Got it for Christmas. Been playing it for a bit, but there's a problem...

I can't stand it!

Shadows. The shadows in Oblivion are HORRIBLE (to me, at least). There's never a 'small' or 'light' shadow. It's nearly PITCH FRIGGIN' BLACK.

Even with a 30ft light spell, I can hardly see two feet in front of my character. In caves, it's absolute MURDER. I have to shoot fireballs in random directions, hoping to find a zombie before I walk face-first into it and my pants in surprise.

If I look at a hill where the sun's on the other side- I can't even make out a path. And it's probably 1 PM in the game's time, so it should be pretty light around the world.

Computer's contrast and brightness are up to 100%.

I can set the graphics so low that I can't adjust the brightness anyways, and the shadows are still there.



Edit: Note, not only does this make safe travelling annoying, but it also owns me with Oblivion Gates in forests, or just hunting for deer and other things in the forest as well. You can barely see it.

First, lower your games contrast quite a bit... the softer light will make it easier on your eyes. Next, lower the brightness, again it makes easier on your eyes.

Now, take your monitor and adjust it a bit until you find something you like. Also remember to adjust colors if you are using a flatscreen monitor.

It sounds like you have bloom off though, and if you want shadows you need Bloom on. If bloom being on slows your system down too much, kill it and shadows. The shadows do look ugly without bloom, but that was becuase thye were designed with bloom in mind.

Bloom > HDR, first off. Not sure if you were using HDR, but NEVER use HDR (if you don't want to go blind).

If you have really high quality shadows, it's tolerable. That, and Oblivion is what, 9 months old now? Of course it's not going to look exactly...good.

Going to argue that point. For the PC Oblivion is still one of the BEST looking games out there. It has its problems, but its terrain, and modeling is superior. (The model animations do leave a little to be desired) and they did very good with the meshs. Now... Gears of War looks prettier, but it is not for PC, and Might and Magic Dark Messiah is also beautiful (and has the animations that Oblivion lacks) but over all, Oblivion is still visablly better.

I am told Battlefield 2142 is beautiful, but I have not had a chance to look at it... my compy cooked itself before I could install it.

About the terrain: Even Black and White 2's environments look better than Oblivion's. The whole "let's make it look crappy when it's far away" bit really turns be off. Even Medieval 2 Total War doesn't do that. O.o And I absolutely love Dark Messiah - its graphics are on-par with (or better than) Oblivion's, and the physics/gameplay are positively stellar. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, I guess.

Anyway, totally digressing...give us an update, Furien!

I use detect life and sneaking in dark areas - I can either clearly see my foe from afar (except in the case of undead) -or- I can damn near walk on top of them before being detected (in which case I usually notice them before they notice me).

I use detect life and the one skill that turns everything purple, I've got all or most of the things on me enchanted, and some of the enchants are pretty strong.

Granted, I'm on Xbox 360, and everything is quite nice, no having to worry about settings, the game does it for you.

It's pretty easy to become rich in Oblivion, just raid villages and ruins and sell the loot to fences.

Yeah, I was hooked on Morrowind partially because of that.

Sure you're actually playing Oblivion? The game is beautiful.

Dark Brotherhood is awesome.

I feel that Oblivion is much nicer to thieves and assassins than Morrowind was.

That, and the aleid (?) daggers look awesome.

Adjust your gamma. That's the ONE THING that will help with the game being too bright or two dark.

If it's both, well, then you're just screwed.

ETA: Yes, turning off HDR might help, but it's lame. HDR is a Good Thing. Lowering your contrast might help also, somewhat.

Kromsh... it sounds liek you have the settigns low. Of course it is not going to look pretty then. If you are running middle to max settings, this is one of the most beautiful games out right now.

Now, it aint going to stay that way for long, Dark Messiah revamped theSource Engine a lot, and did a damn good job with it. NWN2 also did a good job utilizing bloom effects, and multiple particle effects in the spells. (Too bad they couldn't put the same amount of attention to the mouse look feature...)

Also Kromsh, turn anti-aliasing on... when it is off, distant terrain does look crapy, becuase it gets all pixalted.



edit- HDR is one of the 'vital' settings in any game with simulated sunlight. (IE all but some RTSs) This one of the things you should never have off.

I have all the settings up to their highest, except for self shadows (they look stupid). And yes, antialiasing is on, but only at 2x (because higher degrades the textures). O.o

I suppose I could tweak my gamma settings, or something, but I still think Oblivion's HDR looks like crap, and that Dark Messiah is better.

EDIT: And, for some reason, my graphics card doesn't support antialiasing in the game settings along with HDR, but I can turn it on outside the game and still use HDR. Bleh.

Oblivion is a beautiful game. I am too energetic to actually sit and play it for long myself, but I can watch my boyfriend play it for hours because the landscapes and graphics are so pretty.

Seriously, people. Play Dark Messiah at its highest settings. I assure you, the first time you get full adrenaline or fight multiple people at once or electricute a guy in water or kick someone into a fire or make a chandelier fall onto a group of baddies, you will be amazed.

You seem to be nothing but a fanboy who disregards all logic for something you like. Obviously, if you game is getting all pixilated in the background, there is something wrong with your settings. Saying you can turn anti-aliasing off outside the game doesn't mean its functioning inside of it, given that you just said that your graphics card doesn't support it.

Clearly, the problem is with your graphics card and not the game.

um no rly its gud

My graphics card doesn't technically support it, but it works. Did I say my background was pixellated? No. But have you seen how it doesn't load some of the 'cells' completely until you're fairly close to them?

Anyway. I have Oblivion set to look its best, and it certainly still looks like one of the best games out there. There's no pixellated background, the textures are superb, the environments are beautiful. But there's still better, and there should be, given its age.

Also, I'm more of an Elder Scrolls fanboy than anything else. My SN even has bloody Nerevarine in it. Oblivion is a great game, and I played it for months (ignoring the fact that their were too many damn gates), and still play it, whereas I only played Dark Messiah for a couple weeks (too linear to last very long). I was merely stating that Dark Messiah looks better, and that its combat is superior.

Clearly, you are a very judging person. And if you people keep arguing with me before at least trying out DM, I'll have to find/make a couple screenies.


EDIT: Dammit Furien, tell us if it worked.