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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Modding Part 1

FAQ PART 1
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Modding
by jamenta

Last updated: May 8, 2010







I. Introduction
This FAQ is for Overclock.net Oblivion game players looking for a road map into the Oblivion Modding
scene. Modding Oblivion, Elder Scrolls IV, can significantly enhance your Oblivion game playing
experience, and given the thousands of player created Mods now available for download, answering basic
Modding questions like: Where to Go, How to Mod, and What Mods to Get can be a time consuming
and bewildering task. This FAQ is a distillation of my own Modding efforts and is meant to assist you
in entering the Oblivion Mod world and getting the best it has to offer.

A few comments before I begin:
- This FAQ is my own Oblivion Modding road map with my own preferences. I am not connected in any
official capacity with Bethseda Softworks. Take what you like from it, you don't have to
follow all my suggestions or links.

- The Mod recommendations I make are based on a fairly high-end PC gaming rig (see jamenta system specs
in my sig for an acceptable level, mileage may vary). Oblivion is well-known to be a hardware demanding
game and adding many of the player-mods I recommend in this FAQ will add to that demand. Make sure you
got the rig to run Oblivion, and over-clocking your rig will help.

-This is my first Overclock.net FAQ and suggestions/corrections are welcome. I will make an attempt
to update the FAQ on a regular basis and will post a Last updated time at the top of the
FAQ.


II. Where to Go
Your first challenge to Oblivion Modding is figuring out Where to Go and how to get the information
you need to start Modding. A great starting point that explains Modding basics is:

Oblivion Mod FAQ

I suggest reading the above FAQ to get a good overview of Oblivion Modding. The FAQ also has several
excellent links and covers basic How-to Mod questions well.

Oblivion Configuration & Tweaking:
Oblivion is a highly configurable game and to get the best gameplay I recommend you tweak Oblivion
config files specific to your own Gaming Rig specs (no matter what kind of rig you have). I found the
website below by far the best tweaking/configuring site:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Tweak Guide

Where you can download Mods:
Next, answering the question of where to go to download Oblivion player Mods numbering in the thousands.
There are two central websites that I think are the best and most up-to-date. I list them below:

1. The Elder Scrolls Nexus
2. Planet, The Elder Scrolls


The links above are free user download sites, although you will have to register yourself to gain access.
In my opinion, the most up-to-date and extensive archive site is The Elder Scrolls Nexus.
But sometimes you can find unique mods unique on Planet, The Elder Scrolls as well, and
it's worth a visit.

The Elder Scrolls Nexus and Planet, The Elder Scrolls both offer two types of download
servers: One is public "free" servers, and the other are subscriber "premium" servers that you do have
to pay for (but in general are faster and you don't have to wait).

Recommended Mod Lists:
Once you have found out where to get your player mods, you'll discover thousands of mods you can choose
from. So what player mods to pick can seriously be upwardly challenging. In addition, there is no
guarantee a player Mod is bug-free or will work as advertised.

Veteran Oblivion Modders to help out, have created their own "Recommended Mod" lists. These are
personal Mod lists that these people believe are the best mods to download and use among the
thousands available. I include my own personal "Recommended Mod" list in part three of this FAQ.

Here though, are links to other "Recommended Mod" sites that I think are pretty good:

1. Arwens Oblivion Journal - Recommended Mods
2. dev/akm mods
3. Oblivion Real Estate
4. A's List of Recommended Mods
5. Red Room Service Mod Listing

Be aware: some of these recommended mod list sites can be dated. Check when the recommended list site
was last revised. Even though the Oblivion player Mod database continues to grow daily with new player
created Mods, Oblivion Modders don't always keep their "Recommended List" current - for lots
of obvious reasons - like less free time, loss of interest, or wanting to play Oblivion or LOTRO
more. Note that my recommended list at the end of this FAQ will be based on the "Last Updated"
date I give at the top of this FAQ

Arwens Oblivion Journal

I just came across this website and thought it was so good decided to add it to this FAQ.
Arwens Oblivion Journal - Trials of a Semi-clueless Wood Elf is a wonderful, remarkably
well written journey of one Wood Elf's experience and perspective with Oblivion.






III. How to Mod
I only include some personal tips and a basic overview in this section since the MOD FAQ listed below
already gives how-to instructions:

Installing Oblivion Mods

Basic Overview:
Player mods are built using the free Elder Scrolls Construction Set. For information on how to actually build an Oblivion player Mod and download the construction set go here:

Elder Scrolls Construction Set

NOTE: You do not need to know how to build a player mod in order to use one for your game.

Using an already constructed player mod *basically* requires you download the mod, decompress
the mod's file contents into the "data" folder in Bethseda's Oblivion directory, and then when
starting Oblivion with the Oblivion Launcher, select "options" and check the box for the player
mod(s) you have added, which the launcher should have already automatically detected.

Now I stress the word *basically* because once you start adding multiple mods - and veteran
modders like myself literally load hundreds of mods (I believe the max limit however is 256)
there are all sorts of caveats and problems you can run into. One problem is Mod loading order.
The Oblivion Launcher automatically loads your player mods based on the time stamp date when
your computer OS added the Mod to your Oblivion "data" folder, and it turns out that Mod load
order can be rather important, since the last loaded mod will always overwrite any conflicting
data from mods before it - so that you always end up with the last time stamped Mod's data -
whether you wanted it or not.

Another problem is installing and uninstalling multiple mods. Not only making sure you track
the right files can be tricky when installing/uninstalling, but sometimes specific instructions
are given by the creator of the Mod that you need to follow whenever you perform an
install/uninstall. There is also the ArchiveInvalidation.txt management problem which I won't
even get into, other than that when you install new player Modd'd Textures, sometimes you have
to directly edit Bethseda's original .bsa texture files in order to make sure your new texture
files load correctly.

So, what it all boils down to is this: If you plan on only adding one or two player Mods to
your Oblivion game playing experience - you are most likely not going to run into any problems
- just download the player mod(s) (and follow any install instructions given) into the Oblivion
"data" folder. However, to really get the best out of Oblivion Modding, you're going to
probably want to install more than just a few Mods as an ongoing process - and this is where
OBMM becomes the defacto software you really ought to get.

OBMM: Oblivion Mod Manager:
If you plan on adding more than just a few player Mods then you must download the Oblivion
ModManager by Timeslip. Although there is a slim possibility you could manage multiple mods
without using this incredible, amazing piece of "free for download" software for Oblivion Mod
Management - to do so would be like trying to survive the North Pole without sled-dogs. OBMM
is indispensable for managing your mods, including easy installation/uninstallation, conflict
reporting, load ordering, version tracking, and .bsa editing. Go here to get information on
OBMM and to download it:

Oblivion Mod Manager

OBMM has a ton of features and is updated by Timeslip fairly regularly. Using OBMM in its
most basic capacity you can do this:

-Create an OBMM omod file for each player mod you would like to keep on hand, whether you
decide to use it or not. You can also have OBMM archive your omods so that you do not use
a lot of disk space if you collect a lot of mods.

-Simply "activate" each omod file that you want to be included in gameplay by selecting that
omod and clicking the activate button. OBMM will install the related files into the Oblivion
"data" folder for you.

-Order all your activated omod files in the left panel of OBMM by simply moving up or down the
related .esp/.esm files. OBMM will automatically reset the mod's physical timestamp so that the
mod is loaded by Oblivion in the order you want.

-Use OBMM Archive Invalidation utility to make sure texture mods get loaded correctly via
direct .bsa edits.

-Launch Oblivion from OBMM or Oblivion Launcher.







IV. What Mods to Get
Here is my favorite part of the FAQ as I get to make my own personal recommendations of
some great player mods available for downloading. All my recommendations are based on
many hours of mod hunting and reviewing other player recommendation lists and websites. I use
all the mods I recommend in my own on-going Oblivion game, and so far all the MODS are running
without problems and perform as advertised. Note that MODS I did have problems with I have
removed from my recommendation list - and a few of these were pretty popular mods. So I'm
pretty careful what I include on my list.

I have installed each player Mod using OBMM, and for some of the mods I use OBSE, The
OblivionScript Extender which is required to run some of the mods recommended (I haved noted
those mods requiring OBSE in my list). Go here to get OBSE:

OBSE: Oblivion Script Extender

If you see any mods that you think are really good and should be included in my list,
let me know. I am currently checking out quite a few - as Oblivion Modding is an on-going
process of inclusion over time. If I like your recommended Mod, I'll add it in, and use it as
well of course.

I have broken down my recommended mod list in groups that I think make the most sense. In each
Mod group I provide direct links for each of the mods and include the name and version number
of the Mod I'm currently using (Let me know if you find a broken link!) Then following each
recommendation list is my summary of the mods in the Group and why I think they are cool
mods to get in the first place.

But first, perhaps the most important mod of all is the official Bethseda Oblivion patch.
If you haven't patched Oblivion yet, do so. Many player mods do depend on the latest Oblivion
patch. Go here for the Bethseda patch:

Official Oblivion Patch v1.2.0416

***Patch 1.2.0416 Warning: For some people this patch has caused problems with repeated
crashing.. Check readme.txt file for possible solutions. Also note that one fix not mentioned in the readme.txt
file is that you may need to reset your Oblivion.ini file to the default version (in the Documents/My Games/Oblivion)
folder if you haven't played Oblivion in a looong time. And then re-edit the .ini file to desired settings.


Also I recommend Bethseda's official plug-in "Knights of the Nine" which include all
previous officially released plug-ins by Bethseda, and the new "Knights of the Nine" quest
content which has received excellent reviews on all the gaming sites. Go here to get Knights
(it does cost money since it is an official Bethseda plug-in but is well worth it):

Knights of the Nine

MOD LOADING ORDER:
The order you load your mods before running Oblivion can make a difference, given
the last mod loaded over-rides any previous mod's conflicting data or functionality.
An excellent link that provides general guidelines on how to order your Mod list, thanks to
dev_akm a uber level contributor to the Oblivion Modding
community. You're the man!

DEV_AKM MOD LOADING ORDER FAQ

I also found Arwen's load ordering webpage extremely helpful and with obvious effort
put into it. So for another load ordering perspective go here:

ARWEN'S LOAD ORDERING PAGE


ONE LAST NOTE: If you decide to download a player mod, read the README file. Trust me on
this one.







==================================================
JAMENTA's
RECOMMENDED MOD LIST
==================================================

Group I: Blockbusters
Banansplit Better Cities 4.5.2b (Install 3 files: 4-5-2b, Resources Part 1, Resources Part 2)
DarkUId DarN 1.6
Dynamic Crosshair 1.1
Elven Map Redux: 2.0
Enhanced Water 2.0
Martigen's Monster Mod 3.7b3p3 (Download 2 files: BSA Resource & Main ESM/ESP)
Natural Environments 2.1.3
Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.34b5 (Post 1.33 release with Dev_akm, mad_cat improvements)
Qarl's Texture Pack III (OMOD version use OBMM to install)
Tamriels NPCs Revamped 1.06 (Use WryBash for compatibility)
Unique Landscapes Project (Also recommend Unique Landscapes Compatibility Patches)
Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2.0 (If using QTP3 also download QTP3 UOP Compatibility Patch)
Unofficial Official Mod Patch 15.0

Blockbusters Description:
This group I call the "Blockbuster Mods" as they are among the most popular Oblivion mods, and have
the most comprehensive and significant enhancements to your Oblivion gaming experience. The six
Superstar blockbusters in this group are Unofficial Oblivion Patch, Oscuro's Overhaul, Qarl's Texture
Pack III, Martigen's Monster Mod, Unique Landscapes Project and Tamriel's NPCs revamped.


Oscuro's Overhaul recently won GameSpy's 2006 BEST MOD OF THE YEAR. Kudos to Jorge Salgado Oscuro!

GameSpy 2006 Best Mod of the Year: Oscuro's Overhaul

If GameSpy's award doesn't convince you Oscuro's isn't the superstar Oblivion Mod to get,
maybe given Oscuro's Overhaul has been downloaded over 120,000 times on North American servers,
and pretty much overhauls just about everything in Oblivion from monster leveling lists to improved
wine bottles - it just might be enough to convince you not to wait and get it now (right now). Perhaps
the most significant and popularly desired change with Oscuro's Overhaul is it does away
with Bethseda's decision to level monsters dynamically with player levels. Oscuro thoroughly modified
all monster levels and monster generation so when your character finally does reach a level 30 ranger
or level 40 arch-mage, monsters and NPCs will feel the punch and the power, and you'll feel like your
character finally is a force to be reckoned with in Cyrodiil.

In addition, bundled with Oscuro's Overhaul are the impressive realism mods Living Economy,
and Harvest Flora.
I recommend both these player mods be installed when installing Oscuros.

The second superstar blockbuster Unofficial Oblivion Patch is a no-brainer because it
fixes over 1800 - yes, that's right: EIGHTEEN HUNDRED known Oblivion bugs, from fall-thru objects
to levitating trees. Get it, it works really well. As a kind of add-on pack, get the Unofficial Official
Mod Patch
courtesy of the same modders (Quarn and Kivan) who have selflessly donated their time
and efforts to create another Unofficial patch for all the official mods released by Bethseda.

Released in February 2007 and catapulting itself into my Blockbuster recommended Superstar status
is Qarl's Texture Pack III. This comprehensive all-in-one graphics mod by Qarl includes over
4000 files (2.74 Gigs) of astonishing, photo-realistic textures, meshes and normal/specular/parallax
Oblivion maps. Qarls III re-textures just about everything in Oblivion, including Architecture,
Landscape, Rocks, Dungeons, Snowflakes, Butterflies, Blood spatters and Furniture and upgrades Oblivion
graphics through use of Bethseda's in-game Parallax Shader and advanced normal map techniques, and
also some specific mipmap level editing - all leading to some stunning 3D effects. Arguably, if you
want to see the best graphics for a PC game available in the gaming industry today (as I write this in
Feb. 2007) *no exaggeration* and you happen to have 3 gigs of free space on your hard drive, download Qarl's Pack III for Oblivion. No doubt about it, it's an eye opener.

*** Q3 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: QARL'S PACK III is not working with *older* NVidia GForce drivers
on 7900GTX class GPUs. Go here to update your NVidia drivers if you become aware of this
problem: Newest NVidia GeForce Drivers 97.92 modified for GTX class


The fourth Superstar Blockbuster mod (a supernova) is Martigen's Monster Mod.
MMM boasts 150+ brand new creatures added to Oblivion and 1900+ variant creatures. Besides all the
new fangled creatures, MMM boasts new advanced wilderness behavior, advanced fleeing code for NPCs and
advanced combat behavior, and that's just the start. Packaged with MMM are a ton of plug-ins, many that
allow you to tweak monster spawn rates and the type of monsters you will encounter, but in addition, there
is a fully fledged "crafting" plug-in for those of you who enjoy making your own stuff.

The fifth superstar Blockbuster is the Unique Landscapes Project. So massive an
undertaking by remarkably dedicated Oblivion players, the project now has its own Wiki website. Click
on the link: Unique Landscapes Project and you can see for yourself just how far and how much a
modding community can achieve with the right modding tools.

The final (last but not least) sixth superstar blockbuster of a mod: Tamriels NPCs Revamped is
the ambitious result of approximately 1,550 modding hours of hair pulling, eye popping, face drawing,
modifications by Stephane Wuttunee. Stephane managed to modify the facials of exactly 1,623
Oblivion NPCs, while maintaining the racial aspects of each. Other than guards and vampires (which
his mod does not change), you will find that variety is truly the spice of life.

When Oblivion first came out, there was near unanimous agreement that its interface was perhaps its
weakest link. Many player interface mods soon followed, among the most popular were BTMod, Dark UI &
Immersive UI. DarkUId DarN recently overhauled and upgraded (in February 2009) I consider
to be truly the most elegant and polished UI at the moment. DarkUId DarN by Gothic251 is
a pleasure to use and beautiful to behold. Check it out.

Complementing the DarkUId mod is Elven Map Redux & Dynamic Crosshair. Elven Map Redux is a much
improved overland map that stands out among a crowd of mods improving Bethseda's original rather plain
overland map. It is beautifully color rendered with improved map icons and arrows, and provides a distinct
Elven cartographer flavour that will grow on you with use. Dynamic Crosshair is a favorite of
mine because it gets rid that annoying crosshair in the middle of your screen, but still makes the
hand icon appear over objects you may want to activate.


The latest addition to my Blockbuster list is Bananasplit Better Cities and oh my, what
a Blockbuster it is. When you visit the TEX NEXUS download site for Better Cities you will come upon
18 videos, 239 images and 1533 comments, so you already know something is radically up. What
Better Cities does is simply revamp the layout of all the major cities in Tamriel, adding new
districts and gardens, elevating sections and towers, adding new housing, and just creatively expanding
the original vanilla layouts into far more intriguing/immersive ones. And no worries, Bananasplit
Better Cities
is fully compatible with Qarl's Pack III and other texture mods. Check this mod
out for its city-wide details.

Rounding out my Blockbuster list, is environmental mod: Natural Environments. An original Oblivion
modding classic that still proves it's worth in gold with excellent weather tweaks, season modifications,
some new creature habitats and additional natural vegetation.










Group II: World Enhancements/Textures
Alive Waters 0.6
Beautiful Stars 1.0
Better Night Sky 1.2
Better Tiling textures for Qarl pack (BTQ) 1.11
BTQ Landscape LOD 4096x4096 1.11
Clocks of Cyrodiil 1.0
Grape Texture Change 1.0
Improved Trees and Flora 1.0
Improved Trees and Flora 2 1.1
LBM Weathered Directions Signs 1.3
LowPoly Grass 1.5
New Nebular Planet X 1.1
Qarl's Texture Pack III (OMOD version use OBMM to install)
Rainbows in Tamriel 3.0
Really AEVWD 1.7 (Requires TES4LODGen)(Download RAEVWD QTP3 add-on if using QTP3)
Unique Landscapes Project (Also recommend Unique Landscapes Compatibility Patches)
Vaults of Cyrodiil 2.0
Visually Realistic Lava 1.0


World Enhancements Description:
Of all player mods, the World Textures group can lead to the largest performance hit on your
rig. If you do plan on using any of these excellent player mods, I recommend using OBMM so you
can easily install/uninstall if your realize your rig just can't handle it. But on the other-
hand, using these mods will put your Oblivion world visuals into over-drive.

The 40 ton gorilla in this group is Qarl's Texture Pack III.I have already discussed this
incredible mod in my Group I Blockbusters recommendations, see above. Since the original
release of Oblivion, Qarl's texture replacement Packs have evolved remarkably, and Qarl's
latest Pack III takes another gorilla leap forward, containing an amazing set of new stunning
and photo-realistic texturing and imaging, with some amazing new in-game 3D effects via use of
advanced parallax shader technology. Qarl's Pack III is a true jaw dropper - so good, that
Bethseda ought to think about hiring this Qarl gorilla.

But be warned: Qarl's III demands a high-end GPU and I recommend at least 512 megs of onboard
GPU memory. You might get by with less with hours of tweaking, but don't do it - just get
yourself a better GPU and rig that can support it.

*** Q3 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: QARL'S PACK III is not working with *older* NVidia GForce drivers
on 7900GTX class GPUs. Go here to update your NVidia drivers if you become aware of this
problem: Newest NVidia GeForce Drivers 97.92

Now once you've installed Qarls Pack III you then need to follow up with three additional texture
mods to really complete your Oblivion visual overhaul. These completer mods are: Better
Tiling Textures for Qarls Pack (BTQ), BTQ Landscape LOD and Really AEVWD.
What they
do that Qarls doesn't, is greatly improve your mid-range to long-range visuals. (Note: I am aware
of bangsboomstik's combined LOD replacer mod but after review still prefer to recommend these
three mods.)

After you install the base BTQ 1.11 you will see an increase in your mid-range
visual qualities. You can then follow up by installing from the same Elder Scrolls
download site either the 2048x2048 LOD or the 4096x4096 LOD for your longer range visuals.
Of course the 4096x4096 LOD will provide the best quality you can get but if you find your
rig can't handle it, you can lower it to a 2048x2048 LOD package.

Really AEVWD (VWD = Visible When Distant) is a new integration of several Oblivion
legacy mods: the original AEVWD Large, UOMP, Operation Polygon Overhaul, and others (see readme).
This third mod also will improve your long-distance viewing in Oblivion by adding many more
viewable objects from a distance, including major buildings and landmarks, bridges, ruins, docks,
inns, forts and so on. Now VERY IMPORTANT listen up: you cannot just download and install
the textures from this mod alone, or you will be shocked to not see anything at all in the distance.
Once you install Really AEVWD you must then use the following program TES4LODGen which
will generate the LODs needed to populate your game with the buildings provided by AEVWD.

If you are using Qarl's Pack III, make sure to also download RAEVWD QTP3 Addon file
(found at same link on NEXUS) as Brumbeck painstakingly reduced 1,700 of Qarl's textures into lowres
versions for his VWD mod so that the two mods visually work seemlessly together. Amazing work
Brumbeck!

Beautiful Stars, New Nebular Planet X, and Better Night Sky will allow you to experience
some stunningly beautiful night skies - like when you're camping in the Oblivion wilderness or
just looking up through the parapets of the Imperial City. Visually Realistic Lava not only
improves upon vanilla Oblivion's lava, but provides unique heat effects as well. Just don't
get to close. Another must-have mod for those rain lovers out there is Rainbows in
Tamriel
because what would a good rain storm be without an occasional rainbow afterward?

Lowpoly Grass is an invaluable performance mod, that will increase FPS on most rigs. The
mod simply reduces the number of polygons on Oblivion grass. Some even claim LowPoly grass
looks even better than vanilla oblivion grass. I'm recommending the mod because it's so
close to vanilla grass that the trade-off for FPS is well worth it.

And if you still don't think you've got enough, then there is the Unique Landscapes (xul)
player modding project, that amazingly re-works entire land areas in Oblivion, to make the
Oblivion world even more unique and diversified. Not only are entire areas of Cyrodiil re-
worked into diverse visual environments, but the environments include new indigent creatures,
new flora, new buildings unique to the environment, waterfalls, new beaches and deep ravines, and lots more.

END PART 1


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