Hello everybody,
Here is a list of usefull tips on how to mod and stabilize your game. This list will evolve,
if you have suggestions, things to add, contact me by PM me to not burden this thread, in order to improve this document. I'll will consider it and credit you in this topic.
0/// Preamb :• FNV is a 32 bit application, so it's impossible for it to acces any more than 4 GB, (well 3.5 is closer to reality...once patched with the 4Gb patch). The vanilla unpatched game does not have the Large address aware flag so it will only access 2GB. At the time FNV was built, most operating systems were 32 bit, but as now OS are 64b this offers much more possibilities. The only physical way to bypass this limitation is getting the source code and rewrite it in 64 bit, then recompile the executable. Good luck with that.
• keep in mind Fallout 3 / Fallout new vegas have been built to work as is and even if they are made to be moddable, due to numerous things begining by the game itself, each single mod you add is a source of potential conflicts or unstability, even if it is well done. So to be speaking, the game should load, work well (almost) without any mod and...untouched. The goal of the following tips is to avoid you to reinstall everything from scratch and show you it is far more easy, (longer at first) to do things correctly at the begining, than trying to correct things later with a bunch of mods installed. Take the time to mod your game, (watch carefully the reactions of your game, (performances, issues, etc..) use several playthroughs to refine it, (optimize it wisely, beginning by good practices) and do not install a ton of mods like a pig, unless you know what you're doing.
1/// Savegames : • Make sure autosaves / quick save are not activated (if loading problem try to reload previous saves).
• Never overwrite when you save manually, create a new save every time.
• Save often manually, (preferably inside of a building) and before anything important in game, before you begin a quest and before stopping playing, always inside in this case.
• Get rid of corrupted saves + before stopping playing,each cession do a save inside (not outside).
• If you do not trust your game, regularly check the files in your save folder, to ensure there is not anything weird, like zero kb files, which means the game tried to save and something wrong prevents it to do it.
• You may use
CASM to manage your savegames.
• If you have unintalled scripted mods at mid-game, I'm wondering if, alike skyrim, scripts from uninstalled mods stay in the saves. If it's the case, some of them can be "active" and call some parameters non available or something pointing to nowhere (or simply conflict)...like an uninstalled esp or esm...
2/// Game cache : right-click on the game in your steam account, select properties and verify the integrity of the cache to repair eventual corrupted files.
Make a save of your *.inis first... Then use and let the vanilla launcher to determine the best settings for your computer.
3/// L.O.O.T / FO3edit/FNVedit : Some load order changes are enough to make a mess. Ensure you run loot, (
download here) and apply its recommendations. LOOT can tell you if you have dirty plugins =
Undelete and Disable References /
Identical To Master records. The
UDR are important, because if a mod loaded "late" in your load order calls a deleted reference, the game crashes. If the reference in question would have been disabled, the game would have worked.
Install
FNVedit /
FO3edit then load the first esm in your load order corresponding to the first mod right after the DLCs, (only one esm or esp at a time, if an esm has an esp, you'll clean it when it will be its turn in the load order, to ensure thing are done sequentially and properly) Xedit knows the dependencies and will load masters accordingly. Once everything is loaded, right-click on the left pane right on the esm in question, "apply filter for cleaning", wait for Xedit to prepare the cleaning. When ready, right-click on the esm in question and "undelete and disable references", (this will transform every deleted files in disabled files = no more problem) then right-click on the esm again and "remove identical to master records".
Ctrl + s to save and Alt + F4 to exit.Do this for each following mod to ensure everything is clean and so on.
I have for now 85 active plugins, (+ a good dozen that are already merged) and all are cleaned and I'm level 25, no crash so far... Tes5edit cleaning tutorial Do the UDR thing for every mod and the ITM only if loot tells you to do it because some mods are built like this and need these ITM, so better keeping them.
4/// Miscellaneous / selective loading : If above doesn't work, and you encounter crashes and infinite loading screens : test your game with mods unticked for enough time to reproduce the problem. If this worked, tick again slowly your mods until you encounter the problem again.
Ensure your rig specifications meets what you're asking to your game : high res textures + high poly models + too high settings + too many textures / models to load + resources demanding mods = crash. Be also aware that the recommended specifications corresponds to a vanilla game, non modded without any additional texture pack.
If you're using win8-10 + a GPU with more than 4GB VRAM and experiencing stuttering, random freezes or / and FPS drops, this may occur when the VRAM usage exceeds 4GB, (with Nvidia only apparently...)
read here for more details.
5/// Mods / textures & models : If this didn't work, always mods unticked, to invalidate the loaded loose files, (big numerous textures files can be a problem and high poly models too) rename temporarilly the
Data/textures and meshes folders, load the game (don't use the continue option) and test.
6/// Inis settings : Bad ini changes can cause lot of trouble, save your actual ini files and delete them, then use the launcher to auto-detect your hardware and test for a while mods unticked.
7/// Stabilizing the game / utilities : • NVSE &
Gamerpoet's video tutorial.
WIKI NVSE tutorial, configuration, heap size, etc....
• Install
the latest 4 Gb patch.
• Install
New Vegas Anti Crash.
• Install
New Vegas Stutter remover.
Windows 10 troubleshooting...• ENB graphics / ENB haxx (ENBOOST) (load the link and remove the "-") + most excellent
GUN ENB troubleshooting thread by the Hermit.
• Fake fullscreen mode windowed Alt + tab fix by Buda20, (the one I use with FNV).
• Companion fake fullscreen Fake Fullscreen Alt Tab Fix Gamma Contrast, Screenshots, Volume, Fixes, Stability and Performance, for many games by Buda20.
• One tweak Alt-tab functionality, Double Cursor fix, borderless Windows by virusek.
One tweak "Skyrim version" seems to also work for other games, more recent version.
• Twitch borderless Windows gaming.
8/// Leveled lists : Conflicting leveled lists can also be a problem, here are 2 solutions : (xedit
merged patch is not enough to manage leveled lists)
• Create a
bashed patch. See
Nexus bash Tags & wrye bash patch here + (download urls for each Bethesda game).
• Create a manual patch : this is
how things work with conflicts, leveled list can be forwarded manually with Xedit, (drag & drop references)
see here.
IMPORTANT ! If you add a master to a plugin, once done, click on "
sort masters", this will force Xedit to adjust IDs to the new load order. If you forget this step, your plugin is dead and once reloading it, you'll have a ton of <error can't resolve>. This means FNVedit/or the game will try to load
006ADF23 reference but as you've added a master, it has been renamed to
007ADF23.
• How to Make a Patch with Xedit by
Thallassa • Mator the eternal's
video fixing errors with xEdit.
• How to cancel modifications with xedit : do not save and close the program or if too late and the plugin is broken, no panic, you should have xedit backups in your data folder like this one :
DeadMoney.esm.save.2018_02_18_16_38_42 >>
date +
hour. In case of several modifications, this may help to find which one is working before the last modification that broke the plugin
9/// Reducing load order / merging : merging plugins :
My game count 85 active plugins, with a special esm loaded right after the DLCs and packs. The goal is to serve as a compiled base of modified references, forwarded by a special patch, (esp) loaded almost last in my load order. For the rest I use FNV plugin utility /
FO3 plugin utility since Fallout 3, to merge every similar mod, considering heavy mods can be problematic, (scripts conflicts among other things) and similar mods means PNJ, weapons, armors, etc... so that I know where to search things with xEdit and which plugin is supposed to modify NPCs, or ammos, etc...How to : easy, extract the archive on a local drive and click on the XPlugin.jar. If you have everything for this program to work you should obtain this windows :
- Interface:
• Close your mod manager first to ensure it won't do stupid things while you're merging / renaming files.
• Make a backup of your 2 files you want to merge, (2 at a time maximum to ensure compatibility).
• Rename the first file to, (the one already loaded by the game and resident in your savegames) let say...0001 and load it in the FNV plugin utility
1.
• Load the second plugin using the merging plugins command menu
2.
• Save as : name your plugin exactly like the original name to not confuse your game while in a playthrough (and mod manager). If it was "
FNVbasemods.esm"
use exactly the same name with the same extension. Save
3.
• Load your merged file along with the 2 original files in xEdit to compare and make a "check errors".
• Done.
10/// Making your own master / esm :• Start Xedit and load the plugin (*.esp) you want to tag as a master, once loaded, expand the left column of the esp and go to File header. Right-click on record flags and tick esm.
CTrl + s to save then
Alt + F4 to close = done.
• Creating an esm file : there are probably many methods, I know this one, open an existing master with Xedit, expand the left column and select everything, (except file header, don't delete it, this would make the file unusable), then right-click and remove. Then go in the file header and modify author's name as you wish and version.
Ctrl + s to save and
Alt + F4 to close. After renaming it, you can now use your new personal master to merge other plugins in it, following the tutorial above.
11/// Documentation, articles : suggested by
• @weintraub :
TTW tutorials & guides• Nexus FNV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting • ENB troubleshooting guide• Gamebryo console commands 12/// Utilities / tools : suggested by
• @Dextrose :
One tweak, (FO3/FNV/Skyrim) Double Cursor Fix, Borderless Window, etc...
• Nvidia profile inspector, (FPS limiter) & (
documentation)
• BSA browser standalone• Nif healer • Bodyslide and outfit Studio/// Credits
: these persons have participated in a way or another to almost everything listed above, so a big thank to them.Thallassa |
Matortheeternal |
Arthmoor |
BorisVorontsof |
GamerPoets |
Gopher |
TheCompiler (+ all the STEP team) |
Luco81 (NMM forum) |
Tannin42 |
I2edShift | ElminsterAU,
Sharlikran,
Zilav,
Hlp |
Meh321 |
Kapaer |
Sheson |
Mnelson999 |
Hadoram |
markdf |
Anton0028 |
Wrinklyninja (L.O.O.T contributors) |
Bcsp |
The Hermit |
Hope this helps
by 
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