Oblivion Mods

Oblivion is a good game, sure. But it can be so much better! Oblivion has one of the strongest modding communities for any game, and the /v/'s Recommended Games Wiki is here to help you benefit.

You may or may not wish to play through Oblivion without any mods first, but it's probably a good idea. If you can't stand the original Oblivion, like many people, go ahead and jump right into modding it.

A good companion resource can be found here: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Oblivion_Mods_FAQ

Modifying Oblivion 101

 * Vanilla means original, how the game would be if you had no mods.
 * Mods can conflict. If you have two mods that modify the same things, then you have a problem.
 * Because of this, the order in which mods are loaded is important. The mod that is loaded last has its modifications applied last, and therefore will be what you see during the game.
 * Don't install 50 mods at once. Play the game (at least load the engine) in between installing mods, so you know what caused the problem when something goes wrong.

Basic Instructions For Installing A Mod

 * 1) Read the instructions that come with the mod. Really.
 * 2) Put the .esp, .esm, or .bsa files into C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data
 * 3) Open up the Oblivion Mod Manager.
 * 4) Put a checkmark next to the mod in the pane on the right.
 * 5) If you have BOSS, run it. Click BOSS.bat and it will order your mods correctly.
 * 6) If you ran BOSS, scan through the mod list it gave you. If there are any comments read them and obey.
 * 7) If you ran BOSS, if any conflicts were detected, go back into OBMM and disable the conflicting mods.
 * 8) Start the game.

Slightly More Complicated Instructions For Installing A Mod
Sometimes, you want to be able to uninstall a mod, or see if you'll have conflicts before installing it. This is where OBMM comes in handy
 * 1) Extract the mod to a folder and make sure that the files are all in the right places.
 * 2) Open up OBMM and click 'Create'. Enter in the title of the mod, and other information if you want.
 * 3) Click 'Add Folder', and browse to the folder where the files that would go in the Oblivion\Data folder are.
 * 4) Click 'Create OMOD'. The files will be added to an OMOD archive stored in your Oblivion folder.
 * 5) Double-click on the OMOD in the list to the right. A green box means the OMOD is present but not installed, a blue box means it is installed, and a red box means there are potential conflicts.

Step 1 : The Programs
BOSS:

What does this shit do? Fucking sorts your mods out into the correct loading order so your shit don't get fucked up, make sure you also download the updated master-list as well. Dump it into your Data folder in your Oblivion installation directory and don't touch it for now.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20516

OMM:

This is the Oblivion Mod Manager, straight forward enough for most people. It also offers a feature to make your own OMOD files as well as install them.

This is a straight forward installation as it comes in .exe form so you shouldn't be able to fuck up.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097

OBSE:

Oblivion Script Extender, this is needed for some of the optimization mods. Once you've downloaded it shove it into your Oblivion directory.

Download the latest build here:

http://obse.silverlock.org/

Step 2 : The Mods
If you've never installed Oblivion mods before they usually come in one of two ways. The majority of the time they are manual install which would just mean dumping the files in your data folder located in your oblivion directory. The minority of the time they appear as OMOD files, to install you just double click them if you already have OBM installed. To enable OMOD files, make sure that the check-boxes within the right of Oblivion Mod Manager are blue and not green.

Unofficial Oblivion Patch:

This is the patch Bethesda should have made, it fixes a lot of CTD issue and overall improves game play through out. If you also have Shivering Isle be sure to download the Unofficial patch for that as well:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5296

Shivering Isle: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10739

Low Poly Grass:

This mod significantly improves frame-rate dramatically by cutting down on the polygons used on the grass models. It comes in 3 modes, Low Poly Grass, Low-low Poly Grass and Alt Low Poly Grass. If you have Shivering Isle just download the SI Low Poly Grass version.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5434

Short Grass v3:

Decreases the size of grass once again improving fps. Doesn't conflict with the above mod.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2069

Optimised Distant Land MAX:

This changes the distant land meshes to be less complex. It comes in two versions 50% optimized or 75%.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15278

Quiet Feet MAX:

Reduces the sound file used for walking/running/horse galloping sound effects. The default sounds can lag some older systems.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12331

Deparallaxer:

This mod removes the parallax/displacement shader from about 500 different .nif files used in Oblivion. It replaces it with the standard diffuse shader that nearly everything else in the game uses. Why? Performance! On my machine, I gain an average of 5 FPS when playing in areas that use parallax shading with this modification. Also, movement in parallax-disabled areas now seems smoother to me. However, the trade-off is that these surfaces now appear very flat, and lose a bit of their previous shiny-ness. But, this is the nature of performance tweaking.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3209

Oblivion PolyGone Overhaul:

Oblivion PolyGone Overhaul (OPO) is an ambitious project to reduce Bethesda overly generous use of polygons on in-game objects with little to no loss in quality.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6981

Oblivion Script Optimization:

This mods goal is to give a better performance by optimizing the scripts found in the game. Every frame hundreds sometimes thousands of scripts run in the background, this requires a lot of CPU processing power. Using this mod the CPU will be able to run them with less calculations, but accomplishing the same goal.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13092

Purge Cell Buffers:

A simply little mod that will purge the cell buffers, and what does purging the cell buffers mean? It means cleaning out all the cached data that is no longer being used. It comes in two versions, purging after loading screen and during cell changes. Recommenced to use loading screens option due to the cell change option can interrupt npcs talking.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9139

Operation Optimization:

The aim of this mod it to improve performance (FPS) without quality loss by optimizing large meshes used through out the game. Comes as a .exe for easy neck-beard access.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10510

CaptNKILLs NonTiling Texture Mod:

Oblivion uses a lot of tiled textures in game, this mod removes them and replaces it with one big texture instead of thousands of smaller textures.

Reduces loading and increases frame-rate.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4868

Step 3: Changing values in your .ini file
The Oblivion.ini file is located within My Documents/My Games/Oblivion

Before we start, I suggest making a backup of the Oblivion INI file

Change these to 1:

bUseThreadedBlood bUseThreadedMorpher bUseThreadedTempEffects bUseThreadedParticleSystem bUseMultiThreadedTrees bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen

Change this to 5:

iNumHavokThreads

Set these to 9 and 10:

iThreads

iOpenMPLevel

Now, for 1 gig of ram change these to 6 and 72; for 2 gigs or more, 16 and 102:

uInterior Cell Buffer

uExterior Cell Buffer

Change this one to 52428800:

iPreloadSizeLimit

And change all of these to 1:

bBackgroundLoadLipFiles

bLoadBackgroundFaceGen

bBackgroundCellLoads

bLoadHelmetsInBackground

iBackgroundLoadLoading

bBackgroundPathing

bUseBackgroundPathing

'''This variable is default at 40. It controls how many clusters of grass there are in grassy areas. The higher the number, the less dense the clumps, and a greater FPS. The suggested change is to 120, but I put mine up to 200, and my FPS jumped by 5 FPS:'''

iMinGrassSize

Step 4: Tying up the loose ends.
Well done if you made it this far you're pretty much done. The very last step you will need to do now is go to your data folder and hit the Boss.exe and Boss.bat file, these will sort your mods into correct loading order so your game doesn't crash. Now one last mod to install and you're done.

Go here:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10724

Download it and run it, this will remove the need to update your Archive Invalidation manually so your .BSA files will all be working correctly.

Now all that's done open up Oblivion Mod Manager make sure all your files are checked the ones on the left and right.

NOW YOU CAN PLAY YO GAME NIGGA

THE END

That's it. If your shit still doesn't run smooth in high detail after all this, buy a new computer faget.

Do this first

 * 1) Patch your game to the latest version.
 * 2) Get Shivering Isles. A lot of mods are dependent on Shivering Isles, so having it will make things simpler.
 * 3) Install the Oblivion Script Extender: . Get the beta version, v0018 beta 4. Put all the files right in your Oblivion directory, probably C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion. Make sure they are not inside a subfolder.
 * 4) Install the Oblivion Mod Manager:.
 * 5) Install the Unofficial Oblivion Patch:.
 * 6) If you have Shivering Isles, install the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch:.
 * 7) If you have any official modifications or DLCs from Bethesda, install the Unofficial Official Mods Patch:.

Essentials

 * Better Oblivion Sorting Software:
 * In a perfect world, this would erase any need to worry about load order. Unfortunately, it does make the occasional mistake if you have a very long mod list.
 * Wrye Bash
 * Wrye Bash requires Python
 * If you're reading this you probably won't know what to do with Wrye Bash; that's alright. Just leave it in your Oblivion directory, it is practically guaranteed that you will need it eventually. I'd suggest using the Oblivion Mod Manager over Wrye Bash to organize your mods.
 * Streamline:
 * Quest Popup Remover:
 * Follow the instructions in the readme. Make sure the quest_added.xml file falls in C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\data\menus\generic
 * Quest Reward Leveler:
 * Map Marker Overhaul:
 * This mod is in OMOD-ready format. Open up OBMM, click Create, click Add Archive, select the zipped file you downloaded. Click yes, yes, Create omod. Click on Map Marker Overhaul in the right pane, and select the settings you want, though the default settings should work best.
 * No Psychic Guards:
 * Modify your INI: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion
 * Find bBorderRegionsEnabled and set it to 0 to remove invisible walls at the borders of the world.
 * Find SIntroSequence and remove all values to remove the Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games logo videos at startup.
 * Read the advanced tweaking section of this guide, especially if you have a dual core processor: http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

OBSE Plugins
Place these in C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\OBSE\Plugins and they will automatically take effect.
 * Windom Earle_s Oblivion Crash Prevention System:
 * Fast Exit:
 * Elys' Universal Silent Voice:
 * Elys' Uncapper:

UI Mod
You'll want one UI mod. DarNified UI is the most popular.
 * DarNified UI: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10763
 * DarkUId DarN: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11280
 * Phinix Immersive DarkUI: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7698
 * BTmod: http://btmod.beider.org/

You also might want this mod, which adds a minimap to the UI. It works with DarNified UI and DarkUI'd DarN: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26220

Overhauls
There are many different overhauls for Oblivion: OOO, MMM, Warcry, Francesco's, TIE, etc. But /v/ doesn't use just one. /v/ uses all of them.

FCOM
"FCOM: Convergence shatters previous barriers in the Oblivion mod community by letting you play four of the largest Oblivion "overhaul" mods at the same time -- Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Martigen's Monster Mod, Oblivion WarCry, and Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items. It also seeks to show how new item and/or creature expansion mods can be added directly to this environment, and thus includes optional support for Bob's Armory, Loth's Blunt Weapons for Npcs, Cobl, Tamrielic Ingredients, Knights of the Nine, Tamriel Travelers, and many other popular mods." 

Supposedly, FCOM is extremely hard to install successfully. However, it actually is pretty simple at this point. Installing FCOM is extremely well documented. A step by step guide is provided here. Where it says "Check in Wrye Bash", you will instead want to check it in the Oblivion Mod Manager; It makes no difference, and OBMM is simpler. You'll still need to use the Bashed Patch though. I suggest also using TIE In, which is listed in the plugins section of that guide, and any other plugins you want to use.

Graphics
An excellent reference for improving graphics is http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/obliviontextureoverhaul.html


 * Qarl's Texture Pack 3
 * This is a truly massive mod that replaces a great number of the in-game textures with higher quality textures, though at a performance hit. Those with less powerful graphics cards can try QTP3: Redimized for not-as-high-but-still-better-than-vanilla textures.
 * Bomret's Texture Pack: Shivering Isles
 * The same sort of texture update, done for the Shivering Isles expansion.
 * Bomret's Detailed Normal Maps for Vanilla
 * If your computer can only pull off vanilla Oblivion's textures, then this mod is best. It uses normal maps the same size as the originals, but more detailed. The improvement isn't as drastic, but there should be no performance hit.

Beautification

 * Better Cities: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16513
 * Unique Landscapes: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19370
 * Natural Environments: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2536

Gameplay

 * Deadly Reflex: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8273
 * Better Music System: http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1062801

Leveling

 * Oblivion XP seamlessly replaces the skill-use based leveling system of Vanilla Oblivion with a more typical experience based system. Experience is gained from most actions: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15619

Content

 * Vaults of Cyrodill: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9357
 * This mod adds hidden and locked vaults filled with treasure to each city, all very difficult to break into.
 * If you're using better cities, this mod is not necessary as it is built in to the omod.
 * Elsweyr: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25023
 * This mod adds an entire new area of the world, Elsweyr, including three cities and new quests.

Quests
The definitive reference for Oblivion quest mods is dev_akm's TOQL: http://knol.google.com/k/toql-the-oblivion-quest-list

Alternate Start
These mods start the game from a different location than the prison.


 * Alternative Start Arrive by Ship: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11495
 * Imperial City, Anvil, Leyawiin(if better cities is installed)
 * Can assign social status, wealth, etc before playing. Give yourself a shit load of money at the start.
 * Modular Oblivion Enhanced: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7902
 * Anvil only.
 * Also includes a bunch of other mods.
 * Alternate Start Revamped: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=822
 * Nearly every city.
 * Can choose wealth level and also get a free sword
 * Note: crashes when creating a custom class, choose the default and read the book "All About Me" to create your class. Disregard that, got fixed.