Quick overview on how to follow the latest update:
-Remove mods that have been removed from the guide -Add mods that have been added to the guide -Follow any new instructions that have been added to any mod's description -Reorganize the mod install order if necessary -Reorganize the plugin load order if necessary -Re-create the Merged Patch
There's a method, I'm going to add it to the guide in the future:
Add ("D:\MO2\ModOrganizer.exe" "moshortcut://:Fallout 3" %command%) to the Launch Options in the game Properties on Steam. Remove the parentheses, but keep all quotes. The path to the Mod Organizer 2 executable is just an example, adjust it accordingly.
This will allow you to open Mod Organizer 2 and automatically launch the game through it from Steam, with a single click. Steam will recognize the game is open and the Steam Overlay will work as well as the play time count. Mod Organizer 2 will also close automatically when the game is closed.
Each and every mod in this guide is supposed to be its own thing in the mod list. That includes patches/bridges/addons. Do not "merge" or "replace" any files when prompted in Mod Organizer. Name things differently when necessary. Texture, mesh, and animation issues might happen otherwise.
If you're experiencing crashes with the current version of the guide, disable the "Follower XP" mod. I suspect it might be incompatible with the latest version of UUF3P.
Hey, I have a few suggestions for the next version of the guide. I recently found out from Qolore7 that Fallout Stutter Remover can be used to fix high fps physics issues with these ini tweaks:
Under the Master section set the options like this:
Under FPS_Management set the options like this (change fMaximumFPS to whatever refresh rate you have):
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bInject_iFPSClamp = 1 fMaximumFPS = 144
From my own testing it seems to fix speed issues that come from running the game at >60 fps. Edit: It's actually more like a bandaid, there will still be some minor weirdness like essential NPCs flying around as they regain consciousness if they were knocked out.
Another suggestion I have is to use Command Extender's FalloutCustom.ini function to add these ini tweaks:
Spoiler:
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[Audio] ; Enables additional worker thread for minor performance improvement. Disable if you encounter audio stutter. bMultiThreadAudio=1 ; Disables debug logging to save memory and CPU time bUseAudioDebugInformation=0 ; Increases memory buffers to reduce audio issues iAudioCacheSize=8192 iMaxSizeForCachedSound=1024 [BackgroundLoad] ; Forces cell unload on fast travel to lessen memory usage bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1 [Controls] ; Disables mouse acceleration fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0 fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0 fForegroundMouseBase=0 fForegroundMouseMult=0 [Display] ; Enables Fullscreen mode bFull Screen=1 ; Forces highest texture quality so the game won't crash if you had it set to anything lower iTexMipMapSkip=0 [General] ; Forces faster cell unload to lessen memory usage bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1 ; Spawns additional AI worker threads bUseThreadedAI=1 ; Enables multithreading for most operations iNumHWThreads=3 [Grass] ; Increases grass draw distance fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000 [PipBoy] ; Fixes flicker when opening Pip-Boy when its light is on fLightEffectFadeDuration=400
Some other suggestions I have are to update OneTweak to OneTweak but Really Updated, FO3 BSA Decompressor and Unofficial FO3 ESM Patcher (you're probably already aware of these two), and add DXVK I don't use ENB but you can use it alongside DXVK by renaming DXVK's d3d9.dll to d3d9_dxvk.dll and changing these options in your enblocal.ini:
Note that your GPU driver must support Vulkan 1.3 and also have a VK_EXT_robustness2 driver extension, which you can check with GPU-Z by going to the Advanced tab and selecting Vulkan.
Lastly I would suggest adding a loadorder.txt to paste into MO2's profile folder to speed up the final steps. That's all I have to suggest, you've done a great job on this guide :smile:
I'm aware of everything you've mentioned and I've kept notes of all that stuff for the next version, minus the Command Extender INI tweaks actually, didn't know about that. Thank you very much and please be sure to share anything else you find. Unfortunately for now I'm just too busy with other things but there'll be a new version of the guide at some point as I'm definitely not done working on it and all the new stuff that's showed up for FO3 since the last version of the guide is very substantial and worthy of a big update.
Pinning this comment so people don't miss out on important info (especially since part of it is now essential too).
Excellent Mod Guide. There were actually some tricks for modding I picked up for this. Very professionally written and formatted. I did want to note that it does seem that vurt's flora mod (devastation), a world of pain, and simple needs do appear to work well with these mods. If you have the time, please provide input if you know of any issues that could conflict with them in this guide (i couldn't really see anything other than possibly textures) I also put in a water edges fix that drastically tones down the flickering water lines when you move. I did end up getting the infamous water enb glitch with the overlapping square texture. The thing that was doing it was water reflections believe it or not. I would make a note in that guide as a possible fix. I was able to turn everything else back on for water except that. It's actually quite devastating as the water doesn't look as good, but it does add a more wasteland-dirty feel to the water i suppose.
Also, I literally can't believe you spent the time to figure out this texture pack mix of aesthetics with NMC's new vegas btw. Amazing work. What an absolute unit of a mod guide.
I appreciate your words, thank you. I will take a look at the mods you have mentioned, I knew some of them already. I also knew the water fix and decided to keep it out of the guide for some specific reason I don't recall right now. About the ENB square texture glitch, that and its solution are actually in the guide, I think you missed it.
Yea I ran through the solution in the guide. I don't know why I still had to turn reflections. I found some other posts from the pasts it appeared that other people had the same problem. Idk why. I'm not infallible, so I'll continue to fool around with it to see if I can fix that. The only other problem I seem to have (and have spent hours trying to solve) is that for some reason, my characters model when holding a 2 weapon model for running or standing idle in 3rd person appears to only flip between two positions: a disc-herniating 45 degree bend to the sky, and what can only be described at an attempt to stand and fellatio himself. I ran through the guide very thoroughly on this one. Reinstalled the animation mods several times, I'm not sure exactly has transpired. I followed the guide as best as I could the whole way through. If you have any input, it would be appreciated. If not, I will continue to search for an answer. I've tested everything and it all works. That's about the only problem lol.
Edit: Nevermind. Apparently i figured out it was 1 file that needed to be hidden. It only affected the AR.
That's weird, I'm pretty sure turning refractions off is the only thing necessary to avoid the ENB square texture problem, and not reflections altogether. Anyway, I'm glad you fixed it. The bent character problem when holding certain weapons with FO3RA + RH_IS is a classic, people have been reporting that for years but it's always caused by improper file installation and nothing else. Enjoy your game!
I followed the instructions in the guide and still had the water issue as well. You mentioned "refractions", so I set those two values in the two .ini files to 0 and that fixed it. I tried enabling the two "displacement" values back to 1 and it's still fixed. Here are the entries that worked for me:
Same for both fallout.ini and falloutprefs.ini [Water] bUseWaterRefractions=0 bUseWaterDisplacements=1
Looks like Auto Gates is at v14 now and already has the Lamplight gate disabled.
Auto Gates v13: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/15685 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This mods allows the Little Lamplight back gateto open any time, when it should only ever open during a main quest. That causes the player to accidentally skip many quests. To fix that: -Open FO3Edit, click OK for the plugins checkingprompt, wait for it to load everything. -Click on the + ("plus") sign on the AutoGates.esp section, it will show the subsections inside of it. -Click on the + sign on the "Script" subsection. -Right-click the "00066CBE LamplightBackGateSCRIPT" line and click on "Remove", confirm. -Close FO3Edit, click OK on the plugin backup window.
Hey man i love the guide you provided it must had taken a lot of time to make a perfect mod list for fallout 3 ( at least in my eyes it is). all part of the mod list worked fine and great for me. it's just that i got 2 problems after like going into the game and playing it for 13 hours ( in and out), the 2 problems were: when i got into third person with my gun on my guy were like ether looking completely up or completely down. and the other problem that came to be was that some weapons like the AR (assault rifles) stopped using the RH_IRONSIGHTS for some reason. (the second one i tried to find the answer online but those answers didn't worked). and again i love the experience You provided man i hope you have a long and great life both for you and your loved ones man :) (edit: i use mo2)
The first issue is simply because you have installed FO3RA and/or RH_IS incorrectly. The second one I'm not sure but likely the same. Just carefully reinstall all of it and be sure to put them at the right place in the mod order and plugin order as well as not to merge anything and name all parts of the mods differently.
Great to know that ur new guide will come. I m waiting for it to play FO3. My first play through was with minimal and essential mods and I liked the game very much. This game is interesting even in 2023. Now since u said that new updates guide will come I will wait for it. Just keep us updated. Thanks!!
Yeah I still plan to work on it... I've got some more free time now actually, but I've also been busy with other things, including modding other games. I'll see if I get those sorted out already so I can get back to this guide.
You don't have to follow the entire guide. You could just use the performance and stability mods as well as the major QoL ones instead and the game would already be greatly improved. Skip all the texture and mesh mods if you want to for example as they're not essential anyway.
Just to be clear the Power Armor Increases Height mod could just easily be referenced as a master in FO3Edit and then the object effect could be added to any new/custom power armor I'm sure.
Good to know, thanks. But if you know how to do it then why not do it yourself? I'm sure many would appreciate it and it would be great to have it on the guide. You could either make a patch for the original mod or your own version of it if there's any permission issues with the original. Having people wearing power armors be the size of a normal human always seemed silly, this mod is a must to me so it's a shame it feels unusable, being incomplete.
If you haven't already seen it, since FO3 Redesigned has been open sourced I've made a merged and decompressed version of the Project Beauty.esm which removes the need for the two .esps intended for Broken Steel and Point Lookout. I've also generated facegen for all changed NPCs so that the performance intensive bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles ini setting is no longer needed. The original mod is still needed for the textures and meshes since I chose not to include them.
It should work fine with SpaceOden's patch for now, although there's a minor bug with mismatched eyebrows that is caused by Project Beauty.esm overriding UUF3P's fix for that. It's most noticeable on NPCs like Doc Church, where he'll have a pair of black eyebrows underneath a pair of white eyebrows. I'll try and see if generating facegen for an esm flagged .esp patch will fix that issue.
For some reason my HP and AP bar is always visible, despite having iHUD installed. Aren't those supposed to be hidden too, as long as I'm at full health and out of combat? I looked at the in-game menu of iHUD and the settings seem to be fine (default). Any ideas? EDIT: Using an older version of iHUD, as explained in an earlier comment, fixed it.
Have you seen Luxor's new Fallout 3 HD Overhaul mod? It covers every texture in the game, do you think this is something that could be incorporated into the modlist and get rid of a lot of the texture mods, to make it easier? OR are the ones in the list better? Just wondering, I love your list but his textures look really nice. Might save a lot of time and trouble to get all the textures from one place.
It's on the list of potential additions to the guide. I have to check the look and quality of the textures first and see whether they blend in well or not, as well as if they make the game too demanding and if they are just generally worth the download time and additional storage space taken, etc. I haven't had the time to work on this guide for a while now, but I still watch everything that goes through the FO3 Nexus and look for any new info regarding FO3 modding in general, and I'm always sure to save all of it for later.
1276 comments
-Remove mods that have been removed from the guide
-Add mods that have been added to the guide
-Follow any new instructions that have been added to any mod's description
-Reorganize the mod install order if necessary
-Reorganize the plugin load order if necessary
-Re-create the Merged Patch
Add ("D:\MO2\ModOrganizer.exe" "moshortcut://:Fallout 3" %command%) to the Launch Options in the game Properties on Steam. Remove the parentheses, but keep all quotes. The path to the Mod Organizer 2 executable is just an example, adjust it accordingly.
This will allow you to open Mod Organizer 2 and automatically launch the game through it from Steam, with a single click. Steam will recognize the game is open and the Steam Overlay will work as well as the play time count. Mod Organizer 2 will also close automatically when the game is closed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I-yMZFQA09Q0ouAjGo1VaHzwg0DGI4dK/view?usp=sharing
Under the Master section set the options like this:
Under FPS_Management set the options like this (change fMaximumFPS to whatever refresh rate you have):
From my own testing it seems to fix speed issues that come from running the game at >60 fps. Edit: It's actually more like a bandaid, there will still be some minor weirdness like essential NPCs flying around as they regain consciousness if they were knocked out.
Another suggestion I have is to use Command Extender's FalloutCustom.ini function to add these ini tweaks:
Some other suggestions I have are to update OneTweak to OneTweak but Really Updated, FO3 BSA Decompressor and Unofficial FO3 ESM Patcher (you're probably already aware of these two), and add DXVK
I don't use ENB but you can use it alongside DXVK by renaming DXVK's d3d9.dll to d3d9_dxvk.dll and changing these options in your enblocal.ini:
Note that your GPU driver must support Vulkan 1.3 and also have a VK_EXT_robustness2 driver extension, which you can check with GPU-Z by going to the Advanced tab and selecting Vulkan.
Lastly I would suggest adding a loadorder.txt to paste into MO2's profile folder to speed up the final steps. That's all I have to suggest, you've done a great job on this guide :smile:
Pinning this comment so people don't miss out on important info (especially since part of it is now essential too).
Also, I literally can't believe you spent the time to figure out this texture pack mix of aesthetics with NMC's new vegas btw. Amazing work. What an absolute unit of a mod guide.
Thanks again.
Edit: Nevermind. Apparently i figured out it was 1 file that needed to be hidden. It only affected the AR.
Here are the entries that worked for me:
Same for both fallout.ini and falloutprefs.ini
[Water]
bUseWaterRefractions=0
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
Looks like Auto Gates is at v14 now and already has the Lamplight gate disabled.
it's just that i got 2 problems after like going into the game and playing it for 13 hours ( in and out), the 2 problems were: when i got into third person with my gun on my guy were like ether looking completely up or completely down. and the other problem that came to be was that some weapons like the AR (assault rifles) stopped using the RH_IRONSIGHTS for some reason. (the second one i tried to find the answer online but those answers didn't worked).
and again i love the experience You provided man i hope you have a long and great life both for you and your loved ones man :) (edit: i use mo2)
And thank you, I wish you the same.
I've also generated facegen for all changed NPCs so that the performance intensive bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles ini setting is no longer needed.
The original mod is still needed for the textures and meshes since I chose not to include them.
full health and out of combat? I looked at the in-game menu of iHUD and
the settings seem to be fine (default). Any ideas?
EDIT: Using an older version of iHUD, as explained in an earlier comment, fixed it.