Oblivion:Remastered Changes

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Oblivion Remastered features extensive changes from the original release of Oblivion, ranging from the game's presentation, to gameplay adjustments, to technical changes under the hood. Certain bugs from classic Oblivion have been fixed, but new bugs have also been introduced with this release.

This page documents many of these minor changes. Other differences are detailed on their own pages:

• Combat Changes
• Leveling System Changes
• Quest Changes

Bugs Fixed

Exploits

• Scroll duplication glitch can no longer be performed.
• Items can no longer be repaired over 100% durability by using a custom spell to fortify Armorer by 100pts for 1sec.

Items

• The Mace of Molag Bal's Absorb Strength enchantment now lasts 10 seconds instead of 0.
• The Base Ring of Steelskin now has a Resist Normal Weapons enchantment like the other Steelskin rings.
• The leveled effects of the Mind and Body Ring are now assigned in the conventional order.
• The leveled effects of the Amulet of Interrogation are now assigned in the conventional order.
• The Bloodworm Helm's Essence Drain spell now correctly levels with the item level.
• Nerveshatter now correctly applies Weakness to Shock damage.
• The Necromancer's Amulet now scales to the player instead of Caranya.
• The Spectre Ring is now correctly owned and purchasable from Hamlof Red-Tooth.
• The Oghma Infinium's Path of Spirit now correctly increases Willpower.

Quests

• The max soul level in the unique quest Black Soul Gems encountered during Cheydinhal Recommendation now have their max soul level set to None, ensuring the player cannot fill them with souls and then use, preventing themselves from completing the quest.
• Kalthar no longer has a key when he's alive, instead, it only spawns on his body once he is dead. As the player is unable to pickpocket the key, they must defeat Kalthar in order to leave Fort Blueblood, so the Leyawiin Recommendation quest can no longer be softlocked.
• The painting of Charrus Valga will now appear in Countess Arriana Valga's private chamber if Canvas the Castle is completed by turning in the correct culprit.
• Bittneld and Emfrid now functions as intended instead of skipping directly to the conclusion.
• Namira's Daedric Quest now correctly awards a Fame point upon successful completion.
• Affairs of a Wizard now correctly awards an Infamy point.
• Alawen, Bralsa Andaren, Tooth-in-the-Sea and Torbern (master trainers and NPCs needed for quests for Marksman, Destruction, Alteration and Acrobatics training, respectively) are all set essential from the start of the game, to ensure that the related quests can no longer be started when the characters are already dead. Notably, there's a check in the script to verify their quests haven't been completed before that is done, however, as no script exists to remove their essential status afterward, they remain essential for the rest of the game.
• The fight sequence between Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon at the end of Light the Dragonfires has changed and the main theme plays during it.

Visuals

• The Weaponbane Cuirass no longer occupies the tail equipment slot.
• The Mountaineer's Shield no longer occupies the tail equipment slot.
• Thaedil’s balls are no longer missing a texture.
• Notes: Captain Montrose, Ramblings of Audens Avidius, Earana's Notes and the three Crumpled pieces of paper (identical in content but with different IDs) now correctly display scroll background when read as opposed to a book, to match their appearance in icon and world mesh.
• The Mace of Doom now correctly displays the icon of an Ebony Mace instead of no icon. However, as the item is inaccessible during normal gameplay, this fix is impossible to observe without the use of console commands.

Others

• Paint Brushes are now affected by gravity.
• The Fighter's Stronghold download no longer causes the Mystic Emporium to become locked during the daytime.
• Learning a spell from a spell tome no longer plays the sound of casting that spell.
• Hil the Tall is now correctly an Alteration trainer instead of Illusion, which matches the NPC dialogue.
• Erandur-Vangaril now correctly scales with your level, and is no longer invincible and non-interactable when encountered at lower levels.
• Killing Seridur at the end of the Order of the Virtuous Blood quest without letting him monologue first no longer counts as murder.
• Lord Lovidicus now correctly leaves Vampire Dust on his corpse.
• Most upgrade papers for the Houses maintain their non-zero value until you finish bartering (the House Storage Area and the House Sitting Area in the Imperial City, at least, are still immediately set to 0). This prevents an issue where immediately selling the upgrade papers after having bought them from the merchant (without ever exiting the conversation) prevented the new upgrades from ever appearing in the house without the ability to purchase them back, as no-cost items given to the merchant do not reappear in the merchant's sales list.
• Black Rock Chest in Black Rock Caverns now correctly holds 1,766 gold in addition to the random levelled amount.
• Open spells Fenrik's Welcome and The Unwelcome Guest, now have magnitudes of 80 and 20 as opposed to 50 and 12, respectively. This ensures they open any lock with the same label in the game, as opposed to only some.
• Wayshrines and Nine Divines Altar blessings, as well as spells used to give the bonuses of Blood Fountains and Ayleid Wells are now flagged immune to Spell Absorption, ensuring the player cannot restore mana for free by absorbing the positive spells.
• Note from First Mate Filch now can correctly be picked back up and taken into inventory after thrown out.
• Guards in the Green Emperor Way district of the Imperial City can now be talked to about the "Imperial Palace" topic

Bugs Introduced

Certain issues have been officially identified by Bethesda, which are noted below, and may be fixed in a future patch.

Stability

• The menu may freeze when enchanting items. (Bethesda confirmed)
• Crafting potions too quickly or crafting potions with stolen ingredients may crash the game. (Bethesda confirmed)
• Repairing equipment too quickly may crash the game ^?.
• Selling items to vendors too quickly may crash the game ^?.
• Accumulating a large number of skill increases before the game can process them (such as repeatedly hitting a target for an extended period to advance a weapon skill) can cause degraded performance for several seconds, sometimes crashing the game. ^?
• If a target receives more than one instance of the Paralyze effect applied from the Expert and Master-level Marksman skill perks, the game may crash. ^?
• The game can experience degraded performance that can cause player actions to become unresponsive or delayed. Once performance improves, the actions may occur unexpectedly, or multiple actions may occur all at once. ^?
• (PC) The full interface (aside from the console) may disappear when the game window is unfocused. ^?
• (PC) Changing too many graphics settings in a single session can cause severe graphical issues with the game, requiring the game to be closed and relaunched. This usually results in lighting errors, and giant character models to appear floating in the sky above the Imperial City. ^?
• (PC) Selecting certain types of container references (such as circular Ayleid Casks) using the console may crash the game ^?.

Gameplay

• Oblivion Gates may prematurely appear around Cyrodiil before Find the Heir is completed; though sometimes only the map marker will appear. (Bethesda confirmed)
  • Reloading the area, or entering and exiting a gate can make them disappear.
• A wall turning sound can repeatedly be heard upon entering the main chamber of Frostcrag Spire. (Bethesda confirmed)
• Casting Light spells does not work in first-person view. You must go into third-person view for the light effect to appear. (Bethesda confirmed)
• When playing with a controller, it may be impossible to change the skill/attribute for spells that require specification when Spell Making. (Bethesda confirmed)
• In certain situations, dart traps can damage you regardless of distance from the trap. You will continue to take damage until you die.
• Attempting to set a tumbler during the lockpicking minigame that is already set grants Security skill experience. ^?
• Corpses raised using the Risen Flesh Great Power get stuck in a ragdoll state and are unable to move. ^?
• If you are affected by the poison gas in the Ayleid ruin Arpenia, you will continue taking poison damage even after leaving the area. ^?
  • This can be resolved by saving and reloading the game.
• Using the Skull of Corruption does not clone the target's worn equipment. Only the target's weapon is duplicated. ^?
• Xeddefen, Ruins can be accessed prior to its related quest, rendering the pre-quest variations of Xeddefen and Xeddefen, Fane inaccessible. ^?
• Taking a Sigil Stone can occasionally instantly kill the player. ^?
• The bleed effect earned with Expert level Blade skill may become unable to trigger. ^?
  • This can be resolved by saving and reloading the game.
• The bleed effect earned with Expert level Blade skill can occasionally ragdoll targets through terrain, rendering them unreachable. ^?
• Custom spells can occasionally be created when the player lacks the required skill level to do so. ^?
• Traps cannot be disarmed, both manually or when attempting to trigger them from afar using projectiles.
• Stealth marksman attacks sometimes deal only x1 damage when having the Sneak skill perks to increase this. ^?
• The container Greywyn's Armoire found in Deepscorn Hollow is reset every few seconds. ^?
• Occasionally a state may occur where items are always dropped when trying to equip them. ^?
  • This can be resolved by closing and relaunching the game.
• An NPC or player with a Water Walking effect active can take heavy damage when walking over certain areas on the first floor of Sigil Keeps found in Planes of Oblivion. ^?
• Repeatedly completing the Persuasion minigame too quickly can result in a state where the cones will no longer rotate or be properly colored. ^?
  • The game can still be completed by selecting each cone once.

Visuals

• Equipped weapons may fail to display on the player character model shown in menus. (Bethesda confirmed)
  • Unequipping and re-equipping the weapons will properly update the model.
• The Chameleon visual effect can become stuck. (Bethesda confirmed)
  • If the Chameleon effect is being applied from enchanted gear, removing all gear may reset the visual effects.
• The transparency effect from Chameleon is not proportional to the level of Chameleon active on a character, instead appearing as full invisibility at all times. ^?
• The hair on vampires (both player vampires and NPCs) can disappear, causing the character model to appear bald. (Bethesda confirmed)
  • Player vampire appearances can be restored by saving and reloading the game, or by feeding on an NPC.
• Vampire eye color is only applied to certain races, e.g. Imperials and Orcs. Bretons and Nords do not gain the changed eye color upon gaining vampirism.
• As doors are now animated when opening them and do not have anything to obscure the view beyond them, it's possible to see below terrain or inside of buildings in some situations. ^?
• Khajiit and Argonian tails disappear when wearing certain robes, dresses, Steel Cuirass, Dwarven Cuirass, or Madness Cuirass.
• Knights of Order may occasionally appear with hair. ^?
• On overcast nights, Masser and Secunda are visible in the sky through semi-transparent pieces of geometry, such as the edges of tree leaves.
• Magic visual effects that are applied to character models may become stuck.
  • This can be resolved by saving and reloading the game.
• The Duke's Quarters in the House of Mania contains braziers with blue flames, associated with Dementia, instead of the red flames that are associated with Mania. ^?
• Certain race models display with missing shoulder meshes on their character models during character creation.
• Some items (such as jewelry) lose their world model if they are enchanted, causing the item to disappear completely if dropped from the inventory. ^?
• J'skar sometimes appears fully visible during the Bruma Recommendation quest when he is supposed to be invisible.
• The red vignette that appears at low health may become stuck. ^?
  • This can be resolved quickly by disabling and re-enabling the "Low Health Vignette Visibility" setting under "Gameplay" options.
  • This can be resolved by closing and relaunching the game.
• Hoods may clip with the head on the Type 2 Khajiit character model. ^?
• The Savior of Bruma statue that appears in Bruma after completing Great Gate may not display the Ayleid Crown of Nenalata, or the Ayleid Crown of Lindai. ^?
• Equipping a torch may cause all held equipment to appear in the player character model's left hand simultaneously. ^?
  • Changing camera view or opening a menu can resolve this issue.

Quests

• During The Battle for Castle Kvatch, Savlian Matius may get stuck outside the castle door repeating the same dialogue when spoken to. (Bethesda confirmed)
  • This can be worked around by proceeding into Kvatch Castle alone and continuing with the quest until you find the corpse of Ormellius Goldwine. Upon finding his body, the quest will update, and Savlian can be engaged with in dialogue as normal. However, he and the other NPCs will remain standing outside indefinitely.
• In The Killing Field, a wave of Goblins far larger than intended for your level may appear, making the quest very difficult.
  • Reloading a save prior to the battle will cause the appropriate amount of Goblins to appear.
• In Umaril the Unfeathered, multiple copies of Umaril can appear during the sequence that occurs high above the Imperial City.
  • This can be resolved by saving and reloading the game.
• Olroy Cheese is no longer marked as a quest item, meaning it can be sold to any fence without the possibility to obtain it again. In this situation, Sheogorath's quest will become impossible to complete. ^?

Characters

• Player character models are scaled incorrectly. All races can appear as the same height, or sometimes in first-person view they occasionally may grow too tall to fit through passageways. (Bethesda confirmed).
  • Mounting a horse with no equipment equipped causes the player character model scale to fix itself. Upon loading into the game the bug will trigger itself until a horse is remounted.
• If a custom class is created, the game may unexpectedly change the player character's Origin, applying the wrong attribute adjustments. ^?
  • The correct Origin can be set by editing race again after creating a custom class.
• Changing race before leaving the sewer at the end of the Tutorial may not properly update racial powers, causing originally applied powers to remain applied on the newly-selected race. ^?
• Some characters are prone to unexpectedly t-posing, such as Anaxes, Shambles and Replete Shambles ^?
• The prisoners found in The Forbidden Grotto Mankar Camoran's Paradise do not stand inside their cages. ^?
• Ascended Immortals are present within Dunbarrow Cove, when they are intended to appear exclusively in Mankar Camoran's Paradise. ^?
• Abhuki is perpetually locked in an upstairs room of the Faregyl Inn.
• Porkchop can be found outside of his cage.
• Sheogorath's Punished and the other corpses at Punishment Point are positioned under the terrain, so cannot be seen or accessed. ^?
• Goblin corpses no longer react when hit in the head with a weapon. ^?
• The Deepscorn Prisoner may be found standing rather than sleeping as intended.

Items

• The Tome of Unlife may not display the intended images, but rather unparsed XML code specifying the name of the texture and its dimensions. ^?

Text/UI

• NPC dialogue subtitles may fail to display, most notably when two NPCs are talking to each other. (Bethesda confirmed).
• The local map occasionally fails to display the layout of an interior.
• The notification that the game has been saved occasionally does not display. ^?
• Active effect icons may become stuck when quick saving and quick loading while they are active. ^?
• The notifications for reaching Apprentice-level and Journeyman-level Armorer skill level are erroneously reversed. ^?
• Loading the game with a broken weapon causes the original game's icon to appear in the HUD in addition to the new icon. Repairing the weapon clears the new icon, but the original icon will persist until the game is reloaded. ^?

Other

• The new water buoyancy physics causes some interactions with water to work incorrectly. Most notably, dead bodies sink instead of float, and NPCs will swim along the bottom of a body of water instead of across the surface. ^?
• Occasionally the model for the Black Robes will change to the Aqua Silk Robes, sometimes only seen in 1st person, 3rd person, or inventory screen. Possibly occurs with other robes, testing provides inconsistent results. Fixed by unequipping and re-equipping the robes. ^?
• Vampires in Bloodcrust Cavern during Information at a Price have Robes and Cuirass equipped simultaneously when inventory is viewed, models only wearing robes however. Unsure if armor benefits gained as a result. ^?

Gameplay

Character Creation

• References to gender have been removed from Character Creation, with Female and Male body types having been renamed to "Type 1" and "Type 2", respectively.
  • The stats that were formerly determined by gender are now assigned through choosing a location Origin for a character, the options of which differ for each race. The left-hand option reflects the male stats in classic Oblivion, while the right-hand option reflects the female stats.
  • In-game dialogue still uses gendered pronouns and forms of address (sire/ma'am, brother/sister) depending on the selected body type, as in classic Oblivion.
• Characters can now have facial hair, with a wide variety of styles available. Additionally, many NPCs in the game now sport facial hair.
• Many new eye, hair, and skin/makeup/hair tone options have been added. All eye options are now available to all races.
• Eye and hair options no longer have names, with the player selecting an icon from the list instead.
• Every NPC face in the game has been redesigned. Some remain visually faithful to their original appearance, while others have been radically changed, no longer resembling their look in classic Oblivion.

General

• Achievements are available for PC and PlayStation players to earn for the first time. Using console commands will disable the ability to earn achievements, and affected save files are indicated with a broken trophy icon.
• You can now move slowly while over-encumbered, just like in Skyrim, instead of being frozen in place. As in Skyrim, you are unable to run, sprint, or jump while over-encumbered. You also cannot dodge, power attack, shield bash, or fast travel.
• All downloadable content from classic Oblivion is enabled by default, with no ability to disable them outside of modding. As a consequence, some content only present without the DLCs is inaccessible.
  • This includes unique dialogue with Dumania Jirich, Laralthir and Trevaia, who in classic Oblivion are all killed once Knights of the Nine is enabled.
• Third-person view has been reworked. The camera now sits over your shoulder, and you can now move independently of the camera's direction.
• First-person view while riding a horse has been removed. You are always viewed in third-person while riding, similar to Skyrim.
• Staying at inns and taverns will replenish the food generated on the tables.
• A new Help menu has been added, with guidance on a wide range of topics explaining the game's different mechanics.
• Harvestables can no longer fail to harvest ingredients. They also now visually change or vanish to reflect being harvested.
• Smaller harvestables now have activator volumes, giving them a large hitbox to interact with instead of requiring precise positioning of the cursor.
• Wayshrine and Nine Divines Altar blessings, as well as effects of Blood Fountains and Ayleid Wells are now marked as lesser powers in active effects as opposed to regular spells.
• Olroy Cheese is no longer marked as a quest item.

Settings

• The main menu now separates save files by character.
  • Note that a new section of save files is only made when starting a new game from the prison. If a save file before exiting the sewers is used and the character's name is changed at the sewer gate, subsequent saved games on that character will be in the same section, under the character's new name. The old name will not be maintained as its own section.
• It is now possible to create a Quick Save from a new option in the Save/Load menu, in addition to using the existing hotkey.
• A new setting has been added to enable or disable autosave on loading screens, consistent with modern Bethesda Game Studio releases. The game also now has 5 autosave slots per character.
• For the first time, FOV (field of view) can be modified in the game's Graphics settings.
• Console players can now bind quick save and quick load to the controller.
• Difficulty is now set with fixed tiers, like in Skyrim, instead of as a sliding scale. The available options are Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master, matching the ranks used for skills and difficulty options in Skyrim.

Locations

• The door in Unmarked Cave that required a non-existent key has been changed to have a Very Easy lock, making the dungeon now legitimately explorable. The open wall leading out of bounds in Unmarked Cave Mazeway and the rock wall that only opens from the wrong side in Unmarked Cave Black Queen's Hall remain, however, meaning that jumping up through the hole in the ceiling in the first zone will still be necessary to access the boss chest, and to explore the last room in the final zone which contains the mysterious empty chest.
• Beldaburo and Mingo Cave are modified in the Deluxe Edition for use in the quests for the exclusive items.

NPCs

• NPCs can now repeat their unique initial greetings when engaged in dialogue.
• Several greetings that were unused or rarely used in classic Oblivion can now be heard more prominently.
• Ranaline is now a Dark Elf, not a High Elf. This is due to her involvement in a new quest which required new voice acting, and Dark Elves actually receiving new voice work as opposed to High Elves who reused the lines from the original release.
• Rena Bruiant's dogs Bailey and Kezune now have distinct fur coats, instead of the standard dog appearance. Bailey is now pure brown, and Kezune now is pure white.

Vampirism

• Vampire appearance is redesigned so instead of the aged and wrinkled appearance of classic Oblivion, your face remains structurally the same with slight alterations such as different eye color in the case of Argonian, Khajiit, and Orc vampires, dark circles under the eyes, and a pale and gaunt appearance. Unlike in classic Oblivion, brows and cheekbones are not pronounced, and there is no difference in appearance regardless of vampire stage. Attribute bonuses and weaknesses remain the same.
• The vampire eye color from classic Oblivion is available as one of the many eye options in character creation.
• Can contract porphyric hemophilia while already a vampire.

Calculations

• The Max Health formula has changed. Strength now also affects Max Health (at a rate of +0.66 per point), Endurance's effect is slightly reduced (+1.33 per point), and the health bonus from leveling up is now affected retroactively by Endurance adjustments.
• Increases to max magicka by means of fortify spells or equipment (fortify intelligence, fortify magicka) no longer indirectly increase magicka regained/sec.
• The Max Fatigue formula has changed. Strength and Endurance no longer affect Max Fatigue, while Agility's effect is slightly increased (+1.33 per point), and Willpower's effect is significantly increased (+2.66 per point).
• Fatigue now recovers at a rate of 24(?) per-second, and running no longer affects the fatigue recovery rate (possible bug? need confirmation).
• Magicka Regeneration is now a constant value determined solely(?) by your Willpower instead of a percentage of your Max Magicka determined by your Willpower. The increase in regeneration per point of Willpower is exponential, meaning every point of Willpower is more impactful than the last. At 100 Willpower you regenerate somewhere around 11 Magicka per second, while at 200 Willpower you regenerate around 40 Magicka per second. Finding the exact formula will require more testing/data mining.

Interface

HUD

• The game features a redesigned HUD, resembling the layout used in Skyrim. Vitals (Health, Magicka, and Fatigue bars) are laid out across the bottom of the screen and are now only visible when these stats are diminished or actively changed. The compass is positioned at the top and center of the display. Your equipped spell and weapon are positioned in the lower-right corner, and active effects are positioned in the lower-left corner.
• Icons appear next to vitals to indicate broken armor or weapons, and when you are over-encumbered.
• A progress bar is now displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen when increasing a skill to denote your progress towards reaching the next level.
• The sneaking icon now functions similarly to Skyrim, with the eye gradually opening or closing to reflect NPC detection.
• The name of a nearby location is now displayed below the compass when looking in its direction, as well as the distance in steps needed to reach it from your current position.
• Similar to Skyrim, entering a location now displays its name in the center of the screen, and discovering a location displays an additional "Discovered" text below the name.
• Map icons can now be filtered to specific types, and each type now has a distinct color to help distinguish between them.
• Items highlighted by the cursor now display a soft white outline.
• Empty containers now display text to indicate they are empty when hovering the cursor over them.
• Loading screens have been completely redesigned and feature new artwork, but in a similar hand-drawn style to classic Oblivion's loading screens.
• Script Effect is now represented with its own icon, instead of using the same icon as Burden.

Menus

• The main menu visual, originally the map of Cyrodiil, has been changed to a scene depicting the Hero of Kvatch in front of a burning Oblivion Gate outside of Kvatch.
• Menus have been redesigned to adapt to modern displays, but retain the same general "journal" aesthetic as classic Oblivion. The yellow background tint is no longer present. The pause menu and journal are now part of a single interface that can be easily navigated between, instead of being entirely separate menus.
• The inventory no longer splits items into subcategories. They are now all grouped together in their parent categories.
• Both your and a merchant/container's inventory can now be viewed at the same time. When opening a container or an NPC's inventory, it is displayed on the left side of the screen, and your inventory can be toggled to open on the right side. When bartering with merchants, your inventory is displayed on the left side of the screen, and the merchant's inventory on the right.
• In the inventory menu, an expanded details panel can be toggled to display to the right of the menu. One tab shows the item's stats, as well as a 3D preview of the item which can be manipulated to inspect it. A second tab appears for magic and alchemy items to display their effects.
• In the inventory menu, you are able to sort items by alphabetical order (default), monetary value, or weight. Weapons can be sorted by damage, armor can be sorted by armor rating, and items with durability can be sorted by this statistic.
• Iconography and artwork in the interface has been redesigned, staying faithful to the original designs.
• Most item icons are the same as classic Oblivion, but have been visually enhanced to improve quality. Some items have new icons:
  • The Sigil Stone icon now only shows the stone itself, and not the surrounding visual effects as well.
  • Elder Scroll now has a new, unique inventory icon, instead of using a regular scroll icon.
  • Magetallow Candle Box now has a unique icon as opposed to using an icon of a brick.
• The Active Quests and Current Quests tabs in the journal have been merged into a single Quests tab. The active quest always appears at the top, with a divider separating it from the current quests available to you listed below it.
• The local map tab has been removed. The local map is now only accessed by zooming fully into the world map, or through a button at the top of the zoom bar, and is no longer the map view that is shown by default.
  • In exteriors, some elements on the local map are now lightly colored, instead of always appearing monotone.

Localization

• All text for the Hand to Hand skill is now formatted as "Hand-To-Hand".
• Open spell effect is now called Open Lock.
• The final prompt to go back to character creation menu before leaving sewers is now called "Edit Identity" as opposed to "Edit Race", as the menu also allows to change body type, origin and facial characteristics.

Other

• The interface for the Persuasion minigame has been redesigned with distinct colors to denote a character's action preferences. The colors are gradually revealed during the first persuasion attempt, and are fully shown in subsequent attempts.
• The setting to toggle display of the crosshair on or off has been removed.
• UI text and cursor size can now be adjusted between three different size settings.
• The dialogue camera view is further zoomed out compared to classic Oblivion. A new setting has been added to use the standard camera view instead, functioning similarly to Skyrim. However, unlike that game, all action in the background will still be paused during dialogue regardless of the setting used.

Controls

• Menu shortcuts have been added to the D-Pad for controllers.
  • Pressing up opens the Character menu.
  • Pressing left opens the Magic menu.
  • Pressing right opens the Inventory.
  • Pressing down opens the Map.
• Custom map markers on PC are now pinned by simply pressing the right mouse button on a position on the map, instead of holding Shift and pressing the left mouse button.
• Items are now grabbed by holding the assigned Take Item button over it, instead of being a separate button.

Graphics

• Oblivion Remastered uses Unreal Engine 5 for graphics rendering instead of the original Gamebryo engine. The original engine is still used to handle core game logic.
• Most models and textures in the game have been redesigned for the Unreal engine.
  • Most female armor pieces have been replaced with the male versions.
  • The Zombie/corpse model now wears pants.
• A new dynamic lighting system has been implemented.
• Reworked visual effects. New visual effects have been added for combat and magic.
  • Light spells use a new visual effect similar to Skyrim's, with an orb of light floating around you that lights up the surrounding area.
  • Restoration magic now uses varied visual effects, for Example: Restore Health is Golden, Restore Fatigue is Green, Restore Attribute has a red tint with orange intertwined, Cure spells are Blue, Fortify Spells vary from Golden, to Blue, to Green to Orange based on the type. instead of all types of Restoration spells being white-blue.
• The visual effect used for the Shade of the Revenant is much more intense, red instead of purple, and is clearly visible from a distance.
• A canvas weave texture is overlayed on the screen and a watercolor filter is applied when inside the Painted World.
• A new blood splatter effect, a low-health vignette, and camera motion (also known as a "bobbing" effect) have been added. All of these effects can be enabled or disabled in the Gameplay settings menu.
• Distant terrain has been reworked, with surrounding mountains generally being taller and more imposing than in classic Oblivion.
  • The Throat of the World is visible when looking beyond the border between Cyrodiil and Skyrim.
  • Various landmasses with ruined Oblivion Gates and keeps can be seen in the distance in Planes of Oblivion.
• LODs have been updated, making certain structures that could not be seen from a distance in classic Oblivion (such as Frostcrag Spire) now always visible from afar.
• An aurora is visible at night above the northern border between Cyrodiil and Skyrim.
• Lip-sync animations for NPC dialogue use an entirely new system.
• New environmental visual effects have been added to enhance locations, such as insects flying around outside, and small fish swimming through water.
• Doors and containers are now visually animated when opening them.
• The entrance door to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary no longer has its distinct red lighting effect. The relief on the door itself also now depicts a sixth and seventh child of the Night Mother, contradicting existing lore.
• Numerous items have been redesigned:
  • Mythic Dawn Robes more closely resemble their design in Skyrim, instead of being featureless red robes.
  • Bloodworm Helm now uses its design from the Bloodworm Helm creation in Skyrim.
  • Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw now uses its design from the Gallows Hall creation in Skyrim.
  • Ruin's Edge (previously a unique Dark Bow) now uses its design from the Ruin's Edge creation in Skyrim.
  • The claymore variation of Shadowrend no longer shares the same model as the Dragonsword of Lainlyn. It now shares the same model as a Daedric Claymore, like in the Shadowrend creation for Skyrim.
• Bound weapons now have a blue glow around their model, distinguishing them from normal Daedric weapons.
• Some enchanted arrows that were previously using icons and meshes of Iron Arrow but were marked as Dwarven in their Editor ID have been changed to Dwarven. Most notably, this refers to Arrow of Savage Frost (editor ID EncArrow4DwarvenFrostArea), Arrow of Silence (editor ID EncArrow4DwarvenSilence), Arrow of Illumination, Arrow of Shocking, Arrow of Cold and Arrow of Fire Damage.

Audio

• While all of the original voice actors are present, many additional voicetypes have been added. Certain characters have been recast with these new voices, and every race/gender combination now has a unique voicetype.
• Dremora females are now fully voiced, after being mute with no assigned voice files in the original version of the game.
• Many new sound effects are used in place of the original sounds.
• A new sound effect now plays when discovering a location, similar to one used in Skyrim.
• New environmental sounds, such as birdsong or owl hooting, have been added to enhance the soundscape of locations in the game.
• Voices and sound effects now have acoustics, with reverb and volume being affected by the surrounding environment.
• Sound effects in the lockpicking minigame have been made more distinct to make it easier to tell when a tumbler will set in place.
• A crackling flame sound effect has been added to the main menu to reflect the new key visual.
• Chapel bells on the hour can now be heard further away from the chapel entrance, rather than only when standing extremely close to the doors. However, the sound can only be heard when within a certain distance of the chapel, and abruptly cuts off when moving out of range.

Technical

• Modding for Oblivion Remastered is not officially supported by Bethesda, however some mods made for classic Oblivion are able to work when used with this game.
  • There is no included mod manager to enable or disable plugins. This consequently also means that official downloads cannot be disabled without editing Plugins.txt.
  • As Unreal Engine 5 is now used for graphics rendering, models and textures are read from PAK files. Model and texture files that are loose or packed in BSAs are ignored. The NIF model format is not compatible.
  • Three new ESP files have been added to handle remaster-exclusive content, and should not be disabled:
    • AltarESPMain.esp - handles most of the changes introduced in Remastered.
    • AltarDeluxe.esp - handles content that is exclusive for Deluxe edition.
    • AltarESPLocal.esp
• The Unreal Engine 5 Console tool replaces classic Oblivion's console. It has legacy support for commands used in classic Oblivion, however these commands will not be shown as suggestions while typing.
  • Legacy commands can be prefixed with obvConsole to ensure that they are properly interpreted (e.g. obvConsole tgm to toggle god mode on or off).
  • Note that functions relating to graphics and interface (such as tcl to toggle collision on or off) are valid but have no effect due to the original renderer no longer being used. Some of these commands have UE5 equivalents that can be used instead.
  • Many new commands have been added, some of which supersede functions of the Gamebryo engine.
• Instead of being hardcoded in ESP and ESM files, all names, descriptions, book contents, message box texts and other strings now have a string ID which is then resolved to specific text by Unreal Engine 5. This allows localization to be changed in-game, without the need to load additional ESPs and restart the application.