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Fallout 3 (2024 Edition)

By Consul

This guide will help you on getting Fallout 3 working in a non-crashing state after the Anniversary Update with maximum frame-rate possible that you can get in the game (without any other problems).

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Created by

Consul
Online

Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

Aug 26, 2020 @ 4:12pm

Apr 27 @ 1:39am

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Guide Index

Overview

First and foremost

Setting the game up

Patches

Configuration Fixes

Limiting the FPS (must-do)

Launch the game!

Credits

Comments

First and foremost

It is important to have a CLEAN INSTALL before doing any of the fixes below
Delete the game first, then delete these folders before a re-install:
C:\Users\*username*\Documents\My Games\Fallout3
C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Fallout3
Make sure you also delete the remains of the game in your Steam folder before a re-install. Go to your Steam folder and then go to "steamapps" and then "common". If a "Fallout 3 goty" folder exists in there, delete it.

Setting the game up

First of all, I would recommend you to run the game once, so that we have the .ini files (configuration files) all set-up.

When you launch the game from Steam, you'll see the Launcher pop-up. Go to Options and change your options to the ones that are on the image below (resolution depends on your monitor, of course):

After this, load the game until you get into the main menu and then you can exit the game.

Patches

I heavily recommend doing the patches/updates IN ORDER so that nothing goes wrong.

Fallout Anniversary Patcher[www.nexusmods.com]
What is this? Downgrades the game after the Anniversary Update for FOSE support and more. Makes the game 4GB aware and fixes the mod limit bug.

How do I install this? Download the file and extract the files to where your "Fallout3.exe" is. Launch "Patcher.exe" and it will install. After it is done, press any key to close the prompt.
Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch[www.nexusmods.com]
What is this? This is an unofficial patch with bunch of fixes.

How do I install this? Download the file and extract its content. Then you will see a file with the ".fomod" extension. Change that to ".zip" (or .7z) by right clicking and renaming it. Then extract its contents to "Fallout 3 goty\Data".
Fallout Script Extender (FOSE)[fose.silverlock.org]
What is this? Even though this is not updated as of yet after the Anniversary Update and we won't be launching the game through it, it is still required.

How do I install this? To open .7z files, you need 7zip, so make sure you have it or if you don't have it, download it here[www.7-zip.org]. After that, download FOSE and extract its content into where your game is installed (in this case Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 3 goty)
Command Extender[www.nexusmods.com]
What is this? Required because of Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch. Provides game patches to fix engine bugs.

How do I install this? Put the "fose" folder inside of the zip file into "Fallout 3 goty\Data"
Ogg Vorbis Libraries[www.nexusmods.com]
What is this? Updated sound libraries that optimize the game's audio decoding, fixes an audio memory leak, sound related stuttering and boosts performance while reducing CPU strain.

How do I install this? Extract the contents of the .zip into your Fallout 3 Steam directory, and replace the existing files when asked.
New Vegas Anti-Crash (also works for Fallout 3)[www.nexusmods.com]
What is this? This reduces game crashes.

How do I install this? Download the zip and inside it you will see two folders called NVSE and fomod. Extract NVSE into Fallout 3 goty\Data folder first. Then go back into the zip, go into NVSE, and then Plugins, and extract "nvac.dll" into "Fallout 3 goty\Data\fose\plugins".
Fallout 3 Tick Fix[www.nexusmods.com]
What is this? Removes the lag from the game.

How do I install this? Download the zip and put the fose folder inside "Fallout 3 goty\Data" folder.

Configuration Fixes

Here, I will tell you some of the important config fixes. Make sure to do all of it.

Field of View (FOV)
Go to Documents\My Games\Fallout 3 and open FALLOUT.ini
Under the [Display] section, find these two lines:
fDefaultFOV=75.0000
fDefault1stPersonFOV=55.0000

Change these numbers to whatever you like. I would recommend between 90 and 100 for a 1080p monitor. Using a lower FOV for the second line is a better choice to avoid clipping since it is the FOV of the gun.
Disabling Mouse Acceleration
Open Documents\My Games\Fallout3\FALLOUT.ini
Find the section: [Controls]
Add the lines:
fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0

Limiting the FPS (must-do)

In this section, I will show you how to limit your FPS so that problems such as lip-sync and other physics related problems are gone.

For NVIDIA:

Go to NVIDIA Control Panel.
In the section on the left, go to “Manage 3D settings”.
From that window, choose the “Program Settings” section.
On the “Program Settings” section, choose "Fallout 3 (fallout3.exe)"
If it doesn't exist, add it by clicking on "Add", go to "Browse", go to your Fallout 3 directory and select Fallout3.exe. Then click on Add Selected Program. Make sure it is also selected on "Program Settings" section afterwards.
Find “Max Frame Rate”, change it from "Use Global Setting" to “On” and make it “100 FPS”.

For AMD, here's what Vaughners did:

To do framerate limiting on AMD, you can turn on a feature called "Chill" on a per-game basis in the driver software. I went to Gaming > Fallout 3 and turned on the switch for Chill, then set the framerate sliders to minimum 60 and maximum 100. That fixed the annoying lip-sync problem I had after going through all your steps (which worked amazingly, thank you!)

Why 100 FPS? Because 100 FPS is the maximum FPS that Fallout 3's engine can handle without physics breaking or lip-sync breaking. Though if you are having problems with it being on 100 FPS, you can go for 60 FPS as well.

Launch the game!

After all this is over, launch the game through Steam! Have fun!

Credits

Fallout 3 page of PC Gaming Wiki[www.pcgamingwiki.com]was used during the preparation of this guide.

307 Comments

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Gamefreack64 May 2 @ 8:27pm

Can i use the FOSE, 4GB and Modfix Mod instead the Fallout Anniversary ot break this the game?

Gamefreack64 May 2 @ 6:45pm

Do you realy need the Fallout Anniversary Patcher?
I have the German cencored version without the 1.7.0.4 update
The Fallout Anniversary Patcher didn't work on the german version of the game

IronPete Apr 25 @ 9:24pm

Can confirm this works flawlessly 4-26-24. Make sure to follow OP's instructions to a T.. I launched my game through steam and it's run the best it ever has!! Now time to relive some memories! Thank you for this

danielzaiser91 Apr 19 @ 5:06am

crashes when pressing play in launcher...

topocanguro Apr 18 @ 9:12am

After following this guide, I noticed an option for the Unofficial Patch popping up in the "Data" section of the launcher, and it is unticked (unlike DLCs). Should this be left alone or get ticked as well?

EvilGuy Apr 17 @ 6:52am

all i did was
-limit fps 60
-turn off v sync
-turn off screen effect
-set resolution to 1280x720 (letterbx)
and it runs fine. insta crash could be your anti virus denying access to ini file

Caleldyr Apr 16 @ 7:22pm

is it worth it though.?

GrumpLump Apr 16 @ 12:27pm

Small Note - the instructions for the updated unofficial patch say to rename the ".fomod" file to ".zip". You actually need to change it to ".7z".

Thanks for the guide! I didn't know which patch to install to fix all the stuttering after I finally got the game running.

Existential Scrybe Apr 15 @ 4:34pm

Took me a while to download everything and then when it finally loaded I got engrossed but for anyone in comments interested in whether this works I only had to install the first four (plus the required ESM patch for the unofficial patch mod) did it virtually entirely through vortex mod manager and it works brill for me now, had one crash in the whole 1hr30 I've played thus far but tbh I don't care about that my computer crashes games occasionally anyway when I've been inactive for too long bc of it going into sleep mode and making everything janky, besides if it does become a consistent issue then I'm sure it's something the anti-crash will deal with I'm just lazy- for you my friend as many points as I can give

Existential Scrybe Apr 15 @ 1:00pm

Giving this a go now, if it works I'm giving this the biggest award I can because I just got this and NV on sale the other day after only ever playing FO4 when it was released and having started FO1 and I am desperate to play :')

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