The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, one of 2025's biggest games, is getting a significant new update that is set to improve the game’s performance, fix a ton of bugs, and add more difficulty options, too.
On July 9, Bethesda announced that update 1.2 for Oblivion Remastered will be available on PC via the game’s Steam Beta branch later today. The plan is to test the update out first and then, in the near future, push it out on all platforms, including consoles.
While many will be excited to hear about the new difficulty options, including more ways to tweak how much damage you take and how much damage enemies do, I think the best news in 1.2's lengthy patch notes is the section titled Performance. Here, Bethesda and remaster studio Virtuos lay out all the changes being made in 1.2 that should help Oblivion Remastered run much better. Specific areas that are causing big FPS drops are being fixed, and systems like weather and character animation are being optimized, too. They also look to be fixing the hitching that players can experience when exploring the open world. Good stuff!
I can’t wait for this update to hit Xbox so I can boot the game up for 20 minutes, go “Wow, this is better!” and then close it and play the other 12 games I need to play right now. The life of a video game blogger journalist.
Anyway, here are the full patch notes for update 1.2:
SETTINGS CHANGES
- We’ve added additional difficulty settings to allow players to further tune their “Player Combat Damage” & “Enemy Combat Damage”. Players can now select from “Novice”, “Apprentice”, “Adept”, “Journeyman”, “Expert”, and “Master” options in the Gameplay menu. We hope the “Journeyman” setting, specifically, will act as a better bridge between “Adept” and “Expert” for players.
UI
- Fixed map markers disappearing
- Fixed missing punctuation in Simplified Chinese text
- Fixed “Toggle All” button on Map screen to work as a ‘Hold’
- Various fixes to localized text
- Fixed controller issues in Spell making menu
- Fixed menus being cropped incorrectly in 1280x1024
- Fixed the incorrect player stance in the inventory menu after fast travel
- Fixed rebinding keys for Lock Picking
- Fixed keybinds not updating in AZERTY
- Fixed soft lock with controller in Enchanting menu
- Fixed stats not updating when equipping enchanted items
- Fixed a character skin glitch when closing the inventory menu
CRASHES
- Fixed crashes that could occur while fighting Jyggalag
- Fixed crashing when killing a paralyzed NPC with an arrow
- Fixed crashing when paralyzing an already-paralyzed NPC
- Fixed crashing in Spellmaking menu when rapidly removing & implementing effects
- Fixed various GPU crashes
- Fixed crashes that could occur during auto saves
AUDIO
- Fixed underwater SFX persisting after leaving exiting water
- Fixed missing ambient SFX in Shivering Isles
QUESTS
- Fixed NPCs floating after being knocked down during Priory of the Nine quest
- Fixed crashing when entering Flooded Mine during Final Justice quest
- Fixed pathing for Shaleez in Flooded Mine during Final Justice quest
- Fixed crashing when opening Gate to The Fringe during Retaking the Fringe quest
- Fixed mages loading without clothes in Fort Ontus during The Necromancer’s Amulet quest
- Fixed NPC pathing issues in Gardens of Flesh and Bone during ‘Through the Fringe of Madness’ quest
- Fixed missing VFX during the closing of the Great Gate
- Fixed Ilav Dralgoner’s missing facial animation during ‘Saving Time Itself’ quest
- Fixed Sir Thredet’s speech during ‘Umaril the Unfeathered’ quest
- Fixed NPC pathing issues during ‘Baiting the Trap’ quest
- Fixed Obelisk Crystals spawning disconnected during ‘Baiting the Trap’ quest
- Fixed crash at end of ‘Through a Nightmare, Darkly’ quest
- Fixed wall crumbling in Malada during ‘Nothing You Can Possess’ quest
- Fixed misaligned food at the Castle Leyawiin County Hall dinner party during ‘Sanguine’ quest
- Fixed an issue with the visibility of ghosts during ‘Ghosts of Vitharn’
- Fixed cutscene not playing during ‘Light the Dragonfires’
- Fixed missing textures in Cropsford Campsite after finishing ‘Goblin Trouble’
PERFORMANCE
- Fixed frame rate drop in Deepscorn Hollow
- Fixed frame rate drops in Black Rock Caverns
- Fixed frame rate drop between Skingrad and Skingrad Castle
- Fixed frame rate drop south of Bravil Castle courtyard
- Reduced the frequency of hitches in the open world.
- General improvements to frame time in many locations.
- Optimize updating of character attachments.
- Optimize rendering of water volumes in the open world.
- Optimize light/shadow updates in several lairs.
- Optimize waterfall particle FX and rendering.
- Optimize the weather system.
- Optimize character animation system.
GAMEPLAY
- Fixed player character height scaling
- Fixed armor items hiding Argonian and Khajiit tails
- Fixed slow camera movement when initiating NPC dialogue
- Fixed soft lock when a player with a high bounty goes to jail
- Fixed Orrery animations
- Fixed physics bug with floating necklaces
- Fixed vampire sleeping animations
- Fixed NPC beards not following facial animation.
- Fixed ghost NPCs being completely invisible
- Fixed missing animation when talking to Shamada in Leyawiin
- Fixed occasional very long load times when fast traveling
- Fixed missing facial animation for Snak gra-Bura
- Fixed falling unconscious in water, preventing the player from getting up
- Fixed NPCs losing collision when swimming
- Fixed NPCs stopping combat when the player is blocking
- Fixed female Dremora teeth clipping
- Fixed soft lock after choosing player class
- Fixed Amber weapons clipping in first-person view
- Fixed vines clipping into columns
- Fixed helmets clipping into the player character’s head
- Fixed missing textures on Daedric statues
- Fixed duplicated pages between Oghma Infinium and Mysterium Xarxes
SYSTEM
- Fixed flickering shadows when using XeSS Upscaling
- Fixed title properly restarting after purchasing the Deluxe Upgrade on PC
- Fixed settings properly migrating between PC and XBOX
- Fixed water disappearing after fast travel
- Fixed cursor slowdown when enabling high frame rate V-Sync
- Fixed shaders not preloading due to cloud save replication
- Fixed long blackout during loading screens
- Fixed weather VFX flashing while outside
- Fixed motion blur artifacts while in the Oblivion Plane
- Fixed NPCs not obeying the Wait action from the player
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