Would I have any problems running Oblivion?

[EvilOzzmess]

I’m considering Elder Scrolls: IV Oblivion, but don’t want to drop $20 on the GOTY version (which I plan to do ASAP - I’m too eager to wait!) if it is impossible to get to run on my set up:

MOD: Acer Aspire AS5738PG-6306
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU: Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.20GHz
RAM: 4GB SDRAM DDR2 667
GFX: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 w/ 512MB DDR3
HDD: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 (320GB 5400 RPM)
DISP: 15.6" LED backlight HD/WS CineCrystal w/ Multi-Touch
RES: 1366x768 (max)


I have checked with "Can You Run It?" and everything said it was a go, except for the OS.


As for some specifics: I don’t usually run on two monitors, though I can (Notebook has a VGA out port and we have a 17” Dell LCD panel) and I know this causes immediate crashing out on this specific game the first time so that’s not an issue, but I do have dual-core and I’ve heard that this can cause problems with older games… If I did run into any problems due to the dual CPU (or even the OS), is there anything I could do to force it to run somehow? I’ve seen some people saying to adjust the processor affinity to set the game to run only on one core of the CPU, so how would I do that if it was necessary? If I did have to do that, would it run well enough to be playable?

Also, does anybody know if this game is super, super hard on your hardware after a while? I don’t want a $20 game to burn out my $800 beauty here… trying to squeeze at least 6 years out of it if possible lol.

And last but not least, I'm wondering what's the best Dual-Shock/Analog Gamepad for this game (if the mouse and keyboard thing is too hard for me to learn)... I'd like to only go in for about $20 here as well.


As always, thank you very much for your help, advice and opinions!

 

[Everlong]

Should be able to play it fine.

Some information on here about your graphic card in your laptop Notebookcheck: AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570

Playing it on medium or so graphics won't put any stress on your laptop. Maxing it out might push it a bit, though Oblivion can still push some PCs today on max graphics.

I also doubt you'd have any problems, it runs fine on Windows 7 x64 despite Can You Run It? saying otherwise.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Excellent thank you, this is what it also said:

The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion (2006)
high: 40.5 fps

(40 fps is all you really need for a smooth experience right?)

So it looks like I'm getting Oblivion tomorrow...

Can't wait!

 

[ronbo191]

Have fun with it Evil. It is one of the best games of all time....imo

 

[Everlong]

Yea 40fps will be fine to play with. It's when you start to drop below 30 you really start to notice a slowdown.

Enjoy

Have fun with it Evil. It is one of the best games of all time....imo

It is. There's so much to do in it, and mods can add a whole load of more fun to it.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Have fun with it Evil. It is one of the best games of all time....imo

Oh, I know it is. It's got elements from four the best games of all time: WoW, Sims, GTA and Baldur's Gate all in one sweet, endless package. It's like they really had an MMORPG in mind, just without the real people on the other ends lol.

Yea 40fps will be fine to play with. It's when you start to drop below 30 you really start to notice a slowdown.

Enjoy

Hopefully that FPS is true for this rig, I noticed they used a much more proficient machine than mine to get that figure (the CPU specifically). This here runs TS3 better than expected, without hangups or glitches or any problems at all besides some minor heat spikes so I'm hoping it's about the same performance wise as that game there. It'll be a plus if I can get the heat "issue" under control though so I can play and play and play without overtaxing everything and risk heat damage over time like in my old Dimension 3000 rig.


Anywho, going to pick it up sometime today (providing the Walmarts actually have it as stated). I'll be back to report how it went, and/or get some help if I should run into any problems on the way.

You guys rock, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Everlong]

Well it will most likely cause your laptop to heat up, but don't worry too much about temps until you start going over 90C often. If you keep the graphics around medium settings though you should be fine for performance and temperature.

 

[MarcusCardiff]

There's so much to do in it, and mods can add a whole load of more fun to it.

Very true about modding, I find myself drawn back the The Elder Scrolls and Fallout Nexus quite often.
Also, I have Win 7 x64 ultimate and Oblivion runs fine with over 100 mods so I cant see you having any problems either.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

It installed fine, I'm about to launch now.

And... I'm definitely going to need a lot of help mapping the Steelseries 3GC controller though... right joystick is programmed to control the 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons instead of the mouse so that's got to be changed, but I've no idea how.

Back in a bit...

 

[EvilOzzmess]

So far so good, haven't got past the first mission from the prison though due to not being able to configure the gamepad. It sucks having to use the mouse for looking and not being able to configure the pad directly in the game.

I'm trying to figure out ControlMP to map it but it's not going well.

Can anybody help???


EDIT: I'm trying JoyToKey instead... still not figuring it out all that well...

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Never mind... took me almost 12 hours but I figured it out. Apparently there's a stupid "mode" button that toggles the right analog to behave as a D-pad (and is set that way on default) and to make it behave as an analog. That's why I couldn't set it to mouse function, because it was stuck as a secular D-pad on the 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons.

Really bad design on most USB controller manufacturer's parts. Should get it working by tonight...

EDIT: The only question is if the game will allow the emulator to override it's .ini control values... We'll see soon enough.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Controller now works flawlessly... HOWEVER, the game is still mapping it's defaults to the controller settings rather than letting JoyToKey make the game use my custom settings, but the game's unassigned buttons work with what I set them too.

Anybody know what I need to do now, to stop it from doing that but still reserve the ESC keyboard button function etc?

Thanks... really need some help on this one.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

I solved the controls issue, but the game on Medium settings makes the notebook's internal temperature almost 200F+ (90C+), after about two to three hours. At one point, the game froze and crashed out (that was at about 240F - 115C). :shock: I've turned the settings down to Low, but it still creeps up a bit more than I'd like.

So... is it safe for me to put an icepack underneath the Notebook, but not directly touching it (does it still produce internal condensation if it is NOT physically touching the case)? I'm considering a laptop cooler as well but can't get one for a while so that's my idea of a temporary fix along with taking 20 to 30 minute idle breaks.

What else could be done? Are there any resource hogging background tasks in 7 that I could disable to help with the system load and maybe bring the temperatures down further?

Thanks.

 

[fseal]

Heh, compared to Oblivion, there isn;t much you can stop that'll cool the laptop down. A laptop cooler or even a desk fan blowing somewhere towards your intake ports (but definitely not towards the out ports) may help some.

But most laptops are not designed for long period gaming

 

[MarcusCardiff]

Glad you hear you have Oblivion working. A must have game IMO.

As for you controller issues I use xPadder and you can definitely emulate a mouse with the analogue sticks using that. It's very simple you just enable the stick and assign a mouse movement to each of the 4 major directions.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Heh, compared to Oblivion, there isn;t much you can stop that'll cool the laptop down. A laptop cooler or even a desk fan blowing somewhere towards your intake ports (but definitely not towards the out ports) may help some.

But most laptops are not designed for long period gaming

What if I went ahead and removed the access panels on the bottom casing? Or would that negatively impact the air flow inside and out the back in some way? Seems to me that would help a great deal... there's about 3 of these, all in the places this gets the hottest at.

Glad you hear you have Oblivion working. A must have game IMO.

As for you controller issues I use xPadder and you can definitely emulate a mouse with the analogue sticks using that. It's very simple you just enable the stick and assign a mouse movement to each of the 4 major directions.

JoyToKey did the trick, but it took xpadder for me to figure out that the "Mode" button controlled the toggling of the right stick to either a secondary D-Pad or secondary Analog (because of the visual test function).

JoyToKey is just a little bit easier to configure for the Analog movements IMO so I stuck with that one.

 

[fseal]

Well if you are willing to do something like that, you could make a box base with a high flow fan that either blow in or sucked out whichever way the current airflow goes. Leave the bottom on. I's' make your own laptop cooler, but make it turbo

Those normal laptop coolers may or may not work depending on the airflow patter on your laptop and even when they do work it's only sort of barely. If you made an open top box that you lined the top with felt say and placed your laptop on top of it...

I've actually made something similar for my desktop. I plenemed off the back of the case down to a bathroom ceiling fan/enclosure on it's side. Then I take the 4 in blow off pipe up through a book case on my desk and up into the ceiling. It sucks out 100% of all hot air from the case, the PSU, the water cooler radiator and the GPU and out of the room.

It was easy using parts for a permanent installaton, but you'd have to think about how to make a portable box set up work well.

 

[Lanthus20]

Can You Run It

 

[Everlong]

Can You Run It

If you read the first post, you'd have seen he's already been on that.