Widescreen Gaming Forum

Ive turned up the tree distance and grass distance up to full (move the slider in the video menu all the way to the right).

It loads the entire area (the "loading area" text) instead of constantly loading whats ahead of you. It seems to take the load off the cpu, and so long as your graphics card can cope with the on screen objects, it runs VERY smooth!

My computer used to struggle loading everything as i ran forward (especially when on a horse) but now its smooth with everything at max, with HDR on.

Ive got some screenshots ill post now...

[quote]For anyone having problems with low framerates and lots of stuttering in the woods... try turning up the tree and distance (i know, sounds odd :)). Seems to access the hard drive less, and therefore the game runs a neck of a lot smoother for me. Of course you need a graphics card that can cope with it ;)

Defragging your hd could help with the stuttering problem outside. Since it loads the world "on the fly" it is important that the location of the files are optimized to decrease read times.

Yeah, people with RAID setups should notice it less, but setting everything at max really does help, and makes sense too, as everything gets loaded into the RAM.

I wish us 360 users got a few things we could tweak here and there...maybe turn down a setting here in exchange for a bit of boost there...oh well, it still runs decently well.

Yeah, people with RAID setups should notice it less, but setting everything at max really does help, and makes sense too, as everything gets loaded into the RAM.

Regular users with no raid should notice a little better performance too. It won´t be perfect smooth but I think it will help a bit. When you were talking about it loads everything in the RAM what data did you mean. Yes it loads the data into the ram and gfx ram but it will have to read it from the disk and into the ram as it can´t hold the entire game in the ram so defragging should help on the fly loading. Or where you refering to something else with the ram?

It appears to me that the game is split into a series of areas, as as you walk, youll notice the "loading area" text.

I think if you set the tree distance to full, it loads the tree position, aswell as details of all the objects too, and the positions of the grass, and grass types, into memory as you enter the area.

If you have these details on low, if only loads them as you get nearer them, hence they appear from nowhere, but the game stutters more, as its loading these details from the disk.

Ok, here are some screenshots ive taken with FRAPS, all the framerates are visible. Ive only taken shots at high detail levels, and i havent turned the textures or view distance down (or the distant land, trees or buildings) in any setting. Note these are not running on my normal X2 4200 but on a 3200+ Winchester. Id imagine id get better performance with the 4200 but until i get the dual core problems on NFS sorted im sticking with this :)

Screenshots in the Woods
(HDR, 1920X1200, Everything maxed)
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-02-32.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-07-40.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-11-98.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-27-28-50.jpg
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-28-39-12.jpg



HDR VS Bloom +AA
Screenshots from Anvil Dock
(All taken at 1920x1200 with everything maxed)

Bloom + 2x AA:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-41-47-43.jpg

Bloom + 4x AA:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-41-47-43.jpg

HDR no AA:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-43-02-42.jpg

Personally, i prefer the HDR over the AA, i had a run around with both on and the performance seemed about the same, but i really do like the HDT lighting effects in this game.



Detail comparison:

Towns seem to take quite a hit when object distance is high. Here is a comparison taken in Anvil town.

Everything Maxed:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-47-09-89.jpg

Object distance and shadows lowered:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/abw3/Images/Oblivion/Oblivion%202006-03-27%2022-48-10-10.jpg[/b]

For those that cannot play without AA, it is possible to tweak the Bloom settings in the .ini file so that it looks nearly ientical to HDR. Nice captures btw.

I've tried it with AA now. I get about 20fps in the woods with 2x aa and the rest at max.
I prefer HDR though and don't really bother about the small jaggies.
I get way better performance with aa off, hdr on and the rest maxed so i'm sticking with that.

Then there is another thing. Do any of you guys have these crappy shadows on the characters? (yourself, guards, citizens, horses)
I have these really weird bands of shadow instead of nice soft shadows. :?

framerateuk, I get it now. Interesting. Thanks.


PCMusicGuy, share.

Yeah I have those shadows too, as does a friend of mine with an old 9800 256