This is kind of pretty, but ... Since the day looks sunny and relatively clear, where is the blue color in the sky? The sky looks gray (to me). I am a bit color blind, though; so ... am I wrong?

You aren't wrong. It is indeed a gray sky. I believe the weather mod is adding extra "foreground" clouds to the game's stock gray overcast sky. Earlier the sky had been very blue indeed. Sometimes too blue to my way of thinking. You sort of hit on one of my chief failures with the combo of OR and Cinematic ENB. During supposed bright sunny weather exterior views tend to look bleached of much of their natural coloring. The world is too drab to suite me. As mentioned, Bevilex's screenshots and videos show a much more rich, vibrant world than I see in game, using the same combo of OR and Cinematic ENB.

ADDENDUM: My OCOv2 avatar with friend in Green Emperor Way.

Couple more needed images from me.

OCOv2 Hamfat in IC Arena District.

OCOv2 Hamfat in IC Market District.

Not much to say about these. They are what they are.

Colovian Highlands

Decrepit, great shots of Hamfat! Even one of Vilja!

Cain, what a wonderfully serene landscape!

Wow, the Arena looks Awesome with your graphics!!! Holy Cow!!!

I uploaded this image some days ago, then decided it wasn't quite up to snuff thus not worth linking. Be that as it may, it's the last image I captured to date. Here it is warts and all, an evening view of White-Gold Tower.

And they are nice! The light is not what I'm used to, but I really like the MArket District


Love the green! Weird to see this area in August; my character is only ever there right when he has left Bruma after the winter

The textures on the WGT are awesome! What changed them from the greenish color of the vanilla? These last two shots (Arena and this one) are among my favorites for showing me how spectacular the IC can look with a master hand modding it! Awesome job!

My Oblivion installs have been modded so long I've forgotten when and why the green of Green Emperor Way vanished. Could have happened long ago or recently.

Aw shucks! I'd love to know where those gorgeous textures came from!

As to White-Gold exterior textures, those are part of Imperial City Retextured?, a texture pack new to me with the experimental install. Whether the absence of green is due ICR or some combination of Oblivion Reloaded and Cinematic ENB (both available at Nexus) I do not know. ICR is worth installing regardless, imo.

This morning I observed OCOv2 Hamfat clear out Fort Urasek. This image shows him nearing the ruin, having recently crossed Imperial Isle East Bridge. He has just bested a wolf. For once I elected to capture him with helmet on and short-sword in hand. After finishing up the Fort, I thought to watch him walk to Cheydinhal. It wasn't to be. He handled the first bandit ambush site along the Blue easily. The black bear encountered soon thereafter was another matter. Not even close. Since I don't yet make saves beyond the Imperial Sewer exit it was game, over with no point in reloading.

Other than an early brief audition I never bothered to install QTP3r in either of my true Oblivion play-throughs, though it is an oft recommended "foundation" texture pack, to be overwritten in part by select specialized HD packs. Turns out I missed out on some fine textures. I'm all but positive the pebbly dirt just off the foreground road is from QTP3, and know the foreground grass is. (NOTE: I do NOT refer to free-standing grass, which QTP3 doesn't provide.)

ADDENDUM:
Almost forgot to link this recent capture of the Imperial Sewers. Aside from a reminder of the quality of Betty's Sewer Textures, it also showcases an unfortunate downside to the otherwise stellar (by Oblivion standards) Oblivion Reloaded water. Sewer water is all but invisible. It is there. I see occasional surface movement in-game. Not sure there is a tweak to correct this without degrading the appearance of water elsewhere.

OCOv2 Hamfat exploring Ancient Yew forest. Drifting mist never looks as good in a static screen capture as it does in-game. That said, I think this image does them a bit of justice. Captured 2017-08-14.

Today's contributions are comparatively mundane. Two are from my OCOv2 avatar's recent exploration of Ancient Yews. (Unique Landscapes module.) One is a view of Millstone Farm Garden, the farm now being located within Ancient Yews.

OCOv2 Hamfat explores Ancient Yews forest.

Millstone Farm Garden.

Further exploration of Ancient Yews.

Those with access to either the new official forums or Nexus should do yourselves a favor and check out Bevilex' recently posted image of a portion of Poison Swamp from the Hesu Collection. Awe inspiring!

A very lush place! Looks so inviting!

Really nice, thank you so much for the link!!!



Wow, love the wet textures in the sewers here!







This is gorgeous! where is this in game?










That Millstone Farm mod is amazing, I love everything about it! Is that where the Yew Forest is? (Below Cheydinhal?)

Awesome shots!

Yes. Ancient Yews is to the east of the Imperial City, between it and Cheydinhal on the south side of the Blue. Parts of it stretch from the Blue to the Yellow...a nice size UL module. You can see some of its taller trees (the Yews?) at distance screen-right above my avatar in the shot of him near Fort Urasek ruin.

That Urasek shot looks beautiful! - And the sky looks much better in that shot too!

OCOv2 in Layawiin, an evening view. This is another shot I initially rejected. Not much to it really. Better than nothing I suppose. Maybe.

My OCOv2 avatar emerges from the Imperial Prison Sewers into Cyrodiil proper, Earth-date 2017-07-26. This faux image does NOT document the first time I observed him exiting the Imperial Sewers. He's easily done so over 100 times now, my primary save-point being just prior to the exit. This is neither the first nor last of those many exits. It is merely the first during which I thought to snap an image for posterity.

On the other hand, so far as my avatar knows each and every sewer exit is indeed his first.

Sweet, looks lovely. You and Hamfat must be getting a tummy ache from all this eye-candy, ha ha.

Scenic view from OCOv2 Hamfat's stay in Leyawiin, captured during a morning shower.

Waiting out rain in Leyawiin. These images were captured just after installing ShadeMe Enhanced, but due to atmospheric conditions its effects aren't very pronounced.


I know not what my OCOv2 avatar thinks about it. As for myself, I tend to fluctuate between happiness for graphical and other improvements that work out and frustration over visual issues I've yet to resolve.

More rainy Leyawiin.

Bellying up to the bar, Five Claws Lodge, Leyawiin.

Decrepit, your Leyawiin looks great!

WOW! I wouldn't mind living in that Leyawiin myself!







Holy Cow !!!! Amazing Graphics!







I am amazed at this Leyawiin, it is gorgeous!!! I want to live there! Must have your build!!!! GAAAAAAH!!!!

City textures are Leyawiin Wooldland?, new to me with my experimental build. Leyawiin has long been the Cyrodiil city I felt least in need of retexturing. Took awhile for me to acclimate myself to these new exterior textures. I'm now more than happy with them, both exterior and interior. Exterior mists are almost certainly from Atmospheres Natural Ambience by Discovery1. I currently use its Mist Only variant.

A scenic view of Skingrad at distance bathed in early daylight.

As stated in another thread, early this evening I removed and reinstalled both Oblivion Reloaded and Cinematic ENB. Launched the game only long enough to ensure I'm made no slip ups. (I somehow forgot to enable one OR feature, but it's not a lease breaker. I'll correct it tomorrow or the day after, depending.) In that small amount of time I captured this token image of my OCOv2 Avatar once again exploring Ancient Yews Forest.

With default settings it seems to me that the image has a "cool" color balance. I prefer warmer, but this'll do for now.

In the past I have linked what I consider the best of my Experimental Oblivion Build captures. This image of my OCOv2 avatar on Anvil Pier circa 1600 Nirn-time is more questionable. I'm not at all sold on the harsh effects of the late (?) afternoon sun, which I think somewhat overdone even in these circumstances. That said, strong late afternoon sunlight does indeed produce similar results under the right atmospheric conditions.

Preparing the above from posting it came to me that the very first screen capture of my second play-through that I deemed worthy of posting was of my decrepit avatar on Anvil Pier, earth-date 2010-07-31 It is his first visit to Anvil, during which he heard the Prophet and began the journal that eventually saw him assume the role of Divine Crusader, in which guise he helped thwart the Oblivion Crisis. As can be seen, he is already a patrolling Legionnaire, having signed on very soon after escaping the Imperial Prison Complex. I like vanilla richly saturated coloring, but can do without the odd unsightly zebra-stripe tiling the ground textures beneath the lighthouse. (The new image has a bit of that too, less obvious due to burnt out coloring.)

(The 2010 has long been posted at Photo Bucket, but you'll forgive me if I don't shell out $400US for the privilege of letting you view it there.)

Two more from out Anvil way, both captured 2017-08-30:

Anvil Castle Courtyard. (The mod that retextures Anvil includes those nice peeling white painted wood docks and piers seen in several Experimental Build images.)

Scenic view of distant Anvil at Twilight. (I can't quite decided if this image was captured during "late dusk" or "early twilight.")

Cheydinhal Street Scene at the Chapel, a 2017-09-02 capture from my Experimental Oblivion Build. To me this has a pronounced three-dimensional look to it, with lots of depth. One of six Oblivion images I now use as Win10 desktop backgrounds.

Ruins Deep Within Ancient Yews Forest, a 2017-09-02 image.

I've been knee deep in Oblivion myself, lately. Here is an album of mostly scenic shots I snapped.

Melora, my Dunmer Nightblade blessed by the Lady is currently level 6, and just stole the Mysterium Xarxes.

Decrepit - as ever, a whole lot of graphics goin' on there!

Cain - lovely scenic tour of Cyrodiil!

A few good "Where Am I?" shots among those.

Despite my quest for improved graphics quality, there is much to be said for the overall look of vanilla Cyrodiil exterior scenes during sunny daylight. In this regard my experimentations don't yet pass muster. I sometimes yearn to yank out both Oblivion Reloaded and Cinematic ENB and resume vanilla Cyrodill (plus HD textures, of course) adventures. Yet when I fire up my second play-through, as happened yesterday, I immediately begin to miss the decided improvements OR and ENB offer when at their best.

By sheer coincidence I very recently captured an image similar to the one you snapped of Cheydinhal Chapel at distance, with small bridge in the foreground. My camera position is nearer the bridge, and screen right includes the corner of a building that doesn't exist in your Cyrodiil, Cheydinhal's Gold Horse Courier office. That, and of course my OCOv2 avatar mugging the camera, as is his wont.

Ooh, thank you for the Leyawiin mod name! I absolutely LOVE that Skingrad shot, now THAT is what I'm talking about on the sky - much more realistic looking! Awesome shot!





I actually prefer the firs shot here; it really gives the gritty feel that the Anvil dock deserves (being a shipping port on the Abecean frequented by Pirates and Tars). That second one makes the Anvil dock area look way too new and clean; and the wood texture looks like something that should be indoors; not an active seaport.

Not thrilled with the castle textures they used here in that close-up shot; the whole charm of Anvil was those adobe/stucco type walls that set it up as unique from the northern styles and textures (like these gray rough walls showing here represent). These textures are very wintery looking; not really very representative of that sunny southern climate of the Anvil area. Too bad the mod didn't use a better texture for Anvil; these kind of remove the charm from it.

That said, however - that shot from the distance does look good!

Awesome shots!!!






Ooh, I love the textures on that Cheydinhal bridge!

@mALX - I too very much like the Cheydinhal bridge textures seen in one of my above captures, but of course I would else the mod wouldn't be installed. Interesting that you prefer (as I do) the "gritty" look of my Anvil Pier textures over the "clean" look seen in my early second play-through Pier image, yet in Cheydinhal prefer a "clean" looking bridge. On the other hand, Cheydinhal is Cyrodiil's most beautiful city, as Vilja keeps reminding my ever more decrepit avatar, It's only fitting the city properly maintains its bridges.

@mALX - As to Castle Anvil, it's been so long since I've seen vanilla Anvil graphics I no longer recall what they look like. Anvil is the very first Cyrodiil city I retextured during my first play-through, followed closely by the Imperial City. I believe Bruma textures "might" have been added during that play-through as well, towards its end. Or maybe not. Anvil textures used during my first two play-throughs are entirely different from those seen in my Experimental Build images.

@mALX - Yeah. Could I but maintain the quality of exterior lighting seen in my above distant Skingrad image throughout all daylight hours I'd be a much happier camper. Alas, things turn sour as midday approaches. Then, depending on locale, the countryside becomes extremely and unrealistically washed out. I hope to tame that at some point, so long as doing so doesn't degrade exterior lighting during those times it presently works very very well.

New images, captured during last night's session:

A new face for OCOv2 Hamfat. Not sure I like it any better than my last attempt. I certainly like it no less. Lighting is not the best, but about all that can be hoped for under the circumstances. Had I moved my avatar nearer the cell's one torch it would have triggered the start of game advancement, which I didn't want at that point.

Snapped an image of Emperor Uriel Septim VII and Baurus in an Imperial Prison Cell, to show how they and the cell itself look with my various modifications in place. Due to "tfc" not working during this exchange with my avatar I was not able to move the camera for best positioning. Composition thus suffers. As it is, I needed to remove Captain Renault, originally seen at extreme screen right, to make the shot post worthy.

Fresh Beginnings - Dawn of New Career Path. A new escaped prisoner, recently abandoned by Emperor Uriel Septim VII and his guards, begins his trek through the Imperial Prison Complex. Of these three images, only this one attempts to make any sort of artistic statement. Oblivion Reloaded. Cinematic ENB. Improved Fires & Flames. Smoke & Dust with ENB addon. Real Lights. Cava Obscura. Imperial Prison HD textures. OCOv2. Roberts Male Body. And so on.

First off = WOW! Hamfat's facial textures are stunningly real looking! AWESOME job on them!!!! I can even see a touch of five o'clock shadow!!!

The jail cell appears to have undergone a real transformation here; instead of death row and the really nasty dungeons of the lowest prisoners = this cell appears to be in the White Collar end of the dungeons! Maybe a little too clean/dry and nice; but not to such an extreme that it would put me off the modding. However, that said - Uriel Septim looks perfect here, the best I've ever seen him look!

(Really funny that you had to cut out tightpants ... er, I mean Captain Renault).

Fresh beginnings - again, maybe a little too clean and dry - was the Palace maid cleaning the tunnels? they look spotless. It takes away the feel of what the prisoner player had to go through to escape if it is all pretty and clean. There should be dust, dampness, grime, miscellaneous gross slimy places, etc.

In the same shot, though = Hamfat looks spectacular! textures of his face, his expression - right down to his dirty pants! (though I'm left unsure how they got dirty by the cleanliness of the dungeon).

Awesome shots!

Is this just a standard Oblivion game with mods added that anyone could do; or a remastered game like the new Skyrim they put out? Really amazing changes to the look of the game you have, It really makes me want to pull out my Oblivion game again for the first time since Persephone's Tower a couple years ago!!!

Wow, talk about atmosphere. You really nailed it with this one, mr D!

"Is this just a standard Oblivion game with mods added that anyone could do; or a remastered game like the new Skyrim they put out? Really amazing changes to the look of the game you have, It really makes me want to pull out my Oblivion game again for the first time since Persephone's Tower a couple years ago!!!"

@mALX:
Yes, my Experimental Build began life as Plain Jane, B-flat Oblivion, a fresh install of one of two GOTY disc copies. Most but not all mod choices come from Bevilex' modlst for Oblivion - Graphics? at Nexus. Follow it from top to bottom and you'll do OK. Pay particular attention to the top section - performances enhancers, game stabilizers, crash prevention, mod installation/management and so forth. Too, how much eye candy your install can handle will depend on your PC. Mine doesn't break a sweat except for a very few isolated instances. There is one mod on the List that noticeably affected my FPS. I would have used it regardless (the slowdown wasn't overly dramatic) except that it conflicts with the 2014 release of Elsweyr Anequina (not on Bevi's List) at one spot along Green Road near a Wayshrine to Stendarr. Be aware also that a few of Bevi's selections are redundant. This is usually spelled out, but in a case or two not. It's also possible that Bevi means for one mod to partly overwrite the other, I suppose.

(Speaking of performance, if you have a slowish PC, consider the combo of Oblivion Reloaded plus ENBoost rather than OR and a full fledged ENB. You'll lose a bit graphically, but still see a marked improvement in quality. For goodness sake visit the OR website to learn which features are safe and which are glitchy at the moment. (You have to visit there to download it in any case.) I have an image gallery there, but it contains nothing you haven't seen here.)

Personally, I've had great fun putzing around with Bevi's List. I think it'll be worth your time even should you decide to abandon it at some point.

Interesting comments about the Imperial Prison. I don't notice additional "cleanliness". but then I've not seen an avatar in Prison in seven years, except second-hand at YouTube.

Ooh, thank you for this! I have been seriously intrigued by your images to the possibility of delving back into Oblivion!

On the prison = the vanilla prison and dungeon crawl are pretty grimy and disgusting; they really made you feel like you had crawled through filth to reach your freedom. I remember my first instinct on reaching the Rumare was to bathe like there was no tomorrow in it before heading over to Vilverin, lol.

** Using "B Flat" as an adjective this way makes me feel bad about my poor B Flat Clarinet!

Imperial City Talos District bathed in early morning sunlight. A 2017-09-14 image from my Experimental Oblivion Build.


Have a B-flat clarinet eh? Still play? I have three euphoniums. They've served as nothing more than decoration for decades. Lost my chops following dental work circa 1989. Two Euphs reside in my living room. One is a British make (Besson) of the sort used by most "pro" players these days. One is a European oral style instrument that never caught on in the States. The Euph in my computer room (by the door) is an old student model that's more baritone horn than Euphonium. If the Besson weren't in bad shape (due to neglect) it might be worth a pretty penny. Pro Grade euphoniums are bloody expensive these days!

Nice! That's really pretty. I can't tell what's different about it (compared to my game). Lighting is definitely different. Grittier, or something. Less cartoony.

I've been gaming with Lady Saga more and more, as summer winds down. Here are a few random shots.

Docked

Rocked

Nocked

..Cocked and Locked

twip!!!

Saga with the Faint Smile

Decrepit, I agree with Renee that your 'scapes are more gritty and detailed.

Renee, great to see some bow shots of Lady Saga!

Great shot with the hawks against the sun in docked.

She looks great with the light of the setting sun on her beside the Little Mermaid.

Saga of the Faint Smile!

Good to see some Saga again!

Time for a new saga with Saga.

Very nice pics of Saga, this one I liked the best. Anvil is such a nice place and I'm a bit partial to the birds in the sky

A couple Sagas and a couple Sarahs. Plus one video.

Saga's new Woodsman Armor*

Swimming amongst Swans

Pins 'n' Needles

Sarah's Niece (unused pic from her final story)

Farnacas versus Joanie

Farnacas pwned, Sarah continues on...

* from the Woodsman Armor Version 2 collection?