Oblivion graphic problems

[fustercluck]

Trying to get into Oblivion but am having some graphic problems. Mainly long-distance stuff in the game looks awful, and shadows are all messed up (All the NPCs have a shadow beard...even the women) along with other shadows in the wrong places. All video settings are maxed out, but I've tried other video settings to try and fix the problems.

I'm thinking it was probably because this game wasn't made with Vistax64 in mind. Also I installed (or tried to install) a few different mods, including Qarl's texture pack 3. Qarl's doesn't seem to show up in Oblivion mod manager though, not even sure if it's active or how to tell if it is.

Anyone know how to run this game? It's not too old - It plays well...just weird shadows and really bad looking distant land...jaggies all over the trees :x

 

[FuryofFive]

lol bro a quick google search will show you. its the game and not you. Oblivion for the PC was basically a console port. Dont get me wrong, it looks very very nice. But its still a console port in the long run. When i built my updated my rig to make things look prettier,i wanted to try oblivion, looking into the distance, looked no different from my 7900GT MB/8800GT 320MB and even on my GTX260 896mb. the game just has crappy textures

 

[vj8usa]

Try turning off self shadows; that should fix the shadow "beard" issue.

 

[fustercluck]

Okey dokey. Thanks.

I thought it was PC first then on to consoles...shows what I know. Also this game gives me a headache...I was wondering why I gave up on it back when it came out. I thought it was just the crappy framerate I was getting but I forgot it also drained my advil supply

Hard to believe just a few years ago this was the top of the mountain for gaming graphics. Or maybe it wasn't. I don't know.

 

[FuryofFive]

Its a great looking game, but not when looking from a distance.

 

[AndroidVageta]

To the OP...

Look online and see if you can't find some mods...I know that there were some released that GREATLY increased texture resolution as well as draw distance and the like. The way I have my Oblivion modded makes it look like a brand new game running on the Crysis engine or something.

The texture pack that I have installed put like 3 gigs worth of new high res. textures in my game.

 

[dj2004]

Qarl's texture pack 3 will not show up in the mod manager because it is a texture replacer. It does not contain a .esp or .esm file, and this is what the mod manager looks for. It will still work but you may need to do the archiveinvalidation thing. If you use OBMM (which I assume you are) then it has a button that you press and you'll never have to do archiveinvalidation again. However, instead of the original Qarl's Texture Pack 3, I suggest the Qarl's Texture Pack 3 - Redimized version as it looks essentially the same yet uses much less resources to run.

But yes, the LoD (level of detail) in oblivion is ugly and has a pop-in effect. There are texture mods to combat this though. One really helps with the LoD textures and even has low polygon LoD landmarks so a building doesn't suddenly pop into view from nothingness. And another yes, turn off self shadows as it has always been bugged. Shame that Bethesda removed dynamic shadows in the game because the Xbox 360 couldn't handle them.

 

[Cuular]

LoD = Level of Detail

 

[dj2004]

Originally posted by: Cuular
LoD = Level of Detail

Ah, I thought my interpretation sounded weird... I'll go edit my post to clear confusion.