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About this mod

Adds new and realistic internal as well as external ballistics to the game. Drag, bullet drop, wind deflection, varying muzzle velocity and damage depending on cartridge, barrel length and temperature are now a thing.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs
What is BallistX and how does it differ?
BallistX is a mod that adds a ballistic trajectory to most projectiles by actually following real ballistic models. That means that unlike other ballistics mods, which only possess static velocity and basic bullet drop for projectiles, projectiles in BallistX will in fact loose velocity over time due to drag and get deflected by wind!

Additionally, BallistX has a damage drop system which is proportional to the velocity. Worth noting is the extensive research went into finding credible values for each ammo type that will influnce the projectile's muzzle velocity and behavior during flight, first of which will also be decided by barrel length and can be easily customized.

It also comes with a plethora of new and optional calibers, each with unique load data and attributes!


Installation
You need the latest version of xNVSE, JIP LN NVSE and SUP NVSE. You can install the mod by dropping the main files into the data folder
or by using a mod manager. The load order should look similar to this:
Fallout New Vegas
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FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
CaravanPack.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
Ambient Temperature.esm
BallistX.esp
...
BallistXAmmo.esp
...
Tales of Two Wastelands
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FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
Fallout3.esm
Anchorage.esm
ThePitt.esm
BrokenSteel.esm
PointLookout.esm
Zeta.esm
CaravanPack.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
TaleOfTwoWastelands.esm
YUPTTW.esm
Ambient Temperature.esm
BallistX.esp
...
BallistXAmmo.esp
BallistXAmmoTTW.esp
...
Note that "Ambient Temperature.esm" is completely optional but enhances BallistX significantly.


Core Features
Custom Cartridge Load Data
Projectiles have unique attributes based upon:
  • Drag function (supported models: G1, G2, G5, G6, G7, G8 and 9/16“ sphere)
  • Ballistic coefficient
  • Mass
  • Diameter
Projectiles have different muzzle velocities based upon:
  • Maximum theoretical muzzle velocity
  • Pressure peak distance
  • Barrel length
  • Temperature
Projectiles will do different amounts of damage based upon:
  • Maximum base damage of the projectile
  • Range
  • Velocity (~range)
  • Ammo specific attributes
  • Target damage threshold and resistance

Custom Weapon Data
Each weapon has the following attributes
  • Barrel length
  • Zeroing
  • Precision

Bullet Trajectory
External factors are:
  • Altitude
  • Air pressure (~altitude)
  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • Air density (all of the above combined)
Projectiles will be influenced by:
  • Custom Cartridge Load Data
  • Velocity
  • Drag
  • Wind
  • Gravity
  • Inclination


FAQ
Does this mod affect my performance?
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Due to its nature and running at every single frame, it is very much not the most performance friendly mod. I can however run it just fine at 60 FPS on a notebook with integrated graphics unless excessive shotgun spamming is used, most noticeable with the usage of 3# Buckshot and #2 Birdshot. Basically if you can run Fallout 4 on your rig, you most definitely be able to run this mod without any major issues.

On my notebook, I have counted 40-60 bullets in the air before the framerate looses about 8-12 fps and 300+ projectiles before the framerate absolutely tanks. Otherwise there aren't any significant framerate drops, even in intense firefights, especially when you have stable 60 FPS to begin with.
How accurate is this mod compared to real life ballistics?
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Decent enough that you can make use of a real ballistics computer and get very close results. It's that close to real life values because it's actually based on the same math behind most ballistics software. It is a little simplified however to ensure performance. This of course comes at a slight cost of loosing some accuracy for bullet drop, especially for low BC bullets.

How do you measure those stats?
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Debug file. Gameplay is not viable with the debug file because it normalizes the projectiles trajectory. The advantage of a normalized trajectory is that I do not have to make use of Linear Algebra and can read directly from the world xyz-axis and print the results to the console. Remember that the input of any ballistics software must be identical with the ones found in the game, obviously.
Why doesn't my weapon do the correct amount of damage?
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Thats because the base damage will only depend on velocity and the projectile itself. The mod doesn't care about how high or low the damage stat of the weapon is. The only area where the weapon's damage stat matters is in VATS. Critical damage remains untouched by the mod.
The mod does not work! Why can't I hit anything?
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Most probably it's the min spread settings of your weapon fault. In vanilla and in most gun mods, the firearms have a notoriously high min spread setting to simulate the RNG of older Fallout titles. If your weapon already has a low spread, then it could be either auto-aim or an animation replacer that causes this. Auto-aim only activates if there are entities near you and in front of your aim so easy to avoid if you keep some distance. Only non-kNVSE animations have been proven somewhat buggy so far though I haven't tested all of them. It could also be that the projectile node or ironsights of the weapon model are just missaligned.
Is the name change of ammo really necessary?
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In short: no. However since I made this mod based on evidence and research, this turned out to be the result. It's just personal preference but I like keeping stuff to real life since it's more familiar and recognizable to me. It just helps categorizing the overall capabilities of the cartridge faster and to differentiate between bullets that are of the same class (e.g. FMJ) but have different masses, form, BC etc.
Why the weird ammo balancing?
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Since all projectiles of ballistic weapons have been overhauled, I had to change the stat of its associated ammo to not leave them over-/underpowerd. Also: I wanted to do a more nuanced approach where no ammo type is truly obsolete and requires testing to find out which is best for which situation. If you want to know how each cartridge is balanced, there is a spreadsheet in the miscelleanous file section which contains precise documentation about exactly that, stuff like when does cartridge x does more damage than y and how much will the barrel length influences it and so on.


For the future
May be added
  • A Modern Ambient Temperature patch Added in 2.1
  • The .32 NAA (this is the closest thing I could find resembling the shape of
    the ingame icon for the .32) or .32 ACP (because this is actually a common cartridge) addition for TTW users Added in 2.2
  • Muzzle velocity change with temperature Added in 2.1
  • Key bindings and UI for turret elevation/windage
  • New ammo types and calibers
Will not add
  • Compatability paches with other mods that alters ballistics or adds ammo
  • A more realistic model (like adding spin drift or the Coriolis+Eötvös effect, etc.) as a massive decrease in performance is unjustified for just 1% higher precision when it comes to realism
  • Adjusted spread settings for weapons to be more accurate Added in 5.0
  • Custom projectile/cartridge models


Mods I recommend to improve ballistic weaponry


Known issues
Here is a list of known issues I and others have encountered
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Compatibility
This mod will conflict with every other mod that touches ammo and its
corresponding projectiles. Make sure that there are no conflicts in this
area, especially if it touches vanilla rifle/handgun projectiles, as it
will most definitely break the physics.

Visual Bugs
Projectiles won't visually align with the trajectory. "Bullets point up when
shooting east, North when shooting north, down - west, south -
south. Effect is halved at 0.5 timescale and unnoticeable at 0.01"
(thanks for clarifying Robert17). No big deal, it just looks weird in slow motion but is barely
noticeable if any during normal gameplay. The hitbox for the projectile
thus may change but all projectiles are too small than to have any
noticeable effect.

Animation Bugs
If you are using an weapon animation mod that includes recoil animation and the
weapon kicks off within 0 - 64ms after the trigger has been pulled, you
will not hit what you've aimed for. Most animation mods are fine but
there are exceptions like the STG 44's custom animation or Asurah's Reanimation Pack pump-action animation. Slowing down time (sgtm) or using a scope will eliminate this issue.

VATS
Projectiles in VATS will move with the highest achievable velocity. E.g. the
velocity for the M855 in a 20" long barrel will be about 948 m/s but in
VATS, it will be 1133 m/s, regardless of barrel length. The damage done
in VATS will be determined by the weapon and not the projectile. The
ammo modifiers are still taken into account however wich will lead to
some horrible balancing for most weapons in VATS. TLDR: This mod is poorly optimised for VATS (for now!).

Perks
It’s safe to use damage/ammo related perks such as like “Cowboy“ or “Shotgun
Surgeon“ though I don’t recommend using any of such perks as these
perks seriously mess up the balancing i.e. make some ammo types
unreasonably overpowered when compared to others, even more so than in
vanilla as the balancing in BallistX is much more nuanced and carefully
weighed.

Performance
High intensity gun battles and shotgun shells with a high pellet count can severely reduce the
framerate on slower machines. If you have a good PC, your framerate is
barely affected so you don't need to worry about it.

Projectiles may "stuck" in the air (thanks MesserAR for bringing this up) which can be provoked by excessively tap-firing.
Do not touch the projectiles as it may destroy your framerate and
generally weird things happen. Instead, (quick)save and load. If that
doesn't fix the problem, try to fast travel or go
in-/outdoors.