Draxavior

Part 2: If the above fix was not enough, it's likely that you have a Dolby-supported soundcard and the software bundled with it is crashing F3 for you. Two of the three test computers have this (due to integrated soundcards etc) and it was interfering quite a lot. Disabling it changed the sound quite a bit, and made me dependant on generic subtitles as generic voices became quite low (Such as hearing Dad over the intercom in project purity) It did however remove crashing by disabling it. Note that stability was gained by using solution #1 and I did not need to do this step - However, this solution worked as well but was more detrimental to the in-game sound effects. It might be that only one of them will work for you, or that you need both at the same time. I don't know - highly dependant on your system.

This is a fix confirmed to be working towards direct crash (with and without crash message) to desktop and game freezing. Note that these fixes are likely to change how 3d sound works in-game (low generic voices (outside of direct convo), low footsteps etc..) On 1 test computer the sound was changed, on the 2 others it had no other effect than to remove crashing. Alright! So I thought I had found a stable mod setup for Fallout 3 after days of crashing, turns out my worst crashing had nothing to do with mods. Essentially I run F3 on this rig; Win7 64bit AMD FX 8320 - 8 Core 3.5ghz (Overclocked to 4ghz per core) 16gb Ram Nvidia 660 GTX 2gb Motherboard with built-in Realtek soundcard /w Dolby surround. Having been doing some research and exhausted all possible crash fix solutions out there, I decided it was time to dig a little deeper - and boy did i strike the motherlode! The fix I post here will of course not work for -everyone- but it works on my main computer, and solved the exact same problems on my other 2 (HP Elitebook 8530 laptop. Core 2 Duo 2.66ghz, 8gb ram, ATI 4350 or somesuch, and a fairly generic Intel i3 rig with specs i don't even care to remember. Common for them all is that they crashed the exact same way, and all run Win7 64bit) I am posting two separate solutions, but they may well both be necessary (if you have a Dolby supported soundcard). The first attached pic is a generic solution which is applicable on any windows 7 system (Possibly on others as well, but I don't have any other windows versions to test or verify)

Thanks.. gonna give the NVBounties a go.

Hoy! Basicly..I'm looking for mods that give me killing grounds/survival/hold the line kind of play. Doesn't have to be entirely lore-friendly, but that'd be a bonus. Or just a good quest mod that has a LOT of combat.. crush, kill, destroy, post-apocalyptic Rambo! My only real requirements is that the mod is stable and not a bug-ridden mess.. getting stuck halfway through it because of beta or whatever is no good. (Well aware that even the most stable mods can have hiccups) Any suggestions?

I don't mean to paint a dire picture, because you did do the community a service with those patches. I guess what managed to annoy me was the information i lacked with the Paradox stuff. I'll tell you how it went ;) FWE Looks neat, I want that. *grabs* FWE CO - Looks neat, I want that. *grabs, realizes it's too buggy and removes it* EVE Looks neat, I want that. *Grabs, picks up that he needs FOIP for it to work with FWE. Gets FOIP, realizes it's outdated - looks elsewhere* Blackened - Well this looks alright, I guess. No idea what a Paradox thingy is - Def need Paradox Eve, now wtf is that? I search around for a while in annoyance. Ready to give up as there's nothing called a EVE Paradox, I stumble into Paradox Ignition mod(s) and quickly look around that page, missing the "EVE now has Paradox by default" in the updates list - because I'm not looking for updates, I'm looking for Paradox EVE to finally get this thing working. Paradox left me with a easily missed tiny sentence to say Paradox EVE is now integrated in it's original mod. Since i missed that one wee sentence, i ent up looking back and forth and thinking there was no Paradox EVE after all and was ready to try my luck with an outdated FOIP again. See what I'm getting at? xD The mods themselves are great, and I am not free of blame as i -did- miss the one sentence of EVE having Paradox integrated. But Blackened infopage says you need the Paradox Ignition version of EVE, so that sent me on a wild goose chase - for something that kind of doesn't exist anymore. These are things that quickly leads to confusion for people who have never seen the infopages of these mods, but are met with a wall of text of updates. List all current features, -then- updates and changes. xD

F4 does look amazing.. and I guess there's no surprise it's what inspired me to dust off this old gem. In terms of setting, mood, lethality of the land etc, I hope F4 leans more towards F2 than F3/NV. F2 just felt more.. real, harsh and unforgiving. F3/NV is more like a post-apocalyptic theme park - without mods. FWE changes that and I feel ashamed for not having used it before hehe.

I've found the solution to my problem and I'd like to thank you all for the time and effort spent on helping me. I really do appreciate it, and it's even a little heartwarming to see such an "aging" game still have an active, welcoming and helpfull community. Ultimately, my problem was never load orders or mod conflicts. I decided to have a deeper look into the .ini file found here "C:\Users\Espen\Documents\My Games\Fallout3" Of course, I've had it open before and peeked briefly, and added the typical busethreadedai and inumhwthreads etc etc But I found another line of text that intrigued me and I changed it's value for 0 to 1. bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=0 -> bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1 The sudden and abrupt freezing is gone. I've had it run stable for me in a 4 hour session now, with a previous record of 1 hour at most - usually no more than 15-20 mins. I don't know exactly what this does, but I assume it somehow purges scripts or ai's not currently in an active cell - I had thought maybe it made things despawn and thusly was not an ideal thing to have activated, but corpses and items seems to remain like normal. Even so, it works now and has solved my problem. - Again thank you all for the input, I've learned a lot and picked up some good information along the way :)

You're right, of course. It would probably be better to use the whole package from Paradox and Blackened, but truth be known i'm starting to feel an animosity towards many mods here on the nexus. So many of them only tell you what the most recent changes are or say how this and that is changed - changed from what? different to how it was? - what was it like before? I understand that all the modders are spending their free time making these mods, but the backwards compatibility and development history is severly lacking in so many regards. For someone like me who has not been following these mods over time, knowing exactly what is what - just takes far too much time and effort to unravel. And this just pushes me away. Not saying Paradox or Blackened are among the worst, because they're not - but even they are quite irritating. Having to mix and match between mods, compatibility patch here, resource there, one being updated whilst the other is lagging behind..- As I said, I understand the modders are spending their free on this - but it leads me down the path of "i'll grab whatever works, screw the rest." ... xD

You're wrong about Fellout. Full is just a full release, not all (any) dlc. Quite specificly states you need the dlc support esp's if you have Broken Steel. As for Alternate Travel, NMM won't let me move it in the load order. It's stuck where it is for that very reason.. Why, I don't know - but I guess nmm is being told by some code that this is where it belongs. Not bothering you with a savegame yet, as I've not yet been able to sit down with it for a few hours - it might be working flawlessly now.

C:\Users\Espen\AppData\Local\Fallout3 -> Plugins.txt fallout3.esmAnchorage.esmThePitt.esmBrokenSteel.esmPointLookout.esmZeta.esmCRAFT.esmCALIBR.esmEVE.esmRH_IRONSIGHTS.esmFO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esmFO3 Wanderers Edition - Alternate Travel.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.espRH_IronSights_Basic_VanillaPlugin.espRH_IronSights_Basic_AnchoragePlugin.espRH_IronSights_Basic_PittPlugin.espRH_IronSights_Basic_BrokenSteelPlugin.espRH_IronSights_Basic_PointLookoutPlugin.espRH_IronSights_Basic_ZetaPlugin.espRH_IronSights_Pitt_NewRifleSights.espRH_IronSights_PL_NewItems.espRH_FWE_Bridge.espRH_EVE_Bridge.espJackoMilitaryEquipment1.espUndergroundHideout.espGNR Enhanced.espFellout-Full.espFellout-Anchorage.espFellout-BrokenSteel.espFellout-PointLookout.espFellout-Zeta.espFellout-pipboylight.espLeatherBackpack - eng.espSteinerCombatGear.esp New Load Order CRAFT.esm=1CALIBR.esm=1EVE.esm=1RH_IRONSIGHTS.esm=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - Alternate Travel.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_VanillaPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_AnchoragePlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_PittPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_BrokenSteelPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_PointLookoutPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_ZetaPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Pitt_NewRifleSights.esp=1RH_IronSights_PL_NewItems.esp=1RH_FWE_Bridge.esp=1RH_EVE_Bridge.esp=1JackoMilitaryEquipment1.esp=1UndergroundHideout.esp=1GNR Enhanced.esp=1Fellout-Full.esp=1Fellout-Anchorage.esp=1Fellout-BrokenSteel.esp=1Fellout-PointLookout.esp=1Fellout-Zeta.esp=1Fellout-pipboylight.esp=1LeatherBackpack - eng.esp=1SteinerCombatGear.esp=1 I did find something peculiar, the plugins.txt in "C:\Users\Espen\AppData\Local\Fallout3" did not change according to NMM, even after starting up the game.I deleted this file and that prompted me to actually having to re-enable all the mods in NMM. I'm not sure if this has solved anything, but i'm gonna give it a go. If this fails, I guess I'll just have to send you a savegame somehow :D I'm very appreciative of the effort ya'll are putting into this. :blush:

Nope, starting to crash again.. using the large address aware, .ini tweaks, enb crash fix. Just complete and sudden picture freeze. No slowdowns, no hitching, just bang stop. GameMode=Fallout3 Fallout3.esm=1Anchorage.esm=1ThePitt.esm=1BrokenSteel.esm=1PointLookout.esm=1Zeta.esm=1CRAFT.esm=1CALIBR.esm=1EVE.esm=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - Alternate Travel.esp=1RH_IRONSIGHTS.esm=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp=1FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_VanillaPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_AnchoragePlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_PittPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_BrokenSteelPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_PointLookoutPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Basic_ZetaPlugin.esp=1RH_IronSights_Pitt_NewRifleSights.esp=1RH_IronSights_PL_NewItems.esp=1RH_FWE_Bridge.esp=1RH_EVE_Bridge.esp=1JackoMilitaryEquipment1.esp=1UndergroundHideout.esp=1GNR Enhanced.esp=1Fellout-Full.esp=1Fellout-Anchorage.esp=1Fellout-BrokenSteel.esp=1Fellout-PointLookout.esp=1Fellout-Zeta.esp=1Fellout-pipboylight.esp=1LeatherBackpack - eng.esp=1SteinerCombatGear.esp=1 I'm really quite stumped :S

I'm trying to figure this out.. am i right in assuming that the Paradox patch for EVE is redundant and removed, and that EVE has been merged on it's own? Because I can't really find anything on the Paradox Ignition for EVE, so Blackened should work with FWE and standard EVE? :S EDIT: Yeah, figured it.. EVE has paradox by default now. Thanks for the help guys :)

Didn't even notice those Optional Restore ones in the list, as i chose to not install them! How odd. And I guess I can remove that Blackened RH + FWE + EVE.. Do i need that paradox thing for Blackened FWE + EVE? So much text everywhere :D

GameMode=Fallout3 Fallout3.esm=1 Anchorage.esm=1 BrokenSteel.esm=1 ThePitt.esm=1 Zeta.esm=1 PointLookout.esm=1 CRAFT.esm=1 CALIBR.esm=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - Alternate Travel.esp=1 EVE.esm=1 RH_IRONSIGHTS.esm=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - Optional Restore Tracers.esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - Optional Restore Tracers (automatics only).esp=1 FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.esp=1 Blackened FWE + EVE.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Basic_AnchoragePlugin.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Basic_VanillaPlugin.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Basic_ZetaPlugin.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Pitt_NewRifleSights.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Basic_PittPlugin.esp=1 RH_IronSights_PL_NewItems.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Basic_BrokenSteelPlugin.esp=1 RH_IronSights_Basic_PointLookoutPlugin.esp=1 RH_IronSights_RemoveReticule.esp=1 RH_FWE_Bridge.esp=1 RH_EVE_Bridge.esp=1 Blackened RH + FWE + EVE.esp=1 Current load order. Let's hope it works :S

Don't currently have a load order.. I removed all mods and uninstalled entirely and gonna start over. I was starting to get too many stray files to know what was what. Gonna have another go and try this load order; Vanilla DLC FWE EVE Blackened FWE/EVE RH RH FWE RH EVE NMC Texture pack. Also, any pointers on Win7 64 stability would be appreciated. There's like a hundred different sites out there thay all say different things :confused: