New Vegas Script Extender Updated

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The New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE) has been updated for the first time since 2017 and marks the beginning of a community-led project to fix a lot of the long-standing bugs and quirks with this essential modding tool. 

In case you need a refresher, the New Vegas Script Extender- or NVSE for short - is a modder's resource that expands the scripting capabilities of Fallout: New Vegas. It was created by the Silverlock team and is based on the original code from their previous project, the Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE). Originally released in 2010, it received regular updates until the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2011, where the team's focus was then diverted to working on the Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE). From this point, NVSE was left functional but unfinished, with a few updates between 2014 and 2017 to add new features and enhancements.

This year, an entirely new group of New Vegas fans came together to update the - now 3 year old - script extender, with the blessing of the original creators. The xNVSE team consists of several well-known mod authors including lStewieAlTrueCourierSix (c6)korri123 (Kormakur)carxt (karut)iranrmrf and jazzisparis (Sorry if I missed anyone!). I caught up with the team who gave us a short summary of the project. 

NVSE's primary purpose has always been to enhance the scripting capabilities of the game. xNVSE is not going to change that. Our prime directive is first and foremost, to allow for easier creation of extensions for the scripting engine, as well as providing the opportunity to further expand the current capabilities. We have no intentions of including any additional NVSE plugins as part of the xNVSE fork.
We've most notably been making under the hood changes in the interest of fixing underlying code bugs that have been present for years, due to a lack of maintenance. Whilst our current changes are minor in scale, they are able to provide significant improvements in performance for those users with load orders that have heavily scripted gameplay mods. These fixes can also potentially reduce a few causes of crash to desktops, however, your mileage may vary.

As this fork of NVSE is relatively new, we'll be dedicating time to sit down and properly scour and work through the NVSE codebase, to allow us to further track down long-standing bugs. A larger update with more fixes is currently in the pipeline, however, this is still some time away. In the meantime, you can provide valuable feedback by downloading the new release version from GitHub and playing now. If you experience any crashes related to the new fork, please join us on our official development server, and leave a message detailing the crash and how to reproduce it. You can also feel free to leave a bug report on the Github page with similar details and reproduction steps!

This is only a minor step for the time being. This work being done will hopefully allow for greater steps forward in the future. Thank you!

Right now you can grab the latest release from the project GitHub page, which includes a notable performance boost compared to the previous version. This is thanks to a newer version of the Visual Studio toolset (VS2019) and optimisations to the compiler. The best part is, it's still fully compatible with existing mods so you don't need to wait for your favourite files to get an update to use it.

There's more to come too, including some better documentation for authors who are looking to create NVSE plugins. The team have provided a rough roadmap for what's coming to xNVSE in future releases:

Our timeline will look something like this:

  • Fix as many bugs remaining in NVSE as possible.
  • Attempt to fix performance issues relating to NVSE functionality.
  • Improve the NVSE API to allow for ease of use for developers
  • Potentially implement more script functions for modders and users (This is a long term goal)


If you want to stay up to date with NVSE, you can track the NVSE mod page here which will be updated with each release of the tool. 

On a related note, in an upcoming release of Vortex, you will be able to install and manage NVSE like any other mod which will certainly make keeping up to date with the newest version easier! We'll be releasing more detail about this in an upcoming news post. 

This is an exciting time for Fallout New Vegas mods. With the Mod Limit Fix by iranrmrf released in April and now a brand new update to the script extender, could this be a "second wind" for New Vegas modding?

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  1. Hsky4life
    Hsky4life
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    how are you guys getting the icon cause for me it doesn't have one
    but on my friends pc it dose
  2. 54yeggan
    54yeggan
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    TYSMM
  3. turncoatv52
    turncoatv52
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    Nice, I can't wait to get back into the Fallout modding community. Seems like this is a good time to do so.
  4. axonis
    axonis
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    Very interesting, thanks for the news!
  5. syonnetundragon
    syonnetundragon
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    It's marvelous!!!!! No matter how many time passes by, the Fallout series still lives stronger. (sorry, Fallout 4, but you are expendable!!!)
  6. NylaTheWolf
    NylaTheWolf
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    It's honestly astonishing how dedicated the modding community of Bethesda games is! I love it.
  7. nocthesis
    nocthesis
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    This is so exciting. New Vegas might be an old game at this point, but I think it is ultimately a timeless one. Let's hope for new content for years to come!
  8. catchby84
    catchby84
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    Ive been using the last version of NVSE (just like every human being ever) for years and thus a lot of mods i have have required it.

    If i update to the new version, will the older mods that aren't being updated anymore that required the old NVSE still work? Like does this new version do anything different that would make older mods not to work? As of rn i have no need to update just yet so i technically dont NEED it but would love to update if there are no consequences.

    Regardless thanks for everyone who continues to work on New Vega! I am forever in your debt . If anyone knows of a patreon to support these people I would love to contribute :)
    1. LegendaryLycanthrope
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      The best part is, it's still fully compatible with existing mods so you don't need to wait for your favourite files to get an update to use it.


      So yes, they SHOULD still work, but as with anything relating to modding...have backups.
    2. Genie44
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      bro i did update it,and everything is smooth.
      maybe cause i have win764bit(i know i know it is no longer supported,but f*#@ 10 auto updates)
  9. Genie44
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    thnx Great work Working like a charm,and there is indeed a performance boost.
  10. deleted90768923
    deleted90768923
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    Could stable ugridstoload ever be possible?
    1. chancebb15
      chancebb15
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      Probably not. uGridsToLoad is problematic in many ways. The game has scripts tied to zones. When you load a zone it runs the code. When you make the zones get loaded farther out you will miss many random encounters as well as break much more. You would need to redesign many quests and locations to work with the larger radius. NVSE could possibly remove the problem where the setting can't be lowered once raised but there already is a workaround for that. Honestly its probably not going to happen. To properly fix it you would need something like fallout 76 with its tiered zones. Basically it can partially load zones that are farther away than the grid setting.