Oblivion - Shaders 3.0

[Sulikate]

Hi, I'm here because I'm having problems with shaders 3.0 in Oblivion. I have a GeForce 6600 256MB, and I wanna use shaders 3.0 because I heard that they increase performance and so...
What should I do?

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Sulikate

Hi, I'm here because I'm having problems with shaders 3.0 in Oblivion. I have a GeForce 6600 256MB, and I wanna use shaders 3.0 because I heard that they increase performance and so...
What should I do?

I beleive the 6600 has only 2.0 pixel shaders on it. You need a 7000 series NVidia or x1000 series ATI to use them. Its not a big deal because they didn't add a whole lot to 3.0. They should have called it pixel shader 2.5.

-S

[Sulikate]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

I beleive the 6600 has only 2.0 pixel shaders on it. You need a 7000 series NVidia or x1000 series ATI to use them. Its not a big deal because they didn't add a whole lot to 3.0. They should have called it pixel shader 2.5.

-S

But when I bought the card, the following was written in it's box: "The first of it's series to give full suport to Pixel Shader 3.0"

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Sulikate

But when I bought the card, the following was written in it's box: "The first of it's series to give full suport to Pixel Shader 3.0"

The 6800 and 6600 may have it. If it does, there is nothing you can do to turn it on since it is called by DX9.0c, not by any setting that you can select. This means you are already using it if you have it.

-S

[Sulikate]

From Nvidia's site; Supercharge your gaming with the power of an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GPU. The NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6600 GPUs deliver best-in-class performance and advanced visual effects for next-generation games. The only GPU in its class with support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 and with support for PCI Express, the GeForce 6600 delivers ultra-realistic effects, unmatched features, and rock-solid stability so you can play your game the way it’s meant to be played. Available models (the following models are available in both PCI Express and AGP 8X versions): GeForce 6600 GT, GeForce 6600 and GeForce 6600 LE.

Mine is a 6600 LE. So, I'm I already using it?

[Seeadler]

1. open the Oblivion.ini in /my documents/mygames/oblivion/ with a texteditor like notepad.exe
2. search for bAllow30Shaders=0, set this to bAllow30Shaders=1
3. search for bForce1XShaders and make sure it is set to bForce1XShaders=0
4. save the Oblivion.ini

A default installation of Oblivion use only shader model 2.0, now your video card should use shader model 3.0
note: this works only with video cards that supports shader model 3.0

[Sulikate]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

1. open the Oblivion.ini in /my documents/mygames/oblivion/ with a texteditor like notepad.exe
2. search for bAllow30Shaders=0, set this to bAllow30Shaders=1
3. search for bForce1XShaders and make sure it is set to bForce1XShaders=0
4. save the Oblivion.ini

A default installation of Oblivion use only shader model 2.0, now your video card should use shader model 3.0
note: this works only with video cards that supports shader model 3.0

Thanks! I'll see if there is any difference in gameplay.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

1. open the Oblivion.ini in /my documents/mygames/oblivion/ with a texteditor like notepad.exe
2. search for bAllow30Shaders=0, set this to bAllow30Shaders=1
3. search for bForce1XShaders and make sure it is set to bForce1XShaders=0
4. save the Oblivion.ini

A default installation of Oblivion use only shader model 2.0, now your video card should use shader model 3.0
note: this works only with video cards that supports shader model 3.0

Why would this not be set automatically? That is some bad programing. Good find. I'll try it out as well.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Just ran some FPS tests and I get no difference in FPS between setting this to allow 3.0 or not. As far as textures, I can't tell any difference in that either but I'll rumage around and see if I can see anything. So far, this tweak is not giving me anything.

-S

[Seeadler]

Sorry I forgot an important thing, it is already somewhat longer ago since I made these changes

5. after the above changes in the Oblivion.ini, start the Oblivion once and load a saved game then quit the game.

6. open the RenderInfo.txt in /my documents/mygames/oblivion/
it will look like mine:

Renderer Device Information:
    NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 
    nv4_disp.dll
    RenderPath                 : BSSM_SV_2_A
    PSversion                  : 300
    VSversion                  : 300
    VStarget                   : vs_2_0
    PStarget                   : ps_2_a
    PS2xtarget                 : ps_2_a
    maxPS20inst                : 512
    3.0 Shaders                : yes
    Image space effects        : yes
    Nonpowerof2textures        : yes
    FP16ARGB blending          : yes
    FP16ARGB filtering         : yes
    High dynamic range         : yes
    Bloom lighting             : no
    Refraction                 : yes
    2.0 hair                   : yes
    SLI mode                   : no
    Water shader               : yes
    Water reflections          : yes
    Water displacement         : yes
    Water high res             : yes
    Multisample Type           : 0
    Shader Package             : 13

here you can see if your video card supports Shader Model 3.0

PSversion : 300
VSversion : 300

now look at the last entry Shader Package : 13
that is the shader package number your video card intend to use

7. now open folder \Oblivion\Data\Shaders
there are the shader packages and only shaderpackage019.sdp includes the 3.0 capable code

8. rename the shader package your card use to *.bak
in my case: shaderpackage013.sdp to shaderpackage013.bak

9. make a copy of shaderpackage019.sdp and rename it to the package for your video cardin my case: copy_of_shaderpackage019.sdp to shaderpackage013.sdp

Now Oblivion should use the shader 3.0 package but don't expect new graphic effects, Oblivion uses no special pixel shader 3.0 effects!

The difference is the speed of execution of the pixel shader code. With model 2.0 only 512 pixel shader instructions per render pass are possible and Oblivion uses approx. 480 per effect. With model 3.0, 65535 instructions are possible i.e. more light effects can be rendered in one pass.
But how far the Oblivion devs implemented these, can't be told without the source code of the shaders.

[SUBMAN1]

OK - got it working.

My Render Info text file:

Renderer Device Information:
Radeon X1900 Series
ati2dvag.dll
RenderPath : BSSM_SV_2_B
PSversion : 300
VSversion : 300
VStarget : vs_2_0
PStarget : ps_2_b
PS2xtarget : ps_2_b
maxPS20inst : 512
3.0 Shaders : yes
Image space effects : yes
Nonpowerof2textures : yes
FP16ARGB blending : yes
FP16ARGB filtering : no
High dynamic range : yes
Bloom lighting : no
Refraction : yes
2.0 hair : yes
SLI mode : yes
Water shader : yes
Water reflections : yes
Water displacement : yes
Water high res : yes
Multisample Type : 0
Shader Package : 16

First the good news - I gained about 1 or 2 FPS outdoors in the western part of the map (I call it the grasslands). Its not much, but it is something.

Now the bad news - The shaders are broken which is why it defaults to PS 2.0. Though it is not noticeable most of the time (They are minor and not easily spoted on first glance), I can see where the engine is not sure what shader color to use in certain instances, especially when multiple sources of light are present. A good way to test this is find a cave and to pull out a torch, and simultanously cast a light spell. Close in objects react as expected, but pay particular attention to the more distant objects as you roll the view up and down and to the side. It just doesn't look good once you start to see what it is doing. Obviously PS 3.0 is a work in progress still and probably will be fixed with a future patch. Setting it back to PS 2.0 shaders fixes the rendering errors and upon further investigation, looks way better!

Thanks for the tip though! I had high hopes, but since I like to walk around with multiple light sources for maximum brightness, it isn't going to work for me.

-S