TexMesh Discussion and News

[KMA]

Latest News

 

New Version Soon

I am redoing the normal maps for all the internal areas, adding the alpha channels back in. I have discovered that they both correct the flickering textures issue, and have less of an impact on FPS than I originally thought. This should take about a week. I will offer both versions, so those with lower end systems can choose to use the original since the new version could have a larger impact on their systems. I am not sure if I will repack the entire BSA or just release this as an addon. It will depend on the final size of the files. If they are too large then it may mean that I have to push the BSA compression to 40% which is unacceptable.

 

The Official Patch 1.1.0.35 corrupts saved games. This is a well reported error, but Bethesda is not pulling or fixing it, for some reason. If you have installed it and you try to save and it crashes, this has nothing to do with this mod. You will likely find that the last few saves you made before crashing, are also corrupt (if you try to save after loading, it crashes). You have to reinstall the game to get rid of this defect. You can grab the 1.0.0.15 patches from here. Just keep going back through your saves until you find one that works.

 

For those with the DLC OA

I wrote on another thread: Has anyone tried unpacking the BSAs and running them through either the ArchiveInvalidation file, or using "ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated!"?

 

I got this reply: Just tried that (using ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated!), seems to work just fine. Made it through the cliffs and to the -generals camp, no mesh/texture errors.

 

Sounds like it works. It may help you actually use the DLC instead of waiting weeks for another patch. Whatever you do, do not buy another DLC until this is fixed properly.

 

There is also an Unofficial Patch with an impressive list of fixes. Some of these have already been implemented by me in TexMesh but many have not. It does not make anything worse, but I did not notice a decrease in CTDing either. However, since it fixes many meshes that were improperly designed, I am going to keep using it. Others have claimed that this fixed many of their crashes.

 

New Users

 

A brief explanation of Bethesda's file structure.

All the files that came with the game are put into archives called Bethesda Software Archives or BSAs. These are the same thing as a RAR or 7Zip file, just proprietary to Bethesda. I have had considerable trouble getting the BSA packer to work correctly, so I am using loose files until it is solved. The loose files are harder to install, and BSAs could be used, then installing other mods would be much easier. Right now the Meshes.bsa works just fine, but the Textures.bsa is not (although a new version is in Beta testing). That means you should either become a beta tester and get a copy of the Texture.bsa file, or play it safe and get the loose files and follow the instructions in those files carefully.

 

Download the Meshes.bsa and Textures.bsa from here or from my website as a single file (each). Infrequently the F3 Nexus servers corrupt a file while you are downloading. If you cannot open the file then this has happened and you need to download that one again. They all open separately, so test each after downloading it, to see if you need to get it again.

 

If there are additional patches then you should download those as well. They will always contain the necessary files to install the patch. Instructions are included in each of the four texture files.

 

 

For those who want Loose Meshes

 

As requested I am uploading the Loose Mesh files for modding purposes, manually split into two files. There have been no reports of bad meshes in the BSA, so the BSA still remains the easiest way to use the Meshes. Included with the loose mesh files is a full ArchiveInvalidation that covers all three folders (Textures, Meshes, and Trees). Since F3Nexus is having more server issues this will only be offered through my web page. I cannot afford to lose all this time uploading to the 95% mark and then having to start over. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

If you already have the BSAs then it is easy to get the loose files from them using FOMM (just think of a BSA as another archive file type like .7z or .rar). Instructions are available from my web page.

[Aissa78]

I didnt have any problem with my own made texture.bsa still I downloaded yours and tested a bit yesterday. So far so good I'd say. But there a minor problem in springvale school when using flashlight the texture goes dark and flicker a bit. It just a little section where this occurs in a corridor near the entrance, still I dont think its a big issue. Though you might know.

 

Could be the fellout mod im using that screw up, I'll check it out this evening.

 

BR

[KMA]

When you made your texture.bsa what level of compression did you use (if any)? What OS are you using?

 

Mine just passed beta testing, and appears to be fully working. I tested the packer over 10 times in a row, and even repacked the Vanilla textures. They all resulted in corrupted BSAs so I know it is the packer. I do not know why, but it has to be it since my files did not change between attempts, yet the last one worked and the rest did not.

 

No, there a few flickering textures that I am hunting down. They are part of the Specularity problems that Bethesda has with this game. I will re-visit the school and see if I can find the one that you are talking about. I just uploaded a new patch to take care of a few of these, so you should grab it.

[Aissa78]

Weid havent got that problem at all with mine besides that flickering issues you described. I just folowed your instructions word by word no hocus pocus :) Played over 20 h this weekend and didnt have a single missing texture whatsoever!

 

I reinstalled my XP with SP2 last week and using latest drivers from my GPU. Game not patched. I installed the game from scratch, run'd it to be sure it worked.

Installed FMM, runed it to secured iut still runs.

Replaced mesh.bsa with yours, run'd and tested.

Created texture.bsa out of you loose file using 20% compression ( the other drop list "high", "very high" etc was left blank) without the megaton patch! Runed it and played it for 20 h + now...added ssome of NMCs 512+512 texture (megaton, and ground). Runs like a dream.

 

So no loose file is used besides NMC's mod and some weapon mod. Didnt realized you still had problem with.

Well hope this helps!

 

 

EDIT:

BTW I did have to deleted my fallout.ini once when my my game crashed during startup. And it help. Dont ask me when or why. But I was plying around for hours to get it all right.

If you'd like I'll gladly upload the file for you.

 

Cheers!

[KMA]

If you'd like I'll gladly upload the file for you.

 

It could be that you got lucky, or that XP works well with it but Vista

does not. Thanks for the offer but I did get one to work, it just took

about 5 hours of just repacking it over and over. Now that I have

a working texture and mesh BSA I am just going to release loose file

patches.

 

The school is well lit, and using a flashlight under these conditions will

cause flickering in just about any area. I do not like the over-bloom

when the flashlight adds to the regular light anyway, so I never use

the flashlight unless it is really dark. Bethesda has a lot of lighting

issues, especially with HDR and Bloom, so I am hoping that they

release a useful patch soon. Until then, I will patch any regular

lighting issues I come across, but I cannot do all the flashlight in

well lit areas too. It would mean adding Alpha Channels back

into all the Normal Maps and this would degrade performance.

 

 

4Aces HiRes Pack: Mostly Interiors and landscape. This is the main file so get it first.

 

HiRes Armor: All Armor and Clothing.

 

HiRes Weapons: All Weapons.

 

Edit - Added a new patch to fix all the indoor flickering textures called the Total Patch, since it includes the multi-patch which I released earlier, but only fixed a few of them.

 

 

Cheers!

[KMA]

Here are a list of tweaks to make for those with lower end system. Make a backup of your fallout.ini and falloutprefs.ini file

(C:\Users\user name goes here\Documents\My Games\Fallout3 - In Vista).

 

In the Game Launcher's Options (Advanced) Change:

AA to 2

AF to 4

Depth of Field Off

Radial Blur Quality Low

Texture Quality (Medium to test and if possible move to High)

Water Reflections Off

Water Multisampling Low

Shadows Off - Untick Box (they do not do much anyway)

View Distance - Use these, not the in game sliders since Bethesda did not make them work until you reload anyway.

Move most of these to between 50% - 75% of their range except for Shadow Fade = 1 (yet you can still see your own

shadow).

Distant LOD

Tree Fade = 25

Object Fade = 38

Land Quality = 100 (move down if too much stuttering in wasteland, or up to full if system can handle it)

 

Then edit you fallout.ini so that the following lines have the following values

fLoadingInitUpdateInterval=0 (speeds up loading screens - no impact on game)

iMinGrassSize=140 (thins out grass)

fGrassWindMagnitudeMax=0.0000 (this stops the grass from swaying)

fGrassWindMagnitudeMin=0.0000 (this stops the grass from swaying)

 

For those with XP and 2GB+ RAM or Vista and 3GB+

uInterior Cell Buffer=6

uExterior Cell Buffer=72

iPreloadSizeLimit=52428800

 

If you are having issues during combat (massive slowdown/stuttering) then edit your FalloutPrefs.ini so that

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=5 - Reduces blood and bullet marks during combat

fDecalLOD2=750.0000 - Reduces blood and bullet marks during combat

uMaxDecals=50 - Reduces blood and bullet marks during combat

 

Use only these if you need even more FPS (edit Fallout.ini)

bDrawShaderGrass=0 (this will remove ALL grass from the game)

bDoSpecularPass=0 (This is an extreme measure to improve FPS, it will remove all shiny surfaces)

 

I did not include the background loading, pathing (multicores), and memory tweaks

due to Bethesda's inability to patch the game properly. There are issues with memory

management, loading, and multiple memory holes that can crash the game if there is

not enough free memory. These are safe tweaks that will not corrupt your saved games.

 

Cheers!

4Aces

[KMA]

There are some issues with a Russian language version of the game working with TexMesh. It seems to be reporting an error of some kind. Has anyone running TexMesh on a version other than English had any problems? Since it does not alter any of the language files, I assume that it will work with any version of the game.

 

Thanks!

[KMA]

Given the lack of action both here and with my TexMesh mod, I am going to close this thread down. TexMesh will still be there so if you have any questions ask them there or PM me.

 

Cheers!

 

Could a moderator please lock this thread (delete it if you want). Thanks!