The open world, the freedom, the customization possibilities. And many of these ideas influenced a game called Skyrim that you might have heard of… Having first released back in 2007, Oblivion just doesn’t look as nice as modern games. Well, at least in its vanilla iteration. The game’s active modding community has banded together to improve visuals so this game can still look great over a decade after launch. We’ve already covered some of the better overall mods for Oblivion, but here let’s take a look at some of the best choices for graphics improvements and new textures for the game.
15. 4GB RAM Patcher
Check Out This Mod Oblivion was released in an age when most computers did not have more than 2GB RAM. As such, the game is badly optimized for modern systems that have 8-16 times that amount. The 4GB RAM Patcher was released to let the game use more than 2GB of RAM, allowing for a smoother experience as a whole. Especially if you’re a compulsive mod lover who needs to have hundreds of mods installed to keep you busy. Which I’m guessing you’re pretty close to that description, if you’re reading this list.
14. Northern UI
Check Out This Mod I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand clunky UIs. Especially in RPGs where I spend the majority of time in menus. While the Oblivion user interface is competent enough, there’s clear room for improvement. Improvement that’s brought to us by Northern UI, a complete user interface overhaul mod inspired by Skyrim. The mod also introduces native Xbox controller support, for those console peasants at heart. Just like me!
13. Improved Fruits and Vegetables and Meats
Check Out This Mod The thing I love the most in RPGs is to sneak inside NPC’s homes and see what’s goin on. I would love to steal all their food as well, but I give up pretty quickly as soon as I lay my eyes on that thing that looks like a slab of meat. Probably a few weeks old, too… My days in Oblivion got more exciting with this Improved Fruits and Vegetables and Meats pack. It includes higher quality textures for most stuff found inside houses. They still look a tad too polygonal for my tastes, but I suppose we can only ask so much of Oblivion!
12. Enhanced Vegetation
Check Out This Mod Oblivion shows its age mostly in open areas, as objects in the distance look remarkably bad. But not anymore, thanks to this mod. Enhanced Vegetation gives us improved textures for distant trees and shrubs, offering multiple scaling choices that should suit your needs at all times. And without clogging up your VRAM, since even the highest resolution pack is extremely lightweight.
11. Horses Retexture
Check Out This Mod The open-world games of the last 5 years have proven how essential horses are, and how beautiful they can be. And how they have no problem pooping right in the middle of a very important mission. I’m looking at you, RDR2. The horses in Oblivion do not poop. But they do not look as magnificent as some others. But the Horse Retexture mod completely overhauls horse models found in the game, making them look almost like they belong in a modern game (Skyrim, anyone?). And without some of their inconveniences too: you know what I am talking about, right?
10. Lights of Oblivion
Check Out This Mod Lights of Oblivion sounds like something very ominous. But apperances are very deceiving. Lights of Oblivion adds something that’s inexplicably absent in Oblivion: light posts on roads. Traveling at night in Cyrondiil can be dangerous. But with so much light, you won’t have to fear whatever lurks in the darkness anymore.
9. Oblivion Realm HD
Check Out This Mod There’s no better way to improve an older game’s visuals than taking its textures and upscale them to Oblivion (clever pun, I know). Jokes aside, the Oblivion Realm HD texture pack is a very handy way to make the game look better than it does in vanilla. It brings some upscaled textures into the game at the great price of totally free. It’s also incredibly easy to use: just install the pack and marvel at all the HD textures the game now features. Beautiful, isn’t it?
8. Oblivion Stutter Remover
Check Out This Mod Despite still looking decent in its unmodded form, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion does come with some issues that haven’t been fixed officially. When a 2007 game continues to stutter on your shiny new PC, you know there’s something wrong. Oblivion Stutter Remover only introduces a very small tweak, but it improves the experience a lot. Making it feel smoother and perform better than you’d expect. I know, I know… performance doesn’t matter as much in a role-playing game. But I can’t help it: high frame rates are what I truly live for.
7. Oblivion Upscaled Textures
Check Out This Mod 4K gaming is all the rage now. But in 2007, it wasn’t ever conceived that a game could display beautiful 3840 horizontal pixels. As such, are you really surprised that Oblivion doesn’t look all that good at 4K resolution? Not all hope is lost though. Specifically thanks to modern upscaling techniques that make it possible to increase the resolution of pretty much all of the Oblivion textures. The results are so impressive that you’ll forget how old the game really is.
6. Shivering Isles Upscaled Textures
Check Out This Mod There couldn’t have been a better name than Shivering Isles for a land known as the Realm of Madness. And if you want to relive all of its thrills, you should get the Shivering Isles Upscaled Textures. This pack was created by the same amazing modder who created the upscaled textures for the base game, so you know what to expect already. But if you don’t, I’ll tell you: double and quadruple resolution textures for all your 4K gaming needs. It does not get more simple than this.
5. Better Cities
Check Out This Mod Improving the landscape is all well and good. But what about the cities? With mods, we can improve them too. The Better Cities mod is a huge overhaul of all the cities found in Oblivion. Not only do all the cities feel more lively with the addition of extra NPCs, but they also look much better with the overhaul of certain buildings. This mod is, excuse the pun, totally modular. So you have complete control over which cities you want to look fancier, and which ones you want to leave in their poor vanilla state.
4. Animated Windows Lightning System
Check Out This Mod One cannot really blame developers for not adding a dynamic lighting system to Oblivion. Most computers couldn’t handle a massive workload back then. And besides, we got the Animated Windows Lightning System now, so no complaining on my part. This is an amazing lighting system that allows you to add illuminated windows to all buildings, and even choose how they should behave. Do you want them on 24/7? You can! Just don’t complain once you receive the electricity bill… you won’t be able to fight your way out of this one, I’m afraid.
3. Weather – All Natural
Check Out This Mod How do you like your weather in role-playing games? All natural for me, please. Weather – All Natural is an amazing mod that adds a customizable weather system to Oblivion. The new system lets you even use other weather mods to create a realistic system that provides the most diverse experience possible. And it really can’t get better than this, considering the new system allows weather to even affect interiors. Now that’s impressive!
2. Oblivion Character Overhaul
Check Out This Mod Let’s see, we’ve improved how the landscape looks. We’ve added light posts. We even illuminated windows and added a proper weather system. But what about characters? No worries, modders got you covered. The Oblivion Character Overhaul mod is a massive revamp of all character heads, introducing new head shapes, skin textures, and hairstyles that cover all races found in the game. Better yet, this overhaul introduces visual elements that are very close in style to Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online, effectively letting Oblivion join the big boys club of the series!
1. Oblivion 2020 Retexture Project
Check Out This Mod The mother of all Oblivion graphics mods is right here. The Oblivion 2020 Retexture project. A.K.A how to make a game from 2007 relevant again. This is an on-going mod that aims to retexture the entirety of the game’s map with support for terrain shaders, which make the final results outright amazing. The project also improves rocks, roads, tree shadows, and whatever needs a new coat of digital paint. Which is a lot of stuff, honestly. But fans of Elder Scrolls don’t know how to give up, so I’m sure this project is going to keep Oblivion looking as relevant as ever as the years pass.
