Review
Testing has revealed that one of the most popular Oblivion Remastered mods might not actually do anything at all, and its perceived effects could be based on a placebo effect. The Oblivion Remastered mod in question has been downloaded over 675,000 times since the game’s launch, making it the most popular mod for the game by some distance.
Modding has always been an extremely important aspect of Bethesda titles, and Oblivion Remastered is no different. There have already been over 2,000 mods released for the game in the few short weeks since its release, with modders quickly getting to work on improving Oblivion Remastered with their own ideas. There’s even an Oblivion Remastered mod that lets players leave Dark Souls-style messages around Cyrodiil for other players to find. The work being done despite modding not being officially supported for the game is impressive, to say the least.
As reported by The Gamer, recent testing by Digital Foundry of the popular Ultimate Engine Tweaks mod suggests that the mod may not actually do anything at all. The mod itself claims its goal is «remove most stutters, improve performance and stability, decrease input latency, improve picture clarity. All with no visual loss.» However, Digital Foundry’s side-by-side testing of the game with and without the Oblivion Remastered mod paints a different picture, with video producer Alex Battaglia stating it «runs the same» after multiple rounds of testing, also claiming that «it’s like a mirror run. It’s almost the exact same, and it runs a little worse in the beginning [with the mod], hilariously enough.»
Oblivion Remastered's Ultimate Engine Tweaks Mod Could Be a Placebo
Despite Digital Foundry’s testing, mod creator P40L0X stands by Ultimate Engine Tweaks and its perceived benefits. They maintain that «DF didn’t test v3.1 but probably v2.1 or v3.0 (which had VRAM leaks, other problems),» while offering some advice for players, «try it by your own, it’s free, if it improves things for you good otherwise you can just delete the modded Engine.ini and the game will be exactly as before.» With over 5,000 endorsements on Nexus Mods, there are plenty of players who swear by Ultimate Engine Tweaks, so installing this Oblivion Remastered mod and giving it a try to see if they see any benefits may be the best advice for most.
While modders continue to improve the game in their own ways, Bethesda is taking player feedback for further Oblivion Remastered improvements, and has already released minor updates to the game. This offers hope that support for Oblivion Remastered will continue for some time to come, with Bethesda and Virtuos not resting on their laurels ing its massive success.
