A SIMPLE GUIDE TO OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE FOR THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION
We all know how much we love the game Oblivion, here are some tips which will make it a game which is better than it was before.1. VIDEO CARD OVERCLOCKING
Fristly, you should consider overclocking your video card. Depending on the video card you use, this can reap good benefits or not. Some cards are notably good overclockers, like the 7900GS, or X850Pro, while some can't achieve much, like my actual 6200TC.:lol:
Whether you are using an ATI or Nvidia card, ATI Tools is the best as for as my experience.
ATI Tray Tools is easy and intuitive to use, but you should always be very careful about overclocking, and take the time to read a comprehensive guide such as this one.
[BREAK=Oblivion Tweaks]
2. OBLIVION TWEAKS
Then, there is some tweaking we can do in Oblivion.
a) Oblivion launcher options and in-game video options:
I'll leave some up to your experimenting, since all pcs are different. However, in order to optimize your framerate, try changing your options according to the list provided here, one at a time, until you find a comfortable setting.
1. VSync OFF. VSync reduces image tearing, but this is generally a secondary concern. It can have drastic consequences on framerate.
2. Water quality on NORMAL. It is hard to see any difference between normal and high water rendering, except in the framerate.
3. Resolution: between 1280x1024 and 800x600. Middle-range cards and lower have a really hard time with high resolutions. This can absolutely kill your performance. With a little antialiasing, a lower resolution can be just as good and with a major boost in framerate.
4. Textures on MEDIUM. This is advised on all video cards 256 MB or less. It was often pointed out that playing Oblivion for a long time with high textures is overkill for 256MB video cards. Medium textures look just as good as long as you're not looking up too close.
5. Anti-aliasing 4X, 2X or OFF. Above 4X, Antialiasing does nothing except slowing down your computer. At 2X, it's already a major improvement over none, and most video cards can do this almost "for free" (with no framerate hit). Of course, if you really have low-end hardware, then turning it off altogether will improve performance even more, although at a significant quality hit.
6. Very little or no grass. Even on high-end video cards like the X1950XT, Oblivion's default grass is an fps killer. However, there are ways to optimize its rendering, as we will discuss below. So before you reduce your grass, try the other options at the end of this guide.
7. Shadows on self/Shadows on grass/Tree canopy shadows/Ext Shadows/Int shadows OFF. Shadows are easy to ignore and are often a major fps killer.
8. Specular distance at 40% or lower. I did some testing and specular lightning doesn't seem to change much, except making shiny surfaces somehow even more shiny. For the fps cost, it's not necessarily worth it.
9. Blood decals on LOW or OFF. Minor detail that can slow you down even more in combat.
10. Window reflections OFF. All kinds of reflections involve rendering stuff twice, which is always taxing on the video card.
[BREAK=Tweaking .ini file]
b) Oblivion.ini
This file is NOT located in your Program Files/Oblivion directory but rather in My Documents/My Games/oblivion.ini. Double-click on it and then find and edit the following lines. As the oblivion.ini is a long text file, CTRL-F is your friend.
But keep a backup of the original, before doing any changes. And use the codes as per the text within braces below, remove the text and braces after appropriate modification.
If enabling grass doesn't kill your framerate, or if you can't live without grass (that sounds very wrong), optimize it:
Blanking the following will prevent all the startup movies from loading into the memory, thus reducing memory usage and speeding up Oblivion on the startup:
Disabling the animated map in the main menu can increase mouse responsiveness:
Finally, disabling music frees up the CPU somewhat, and some people really prefer playing the game without music, so they can enjoy all the ambient sounds.
[BREAK=MODS]
3. MODS
Again, in order of relevance.
Streamline: Oblivion is reputed for bad memory management. This awesome program will clean the memory intelligently, resulting in significantly reduced stutter for everyone! (Note: at the time of writing this, Streamline v.4 is in beta testing. I recommend using v.2.1 for the time being.)
Use this: Streamline - Planet Elder Scrolls
Low Poly Grass: This mod replaces the 20-poly grass mesh with an 8 poly one, effectively reducing the graphical load presented by grass by more than 50%! This works wonders on most systems. A lot of people actually prefer the simpler mesh for aesthetic reasons too. If you're looking for maximum performance at all costs, search for a 4-polygon version, called Low-Low poly grass. It looks extremely simplistic though.
Quiet feet: Having a sound playing for each of the four paws of each animal around you (including your own horse!), especially if they're all running at the same time, can totally bog down the CPU. This mod simply removes this sound.
Operation Optimization: Similar to low-poly grass, this mods replaces many meshes with low-poly ones, that look just as good. I haven't have the occasion to test it personally, but it has been said to improve the frame rate in some areas.
De-Parallaxer: This removes parallax mapping on most textures, thus making them appear more flat. I've not been able to see much improvement in frame rate with this, but that's maybe because I was more bottlenecked by fill rate than anything else. Depending on the video card you use, it could help.
Apart from this keep your Windows healthy using any optimizing softwares such Tuneup Utilities 2007, they too help a lot.
Now try the game again. This guide may not be useful for the Oblivion experts who may have already done this, or to the one's who have rather powerful system. This is mainly targeted to users with low end systems.
PS: I had used these tips before, which i got from a friend, but didn't knew the source. So was unable to give its exact source. Thanks to AK3D for helping me out in this.