The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Developers
	Bethesda Game Studios
Publishers
	Bethesda Softworks
	2K Games
Engines
	Gamebryo (TES Engine)
Release dates
Windows	March 20, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	94
IGDB	94
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Expansion pack, Subscription gaming service
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	ARPG, Open world
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Fantasy
Series	The Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a singleplayer first-person and third-person ARPG and open world game in the The Elder Scrolls series.

General information

Tweak Guide

Oblivion Nexus - a large modding community

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 7 DRM on the Shivering Isles expansion.
GamersGate		Game of the Year Edition.
GamersGate		Game of the Year Deluxe Edition.
GOG.com		Game of the Year Deluxe Edition.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store		Game of the Year Deluxe Edition.
Microsoft Store		Xbox Game Pass for PC DRM-free after being copied to any other folder and launched directly from executable (Oblivion.exe or OblivionLauncher.exe)
Steam		Game of the Year and Game of the Year Deluxe editions. Both include Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine expansions. Game of the Year Deluxe includes all DLCs.
Bethesda.net (unavailable)		Game of the Year edition

Version differences

The Game of the Year Edition Deluxe includes all DLCs but smaller ones are only playable in English.

The Elder Scrolls Anthology includes both a retail version and a single Steam key that unlocks Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim along with all expansions and DLC.

The GameStop PC Downloads/Impulse version is not compatible with some mods. This version is no longer sold.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansions include new missions and items.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

DLC and expansion packs

DLCs are no longer sold separately; the Game of the Year Edition Deluxe and retail Anthology include all content.

Name	Notes
Shivering Isles
Knights of the Nine	Retail version includes all DLCs except Shivering Isles and Fighter's Stronghold
Fighter's Stronghold	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Horse Armor Pack	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Mehrunes' Razor	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Orrery	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Spell Tomes	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Thieves Den	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Vile Lair	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
Wizard's Tower	Sold digitally in Game of the Year Edition Deluxe

Essential improvements

Patches

The current official patch is patch 1.2.0416 (Digital versions are already patched).

To check what version you have check the bottom left corner of the main menu.

Unofficial Patches

Correct thousands of errors in the game, as well as providing slight tweaks to improve the gameplay experience.

• Unofficial Oblivion Patch (Base game).
• Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch (Shivering Isles DLC).
• Unofficial Oblivion DLC Patches (All the other DLC).

General

EngineBugFixes Blue's Engine Fixes & AveSithis Engine Fixes

Fixes multiple bugs, including CTD-inducing ones, in Oblivion game engine.

Requires Oblivion Script Extender.

Oblivion Display Tweaks

Reduces stuttering, fixes FPS and FOV related issues and adds Borderless Windowed mode.

Requires Oblivion Script Extender.

4gb Ram Patcher

Improves stability on systems with at least 3GB RAM by allowing the application to use more than 2GB RAM. Particularly useful when using mods.

Not necessary for the GOG.com version.

BethINI

BethINI (pronounced "Bethany") is an attempt to restore decency to the INI configuration files for games created by Bethesda, while optimizing your game settings for optimal graphical fidelity and performance.

Miscellaneous

Skip intro videos

Use BethINI

Modify game configuration files
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Oblivion.ini. Find the SMainMenuMovieIntro=Oblivion iv logo.bik line and remove everything after =. Find the SIntroSequence=bethesda softworks HD720p.bik,2k games.bik,game studios.bik,Oblivion Legal.bik line and remove everything after =. Save the file.

Modify video files
Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Video. Delete or rename the following files: 2k games.bik bethesda softworks HD720p.bik game studios.bik Oblivion iv logo.bik Oblivion Legal.bik

Skip launcher

Use SLEA - Skip Launcher and ENBAuto

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/22330/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/22330/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud		Stores up to 953.67 MB of game saves online (maximum 1000 files).
Xbox Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use Oblivion Display Tweaks.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		It can be forced from the AMD or NVIDIA control panel. See below for examples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		MSAA, up to 8 samples. Cannot be activated through the launcher at the same time as HDR, instead enable anti-aliasing through graphics control panel.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Physics issues above 60FPS, use Oblivion Display Tweaks to fix.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.

Anisotropic Filter

By default, Oblivion does not come with an option to activate Anisotropic Filtering, but you can force it from the AMD Catalyst Control Center or from the NVIDIA Control Panel. The performance hit is substantial on some low-end computers.

• 

  AF OFF

• 

  AF x4

• 

  AF x8

• 

  AF x16

Field of view (FOV)

Use FOV Modifier

This is permanent and does not cause issues in the game. This mod requires the Oblivion Script Extender to work. Install the FOV Modifier. As soon as you start up your game with FOV Modifier installed, either load up a savegame or start a new game, the FOV will automatically set to 90. You can change it by typing into the console Set CustomFOV to # and replace # with the desired FOV. FOVs only from 60 to 120 are accepted.

Use Oblivion Display Tweaks and change setting in Oblivion.ini
Installing this mod fixes all issues related to changing the FOV settings in Oblivion.ini. This mod requires the Oblivion Script Extender to work. Install Oblivion Display Tweaks. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini Change fDefaultFOV=75.0000 to the desired value. Suggested values can be found in the table below.

Use console commands
This setting isn't permanent, but doesn't cause the problems of the previous fix. Open the console (~). Enter the console command FOV XX (where XX is the desired value) and press ↵ Enter.

This table works with the assumption that the default 75° is optimal for screens with the 5:4 aspect ratio.

Aspect Ratio	FOV Value
4:3	79.9000
16:9	105.3000
15:9	99.0000
16:10	95.2000

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		The F1 (Statistics), F2 (Inventory), F3 (Magic) and F4 (Data) keys cannot be remapped.
Mouse acceleration		Present in menus. No acceleration in-game.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Controller support mostly works when using Northern UI mod at NexusMods
Controller remapping		Very limited.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Voices, effects, footsteps and music.
Surround sound		Up to 7.1 output
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		Use Reverb Support for Oblivion
Royalty free audio

May require DirectSound3D restoration software to restore proper audio functionality on Windows Vista and later.

Localizations

Digital versions of The Game of the Year Edition Deluxe are only playable in English.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation by plural groups（see this), books are not translated. Unstable, average translation quality, because there are translated by different groups.
French
German
Italian
Polish				Retail version only. For digital GOTY and GOTY Deluxe versions download this.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation - for the base game and DLCs: download (Nexus Mods)
Russian				Retail only, Knights of the Nine isn't dubbed. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish				Official translation for version that hasn't one: download (from Clan Dlan Archives). Improved Fan translations by Clan Dlan: Oblivion (Main game), Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine; also TES Construction Set for Mods, download.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Oblivion - 3D Vision Fix for better 3D support.
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

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

The game crashes upon exiting to desktop

Use Oblivion Display Tweaks

Use Fast Exit

The settings reset every time the game is restarted

Often happens because the game's process is being shut down prematurely, such as through crashes.

Use Oblivion Display Tweaks

Use Fast Exit

Missing Assets

This is a common problem with installing mods. It is often caused by a mod's assets being overwritten by the game's own BSA archives on anything other than a retail disc install, such as digital, since the BSAs will be timestamped by the date the game is installed, not when they were last modified. This can be fixed by doing one of the options below.

Install SkyBSA
This is recommended over the BSA redirection method below since it fixes other issues with BSAs besides getting the game to recognize them.

Missing BSA redirection
Open the 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 the Oblivion Mod Manager and launch Oblivion.

Frozen Animations

After 200 hours of playtime with a character, game animations and effects may freeze. Commonly referred to as the "Abomb" bug.

Use EngineBugFixes
This will permanently fix the issue for any save since it fixes it at the engine level (Version 1.6 and above).

Use Oblivion Animation Fixer

Use Wrye Bash

Intermittent Black Screens During Play

This is related to Nvidia Graphics cards 8800 or later.

Use Wrye Bash
Turn off "Self Shadows" option. Use "Bloom" instead of "HDR" option. Build a Bashed Patch with Wrye Bash and enable the Nvidia Fog Fix in its options.

Turn off "Shadows" option

Volume keys on keyboard don't work in-game

Edit Configuration File
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Oblivion.ini. Change bBackground Keyboard=0 to 1. Save the file.

Greyed out options in the launcher

Add/Fix path in Windows registry
Open regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion. Create the key if it does not exist. Create a new string value named Installed Path, if it doesn't exist already. Set its contents to <path-to-game> with a trailing backslash (e.g. C:\GOG Games\Oblivion\).

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c	Oblivion Display Tweaks can make use of 9Ex.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.7.3

Modifications

Oblivion mods can be found at Oblivion Nexus.

See Essential improvements for modifications that fix bugs and improve performance.

Recommended mods

Through the Valleys - Vanilla Plus Modding Guide is a comprehensive, up-to-date Oblivion modding guide by PushTheWinButton that focuses on setting up a vanilla-friendly modded game that is also stable.

Mod managers

Mod managers simplify mod installation, among various additional features and are optional.

• Oblivion Mod Manager - Oblivion Mod Manager is an easy-to-use mod manager, good for beginners. It allows modders to pack their mods into OBMM-specific .omod archives for easy installation, as well as making it easy for users to tweak options.
• Wrye Bash - Powerful mod manager. Requires a bit of a learning curve compared to OBMM but still relatively easy to use. Mods can be packed into Bash-specific BAIN archives for easy installation and tweaking options for users. Used to create a Bashed Patch to resolve conflicts between mods and merging records into a single .esp file.
• Mod Organizer - Powerful and easy to use mod manager with mod virtualization that allows the installation folder to remain clean.

Using Mod Organizer for Oblivion requires some extra tweaking to get the game to recognize some mods installed through it, specifically OBSE and OBSE plugins. See this guide for details. (Works for both OBSE and xOBSE)

User interface

• DarNified UI - Tweaks the enlarged Xbox-optimized UI to better fit PC. The HUD and fonts are smaller, and items are easier to find in the inventory.
• MajorJim's UI Updated - Updated version of MajorJim's classic UI replacement. Fixes many issues contained in the original mod. Use if preferring something closer to the vanilla layout than DarNified.

Script Extender Plugins

The following mods require Oblivion Script Extender.

• LINK - Adds the ability to configure mods in-game, through a configuration menu, making configuring mods faster and more user friendly.

• Fast Exit - Prevents the game from crashing upon exit and saves the .INI file before exiting the game so settings do not reset to their initial values upon restarting the game. Also included in Oblivion Display Tweaks.

• SkyBSA - Forces Oblivion to handle BSAs and loose files the same way that Skyrim does.

• NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash - Implements structured exception handling and sanity checking to reduce frequency of game crashes. Created for Fallout New Vegas, but also works on Oblivion.

• OBL Mod Limit Fix - Fixes the Oblivion mod limit bug, allowing the maximum of 255 plugins to be loaded.

• Better Saves - Replaces the buggy vanilla auto save and quick save features with two small scripts.

Utilities

• Oblivion Script Extender (xOBSE) - Community maintained up-to-date fork of Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE). Extends the script capabilities of vanilla Oblivion, allowing modders to better take advantage of the engine. Many mods require this utility, and installation instructions are included in a README, when you download it. When running through Steam, OBSE requires use of the Steam Overlay. If the Steam Overlay doesn't appear in game, try running Steam in administrator mode.

• Load Order Optimisation Tool (LOOT) - Plugin load order optimiser for TES IV: Oblivion and other games. Provides thousands of plugin-specific messages, including usage notes, Bash Tag suggestions, requirements, incompatibilities, bug warnings and installation mistake notifications. Supports the sorting of plugins ghosted by the Wrye Bash utility, is highly customisable, has been translated into multiple languages, and is simple to use.

• TES4Edit - Can clean .ESP files from "dirty edits" which are essentially errors made by original mod authors that can cause incompatibilities and prevent other .ESP's features from working.

• Oblivion BSA Decompressor - Decompresses Oblivion BSA files to reduce loading times and stuttering.

Console Commands

A complete list of console commands can be found here.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000	XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.6 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 9500 Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	ATI Radeon X800 Nvidia GeForce 6800
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 8.1a compatible