Dyre Straits

EDIT: Video Link in Post #3

Some of you will likely remember my earlier posts about problems with Oblivion behaving very badly on my new Intel D975XBX system with the E6700 C2D.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/hardware...rformance.html

I've kept this mobo up-to-date with any new BIOS and/or Drivers and up till now nothing was working. I even got some new RAM (2 GB of Dual Channel).

Well, after installing the new RAM -- which I just got yesterday -- the game STILL was a bust. Outdoors it would screech to a bloody halt with only 3 - 5 FPS!

So, I FINALLY bit the bullet and uninstalled the game....completely! Cleaned up the Windows Registry, deleted the game folders, rebooted, and then proceeded to install the game once again from scratch.

Before proceeding to play, I patched the game with the official final patch.

Then, as much as I hated to do so, I also started with a brand new character (pretty much re-created the one I'm use to playing) and used only the default settings for the game at first.

Lo, and behold! the game was playing very nicely. BUT, remember, the game starts inside the prison cells. So, I worked my way through the dungeon and sewers until I finally was able to make my way to the exit from the sewers. I clicked that exit gate while holding my breath.....

Voila!!! The game was performing GREAT for the first time on this Intel system.

So, I then began to make some changes in settings: Ultra High, HDR, 1280x1024, V-Sync ON and did a few of the Oblivion.ini tweaks I'm accustomed to using.

Still, the game played very nicely. 50 - 70 FPS....even OUTDOORS!!!

With this success, I then installed Knights of the Nine and tried it again. Still great performance!

Then I installed Shivering Isles and it still performs wonderfully.

I'm quite ecstatic about how much better the game is performing now. The biggest drawback is that I was at Level 45!! and have now had to start all over again. (Not that that's a really terrible thing, but still over a year's worth of progress wiped out.)

AND, on the plus side, I'm once again recalling just what it is about this game I love so much! The stories/quests/nice plot twists, etc. AND, I'm seeing the original game now on a much better video card than a year ago when I was using my X800 XL. The X1950 Pro just really handles the game well.

Now....I just wish I knew what was screwing up the performance so badly before. I may never know as I get lost again in Oblivion.

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Tipstaff

I'm glad you finally got things worked out.... cuz you were making the Intel D975XBX board look bad!

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Dyre Straits

I really do wish I knew what was the source of the problem. But, stay tuned...I've got a nice little video coming up shortly.....

This video was captured using FRAPS 30 FPS, Full Size in AVI format. Its original filesize was nearly 5 GB. It's been reduced using Windows Movie Maker.

OH, yeah..Settings: 1280x1024, Ultra High, HDR, V-Sync ON.


Oblivion On Intel Video

Hope the link works.

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Da_Jewish_Fonzy

link doesn't appear to be working

Dyre Straits

Working just fine here. Just now tried it again. It should buffer the video and then play it if you have the right player.

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Necrosis

Dyre loves weird problems. It would be interesting to see if he tried it on another system w/ similar specs.

Tipstaff

Works fine as long as you: right-click and save as, or open the link up in IE (which will in turn open and buffer it in WMP). If you use Firefox it will try opening it as a text file.

I wonder if using an ASX file would fix that though?

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X1800XTTOP

Have you tried all saves one at the time? I once got an issue where the game would crash to desk after ~5min. So i tried save after save, "going back in time" and in the end i found one that worked.

I´m waiting for the final 1.2 patch atm, but i love oblivion. My char. is a lvl 30 thief and im playing shivering isles (beginning of the story).

And i love how good oblivion runs. At 1280X1024, everything max/on, HDR+4xAA/16xHQAF it runs like a dream. Btw dyre try applying 2xAA - my friends x1950pro did it well and besides, youve got some nice performance atm

Dyre Straits

Well, I'm not sure how closely you've followed this problem. But, I've played Oblivion for over a year on three other systems. Two were Intel-based and two were AMD-based.

I was able to get the game to play nicely on everything...using my previous saved games and mods....until I tried it on this current Intel system. And, even on this one, I could play pretty nicely inside the cities and dwellings. But, just as soon as I stepped into the great outdoors the game's performance would plummet to an appalling 3 - 5 FPS. It was horrible!

This was on Windows XP Pro SP2; D975 XBX mobo; E6700 C2D; X1950 Pro PCIe; and 1 GB of Dual Channel OCZ DDR2 RAM (2x512).

Now, just yesterday I installed some newer RAM from Corsair. 2 GB of Dual Channel and STILL got the appalling performance. So, after all of this, that's when I decided to just uninstall the game and reinstall it as described in Post #1. After all of that, the game plays very nicely now.

As for the video above: I actually have tried to get the AViVO converter installed and working on this system and it doesn't seem to be working. Not even MMC 9.16 will install. That's for another post and some more 'weird' problems.

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Dyre Straits

I actually AM working my way up to that.

What I want to do first is to get all the mods back in ONE AT A TIME and test each one after it's installed to see if a particular MOD was causing it first. Once I do that, then I'll see if one of my latest saved games work.

But, to be very honest, I've about covered the entire maps for both Oblivion and Shivering Isles. I don't really know of any new territory or quests to be done at this time. But, there are some more user mods I haven't tried yet.

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Tipstaff

Hey, Dyre, check your PM. It's info on getting the video to work with any browser... that is it should work.

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Dyre Straits

Lordy, lordy, have mercy!!! WhooHoo!

Yes, if you heard any shouting just now, that was me. After getting the mods installed back into Oblivion, I then transferred over the latest saved game from Shivering Isles and......

SUCCESS!!!

The game is playing GREAT again and I'm back to my Level 45 Character.

To say I'm relieved is an understatement!

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X1800XTTOP

Im so happy for you I hate computer-errors like this - hence why i have all my oblvion saves backed up on 3 diffrent harddrives (2 main in comp, and on my 30gb Iaudio mp3-player).

Its over 100h that im not keen on losing :P

Dyre Straits

You're just getting started.

I have now over 600 Hours of gameplay invested.

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Da_Jewish_Fonzy

Yup, that did her. I'm using FF. But I got it.

Glad you got it solved Dyre, cheers mate.

Lowfat

I sometimes wonder if you have the highteset (non cheating) character out there 600+ hours is insane! After i get level 15ish i always start a new character and try something slightly different.

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Dyre Straits

I don't know about having the highest level character, but, I can assure you I acquired this level without any cheating. That's for sure!

I just love the game....period!

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