The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Key points

Large modding community at the Oblivion Nexus

General information

Oblivion Nexus - Large modding community for Oblivion

UESP Wiki

The Elder Scrolls Wiki

Steam Users' Forums

Steam Community Discussions

Improvements

Patches

• The current official patch is patch 1.2.0416. This can be downloaded from the Bethesda download page
• The unofficial oblivion patch is a fan made patch that corrects thousands of errors in the game, as well as providing slight tweaks to improve the game play experience:
  • Unofficial Oblivion Patch (Made by Quarn and Kivan)
  • Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch (Made by Quarn and Kivan)
  • Unofficial Official Mods Patch (Made by Quarn and Kivan)

.ini Tweaks

iPreloadSizeLimit= # (Default: 26214400) Recommended: 262144000 (2GB)

Mods

Bethesda Game Studios is known for it's extensive mod support, and Oblivion is no difference. Oblivion mods can be found at Oblivion Nexus or Planet Elder Scrolls.

Recommended mods

• Nehrim: Fate's Edge Developed by the popular German modding team SureAI, who also made the outstanding Fallout 3 mod Cube Experimental, Nehrim is a Total Conversion mod with all the features of a professionally developed game. Nehrim's impressive reel of awards such as best mod of 2010 from PC gamer, Editor's pick at ModDB, and #6 on ModDB's 2010 reader's poll, Nehrim is not only the best mod of 2010, but also one of the best RPGs. Inducted into a secretive magic society, you the player are introduced to one of the most compelling worlds in PC gaming through a story that competes with Bioware's best, distinctive art direction, stunning voice acting from Germany's best, and gameplay that puts vanilla Oblivion to shame. Don't miss out on the most modded game of all time's crown jewel.

• Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul OOO was one of the most comprehensive and popular mods ever created, rebalancing the game and modifying virtually every aspect. View the PDF readme for more details.

• Book Jackets Adds unique covers to every book in Oblivion. Also see DLC Book Jackets for the official DLC addons, and Book Jackets KOTN for Knights of the Nine.

• DarNified UI Tweaks the user interface to fit PC, rather than the enlarged Xbox optimized user interface. HUD is smaller, fonts are smaller, and more items can be fitted per "page" in the inventory.

• Morroblivion This mods ports The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind to the engine of Oblivion. It is recommended you perform a clean install of Oblivion before using this mod.

• Midas Magic Spells Of Aurum Adds over 300 new spells including summoning meteors, shooting laser beams, and even turning bodies into gold. Also adds new and exciting quests to other realms, with completely new creatures to fight, people to talk to, and new weapons to find.

Utilities

Wrye Bash and Oblivion Mod Manager

Wrye bash and Oblivion Mod Manager are two utilities used for managing mods, Wrye Bash supports mods packed as .7z, while Oblivion Mod Manager offers a more easy to use format called .omod. Both utilities is used to install and uninstall mods, and ensure that mods are installed correctly.

Better Oblivion Sorting Manager (BOSS)

Better Oblivion Sorting Manager is a utility that sorts mods load order automatically, to ensure no mods conflict with each other when the game is played. After each mod install it is recommended that you run BOSS. After the software is done working, a .html file will open in your standard browser.

Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE)

Oblivion Script Extender is a utility that extends the script capabilites of vanilla Oblivion, allowing modders to better take advantage of the engine. Most mods require this utility, and installation instructions are included in a README, when you download it.

Console Commands

For a complete list of console commands use this Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages article.

To enable the use of console commands follow these steps: Find your Oblivion.ini file. To find this file you must go to your oblivion game directory and find this file in the main directory. C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda\The Elder Scrolls IV\ For Steam you will find this file in %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\ Make a backup of this file, and open it with your preferred text editing tool. Find the line that begins with "bAllowConsole" and set it to 1 if it is not already and save it. Use CTRL+F to search for it within the .ini file.

Video settings

Field of view (FOV)

This setting can be changed by editing %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini

Find the following line: fDefaultFOV=75.0000

Although this setting changes the FOV setting, it can put items and actors out of sync. It is recommended you use the console command instead:

SetCameraFOV 75

The default setting is 75. The console can be opened by pressing "~" on your keyboard (for ISO-105 keyboard users, it is the key above the TAB key).

Issues and fixes

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game. It can be found here.

Actors/NPCs appear as yellow triangles

This is either due to incorrect mod installation, an error in load order, or missing BSA redirection.

Incorrect Mod Installation

Use Wrye Bash or Oblivion Mod Manager for installation of mods instead of manual installation. If you don't have a backup of a clean Oblivion installation, and your mod replaces files, you must reinstall the game to fix incorrect mod installation.

Error in load order

Run Better Oblivion Sorting Manager to fix this issue.

Missing BSA redirection

Open Oblivion Mod Manager, click on Utilities, click on Archive Invalidation, now tick BSA Redirection, and click on Update Now. When the process is done, close Oblivion Mod Manager and launch Oblivion.

Missing meshes

Instructions