Building A Better Oblivion

Jun 9, 2008

By Patrick.

Gaming

Bethesda Softworks’ Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is, graphically and in terms of size and scope, one of the most ambitious pieces of gaming software ever released. The game is something of a “sandbox” role playing game, set in the fantasy world of Tamriel where earlier games in the series, including Morrowind and Daggerfall, were set. What keeps Oblivion from being a classic is that: a) it doesn’t have much of a story; and b) it does so many little things, like balancing monsters to player level, wrong.

What saves Oblivion is that it’s one of the most moddable games ever made, and users have modded it in droves. All of the little problems are fixed by one mod or another, and some amibitious player mods fix many. Many of the mods produced by users expand the game and its story, some improving it breathtakingly.

But finding and installing all those mods, without breaking the game, is hard work. Well, it was until now.

Announcing the Popehat Oblivion Omod Project, or as we like to call it, POOP.

Created by our friend, commenter, and forum member triggercut, POOP is a compilation of the best mods produced for Oblivion, a set which will improve graphics, immersion, story, mechanics, and more, making what we hope might be the perfect Oblivion experience. The POOP project is easy. It self-installs and contains documentation for setup. And it’s big. So big that you’re going to have to get it by torrent if you want it.

Per triggercut, this here’s the straight poop on the POOP:

Guys, I’d like to introduce the Popehat Oblivion Omods Project, or POOP.

I drew inspiration from the GoneGold/OO Morrowind DVD mods project as well as Lum’s Oblivion Mods Omnibus from a few years ago and Jason McCullough’s never quite released here but similar package.

First off, it’s all done. Every mod is packed as an OMOD, and everything you need is in the POOP already–OBMM, OBSE, Wrye Bash, the official and unofficial patches for the DLC and Shivering Isles content.

Here’s what’s in the rest of the POOP:

World Graphics:
1. Qarl’s Texture Pack 3, Redimized and Further Reduced as an OMOD. (Scripted to allow you to pick the sweet spot between graphics and performance)
2. Three flavors of “Color Maps” and three flavors of “Normal Maps” with instructions on what they do to LOD and distant landscape views, how they affect performance, and how to pick out what works best (Qarl’s Normal Maps and Qarl’s Better Tiling)
3. Three flavors of “Noise” filtering (Koldorn’s) to work with the “pepper” caused by patch 1.2
4. Two choices of View When Distant: AEVWD (Almost Everything View When Distant) and a smaller version for slower GPUs: Tamriel VWD + Chapels Extras
5. Natural Environments for habitats and vegetation
6. Atmospheric Weather System for skies and weather
7. Beaming Sunglare for better sun
8. Enhanced Water for those who don’t like Natural Environment’s
9. Low Poly Grass for the performance boost
10.Weather Inside (Seasons) for weather sounds when inside buildings
11.Gorier Blood
12.Real Lava
13.Illumination Within Revived
14.Clocks Of Cyrodiil
15.Improved Signs
16.Improved Doors and Flora

“Game Fixes”
1. DarNified UI in OMOD form
2. Color Map Mod 1.1
3. Dude Where’s My Horse
4. Harvest Flora
5. Harvest Containers
6. Book Jackets + Book Placement (Exclusive to POOP, first time these two mods have ever been OMODed and scripted together that I’ve seen for easy installation)
7. Durable Equipment/Harder Repairs
8. Denock Arrows
9. Cliff’s Better Letters
10. Francesco’s Leveled CreaturesItems
11. Francesco’s Optional New ItemsCreatures
12. Quest Award Leveler
13. Kobu’s Character Advancement System
14. SM Plugin Refurbish (fixes how DLC quests start, rather than bombard you with them in the first dungeon)

Items & People:
1. Kafei’s Better Amulets
2. Kafei’s Better Rings
3. Better Looking Tools
4. Fine Weapons
5. Rusty Items
6. Imperial Armor Replace
7. VA’s Better Gold
8. Visually Enchated Weapons
9. TNR Tamriel’s NPC’s Revamped, All Races Final
10. Slof’s Horses
11.Mike’s Clothes Replacer

The Always Controversial Optional Folder:

Unique Landscapes:
1. Ancient Redwoods
2. Ancient Yews
3. Chorrol Hinterland
4. Colovian Highlands
5. Lush Woodlands
6. Rolling Hills
7. The Heath

(Yes, there are more Unique Landscapes out there; POOP feels that they alter the game too much and/or upset the balance of it to the point of breaking it.)

Game Fixes, Or Not (proceed at your own risk):
1. Realistic Ragdolls & Force
2. Action Ragdolls
3. Real Lights
4. Reneer’s Guard Overhaul 1.79
5. DeadlyReflex

Side Quests:
1. Kvatch Rebuilt
2. Glenvar Castle
3. The Lost Spires

Finishing Touches:
1. Streamline 3.0
2. Wrye Bash
3. TES4LODGen (this incredible tool snoops your .ini directory and data folder and collects all mods and makes sure they appear as View When Distant too.

Comes with full instructions on how to install everything and make every OMOD here play well together.

Every mod is either in OMOD format (for easy installation and removal) or another single-click push-button format.

The torrent containing the mods and installer can be found by clicking here.

If you don’t know anything about bittorrent, read up on it and find links to clients here. As with any torrent, please continue seeding after download in order that others may have access to it as well.

You may discuss and see more detail on the Popehat Oblivion Omod Project in our forum.

All content within the Popehat Oblivion Omod Project is copyrighted where applicable by its respective authors. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is copyrighted by Bethesda Softworks and its associated corporations. We make no claim of copyright to anything relating to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

UPDATE: June 25, 2008. Tracking code for the torrent linked above has temporarily been disabled by triggercut, while he works on improvements for the project, improvements which will include version stability, updates, and new omods. We wish to emphasize that this is temporary, and that a new POOP, version 2, will be announced and available shortly.

Last 5 posts by Patrick

Don't Lose That Famous Temper, Bob. - September 2nd, 2010
How To Raise A Great Sailor - August 30th, 2010
Habeas Corpus Shouldn't Mean "Tag! You're It!" - August 26th, 2010
Activist Judges Seek To KILL US ALL! But That's Just The Start. - August 23rd, 2010
FIFTY THOUSAND CRONKITES?!? - August 21st, 2010

19 Comments

Computer Games, Oblivion

17 Comments

Chris H • Jun 9, 2008 @1:38 pm

Hey, triggercut here.

One correction: POOP doesn’t necessarily install itself. What it does do is give you single-click installation of each mod. I wanted it to be customizable for a variety of hardware configurations, so folks can feel free to ignore stuff they don’t want.

There are a ton of advantages to installing OMOD versions of mods rather than just the mods themselves. For one thing, most mods require you to install to the right paths and folders in you Data folder in the game, which can be a bit of a pain. In OMOD form, they install themselves where they’re supposed to go with a doubleclick.

The other big advantage is that OMODS can be activated and de-activated with the same double-click. One of the things you’ll do in POOP is experiment with different flavors of the same graphics mods. Being able to test one, deactivate it with a click and activate a new flavor with a click (and then being able to deactivate the second choice and go back to the first just as easily) is huge.

Sorry if anyone was mislead by talk of ease of installation. OMODS make should make this a breeze to install, but there’s extensive documentation included just in case, and you’ll still be doing a lot of clicking getting the whole thing set up.
Patrick • Jun 9, 2008 @1:43 pm

Thanks for the clarification trig. It still sounds a helluva lot easier than hunting and gathering for individual mods as I did in the past.
Ken • Jun 9, 2008 @1:49 pm

This is a tremendous project by trig, and I appreciate it very much. Now I’m going to have to figure out bittorent.
Chris H • Jun 9, 2008 @1:50 pm

Oh yeah, absolutely. It took me as long as it takes to torrent the entire POOP to download the big world texture pack from TESNexus, and that’s a direct DL.

One last caveat:

I never meant for POOP to be the last word in Oblivion Mods. If you install POOP and nothing else, you should have an incredible gaming experience in Oblivion, far beyond anything available in the vanilla game.

BUT….there are a bunch of things I didn’t include. There are a ton of great magic mods…but those unbalance the game a little towards casting classes, so I left them out. If you’re going to be a mage, though, go for it and add it yourself! There are a bunch of amazing bow/archery mods, but I left those out, too to keep things at general interest….but if you’re a ranger-type, I recommend you go find those mods as well.

Finally there are a bunch of intriguing mods in various states of Beta right now that I’d love to include in a followup POOP….
Mike • Jun 9, 2008 @2:26 pm

This is POOP 1.0, right? I’m assuming there will be updates if the unwashed masses start reporting problems — as best as you can fix them?
Brian • Jun 9, 2008 @3:17 pm

I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to Patrick for not reverting to the less immature name.
Andrew • Jun 10, 2008 @8:03 am

Chick has POOPed:

http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/06/popehat-project-overhauls-obli.php
Ezra • Jun 10, 2008 @9:55 am

Wow! I finally got it all downloaded last night. Now I just need to do a clean install, and get right to it! I’m really looking forward to this. Thanks Chris for all your hard work in this!
Brian • Jun 10, 2008 @12:46 pm

Screwed again. I can’t even get a proper credit for coming up with the name POOP (although it was inspired by trig’s failure to stick with POO). Everyone loves POOP.
Josh • Jun 18, 2008 @8:17 am

What about the Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul? If I were to install the POOP, LOL, would OOO come before or after? What about the Unofficial Patch also?

Should I do I clean install of Oblivion then apply the POOP?
Ken • Jun 18, 2008 @8:43 am

Josh, I’m not the expert, but I think the POOP contemplates use of game fixes that are alternative to, if not incompatible with, OOO. Try asking in the thread here. And yes, I understand that a fresh install is highly recommended.
Josh • Jun 18, 2008 @12:12 pm

When can you create a similar all in one for a character’s body and looks? I’ve seen some amazing screen shots from other peoples characters and would like to get my character to look like that.
Steamer • Jun 25, 2008 @5:37 pm

The below taken from Finishing up

Last but most certainly not least is Wrye Bash. Unzip Wrye Bash 1.80 to your main Oblivion directory, NOT your Data folder. This will create a folder called “Mopy” in this directory. Open it, and find the file for “bash.py”

I dont understand from above onwardsm do i need to do the following

Download and Install Python 2.5
Download and Install wxPython 2.8.7.1 ANSI

Help
kyle • Sep 21, 2008 @2:33 pm

i know im going to sound like a complete noob but how exactly do you get the omods to install on vista do i need to create a special folder or get a certan program?
Chris • Sep 21, 2008 @4:11 pm

The easiest way is to install Oblivion somewhere other than c:\program files\blah\blah\blah. I made a c:\badly behaved programs\ and Oblivion lived quite nicely there.
kyle • Sep 23, 2008 @4:36 pm

once again im going to sound stupid but you said to just install it into a different folder instead of program files/bethesdasoftworks/oblivion? do i need to make the folder or will it be made duiring the install once again a stupid question this is my first time trying to do this.
PJB • Oct 13, 2009 @1:11 pm

Hello all,

For those who are averse to torrents/too lazy to torrent/can’t torrent, I’ve put POOP up for HTTP download. Due to the mod’s enormous size, I’ve provided 1-part, 3-part and 7-part zip files.

http://www.gibbering.net/oblivion/poop/

Enjoy