Oblivion has gone Gold

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Recommended hardware is an X800 or 6800 or faster. Minimum is an X600 aka 9600. Definitely very accessible.

Disturbing rumors are it lurches and stutters even on a X1900XT on a FX60. If so, I'm going to be upgrading a bit more than I expected. =)

I read that a UK PC Gamer mag said it ran like butter on a 7800GT with all settings on high during a preview. A lot of people over on the elderscrolls forum were really blowing it way out of proportion. We'll see what the reviewers say when it comes out.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: v8envy
Recommended hardware is an X800 or 6800 or faster. Minimum is an X600 aka 9600. Definitely very accessible.

Disturbing rumors are it lurches and stutters even on a X1900XT on a FX60. If so, I'm going to be upgrading a bit more than I expected. =)

I read that a UK PC Gamer mag said it ran like butter on a 7800GT with all settings on high during a preview. A lot of people over on the elderscrolls forum were really blowing it way out of proportion. We'll see what the reviewers say when it comes out.

There's a ton of Previews that were done last weekend:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/links/links_previews.htm

Out of all these only two really had anything bad to say, and one of them (bad) is a total joke.

Most were pretty impressed.

 

[Bull Dog]

Droool.... Looks like I'll have to buy it.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: thilan29
Will it still have real-time soft shadows and extremely realistic physics like was promised or will that stuff be taken out?

Check the video links posted on the first page (about middle of page) of this thread.

In short, Physics are from the Havoc Engine.

Some shadows were removed - mainly on some inanimate objects like jars, food, etc.

I heard that the footage shown in a real time demo made last year I think was the PLANNED graphics but that they had to cut back a lot of it. It was several videos with I guess the president of Bethesda narrating. Here's the link click and check out the E3 demo videos. I read somewhere that the graphics are apparently much scaled back from what's shown in those videos.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: thilan29
Will it still have real-time soft shadows and extremely realistic physics like was promised or will that stuff be taken out?

Check the video links posted on the first page (about middle of page) of this thread.

In short, Physics are from the Havoc Engine.

Some shadows were removed - mainly on some inanimate objects like jars, food, etc.

I heard that the footage shown in a real time demo made last year I think was the PLANNED graphics but that they had to cut back a lot of it. It was several videos with I guess the president of Bethesda narrating. Here's the link click and check out the E3 demo videos. I read somewhere that the graphics are apparently much scaled back from what's shown in those videos.

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier they removed shadows from a lot of static items (I think walls/building/etc. still have them), but Characters and I think weapons still have them as well.

There was some talk about having the textures for far-off items being lowered, but I think that has been refuted - it's just the draw distance being so far.

If you check out the videos that came out last weekend (I posted links to them earlier in this thread), you can see things still look pretty awesome.

My only complaints are with the scenes where you can clearly see HDR is implemented. Why does this whiz-bang feature just seem to make things look so bad to me ? I haven't seen HDR in any game yet that looks good - just the opposite.

The good thing here is that you can turn it (HDR/Bloom) off, and that for Oblivion it's even supposed to have different (adjustable) levels of HDR/Bloom that you can set to your liking :thumbsup:

 

[thilanliyan]

oh okay, good to hear they didn't take out EVERYTHING. But damn, in the scene when the king is talking to you, it looks WAY better from the E3 video. I was planning to do some major upgrades to play this game after seeing the E3 footage, but I'm not so hyped up anymore. I'll probably still buy it though.

 

[PingSpike]

I'm here for the gameplay myself. I'm kind of annoyed that the few graphics complaints I had from morrowind seem to be making their way into this one though. (Bad character animations and cardboard clothes). Still, if the radiant AI is half what they say its going to be I'm sure I'll forget about it all over again!

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I'm here for the gameplay myself. I'm kind of annoyed that the few graphics complaints I had from morrowind seem to be making their way into this one though. (Bad character animations and cardboard clothes). Still, if the radiant AI is half what they say its going to be I'm sure I'll forget about it all over again!

I heard the Character animations are supposed to be pretty good, and that the Chars actually use appropriate gestures when talking (pretty cool).

The only clothes complaint that I'm aware of is that they don't take advantage of the Havok Engine. Well, I guess you can throw them and have the Physics work that way, but they're talking about them not being affected by the wind etc.

 

[RobertR1]

Would be nice if they were to release a performance benchmark ahead of time for people looking to upgrade. A built in benchmark within the demo would be nice to have.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Would be nice if they were to release a performance benchmark ahead of time for people looking to upgrade. A built in benchmark within the demo would be nice to have.

Last I heard there wasn't going to be a Demo. It's not segmented like Farcry where you have different areas, it pretty much all there from the start, just some texture uploads as you move through cells.

Between the Graphics, Physics, and Radiant AI it's going to take a hefty System to run with everything maxed out. You look like you shouldn't have any issues.

 

[RobertR1]

One of the reason I wanted a Demo was so I could decide if I want it for the PC or the Xbox 360 but that won't happen

 

[wanderer27]

They're supposed to be virtually identical. The main difference with the PC is that you have more graphical adjustment options, and of course the Construction set (to be downloadable) and Mods.

With the Xbox, HDR/Bloom is on automatically and I don't believe there is a way to turn it off (a negative for me).

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Would be nice if they were to release a performance benchmark ahead of time for people looking to upgrade. A built in benchmark within the demo would be nice to have.

You were asking about a Demo and I just ran across this Oblivion evaluator on the NVidia Site:


http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_oblivion_home.html

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Would be nice if they were to release a performance benchmark ahead of time for people looking to upgrade. A built in benchmark within the demo would be nice to have.

You were asking about a Demo and I just ran across this Oblivion evaluator on the NVidia Site:


http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_oblivion_home.html

All that tests is whether you can RUN it or not. I think with an FX-53 and an OC'd X1800XT he knows he can run it, the question for him is whether or not its better to get it for PC or 360. I'll let you guess which version I'm getting. *Points to specs in sig*

 

[TanisHalfElven]

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

 

[Extelleron]

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)

No way w/ 512MB of RAM. With some overclocking on the Opteron 165 (who has an Opt. and doesnt OC it anyway?), 1GB of RAM, and an X800GT......... maybe Medium/high 1024x768. No way are you playing it with everything maxed, even WITH 1GB of ram...... unless you're talking 640x480 of course, but then it'll look bad. What I think it will require for HIGHEST SETTINGS, 1280x1024, 4xAA/16xAF:

Any Dual core processor (minus 805 perhaps), Athlon 64 3500+/Pentium 4 3.6 GHz or HIGHER
1024MB PC3200 (I think Oblivion will benefit from 2GB as well, so get 2GB if you can)
ATi X1800XT (256 or 512) / nVidia 7800GTX 256MB

 

[TanisHalfElven]

oh ok then. i actually planned 800x600 so i'll tell you how that turns out. else its time for more ram.

 

[mrkun]

Does anyone know which implementation of HDR that Oblivion is going to use?

Edit: I did the NVIDIA "Can I Run It?" test and apparently my CPU isn't fast enough. Hah.

 

[DeathReborn]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Would be nice if they were to release a performance benchmark ahead of time for people looking to upgrade. A built in benchmark within the demo would be nice to have.

You were asking about a Demo and I just ran across this Oblivion evaluator on the NVidia Site:


http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_oblivion_home.html

Looks like i'm fine for Recomended specs. 1280x1024 here I come but AA & AF will depend on performance at that resolution. Might just bump it to 1600x1200 no AA or AF.

 

[stelleg151]

Originally posted by: Zebo
As I recall, this company is especially fond of releasing BugMaster Deluxe software. By the time Summer arrives, it will probably be playable.

Yeah, I think they will be trying to work out the bugs pre-release since they are releasing on 360 as well as PC.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: stelleg151

Originally posted by: Zebo
As I recall, this company is especially fond of releasing BugMaster Deluxe software. By the time Summer arrives, it will probably be playable.

Yeah, I think they will be trying to work out the bugs pre-release since they are releasing on 360 as well as PC.

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.

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: stelleg151

Originally posted by: Zebo
As I recall, this company is especially fond of releasing BugMaster Deluxe software. By the time Summer arrives, it will probably be playable.

Yeah, I think they will be trying to work out the bugs pre-release since they are releasing on 360 as well as PC.

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.

That's the one thing I hate most about PC games. The fact that a developer can rush a game and put it out without full testing to get rid of bugs and gameplay issues. A MMORPG is one thing where you're expecting to do a lot of downloading anyways but other games like a FPS and the first day it hits the store and already there's a 100MB patch for it???

 

[RobertR1]

Originally posted by: akugami

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: stelleg151

Originally posted by: Zebo
As I recall, this company is especially fond of releasing BugMaster Deluxe software. By the time Summer arrives, it will probably be playable.

Yeah, I think they will be trying to work out the bugs pre-release since they are releasing on 360 as well as PC.

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.

....... but other games like a FPS and the first day it hits the store and already there's a 100MB patch for it???

You can thank EA and Valve for this trend.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: RobertR1

Originally posted by: akugami

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: stelleg151

Originally posted by: Zebo
As I recall, this company is especially fond of releasing BugMaster Deluxe software. By the time Summer arrives, it will probably be playable.

Yeah, I think they will be trying to work out the bugs pre-release since they are releasing on 360 as well as PC.

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.

....... but other games like a FPS and the first day it hits the store and already there's a 100MB patch for it???

You can thank EA and Valve for this trend.

That is because of new maps.

 

[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.