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Welcome back, one and all, to Modding Oblivion the Easy Way,

Part 2, where I’m going to help you vastly improve the graphics of this wonderful game

to make it look like it could’ve been released today. If you haven’t yet watched Part 1,

I would highly recommend doing so before proceeding, as I will not be going back

over anything from the first video. With that out the way, let’s begin, shall we?

The sun rises in the morning, sets in the evening, and Bethesda games are buggy. It’s a given at this

point that if you pick up any game made by Bethesda, you should be prepared for it to

break in a multitude of hilarious, but more often frustrating ways. Even knowing this, you’d be

surprised at the sheer number of game breaking and inconvenient bugs which are present in Oblivion,

and to alleviate this innate brokenness as much as possible, we are going to be downloading the

Unofficial Patches, which manage to repair a game Bethesda themselves were too lazy to fix.

First of all, you need to identify which patches you will need for your specific game,

so we will start by opening up Wrye Bash to check which ESP files are installed with your game.

There are three Unofficial Patches for Oblivion, links in the description of course.

The Oblivion patch, the Shivering Isles patch, and the DLC patch.

Download the patches that fit your list, then head back into Wrye Bash, this time clicking

on the Installers Tab, and saying yes to the prompt. This tab is where we’ll be downloading

most of our mods from here on in. Simply drag the downloaded mod folders into the Wrye Bash window,

right click the mod’s name, and install. This may take a while depending on what mod

you are installing, but the wait isn’t too long for these ones in particular.

Go back into the Mods tab where we began, and you will see additional items added to your

list of ESP files. Tick the boxes next to the base game patch and only the patches of DLCs

you actually own. Now that we’ve finished with Wrye Bash for now,

exit out of the program and launch BOSS, which will sort our list of mods,

known as our “load order,” to get them working as smoothly together as possible,

which isn’t too important for now but will become a vital step for later when our mod list expands.

Run BOSS for Oblivion, and wait for the masterlist to download. After this is done, BOSS will do

its thing and launch a webpage to tell us it’s finished, which we can just ex out of. Now we

can launch Oblivion, and if you see Patch-related items being added to your inventory upon startup,

congratulations! You’ve just successfully installed your first mod with Wrye Bash.

Now we know the basics, things will get even easier from here on in.

As veterans of Oblivion will likely know, this game’s leveling system is kind of garbage.

Leveling up in the most efficient way possible requires a precise amount of skill levels gained

before initiating the level up process, which really puts a damper on the amount of fun you can

have in a playthrough. The woes of this leveling system extends to certain quest rewards as well,

meaning some unique items received in the lower levels are ultimately less powerful than the

same item received at a higher level, with no way to upgrade them beyond their initial state,

encouraging the delaying of certain quests until much later in your character’s progression.That’s

where the mods we’re going to be going over now come into play. Realistic Leveling changes

Oblivion’s player leveling system to increase attributes as you increase the associated skills,

meaning as you increase your weapon skills, for instance,

your Strength will level up automatically, giving the system a slightly more hands-off approach,

something that I prefer, and I think you will too, as it stops forcing you to have to efficiently

level in the most tedious way possible if you want the best stats by the end of the game.

Auto Update Leveled Items and Spells addresses my second issue, automatically leveling up unique

items and spells as you reach the required level, meaning no weapon is left in the dust. A unique

sword obtained at level 1 will still be useful at level 30, encouraging exploration at any stage of

the game, no matter your level. Another mod which I’d recommend, but only for experienced

Oblivion players, is Maskar’s Oblivion Overhaul, which boasts a multitude of added features and

changed gameplay systems to overhaul the entire feel of Oblivion into something a

lot more difficult and akin to a more classic RPG. It’s great fun, but can be overwhelming at times,

especially if you aren’t all that familiar with the vanilla game’s systems to begin with,

so if this is one of your first playthroughs, I’d hold off on trying out this mod for now.

To get these mods up and running, simply download the files from their respective Nexus pages,

drag them into Wrye Bash’s installer page, begin installation, and tick each mod’s box,

running BOSS at the end of it all to keep your load order nice and tidy,

exactly like we did for the Unofficial Patches. From now on, I will be referring to

this process as a “basic” installation, and provide further detail only when required.

If you wish to download Maskar’s Oblivion Overhaul, install it’s mod file using Oblivion

Mod Manager by clicking Create, and adding the Maskar’s archive into the blank mod template,

then activate, setting the configuration settings to your liking.

More tweaks are available through configuring the mod’s .ini file, and the readme included

with the download serves as a comprehensive guide on all of it’s new and tweaked mechanics.

Oblivion’s vanilla textures aren’t awful by any means, but when seen up close,

many look blurry and compressed. This is why mod author Qarl blessed us with his own custom texture

pack, which provides a much cleaner look to every single in-game environment,

making this mod something I’d consider a must-have for any modern system.

Once you’ve downloaded the mod from the link in the description, simply initiate a basic install

using Wrye Bash, but due to this mod’s large file size, it may take a while, so be patient. Due to

this mod only replacing existing textures, there’s no new items in our load order to tick. However,

there is a second part to this mod we need to download to make our new textures compatible with

the Unofficial Patches we installed earlier, link in the description as always. This is

another basic Wrye Bash installation with no items to tick, and once added to your game,

your new textures should be good to go. Just make sure your texture size is set to “Large”

in your in-game settings menu to get the maximum effect, and you should be fine.

The faces of NPCs in Oblivion are infamous for a reason, and that’s because they just look awful,

even compared to other games from it’s time. The humans are somewhat decent, but everything

falls apart when we look at the Khajiit, who bear more resemblance to potatoes than cats.

Orcs just look like bootleg Shreks, wood elves are pale-skinned goblins and, well,

everything here simply feels unpolished. The Oblivion Character Overhaul aims to make every

race look like how they were intended, and damn does it succeed. The humans look a lot better,

as do elves, but the greatest improvements are found in orcs and the beast races.

Orcs now feature a darker skin tone and a more weathered and battle hardened appearance, as well

as sporting some truly frightening and inhuman eyes, making them look like the killing machines

they were always supposed to be. Khajiit now actually look like cats, with an appearance taking

influence from Skyrim’s Khajiit models, as well as sporting customization options for fur patterns.

Just compare this model to the vanilla game. Need I say anything else? Argonians also feature major

improvements, with mottled skin, cleaner colours and more lizard-like eyes. Again, compare these to

the original game, and I don’t even need to tell you that this is a mod which is truly essential.

OCO is a little tougher to install than the previous mods, but nothing we can’t handle. To

start off, we actually want to install another mod called Blockhead, a plugin which allows enhanced

camera movement during character creation, but more importantly enabling the textures of the

Character Overhaul to function. Once again, this is a simple Wrye Bash installation, but since this

is a plugin utilising OBSE, we have to let Wrye Bash know that this installation is safe first.

Now download OCO, as well as the Eyelash Length fix file which is also on the Nexus page,

as without it you may see some unnaturally long eyelashes on certain characters.

Install both archives, and tick the Character Overhaul on your load order.

Once finished, just run BOSS, and our new faces should be running nice and smoothly.

With updated character models comes the need for updated animations,

and that’s where Combat Stance Reanimation version 3 comes into play.

The characters of vanilla Oblivion aren’t animated poorly by any means,

but they feel stiff and robotic, and very much like they came from a game made in 2006.

Combat Stance Reanimation replaces a lot of these old animations with new ones which feel a lot more

life-like and full of personality, and even if you don’t care for playing in third person mode, this

mod also updates NPC animations, making it well worth the install for that reason alone. If you’re

looking at the footage on screen and do prefer the older animations, you can skip this one if you’d

like. If you do want this mod, however, simply install with Wrye Bash like our previous choices.

Improved Trees & Flora 2, and Enhanced Water 2,

are mods which enhance Oblivion’s plant life and water respectively, making forests feel a bit

more lush and overgrown and water effects just look better in every way possible.

These are both basic Wrye Bash installations. Improved Flora doesn’t add any items to your load

order, but Enhanced Water adds two, a standard definition version and a high definition version.

I’d recommend going for the HD package first and only using the SD version if you think

it’s affecting your game’s performance. Make sure Water Detail in your in-game settings is set to

“High” for the HD option, or “Normal” for the SD option, and everything should work just fine.

Now for the final mod we have the Cyrodiil ENB. ENBs are some of the most popular graphics mods

for many games for a good reason, and that’s due to how an ENB is pretty much a graphical overhaul

in one install. They add a myriad of post processing effects to your game,

single handedly elevating your game’s graphical fidelity tenfold. The best

part about ENBs is their customizability and ease of installation, so, why don’t we begin?

First, download the Cyrodiil ENB mod, of which there are two versions, but I’d recommend going

for the brighter version as the basic version can make the game a bit too dark in places like

dungeons and at night, and the brighter version still darkens the world to a realistic degree.

You will also need to download the ENBseries folder, link also in the description. Go

into the ENBseries folder, head into the Wrapper version, take the d3d9.dll file,

and add it to your Oblivion directory. Now open up the Injector version

and drag the enbseries.dll file into your Oblivion directory also.

Now, simply take all of the contents from your Cyrodiil ENB folder and add them to

your Oblivion directory. Feel free to delete the original archives at this point. Now go into the

newly added ENBseries configuration file in your Oblivion folder and follow the steps on screen.

If you want to tweak your ENB settings in-game,

simply hold down shift and press the enter key to bring up the configuration menu,

and click the Save Configuration box when your settings are adjusted to your liking.

And now, you’ve done it! You’ve successfully remastered, Oblivion! Wasn’t that surprisingly

easy? Remember that even though these are the only mods on my mod list, your modding journey

doesn’t have to end here. There are a multitude of mods available on the Nexus, and the Oblivion

subreddit is a great place to go for suggestions on what to install next. However, always remember

these tips when installing any mod. Read the instructions on any given Nexus page and follow

them to the best of your abilities, and whenever you get a new esp added to your load order,

sort the whole thing using BOSS. Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your next-gen Oblivion experience!

And that’s it for my guide on Modding Oblivion the Easy Way!

If you have any further questions about the modding process or Oblivion as a whole, feel free

to leave them down in the comment section below. If you enjoyed this video or found it helpful, be

sure to leave a like, subscribe for more content in the future, and I’ll see you in the next one.