Fallout 3 lags like poo ....

[Matrimelee]

*ignore the "lags like poo...", forgot to edit the thread title and since I'm not able to edit it now, oh well ...*

 

I definitely know the problem of Bethesda's games and their not really well optimized engine, but Fallout 3 is really horrible, although I have a good rig, imo.

 

System:

Q6600 @ 2.8Ghz

Geforce 9800 GTX+ 512MB

4 GB DDR2 @ 800 MHZ

500GB HD

Windows Vista 64bit Home

Directx10

Fallout 3 v.1.7

 

The game lags a lot when I take a walk in the Wastelands. For example, every time when I turn myself right or left (looking in another direction) while walking in the Wastelands, the game hangs for 0.5 secs (loading area?). I think that it could be a memory problem but I already changed the values in the Fallout3.ini (like ipreloadsizelimit, or buseharddrivecache) and nothing really changed. So, are there any other things which maybe could help preventing big lags and ctd's? I know that I have a big plugin list, but even Oblivion didn't lag that much, although I was using moch mure plugins

 

http://s8.directupload.net/images/090808/vewc5zg3.png

[Gishank]

Question - What settings are you attempting to run at?

[Matrimelee]

Isn't there something like Streamline for Fallout 3, too? This little plugin was VERY helpful in Oblivion.

 

http://s3.directupload.net/images/090808/n6obv7cj.png http://s7.directupload.net/images/090808/d2rk9zks.png http://s7.directupload.net/images/090808/j2xjlgs7.png http://s12b.directupload.net/images/090808/buwygbmm.png http://s12.directupload.net/images/090808/p9z78l43.png http://s12b.directupload.net/images/090808/caxm3v35.png

[mechine]

Well yes and no

 

 

 

 

First things first though...

 

Ipreloadsizelimit might be a bad idea

 

 

Depends on if you set it for the 4Gb number or the better lower numbers like 2Gb or 1Gb

 

There are also other settings you have to change in order to change the amout of ram FO3 uses

 

http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html

 

 

 

 

 

What you want to do pretty much is set all the settings, like the ingame settings, and also the fallout 3 launcher settings

shown in the screenshot, follow the tweekguide, to get them perfect

 

 

perfect would be close to halfway down on the distances an numbers

maybe medium shadows, shadow filtering, water reflections, water multi

You don't really look at those, but notice them in the edge of vision

which makes it a immersion issue, so turn it to medium

 

 

Next, turn off Fallout3 launcher's AA an AF settings to none or off (performance)

 

Update your nivida drivers, then go into the grapics cards settings, don't use setting with 3D preview

use the advanced settings

 

 

What you want to do, is change the global setting for AA and AF, to overide any application setting

then pick a AA and AF that suits your taste, however these settings for the grapics card, you can

pick higher settings for AA an AF than say you would have picked in fallout 3's launcher AA an AF

Also there are custom settings like 8XQ or 16XQ, which the fallout launcher doesn't even use.

 

 

8XQ is 8X AA or AF that works with the same performance as 4X, same for 16XQ works like

8X AA but with 16X quality.

 

 

You can either Force AA an AF via the override any application setting in the global setting

applyed to all games, or in the Fallout.exe game profile listed on the tab to the right from the global

profile I think.

 

 

 

Fallout 3's AA an AF kind of stinks, in order to get a good render, you have to jack up the number so high that

it drags down the performance, while overiding an using your grapics card setting, in some cases you can double

the setting for falloutlauncher's AA an AF without any performance loss. Which is something to be said about Cards these days.

 

 

 

Even with Vsync unchecked it is still applied, you can disable it in the notepad.ini, however, I concider it a bad idea

for fallout 3, you might could also override any application setting with Vsync like the AA an AF, which if you ask me

is a better idea than just turning it off.

 

 

I think it's time for you to grow up, and become more of a elite PC gamer.

The arguement is

 

 

"I can run 60-80 FPS with Vsync turned off on my super powerful computer"

 

 

that arguement is a pee pee contest, and also a mute point

 

 

The retort would be something like

 

 

"You won't notice a difference between 30 FPS and 60-80"

"Movies are recorded in 25 FPS"

"Yeah you got bragging rights to benchmarking framerates, however here you are on a technical support forum

with a problem of stuttering frame rates that lagg like poo or whatever with Vsync off"

 

 

 

 

If anything I would reset my fallout.ini notepad options file, then go test to see if it's any better.

That file is a double edge sword, can can help or hurt you.

 

Afterwards I would follow the guide posted above an yes read all of it

at least the advanced part, the whole thing is really good though.

 

 

I'd post my grapics card settings, but since you are running direct X 10

and also vista, you should go thru them an read the mouse overs or help

and discriptions to tell which setting you should pick for each entry in the advanced

settings in the grapics card.

[JimboUK]

It sounds like your VRAM is full and your getting texture swapping, 512mb isn't a lot with large textures and mods that add more. Might be worth trying this http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=588 the game looks the same but uses less VRAM. It helped me on my last card which had 512mb, I now have 1gb and the problem has gone away completely.

[mechine]

Killer link there.

 

 

 

 

Vram is adjustable though

 

Thrashing is the problem with it I think, accessing the harddrive for stuff that should be in RAM

 

 

 

I haven't checked since I changed the amount of system RAM fallout 3 uses

 

 

Even still a while back it was hanging around just under a megabyte for system memory

then whatever got put in the 512 ram on the card

 

 

 

so the 512 gets filled with important stuff or 1Gb in the guy aboves lucky angel case

Then the system RAM get's bombed with almost a Gb, even though there is a free Gb after that or 3 free Gb with vista

Then the page file, which you put on the system harddrive I hope since you put fallout on the second drive

an the system drive isn't really being used much, avoiding thrashing, following the advise on page file size (VRAM)

it would be like 4Gb

 

 

 

so there's 8-10 or more Gb of RAMRAM

 

 

they should make a RAID for page file only application

 

 

Next system I build I wana make a killer RAID on it for this

[BababooeyHTJ]

I am experiencing the same issue. I am running the game maxed out but I should easily be able to, I can't figure out what is causing these slowdowns.

 

I'm running a GTX280, with a Q9650 @ 3.825ghz and 8gb of ram at 1066mhz on Vista x64. I have tried different drivers and sadly since I'm using the Steam releace I can't roll back to a different patch. I'm just out of ideas.

[billypnats]

I think mods are contributors to this lagginess but not the cause. His rig is like a monster, I use all AMD stuff and still have better performance than him, something is really wrong. How is your performance when you revert back to the default .ini ? btw what texture packs do you use?

[RyanLP]

Gah, I feel your pain. It recommends medium for me, yet I haven't even started the game yet because the video kept lagging and it was just pissing me off.

 

I downloaded TIO though, Ima see how it works.

[Manny8127]

I know what your problem is. I literally quit playing fallout 3 until I found out how to fix it. I have the same gpu (GTS 250) and it seems that it just can't handle the water effects in fallout 3. Try going into water settings and uncheck depth of fog and turn down the water multisampling down to low. I'll be damned if this don't fix your problem. I used to lag like hell in every single turn and now I'm lag free. Also, check out the fallout 3 studder remover mod in fallout3nexus, it makes it feel alot smoother. Believe it or not, but those water settings I mentioned also effects areas indoors, including places like megaton and rivet city. It pretty much stops the lag everywhere. I think it's because fallout 3 loads the whole wasteland map no matter where you are in the game. Hope I've helped even though this thread is kinda old.

 

I would also like to note that I am using quite a bit of texture mods.