Oblivion has gone Gold

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
so will my system listed below be able to play this at high (maybe low-res but i want all the eye cany)

512? games? WTF? get more ram now while it's cheap.. it's about to double in price by summer. Don't say I did'nt warn you..

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Artician
Some people were talking about the stuttering in Oblivion. That's going to turn a lot of people off because it's caused by the engine and not any fault of the development or design. No matter what kind of monster system you have, the way that the engine chooses to handle the work loading is still going to cause you to stutter slightly in some areas.

The GameBryo/Netimmerse engine they're currently using is the same one used for Morrowind, and they both use the same method for handling large outdoor areas. All the areas are processed by being broken into large overworld sectors (in the shape of a grid - each sector being 1/4th to 1/2 a square mile, if that). The engine will only load the sector that the player is currently in, and all adjecent sectors during the game. When the player traverses sectors, the game will determine which ones he/she is moving closest to, and load those sectors into memory while dropping the furthest ones out. This is what causes the stutter during the game, and there is just so much info being passed around there it will never fully go away.

Another similar issue I may recall reading about was some wierd object loading priorities (buildings and such popping into view right in front of the player, when the background was already loaded). Smaller objects such as buildings and other details are handled in a similar way as the larger, world sectors. Each large world sector contains info on all the smaller objects within it. As the player moves through a sector, the engine calculates what smaller objects are nearer to the player in that sector, and loads and draws them. If people are seeing things like buildings load in later than larger areas or objects that are further away, I think this would be a design/development issue. It sounds like the game can't determine correct priority for loading world details, or that the PC's can't keep up with the constant request for loading assets as the player moves around. This also means that you should see some improvement with hardware upgrades in this area, though things still might load out of order if Bethesda doesn't work out the kinks.

This is all educated assumption though, so some of it might be wrong. I worked with the Morrowind editor and Gamebryo engine professionally so I thought I'd explain what I saw for the issues people were talking about. I was a bit depressed to hear that Bethesda stuck with the Gamebryo engine for Oblivion though because of the wierd stuttering issues in Morrowind. Morrowind was at least functional if you learned to look past that (which I did, and found an amazing world under it which gave me thousands of hours of adventure), but I don't expect most people to deal with it the same way.

Hope you all enjoy the game at least. I've been waiting for this for a long time.

excuses excuses... Farcry has miles of open area and no studder.Besides games don't "choose" anything, humans neglect to program proper for cash.

Like I said - As I recall, this company is especially fond of releasing BugMaster Deluxe software. By the time Summer arrives, it will probably be playable.

 

[wanderer27]

Bugs - while I doubt this or any game is going to be bug free on release, this is supposed to be a pretty clean game thanks to the fact the original release date was pushed out four months. Of the previews I've seen (links post on this thread) I think only one Previewer managed to crash it, and he was trying. No one else really mentioned any bug type issues.

Popping - very few Previewers had anything to say about this. Pretty much it's the same or better than Far Cry.

Loading - Yes there's loading, not really any way around it. However in the time since the original release date to now they've been able to improve it over 400% (info about a month old). Previewers commented that loading times were far better than anything Morrowind did, and in fact some Previewers said they didn't even have time to read the "Loading" message. A definite improvement in my book.

HDR/Bloom - Not sure which version of this they're using, but from what I've read it's supposed to be user adjustable - not just on/off but different levels of implementation. It supports SM3.0 if that's what you're really asking.

 

[Artician]

Zebo - It's not really an excuse as much as an explanation. Maybe I should just phrase it differently - game engines all handle the way space is organized differently. The result of the frequent loading stutter is primarily because of the engine they chose. It's not a robust engine nor the best choice for the kind of environments they are making, so I guess if you wanted to troll about bad development choices you could say it's their fault for using that engine in the first place, which most people would agree with anyhow.
Far cry is a completely different engine though and was developed from the ground up by the Far Cry team. Bethesda licensed their engine, and does not have the freedom or ability to completely recode how it deals with loading large sectors of land.

Wanderer27 - That's good to hear. I only read the Game|Life article on the subject, which really pinpointed some specific issues with object popup. Most of those issues rang familiar when compared to the Morrowind characteristics. I think the "loading" screen flashes and whatnot are related to the outdoor sector loading, which I think is really going to hurt the game. No one wants to be walking around in an open world and see "loading" on the screen at any point in time because it breaks up the continuity. They do load interiors and exteriors seperately though, so hopefully the majority of the loading notification is from this, and the author of the articles pinpointing it didn't know the difference. (When moving into buildings/dungeons or back outside the game will stop momentarily to load the zone being entered).

Anyhow, my initial post was just to say that there were some things that were unavoidable due to the engine, and that no amount of hardware upgrades would fix. You will still see outdoor sector loading stutter in Morrowind on todays PCs. Bethesda has a notorious reputation for releasing buggy software, at least for Daggerfall, Battlespire, Reguard and Arena, but Morrowind was actually quite bug free and I believe Oblivion will be as well due to how much time Bethesda invests in their development now.

 

[TheRyuu]

I have Opty 175@2.5ghz. Under Recommened it says it isn't fast enough, wtf? Is it detecting that it's an AMD CPU and that AMD cpu's can't really get above 3ghz?

 

[R3MF]

Oblivion going gold means i'm buying a 7900GT in the next fortnight.

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

After watching the gameplay collage video I've decided I'm not going to buy this game. That was just terrible imo.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
I have Opty 175@2.5ghz. Under Recommened it says it isn't fast enough, wtf? Is it detecting that it's an AMD CPU and that AMD cpu's can't really get above 3ghz?

You have nothing to worry about. A 1.8 GHz A64 would just about meet recommended, you basicly have an FX-60 there.

 

[Dainas]

I can't wait for this game; partly so the mod community can get started on a decent race to play is(no tattoed elves please). As long as the world dosent turn alot smaller than what was hinted I expect it to be a game I waste my life on for the forseeable future. Like morrowind in the past.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Yeah, but unlike with the original Xbox, developers CAN deliver games with some bugs, because they can always put up a patch on XBL, unlike with the Xbox, you either had bugs forever or you didnt have them at all. Anyway I think Bethesda has gotten rid of most of the bugs because they've been in development on this game for a looooooong time.

This is highly amusing as the original release of Morrowind on the XBox was by far the buggiest set top console game I've ever seen. Go move around a bunch of stuff in Vivec later in the game and just try walking around afterwards- no joke the game would crash every ~5 minutes for me. I could also crash the game at will by using a high powered levitate spell and then trying to dispell it.

Zebo-

Farcry has miles of open area and no studder.

FarCry- the entire game- is miniscule compared to Morrowind. They are not remotely comparable. If every level of FarCry was available without a loading screen it wouldn't be close to a tenth of what Morrowind has in its external areas.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I have a 3GHz P4 and 9800 Pro, and yet the frame rate averages only around 30 and sometimes even dip below 20 in exterior areas when I play Morrowind. Thus, I predict Oblivion will run slow and choppy even with top-end hardware.

 

[DeathReborn]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
I have a 3GHz P4 and 9800 Pro, and yet the frame rate averages only around 30 and sometimes even dip below 20 in exterior areas when I play Morrowind. Thus, I predict Oblivion will run slow and choppy even with top-end hardware.

You'd notice big improvements if you got a better video card. I predict it'll be smooth as silk on my SLI 7800GT, 2.7GHz A64 & 2GB RAM. May not be high end, it's fairly middle of the road as far as rigs go but it's good enough to satisfy me.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I have a 3GHz P4 and 9800 Pro

I was running Morrowind with a 2500 Barton and R9800Pro and it ran very smooth(16x12 8xAF 0xAA), average 60-80FPS with dips into the 30s rarely(excluding the loading hiccups of course). Haven't tried it on that setup in a while, it is possible that performance tanked with newer drivers.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Dainas
I can't wait for this game; partly so the mod community can get started on a decent race to play is(no tattoed elves please). As long as the world dosent turn alot smaller than what was hinted I expect it to be a game I waste my life on for the forseeable future. Like morrowind in the past.

Morrowind is supposed to be 10sq miles.

Oblivion is supposed to 16sq miles not counting Dungeons or the Realm of Oblivion, so I'd say your fears about it being too small should be put to rest.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: DeathReborn

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
I have a 3GHz P4 and 9800 Pro, and yet the frame rate averages only around 30 and sometimes even dip below 20 in exterior areas when I play Morrowind. Thus, I predict Oblivion will run slow and choppy even with top-end hardware.

You'd notice big improvements if you got a better video card. I predict it'll be smooth as silk on my SLI 7800GT, 2.7GHz A64 & 2GB RAM. May not be high end, it's fairly middle of the road as far as rigs go but it's good enough to satisfy me.

you be surprised :! they downgraded the graphic alot since even the 7800GTX SLI had trouble play the game ;( They took out individual shadows for non-movable objects. they tonned down the lighting effect that looked like dreamy and took out other few things. The game was ready for decemberish launch but the game was too graphically advance so they delayed it to fix it and even amped up the fighting system and tone down graphic a bit to make sure it runs on decent machine

 

[Wag]

Originally posted by: wanderer27
Morrowind is supposed to be 10sq miles.

Oblivion is supposed to 16sq miles not counting Dungeons or the Realm of Oblivion, so I'd say your fears about it being too small should be put to rest.

Yea! Many hours going back and forth, back and forth...

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: Wag

Originally posted by: wanderer27
Morrowind is supposed to be 10sq miles.

Oblivion is supposed to 16sq miles not counting Dungeons or the Realm of Oblivion, so I'd say your fears about it being too small should be put to rest.

Yea! Many hours going back and forth, back and forth...

There is an instanteous travel feature IIRC.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Wag

Originally posted by: wanderer27
Morrowind is supposed to be 10sq miles.

Oblivion is supposed to 16sq miles not counting Dungeons or the Realm of Oblivion, so I'd say your fears about it being too small should be put to rest.

Yea! Many hours going back and forth, back and forth...

Well, they do have the fast travel system for those that don't want to walk/ride everywhere.

You don't have to use it, but it's there if you want too.

 

[Qua Sar]

i have two oblivion (pc) reserved... march 21st baby!

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
I have Opty 175@2.5ghz. Under Recommened it says it isn't fast enough, wtf? Is it detecting that it's an AMD CPU and that AMD cpu's can't really get above 3ghz?

Strange -- my X2 3800 @ 2.4 GHz is recognized as "You Have: 2.4 GHz Performance Rated at 3.8 GHz" (passes recommended). Perhaps they haven't coded the performance rating of dual core Opty's properly?

(Also... Do We Have To Capitalize almost All The Words In This Game?)

 

[Madwand1]

Doesn't accept Windows 2000. I guess they just don't care about me. :Q
I don't know why they set this limitation. To cut down on testing?

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Madwand1
Doesn't accept Windows 2000. I guess they just don't care about me. :Q
I don't know why they set this limitation. To cut down on testing?

I think they're still testing some System configurations - W2K being one of them.

I wouldn't think there would be a huge difference as long as they can both run DirectX 9.0c.


As for the Opty, I've seen others on the Official site say the same thing. There's even some higher end X2's that aren't being properly recognized on that tester.

 

[PingSpike]

Yeah they mentioned they were currently testing windows 2000. It'll probably run fine even if it isn't listed on the box.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
Yeah they mentioned they were currently testing windows 2000. It'll probably run fine even if it isn't listed on the box.

If they don't support W2K, officially or otherwise, then IMO they should mark the boxes with bright stickers saying something like "Must have XP, Windows 2000 not supported". Why? Because those of us who have W2K are pretty much used to putting in current software and running it fine. If they blocked W2K at the installer, or didn't fix some issues with it, then that'd be frustrating to the buyers and retailers -- I'd certainly try to take it back if it didn't install.

In any case, as they've reported that this is being tested, I think my reaction is probably just premature / overblown, and everything should be fine by release time. So I hope...

Also, is there any word about XP-64?

 

[rstrohkirch]

I'm confused, why would anyone with a scalable engine delay a release for said reasons of "It's too hard on current gen systems"
That makes no sense