IntroductionEdit
During the installation Oblivion creates two important folders: at one the install path entered in the wizard during installation, and the other in Documents/My Games. The former is often referred to as the "install folder" or the "Oblivion" folder, and the latter is referred to as the "My Games" folder; both folders actually have the name "Oblivion". Using mods and optimizing Oblivion requires that the users be familiar with some of the contents of both of these directories. It is easier to distinguish and become familiar with files installed by the game before adding mods.
Oblivion Install FolderEdit
Filepath: Oblivion Install Path\Oblivion
OblivionLauncher.exeEdit
This executable launches the games launcher, the menu which gives the user options to launch the game, change video settings, etc. It is only mentioned here to give users a heads up because using the latest official patch (v1.2.0416) modifies the launcher, removing the option to use the preset video settings. If you use those, you may want to back up OblivionLauncher.exe before applying the patch. However, changes of those presets are available on this site on Oblivion.ini#Video Setting Presets. For most mod users, this executable will become obsolete because mods that use OBSE require that Oblivion is launched with a special command (or the shortcut provided in OBSE's archive) anyway.
Oblivion.exeEdit
This executable launches the Oblivion directly. This file is of little use beyond providing a quick way to figure out which version of Oblivion is running. By right-clicking on the file to open its context menu, the version number can be found under the "Details" (Win7/Vista) or "Version" (XP) tab.
Oblivion Data FolderEdit
The Data folder is the directory to which mods are installed. After installing Oblivion, you will find in here a few BSAs containing most of the game's resources (i.e., meshes, textures and sound files) as well as some of the default folders: Shaders, Music and Video. If you have looked at a plugin's records and found yourself wondering why the file paths pointed to files you could not find in this folder (i.e., Textures\Characters\Imperial\HeadHuman.dds, they were probably packed in one of those original BSAs.
My Games Oblivion FolderEdit
Filepath: Documents\Oblivion or My Documents\Oblivion
This folder contains a small number of files, but they are all quite important. The most important for the game is Oblivion.ini. As a player, you will want to know where your save files are stored, which, by default is in the subfolder Saves. The last important file is RenderInfo.txt, which holds information generated based on your graphics card, the technology it supports and which options you have set in the game's video settings.
- Note: When you upgrade your hardware, especially your GPU, remember to delete and have regnerated both
Oblivion.iniandRenderInfo.txt.