# Oblivion Grey Screen (Fresh Install)



## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

I just bought Oblivion on steam after longing for it, downloaded it, installed it and upon starting a new game and watching the intro I am greeted by a grey screen. I can still see all the menus just nothing is rendered? 

Googling this brought me results of past issues with Nvidia cards. Why would this happen and how can I fix it?


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 9, 2010)

Patches, drivers? Do you have the newest? Problems with an Nvidia card..., sys specs say you have a 5870 :S


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

1nf3rn0x said:


> Patches, drivers? Do you have the newest? Problems with an Nvidia card..., sys specs say you have a 5870 :S



Latest Patch Version 1.2.0416

ATI CCC 10.6 Drivers 

Only mentioned Nvidia cause thats all the info I could find when googling for a solution for me. 

I noticed my renderer info files says ShaderModel 2.0 I change it to 3 but it changes back. Some sort of conflict here, my card seems to be to new for the game but how do other people manage to play?


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 9, 2010)

Bad download, install, run driver sweeper? Occurring with any other games?


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

1nf3rn0x said:


> Bad download, install, run driver sweeper? Occurring with any other games?



I've reinstalled it twice checked file integrity via steam which said all files are good and no, I'm not having any issues with any other game DX9, 10 or 11. 

Sorry if I sound rude, I really do appreciate you trying to help. This just has me really frustrated that I have this bad ass card to play this game with, just spent another $25 for it to have it in steam and I can't even play the game.


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## WhiteLotus (Aug 9, 2010)

Check you have bloom disabled... if you can. I know that that caused some problems.


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

WhiteLotus said:


> Check you have bloom disabled... if you can. I know that that caused some problems.



It is.

EDIT: Just tried something. Game runs fine with HDR off and AA x8. So question is how do I get oblivion to recognize that my card can do HDR so I can turn HDR on?


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

So oblivoin thinks my card can't do Shader Model 3.0... 

reading tweakguides there is method to force it but its seems a lil lengthy at 6AM with no sleep so I'll save it for when I wake up. Maybe someone will have a simple solution for me then. Night Night.


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## WhiteLotus (Aug 9, 2010)

Have you tried 





> Turn off int shadow ,slide bar fully to the left


?

Nicked it from another site... no idea if it'll work.


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## Black Panther (Aug 9, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> It is.
> 
> EDIT: Just tried something. Game runs fine with HDR off and AA x8. So question is how do I get oblivion to recognize that my card can do HDR so I can turn HDR on?



If I remember correctly with Oblivion it's either AA or HDR -- you can't have both at teh same time

Edit, wait you can but not from ingame:



> Finally, you also can't enable HDR and Antialiasing at the same time unless you have an ATI X1000 series card or a GeForce 8 series card or newer, and recent Catalyst or Forceware drivers - in both cases *you must first enable HDR in the game, and then force enable Antialiasing in your graphics card's control panel for it to work.* See the Advanced Tweaking section for ways in which you can alter the visual parameters of HDR to alter its appearance.



Tweakguides.com


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> If I remember correctly with Oblivion it's either AA or HDR -- you can't have both at teh same time
> 
> Edit, wait you can but not from ingame:
> 
> ...




HDR won't work by its self period...

The game works with No HDR but with AA. Game doesn't work with HDR and No AA. 

I am at a loss.


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## Mussels (Aug 9, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> It is.
> 
> EDIT: Just tried something. Game runs fine with HDR off and AA x8. So question is how do I get oblivion to recognize that my card can do HDR so I can turn HDR on?



the game doesnt support HDR+AA at the same time.

my advice: f#ck HDR, use AA and bloom.


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## Kreij (Aug 9, 2010)

Many people like HDR better than AA+Bloom.
I seem to remember Catalyst AI causing some problems in games. Try shutting that off while forcing AA from CCC.
You should be able to have both AA & HDR on ATI cards. That was fixed back in 2006 or so (unless they messed up and removed it from the latest drivers).


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

OK Please read...

I never tried to run both HDR and AA I only ran one or the other. 

However I really want HDR and know I can enable AA in CCC. 

All I need to do is have oblivion recognize my card can do HDR which it thinks it can't. I think I'm gong to call support I've had enough of this.


So called support and he said the game is much older than the card and that HDR isn't possible to just use AA. FML, I wanted HDR, grrrrr.


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## Kreij (Aug 9, 2010)

We understand, AD, it's been a problem since Obilvion came out.
We are trying to help you out with tidbits of info.
Don't give up on the game just because of HDR. It's an excellent game and worth playing even if you have to run it not maxed and without the graphic flash.


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

Kreij said:


> We understand, AD, it's been a problem since Obilvion came out.
> We are trying to help you out with tidbits of info.
> Don't give up on the game just because of HDR. It's an excellent game and worth playing even if you have to run it not maxed and without the graphic flash.



Its just sad to think that my older cards could make oblivion look better than my 5870.  With HDR and AA. 

Oh well... I think I might have forced it but I can't even tell


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## BababooeyHTJ (Aug 9, 2010)

What driver are you using? Have you tried going back to say 10.6? I've heard good things about 10.6 and not exactly the best of things with the last couple of ATI drivers.

Anyways have you tried the Unofficial Oblivion Patch?


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> What driver are you using? Have you tried going back to say 10.6? I've heard good things about 10.6 and not exactly the best of things with the last couple of ATI drivers.
> 
> Anyways have you tried the Unofficial Oblivion Patch?



I'm on 10.6 thanks and no I haven't tried the Unofficial. I have accepted fate and will not use HDR.

It would be nice if other 5870 Oblivion players told me whether or not they could enable HDR?


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## BababooeyHTJ (Aug 9, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> I'm on 10.6 thanks and no I haven't tried the Unofficial. I have accepted fate and will not use HDR.
> 
> It would be nice if other 5870 Oblivion players told me whether or not they could enable HDR?



Do you plan on playing Oblivion without mods?


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 9, 2010)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Do you plan on playing Oblivion without mods?



No already have Hi Res textures for everything in place. Making good use of my 2GB of my card.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Aug 10, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> No already have Hi Res textures for everything in place. Making good use of my 2GB of my card.



QTP3, Bananasplit's Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, RAEVWD, Enhanced Water? No FCOM?


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2010)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> QTP3, Bananasplit's Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, RAEVWD, Enhanced Water? No FCOM?



I have QTP3 thanks for the rest though I'll get those too.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Aug 10, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> I have QTP3 thanks for the rest though I'll get those too.



Watch out with Fcom it can be a bastard to install. OOO+MMM might be the way to go. It's most of the FCOM experience with less than half of the hassle.


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## Kreij (Aug 10, 2010)

> So called support and he said the game is much older than the card and that HDR isn't possible to just use AA.



Something amiss with that statement. Oblivion should be able to use HDR on any card that supports FP16

5870 is supposed to have ...


> •20 enlarged texture units supporting *FP16 *and FP32 formats
> •80 texture address units and just as many bilinear filtering units that can filter *FP16 *textures at full speed, trilinear and anisotropic filtering for all texture formats
> •32 ROPs supporting antialiasing with programmable sample patterns (over 16 samples per pixel), including *FP16 *or FP32 formats of the frame buffer. Peak performance is up to 32 samples per cycle (including MSAA 2x/4x and FP16 buffers), 128 samples per cycle in Z only mode



Seems like there should be a way to get it working. 

Maybe W1zz can shed a little light on this.


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2010)

Kreij said:


> Something amiss with that statement. Oblivion should be able to use HDR on any card that supports FP16
> 
> 5870 is supposed to have ...
> 
> ...



Exactly how I feel about it, there must be a way. If Wizard could that would be fantastic.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Aug 10, 2010)

> Black Screen
> Problem
> The game screen would randomly turn black except for the user interface every 30 minutes or so.
> Cause
> ...



I'm pretty sure that there is a fix for this issue in Wrye Bash. I would also use the Unoffical Oblivion Patch.


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2010)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> I'm pretty sure that there is a fix for this issue in Wrye Bash. I would also use the Unoffical Oblivion Patch.



None of those apply to me. yes I'm overclocking but my overclock 100% stable. Besides my issues is that the game detects my card as only being able to do Shader Model 2.0.  If I can some how let it know or change to think my card is a shader model 3.0 card then I'll be in luck.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 10, 2010)

um heres a hint change the oblvion exe to tada Fallout3 exe and try that after all it uses the same game engine period as in i can still pull all of morrowind into fallout3 lol it should fix the issue i know i used it for my 4870x2 setup when Oblvion was crashing and had no issues havent bothered with oblvion since i bought my 5850s tho so no idea on that. Eitherway that should work

so yea change Oblvion.exe to fallout3.exe and see what happens just make sure to back up the exe 

also if u havent done so remove all mods and run the game bone stock ive had issues with mods corrupting the game its rare but seen it happen considering i use over 25gigs of mods for oblvion

another idea just apply a fixed exe not sure if it will work with steam or not but replacing the exe has helped me NUMEROUS times on games from bethesda


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> um heres a hint change the oblvion exe to tada Fallout3 exe and try that after all it uses the same game engine period as in i can still pull all of morrowind into fallout3 lol it should fix the issue i know i used it for my 4870x2 setup when Oblvion was crashing and had no issues havent bothered with oblvion since i bought my 5850s tho so no idea on that. Eitherway that should work
> 
> so yea change Oblvion.exe to fallout3.exe and see what happens just make sure to back up the exe
> 
> ...



I have it in steam and can't even launch the game if I rename it. 

It was  a fresh install of oblivion and I still would get the grey screen. 

If you had read further on into the thread you would know that crashing isn't an issue its just that the game thinks my card can't do HDR, recognizes it as SM 2.0 

Thanks for the input though.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 10, 2010)

thats why i asked to rename the exe as i said Morrowind Oblivion and Fallout 3 use the same game engine to the point items quests scripts etc are easily just added to the next game. sadly as i feared with the steam version you cant rename the exe another reason for games that have mods i dont purchase on steam do to this reason


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> thats why i asked to rename the exe as i said Morrowind Oblivion and Fallout 3 use the same game engine to the point items quests scripts etc are easily just added to the next game. sadly as i feared with the steam version you cant rename the exe another reason for games that have mods i dont purchase on steam do to this reason



I can use all my mods just fine, I just can't rename the .exe which I've never had to do even when owning the non steam version. Also can't use HDR but that happened with the steam and non steam version.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 10, 2010)

well i just tested HDR works no issues for me maybe try rolling back to the 10.4a driver


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## Solaris17 (Aug 10, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> I have it in steam and can't even launch the game if I rename it.
> 
> It was  a fresh install of oblivion and I still would get the grey screen.
> 
> ...



have YOU TRIED forcind SM 3.0? did you read whitlotuses post? It doesnt matter if your OC is 100% stable. this was a HUGE issue when it came out people that were overclocked would crash all the time. The game is sensative to OC's


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> well i just tested HDR works no issues for me maybe try rolling back to the 10.4a driver



Thanks but you have a 5850. It would be nice if a 5870 users would let me know if they too can't use HDR.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 10, 2010)

5850 and 5870 are the same damn GPU just memory and laser cut difference fact 5850 reference can be flashed with 5870 bios there fore something else is going on with the game


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 11, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> 5850 and 5870 are the same damn GPU just memory and laser cut difference fact 5850 reference can be flashed with 5870 bios there fore something else is going on with the game



Hmmm then what? 

I'm telling you first install and first run of the game when it detect GPU settings it puts my card on low and says it can only do Shader Model 2.0. I wonder if its because my card is 2GB and that some how messes up with how it detects my card?


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## Mussels (Aug 11, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> Hmmm then what?
> 
> I'm telling you first install and first run of the game when it detect GPU settings it puts my card on low and says it can only do Shader Model 2.0. I wonder if its because my card is 2GB and that some how messes up with how it detects my card?



more like the game wasnt designed for SM5.0 cards and has no idea wtf to do about it.


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## AphexDreamer (Aug 11, 2010)

Mussels said:


> more like the game wasnt designed for SM5.0 cards and has no idea wtf to do about it.



But his 5850 is shader model 5.0 and it detects it fine.


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## Mussels (Aug 11, 2010)

AphexDreamer said:


> But his 5850 is shader model 5.0 and it detects it fine.



magic/haxorz


lets see what mine says - where am i looking?


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