Another image from the experimental Oblivion install. My avatar sits in an Imperial Prison cell awaiting what fate has in store. This image shows a couple of the few graphics mods I've thus far installed: one to improve the Prison, one to improve the cup, pitcher and table, Cava Obscura to darken dungeons and some other interiors. Oddly, the cell isn't as dark as I recall it. Then again, there "is" a window behind and above camera position, and a torch not far ahead. Plus, it's been going on seven years since I last observed an avatar at first-hand in that cell! Notice also the graphics anomaly on the table leg furthest screen right. Don't recall that from before either, but again it's been an awfully long time.

I doubt there'll be anything new to show for some time. I'm in absolutely no hurry to get a fully modded play-through up and running. Or so I think.

That's awesome that you're starting all over *ahem mirocu* Kidding. No seriously, it must be nice to go all the back. I guess I've done the same thing with some of mine, and Acadian and tmar have also made newer versions of older avatars.

I don't know if you've explored beyond that initial cell yet, but Cava Obscura probably won't make a difference until you're beyond the wall.


Right on top

Way down under

Foggy Chorrol

White Gold so high

Decrepit looks great - ever so recognizable!

Rneee, love that shot of the Warrior Princess - Epic!

Hmm...well, I don't know that I'm starting over, though it's a possibility. If I do, my long-established second play-through will remain intact on the i7-930. It's just as possible, once I finish experimenting with new mods and how far I can push Oblivion on this new rig, that I instead copy my established play-through to this machine and install as much new stuff as is possible into it without breaking things. Problem with a new play-through is that I consider my second play-through well nigh perfect in a great many aspects. Any further plays-through will likely be no more than failed attempts to re-live it.

21 Jun 17 Addendum:
Viewing the capture of my avatar sitting in an Imperial Prison cell on my i7-930 PC, I notice that light levels within the cell are about what I remember them being. So far as I can tell, there are no differences in brightness adjustment either in Oblivion itself or Nvidia's Control Panel. I assume, for now, that the monitor attached to the i7-7700, simply displays a brighter image. If so the issue will solve itself once the i7-7700k PC is moved to its permanent location.

These graphics are amazing! I wonder if most of the issues you are having are from playing on a 64 bit when the game was made for 32 bit? Or multi-core processing (I think some people had to turn off two cores to play some games) or something like that?






"Right on Top" has to be my favorite of this set, but all are awesome shots!

The problem with shots like this one, is that I can't rest until I figure out where she's standing.

I was gonna say where RG3 is, but Hmm, maybe it's time to revive the Where am I? thread.

My OCOv2 avatar in the Imperial City. No, the play-through is NOT close to being functional. This was merely an elongated not-saved experimental session to check out installed graphics enhancements for the Prison escape route and Imperial City. (The "wilderness" looks like utter crap at the moment and likely will for some time to come.)

To me, my avatar's eyes are too squinty and his mouth too down-turned. This was not intended and went unnoticed during character creation. I took a second stab at the creation process this afternoon, but other than improving his eyes am not thrilled with the results.

You are right that he looks a bit unhappy in this shot, but what fantastic graphics! He looks very ... real!

While ago I observed OCOv2 noob Hamfat walk to the rise along Blue Road overlooking the Imperial Isle. As the Isle and its immediate surrounds is the ONLY area of Cyrodiil fairly close to its final modded form, I decided to capture this image.

The good. Because of the area's state of near completion I was able to use my old hand-created LandscapeLOD color map for the quad. In my not so humble opinion the work I did on color maps back then is as good as, and in some ways better than, any such maps I've seen. On casual glance it's hard to tell where near view stops and distant landscape begins. Can't say that about most LOD color maps. And of course those maps perfectly match my load order. (Using tes4ll to create LandscapeLOD meshes is a big help.)

The bad. I can no longer make those maps. They were done in CSE, which so far as I know is the only method that utilities user textures. CSE started flaking out on me after four or five maps. I've been able to create none since. I can sometimes general partial maps, but a portion remains black. Besides, I'm not sure the program that stitched individual map subsections together works at all on Win10. Oh yeah, the masters for those color maps are 8K, big enough to hand paint corrections and improvements as needed. I then reduced 'em to a usable size, which for me is 2k for all quads save that which houses the Imperial CIty, where I used a 4k map.

Another bad. Lighting seems rather flat and drab for a sunny Cyrodiil day. My second play-through has a much more vibrant image, as this capture attests. Not sure what's up. Maybe it's a Oblivion Reloaded setting? If so it should be correctable.

Wow, that first image looks spectacular!

Another new OCOv2 Hamfat image, this time an evening view of the IC Temple District. Not much point to these recent screenshots, they not being part of an "official" play-through. Still, they serve as reminders of the build process at different stages of completion. Most of the few mods utilized in this shot are old standbys:

ImpeREAL Imperial City - Unique Districts, which among other things add faux upper floors to many Imperial City buildings.

CityLights - Imperial City, which does the obvious of adding extra lights to the city in question.

AWLS, why live without it?

Blue Sky Nebula

Original Color - Darker Nights (Another very early install from my first play-through used ever since.

As for new stuff, only IC textures come to mind, though in this night scene they go largely unnoticed.

Oh yeah, HD iron armor. Surprising myself, I find it one of my favorite new add-ons. First time I've enjoyed viewing an iron clad avatar.

ADDENDUM: Here is an alternative to the above linked image, captured further from my avatar so that is serves more as a scenic nighttime view rather than a character portrait with interesting background. Pick your poison.

The more I look at this and the few other experimental build daytime images the more I feel something lacks. It's lighting, I think. In the near field I don't see any evidence of sun "burn out", where areas exposed to harsh direct sunlight are washed out. If true, the only mods that come to mind that mind cause this are Oblivion Reloaded and Real Lights. I don't believe Real Lights effects the sun, but only interior lighting. If OR, it's prolly some setting I configured incorrectly.

That said, nighttime lighting in the two Temple District shots seems pretty spot-on.

I remember long ago in the old Beth forums you mentioned something about your Decrepit Avatar's 'true name,' and nobody else caught this but me. And so I began spamming What is his true name??? over and over until I finally caught your attention. Hamfat Hamlin.

Anyway, he looks angry in these pics. Not that this is a bad thing; he's got a tough job, after all. And I'm glad he's still doing this job. Now that mirocu is taking some sort of sabbatical in his cottage (or whatever) Lothran is not around. Renee Gade III lives in a completely different time, Joan of Arkay and Lady Saga can't handle the roads of Cyrodiil all alone. So we're glad Hamfat is still at it.

The pic of the Black Road is very bright indeed. It hurt my eyes. I'd like to see what a gloomier setting looks like with Oblivion Reloaded, if you don't mind.

Heh...yeah, I recall those days. You have slightly misremembered his family name (or made a typo), btw. It's Hamkin rather than Hamlin. Remember that, in olden times, families oft derived their surname from their profession, in this case generations of hog/pig breeders and meet producers. So associated became they with their chosen livelihood that it became common gossip that the two were tied by more than business connections. At some point "Related to Hogs" and the like morphed into "Kin to Hams", which in turn became "Hamkin". Whether this final naming was more or less forced on them by circumstances beyond their control or decided on by a marketing savvy family member is lost to history. In either case Hamkins they became, Hamkins they remain.

A bit of success. At last learning the gist of OR's in-game console, I was surprised to see BLOOM defaulted to DISABLED. Enabled it. Poof! Those flat, lifeless visuals I've been complaining about vanished. On a slightly negative note, bloom makes my avatar's face slightly blurry, as seen in this new image of him in the IC Market District. OR has a "sharpness" setting that should fit it, but I've not yet decided if I want too.

WOW! These graphics are amazing!!!!

*drool*

I also have that issue, not sure what to do to correct it. Even with fw 38eee 1 it's almost like it's a cloudy day. Have tried to adjust the screen but it doesn't seem to help much.

I think what is missing is sunbeams = maybe angling down/across/between the trees and maybe some shadow below the trees where the sun wouldn't be reaching? The path is a bit washed out, no raised stones/ruts/ (etc)?

@mirocu Hmmm...do you have either HDR or Bloom (can't have both so far as I know, not with vanilla) enabled in the game's Video Settings?

@mALX The image you critique is the one I consider visually correct. The road is washed out due to harsh sunlight. (I use road textures by AmpolX, who tended to make them more reflective than most.) Then it's not washed out individual stones are clearly seen. That said, I notice in my experimental build that that particular road texture "is" a little flat. Its normal map is one of those that's mostly clear, which likely accounts for it. Still, I've never found road textures I like as well as those by AmpolX.

I captured two scenic views today, one standing at the foot of Talos Bridge on the Weye side, camera pointing toward the northwest portion of the Imperial Isle, with Verona Village flanking screen left. It was a spur-of-the-moment shot. I considered it a throwaway. Later on, looking over the two views in Paint.Net, I noticed much to admire in the throwaway image. In the end I tossed the other view and kept the throwaway.

Here it is, a View of the Imperial Isle Bathed in Early Sunlight.

I think the early sunlight effects are captured well nigh perfectly. The only real distracts are, in my opinion, a too obvious seam separating two LandscapeLOD quads and slightly too blurry texturing on those beige (?) rocks nearest camera position. At some point I'll track down exact which texture it is and see if I can find a decent replacement.

That water looks great!

** I tried to find one of Victoria's Oblivion shots to give you a visual example of what I was talking about - not sure which mods she used, but there were actual beams/rays of sunlight between the trees and even some sun's glare over the top of the trees that threw just the right amount of contrast to the shadows beneath them. It was visually stunning to see, and very realistic looking.

Anyway, her Oblivion shots had all been long since moved out to make room for all her Skyrim shots, so I wasn't able to find one - but that is what I was talking about.

This is very pretty, but it lacks something; and I think that it has to do with the way the light is everywhere in the same strength instead of filtered through the scene below it in the varying strengths that going through clouds and trees would cause. There is no visualization of the sun's rays, even though you can see its light.

Here are some examples of what I'm trying to describe (and probably failing) :




https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1...-1441249619.jpg


https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1...-1266626674.jpg


https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1...-1217370664.jpg

I was going to mention that what you describe sounds like the sort sort of graphics improvements best provided by ENBs. Visited Cinematic ENB's Nexus page to find a decent image to link. Turns out, at least one of your links is a Cinematic ENB capture.

I agree that Oblivion Reloaded's default Godrays settings are pretty subtle. Then again OR is not an ENB, though it attempt some of the same manipulations. I installed Cinematic ENB on my experiment build a few days ago and liked the results, but the game micro stuttered too often to suit me. With OR I've not yet noticed any mentionable stutter or lagginess. The true test will come once the build is complete and my avatar can traverse Bravil's Barrowfields with some hope of survival. The Barrowfields' southern sheep pen is a frame-rate killer on my secondary computer. The game becomes a glorified slide show at the point if a beast attacks the flock while my avatar is nearby, as oft happens.

I thought one of these screens said it used something called "Immersive Sunlight," but I don't remember which. All did a really good job of making the sunlight vibrant and real. I know it brings the graphics up to the same level as ESO, really amazing! Not sure if my rig can handle it, but I'll bet yours does, lol. I'd say there must be some fix for that stutter because I've seen a lot of people's screens with this effect. Maybe the stutter is a mod conflict?

Anyway, your close up graphics are Awesome! Much better than mine are!

@mALX AT some point I'll give the combo of Oblivion Reloaded and an ENB a try. I wanna get much more comfortable with OR first. There ares still functions I can't Enable/Disable with the in-game console, and some I don't know the use of.

Here we see OCOv2 Hamfat in Green Emperor Way, not so White-Gold Tower in the backgound. I had just installed Shademe Enhanced at the time, but noticed little difference in shadowing. I "did" figure out how to get rid of the "soft focus" look. The world's definitely sharper now, and my eyes less sore. I do miss the softness of far distant landscape, but ya can't have everything I suppose.

These recent images document graphical and other "improvements" as I build my experimental Oblivion install. They do "not" chronicle the adventures of an avatar within that install. Official, no avatar has left the Imperial Prison complex. (I've made no saves beyond that point.) I may or may not use one of four already created faces if and when an actual play-through begins.

ADDENDUM. An evening view of Talos District at the statue.

@Decrepit - Nope, no HDR or Bloom.


Nice pixies as always, btw

My OCOv2 avatar On the Waterfront. Notice the Bloated Float sign. A bit off-putting, but the Russian mod which provides it is too good to do without. I could of course overwrite those particular textures and meshes with files from some other mod that provides them (or Beth's originals), but sort of like it as is.

I captured an image of my OCOv2 avatar in Weye Village on the 12th. Since then I replaced my beloved AmpolX roadstone and roadstonesmall texture files with those from Imperial Roads?. Here is more less the same view, captured this morning. I definitely prefer Imperial's roadstonesmall texture. I might like Imperial's roadstone texture as well as AmpolX's, though there are trade offs. Imperial roadstonesmall and AmpolX roadstone don't blend together nearly as well as the two Imperial textures combined, which only makes sense. For now that inclines me toward the Imperials.

Imperial Roads includes Cobblestone textures. There the jury is out. I suspect that in this case, when all is said and done, I'll keep at least a few AmpolX cobblestones.

These are Awesome shots, whatever you used on his facial graphics is fantastic! But ... I think he looks lonely! He needs Vilja to come keep him company again!





I do like the Imperial Roads better than Quarles Texture Pack's versions; but didn't know if these two shots at Weye were a comparison of Vanilla vs Imperial Roads (or AmpolX's vs Imperial Roads). If it is the latter, then I most def prefer the Imperial Roads to the AmpolX in that screen comparison.

** Off topic = I did notice him at the Bloated Float, even if it was the Russian one! Was he there to meet Vilja?

I have to agree with you on the sign, it is beautifully done - but unreadable as the "Bloated Float," and = not sure if that wouldn't break a quest or two that rely's on scripting that would be looking for that item (sign) in English? (unless they just copy/pasted the Bethesda name for this sign; I have done that before to make sneaky edits to the game)

Was he there to meet Vilja. Not really, as this isn't an actual play-through. Not yet at any rate. He did step inside Bloated Float long enough to insure she is in place and ready to go if and when the time comes. I'm using an OCOv2 Vilja patch that gives her a different hairstyle. My initial thought was to use the original hairstyle patch, and might yet switch to it.

The image comparison is between AmpolX and Imperial Roads roadstone and roadstonesmall textures. There is indeed much QTP3 to be seen. The Inn itself. The ground texture immediately in front of the Inn before roadstonesmall kicks in. The bit of stone wall seen screen right. I think QTP3 does well with those. Some QTP3 textures I'm not overly fond of, but those are okay. I load QTP3 early so that much of it is overwritten by other textures.

Have you seen my Vilja? I got her a makeover:


Okay, well I can't show you because Photobucket has hijacked my photos. Unless I upgrade to their premium (400 per annum) membership, I can view my screens on their site, but not post them anywhere.

Grrrrrrr.

I stopped using them years ago because they were over-run with ads and I couldn't remember my password (and had a new email address, so couldn't get that straightened out). So I guess I have lost all my pictures there.

Scenic view of the Imperial Isle with my OCOv2 avatar screen right. This shot exists solely because I quite like foreground pier texturing. It was conceived as being purely scenic, sans avatar. But the right portion of the view seemed rather blase. My avatar disguises that. His face is bathed by shadow, but that's okay since the focus should be elsewhere.

All I am seeing is an error message saying to update your 3rd party viewing settings.

Okay, well I can't show you because Photobucket has hijacked my photos. Unless I upgrade to their premium (400 per annum) membership, I can view my screens IN THUMBNAILS on their site, but not click on them or post them anywhere anymore.

Grrrrrrr.

I stopped using them years ago because they were over-run with ads. I couldn't remember my password (and had a new email address, so couldn't get that straightened out); and they had "Save this image" blocked so I couldn't even download them to my PC anymore. So I guess I have lost all my pictures there.









Really nice!

Your new avatar looks really good, Decrepit. Though I must say I was quite fond of his old look too. Merhaps could you incorporate his old self as your avatar again?




Oops. There I go again, trying to make others do as I want. Please ignore if desired, Decrepit..

Still here...

Hi, Phon! Nice to see you again. Those are some nice 'Ayleid stone' graphics in your screenshot.

Phon, are you "somewhere west of Cheydinhal?"

Kidding. Welcome back.

Hey!
Yeah it doesn't look like that all the time and yes, (again), it's nice to be back!



LOL very funny, yeah actually it's "Somewhere north of Veyond at the moment"!

Hi Phon! Who's your gal this time?

Hi ya!
She's the same, just picking up where I left off, sort of...!

I've gotten a couple of emails from Photobucket, one as recently as yesterday, about this. No way Jose! I too stopped posting to Photobucket years ago, but have many old uploaded there. In my case I can still log on and use the download function the email claims exists. I've not messes with it yet. So far as I know any and all Photobucket images of mine exist on my PCs.

I don't put imgur past going the same route, especially if Net Neutrality is gutted, as has every indication of happening within the next few months.

Two more from me, captures utilizing both Oblivion Reloaded and an ENB. I'm not yet quite satisfied with the ENB. Sunny outdoor scenes colors tend to be too drab to suit me. However, I quite like exterior night scenes and dungeon interiors, which these images represent.

First up, my OCOv2 avatar exploring Vilverin. Not much to this one. I've used these Ayleid Ruins interior textures for ages. If memory serves they the first "dungeon" textures I ever installed, back during my first play-through. I've stuck with 'em ever since.

Lastly, an evening view of Imperial City Elven Gardens District. Unlike daylight scenes, night colors have sufficient vibrancy. I like the deep darkness of unlit areas, achieved in part thanks to another very early mod install, "Original Color - Darker Nights". It is amongst the very first mods I ever added to Oblivion, possibly "the" first, discounting behind-the-scenes mods like FastExit2.

I can really see some sort of ... almost an aura around that torch's light in the first pic. It's very subtle. Very well done by the team, there.

Hamfat looks great in that second pic.

I really like the lighting in the second pic. Almost wanna have that in my game too

Decrepit, I'm glad you're enjoying tuning up the graphics end of things in Oblivion. Your diligence certainly shows!

The graphics in both these shots are spectacular, though that second shot looks really dark! Love Vilverin in your build!!!

@Renee - For my experimental Oblivion build I use Improved Fires and Flames?, performance option. I was skeptical at first, as the mod's Nexus page screenshots don't look all that impressive to me. Once installed, in-game improvement was obvious. The ENB further alters things.

@mALX Talk about dark. Much of the Imperial Prison escape route is so dark with my current mod lineup as to be almost unplayable, even with torch in hand. Should this build morph into a actual play-through I'm tempted to uninstall Real Lights until my avatar exits the sewers. Vilverin, on the other hand, is fine lighting wise, assuming you like dark dungeons. My hope is that most dungeons are akin to Vilverin rather than the Prison escape route.

Couple more experimental build images.

1) My OCOv2 avatar paused at the Gold - Red Ring Road intersection. Of most interest to me is the clarity of the emblem(s) embossed (etched?) onto the iron breastplate. I see what looks to be a downward pointing short sword. Above it, what appers to be faint outstretched wings. An illusion?

2) My OCOv2 avatar not much further along on the Gold, Imperial City seen at distance peeking between trees.

3) Imperial Isle illuminated by haze filtered morning sunlight. I reckon it to have been 0730ish Nirn time when this view was captured. It is easily my favorite of the three.

My favorite shot was originally the first - your build's Legion look completely different! And the Mounted with the tassles feathered legs! Holy Cow, what an Awesome shot!!!!! But then, I get to the bottom screen and see the enigmatic look on Decrepit's face; and got to figure he is still stewing about finding mice in his bread at breakfast! Awesome shots, all of them!

On the darkness - yeah, that would be a game killer for me with my near blindness in the dark! I originally started playing Khajiit just for the night vision in that tutorial dungeon; so can imagine me bumping my way through the Imperial City with it that dark - it would sap the enjoyment of the game for me - but not everyone has night-blindness; and I know a lot of people that used the "Darker nights" mod and loved it!

I played a bit of Persephone's Oblivion game yesterday. Such pretty corpses...

Aw, she looks adorable! And what awesome graphics you have! I must have the worst rig at Chorrol!

Persephone looks wonderful in Oblivion (like everywhere else she plays). She does indeed seem to be perhaps your most enduring and well-traveled character. With her unapologetically dark aspects tempered by an underlying good/noble nature, it is easy to see why.

Ah, good to have Persephone back. Now the Decrepit Avatar, Renee Gade III, Lady Saga, and Lothran have even more evil dead things to worry about! Kidding.

My OCOv2 avatar sightseeing in Green Emperor Way. I was auditioning a weather mod at the time. This image documents highlights one of its several position aspects. In the end I considered it something of a mixed bag and ditched it. Might audition it again once I iron out kinks remaining in my combo of Oblivion Reloaded and an Cinematic ENB. (I gotta be doing something wrong. Bevilex, whose guidance I consider myself having followed when installing the two mods, doesn't have the visual issues that bother me, as his (???) many posted screen captures attest.)