Something I completely forgot about is that for most of the list's life it did not include a ModOrganizer.ini, meaning the end user would have to go through instance creation when they first start MO2. This may have masked issues related to a mismatched Steam App ID for users who have the base game + all DLC purchased separately. To fix this, go to MO2's settings -> Workarounds, and change the Steam App ID to 22300. If you have the base game + all DLC instead of GOTY and resetting the INIs doesn't work, try this before doing a full downgrade of the game!
Read this guide here for steps to downgrade the game. If you use Steam, please let me know if this finally fixed the issue of the game not starting!
08/05/2025 update: Re-added the full INI reset and settings configuration guide since it seems that the updated INIs don't work.
07/05/2025 update: Update 1.2.3 is out! It should fix the issue of the game not starting since it doesn't include a borked falloutprefs.ini anymore. If it still doesn't work, do the following:
If the game doesn't start, open the profile folder for whatever profile you have active and replace falloutprefs.ini with the one available here.
Extra Info: For some reason the launcher in my install of FO3 will create a broken falloutprefs.ini that is just a copy of fallout.ini if it doesn't already exist. It apparently causes crashes for some people (only Steam users so far). I've found that clearing the contents of falloutprefs.ini and rerunning the launcher will create a proper, functional INI.
Just played for a couple of hours and all I can say is good job, man. This is a great list. I don't think I've played a smoother incarnation of Fallout 3 than this. I decompressed the BSA's and did the heap replacer too, though. I wonder how much of a difference the DXVK stuff makes as well. Everything is super smooth.
I've tried to come back to Fallout 3 a couple of times over the last 4 or 5 years and it has been damn near unplayable on a modern computer. So thanks again.
If I wanted to add a mod that creates a new building to my game with this modlist, what would be the proper way to generate the LOD for the new building? I attempted to do so with the Burger Boy building from here and the building was popping in when I was very close to it. Running FO3LODGen didn't change that.
Very great modlist, really thankful for it! There is a mod which ads achievements to the game, which can be viewed ingame, I forgot the name but that would be fitting I think.
You probably mean Personal Achievements Log (but SeraphTC's fixed version which should be used instead of the original):
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/18678
Not everyone cares about achievements, but it's nice to have the option. It would be great if Bethesda just added achievements to FO3 on Steam and GOG already though.
Really a fantastic modpack, runs flawlessly with no stutters and crashes on my high-end PC which is a miracle. BUT I can't quite understand which of the mod removes the green tint from the game, which is one of bigger reasons why I love FO3 in the first place, without it it just takes away a massive amount of atmosphere, any help?
So discovered a very minor bug, more annoying than anything really, in the operation Anchorage DLC, I noticed that the Chinese Assault Rifles iron sights are very misaligned. The weapon seems to aim to the left, however, shooting makes the weapon look at the right spot, so long as the trigger is held.
Now here's the weird part (I can only assume this is because the sim version is a completely different weapon) the Chinese Assault Rifle is perfectly fine outside if it. Not sure if this is a well known bug with the iron sights mod or a small mistake with the list. But that is the only weapon that I had issues with in the simulation portion of the DLC, the American rifle was perfect. Anyway just letting you know, other than that, no issues but I am still early on, only about 12 hours into the game.
I had a look and after comparing vanilla and modded animations, it's an issue with the mod itself although modded animations seem to make it even more noticable.
Hey been playing through this for a while and I love it, I know wabbajack isn't meant to add your own, but just curious if this mod would have any major conflicts Complete Vault Girl Interface, or if it can be added without any issues. I don't think this list touches any textures like billboards and these icons but not 100% sure, Thanks!
Ahhh okay I was wondering why that bar didn't show the full CND bar. So far so great though! Only had a couple random crashes but the game never 'crashed' per say, just froze, but thankfully could alt tab out and close the application and restart it. So far though been able to do hours with this list, I just love Vanilla+ lists like this, as i really enjoy just fixing the games bugs and QoL improvements while spicing up the visuals a bit and this does all that!
Installation was a bit painful because of the Steam issues, but got it running somehow and it feels great! Just one quick question, is there a mod which removes the original hue the game had? Comparing my game to screenshots and gameplay videos, it feels like the game should have a pretty different color scheme compared to mine.
Hey so having some issues again, played up until megaton, did some stuff here, but now that I load up back into the game, I keep constantly crashing a few minutes in, no matter what I do, any clue what could be causing it please?
No idea, only time I've had a repeatable crashing problem was years ago when I was playing through The Pitt although that was on a completely different mod list. Could you provide some more details so I could try to reproduce the issue?
Hey, downloaded the modlist through Wabbajack, using the Steam version of the game. The installation ran smoothly, up until the Game Setting part of the guide. Like for many Steam users it seems, the game won't launch.
I activated the "Yet another Steam overlay fixer" mod, as requested in the guide ; I changed the launch pass for Fallout Launcher, as recommended, so it doesn't display the error message "FalloutLoader.exe not found" ; I changed the falloutprefs.ini using the one given in the author most recent post on this page (see above) AND updated the height and width of the screen resolution.
Despite all that, when I launch the game clicking on the "Run" button, ModOrganizer freezes and locks itself as usual, displaying its usual "lock" message, but only for a split second. The game seems to open during that same split second, then immediatly closes, and ModOrganizer unlocks itself. (I don't know if I'm clear enough, English isn't my mother tongue).
I don't know what to do. Does anyone know of a solution ?
Can you try fully resetting your INIs by clicking the folder icon at the top of MO2, selecting Open Profile folder, and deleting fallout.ini and falloutprefs.ini. Then press F5 in MO2 to have it copy over the INIs from your Documents\My Games\Fallout3 folder. Then follow the steps here to configure a couple settings that have been reset by this process. It seems that the updated INIs don't work, but this method should (hopefully) work since two people with the same issue had it resolved by doing it
Re-did a clean install, followed every steps but it still didn't work. I deleted the falloutprefs.ini and Fallout.ini then used F5 in Mod Organizer to recreate them, I made the required changes to the ini, but to no avail. I must have done something wrong, because I don't think the problem comes from my computer (I run New Vegas with the Viva New Vegas modlist just fine ; I run Oblivion with the A Painted world modlist as well), but I have no clue what ...
I don't know if it'll change anything but I released a new update with no changes except that I cleared out my Wabbajack patch cache before compiling it.
I just remembered last year they updated the launcher to "improve data file handling". Maybe you could try downgrading the launcher using DepotDownloader or the Steam console. App ID should be 22370, depot ID should be 22371.
Original 1.7.0.4 manifest: 4929549459338680299 1.7.0.3 manifest: 6752416544246981300
I found out that the modlist wasn't the problem after all : when I re-did a clean installation of the game, and tried to start it from Steam without mod, I managed to get to the Main Menu screen, but the game would systematically crash when launching a new game. I fixed the bug with this mod : "Intel HD graphics Bypass package" (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17209), and can currently play the game vanilla. I wish, however, that I could install your modlist, for FO3's gameplay is seriously outdated. Considering that "Intel HD graphics Bypass package" solved the problem, have you any idea what I should do as additional step when downloading your modlist ?
If using the Intel HD graphics bypass worked, the Anniversary Patcher paired with one of the versions of DXVK included in the modlist should work. TES4/FO3/FNV used to crash on AMD GPUs and the recommended solution was to install DXVK so the game would use Vulkan in place of D3D9.
How it works:
Spoiler:
Show
The game selects driver packages by checking the GPU adapter ID for an ATI or Nvidia substring (Intel GPU check was added in FNV).
In the Adrenalin 24.1.1 drivers, AMD changed something and the ATI substring wasn't there anymore.
The game crashes because the game's fallback method is to do nothing if it can't identify your GPU.
Installing DXVK fixes it because the issue apparently only affected D3D9, not Vulkan.
Installing the Intel HD graphics bypass fixes it by tricking the game into thinking you have an Nvidia GPU.
I finished reinstalling the list, and out of curiosity ran Loot (via the "sort" option of Mod Manager). Here is what it said :
Warnings :
The folder and file with hashes ddd7f529741d6f6e and 84b8d587219efe4 in "C:/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 3 goty\Data\Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Textures2.bsa" are present in another BSA.
The folder and file with hashes ddd7f529741d6f6e and d15c0f8d721bdfee in "C:/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 3 goty\Data\Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Textures2.bsa" are present in another BSA.
FO3Edit v4.0.2e found 2 ITM record(s), 0 deleted reference(s) and 0 deleted navmesh(es). A guide to cleaning plugins using xEdit can be found here.
stats: 4.89s, lootcli 1.6.0, loot 0.23.0 Is it intentional, and is the modlist supposed to work despite those problems, or did the installation went wrong somewhere ?
It should be fine - Command Extender adds the BSA override function that allows them to overwrite assets in BSAs connected to plugins higher in the loadorder. For the second thing, the list uses RootBuilder to handle installing FOSE so it's probably not an issue that LOOT can't find it. And for the ITMs, it's nothing to worry about since I went through and patched and sorted everything using The Method. You should probably restore the loadorder backup since LOOT probably just scrambled the loadorder.
Well, it seem to be working just fine even though I ran Loot. The game launched, and I was able to start a new game. I was teleported directly at the exit of Vault 101 to create my character. I would like to thank you for the amount of time you put in your mod, and in helping me.
One last question, for the road :) Is there a mean to play the introduction, in Vault 101, with this list ?
You can disable the mods Fallout 3 Quick Start and Fugacity - Fallout 3 Quick Start Patch. Just added that info to the install guide, thanks for the reminder. I've been meaning to but I forgot.
I thought I managed to make the modlist work, but even though it did launch once, it never did again (and the last action I did before it did launch was using the "sort" button to use LOOT, which you said not to do). I thus did a completely fresh intall. This time, I tried to understand better what was happenning.
Here is the full sum-up : I bought Fallout 3 GOTY from Steam. As for many Steam users, thevanilla installation didn’t work : it would always CTD when launching a New game from the Main menu. This issue was solved by the Anniversary patcher included in the modlist (I can now launch the game through Steam, and start a New game from the Main menu, it no longer CTD). However,even after having done everything the guide asked for, I cannot launch the game from Mod Organizer. All of that leads me to believe the problem lies with MO and/or the modlist (contrary to what I initially thought : I thus doubt downgrading the game would help).
When trying to run the game via the « Fallout Launcher » executable, MO locks itself (as it usually does when launching a game), another window opens for a split second before closing. When trying to directly launch the game, running it via the « Fallout 3 » executable (which isn’t what is required by the guide, but I’m trying things), I get the same result, with two exceptions : when enabling either the DXVK or the DXVK – HDR plugins, a full-screen black window opens after MO locking itself, and an error message appears : « Failed to initialize renderer. Bad Adapter Number or Adapter not found ».
I've seen that it's a problem that apparently can be fixed (some say to use the "Fallout 3 Windows 7 and 8 Fix" mod : https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20371?tab=files), but it would require adding a "foreign" mod to the modlist, and I'm not willing to do that without seeking for aid here first. I'm sorry to take anymore of your time, I would understand if you're not willing to spend more of it on my problems.
What GPU do you have? If you get that error your GPU might not support Vulkan 1.3, but you could try one of the two older Async versions if you haven't already.
There should be two mods called DXVK 1.10.3 - Async and DXVK 1.10.1 - Async underneath DXVK - HDR in MO2. You might want to try the 1.10.1 - Async version since the FNV Performance Guide says this:
Intel GPUs from 6th Gen and newer can work provided you have newest drivers installed. On some iGPUs, DXVK is broken past the 1.10.1 version.
Your iGPU probably falls into the latter based on the error message you're seeing with DXVK 2.5.3 installed.
72 comments
to go through instance creation when they first start MO2. This may have masked issues related to a mismatched Steam App ID for users who have the base game + all DLC purchased separately. To fix this, go to MO2's settings -> Workarounds, and change the Steam App ID to 22300. If you have the base game + all DLC instead of GOTY and resetting the INIs doesn't work, try this before doing a full downgrade of the game!
Read this guide here for steps to downgrade the game. If you use Steam, please let me know if this finally fixed the issue of the game not starting!
07/05/2025 update: Update 1.2.3 is out! It should fix the issue of the game not starting since it doesn't include a borked falloutprefs.ini anymore. If it still doesn't work, do the following:
If the game doesn't start, open the profile folder for whatever profile you have active and replace falloutprefs.ini with the one available here.
Extra Info:
For some reason the launcher in my install of FO3 will create a broken falloutprefs.ini that is just a copy of fallout.ini if it doesn't already exist. It apparently causes crashes for some people (only Steam users so far). I've found that clearing the contents of falloutprefs.ini and rerunning the launcher will create a proper, functional INI.
I've tried to come back to Fallout 3 a couple of times over the last 4 or 5 years and it has been damn near unplayable on a modern computer. So thanks again.
4090
7950x3d
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/18678
Not everyone cares about achievements, but it's nice to have the option. It would be great if Bethesda just added achievements to FO3 on Steam and GOG already though.
BUT
I can't quite understand which of the mod removes the green tint from the game, which is one of bigger reasons why I love FO3 in the first place, without it it just takes away a massive amount of atmosphere, any help?
I'll keep trying
Edit: Fixed by following the lav filters intructions on FO3 page on pcgaming wiki
Now here's the weird part (I can only assume this is because the sim version is a completely different weapon) the Chinese Assault Rifle is perfectly fine outside if it. Not sure if this is a well known bug with the iron sights mod or a small mistake with the list. But that is the only weapon that I had issues with in the simulation portion of the DLC, the American rifle was perfect. Anyway just letting you know, other than that, no issues but I am still early on, only about 12 hours into the game.
The installation ran smoothly, up until the Game Setting part of the guide. Like for many Steam users it seems, the game won't launch.
I activated the "Yet another Steam overlay fixer" mod, as requested in the guide ;
I changed the launch pass for Fallout Launcher, as recommended, so it doesn't display the error message "FalloutLoader.exe not found" ;
I changed the falloutprefs.ini using the one given in the author most recent post on this page (see above) AND updated the height and width of the screen resolution.
Despite all that, when I launch the game clicking on the "Run" button, ModOrganizer freezes and locks itself as usual, displaying its usual "lock" message, but only for a split second. The game seems to open during that same split second, then immediatly closes, and ModOrganizer unlocks itself. (I don't know if I'm clear enough, English isn't my mother tongue).
I don't know what to do. Does anyone know of a solution ?
I must have done something wrong, because I don't think the problem comes from my computer (I run New Vegas with the Viva New Vegas modlist just fine ; I run Oblivion with the A Painted world modlist as well), but I have no clue what ...
Original 1.7.0.4 manifest:
49295494593386802991.7.0.3 manifest:
6752416544246981300I fixed the bug with this mod : "Intel HD graphics Bypass package" (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17209), and can currently play the game vanilla. I wish, however, that I could install your modlist, for FO3's gameplay is seriously outdated.
Considering that "Intel HD graphics Bypass package" solved the problem, have you any idea what I should do as additional step when downloading your modlist ?
How it works:
Here is what it said :
Warnings :
General messages
Plugins
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esm
- Error: Requires: Fallout Script Extender
Laurens_Bathroom_poetry_V1.espstats: 4.89s, lootcli 1.6.0, loot 0.23.0Is it intentional, and is the modlist supposed to work despite those problems, or did the installation went wrong somewhere ?
I would like to thank you for the amount of time you put in your mod, and in helping me.
One last question, for the road :) Is there a mean to play the introduction, in Vault 101, with this list ?
I thus did a completely fresh intall. This time, I tried to understand better what was happenning.
Here is the full sum-up :
I bought Fallout 3 GOTY from Steam. As for many Steam users, thevanilla installation didn’t work : it would always CTD when launching a New game from the Main menu. This issue was solved by the Anniversary patcher included in the modlist (I can now launch the game through Steam, and start a New game from the Main menu, it no longer CTD).
However,even after having done everything the guide asked for, I cannot launch the game from Mod Organizer. All of that leads me to believe the problem lies with MO and/or the modlist (contrary to what I initially thought : I thus doubt downgrading the game would help).
When trying to run the game via the « Fallout Launcher » executable, MO locks itself (as it usually does when launching a game), another window opens for a split second before closing.
When trying to directly launch the game, running it via the « Fallout 3 » executable (which isn’t what is required by the guide, but I’m trying things), I get the same result, with two exceptions : when enabling either the DXVK or the DXVK – HDR plugins, a full-screen black window opens after MO locking itself, and an error message appears : « Failed to initialize renderer. Bad Adapter Number or Adapter not found ».
I've seen that it's a problem that apparently can be fixed (some say to use the "Fallout 3 Windows 7 and 8 Fix" mod : https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20371?tab=files), but it would require adding a "foreign" mod to the modlist, and I'm not willing to do that without seeking for aid here first.
I'm sorry to take anymore of your time, I would understand if you're not willing to spend more of it on my problems.
I have no idea what Vulkan is, nor how to get Async versions.
UPDATE : It seems to be working with the "Waters of Life Classic" profile, only if I don't enable the "Yet another Steam Overlay" mod
Your iGPU probably falls into the latter based on the error message you're seeing with DXVK 2.5.3 installed.