Optimising Oblivion v2.0

5a) Just for NVIDIA users
If you're not already using it, install Coolbits (download) and in your driver properties navigate to Performance & Quality Settings --> Additional Direct3D Settings, then set Frames to render ahead from '3' to '0'.

Note: dual-core users may be better off setting this to '1'. It's a bit of an anomaly, but there was a report on the forums about '0' causing the game to load on only one core. Well we tested it out and, indeed, this appears to be the case – but not always. It seems to be a somewhat random as to wether the load is spread across one core or two, but sure enough setting render ahead frames to '1' ensured that both cores were used at all times.

5b) Just for ATI users
Thanks to A. Gardiner who reminded us that ATI users also can reduce the number of frames rendered ahead and thus also take advantage of reduced mouse lag and smoother gameplay. Simply download and install ATI Tray Tools (download), then adjust 'Flip queue size' anywhere from '0' to '3'. Again, a setting of '0' may do more harm than good, so experiment with '1' or '2' first.

6) Optional: Disable higher visuals
This is recommended for low to mid range machines. There are two visual effects that can cause a big drain – specular and refraction lighting. You’ll encounter performance problems with the former most often with ‘mists’ in dungeons and the lighting in some buildings. The latter is limited to Oblivion gates and events like the assassins at the start of the game. Generally, they’re nice to have but you can live without them:

bDoSpecularPass=0   (default 1)
bUseRefractionShader=0   (default 1)

Also, ensure shadow filtering is disabled. It looks nice, but the difference is subtle and it can have a moderate performance impact:

bShadowFilter=0   (default 1)

7) Optional: Stuttering fights
Fighting seems to show up performance problems more than most, especially on systems with on-board or older sound cards. If you’re experiencing stuttering fights, these tweaks should help. First. disable music with the following:

bMusicEnabled=1   (default 1)

This is even a tip recommended in the official README file included with the game. Additionally, a talented modder has found that a sound event is played for each foot of an animal as it hits the floor – and since this problem seems to show up more with four-legged creatures like wolves, the following mod resolves this:

Quiet feet   (download)

8) Optional: Low memory machines
These aren't magical, unfortunately, but they should help a tad on memory limited machines:

bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1   (default 0)
bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1   (default 0)

9) Miscellaneous tweaks
These are tweaks for which we weren’t able to directly quantify an impact. They may or may not be of benefit to you.

You’d hope setting this makes a difference for SM3.0 capable cards:

Allow30Shaders=1   (default 0)

But it doesn’t appear to. Not using a joystick (who does?), set:

bUse Joystick=0   (default 1)

And finally, make sure the following is set:

bUseBackgroundFileLoader=0   (default 0)

The original guide had this set to ‘1’ as a ‘maybe’ tweak we suspected was beneficial but unstable. We can report, thanks to our readers, that it does indeed cause problems! So make sure it’s disabled.

10) General performance
We don’t need to tell you to install latest drivers installed for your video card and sound card, because you’ve already got them installed right? This includes using NVIDIA's latest 'Oblivion compatible' driver (download).

That just leaves defragmenting. Yes it takes a while, especially if you haven’t done it before, but it’s well worth it. Especially if you’re using mods and tweaks to load more into memory. Defragging your drive will reduce load times.

New to defragmenting? You can use the Windows defragger, but this is about as useful as sticking badgers down your pants, so we recommend going with a third party defragger such as Perfect Disk (download) or O&O (download). The trial versions will give you an idea as to how well they work.

Finally, although not an option in Oblivion's launcher or the .ini file, you can still enable Ansiotropic filtering regardless if you're using HDR or AA+Bloom, simply force it in your drivers. The performance hit is minimal, and it does a great job smoothing out the transition of textures directly in front of you, giving an overall better image.