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If you're experiencing the issue where the buttons are not clickable (only the exit button is clickable), follow these steps.
Open Terminal and run this
WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/22330/pfx/ wine regedit
This will open a regedit for your Oblivion Wine instance
Step 2:
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Wow64Node
Create a new key (folder) by right-clicking on Wow64Node, name it Bethesda Softworks
In Bethesda Softworks key, create another key and name it Oblivion
Then, create a String value in your Oblivion key, name it Installed Path
Finally, double-click on the Installed Path entry, and put a path to the game's files (/home/<USER>/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Oblivion/) as a Value data
Close regedit and verify game's files integrity via Steam
Step 3:
Launch the game! If you did everything correctly, Oblivion will launch as normal, with all of the options available
PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 LD_PRELOAD="" vblank_mode=0 DXVK_FRAME_RATE=60 gamemoderun %command%
V-sync is odd on X11 hence all the framerate command arguments.
Adding and removing mods can break saves.
The preload command argument is mandatory for me. If it's not used, the game stutters when steam overlay is disabled after an hour.
Be careful with heap replacement. It's a contributing factor for most crashes.
Naturally, this is on an Nvidia setup.
Use Mod Organizer 2 for handling mods
I didn't manage to install recommended 4GB patch but the game still runs great
sometimes crashing at the start
Works great out of the box. Mods are supported too!
Was playing on controller over Moonlight & Sunshine using the NorthernUI and FlameX360 community-contributed layout and everything works surprisingly well on Arch Linux and Nvidia for such an old game. Got a random crash that reset my save so remember to save often!
Works awesome OOTB!!
The sound of pulling out a sword sounds lower quality than I remember it from Windows.
This is one of my favorite games, and it works perfectly fine under Linux, and I would even say it works better under Linux OOTB than it does on Windows! You can even mod it!
gamemoderun %command%
Player vanilla for a while, then tried modding and game still works well, long sessions without crashes.
For modding, install OBSE normally as the readme says. I used protontricks --gui on terminal to install OBMM (oblivion mod manager). Then again, when you want to install or deactivate mods, use protontricks again to run the mod manager
Was crashing on start at first, solved by launching a random Directx game. Apparently this installs directx package as indicated by other report here. Proton GE caused cracking sound for me, switched to default proton. Cutscenes work, cracking is gone. Audio volume settings are half broken - voice and music volume can't be change by their volume sliders.
Voice volume is too low, music is too loud. Sound settings in menu don't work for them. Also had cracking sound on proton GE, but not on default proton.
Was crashing on startup untill I launched random Unity game to install directx package
This is on MX Linux 23.3
If using Northern UI Away + Major Jim's UI - Northern UI Patch to add gamepad support back to the game, use default gamepad layout with right joystick switched to 'Mouse Joystick' (preferred) with sensitivity set to 175%. Built-in joystick support feels 'low-detail', like it is almost locked to X/Y input and nothing between those axes. Set trackpad to mouse movement and mouse click for map navigation, joystick is very slow.
If using vanilla, use FlameController config. Still works great, but it is not ideal.
On OLED Deck, I'm able to get about 8 hours of battery life at 45fps/90hz. At 60fps, it is closer to 6-7 hours. Max vanilla settings without ini tweaks for further fidelty.
Rare crash on autosave, known engine bug. Results in a corrupted save, so you must use a previous save. Not much issue if you save often. It's a bethesda game so you should no matter what.
This can be resolved with community patches, but I encountered this crash once in 20 hours of play, so it's not necessary.
I found the first 20 hours very enjoyable strictly vanilla with the FlameController config. I wanted to add the community patches for engine fixes, stability, etc, but could not get the Linux MO2 installer to recognize the GOG version of the game no matter what I tried.
Steam version was easily detected by the MO2 installer. Though vanilla works fine, ideally I'd encourage going through the trouble to get basic stability and QoL mods enabled, and keep everything else vanilla. However, it can be a bit troublesome if you are still getting to grips with Linux quirks, but as a noob myself, it's nothing that can't be figured out.
Mods I'm running for a stability-only modlist on Steam Deck:
[Engine Related]
- xOBSE
- SkyBSA
- All unofficial community patches: UOP/USIP/UODP
- Oblivion Display Tweaks
- OBL Mod Limit Fix
- EngineBugFixes
- Blue's Engine Fixes
- Mercantile Experience Fix - Simplified [Gamepad Support]
- NorthernUIAway
- NorthernUI Wheel Hotkeys
- MajorJims UI - NorthernUI Edition - Tweaked and Improved
The last 3 above add the original gamepad support back to the game, with Xbox 360 glyphs. This also maintains the original look of the Oblivion UI rather than replacing it with the dumb Skyrim-like UI, one caveat being the font change, which does take away from the original character somewhat. I think it is a worthy trade-off for the improved controller support, however.
If using the config above, I recommend using the default steam gamepad config, but tweak to change right joystick to 'Mouse Joystick' for better detail and control over the joystick output; the built-in joystick feels awful for whatever reason.
If playing vanilla, use FlameController by FlameMan.
steamtinkerlaunch %command%
Modded
If playing unmodded then run with proton 5.0-10, otherwise if planning to run mods, use SteamTinkerLaunch as it does all the hardwork for you. Occasional crashes due to my own mod conflicts.
Some crumbling after long sessions.
Sometimes some texture will be not visible, instead showing the skybox. On what model or texture it happens is random, and they return to normal after restart. I never noticed any going missing when the game is freshly booted.
After around one hour of playing the game will begin to run sluggishly until restarted.
Remapped controls to mimic official controller layout from console versoins
Slight stutter when loading terrain. Might bother some, but it was perfectly playable performance-wsie
I played for 4 hours before incounter a crash. Unfortunately, I could consistently reproduce the crash upon reloading the save. Tried switching from GE-Proton7-6 to 8-26. Same crash continues to occur. Unable to really determin the exact cause of the crash other than it happened when encountering a robber demanding payment when traveling along the road.
Still working to figure out a way past that crash. A little dishearting to say the least.
(Heroic Launcher - imported from GOG Library)
Works as expected, no issues whatsoever!
Tip: Delete the video files for the intro as it gets annoying really fast and for some reason I couldn't skip it otherwise.
Unplayable on Windows, but works 100% perfectly on Linux with Proton.
It seems that Linux now is really the only possible way of playing this game. And it plays it really well.
Completed the main quest line without any issues, GOG version.
Some low FPS due to 8-year-old notebook
Rare crash when alt-tabing.
Works fine on my old laptop.
Runs perfect
The game runs smoothly using Proton 9.0-3. No bugs or issues found.
It just works.
At least the vanilla experience does. I haven't tried to mod it yet.
PROTON_USE_D9VK=1 PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 gamemoderun %command%
Initially after install and booting up the menu, the oblivion launcher could not find the oblivion game executable, so I had to initiate the following changes:
In Oblivion_default.ini i needed to make the following Oblivion_default.ini changes. Then I needed to install, follow the instructions carefully xOBSE, Oblivion Display Tweaks, and the Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Performance problems cleared up after installing xOBSE, ODT, UOP, and enabling hyperthreading
In order for the game to run at a decent speed I had to lower the graphics and draw distance significantly.
I don't imagine many would enjoy having to compromise as much as I did on graphics to make it playable or would enjoy the game crashing every couple hours or so.
A typical gamer uses mods. No mods for you
VERY slow cursor movement.
Good luck making Wrye Bash - without which no significant mod seem to work nowadays - work on Linux. And since vanilla Oblivion, without Unofficial Patch, which without Wrye Bash plain crashes the game, is a somewhat miserable experience...
not working for me
DXVK_FRAME_RATE=60 %command%
4fps when I lauch a new game
Vanilla Oblivion works as expected but if you want to mod it you need to create a filesystem that supports case insensitive folder names
gamemodrun %command%
Installed d3d9 for enb to work
Starting cutscenes are unskippable
In my case works only from Steam Native. Any tinkering steps were ineffective for the Steam Runtime (tried Proton Experimental/9/8/7/4, custom startup options, disabling Steam Overlay, etc.)
To Oblivion to work well with OBSE you need to enter
printf '\x90\x90\x90' | dd conv=notrunc of=obse_loader.exe bs=1 seek=$((0x14cb))
printf 'obse_loader\x00' | dd conv=notrunc of=OblivionLauncher.exe bs=1 seek=$((0x1347c))
to get controller support to work "native" on oblivion you need to install the following mods https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48577?tab=files https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37952 these two mods alone will work, sometimes like in my case though the "gamepad" option wont appear on the menus, for that you need to install SKYBSA https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49568
After getting the game to actually launch, it plays perfectly with very few issues. Mod managers however mostly have no Linux support.
Is packaged with a faulty Direct X Package causing failure to launch. Requires obtaining DirectX Package from a different game prior to install (EX: TF2, CS:GO, Etc).
Crashes on launch from bad Direct X Package. Requires different package present in Steamplay Compatibility folder prior to Install.
After Tinkering, a vanilla install of Oblivion is very enjoyable on Proton.
Modding info: For those who want to mod the game, there are ways to get windows Mod Managers working on Linux through programs like Wine, but they are very hands on and prone to failure as there is presently zero official Mod Manager support on Linux, with the most popular method to get Vortex working still resulting in a jank mess in most instances. If you intend to mod Oblivion running on Proton, your best bet is to install mod files manually using the regular method, and backing up your game-install regularly.
xOBSE works on Proton after running a community-made script to point Steam at the Loader, and runs as intended, but most Mod Compatibilty after that point is hit or miss.
After getting the game to actually launch, it plays perfectly with very few issues. Mod managers however mostly have no Linux support.
After Tinkering, a vanilla install of Oblivion is very enjoyable on Proton.
Modding info: For those who want to mod the game, there are ways to get windows Mod Managers working on Linux through programs like Wine, but they are very hands on and prone to failure as there is presently zero official Mod Manager support on Linux, with the most popular method to get Vortex working still resulting in a jank mess in most instances. If you intend to mod Oblivion running on Proton, your best bet is to install mod files manually using the regular method, and backing up your game-install regularly.
xOBSE works on Proton after running a community-made script to point Steam at the Loader, and runs as intended, but most Mod Compatibilty after that point is hit or miss.
Left tracpad radial menu
Micro stutters in open world travel
If you play the game on an external screen with a resolution higher than 1280x800 always set it back before going handheld, otherwise the game won't launch.
Runs well on medium graphics at 1080p. No obvious stuttering, no further graphics tweaks needed. Starts to chug slightly at denser foliage, but that's likely due to my weak computer.
Some crashes on startup if you attempt to skip intro (outside of title animation)
Needed an older version of proton, as it will not recognize your GPU if not, dependant on hardware maybe
Runs perfectly fine, no tinkering needed.
Minor stutters, most likely loading of assets.
Freezes in the jail cell. Can't continue.
DXVK_FRAME_RATE=60 %command%
might be an intel gpu issue?
DXVK_FRAME_RATE=60 %command%
Remove value for SIntroSequence in Oblivion.ini
A-Bombing (slow door/fire animation) without FPS capping. Launch option resolved this.
The intro sequences on launch are not skippable, hence the Oblivion.ini tinkering.Capping the FPS seems not to be necessary with older GPUs.
Vulkan shaders compilation take a while, but you can skip it without any future performance cost. Easy to play this game at 1000 FPS on maximum graphics without microfreezes or anything like that.
Installed NorthernUI mod to add controller support
Oblivion Script Extender and NorthernUI required to add controller support, but other than that runs perfectly fine at a solid 60 FPS out of box with no issues.
