# Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Graphics Problems



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Hey,

So I recently upgraded my graphics card, RAM and hard drive and so wanted to test a new game out on the system. 

I have a problem with the graphics on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I have the latest catalyst 6.3 drivers for my Radeon card but there's a weird problem when playing first starting the game, with the FMV/video sequence with the guy talking at the beginning. Only a top seqment of the screen (about 3inches wide) moves at real-time speed, whereas the bottom half, the left side moves slightly behind at something like 1 or 2 FPS and the right side of the bottom of the screen doesn't move at all, it just shows part of his body that was present at the start of the video sequence.

What the hell does that mean? I thought it might be due to vsync so I disabled that, but had no effect whether it was enabled or disabled. The rest of the game seems to work fine, the dungeon beginning part worked fine and without any problems, it just appears the title video appears to have problems

Ive tried with the official catalyst drivers and omega drivers, but neither makes a difference.

What else could be causing it?

Thanks.


----------



## S132 (Mar 30, 2006)

Possibly the temps on your gfx card, maybe overheating, again you could re-install the game. Is Oblivion a good game? heard all good about it and will no doubt buy it.


----------



## alwrmc (Jan 13, 2004)

May or may not help but make sure that if you have a joystick/gamepad connected, it must be disconnected. Oddly enought having a joystick connected, even if it is just sitting on the desk gathering dust, will cause graphic problems on many computers (mine for one). After that, I woul make sure that DirectX is up to date. Also a check of background programs to see if anything can be conflicting. You might also, after all else, uninstall and reinstall the game.


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

I don't think it would be the graphics card overheating - it's brand new. I only put it in the PC yesterday and have no problems with any other part of the game, just the video sequence, so I doubt it's a physical problem with the graphics card.

I'll have to try a reinstall, but I doubt it'll make a difference. And I don't have anything connected to the PC apart from keyboard and mouse so no gamepad conflicts. And also have the latest drivers, directx and everything already for the system. Nothing seems to make a difference.


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Nope, a full uninstall and reinstall didn't work either. There's something definitely awry with my graphics somewhere but can't understand why. I've got plenty of RAM, CPU and graphics memory for the requirements.

Now, after my reinstall, it works even more sporadicly. I managed to get to New Game when I reinstalled, had the same problem with the opening video sequence, and then tried to quit when it got to the character design section and then just froze. The PC was still responding, but I had the Oblivion game stuck on my monitor screen. Had to do a hard reboot to get it to go away. Whats the deal? Will this game ever work properly?


----------



## acameron (Dec 20, 2004)

Are there any patches for Oblivion yet? Go to the Oblivion folder from the start button, is there a "check for updates" button?


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Not at the moment, they have one in the making but it isn't released yet. I'm not sure what else to do. Everytime I uninstall and reinstall it keeps crashing and freezing on either the menu screen, the video or character screen. It's really annoying.


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Ok, I've given up reinstalling drivers, the game and other things. I'm just gonna have to leave it on my system until they make a fix for it. I've exhausted anything I can think of. 

I don't want to go around messing around deleting codecs and things as some forums have suggested, if they can't work with the ones already installed they obviously need to do something about it - I've never known a game crash so much!

I'll go back to playing B&W 2 instead for a bit


----------



## JordanScout (Apr 9, 2006)

I've been having problems intermittently with Oblivion (wonderful game -- all hail bethesda!). The main problem I have now is a half inch wide vertical green bar on the left hand side of the screen. It expands and contracts as though it's an indicator of hard drive usage or something. The green part gets short and long as I go through the game, but it never goes away. The bars on the left and right hand side of the green bar run from top to bottom of the screen, and are constant, no matter how long or short the green bar itself it. I've reinstalled the game twice already, cleanly (not an easy trick, btw) , but no change. It didn't have the green bar the first time I installed the game, but developed the bar sometime in the day after installing it.

I did just build the system, but it runs fine on everything else. No problems except Oblivion, and besides the green bar, I've only had a freezing problem after leaving the game running for several hours and coming back to it (not a huge surprise...)

Anybody else have that problem? I saw a ref to removing a gamepad if it was idle, and I just removed my Nostromo N52, which I wasn't yet using for Oblivion... More coming later, but for now, anybody got any ideas?

Thanks

Jordan


----------



## logothetes (Apr 9, 2006)

Hiya... I have the exact same problem. Oddly enough it ran fine the first time I ran the game (yesterday) but since today I have the exact same problem as you. Have reinstalled the drivers for my gfx card, and reinstalled the game. Still no joy. Again my pc is brand new (built it last week) and the spec should be more than enough to handle the game. I ran Dawn of War's intro sequence (which looks far more gfx intensive w/out any problems). Please post here if you discover a solution! Did you say the rest of the game functions fine and this only affects the intro cut scene?

Spec:
Athlon 65 3200+
1GB 3200 Ram
120GB 7200 HDD
GeForce 6600GT


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Well I managed to get the crashing problem sorted. I uninstalled the DivX player and codec and that appeared to fix the crashing and I can actually create a character and get through the first conversation with the emporer in the dungeon.

However, the intro cut scene with the emporor talking about his life is still messed up. Can only see the top 1/4 of the screen and the rest is just black. I hope it's not the same for any more movie sequences in the game, I don't know what happens in that intro one, the video was doing my head in only being able to see the top 1/4!

Glad I can at least play it though.


----------



## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

Hmmm, I have no problems running Oblivion. I do not know why. 1280x1024 everything cranked. 

Ever think it might be hardware???


----------



## DarqueMist (Jan 16, 2001)

Skivvywaver said:


> Hmmm, I have no problems running Oblivion. I do not know why. 1280x1024 everything cranked.


Really? At 1280x1024 I get a horribly slow moving mouse (not laggy, just slowwwww) that completely dissapeared at 1024x768


----------



## acameron (Dec 20, 2004)

Skivvywaver said:


> Hmmm, I have no problems running Oblivion. I do not know why. 1280x1024 everything cranked.


Skivvy, IF you had a problem running ANY game cranked to the max with the rig you have I think you would be a little upset.   

I finally picked the game up yesterday......WOW.....incredible graphics....the detail in this game is awesome........ Back to the topic.....

I have everything cranked as well @ 1280 x 1024 and I have not had any problems at all.

Other than the problems with the intro have you had any other problems? If not, and you say that all your other games run fine.....I would assume that it is a problem w/ the Intro movie.

You should keep playing, there is another cutscene, and see if you have the same problem there.


----------



## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

acameron said:


> Skivvy, IF you had a problem running ANY game cranked to the max with the rig you have I think you would be a little upset.


  Maybe just a little torqued if something wouldn't run. I will be installing a 4400+ tomorrow. I do believe this rig is about topped out now.


----------



## acameron (Dec 20, 2004)

Skivvywaver said:


> Maybe just a little torqued if something wouldn't run. I will be installing a 4400+ tomorrow. I do believe this rig is about topped out now.


Sweet.......


----------



## JordanScout (Apr 9, 2006)

thanks, logothete! at least I know i'm not nuts. Or at least not ONLY nuts...

The first time I ran Oblivion, it ran fine. I played for several hours no problems at all. Then I went on and tried to set up the rest of my stuff. Ran into problems with my monitor (more on that below). So I reformatted my hd, reinstalled windows, drivers, oblivion, etc. and THEN, once I started the game again, I got the green bar. And no matter what the resolution is, I still get that green bar. Not just 1600x1200, but ANY resolution...

When I set up the machine the second time, I changed nothing. I reinstalled the exact same ones, nothing diff. Then I get the green bar. It runs throughout the game, but it doesn't interfere (except for being green and omnipresent...) with my playing. Its size changes vertically within two white edge bars, but the overall position is the same.

The only other problem I'm having is that my system won't recognize my monitor's true resolution and capabilities on the primary monitor. It sees a (default) 1600x1200 70mhz max performing standard monitor as default, and my actual monitor (viewsonic 21" G810) as the secondary monitor. That's why I did all the uninstalling and reinstalling and formatting and reinstalling in the first place. I don't know if it's related, or why I can't get my monitor's true capability to show up on monitor 1. I've shut down any multiple display stuff I can find in registry or setup. It sems to work, and then when I enable SLI again, off we go with the dual monitors and wrong sizes.

Anybody else out there got an opinion or experience with any of this? Thanks...


----------



## mccracj (Apr 15, 2006)

I just got Oblivion, and I got the same issue as the original poster:

_I have a problem with the graphics on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I have the latest catalyst 6.3 drivers for my Radeon card but there's a weird problem when playing first starting the game, with the FMV/video sequence with the guy talking at the beginning. Only a top seqment of the screen (about 3inches wide) moves at real-time speed, whereas the bottom half, the left side moves slightly behind at something like 1 or 2 FPS and the right side of the bottom of the screen doesn't move at all, it just shows part of his body that was present at the start of the video sequence._

I didn't see many people having this issue - and I saw no fixes. I went through all the tweaks, and like the original poster changed all the advised settings for my card and the game - and still I was having the same sort of issues as noted above. I also had problems that walls looked like blurry walls and I would have random holes / triangles / blue spots in my graphics.

I did two separate things to fix the problem:

1) I have a 7800 GS and I had to download the latest driver to fix unrelated issues. The driver is from 4/5/2006 and is 8.4.4.3

After this my other issues were resolved, but I still had the issues listed above.

Fix that worked for ME :

* Under troubleshoot I turned off ' Enable Write Combining '
* On the GeForce 7800 GS tab I clicked 'Enable Doublescan for lower resolution modes (I'm on 1024x768 because I like it, even though my card can go MUCH higher)

I had to reboot - and then all my issues were fixed. I'm not sure which one fixed it for me, but it fixed all my problems and the game has gone from horrible to beautiful.

If this doesn't solve the issue you were having let me know (I'm subscribed to the thread) and I'll post all of the configuration settings I have for my card, but since the card with the problem was an ATI - I'm figuring it is a general setting versus a card specific setting.

Thanks

Jason


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Thanks for your reply I thought it might be too good to be true, and sure enough it was.

I turned off write combining and enabled triple buffering (which ensures a faster framerate when V sync is enabled - which I thought might work in my favour) but couldn't find anything similar to 'doublescan' in ATIs control centre. 

Thanks for your reply though, I know what you mean when you say it appears not many people have this problem - I searched for days on the official and unofficial troubleshooting forums and didn't find anything.

I'm not that bothered, the main game works fine - just don't know what Uriel says at the beginning cos I can't stand to watch only the top 3inches of his face! lol


----------



## mccracj (Apr 15, 2006)

Well, doublescan should only be important if you are using a CRT that is larger than 14 inches and a lower refresh rate (ie: 60 hertz). Some things you could try:

1) Change your screen refresh rate. I'm not an expert on monitors, so besides making your eyes hurt if you pick the wrong one I'm not sure if this will have any impact. For an ATI card I think you could go to adapter and 'List All Modes' to see suggested refresh settings. I'd probably only play with this if you're curious, as weird refresh settings can give you a headache.

2) What is your screen resolution? Try bumping it up if it's 1024 or lower and that might have an impact. Again, just something to try.

3) The settings I used for an ATI. My Radeon X300 at work has the Troubleshoot tab with Enable Write Combining - but like you said I couldn't find a doublescan/display timing option. You might just send them an email and see if they have a response:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894

From the minimal reading I've done on this though, it appears that the problem is more the monitor than the vid card. I'd be interested to see if anyone that knows more about what the 'doublescan' option really does could comment on it, but I think you wouldn't have the same issue with a DVI flat panel.

Jason


----------



## Soulhunter123 (Apr 22, 2006)

In your ATI control panel, go to the SmartGart tab and select Fast Writes ON. If this is not possible, boot up your computer and press F2 or F11 repeatedly at the BIOS loading first screen. This enters Bios config where, if you navigate, you will be able to turn "Fast Writes" ON for your graphics adapter. This WILL solve your intro movie problem.


----------



## danskibee (Jun 28, 2003)

Thanks for your reply and PM soulhunter, I have a problem though. ATi's catalyst centre has the fast writes option, but it is greyed out and I cannot select it to ON. I also tried going to BIOS settings at startup, but I couldn't find any options in there relating to my graphics card setup and so couldn't find fast writes there either


----------



## devil798 (Apr 24, 2006)

im having trouble playing elder scrolls oblivion, it all loads ok, and at the character design at start of the game i can see the menu to the left but the graphics are all white and cant see where im going or my character or anything. does anyone know how i can resolve this please let me know ?


----------



## XMIART (Apr 25, 2006)

devil798 said:


> im having trouble playing elder scrolls oblivion, it all loads ok, and at the character design at start of the game i can see the menu to the left but the graphics are all white and cant see where im going or my character or anything. does anyone know how i can resolve this please let me know ?


I am having the exact same problem pleas help. Got the newest drivers did all the tweaking. And no go. Will this game work with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP Graphics card.


----------



## asylum100 (Apr 27, 2006)

Right lets get this sorted. Most PRE built systems will give you grief from the word go. This is all due to rubbish mass produced main boards inside. Buy em cheap, get cheap bits. I know its a pricy game out there, how do you think they can sell such cheap pcs.

The only way to insure that a decent graphics card will work to its full potential, is to put it in a borad that will let it stretch its legs. Pre built system boards are always dumed down somewere. This saves on build costs. Most decent pc builders will use decent of shelf boards (Alien, Mesh) with the full compliment of chips on board.

I run a AMD xp3200 barton 400mhz at 2.2ghz, 1 gig corsair value, ABIT AN7 pro motherboard, Nvidia 6600gt 128mb agp. No probs at all. And when you consider
that my cpu is 2 to 3 gens old you guys should be asking you pc manufacture whats going on.


----------



## MartyMcFly (Aug 12, 2005)

Hey guys

Great to be in the illustrious company of fellow ATI and Oblivion Fans.

I was looking at your posts, and they are rare, as I couldn't really find any problems with Oblivion. This is a shot in the dark, but I remember when I got my X800 that I had some odd graphics problems.

When you down loaded drivers, from;

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

You didn't just download the display driver only? If you did, you would need to get the WDM Driver as well. You should find a missing device in Device Manager (Start > Run > devmgmt.msc) highlighted with a ? Or, did you install the .NET Stuff, if you installed the Control Centre.

Not likely, just thought I would suggest it. Just whilst I'm probably telling you something you know already, make sure you uninstall ATI drivers in safe mode, then reboot, ignore any "Found new hardware" wizards, and install new drivers as best practice.

Happy gaming, David


----------



## Miken2000 (May 2, 2006)

The game starts fine plays for a minute then the monitor makes a funny sound then just goes off!!!!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!! SO CONFUSED


----------



## Grantarchy (Jul 11, 2006)

Hi, I just bought Elder Scrolls oblivion on Friday, I think it's a great game, but I have problems with it freezing periodically. I can't seem to determine why. Sometimes it will run for hours on end with no problem, sometimes it will freeze as I am trying to load a game at the very beginning. I have read stuff about it possibly overheating? How can I tell if this is the problem? I entered my specs in the into, should these be good enough to run it? I am on a laptop - I seem to have problems sometimes with the DVD/CD drive and I have to use a paperclip to open it now - would that be a problem? Is there any way to run it from the hard drive?


----------

