I will probably upload it to my backup disc as well as elsewhere on the Windows drive, just in case this drive tanks. It shouldn't - Hitachi came highly recommended by my local Mac gurus. I trust them - I've been doing business with them for sixteen years (an eternity in computer time!) and they haven't steered me wrong on all the upgrades I've done.

And yes, you're right. I remember replacing the HD and installing additional RAM in my blue-and-white G3. I was so scared I'd break something! But now everything is literally plug-and-play (and Apple perfected it! ) - you don't need a degree in computer engineering (which I don't) to DIY your machines!

Well, I'm off now to have some fun! See you when I reemerge from Cyrodiil!

Take SubRosa's advise AND keep a copy of each mod you download in a separate location too. That way if you do have to dump your game, it's a lot easier to restore your game than searching for mods online all over again.

I'm not a fan of Macs but that's probably because I grew up on Windows.

Lucky you! I grew up on DOS. That's why I ran screaming to Macs!

Glad to hear things went well Haute. As for linux, personally I doubt you'd want it. Mac is better for graphics, doze is better for running proprietary software and most open source stuff is availible for both. Linux is only really useful if you need high performance (and with that rig you probably don't unless you run simulations or something) or reliability (web server style). If you do decide to run linux give a few versions a try before you settle, Ubuntu is a favourite and has good support but is grossly lacking otherwise IMO, Arch Linux is good, as are Slackware and Debian. If you want to push things a little further FreeBSD is brilliant, it's astonishingly stable and compiles software locally if you use the ports system which improves performance. It does feel a bit old fashioned though.

How about a DOS partition? DOS was cool back in the day.


Some cases... The one I has various design issues, admittably I got it on the cheap because someone had squashed it but some aspects are really stupid, like putting the hole for the chassis fan over the CPU socket. That was great ten years ago when one fan would do both but these days heatsinks are so big there's no space for a chassis fan there... It's aimed at high performance too so there's no excuse.

Here's a question for any of you who've gone over to quad/hex core - was it worth it? They're brutally expensive and I wondered how much better they work.

My i7 920 is without a doubt faster than anything I have ever had before. You will not see a tremendous difference with old software like Oblivion, that was not made to take advantage of multiple cores. But multi-core apps and processors are the future, so do not hesitate to buy one.

Mine is a Quad Core Xeon (2 processors) and runs graphics insanely. I love the way photographs look on it.

Beyond Apple's Aperture (photo management software - pro level), I haven't really done anything to push the processors. But I did notice a huge improvement in rendering between that and the earlier chips.

If you do a lot of video editing, multi-core processors are the way to go. Skyrim might also take advantage of it. I wouldn't know, but I would expect it to just because it oughta be light years beyond Oblivion in graphics.

Light years? You forget that Skyrim is also coming to the consoles you were so desperate to escape from, hautee. I am expecting nothing more than higher resolution textures, better animations, better lighting, and improved Distant LOD, myself. Everything else they are showing off in terms of graphics tricks (water rapids, illuminated windows) are things Oblivion was already capable of doing. Still, you'd be surprised what a console can do if you try hard enough, but I'm not seeing anything in that trailer that wowed me.

What I need right now, though, is to upgrade my PC to Windows 7. Skyrim is supposed to be able to use DirectX 10 on PC and my GPU is compliant, but not my OS. I'm sorry to say it, but XP is now starting to hold my PC back, and as much as I like it, I have to let it go.

Welp, here's the latest.

Windows 7 is running beautifully on my Mac. Even better yet, Oblivion is running awesomely. The graphics are better (partially because my monitor is a higher resolution than the 1050p LCD TV the Xbox is connected to), and the game runs much smoother.

I've restarted the MQ with Julian. She and I are discovering the joys of the command console. We've already renamed Paint, Red and Jasmine, and we were overjoyed to learn we could do the same for the generic Imperial soldiers. So all of the Legion riders we've met so far (and a few of the city guards) will be getting their own names!

I know it's such a simple thing to be excited about, but Julian and I have hated that we couldn't do that on the Xbox. Rediscovering Oblivion this way is like playing a whole new game. I am no longer drooling, and instead am jumping up and down in my chair squealing in delight like a dumb blonde over a new pair of shoes (and I'm not blonde, BTW - just sayin'). No offense, Buffy, you're not dumb!

He he he. there is so much more you can do now, as well. Let me give you a few samples...

See almost every major structure from afar.

Remove the annoying load screens from the city gates.

How about better looking castles for your opened cities? (Shameless plug)

Better sounding combat.

High resolution world textures.

And best of all...

Fix all those glaring bugs left in the game after Bethesda stopped supporting it.

However, please note that modding this game is a very involved process, and it takes time to learn the ins and outs of this game and how it works. However, if you will forgive my lack of modesty, that is where my experience might help you.

I was the same when I finally got Oblivion for the PC.

You will let me know if the named guards stick, I have a feeling that you will never see them again however.

So does this mean we will be seeing screenshots of our beloved snow-maned Redguard?

Welp, it's a possibility. I mean, once someone tells me how!

Follow these simple steps:

1. If you are not using HDR lighting, turn off the in-game anti-aliasing, otherwise the screenshot function won't work. If you are using HDR, the game's built in AA cannot be used alongside it, so you'll be alright if that is the case.

2. Open the file Oblivion.INI, you can find it under Documents/My Games/Oblivion (this is also where the game keeps your save data).

3. Find the setting 'bScreenshotEnabled=0', change this to 'bScreenshotEnabled=1'.

4. Save.

5. Enter Oblivion and hit the Printscreen button. If done correctly, the screen will lock for about 1/4 of a second as the screenshot is saved, and a message 'ScreenshotX saved' will appear.

Addendum: Open the console and type TM to get rid of the HUD and de-clutter the screen, as well.

Okay, then a couple of newbie questions:

What exactly is HDR lighting?
And where are the screenshots saved?

HDR = High Dynamic Range. It is the lighting technique used by most modern games. It's primary feature is the ability to dynamically adjust the brightness of the lighting similar to how your pupils fluctuate when looking at bright light sources. You can experiment by looking from down a the ground to up into the sun and back down again. Notice how the screen brightness adjusts itself? That is HDR at work. Console Oblivion did not use this lighting technique, it used Bloom, and HDR actually provides a number of enhancements to the lighting that you don't get with Bloom.

Downsides: You need a Shader Model 3.0 compliant GPU to use HDR (and with an 8800 model nVidia, you do), and you have to force Anti-Aliasing if you want to use both at the same time.

The screenshots are placed in the base Oblivion directory.

HDR Lighting: Also known as HDR Rendering (based on who you ask), it's basically part of the game engine that allows for higher contrast ratios to be used. I.E. (and the guys at Nvidia said it best, so allow me to quote them) "1) Bright things can be really bright, 2) Dark things can be really dark, & 3) Details can be seen in both."

Here's a useful breakdown on Wikipedia.

What it means: A good graphics card (and good monitor) will be able to run an advanced game engine which features both bright lights (High noon in Imperial Plaza District of the IC) and creepy darkness (Cave areas without a nearby torch or other light source) while showing realistic detail.

Where Screenshots are Saved: They're saved as .BMP files in the Oblivion folder, once you've created them. Default Directory is "C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion" and you'll find them numbered sequentially.

Here's a Quick Step-by-Step for those with only minor to middling Computer linguistic fluency.

Note that the advice they give about converting the files in Paint to .JPG format can also be used for .PNG format as well, depending on your preference.

Hope it helps.

Thanks to both TK and Bam Bam for their quick replies.

I'm thinking my own Mac image-editing program may be able to do the conversion. I'm comfortable with its more advanced features and quirks. But I will have to take a few screenshots, switch over to MacOS, and look for the BMP files from there. As they're all in the same box, it shouldn't be hard to find.

I think I do have HDR turned on already - I'm noticing things with the lighting and shadows that I never saw on the console. Pretty cool stuff indeed. And things look so crisp on this monitor (Apple Cinema Display)!

I did download FRAPS, and I've been watching the counter. So far it's running right around 60 fps, though when I pass a dead body it slows down to about 55. Otherwise it seems pretty smooth and not choppy at all.

Well, I'm off to try the screenshot thingy.

Since you have Fraps you might as well use that to take screen shots. I believe the default key is F10.

This is a known issue with the game. Simply put, it sucks at NPCs, period.

Known problem spots for FPS in this game include the Waterfront and the IC Market District. There's always a bunch of NPCs hanging around there, so framerates are guaranteed to take a dive in those zones.

Hey, got some treats for Julian's fans!

She looks a little different in this game than she did on the Xbox. It's hard to duplicate something I created a year ago and have no recall how I got there! I also chose a slightly different hairstyle too.

On the Road to Kvatch

Entering Kvatch Camp

The Great Gate

If she looks intimidated in that last screenshot, believe me, she was!

So I have discovered yesterday that the current upload speed for my internet is averaging about 1/2Kb a second... and it's apparently been like that since we first purchased this network. This house should be at 256Kb/Sec Up, so that means something is seriously wrong. The person we talked to say that two things might be causing this:

1. We are on DSL, so something might be generating noise in the line that is dragging the connection down. This was confirmed when our download speeds increased when we unplugged our house phones. This could also be because of a problem with the wiring, so my step-dad is probably going to be playing around with our phone lines later on.

2. The carpet guys damaged our interior phone lines when they were installing the new carpets. This one is going to be a bit hard to prove, but we have to entertain that this might have happened.

If anyone else has any ideas about why my Up speed is so low right now, I'd love to hear them.

I have actually looked into DSL for my internet connection.

I rejected it when I found out the fastest I could get was still slower than cable's slowest upload speed. Uh-uh.

It makes sense that the house phones could be generating noise - after all, they share the same infrastructure as the DSL. It's supposed to be a superior delivery system compared to cable (hey, fiber optic versus copper?), but the signal degrades so rapidly the further you go from the relay station. As I understand it, it doesn't maintain signal strength the way cable does.

Around here the cable network is so good that I rarely see a slowdown in downloading/streaming, even though I'm sharing the same bandwidth with a lot of other people. It takes something major like the earthquake in Japan to ding the bandwidth enough that I can't stream hulu.com.

I would be looking into how far you are from the nearest relay station. Distance does matter. I believe if you're more than 1500 feet away (I might be off on the number, but for some reason it's the number sticking in my head) your signal strength isn't going to be so hot, and your speed will suffer seriously.

Oh, and I have a question of my own. I'm aware of the patches that fix bugs in Oblivion PC. I got the GOTY version, which patches, if any, do I need to install?

The GOTY will come fully patched. At least officially so. You will only want to download the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, which fixes a zillion bugs that Bethesda could not be bothered with. On that page you will also find links to the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch, and one for the other DLC.

And be sure to top that off with the UOP Supplementals, as well. That way, you will have pretty much every bug in this game that is not engine related fixed up real nice.

Also, I can't go to cable. None of the ISPs in my area offer cable service. The best we could find was Qwest DSL (and if that horrifies you, I can really understand).

I should install all of the Supplemental files or just certain ones. I have UOP v 3.2 (the latest) installed right now, I don't have the one for SI or other DLC's installed yet (as I haven't installed SI or KOTN).

I tried reading the description hoping that it would tell me which one I needed (as on the UOP page) but no dice.

And Qwest? My heart bleeds for you, TK!

Install order:

1. Install the full Unofficial Oblivion Patch v3.2.0

2. Install the full Unofficial Official Mods Patch v15 for whichever official DLCs you are using (Knights for sure).

3. Install the full Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch v1.4.0

4. Install the v3.3.5 Supplementals for each Unofficial Patch you are using.

I would also recommend you invest some time into learning Wrye Bash, particularly its installer toolset (BAIN). You can find some links to get you on the right path here.

OBMM does have the OMOD installer method, but it does not respect proper install order. BAIN does, and is a lot easier to use once you've learned how it works.

I do not plan on installing the DLC's or even SI and KOTN at this point (though KOTN might be under consideration later).

I'm more interested in the original Oblivion game and what I can tweak out of it.

Thanks for the links to your modding thread. I'll be posting on that one instead of here whenever I have stupid questions about mods.

Right now I'm trying to get the CS downloaded and installed. It's not going so smoothly and I'm trying to figure out why.

You're going to have to bite the bullet on Knights and SI, I'm afraid, because the patch you want is bundled with them and you need it in order to install the CS.

Unless you feel like downloading 1.2.0416 for non-SI usage. You can find it over at the TES official site.

OK, now I am really getting mad about the current internet problems. According to my step-dad (who manages the tech in the house) "upload speed is meaningless."

Is he a Martian? I'd like to know what exactly was going through his brain when he came to that conclusion. How else does he think our modem talks to the web servers, magic?

We are running on 2Kb/sec upstream right now (I am not making that up), why does he continue refusing to admit something is wrong with our connection?

H.E.R.: As somebody that played through Oblivion w/out wanting KotN or SI installed (it ruins the F#*%-ing story, Bethesda!), I sympathize.

That said, from a practical perspective, install them and follow TK's advice. BUT, and this is the key, do not activate them as plugins when you boot the game. As long as they're not active plug-ins, you can play the game, fully patched, without having the Anvil chapel get desecrated or a stupid island appear in the middle of the Niben Bay.

As a user of both OBMM and Wrye Bash, I'm with Thommy on this one. If you're not using any of the DLC mods, you don't need their corresponding UOP's. But installing the GotY edition and then de-activating the mods you don't want is, in my own experience, a safer option.

@Mjolnir: I do use all the DLC, but I have also installed a little mod called SM Plugin Refurbish which delays them from starting until certain requirements are met.

Unfortunately, I that strategy is not going to work for Shivering Isles, because the ESP provided for SI is, to be very honest, completely empty. Shivering Isles gets installed directly into Oblivion.ESM, which means there is truly no possible way to stop it from activating, because turning off Oblivion.ESM is rather obviously a stupid idea. Just turning off DLCShiveringIsles.esp will not stop the island from appearing, but it WILL generate a lot of missing mesh markers and swimming NPCs, because although that ESP is empty, it is still necessary (that ESP tells the game how to find the SI resources).

@Tommy: Really? Huh, that explains a few things.

I had started off with SI active, and then deactivated it, only reactivating it after I had beaten KotN. All I had done was reset the appropriate actors, but I thought the problem was from removing an active plugin from a saved game file, and then putting it back in later.

I'm definitely going to get SM Plugin Refurbish, since I'm building a new tower this summer and will want to create a new character. Thanks for the advice.

And I thought our DSL was bad. We had Verizon which was alright, but they (in our area) were bought by some place called Frontier and it is TERRIBLE. At best our DL speed is 120kbs and upload I calculated to be around 47kbs. Ugh. Sometimes when I upload a video I just take it to the uni with me on a flashdrive and upload from there. It takes less than 3 mins instead of upwards of 90 mins.

Huh? So I can't run Oblivion without SI and that stupid island? I hate seeing the message about a door that has opened in the middle of Niben Bay in my journal and would rather not have it onboard at all.

I am still having trouble opening the CS application. Every time I try, I get error messages that it could not find the sky, and a few other resources, then it crashes.

Nothing much can be done about the island, I'm afraid. It's always going to be there.

However, you can use the mod SM Plugin Refurbish to prevent the first SI quest from starting, so you won't be bothered by any annoying messages about a strange door.

EDIT: Also, let's move this discussion down here because we're dragging this thread off-topic.

Boy do I wish I had been given this advice before I messed up my game by not knowing what I was doing with the mods, ROFL !!!

So, we had to spend a good deal of yesterday without our cozy little gathering under the Great Oak, it would seem.

Unfortunate, but nonetheless, I am glad to see the site is back up.

I wonder what happened? Did the site exceed its bandwidth, or perhaps someone DDoS'd us?

I doubt it was that dramatic. Probably just the server freaking out or DNS things failing. Even a power outage or exchange failure could do it. Most likely Terence ran out of hamster food and had to go get more.

Given that Alex runs the server for this site himself (I think) it's damned reliable, that was the third outage I can remember...

I hope I'm not doing necromancy here

But I figured this is the best place to recount my own sad tale.

My desktop that has been running MacOS X and Windows under one hood just had a nervous breakdown.

Last night while sleeping (in the MacOS partition), it froze and wouldn't wake up. I turned it off via the power button. Normally it's no big deal, it restarts right back up. But this time it didn't.

Oh, sure, it started up, showed the Apple Logo and the spinning pinwheel, but then it froze. Never made it to the desktop.

I though, okay, corrupted system file somewhere. Let's see first if it starts up without the third-party peripherals. No dice.

Then I thought, lets see if it starts up into Windows. It let me choose the boot volume on start up, but still no go. Computer froze before completing startup in Windows. Uh oh. Not a HD failure, as MacOS and W7 are on separate hard drives. Tried starting up from the install disc that came with the computer. Nope. Reset PRAM, thinking bad settings. Nope. Removed the new HD's and RAM that I installed a month ago, leaving only the original HD and RAM in place. Nope. Still no go.

I was able to run Apple Hardware Test off the install disc - all tests passed successfully. But I still believed it to be a hardware problem.

Took it to the Genius Bar (having taken the online Apple Care Tech course, I know these guys really know their stuff, unlike the ungeeks at Best Buy). He verified the problem, pinpointed the approximate point in the startup process that was hanging, and tried to start up from their diagnostic external HD's. Still no dice. He agreed with me that it was likely a hardware problem, and that the logic board is probably somehow involved.

So I had to leave my Intel Mac there for some more diagnostics and maybe corrective surgery. It was almost as hard as leaving my kitty in the care of the folks at the emergency clinic! Hopefully in five to seven days I'll get it back in good working order. Fortunately it's still under warranty . . .

And no, I'm not blaming the HD's, the RAM or W7 that I installed a month ago. The HD's and RAM are from a very good source (I've done business with them for over ten years and have had no complaints about anything), and I know I installed them correctly. I'm careful that way.

So that means no Windows for me for about a week. And that means no Oblivion. At least the story is on my laptop and is not affected.

Sixteen years of owning macs, and this is my first hardware failure . . .

Ouch! It does sound like hardware, and as you said, since each OS is on a different hard drive, the likelihood of both being bad is very slim. It sounds like a motherboard or possibly processor issue (although usually with those you get nothing at all. Not even a partial boot up). Or maybe it something simple like a bad memory module. Another possibility is it is overheating. I had that happen once because my cpu fan died, it brought everything to a halt shortly after the initial POST.

I thought of the fans, too, but no, they work fine (and blow nice cool air out the front, so overheating's not a problem).

It could be a bad RAM unit from one of the original Apple modules, if so, Apple will replace it. I already proved that it's not the OWC modules I installed a month ago - problem persisted after those were removed.

I'm thinking temperature sensor failure as the diagnostic module at the Genius Bar reported unexpected results from all four sensors. Since that's part of the logic board, that whole thing's gotta go.

We'll see if I'm right. If so, I'm getting a job as an Apple Tech at the Genius Bar! At least computers don't bite! (Though CRT's can blow up in your face - oh well, nothing's ever perfect)

Also, I just installed the Mac HD into my old G5. It can't boot up from an Intel-configured volume, but it can see and recognize the files on it, which are just so darned important at this time. So no, def not an HD failure.

I have begun shopping for a new GPU.

I have set my sights on purchasing an nVidia GTX 460 card, because I am not looking to increase performance any for my computer, but rather to increase the amount of VRAM available to my GPU in preparation for Skyrim.

VRAM is really the only area of my current machine that could be improved at this point. Going any further would require a brand new machine, and I think I can still get some good life out of the one I have now.

That is the problem I have with my desktop - it is HP junk and can only be upgraded to a certain point without a whole new motherboard, power supply, fan, etc - and I had already upgraded both of the last two just to put one Nvidia 8600 GT into it. My laptop has a better graphics card than that.

Considering that I have been using two 8800GTs in SLI for some time now, I have heard from a few reliable sources that the GTX 460 will match that power on its own.

Tell you the truth, that will be an improvement, because having all that power on one card is a much better option than splitting it between two cards.

GAAAAH !!! ARGH !!! (drool, drool) !!! You SLI dog you !!! ARGH !!! ROFL !!!

I'm looking at upgrading my system for a couple of reasons, firstly so it will convincingly run Skyrim and secondly because 2Gb memory doesn't sit well with vista and manipulating big images, in fact it tends to be catastrophic.

Currently it has:
2Gb of PC2-6400 C4 memory, I'm looking at adding another 2-4Gb
a horrible dying Gigabyte mobo (no intentions of replacing until the magic smoke comes out)
AMD Athlon X2 6000+ (dual core 3GHz) CPU
nvidea 8600GT graphics

Either I need a new machine, however I'd like to put that off until the next gen consoles come out, or I need to upgrade ram and graphics. Is it worth upgrading? I'd need a bigger PSU to power the graphics too.

Also how much do different versions of the same graphics card vary. For example both Gainward and MSI make GTX 460s with some difference in price - is the MSI one significantly worse.

I was up all night running copies of 2347 sound files through the "Switch" converter to change them from (MP3 44100 Mono) to (WAV 22050 Mono).

I had to convert each file by hand, it did not scan through them automatically. 2347 files !!!


Twice the converter mysteriously defaulted itself to WMP for some odd reason. Once I had hit the arrow down key, the other time there was not any catalyst for it to happen that I could see. Both times I caught the difference within 3 files and went back and re-did them.


I checked every setting all through the process so I know I had the settings right. So this morning before (finally) getting to go to bed I pulled one of the "Converted" files - it was a WAV file, but was at 44100 !!! I checked some more, they ALL were !!

Does anyone know if that (WAV 44100 Mono) will work in Oblivion?

I checked the settings on the "Switch" Converter, and they were still showing what I set them at, the correct setting for them, 22050 !!!

So I go to contact the company and complain, it turns out that if you are using the free trial basis, they will not let you contact their support, you have to go onto their forums and read through other people's complaints about their product.

So needless to say, don't use "Switch" - it is freeware junk.

@ TK - I just downloaded Audacity, that seems to be what everyone is using. I'm going to see if it will correct the WAV files to the right format - once I get done weeding the old MP3 files out of the folder. It seems the "Switch" also ignored my command to overwrite the MP3 files. GAAAAAH !!! Lol.


PS. : I also downloaded a Sound Set of Annah Torment files I found on "the Sorcerers" Planescape Torment/Baldur Gate" site. The sound set is all WAV formats, but can't be opened for some reason. I tried to open them with Windows Media Player, "Switch," and some Audio Editing Software - none could open them. They are compressed oddly or something. Do you have any idea how to crack the egg so I can get to the yolk? Lol. (sorry, long day and no sleep last night)

Bad news, I'm afraid.

Last night, as I was shutting down for the night, my PC suddenly decided it was done working, and is now bricked.

The only sign of life is the power light blinks at me whenever I switch on the power supply, but other than that, absolutely nothing. No fan activity, no monitor activity, nothing.

I think I need to get a new power supply.

Definitely sounds like a PSU. Have had 3 GX620's do the same thing in the last month. (Naturally, the warranties expired in February).

If you have a known good PSU that will fit, even if it is "underpowered" for your complete setup, test that one. Just disconnect everything except video, hard drive, mouse and keyboard ports.

If it is the PSU, consider PC Power and Cooling- I hear lots of good things about them.