Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Cosmetic Overhaul for Oblivion

So, I mentioned the other day installing some race mods; specifically, Modular Beautiful People, MPB++, and XEOSP.

I showed off a screenshot of my Aribeth companion as an example of what the mods did to the High Elf race.

This morning, I happened to get in some more play, and started taking note of what it had done to default game characters. Took a few screenshots; thought folks on the fence might be interested to see just the sort of caliber these mods are.








Now, obviously those are a small fraction of the changed NPCs in the game; but it should give you an idea of the skill of the mod-makers.

As I said, these definitely won't be for everyone - as they're more than a tish anime-inspired. Then again, considering the comment-conversation that broke out a few posts down from this one, I'd say many of us are hiding more than a bit of powerlevel, and probably wouldn't consider the inspiration to be a bad thing.

Even if it isn't your bag, tell me that isn't an improvement and a half? I mean, Goddamn; they actually look good. Not "well, I guess this doesn't suck as bad anymore..." that you get from most beauty mods, but actual good.

Now, if you are planning to make this here drastic change to your Oblivion install, do yourself a favor, and go ahead and edit your Oblivion.ini file. bFaceGenTexturing= needs to be 0, where it is 1 by default. This is important; otherwise you get the splotchy, crappy face textures. The number one complaint of people who try to run these mods is that they don't come out looking right because the downloader didn't pay attention when told to make that ini mod. It helps that much, yes.

18 comments:

  1. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words; thusly, Sir, you have at last convinced me.

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  2. I was surprised myself. I hadn't played much since installing them - mostly early game dungeon raiding with companions - but I was looking around Anvil and the Imperial City this morning and wow.

    I thought CW's work was great, but this stuff makes one question whether it's even the same engine anymore.

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  3. It looks good :)

    I've been meaning to reinstall Oblivion using BAIN to track things so I'll definitely give this a try along with Brittainys Lush and Gaudy Textures.

    Just the thought that someone, somewhere is screaming in rage at the thought of an overly brightly coloured, anime style Oblivion makes me happy ;)

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  4. I just don't get the "immersion" crowd.

    We're in a magical fantasy land where elves walk around; there are giant monster-animals; demons spew forth from massive flaming portals; and people can shoot lightning from their hands...

    ...but it's "unrealistic" to have attractive women who shave; armor that isn't style-less and generally shitty; and houses that are comfy and stylish?

    I mean, okay. I can see the point about bringing guns into the game. Automatic weaponry in a medieval fantasy setting is a bit much.

    Not that something belt-fed wouldn't be handy on those jaunts into an Oblivion gate, mind you.

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  5. Agreed. To me, "immersion" means it all fits together, with no jarringly out of place elements and just "looks right". If that means stylised graphics, fanciful armour and hordes of cute women so much the better :)

    If I want to see realistic people in realistic outfits in realistic situations I could just go outside, and I don't even need a fancy graphics card for it.

    Regarding guns, it would be interesting to see some kind of magic flintlocks like Mami uses in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, though people would scream about that too.

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  6. "Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my boomstick!"

    okay, you've got me convinced. once I un-lazy myself and redo the computer, I'm reinstalling Oblivion, since it won't be so absolutely fugly anymore

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  7. The hidiousness of the characters in Oblivion is probably the main reason I don't play it often. This, on the other hand, may just change that.

    Not that I need something else to distract me from my comic project. I think the classic Doom games I recently aquired are doing a good enough job already XD Thanks again for that, Herculine :D

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  8. @Druuler:

    Mwahahaha... at last... fresh meat....

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  9. That reminds me, I need to set up the fancy modded versions of my classic Doom, Heretic and Hexen games too. And System Shock 2. And about a dozen more...

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  10. @Kirtai:

    Who needs sleep, food, or human interaction, right?

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  11. Heh, I'm not particularly social at the best of times, and regarding sleep, it's the wrong side of 6am here and I was reading my email :)

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  12. @Kirtai:

    "...fancy modded versions of my classic Doom..."

    Sounds just like my kinda thing. You should see some of the "non-vanilla" monsters I've just figured out how to randomly spawn in-game...

    ...which reminds me, I really do need to get around to finishing my blog post on that subject instead of keeping all the cool stuff to myself...

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  13. You know, if I quit keeping all the cool stuff to myself, I'd have like three dozen more file entries and two weeks' worth of daily mod posts for the blog here...

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  14. I know the feeling. I've got plenty of stuff I have planned to put up on my blog; I just can't seem to get motivated enough to actually type it.

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  15. I'm just trying to decide if and how to share the stuff.

    Am currently considering putting several of the plugins up for download via megaupload; and just link them here on the blog.

    Reader rewards, if you will.

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  16. @Nos: Now that sounds like a good idea. Not like I don't have enough mods already :P

    @Herculine: Fresh meat? Won't find much on my bones XD

    @Kirtai: What is this "human interaction" you speak of? Was that Latin? Lol!

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  17. @Druuler: I hear it's when you actually go out and talk to other people face to face rather than via the computer.

    Weird concept :)

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  18. Really? Like, ewww *shudders* ;)

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