1.2.x patch. Martigen and I spent a week straight looking into this and a few other performance related INI values, and in fact it's better to keep it lower if possible. The right number is something you arrive at based on what you are using. The default value of 26214400 can be equated to one "unit" of cache. To find out how many units you need, refer to the following list:

• (+1) Vanilla Oblivion + 30 or less mods (all small)
• (+1) OOO, Fran's, Warcry (not FCOM)
• (+1) MMM (not FCOM)
• (+2) FCOM
• (+1) QTP1 (or similar normal-size texture pack)
• (+2) QTP2 (or similar medium-size texture pack)
• (+3-4) QTP3 (or other large-size texture pack)

So for example, someone running Oblivion, a few small mods, OOO and MMM would need a setting of: 1+1+1 (3x default) or 78643200. Generally this floats up and down by 1x, so that person might be able to get away with 2x instead, which is BETTER than 3x. You know you are too low when just after changing it and reloading the game, you start stuttering badly.

A high end machine with 2gb of RAM doesn't need to set their cache at 1gb, that's just insane. They need instead to evaluate what they run and see what setting value they need. If they had Oblivion+mods, FCOM, and QTP3 they would need: 1+2+3, or around 6x default (157286400), which is roughly 153mb of Oblivion cache.

Everyone's experience is unique, so people will have to play with their settings to get it just right. Too large and you will get problems, too small and you'll get different problems with similar symptoms (stutter and lag). Finding the sweet spot is what tweaking this entry is all about. My numbers are just a rough guide, and are by no means the final word on the setting."

**-pk-'s explanation:
"I would recommend leaving uExterior Cell Buffer alone as increasing this value will clutter your ram and vram with additional objects, textures, and actors which can reduce your average fps if your vram is already high from texture packs, or in other cases cause a constant stutter (despite whatever your fps may be) or system lockup. This value can only reduce stuttering when backtracking to previously loaded cells. Also, this setting does not determine how many cells are initially loaded, instead the uGrid is used for this (as well as when on the move).

Worst-case Scenario (clicky) :
The dark blue squares are the loaded cells around the player with a uGrid setting of 5. The light blue cells are to be loaded next. One or both of the yellow cells will be loaded depending on which adjacent squares the player touches before reaching the destination to the upper left. As you can see, this is where the exterior cell buffer of 36 is derived from.

Best-case Scenario :
This shows the player running in a straight line parallel to the cells orientation. The dark blue squares are the loaded cells around the player with a uGrid setting of 5. The light blue cells are previous cells that are still loaded in the buffer. White cells were unloaded from the buffer. In this example, if you were to turn around and run directly back you would not have to load any of the light blue cells; however this is not what the cell buffer was designed for!

Likewise, increasing uInterior Cell Buffer will keep additional unneeded cells. Around 3 to 5 is a good setting for this. Interiors can be very large, 1 interior cell contains everything up until the next door with a loading screen. The reason this was set to 3 is because of actors in adjacent cells (most stores have 1 basement, 1 main floor, and 1 top floor; most caves are typically either a chain with up to 3 rooms right after each other, or 1 large central room with 2-3 rooms branching off). Also note that oblivion gates are exterior cells and not interiors.

I should also mention that walking close to a door leading to a exterior (like inside IC) will seamlessly load a few of the exterior cells on the other side, but this does not happen for doors leading to interiors so there is no reason to have a high interior cell buffer. If you are in an exterior cell and walk through a door with a loading screen leading to another exterior (cities/gates), then the buffer will automatically purge the interior and exterior cell buffers. The biggest problem for having a large interior cell buffer comes from caves/ruins that are attached to the main Cyrodiil exterior since the interior cell buffer will never be purged until you enter a city or oblivion gate.

With an unmodded Oblivion, both interior and exterior cells can take around 3-7Mb of vram each depending on what the cell contains and how many textures are shared between the cells. The cell buffers should be kept as small as feasibly possible. That is uExterior Cell Buffer should be (uGrid + 1)^2 it is impossible to get more efficient than this! And a uInterior Cell Buffer of 3 to 5."


Optional (Defaults are in parentheses. Note that most of these recommendations were made pre-patch 1.2, and may or may not still be applicable. These tweaks are NOT necessarily recommended, merely options to consider.)
1) bPreEmptivelyUnloadCells = 0 (0)
This is for unloading cells the game determines are no longer needed. Streamline does this intelligently, so it is a preferable alternative to changing this value.
2) bDoTallGrassEffect = 0 (1)
Lowers the height of the grass.
3) bDoSpecularPass = 0 (1)
Removes the 'shine' from objects. Works well, but can crash the game in ceratin areas (Weynon Priory)
4) bUseRefractionShader = 0 (1)
5) iMaxDecalsPerFrame = 0 (10)
Decals refers to blood. The higher the value, the more blood you will see during battle. This can be a FPS killer.
6) iNumBolts = 3 (7)
I assume this settings lowers the number of bolts seen when casting 'lightning' spells. Too many bolts can be a FPS killer.
7) bBackgroundPathing = 1 (0)
8) bUseBackgroundPathing = 1 (0)
9) bSelectivelyPurgeUnusedOnFasttravel = 1 (0)
10) fTexturePCTThreshold = 0.6000 (0.3000)
11) fLODLandVerticalBias = -200.0000 (0.0000)
This setting is recommended to use with Oldblivion.
12) fGrassWindMagnitudeMax = 0.0000 ( )
The maximum amount the grass sways in the wind.
13) fGrassWindMagnitudeMin = 0.0000 ( )
The least amount the grass sways in the wind.
14) bBackgroundLoadLipFiles = 1 (0)
15) bLoadBackgroundFaceGen = 1 (0)
This seems to be linked to bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen, so either have both on or both off.
16) bUseMultiThreadedTrees = 1 (0)
17) bCloneModelsInBackground = 1 (0)
18) bPrecipitation = 0 (1)
Turns off the rain effect. Will help with FPS, but you lose immersion.
19) bMusicEnabled = 0 (1)
Turns ALL the music off. Will speed up the game a bit, but at the loss of music.
20) bSoundEnabled = 0 (1)
This setting will tun off ALL sounds in the game. Will speed up the game, but you lose realism. Turning the sound all the way down doesn’t improve performance.

FYI, neither of these settings is listed such that people take advantage of them correctly.

1. bPreEmptivelyUnloadCells is for very low memory machines (512mb of RAM and under). It was off by default, signifying that even Bethesda didn't think the "average" computer would need it on. It isn't an intelligent purge, and just like typing "PCB" into the console, can unload things at the wrong times. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone using 1gb of RAM or more. And for *any* type of computer, Streamline (2.1 or 3.0) is a better option to avoid the problems that this can cause. There is a big difference between simply letting Oblivion purge content from memory when it wants to, vs when it's a good time to. Streamline knows when it's a good time to do it, Oblivion does not.
   
2. iPreLoadLimitSize is one of those things people thinks work like a regular "cache", when in fact it does not. Larger values in this setting are WORSE for players since the 1.2.x patch. Martigen and I spent a week straight looking into this and a few other performance related INI values, and in fact it's better to keep it lower if possible. The right number is something you arrive at based on what you are using. The default value of 26214400 can be equated to one "unit" of cache. To find out how many units you need, refer to the following list:
   • (+1) Vanilla Oblivion + 30 or less mods (all small)
   • (+1) OOO, Fran's, Warcry (not FCOM)
   • (+1) MMM (not FCOM)
   • (+2) FCOM
   • (+1) QTP1 (or similar normal-size texture pack)
   • (+2) QTP2 (or similar medium-size texture pack)
   • (+3-4) QTP3 (or other large-size texture pack)
   So for example, someone running Oblivion, a few small mods, OOO and MMM would need a setting of: 1+1+1 (3x default) or 78643200. Generally this floats up and down by 1x, so that person might be able to get away with 2x instead, which is BETTER than 3x. You know you are too low when just after changing it and reloading the game, you start stuttering badly.
   
   A high end machine with 2gb of RAM doesn't need to set their cache at 1gb, that's just insane. They need instead to evaluate what they run and see what setting value they need. If they had Oblivion+mods, FCOM, and QTP3 they would need: 1+2+3, or around 6x default (157286400), which is roughly 153mb of Oblivion cache.
   
   Everyone's experience is unique, so people will have to play with their settings to get it just right. Too large and you will get problems, too small and you'll get different problems with similar symptoms (stutter and lag). Finding the sweet spot is what tweaking this entry is all about. My numbers are just a rough guide, and are by no means the final word on the setting.

Thanks for the info. As mentioned, this is a community project, so those are the values that were more or less agreed upon as ideal in the previous thread (last year!). Since you are pretty much the authority on the subject, I'll take your word over the previous consensus and update it, but I'm on my way out right now so I'll have to get to that later. Thanks!

Updated. I quoted your explanation since I literally couldn't say it better myself. Thanks again.

I read a lot of people saying that the default .ini generated by a fresh game install and update to 1.2 is better than many previous tweaked .ini file from older versions of Oblivion... Is this actually true?

Also, can anyone clarify the bit about setting uGridsToLoad? When installing the UOP, it says that if you set it to something other than 5 strange things will happen in-game.

And one other thing: You have stated the switch as iPreloadLimitSize... I think it should be iPreloadSizeLimit.

Might put TuneXP on the list as well, nice piece performancesoftware.

Thanks for taking this project on to the next level. I will be away from the game for another 10-1/2 months and hope you are still around when I get back to the States, buy my next computer and load up Oblivion and all the wonderful mods the community continues to generate.

Cheers

The .ini recommended settings is the one part of the project I didn't touch, as I am hardly an expert on tweaking the .ini. Those recommendations were made before the 1.2 patch, and may or may not still be applicable. If anyone has any input on the subject, please let us know. Otherwise, I'm getting started on researching the .ini to provide updated recommendations.

Thanks. Fixed.

Doing so now, thanks.


I'm glad you find this useful.

Hey guys. I just thought I'd bring forth an issue with one of the 'accepted' tweaks that I discovered.

That is, bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1.

Considering I have changed a number of things in the past week, it was difficult to determine at first, but the problem was simpler than I was fearing. For some reason, when I enabled this particular option, my character had blue artifacts flickering all over her hair. Once I pulled back a certain distance, the blue was constant. Thing is, it ONLY appeared on her hair. I didn't check any NPCs - if you want I can look at that as well.

All I know is that when I turned it off again, the hair went back to normal. This is a base Oblivion hair, mind you, not a mod.

If you'd like a screenshot, I'll get one (or two). It can be tough getting an image with a significant amount though. The artifacts change location with every frame, so while it's bad and extremely noticeable in-game, there often isn't a whole lot of it in each individual frame.

FYI, I'm running with an Intel Core 2 6600, a GeForce 7950 GX2 on the 158.22 drivers on WinXP. It is notable that these aren't 'official' 7000 series XP drivers, but this is the first graphical oddity I've seen since I installed them (numerous weeks ago) and they came with a significant boost in framerates.

Generally the default 1.2.x Oblivion.ini as created by the game engine is quite good. There are a few tweaks I'd recommend:

• The iPreLoadLimitSize, as discussed in my last post
• Interior cells set to 6 (from 3)
• Thread entries set to correspond to the particulars of the machine it's running on. The default ini was not "geared" for multi-core CPUs.
• GrassDensity, 100-120 is a good default.

I also turn off Music, to enhance the immersion factor (you no longer know when something is sneaking up on you), and to boost framerates.

The Low-Low-Poly Grass link should point to the Low-Poly Grass page on TESS, the entries have been merged now.

Quick update...

bLoadBackgroundFaceGen
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen

These two settings seem to be tied. If both are on or both are off, the blue artifacts don't show up. If only 'bLoadBackgroundFaceGen' is enabled, however, they do.

What is the "bCloneModelsInBackground" setting? I think I used to have it pre-1.2, but I think its gone now. I can't find it anywhere in my ini. Should I add the line in somewhere?

Thanks everyone.

@Jaga: Whoever previously suggested the values for uInteriorCellBuffer thought that the value should depend on the amount of RAM the user has. Is that not the case?

I would like to point out that, if you're playing with VSync on, it's practically mandatory to also use the D3D Overrider tool that comes with Riva Tuner. It enables triple buffering in Directx games.

It is tied to the amount of cache yes. But an increase of 3 cells compared to what people were doing before (bumping interior to 12 and exterior to 144) is nothing. It's just an efficiency tweak so that shop-hopping in town (or moving around between rooms in a building) doesn't continually flush the cache. An interior cell setting of 3 is quite frankly moronic, and allows almost no room for the system to breathe.

I updated my .ini per your suggestions and it bumped me down to 15 fps in an outside setting with npc's and horses on full graphics including HDR and 8xQ AA enabled in my tweaker. It even lowered my settings automatically quite a bit and I still only had 15 fps.

I reverted back to my default unchanged .ini and I was back at 30 - 40 fps at the same location with the same graphics. lol

That is quite bizarre. Perhaps it has something to do with your specific video card. I don't know. Note that these are not my recommended .ini changes, as I know very little about tweaking the .ini. These are just what were recommended in the previous thread and more or less agreed upon pre-patch 1.2. If one of these settings is causing major problems, please let me know if you figure out which one so I can change the recommendation!

You might want to list Tuneup Utilities and Ashampoo, two utilities that have free trials and help to optimize most system related settings,

Also you may want to name Avast antivirus, a free antivirus program that uses less system resources than most,
Adaware SE to help keep your pc clean from spyware
CCleaner to help remove temp data, to increase sys performance, i have seen this remove as much as 1.5 gig wasted!
also people can !WITH CARE! run msconfig and remove non necessary (!NON-NECESARRY!) startup applications, and with care startup services.
The Ultimate Defrag for defragging hard drives is also a great tool, I believe it has a trial, not sure. But it is worth it.

another quick piece of advice would be to look at these performance sites for non necessary services, by default Microsoft enables a lot of services in windows you do not need, example: every XP system has zero wireless service enables, whether or not you have the capability of wireless, ?? odd hu?

Btw this is from a cert pc technician.

Edit: Dragonfirexz95 had a problem with my typos.

Woops. Ignore this post. lol

Well Balloffire, I do have operation optimization and Streamline 3.0 on. Maybe these mods have something to do with it?

For a PC tech Laneyfamily, you sure have bad typing lol. I'm getting certified myself next month.

Is there a limit that is recommended for iPreLoadSizeLimit? I have a 3.4 ghz Dell with 2gb ram and an ATI Radeon XT PE 850 with 256mb ram. I also use about 200 mods, including OOO and MMM, and also use QTP2, among a bunch of smaller texture packs. Should a iPreLoadSizeLimit value of vanilla x6 be the limit for those of us pushing moderate power rigs to their limits? I know you said that if you make this number too high it can actually decrease performance.

A "limit" is completely irrelevant. You aren't trying to push it higher to improve performance, that 5758 9;s not how it works. Read my prior post on how that setting works, and how to find your ideal number.

Come on it was like 12:00 at night, give me a break....

Updated, added notes, reorganized, and added several new links. Sorry for the delay, and thanks for the support everyone!

Is Oblivion PolyGone Overhaul still recommended? I don't need the performance increase, but I have seen and can understand that a lot of meshes have pointless polys in default oblivion. It hasn't been updated in a long time, but all of the changes are virtually unnoticeable correct?

I'm not sure how much of an increase in FPS it provides, but considering that there is no real downside and every little bit helps, you can't really go wrong using it.

Just wanted to say Thanks! to BallOfFire for reviving/maintaining this project, and to Jaga and everyone else who have lent their knowledge & expertise.

Just a note before I forget again:

I would recommend leaving uExterior Cell Buffer alone as increasing this value will clutter your ram and vram with additional objects, textures, and actors which can reduce your average fps if your vram is already high from texture packs, or in other cases cause a constant stutter (despite whatever your fps may be) or system lockup. This value can only reduce stuttering when backtracking to previously loaded cells. Also, this setting does not determine how many cells are initially loaded, instead the uGrid is used for this (as well as when on the move).


Worst-case Scenario (clicky) :
The dark blue squares are the loaded cells around the player with a uGrid setting of 5. The light blue cells are to be loaded next. One or both of the yellow cells will be loaded depending on which adjacent squares the player touches before reaching the destination to the upper left. As you can see, this is where the exterior cell buffer of 36 is derived from.

Best-case Scenario :
This shows the player running in a straight line parallel to the cells orientation. The dark blue squares are the loaded cells around the player with a uGrid setting of 5. The light blue cells are previous cells that are still loaded in the buffer. White cells were unloaded from the buffer. In this example, if you were to turn around and run directly back you would not have to load any of the light blue cells; however this is not what the cell buffer was designed for!


Likewise, increasing uInterior Cell Buffer will keep additional unneeded cells. Around 3 to 5 is a good setting for this. Interiors can be very large, 1 interior cell contains everything up until the next door with a loading screen. The reason this was set to 3 is because of actors in adjacent cells (most stores have 1 basement, 1 main floor, and 1 top floor; most caves are typically either a chain with up to 3 rooms right after each other, or 1 large central room with 2-3 rooms branching off). Also note that oblivion gates are exterior cells and not interiors.

I should also mention that walking close to a door leading to a exterior (like inside IC) will seamlessly load a few of the exterior cells on the other side, but this does not happen for doors leading to interiors so there is no reason to have a high interior cell buffer. If you are in an exterior cell and walk through a door with a loading screen leading to another exterior (cities/gates), then the buffer will automatically purge the interior and exterior cell buffers. The biggest problem for having a large interior cell buffer comes from caves/ruins that are attached to the main Cyrodiil exterior since the interior cell buffer will never be purged until you enter a city or oblivion gate.


With an unmodded Oblivion, both interior and exterior cells can take around 3-7Mb of vram each depending on what the cell contains and how many textures are shared between the cells. The cell buffers should be kept as small as feasibly possible. That is uExterior Cell Buffer should be (uGrid + 1)^2 it is impossible to get more efficient than this! And a uInterior Cell Buffer of 3 to 5.

Here's another tip for those with two harddrives.
I installed a fresh copy of windows xp on the second harddrive used for playing Oblivion only while having Oblivion installed on my main drive where my primary windows installation resides. Everytime I want to play Oblivion, I would go to the bios to enable my second harddrive to boot as primary so I can load the clean windows installation. While in the second installation, I run Ultimate Disk Defragger to selectively place the Oblivion folder to the outer edge of the harddrive for quicker access. I also set the virtual memory to a fixed 2.0gig on the secondary drive. Playing OB on the second drive reduced stuttering by 300%!!

Thanks a lot guys, and sorry about the slow response. I updated it with your input and finally updated the version on my Google Pages.

Thanks for all the info!

wow, great thread! The colors burn my eyes to cinders however.

A few years back I had a really nice registry cleaner that I can't seem to remember the name of, nor find again. It had a real nice set of features, notably the Orphan culling. CCleaner is nice, which is what I use currently, but I sure wish I could remember the other one...

TuneUp Utilities 2007 has a great registry cleaner and other useful toys. It's linked up there on the list.

As for TOPP, I would recommend a link to Wyre Bash: http://wrye.ufrealms.net/
Wyre Bash can help sort out some savegame quirks and make some mods get along better, depending on how well you can get along with Wyre Bash.

Improved the presentation a bit and added your suggestion. Thanks!

wow, good thing I was directed to this thread. I applied the tweaks from that tweak guide, and it lowered my fps lol.

Nice resource.

I am a bit confused on one point though; iMinGrassSize VS GrassDensity. In my Oblivion INI, my value for Grass.iGrassDensityEvalSize = 2 and is the only place the compound "word" GrassDensity can be found. I have, however, found Grass.iMinGrassSize = 129 and I believe this is the setting that Jaga Telesin was refuring to here. It is logical but I thought I should verify and or clarify the point.

Thanks for keeping this resource alive and vital.

Also if anyone finds errors or obsolete information in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Tweak Guide I am sure Koroush Ghazi would appreciate the feedback at persianimmortal@tweakguides.com.

Thanks again.

Excellent information, helped me out of a confusing slowdown on my rig. I am curious about 2 settings, the ithreads, and ihavokthreads (mispelled I'm sure) settings of 5 and 9 for multi core cpu's. I have a quad core cpu should I double or otherwise raise these settings, or is there any practical use in changing these two settings. Many thanks for any insight.

BallofFire, Thanks so much for this....I thought I had all of the performance mods out there, but this introduced a few very useful ones that I didn't know about.

I wanted to let you know that the link for Dimmer Magic Effects is:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View...etail&id=65

Hope that helps and thanks for the great info!

can someone post the link where I can get the omod for OBLIVION POLYGONE OVERHAUL, Iv looked around but cant find the mirror for it.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View...ail&id=1848

Alright, I'm back from cali and ready to give some late replies.

Some computers react very differently to the same tweaks. That's why it's a good idea to back up your .ini and possibly even apply the changes a couple at a time so you can isolate any problems.

Glad you like it.

Glad to know this was helpful for you. I don't know anything about threading or multi core cpu's. The Oblivion Tweak Guide linked to at the top is the first place I would look.

You're very welcome. Thanks for the link!

Thanks for the comments everyone. Both positive and negative feedback are useful, and any post bumps this thread so people can actually see it, so I appreciate your comments!

Now that tesnexus is up, I fixed the links. Enjoy.

My pc is a 512 mb computer. Will I be able to run Oblivion smoother at a higher graphic intensity? What level should I set my graphics to?

dont know if people have suggested it yet but u might want to recommend winaso registry optimizer pretty decent program for these things.i dont know if they have a free version since i just bought mine randomly lol. but it works pretty good.

Just want to signal this mod, it's still in beta but it could be useful.

Hmmm...
If I change "iPreLoadSizeLimit" to anything other than the default settings my game crashes about 2 seconds after loading it
Does anyone have any idea why?

I've got 2 GB ram btw.

Check the links under the Guides section, as well as TOTO.

Thanks! And there IS a free version. Added.

Thanks, added!

Sorry, no clue.

Nmv Its already working...
I dunno, but something was wrong with that save
So I had to revert back to an older one and now everythings fine ^^

Great topic, im downloading quite a few things now

always nice to *raise!!* the FPS

Good to hear!

Well, personally I prefer to raise my FPS.

heh, silly typo, i meant raise of course, quick question tho. The operation optimizer is now an installation program, and it downloads to the oblivion folder, wheras the initial readme says that it should be in the data folder.

does the new installer put it in the right place? cause its not showing on my data files screen when i run oblivion, or is the new version not supposed to be checked on the data files screen, does it just...work?

The installer unpacks a new data folder into the oblivion folder, which has the effect of simply copying the contents of the new data folder to the old one. In other words, it installs correctly, but the readme describes the installation incorrectly. However, I checked the readme, and it says there should be an .esp to activate, but there is none included in the installer. I'm not sure what to make of that. I've been using this mod for a while, and never noticed that. I thought it didn't require an .esp, so I am guessing that only old versions needed it, or that that is a typo. Otherwise, it seems the installer is incomplete. Given that the installation description is wrong, I'd guess that they simply messed up on the readme, and it requires no .esp.

yeah thats what i was thinking, because in the first lines of the readme it seems as if he is describing a Zipped folder rather than an instillation program, so maybe it was changed in later upgrades, but the readme was just left as it was back when it was an archive folder.

Maybe I don't know how to tweak the .ini, but Sreamline doesn't do pretty much anything for me. In fact, no matter what values I give it (especially FPS) it keeps my frames at around 20 and that's it. I'm running Core 2 Duo, 2gb, 7950GTX 512Mb and running about 15 mods (all the big ones). I'm missing Francesco's and AEVWD but at this point, my frames can't take another hit! Am I expecting too much from this mod?

I dont know if this is was already posted, but it helped me a lot!

If you have two fisical HD drivers you could copy the half of the BSA files to the other HD.

For ex. leave the textures.bsa file in the Oblivion data folder, and move meshes.bsa and sounds.bsa files to the other drive, in a folder like d:\Ob\

Then you change in the Archive section of the oblivion.ini file, the path to the moved BSA files. For ex. meshes.bsa -> d:\Ob\meshes.bsa

You can do this with any BSA file (Frans, etc) but ALWAYS checking the resitered path in the oblivion.ini file.

It reduce de stuttering when loading new content in the game!!!!

----------------

Another tip is that you could unpack the BSA files and pack them again without compression. Do this using BSA Commander software.
Again less stuttering, comproved!

---------------

Another tip: You install a lot of mods, they add little files to the meshes, textures and sound folders..

Using BSA command, you can pack them in a BSA file. For ex. creating a new texture1.bsa file with the content of the modded texture folder. The same with meshes, sound, etc.

AND register them in the oblivion.ini file.

If you dont have more space to register (max 255char) change the name of the BSA files. For ex. meshes.bsa -> m.bsa. Sounds.bsa -> s.bsa so you could add more BSA files without problems.

Then you can delete all these little files, that you already have in a BSA pack file.

And again less stuttering!!!!! comproved!

---------------

ALWAYS do a HD defrag after these procedures. Use professional defragmenters like Perfectdisk.

You can get BSA Commander soft here: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/BSA_Commander


Hope this helps.
Sorry by my English

Skeleton

Edit: I am using OOO, MMM, FCOM, QTP3 Reduced, Lost Spired plus 100 another mods, with little, no stuttering!!! amazing really!
Pentium 4 Core E440 7600GT Fatal1ty 256 Dram 2 Gigas

If this is true, it should be in big letters on the first page of the faqs. Today most people have HDD space to burn but we all need more speed. The only question in my mind was which took more time, loading an uncompressed file or unpacking a compressed one.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll add them when my google pages stop acting up so I don't forget to add it there too.

i tried that and almost all the npcs had no voice.......

edit ah found out why they had no voice was how oblivion loads the bsas fixed that
p.s repacking qtp3 into the texture bsa is a bad idea oblivion doesnt play well with bsa's biger then 2 gbs or so

BallofFire:

This thread gives suggestions for increasing the performance of Oblivion for low-end computers. Can you clarify what you consider a low-end computer, versus a "no hope" computer? For instanse, my computer, which is now 4 years old, has 2.4 ghz CPU, 2 gigs of RAM, and an xfx 5200 graphics card, which the thread, "Bethesda Game Studios Forums > Oblivion > Hardware and Software Issues: 1.2 What are the real system requirements for the game?" suggests is not going to play Oblivion, even though it meets the minimum requirements. And, of course, I found this to be true, when i tried playing, and upon exiting the sewers, my fps dropped dramatically to an unplayable level. Is my computer a "no hope" computer that all the tweaks in the world won't help, or is mine a low end, with which these tweaks would make it playable? There might be others with the same concern, so could you post what you consider low-end systems that these tweak would help, versus "no hope" systems? Thx.

The idea is to pack the textures in varius BSA, for ex. one for clothes and armors, one for landscape, one for characters and creatures, etc, etc - T1.bsa, T2.bsa, t3.bsa, etc, etc

They are easier to update too

Sorry, but I can't really help you. I don't know enough about computers to determine whether a system can run Oblivion or not.

What experience I do have has indicated that mosts computers owned by gamers that were bought in the last few years can run Oblivion, IF the user is willing to compromise visual quality. There are so many settings to tweak and performance enhancing mods that you can play Oblivion on old machines if you are willing to sacrifice most of the visual effects. If your computer meets the minimum requirements for Oblivion then I would guess that it very likely would be able to run Oblivion effectively if you use TOPP and the Oblivion Tweak Guide. Just don't expect spectacular graphics.

@Skeleton, I added your suggestions. Thanks!

I was wondering, if anyone else uses Priority Master 07?



That site looks awfull, but it´s actually *clean* high quality program - and the limited version is free to use!



You don´t have to do anything, it automatically gives any foreground program very high priority, and LOWERS the background program priorities, freeing up processor cycles.



The biggest advantage over many other priority programs? Well, with other programs you often need to launch the program through the utility, which makes it useless if you use the Obse laucher, as you would only be giving the LAUNCHER high priority, not Oblivion, that Obse then starts.



Took me some time to find this one and I have been very happy, it´s very seemless and does all the work for me.

Sweet, thanks, I'll add that immediately.

Any free versions of that utility?

Click "Free Demo" at the top of the page right under the banner in the middle.

I read and used the info provided in the Oblivion Tweak Guide, and I am now getting about 14 fps average, in the wilderness, which is a pretty big jump, as before I was getting an average of 7 fps. The Oblivion Tweak Guide provided a really good amount of information, both on tweaking Oblivion and on tweaking a PC. Oblivion is playable for me now, although as mentioned, it's not as visually stunning as it could be.

So, for anyone who has a PC as low-end as mine (2.4 ghz cpu, 2 GB of ram, and an XFX Geforce 5200 graphics card--one of the lowest acceptable cards) and is not in a position to upgrade, it should be possible to tweak Oblivion enough to provide a playable frames-per-second rate.

Thank for the help, and the links.

Glad to hear it is playable! =)

What would be the best way to partition two drives mainly for the best performance?

Here is what I am thinking of along with info on both drives, I use AHCI mode here.

Disk 0 - 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 (16MB Cache, SATA)

• Part 1 - 30GB for WinXP OS only (I figure this is a good way to keep the OS optimized at the beginning of the drive)
• Part 2 - Rest of Drive for Applications, My Documents, Data, and Downloads

Disk 1 - 500GB Barracuda 7200.11 (32MB Cache, SATA)

• Part 1 - 6GB for XP static pagefile only
• Part 2 - Rest of Drive for Oblivion with omods stored at the very end of the drive as they aren't used often

Would the above work well or should I set it up differently?

Thanks

- T

The guys who make Ultimate Defrag say you shouldn't partition at all. Just let performance optimizers like their's decide where on the drive to put things like Oblivion and the pagefile and such.

If you don't accept what they say, then your way looks best.

Yeah, there are a ton of opinions out there on how to setup drives.

- T

Granted, their opinion does favour people buying their product. But it also makes sense in a way, since it let's you move the most important stuff to the front of the drive, rather than just to the front of the partition it is on.

Yeah, maybe I'll just make one partition on each drive. Put Oblivion on the second drive with the larger cache. Use UltimateDefrag to optimize everything.

- T

I did some recommendations for people who have 2 fisical HDs... Look for them in the head of this post.

So, if you have 2 HDS, the best otimization way for Oblivion is to divide the BSA in the two HDs.

And make one partition on each drive.

Hope this helps

Yeah, I read this Skeleton.. thanks. I'm also going to rebuild the BSA's with no compression. BTW, the correct spelling is 'physical'.

I also wonder if putting the BSA's onto the second drive at the beginning of the drive would show any improvement. Hmm, something to play with I guess.

- T

Some nice suggestions here.

I just noticed that Jaga has a link to an interesting sounding program in his sig.

http://tinyurl.com/3xz2cp

Goes to FSAutoStart. A program that can, apparently, shut down services and programs on your computer when you start Oblivion, and restart them when you are done playing.

Great program! I use it and help a lot, not just with Oblivion, with Crisis and Bioshock too.

Give it a try

I haven't tried it because when I rebuilt my computer I built a games only installation of windows. Nothing runs except the games and the required windows services. Doesn't even have a network connection.

Yes, I did the same thing with my computer... BUT this program can do a memory defrag, set the process priority of the game, and even close the explore.exe before the game start.

Thanks for the info! Looks like I'll be doing some tweaking tonight.

Anybody know if it will work with Vista? I'm using a program called mz vista force to prioritize the oblivion.exe, and also using one called "priority". The thing about priority is, it says in the readme it looks for new apps to prioritize them, but I always wondered if it was just prioritizing OBSE, since I launch Oblvion with it.

It works fine with Vista, although I have never truly benchmarked a game running under Vista with FSAutoStart. I should mention, that when launching a game in Vista with a "realtime" priority, the system stays just as responsive as if it was on "normal" priority. I think Vista is better at how it hands out CPU slices, and won't let any one app dominate processing.

Hrm I'm getting an error when I try to start it.

Error launching FSAutoStart Batch control!

Path = C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\fsasctl.exe
"C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\FSAutoStart\profiles\fsautostart.ini"

Folder = C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion

Any idea why?

After writing this I realize I have so many questions about BSAs and performance so I will sum them up at the end and hopefully some helpful modders/rocket scientists/brain surgeons can pick and choose which questions they can answer. Hopefully this helps other people looking to increase their performance which is why I didn't make a separate thread for these ideas/questions.

I'm running over 150 mods, lots of texture replacers and load times are (of course) much longer. I was wondering what is the best way to handle multiple replacer mods.

For example, I use OOO which replaces many textures and I'm also using some exnem replacers which also replace armor. I'm not sure if this is the case but I thought it's possible that Oblivion would load the original armors first, then overwrite them with OOO and then maybe even overwrite again with the exnem replacers. This may be the case because I use Wrye Bash's replacer feature to handle those mods. I'm not entirely sure how W.B. works from a coding perspective but in any case, I thought it would be more efficient to have everything load from the same place.

So I had two ideas for this. One would be to unpack the original texture BSA (same could go for other BSAs), after making a back-up. Then overwrite the files with the ones from OOO and then exnem, QTP redimized, etc... then repack sections as a BSA being careful not to go over 2 GB with a single BSA (heard that was bad somewhere...). If this was done then I would need to register those BSAs under the "Archive" section of the oblivion.ini file (yes/no?)

Or would it make any sense at all to do the same thing as above but leave them as loose files, not packed to BSAs? Hard disk space is not an issue, but performance is. Is oblivion more efficient loading BSAs or unpacked files?

Another question about loading textures off a separate hard drive: can self-made BSAs also load off a separate hard drive and is there any special way to register them in the oblivion.ini? Does the order of BSAs registered make any difference?

OK, question summary:

1) Would Oblivion load faster by loading files from a single location (one folder or one or more BSAs), rather than loading the vanilla BSA, then loading replacer files like OOO and QTP?

2) If yes, which would be faster loading everything from the Data folder or loading from multiple BSAs?

3) Is loading BSAs off multiple hard drives faster than either option above?

4) Can vanilla BSAs be unpacked, overwritten with replacer files, repacked and used as-is as long as the file name had not changed?

5) If a custom BSA is packed and given a unique name can it be loaded from a separate hard-drive resulting in faster load-time (assumption)?

6) How should custom BSAs on a separate hard drive be registered in the oblivion.ini file? (ex: D:\OB\OOO.bsa instead of OOO.bsa or is there something else?)

7) Is there a size limit for custom BSAs? If so what is the limit?

8) Are BSAs and Data folder files all loaded by order of increasing date or does the order in the oblivion.ini file have any relevance to loading? Or does oblivion load all BSAs and then load Data folder files?

This whole topic is so confusing to me and I often feel that I could be getting way better performance out of my system. Also I often can't tell if replacers I'm loading are even showing up in the game since I have so many of them I tend to forget about them by the time they would show up. And the way they are installed, I can't easily tell whether another replacer mod is overwriting the files from a previous replacer mod in which case there would be no point in having the first one.

Thanks, I'm going to test out some of these ideas but maybe someone out there can save me some time and ibuprofen as I try to sort through this maze of complexity!

There's a patch available. http://www.kensalter.com/download/fsautostart_patch.zip
That fixed it for me.

What is the thread entries bit called in the .ini and what would be a good value for a duel core?

Thanks

I use the following:
[codebox][HAVOK]
bDisablePlayerCollision=0
fJumpAnimDelay=0.7500
bTreeTops=0
iSimType=1
bPreventHavokAddAll=0
bPreventHavokAddClutter=0
fMaxTime=0.0167
bHavokDebug=0
fRF=1000.0000
fOD=0.9000
fSE=0.3000
fSD=0.9800
iResetCounter=5
fMoveLimitMass=95.0000
iUpdateType=0
bHavokPick=0
fCameraCasterSize=1.0000
iHavokSkipFrameCountTEST=0
fHorseRunGravity=3.0000
fQuadrupedPitchMult=1.0000
iNumHavokThreads=3
fChaseDeltaMult=0.0500
iEntityBatchRemoveRate=100
iMaxPicks=40
bAddBipedWhenKeyframed=0[/codebox]

And...

[codebox]
[BackgroundLoad]
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
bBackgroundCellLoads=1
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1
iAnimationClonePerLoop=5
bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=0
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
iPostProcessMillisecondsEditor=50
iPostProcessMillisecondsLoadingQueuedPriority=20
iPostProcessMilliseconds=5
bUseBackgroundFileLoader=0[/codebox]

my only differences were

iNumHavokThreads=3(1)

bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1(0)
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1(0)

so i changed those - thanks for the help

I finally got around to updating TOPP with the new suggestions. Thanks for the suggestions and thanks to everyone who has posted!

Might want to add mentions of Quiet Feet Max and LowTriPolyGrass.

Thanks! Done.

Never mind.

No mention of RPGDragon's low poly grass?

I have a Quadcore QX6850 so what should I be setting my ini settings to in regards to the thread part of the ini? I want to get the best out of it. I know my game should be running better but im probably just not setting up something right in the ini.

Why hasn't this been added. This gave me an extra 10fps on max.

Yup it gives me a nice boost as well.

(uGrid + 1)^2 What does this mean? Does this mean (5 + 1) times 2? so 12 should be my exterior cell buffer? Isnt that low? Also should the uGrid not go higher then 5?

Also any tips for my ini settings for a quad core?

That's Ugrid +1 then squared. So 5+1 = 6. 6 squared = 36.

Ugrid settings over 5 can cause issues, and are unnecessary. That setting tells Oblivion how far out to start AI and script processing for spawned critters and NPCs. Making it larger takes resources before they can have any effect. Do you really care if a bandit starts his wander package seven cells away from you?

RPGBlackDragon's LowTriPolyGrass is the second thing mentioned in "Polygon Reducers" in the first post.

Thanks for the comments: I'll do an update when I get a chance.

If there are any other mods or suggestions that belong here, please let me know - the community's posts is my primary source of information for TOPP!

PerfectDisk by Raxco is another great defragger---very quick as well..

Thanks, I'll check it out!

No one knows about ini settings for Quad Core? In regards to multithreading?

Does anybody know of a way to trim down the visual effects of fire spells? I can play the game just fine but often get serious lag when they are being cast.

â–º"Another tip is that you could unpack the BSA files and pack them again without compression. Do this using BSA Commander software. You can get BSA Commander soft here: Again less stuttering, comproved!"- Skeleton

I attempted to pack them with no compression, but I ran into 2 issues:

1) With the Oblivion - Texture - Compressed.bsa packed without compression I get a strange white bar along the loading screen and my mouse cursor turns into a giant square blob...it then CTD's upon attempting to load

2) went back to the original Texture.bsa went to load with an uncompressed Oblivion meshes.bsa and again crashed when trying to load a game...

any hints or tips? Those are the 2 biggest bsa files so without being able to improve on those, I doubt the others would do much good...

Biggest thing with repacking the two bsa's is that you have to get the flags correct. That means it has to exactly match the flags of the original, but without the "compressed" flag.

Ahhh...cool...thanks for the help...will retry with these settings and see what happens

Gives me an "incorrect parameters" warning when I attempt to repack with the settings used minus compression...

Archive Flag set to: 1,2,9,10,11
File Flags set to: 2

EDIT: Problem seems to be that in the flags archive box 6 keeps checking itself even tho I keep unchecking it and applying the settings---reverts to box 2 and 6 being checked no matter what I do...

What do you guys use for checking your hard drive for errors?

Try setting the bits using the "?" box pop-up, and then write down the hex code at the top. Go out to the main "Pack" window and force that hex code into the box for it.

A quick question:
Jaga's .ini tweaks seem to affect the havok settings. Does this influence or conflict with a mod like Realistic Physics and Force Package?

The only setting Jaga changed in that whole section was iNumHavokThreads=3. Which he changed from 5...it only effects the number of CPU threads that havok can use.

Alright then. Thanks Showler.

HI Just a quick reply to the above.
I used to use PRIORTY MASTER., But changed to PC ACCELERATE 2.1 , I found it does the same job and it's FREE.

Is there a command to tell how much vram you have over how much your pc can handle?

This may perhaps be a site/link to add to the list, posted in hardware and software issues so rather than be redundant firgot about this forum thread/topic oldytymers don't ya know.... http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=828041

Indeed. Optimised Distant Lands MAX is excellent and should be listed among the best performance enhancers in all guides.

Is optimized distant lands compatible with Qarl's normal map LOD?

Yes... ODL MAX removes unnecessary geometry in the distant land meshes, not the normal maps. AFAIK.

How does FSAutostart work? I can't seem to figure it out.

BUUUUMMMPPPeee.

http://kensalter.com/software/how-to-use-fsautostart/

New sequel to it out: http://alacritypc.kensalter.com/

Any idea what the ini settings should be for Quad cores? (in regards to multithreading and such)

Well, I tried AlacrityPC and it almost worked, but, of course, I need to start both obse_loader and Oblivion. I want to monitor Oblivion, but not start it, and start obse_loader, but not monitor it. How do I accomplish this?

Haven't tried the new AlacrityPC version, but FSAutostart had this function:

NEWSSSS!

I gain 5 to 8! fps, installing the mod Music Controller 1.5 Link: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15369

It makes the music much better, the battle music only plays when you are hit by an enemy or looking at him.

Also plays the nomals musics (explorer, public) at regulars times... so you can hear the ambient sound too.

I change the bMusicEnabled=1 to bMusicEnabled=0 in the Oblivion.ini file, because the music plays too... and BAM more 8! fps. I have an offboard Audigy sound card.

Ultra happy right now!

Wow, I didn't realize that mod had a performance boost. I'll have to add that when I FINALLY get around to an update. Sorry that its taking so long folks, I'm finishing up the last couple weeks of college right now so I'm lagging a bit.

Me too, I don't have this setting in my Oblivion.ini. I have Shivering Isles patched to v1.2.0416.


Are these recommendations also applicable to HyperThreading CPUs or strictly to dual core CPUs ?
Also, the recommendation to iNumHavokThreads=3 is different from what is recommended in http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_9.html, under 'Multithreading Tweaks' which is iNumHavokThreads=5. Those 'Multithreading Tweaks' include also the following settings -not mentioned in Jaga's recommendations:

bUseThreadedBlood=1

bUseThreadedMorpher=1

bUseThreadedTempEffects=1

bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1

iThreads=9

iOpenMPLevel=10

Another fast, lightweight, safe, free hard drive defrag program: jkDefrag. It can re-order files by folder and file name and defrag a specified folder (and subfolders) which is useful to get all Oblivion files defragged relatively well and quickly. Can also run as a screensaver.

---

As always with oblivion, some people have reported stability problems with iThreads and iOpenMPLevel being altered from default... *shrug*

Is the performance gain achieved with FSAutostart comparable to or even better than that obtained by performing a clean boot before playing ? - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353 and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796.

I use FSAutoStart, and I would say that the performance increase is at least comparable to a clean boot, but with the additional benefits of

1: not having to change your normal Windows config (and also not having to see that annoying messagebox telling you you've changed your startup config);

2: not having to reboot to get to either a clean boot to play, or back to a "normal" config after playing

Even though some services are recommended not to be turned off, and some that can be turned off don't respond to being told to STOP (therefore they remain on, like Terminal Services), and this might not be the case with a clean boot (therefore performance might be slightly better from a clean boot, but I haven't done one since I discovered FSAutoStart, so I'm not sure about how much of a performance increase I did get from a clean boot anymore), I find the convenience and "immersion" of having FSAutoStart turn off my virus scanner, my system tray mail notifier, and any applications I might happen to have left open (Notepad ++, Total Commander), as well as stopping most of my non-essential services and defragging my memory for me before opening the game (and yes, I have it set to start the OBSE_loader, which FSAutostart knows is not the "main application", so it doesn't restart what it has stopped until Oblivion-- which of course is the main application-- closes.... or crashes ), and then restart them when I've finished playing much more valuable than the slight performance loss that may exist between FSAutoStart and a real clean boot.

But try it yourself; it's not as if there's any kind of penalty for giving it a whirl. It is a little difficult to set up if you haven't done so before, but there is a fair amount of help in the sidebar (and recommendations as to how to handle individual services), and you pretty much only have to figure it all out the once, then put your custom shortcut for "a particular game started via FSAutostart"-- you can use this for anything, after all-- on the desktop and just see what you think.

Tag.

Don't forget there's a new version out called AlacrityPC.

Does anyone know why the .mp3 file when I encounter enemies is not playing properly? I have no mods installed... Did the paging file clear, bought an Audigy 2 zs..

How do I fix this?

Guess I'm thick headed. I read through these a few times and I still don't get it. So:

If I decide to transfer, let's say, the 'Misc' and the two 'Voices' .bsa files on another drive, how should it be written in the .ini file? Which entries needs to be modified? This one?

Or this one?


Is there preference as to which .bsa files should be put on another drive (ex. meshes preferable to textures, voices preferable to voices, etc)?

What to do with texture replacers like QTP3 Redimized? Should they be wrapped in a .bsa and put on another drive instead of the original .bsa file or can they both be transferred on another drive?

Thanks.

Ok, this is what I did.

Unpacked this the BSA files to another directory (not Oblivion one)
Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa
Knights.bsa (if you have Knight of the Nine installed)
anda all the SI bsa files.

Exclude Meshes, voices and misc bsa files (the original Oblivion ones, not SI)


Copied all the modded files to the new directory (where the original BSA are unpacked), some overwrites will occur, thats all right.

Now packing all again....

If the texture directory is bigger than 1.5 gb, divide it in two or more BSA files, I divide the by class, armor and weapons, clutter and clothes, etc. this way is easiest to upgrade the BSA files later with new content.

The same with the modded meshes, if everything enter in 1.5 its just fine to do only one BSA.

And the same with the voices, and the same with the sound (FX). I packed sound\voice in one BSA and sound\fx in aonther BSA file.

OK - now you have a new set of textures BSA files, new modded bsas files for meshes, sound, and voice, ok.

Tip, when creating a new BSA file use a short name, an ex. for meshes will be: M2.bsa modded voices will be V3.bsa
Texutes. A.bsa, B.bsa
It is for the 256 character limit in the oblivion.ini archive section.


Now installing the new BSA files
------------------------------------------------------------------
Criate a directoy in the second HD, mini is D:\O

Copy the the new VOICE, SOUND and MESHES files there, adn MOVE the original MESH bsa (better rename it to something like M1.bsa) here too.

Then you can rename the original MISC, and VOICE files (like MISC.bsa, and V1.bsa, V2.bsa), leving them where they are.


Ok, now the oblivion.ini changes....

[Archive]
SMasterMiscArchiveFileName=Misc.bsa <-CHANGE TO THE ORIGINAL (RENAMED) Oblivion - Misc.bsa
SMasterVoicesArchiveFileName2=V2.bsa <-SAME WITH Oblivion - Voices2.bsa
SMasterVoicesArchiveFileName1=V1.bsa <-SAME WITH Oblivion - Voices1.bsa
SMasterSoundsArchiveFileName=D:\S1.bsa <-ADDING THE SECOND DISC DIRECORY, AND RENAMED FILE
SMasterTexturesArchiveFileName1= <-BRANK NOT NEEDED
SMasterMeshesArchiveFileName=D:\M1.bsa <-ADDING THE SECOND DISC DIRECORY, AND RENAMED ORIGINAL MESH FILE
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt
iRetainFilenameOffsetTable=1
iRetainFilenameStringTable=1
iRetainDirectoryStringTable=1
bCheckRuntimeCollisions=0
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
bUseArchives=1
SArchiveList=D:\M1.bsa, D:\T1.BSA (HERE GOES THE NEW TEXTURES FILES), D:\S1.bsa, D:\S2.bsa (moddified sounds), V1.bsa, V2.bsa, D:\V3.bsa (moddified Voices), Misc.bsa


Hope this helps.

Ah, before all this unpack and pack the original mesh file without compression, ALWAYS remember to set the correct tags at BSA Commander!!!!!!!!!!

ALL THIS REALLLYYYY HELP ME WITH SUTTERING, NO KIDDING

Thanks for the explanations Skeleton. Now I understand.

Updated with the new programs, mods, and suggestions. Thanks everyone, this is some great stuff!

And the Music Controller does the rest? You get music as usual but as set by the mod? Wouldn't disabling the music in the .ini file disable it completely?

No, it will play! You will get the music as usual and a fps gain! Really cool.

i found this guys tweaks on the AMD site forums and i was wondering if they're still good or if theres anything i should change, etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.8 GHz
2 GB DDR400 RAM
GeForce 7950gt @ 600/1560 (550/1400 default).

I am running the game with everything on highest, 8x MSAA, 16x AF, and the 4096x4096 LOD textures, and a lot of other mod's like OOO and MMM.

But... I've been tweaking a lot. I've tweaked the game so it uses more threads (so it uses your CPU more efficiently), and I've tweaked it so it buffers more stuff in the memory, rather than reading it from the harddisk. I've also added some tweaks to make the grass a little bit thinner, which increased FPS incredly. And last but not least, I've forced the game to use Shader Model 3.0.

If you guys would like to see my tweaks, I will post them here.
PreloadSizeLimit=262144000 (default 26214400)
uInterior Cell Buffer=16 (default 3)
uExterior Cell Buffer=102 (default 36)
bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=0 (default 0)
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1 (default 0)
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1 (default 0)
bBackgroundCellLoads=1
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1
iBackgroundLoadLoading=1
bCloneModelsInBackground=1 (default 0)
bBackgroundPathing=1 (default 0)
bUseThreadedBlood=1
bUseThreadedMorpher=1
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
iNumHavokThreads=5
iThreads=9
iOpenMPLevel=10
iMinGrassSize=120
Allow30Shaders=1 (default 0) (bAllow30Shaders ?)
bUse Joystick=0 (default 1)
bAllowScreenShot=1 (default 0)
fDecalLifetime=1200.0000 (default 10)
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=500 (default 10)
bForceFullLOD=1 (default 0)
bGrassPointLighting=1 (default 0)
iMinGrassSize=120 (defualt 80)

Any ATi users find they stutter quite badly with iShadowMapResolution set to 2048? Even with self shadows turned off?

so are the tweaks i posted still good?

[]

Ok lets see...

Just little tweaks... I will give you my advice, but, remember, they work right om my rig, so test in yours.

fDecalLifetime=1200.0000 (default 10) it is too much! 80.0000 or 100.0000 is good enought.

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=500 (default 10) too much too, 100 or 150

bForceFullLOD=1 (default 0) this load all the objects and trees, helping with stuttering but hitting FPS. So for this I use Streamline, Streamsmoth option (tweaked). When I have good FPS >30, draw distance of objects and trees is increased by Streamline and back to the origins (50%) when FPS are low.

iMinGrassSize=120 (defualt 80) This really helps with FPS, but there is one German mod that reduce the Polycount, and heigh, on grass. It has 3 levels of optimization, the fist (the one I use) helps a lot and no loss of graphical quality. So I leave the iMinGrassSize=90 , and in the options menu, the slide to 80%. Same FPS as iMinGrassSize=120 BUT with a lot of grass!!!!
You can find it here: http://oblivionmodgods.de/oblivionmodgods-...ations-f59.html
It is no the same LowPoly Grass mod that is uploaded at TESNexus.

The rest look fine

Hope this helps!

Chenged my 8600GT 512 DDR2 for an 9600GT 512 DDR3.

My first test (all happy) was (of course) Oblivion, and only a 5 to 10 FPS gain?!!!! WTF!

Ok, my smile was erased so fast

So, tested other games and, oh my GOD, what improvement! STALKER all max at 70FPS???

Crisys all max at 40 FPS! ah, in 3DMark have a gain of 100% in the final score!

But I LOVE Oblivion, bought this for OBLIVION, what is happening?

Ok, I use QTP3, FCOM, Better Cities, and 200 more mods, but my old (an really good) 7600GT Fatal1ty did the same thing that this 9600GT.

It is the graphic driver? I use XTreme-G 174.93, tried with 175.63 too.

Some tweak in the Oblivion.ini. I re-did the Obliivon.ini for the new card, but Oblivion didn't recognized it.

My specs:
-------------------------------------
Windows XP 32bits super tweaked
2 Gb
Pentium 4 E4400
2 HD 160 Sata2

Please some help!

I think you need to save your Oblivion.ini so you can make changes and then delete it. Start the game so it will recreate it. Your current ini is tied to your old card:
[Display]
uVideoDeviceIdentifierPart1=

Oh I misread your last sentence, never mind.

You are probably bottlenecked somewhere other than the video card.

Great thread! A keeper for sure.
While checking out some of the links I found one that changed:
LowLowPoly Grass - LowPoly Grass - LowLowPoly Grass for SI - LowPoly Grass for SI -
It refers to a page wich links to a no longer existing page.
This is the correct link: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5434.

Keep up the good work!:)

Thanks!

What's killing performance in your case is probably lack of memory on the video card. A friend of mine did a comparison of two 8800GT: 512MB and 1GB. The 1GB version offered a significant FPS gain compared to the 512MB one, especially outdoors. QTP3 can use as much as 800 MB of video memory!

Try using QTP3 Redimized, it should help a bit.

Question: I am currently in the process of making new BSAs (as described on the first page of this thread), and I'm just wondering if I can put meshes, sounds and textures from mods with .ESPs like the Unofficial Oblivion Patch and Symphony of Violence into .BSAs. Or do these mods require that their accompanying files be outside of a BSA?

Great thread by the way, I'm excited about trying out some things to give me better performance. I recently got a 22" monitor; but my 8800GTS only has 320MB of VRAM, so I won't be getting the performance that I was at 1024x768 on the old CRT.

Good stuff here.

What is the fix to the missing voice problem? I unpacked/repacked (with correct flags) the Mesh/Texture BSAs, and registered them using BSA commander (Following the readme to the letter) and now I'm missing voices... which is odd, because swapping back in the old BSAs doesn't fix the issue at all.

Check the BSA line in your ini file and make sure you haven't accidentally introduced a typo, or exceeded the 255 character limit.

Just checked the 'SArchiveList' line, and sure enough you were correct. Both of the voice BSAs were cut off due to the character limit. Shortening the names of the larger BSAs fixed the problem.


Thanks a lot mate , working great now.

I haven't read all the messages in this thread, but I'd like to adress some issues from the original message.

Changing Priority: In my experience a very bad idea, since it makes the game unstable and prone to freezing and CTD.

Useful programs:

NVIDIA® nTune is the ultimate utility for accessing, monitoring, and adjusting your system components, including temperature and voltages with clear, user-friendly control panels. Overclock your system for highest performance or underclock it for near silent operation. All changes are performed within the Microsoft® Windows® interface – enabling full functionality without the need to make changes in the BIOS and reboot your system.

Sorry if this sounds like spam, but I just copied the description directly from http://www.majorgeeks.com/, the best site I've seen for downloading freeware and shareware utilities.

EDIT: Everest Home Edition is mentioned in the original message.

That sounds great, I'll be sure to add it when I make my next update. Thanks!

Stay away from Ntune, it is one badly written piece of software you don't want on your rig.


What you need to fill your temp monitoring/fan controlling/overclocking needs is Rivatuner.


Here is the FAQ, and here is an easy to follow guide for setting up automatic fan profiles and OCing your card.

Yup, don't use Ntune, I did everything by the paper, and everytime I ran Oblivion it had graphical glitches all over in like 5 seconds of gameplay... weird black-white graphics, big squares etc...

I have to agree.

NTune loads a program in the background which will kick in occasionally and steal at least half the system resources and then completely freeze the computer.
You have to manually delete the program to prevent it from loading.

Oh well, NTune sounded good in theory...

EIT: And one would expect something professionally done by a company like nVidia.

Ok, change from an E4400 to an E8400 and made a huge difference....

Playing at 1280x1024 more than 30fps all the time...

But I found my really bottleneck... It was a havoc mod, this mod adds havoc to barrels, some woods, items and clutters. Back to the vanilla nif files and, my God! more 10~20 fps!!!

Really happy now!



Thanks all for the tips..

FYI, Rivatuner may not work properly under the 64 bit version of Windows Vista. Rivatuner loads a custom driver during setup, which Vista 64 bit won't permit to be installed (the popup warning message said Vista only permits digitally signed drivers to be installed).

You can load this driver, if you are will to turn off Vista's 'Driver Signing Enforcement' feature.

Whatever you do, under no circumstances should you run the system file checker in TweakXP. You will reboot in 640x480x4 without the ability to change it without redownloading your video drivers. If you have a hacked uxtheme.dll you're screwed too.

EDIT: Oh, and if you're using an Nvidia card the Nvidia website WILL crash your browser 100% of the time. Enjoy.

This thread should be stickied.

Hi All!

Sorry for bad ennglish..

My question: if I repack the bsa files, and pack files from the mods to other bsa files, and in a mod is any file with same name an file from original bsa file or other mod, what happen?

When in the subfolder of data folder is a file with same name other file in a bsa, the archiveinvalidation work, and the game load the file from subfolder. But if all of the files with equal name are in bsa files, which one loaded?

Hi guys, i have a question. I have 4G DDR-2 1066 of RAM, what should i set the iPreloadSizeLimit to? I am using QTP3 Reduced, FCOM and aout 100 of other mods including Unique Landscapes. I have 2 Radeon 4870's in CF. (512 VRAM) and a Q9550 CPU.

just curious guys..what is the optimal FPS for oblivion..i am running at 15-20 FPS

I have the rig of my sig. (well, now I'm running on a 8500 1GB until next month when I'll but a 280 )
Then, my OB runs at 20-25 fps in wilderness. Is this ok? (heavly moded)

Hi! Could somebody tell me what the wisest upgrade in case of the follwing rig would be?

CPU: Athlon 64 3700+
RAM: 2Gb
Graphics Card: 7900GT, 256 Mb VRAM
HDD: 80Gb, 7200 rpm

I've nearly 200 mods running, including full FCOM: outside and in the cities it's stuttering heavily although Streamline is managing most of the settings.

Cheers!

Get a better CPU

As far as I know, the most recent BSA (the one with the most recent date) is the one that "wins" when the same file exists in multiple BSAs


There's a method to calculate this in the first post of the thread.


Whatever doesn't make your eyes hurt.


Looks reasonably comparable to mine. Too hard to tell for sure since it depends on mod load (which specific mods) and how streamlined your Windows install is, how efficient your hard drives are, etc.



Cheapest would likely be a second hard drive. Split your windows and Oblivion installs, and use it to tweak your page file.

Has anyone else tried patching your Oblivion.exe to be Large Access Aware? I applied the /LARGEACCESSAWARE flag to my Oblivion.exe file using LaaTiDo (after backing up my original, of course!). In short, the /LARGEACCESSAWARE flag enables an application to access up to 4GBs of RAM in a 64-bit OS as opposed to the standard 2GBs for 32-bit applications in 32-bit Windows.

This does seem to help, as I can play a bit longer between CTDs... It may just be a placebo affect, though. Since patching, I've seen Oblivion.exe using up to 2.2GBs (of 4GBs in 64-bit Vista) of RAM. I've also seen 95% total RAM usage using the display on my G15 keyboard while playing. While sitting idle, my system's RAM usage is about 15%, for comparison.

I'm not sure if I can recommend doing this, but it seems to help a bit. Oblivion wasn't designed with this flag, though, so use at your own risk... It certainly doesn't seem to hurt if your system has the RAM to spare, as the game runs at least as well as before, and even works with OBSE.

Thx!

Another question: are in the BSA the creation date of files, or are not? Simply: matter only the date of creation of the BSA file, or the creation date of data files in the BSA?

Edited:

OK, these questions are objectless. I see in the bsa only the filenames, and the files, without dates, times or other informations...

Huh?

No it won't lol

No matter. I've just recieved my paycheck...
Hurra for GF280 with 1GB!
Hurra for C2D8500!
Hurra!
XD
tom I'll tell you how it goes

The data of the interior files of a BSA MATTERS, tested for myself.

Thought i might mention adding my mod Pixelivion (Forum Topic) to the list in the texture replacers.

Thanks.

ao I've unpacked my BSA archives to my HDD oblivion isn't installed on and then overwritten the files with the textures, meshes and sounds folders from my mods. I'll be doing the bsa re-packing tomorrow, too tired now but what is the basic things to know (besides splitting them into 1.5gb files)? I read above that time matters, will the BSA commander re-organise the timstamps?

I won't need the mod diverse voices installed then will I since the files I'm using will overwrite the default ones for the dark elves and orcs, right?

one final question; can I just move my oblivion directory to another hard drive? I've bought a western digital raptor, 74GB and I'm going to move my game there, it'll be fine as long as I change my shortcuts, yeah?

I mean, what do I have to pay attention to with the hex flags?

I've been following this thread and wanted to 1) report my experiences (fwiw), and 2) ask a few questions.

1) Experiences
System: P4 (single-core) 3Ghz, 2GB RAM, 8600GT video, Creative X-Fi audio, mirrored SATA drives
Oblivion: OB, SI, KoTN, OOO, MMM, EDI, UOP, TT, several other smaller ones
Settings: 1440x900, large texture, VSync off, Bloom.
Other: OBMM, FCOMHelper, JKDefrag (nightly)

It is apparent that unlike alot of other video games, which are bounded mostly by video card performance, Oblivion is also quite CPU-intensive. So, there's not much point in me going to an 8800GT (for example) if I stick with the older motherboard & CPU. Conversely, going to a dual-core board/CPU isn't going to make the 8600GT into a supercard.

I've found that making changes to Oblivion.ini (per this thread or tweakguides, etc.) has not seemed to help much. In fact, in some cases, it seems to cause more CTDs. I reverted to a default ini, and then made only the following changes, but I cannot say if they have actually helped:

• iPreloadSizeLimit=52428800
• fGrassWindMagnitudeMax=0.0000
• fGrassWindMagnitudeMin=0.0000
• iMinGrassSize=110

I'm using the following mods:

• LowPoly Grass
• Operation Optimization
• QuietFeetMAX
• Oblivion Script Optimization
• Purge Cell Buffers (on Loading)

For the first time in many moons - especially since using mods - I can actually exit the game almost every time without a CTD!
Framerates outdoors are ~25-45, avg ~low 30's

Purge Cell Buffers - seems to have helped CTDs by flushing the buffers every time I have a "Loading" screen, but I might need to use the Cell Change version since I do alot of extended outdoor travelling.
QuietFeetMAX - a lifesaver when I was using onboard sound, but even with the X-Fi card, this still prevents/reduces stutter when around lots of critters.
Oblivion Script Optimization - appears to have made a big difference (~10-20%) improvement in FPS and greatly reducing stutter
LowPoly Grass - A no-brainer to use this; helps that outdoor travelling!
Operation Optimization - hard to tell if this made an improvement since I just installed mod awhile ago today, but I think it did

Also, turning off Distant Lands helps. I set the View Distance about 1/2, and the Fades (Actors, Items, etc.) to just under 2/3. This way everything gets "painted" in the distance before I see it. I really hate watching grass paint as I move across the land - kills the immersion, and on the other hand, turning off Distant Lands makes the world feel bigger.

Some of these mods I've just recently installed, so I haven't done with/without comparisons in all cases yet. But all in all, I've happy with this combination, and I am finally not experiencing the awful number of CTDs that was making it painful to play more than a half-hour without a Save.

Finally, I turn off real-time virus scanning (Symantec) before entering Oblivion. (I do have the Oblivion and \My Games directories excluded in the AV, but its just one more thing for my CPU to deal with, so I just shut it off.)


2) Questions

• My FPS is ~30's outdoors, but when I stand on the dock in Anvil Harbor, my FPS is 15-17, never higher. Even when I am standing still. Is this unusual?
• On the tdt console info, What do Queued IO Task Count and Queued Reference Count refer to? Whenever there is notable stutter, those number jump up (into the hundreds) momentarily.

I could really use some help following the custom BSA reconstruction tips in this thread, as I am having a problem with ALL WHITE textures when using these custom bsa's.

I have done the following:

1. Extract the contents of the vanilla, SI, and knights .bsa files into a separate folder.
2. Merge the 'textures' folders together with my own mod textures folder (vanilla <-- si <-- knights <-- mod textures)
3. Split the folder into approximately 1.2gb pieces, preserving the file structure (.\textures\whatever)
4. Create new .bsa files, using the following hex codes: Archive Flags = 703, Files Flags = 1A4
5. Edit my Oblivion.ini to the following:



6. Remove my 'textures' folder (which was merged into the .bsa files)

So the result of all this is that every texture in the game is WHITE, as if they are missing. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Replacing the t1 - t8.bsa files with Oblivion's original textures bsa (renamed to ot1.bsa) and restoring the textures folder makes everything work fine again, so the problem is clearly with the new .bsa's.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

The flags must be (for textures) :
Archive Flags = 703, Files Flags = 2 <- ("has dds") only

Don't include the data folder into the pack, for ex: textures\armors is Ok, data\textures\armors is NOT Ok

In the INI this SMasterTexturesArchiveFileName1=t1.bsa <- this must have something

Move some T?.bsa (could be 5 to 8) files in the F: disk, this will reduce more sttutering. (the textures and meshes are the most accessed bsa files, so all of them in the same HD will not hel too much)

Move ov1.bsa e ov2.bsa to the oblivion data directory.

Try without ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated!.bsa, with this system you wont need it. It works to me.

Split the om1.bsa into two files, and copy om2.bsa to F:

Hope this helps!!!!

It did to me!

BSA will not re-organise the timestamps, you'll have to use another soft like Filedate tech.

The diverse voice mos don't replace any voice file, it add more files, so you copy to the unpacked voice directory and pack all together in a new bsa files.

Moving all Oblivion directory need a re-installation of the game. But you could try...

The hex flags have to be correct of eache type of BSA file, for ex> textures are: 703 and 2

Hope this helps!

Thought I'd mention this: http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=872752

NICE! gonna to test tonigh! and post results!

thanks skeleton, I've got working now for some weeks and the difference in load times is INCREDIBLE! sorry for the questions, I didn't realise BSA Commander fills in the hex flags for you when you click "?"

cheers

Don't know if this has been mentioned but the lowlowlow poly grass has a broken link.

Yes the whole thread thing is a GREAT discovery so it seems, my performance is alot smother now despite having alot of mods loaded, stutter ramins, but it's not really that annoying anymore

Should be stickied.

Well I can get the bsa's to work off two seperate drives, even renaming them and updating the ini is fine, but as soon as I try making a bsa of my QTP3RR textures it just won't load them, it simply ignores them, I have tried bsacommander with all the correct flags, and even obmm's bsa creator, oh well time to give up before my head explodes.

Here are my ini settings just in case I've made a dumb mistake -

[Archive]
SMasterMiscArchiveFileName=Mi.bsa
SMasterVoicesArchiveFileName2=D:\Ob\V2.bsa
SMasterVoicesArchiveFileName1=D:\Ob\V1.bsa
SMasterSoundsArchiveFileName=D:\Ob\S.bsa
SMasterTexturesArchiveFileName1=D:\Ob\T1.bsa
SMasterMeshesArchiveFileName=D:\Ob\M.bsa
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt
iRetainFilenameOffsetTable=1
iRetainFilenameStringTable=1
iRetainDirectoryStringTable=1
bCheckRuntimeCollisions=0
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
bUseArchives=1
sArchiveList=..\obmm\BSARedirection.bsa, Mi.bsa, D:\Ob\T1.bsa, T2.bsa, T3.bsa, D:\Ob\V2.bsa, D:\Ob\V1.bsa, D:\Ob\S.bsa, D:\Ob\M.bsa, D:\Ob\M2.bsa

It might be worth adding PyFFI Info Thread as it is appearing to be a very decent performance booster; if somewhat time consuming to do.

I have made an application that can do that step for you, you can get it here

It takes a directory of unpacked BSAs and splits it into a user-defined number of directories which you then can create new BSAs from and place on different drives for increased performance.

baker29: probably best to get rid of the bsa redicrection file of OBMM's in the ini

Here is a performance increase idea. Tigerdirect.com has 8800 Ultra's for $199.00 a piece, and DDR2 800 4 gig for $69.00.

sproaty, yeah tried that too, I may try sialivi's app maybe that will help, although I did do that manually myself, it occasionally looks like it is trying to load my custom texture bsa's as the initial oblivion loading bar pauses for several seconds before continuing, does Oblivion output a debug file anywhere?

no, but there are programs out there to monitor a process and see what resources it accesses

I'm having a similar problem though, I have a "t6.bsa" which contains my weapons textures - but strangely, some textures aren't being loaded, just a pink texture being placed on the mesh. I've quadruple checked and the files that are coming up as pink are 10000% definitely inside the BSA, no errors

it's weird because all the other weapon textures and other textures inside the BSA are being loaded/used with no problems, it's just a few aren't working - it's driving me crazy actually because I'm using mighty umbra which permanently bounds a weapon to you and I can't stand seeing this pink sword in my hands all the time!

There is a new thread for TOPP here. Please post there from now on. Thanks.