The Oblivion Thread

You're absolutley right that MMO's are notorious for what you might call 'bland' texturing.

I've never had a qualm about it, I understand why they are like that. Until RAM and internet connections become super(whatever that is exactly)fast, then the formula will remain.

Though EQ II developers repeatedly said at launch that the game was designed graphically to continue to get better as time went on, taking advantage of new hardware. I don't know how solid such a claim is, given the obvious inability to know the future of hardware, but the results have been supportive.

If you tried to run the game maxed, with the bump lighting two years ago, you would have drowned your system into utter hell. Now, you can just barely pull it off.

It's the first MMO to actually produce substantial graphics, which I think says a lot given the 'formula.'

In comparison to others, it's definatley #1.
I checked out LOTRO beta the other day. Within five minutes I wanted to erase it from my drive as fast as possible. It felt like a game solely built around novelty. If you really like MMO and the LOTRO series, you might tolerate it. If you've played good MMOs and seen EQII graphics or similar, you might just barf. It seriously looked like it was made and released two years ago ;/



For EQII I do have some screens I can link you in a zip file that I put together earlier for an entirely different reason. They are all scenery, and the landscape doesn't change much, but every ten or so shots it gets somewhat different.

It's unfortunate I can't get the same visual quality in them as I have on my screen, but you just have to squint a little and 'imagine' I suppose. None of them are 'battle' shots, and I still missed the rain, but then again I can't predict the rain!

EQIISS.rar/zip
(virus scan if you like, but they are all just .jpg files)
http://download.yousendit.com/F04F27B8178A1C53

EDIT: Grabbed a few of these just after this post, still no rain! haha. They focus more on what I can only describe as...the textures may not be as detailed, but 'detail' comes in different forms. I get really annoyed by objects that are smothered with the wrong resolution photo imaging. I think there's lots of instances with that in stock and Karl's textures. They look detailed but not crisp. EQII seems to have less detail, but the resolution is appropriate given the circumstances. I suppose it's like comparing FarCry to Counterstrike Source. The former is far more detailed, but not as solid or stable looking like the latter.

http://download.yousendit.com/BF1475E9196D2251


These will go down in a week, but I will have the files for at least a month, and it will grow.


You will see a bit of that bland texturing(relative of course), which is basically what we got in Oblivion after initial release. I don't think the average EQII textures rival Qtexture pack 3, but when you add the bump lighting, the textures completely change. You can also notice, ironically, that the distance views even if sparse still contain more detail than current Oblivion LOD packs.

I really want to cherry bomb the toilets at Bethesda HQ ;/ Which makes me sound like a complete graphics fanboy, concerning myself with just one aspect of the game. But I hold to my defense that I've always been one to put gameplay before graphics. It's just that after a long break from PC gaming, coming back, at a good time (thanks to 8800s hehe) in the hardware market, I feel like 'next-gen' should bloody well be next-gen. It's caused me to be a bit biased, but I still give games benefit of the doubt (except LOTRO beta, aaah). I have played a bit of Oblivion, and minus a few irritations, the gameplay is good. I think it boils down to me really enjoying travelling in such games. Travel in a video game is heavily influenced by visual appeal, unlike real life where there's more human senses to be addressed. So when I see trees popping into the distance, that are entirely jagged and 2D like they were from the outside of a track in a Papyrus Nascar racing game circa 1996 running on a 3dfx GPU, I feel a bit let down. To add insult to injury, the land surrounding the trees is a flat, unshadowed, unbumped green(or equivilant color) piece of ickiness, that makes me think I'm flying overhead in some old Microsoft flight simulator and all you see is: big green square of land = grass, big brown square of land = farm fields, big gray square of land = oh I think that's the airport!


Guess that was a rant, oh well, I payed my $40+, I deserve a few ;p

If you want different types of pics, just ask.

 

Wow, that's quite the rant

It looks great I must say! Still, it looks different from Oblivion imho(I miss some HDR, and indeed qarls 3rd pack and his LOD normalmaps make oblivion look so much greater than just vanilla Oblivion) but on other points it is indeed better (atmosphere is good) judging from the screenshots and purely graphical-wise. (especially compared to vanilla Oblivion)
I will never start playing it as I don't play MMORPG's as they're too time consuming and expensive for me, but you've proven your point

 

Here some shots taken in and around skingrad at dusk (with Qarl3 @medium):

 

thx Grom

hay quarl, what compression did you use on the textures dxt3 or dxt5?

 

Aye, pretty pics.

EQII supports bloom, and I think it's bloom is stronger than Oblivion's, I'll try to find some shots later today. I can force HDR on but I can't tell if it's making a difference, so I just leave it off at this point.


EDIT:
Without HDR:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3123/everquest22007022608180jw1.jpg

With HDR:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7804/everquest22007022608175im1.jpg

Grom what LOD are you using? Can I have some distance shots please?



@GHZ

I want to say dxt3, as I swear I remember him making a comment about the inability to use dxt1...?

It's definatley posted somewhere though..ugh I'm thiking Planet Elder Scrolls comments for QTP3 had it.

 

@ Gromuhl'Djun .... i took a similar screenshot with every thing t maxed ..



damm JPEG compression .. going PNG now ...

 

OK, some new sewer pictures...

 

Q you ever considered releasing a few different versions of DOF? Say ones where the blur is less potent or more importantly not as up-close?

I think I'd use it with 4096 normals if it was backed off a bit.

 

Fransesco's Leveled Creatures-items 4.2 mod has been released! w000t!

 

Alright guys I'm now in the process of loading the game, I can't believe I'm going to play Oblivion for the first time years after it came out, lol! The screenshots you posted on the 25th made me finally go out and get the game Gromuhl', those shots are beautiful! I hope that I'll be able to get it all up and running correclty, figure out how to play, and work with you to get all the same mods you used for the screenshots above!

 

Yeah, Qarl really made the game look so incredibly good (Qarls texture pack 3 +qarls depth of field mod + Qarls LOD normalmaps and shaya's LOD textures where used to graphically enhance the game on my rig)

When you have questions, we're here to answer them

 

Hi, i'm buying this game this weekend, and am wondering what patches and mods you think i should install before i even start playing the game?

I've read the guide post (2nd in thread), but am looking for a bit more specialised advice for my system if that's ok. Thanks in advance.

 

Awesome, thanks Gromuhl'! Once I get comfortable with the game and figure out what I dislike the most (graphically speaking) I'll start researching what mods to check out. That way I don't just start installing mods without knowing what they actually do, or mess the game up with some mod I don't want/need!

EDIT: I just checked out the Oblivion guide at "tweakguides.com" and its' a great place to start. There seems to be a lot of decent general info as well as more indepth info as well, not to mention that he mentions some of the more reputable mods to use.

 

people are still playing this game? LOL!

 

with all the mods this game will live for quite some more time.

 

Well, I downloaded OOO, and I I've got a few questions...

1) Where can I go to kill stuff and level up? EVERYONE is kicking my ass, currently.

2) How does leveling up work in OOO? If it uses the default "attribute improvement" system, which leveling mod shoul I use?

Thanks.

 

How does the framerate with Q's at medium compare with the standard ones at high?

That looks pretty good, what other mods do you have on in this shot?

 

sorry if this has been already asked..but i just got this game and would like to maximize my graphic card's capabilities...

- Vsync off at all times right?
- HDR or AA 4x? for some reason it wont let me choose both
- all my settings under video have the sliders scrolled all the way to the RIGHT side...this includes shadows, fade for all items...etc...if I slide all these to the right, that means my graphics are better right?
- is there anything I should turn off that I might not need? I know in F.E.A.R. soft shadows turned off reduces alot of stress on the video card...and you don't gain much benefits in the game...is there something similar for obilvion?

thanks in advanced

 

Game seems smoother to me with vsync on and triple buffering enabled(512mb is good for this)

Bloom and 4xAA is prob better than hdr.

Shadows items and objects can be 50% with no noticeable difference. Everything else I max out. Don't forget there are ini tweaks that can make foliage and water look way better too(hit in perf though).

Turn off self shadows and grass shadows unless they actually work right for you. They don't for me.

Edit* Oh ya, turning up actor fade gives a hit to cpu perf when alot of characters are on screen(because the game only runs their AI when they are visible), if you overclock that 6300 you're fine though.

 

thats for the quick reply...anybody else want to add to this?