Gaming

Skipping ahead from Morrowind, I had a quick go on Oblivion last night. Not a "proper" play as there are some patches and maybe a couple of mods I'd like to add first, but I just wanted to see what it was like and how it would run. And it was surprisingly good, much better than I'd expected. Combat was pretty smooth too.
Now, let's have a look at those mods.

Meanwhile in Ark my raft enhancements didn't quite go to plan. Unfortunately I didn't really have a plan B and my "improvisations" could have been better.
I didn't want to do the "foundation lowering" trick as that wastes a lot of resources so I started building up on top and left the back bit bare where the rudder is. But I got a bit frustrated when the foundations would no longer snap at the sides. I've seen Youtube videos where people build massive ones but I couldn't go further than the width of the raft base.
I did manage to attach a ramp which allowed me to ride my Dino up onto it. Then as the rains came I thought I should close it off with walls and a ceiling but then when I rode the Dino up the ramp I got stuck in the roof so the ceiling had to go.
So I ended up with this clumsy construction...



And then I realised that the walls would stop me shooting arrows from a safe distance on one side. So maybe they'll get demolished too next time. And there I was worrying about wasting resources.

Apparently my current Mod Manager, Vortex, doesn't work well with Oblivion.
I'll have to download another one and learn how to use it.

Doing it yourself is fine... until you get a mod that doesn't work and you have to try and remove it manually and then find it's overwritten some files which then means a complete reinstall of the game.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information about which managers work. I really like Vortex cos it takes care of all the backups automatically but Oblivion predates it and has some technical differences which make it occasionally incompatible.
The one that seems to be the most consistent is Wrye Bash but it looks a bit scarier than the others.

Not that I'm gonna be adding loads of mods anyway. I only really want the Character Overhaul to make the faces less... lumpy. And maybe the graphics extender. And maybe the UI overhaul. And maybe...

Valence wrote:

But I got a bit frustrated when the foundations would no longer snap at the sides. I've seen Youtube videos where people build massive ones but I couldn't go further than the width of the raft base.

I went back to rewatch them and paid a bit more attention this time. You extend the raft floor with ceilings NOT foundations!
So I added another three panels at the front and this made it a bit easier to go sailing with my Dino...



Still looks ugly as hell though.

And when I got back home I found that Dirge had done a good trick!



Now that is what I call Balance!

After being initially impressed by Oblivion's dungeon scenes, last night I finally made it outside and was a little surprised by the funky looking grass.
Much worse than I'd seen in screenshots/videos.
After a bit of research it seems like it doesn't recognise Intel HD chips and won't display proper shadows.

So it seems like now is the right time to start modding!
I think I've worked out how to use Wrye Bash now so I'd better get searching for graphics tweaks.

Mods!?!

Installed the mod manager, all my Oblivion patches, the script extender, the character overhaul, the reloaded graphics etc.
Got them all in the right order? Check.
And ready to play!

And what the hell is this?
It was literally like a slideshow! The framerate went from 30-40 down to 1-2. Yep, at times it was actually running at one frame a second!
Must be the shaders.
Disabled the enhanced graphics and... 1 frame a second.

Erm... the detailed faces?
Disabled. Still 1 frame a second.

The patches are killing the game??
Disabled. STILL no framerate.

It's the script extender!
Disabled that and it runs fine.
Unfortunately most of the available mods rely on the script extender.
I really don't know how the basic scripting tool can have such a hit on performance. Makes no sense to me.

So I guess I'm stuck with the funky-looking grass. Unless I try those ENB presets?

Yes, I know I'm replying to myself for three consecutive posts but I need to express the struggle with Oblivion mods.
And I've finally got it working!

It wasn't the script extender that was killing it (well, not really.)
I uninstalled ALL the mods/patches and started again one at a time testing each one as I went along. It was indeed the graphics enhancer that was stealing my frames and somehow it continued to do so even after disabling it (and this was the bit that was linked to the script extender.) The complete uninstall cured it and then I was able to install the better faces too.
But that still left the dodgy weird grass and lack-of-shadow shenanigans. So I had another browse on the Nexus Mod site and found something called ShadeMe which promised to add those shadows and... it delivered on that promise!
And not only that, it also allows the HDR lighting too (another thing that was initially disabled due to it not liking the IntelHD chips.)

So the grass looks better....



Distant hills are looking OK (although I may replace some of the LOD textures later.)



And as the sun started to set, that HDR light started to look pretty too...



An ENB could add me some extra God Rays and Depth Of Field, and I did download it, but I'm not entirely sure that it'll be worth the hassle.