Elder Scrolls: Oblivion PC performance and troubleshooting.

Nimcosi wrote:

HDR baby. HDR.

I haven't decided which I prefer - HDR is a nice touch, but AA really puts a polish on the game.

Here are a few shots of the same scene (no spoliers) with various options enabled/disabled (first time flikr user, so I hope it works):

Click on image for larger version.

HDR 0xAA
IMAGE(http://static.flickr.com/55/118122540_407e9aa110_m.jpg)

Bloom 4xAA
IMAGE(http://static.flickr.com/40/118122539_76f4fc8552_m.jpg)

4xAA
IMAGE(http://static.flickr.com/40/118122537_83de5c6e6d_m.jpg)

HDR is expensive - usually running about 10 fps less than the 4xAA options. If you take a look at the 1st shot in comparison to the second and third, you'll see a ton of jaggies (barrel, crenels along the wall, etc). It's too bad that nVidia users can't have both.

Chum

Redhwk wrote:

Not truely a OB troubleshooting problem, but does anyone know if ATI has something similar to this in their drivers? I'd probably lean more towards an ATI card down the road for my next upgrade if so.

As far as I can tell, ATI does not currently allow this in the Control Center but you could probably do it through PowerStrip and other similar apps.

Vega wrote:
Redhwk wrote:

Not truely a OB troubleshooting problem, but does anyone know if ATI has something similar to this in their drivers? I'd probably lean more towards an ATI card down the road for my next upgrade if so.

As far as I can tell, ATI does not currently allow this in the Control Center but you could probably do it through PowerStrip and other similar apps.

Thanks for the info Vega.

HDR is expensive - usually running about 10 fps less than the 4xAA options. If you take a look at the 1st shot in comparison to the second and third, you'll see a ton of jaggies (barrel, crenels along the wall, etc). It's too bad that nVidia users can't have both.

I've spent a fair bit of time with both features, I think I prefer HDR. It really makes the game world pop and I don't notice the jaggies after a while.

I'm enjoying HDR immensely, it's absolutely beautiful. Everything is significantly more vibrant and incredible to look at.

I'm willingly paying the FPS price for it, and still getting 20FPS average outdoors.

Also, I recommend the new 84.25 drivers for nVidia - It really, really smoothed out the framerate issues I was having. The Waterfront doesn't drop to 1fps as I'm wandering around, anymore, and the whole game feels a bit more responsive.

I'm having really good performance with HDR on, everything default ultra high detail using Edwin's 1440 X 900 res, except when there's an animal on screen like a wolf or mountain lions. When you get into a tussle with those, the frame rate drops a fair bit in a way that it doesn't when fighting humans. Very odd.

I didn't know Nvidia released new drivers. Time to update.

A big thanks to Nimcosi and others who posted the .ini tips. I thought I was running smooth before but after some of these tweaks it's glassy smooth AND even better looking!

Anyone running this game on a laptop? I've put in around 25 hours on the 360, but I'm thinking I'll get the PC version as well so that I can play it when I'm on the road, as well as to just throw money at incredibly deserving developers.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone running this game on a laptop? I've put in around 25 hours on the 360, but I'm thinking I'll get the PC version as well so that I can play it when I'm on the road, as well as to just throw money at incredibly deserving developers.

I'll toss it on mine today and see how it runs! I've been meaning to, I've just been too busy playing

Here are my specs, in advance:
Pentium M 1.7ghz
1 Gig Ram
Radeon X700

Certis wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone running this game on a laptop? I've put in around 25 hours on the 360, but I'm thinking I'll get the PC version as well so that I can play it when I'm on the road, as well as to just throw money at incredibly deserving developers.

I'll toss it on mine today and see how it runs! I've been meaning to, I've just been too busy playing ;)

I hear that! I miraculously managed to get my car washed and my hair cut this weekend, but every other free moment has been devoted to Oblivion. I'm almost at the point where I'll consider waking up early just to play the game before work!

My laptop:

Pentium M 2ghz
1 Gig RAM (thinking about upgrading this tomorrow...have been thinking about it for a while, but I've never done anything to a laptop)
Nvidia GeForce GO 6800 256MB

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone running this game on a laptop? I've put in around 25 hours on the 360, but I'm thinking I'll get the PC version as well so that I can play it when I'm on the road, as well as to just throw money at incredibly deserving developers.

www.gameguru.com

*Edit* I call bullsh*t on myself. After graphing out the processor usage and response, I believe that changing the variable iOpenMPLevel=50 does nothing.
Hmm I may have found a sweet spot.
iPreloadSizeLimit=524288000
[OPENMP]
iThreads=25

Outside fps seems more stable. The inside fps are outstanding I hit over 60 fps consistently and even exceed > 100 fps depending on the situation.

Mileage may vary, let me know if you concur.

I assume the [OPENMP] section is referring to Dual Core or Multiprocessors? I have an AMD 64 4000+ which I thought was a dual core chip, but I'm beginning to think it's not. Is there an easy way to tell if you have a dual core?

And that preload size your setting.. how much RAM do you have?

does the game not detect duel core processors? I have a Pentium D 3.0, and it seem like I should be getting slightly better performance than I am actually getting....

Vega wrote:

I assume the [OPENMP] section is referring to Dual Core or Multiprocessors? I have an AMD 64 4000+ which I thought was a dual core chip, but I'm beginning to think it's not. Is there an easy way to tell if you have a dual core?

And that preload size your setting.. how much RAM do you have?

That is the assumption I think. I do not see a listing for a AMD 64 X2 4000+, hmm what does your system properties screen say? Mine literally says Dual Core. I have 2 GBs of RAM.

MakesKidsKill wrote:

does the game not detect duel core processors? I have a Pentium D 3.0, and it seem like I should be getting slightly better performance than I am actually getting....

It does support dual processors according to the developer. How much of a benefit I cannot say, hence the tweaked options.

Ahh.. okay, ya I just noticed there's 2 versions of the AMD 64 4000+... one with and one without an "X2" designation. Alas, mine is without..

Also Vega, when you bring up your task manager, under the performance tab you should see two cpus listed if you have dual core, or hyperthreaded system.

Also, a single cpu can handle multiple threads, so the tweaks in the [OPENMP] section could offer some performance boost or it may not. In fact I think letting the game use too many threads may be a cause of slow down even for dual core systems, i will have to check on this myself.

Just a note that all my performance problems were solved by upgrading to 1GB of RAM from 512MB. The 'loading' screens have literally gone from minutes to seconds, and the near-constant stuttering is gone completely. Woo!

Redhwk wrote:
Vega wrote:
Redhwk wrote:

Not truely a OB troubleshooting problem, but does anyone know if ATI has something similar to this in their drivers? I'd probably lean more towards an ATI card down the road for my next upgrade if so.

As far as I can tell, ATI does not currently allow this in the Control Center but you could probably do it through PowerStrip and other similar apps.

Thanks for the info Vega.

Just wanted to mention that Powerstrip does indeed let you set custom resolutions for ATI users and I can now run the game at 1200x750 as Edwin mentioned earlier. Unfortunately I had thought Powerstrip was a free utility, but apparently it's $30 now (you can use it for short time before it expires). I haven't checked to see if the added registry settings for the custom resolutions stay after it is uninstalled. It defintely runs a lot better, but the textures just don't seem as crisp and clear as they did at 1680x1050.. but going from an average FPS of 15-20 outside to 35-40 is worth it I think. As with Morrowind, it will take a year from now before we can run the game as it was originally intended to be run. And probably by then we'll be seeing super hi-res texture packs that will bring the then aged graphics back up to par.

iMinGrassSize from 80 to 150 does wonders in grassy woodland areas.

It reduces the density of the grass and therefore the CPU load. Looks great and gives you a healthy boost in FPS.

Also: Please remember these settings must be changed in the My Documents/My Games/Oblivion/oblivion.ini file and not the one sitting in the installation directory. Took me a while to work that out.

This thread contains pre-made ini's and tips for beginners.

My Documents/My Games/Oblivion/oblivion.ini

This, annoys the CRAP out of me.

I hate it when games put stuff in places I don't tell them to!

Tyrian wrote:
My Documents/My Games/Oblivion/oblivion.ini

This, annoys the CRAP out of me.

I hate it when games put stuff in places I don't tell them to!

This is the only way you can support multiple settings for multiple users on the same OS and machine. Though I wish the home directory wasn't so hidden.

PyromanFO wrote:

This is the only way you can support multiple settings for multiple users on the same OS and machine. Though I wish the home directory wasn't so hidden.

Right. Here's a perfect example, say Lobster's mom is over and you've since collapsed, spent, on your bed. Since she likes the option bEnableFurrySex = 1 enabled, she can simply log in with her account and not have to change a thing. It's a win-win.

Chum

This is the only way you can support multiple settings for multiple users on the same OS and machine. Though I wish the home directory wasn't so hidden.

Bah. Then software should ask when it is installed if it should be installed for a single user, or multi-user, and notify you of where settings will be stored.

Besides, that's not necessarily true. Lots of games have had "profile" style options where a user could configure keys and such to their specifications and then save those settings in a file. Oblivion could have done the same thing, I would assume.

This thread contains pre-made ini's and tips for beginners.

Quoted so no one misses it!

Gosh Certis, I thought I was the only one around here that kills threads by being that last one to comment.

Anywho.
I completely uninstalled the recent nVidia beta drivers and installed the "official" ones and noticed a nice fps increase.
Probably nothing more than the result of a complete driver remove and clean, but none the less it seem to do some good.

Edwin, did you end up upgrading to the beta drivers or staying official?

Also I have given up on mucking about with the OpenMP settings, and I have stumbled across a few settings that instantly CTD if you move more than 20 feet in any direction. Booyah.

Probably the official one as it's WHQL certified (84.21).

Yeah, the 84.25's are definitely beta drivers. I haven't seen any issues with other games, if only because all I've been playing is Oblivion.
Though, the drivers have enabled me to jump the settings up a little, a well.. point lighting on the grass, for instance, and have the trees cast proper shadows. Not bad for a midrange PC.

Wouldn't you know it. I found a copy of Oblivion (only had the collectors edition. anyone want a coin?..). I started it up and it ran just fine. I got about 4 rooms in (that's not a spoiler is it? RPGs have rooms...) and it crashed to desktop. Rebooted, same thing.

Guess who hasn't updated drivers in a long, long time.

So while I'm waiting for things to download, maybe someone can let me in on a translation for any of the above, or just recommend me some basic settings based on my system. I have no clue what Bloom, HDR are. I know my card does the AA thing.

My system:

2.8GHz pentium something or other.
1GB of RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro
SB Audigy Gamer sound card

What resolution should I set? What little buttons should I turn off an on? Something tells me that rather than trying to decipher .ini file stuff for hours, I'll just play and deal with however the game is acting, so anything you think I really, really should do so that it's all spiffy, that would be great.

I listened to the last GWJ Radio, cried into my souvlaki (so to speak), and thought, "hey, who knows, maybe it *is* here." Well, it's here, as in here on my computer, but the driver downloads still have a half-hour left and it's 12:30am my time. Course I could just stay up all night... *sigh*

Your patience with my cluelessness re: video card, acronyms, settings, etc. is appreciated.

I would like if the game is more perty.

thanks.