Does installing FO3 outside of "Programfilesx86/Steam" help?

[papamac67]

This is where I have it installed on my c: drive, as with all my other Steam games. I have FO3 running pretty good...but do get the occasional random crash. I have tried everything to prevent this but am at a dead end. Should FO3/FO3-NV be installed in a different folder outside of Steam? Will that help with crashes? Does anyone have an experience trying this?....moving it from Steam to a different folder?

 

My PC:
Windows 7 Ultimate
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.6 GHz
ASUS P5Q PRO
8GB Kingston Hyper X DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15
Sapphire Radeon 6850 HD
SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer
WD 750GB SATA HD 32Mb cache
BFG GS650 PSU
Samsung Super Writemaster DVD+RW
Samsung B2030 20” Syncmaster Monitor

[M48A5]

Please see this topic: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1465357-installing-fallout-3-with-windows-78-and-xp/

 

In order for some mods to work (any that require fose), Fallout 3 must be installed in a location other than Program Files. I do not have steam and steam is not necessary for Fallout 3 to play.

New Vegas, however, is a steam game and I think you should leave it in the steam folder.

[luthienanarion]

No, moving it will not help with crashes, and FOSE works perfectly fine in Program Files. People move games out of Program Files so that utilities such as mod managers, *Edit, etc. have write access to the game's files without having to change folder permissions.

The game crashes now and then because it runs on an unstable game engine. There are a lot of things you can do to make it crash more often and unfortunately little you can do to make it crash less frequently, but not having it crash at all is likely impossible.

 

M48A5, Steam is required for Fallout 3 if you purchase and install the game from it. It doesn't matter that the original release of the game was not through Steam or that disc-based copies do not require it.

[papamac67]

Thank you luthienanarion for clearing that up. I asked because I have seen a few posts here and elsewhere from people suggesting moving it out of Steam MAY make it run better. I will leave it where it is. It runs pretty good if not schizophrenic for me. 1 session will be crash/freeze free for 2 - 3 hours, the next session will crash within 10 mins, run good for 30 mins, crash, run good for 20 mins, freeze, etc. Theres no rhyme or reason to how it behaves. In my 20 years of playing PC games I've never had a more frustrating experience, but I absolutely LOVE the game so I will put up with it.