Help needed with some mods

[Velurian]

Hi there, been going up and down the threads and did not find a solution to my problem and so I m hoping someone could help me out who knows a thing or 2 about adding mods...

 

problem: after installing mods f3 crashes when loading any saved game

 

system: win vista sp1 32bit / p7350 / 4670 mobility radeom / 4gb ram

game: fallout 3 goty + fomm + calibr + fook + aii

 

whats done: downloaded FilePlanet_Fallout_3_Mods_v4.0 and selected a few from the package, mainly attemped to get fook going. I did everything in accordance with FOOK's readme file:

 

FOOK2 v1.0

 

Setup Guide

!!! REQUIRED TOOLS !!!

ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated! (AII!) - Download: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=944 - done

Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) - Download here: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640 - done

Fallout Script Extender (FOSE) - Strongly recommended - Download: http://fose.silverlock.org - did not take

 

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS

Remove all previous FOOK or FOOK2 files. (had a clean install)

 

Install FOOK2 Beta Files

Download the FOOK2 installer - Download: http://www.fookunity.com/fook2

Run the installer

Verify the installation path to your Fallout 3 folder

Confirm and complete installation of files

 

Arrange Load Order

Launch FOMM

Arrange and select files to load - seemes ok! (in the picture archorage and pit are in wrong places - must have happened on load, have it fixed)

 

http://www.upload.ee/image/341905/Capture.JPG

 

With DLCs including Mothership Zeta:

 

[x] Fallout3.esm

[x] Anchorage.esm

[x] ThePitt.esm

[x] BrokenSteel.esm

[x] PointLookout.esm

[x] Zeta.esm

[x] CALIBR.esm

[x] FOOK2 - Main.esm

[x] FOOK2 - [*censored*] World and Neighbourhood Kit.esm

[x] FOOK2 - [DIK] DLC Improvement Kit.esm

[x] FOOK2 - Main.esp

[x] FOOK2 - [DIK] DLC Improvement Kit.esp

[x] FOOK2 - Mothership Zeta.esp

 

the result...

 

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/3410/error.mp4

 

 

Thanks in advance,

Velurian

[mechine]

bah well, I thought maybe someone else would say something on this issue. Nothing really put up a red flag that you did something wrong. Other than it being a laptop maybe. Is it a laptop? Just wondering. I have a hard time running it on 8800 GT's in SLI an the games actually designed to run on 8000 series, heh. Idk it's a huge game. Plenty of options though, it's not so hard to get rid of the crashes an stutter problems that plague fallout. The tweek guide an Web-ensized by CSB would help with most of it. I only mention it as a future reference for you after you get things going better. Sorry to hear you're having problems.

 

 

There's a silly old rule about installing fallout 3 outside of program files. It could be, but I don't think that's what you are running into. Okay I see, I watched the video. Ha yeah I've never had that happen, bugh.. hah ha, Okay what's happening there is either your save game went corupt, or your load order is messed up. Both fatal errors. You could start a new game, an if it does the same thing, bam it's a bad load order, then if it doesn't then a corupt save game probably.

 

What we do is to never autosave (disable it) then never quick save, Each time press esc an create a new save, then don't delete any saves until you are ready to delete them all. Also it's a risk if you add any mods to a existing save game, which is why I don't do that hardly ever. The problem with corupt save games is that the game can be corupt and crashing for a hour or more, meanwhile you are running around creating save games or autosaves which have locked in this coruption. Furthermore the quicksave an autosave are not full saves, they are partials, which promote even more coruption, where pressing ESC and creating a new one pauses the game, then creates a full save. Then you never delete them for good luck an because you never know when you may have to roll back.

 

Load orders, are just a bunch of rules. Do this do that, not here, not there, yeah like that. Now days it's actually more easy to use Web-ensized by CSB in order to learn FO3edit in a interactive guide, than learn all the rules to making a perfect load order with mods made from different folks which all use different load orders. There are automated programs which will sort of auto determine your load order for you but, unless the creator of that program knows about an has tested all available mods to work all in different combination, the point is mute. Nexus downloads for fallout 3 are far to vast to ever even begin to grasp the available combinations. If you take a step back an look at FIOP (fallout inter-operability program) even those simple overrides .esp's (for popular mods which conflict the most) Don't work that well because there is no way the person writing them could factor in the crazy load outs that players use. It's not that bad though.

 

I'll tell you what I do first. I install fallout on D:/ (or C:/) the main point is that it's in it's own folder on the hard drive, even if it's just for good luck. Then I patch that thing with the newest one. Then I install the DLC's (yeah totally worth it). Go ahead an get all the other stuff FOMM, FOSE, FO3edit, GECK, GECK update, which all go in the fallout 3 folder before the data folder. Then I force a defragment on the hard-drive. Which is simple it tells you no you don't need to defrag an you hit defrag anyway. Then I go read an follow the tweek guide making good decisions.

 

http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html <--------TweekGuide FTW! After that I make a RAOTW (random A**hole of the wastes) Which is pretty simple, I start a new game with a random charicter, then run around causing chaos, trying to test an minimize any frame stutter, micro stutter, or mouse lag. Which yes those are three different things. You want to try to make the game crash, which yeah it will with the patched vanilla game, it's just that complex. You should also update your grapics card drivers, and remember that Fallout 3 doesn't like Overclocking the CPU or the RAM either (dang).

 

Then another trick is to launch the default fallout 3 launcher (yeah you need the disc in there for that) then open the settings, change AA an AF to off (performance), then exit that, navigate over to your grapics card control panel, then Force whatever AA an AF setting you want via the AA setting "Override any application setting) If I run anything over 4X in fallout's AA it loses performance, but anything less than 4X is such low quality that some of the key textures look WACK! The gamer rule is that let the 3D application decide if it has settings for AA an AF, but in fallout those just stink. By overriding any application setting, thereby taking care of AA an AF on the actual grapics card an GPU rather than inside the fallout 3 software pre GPU data, it's like burden is lifted off the system, at least the already burdened fallout software. I can pick SLI 32XQ AA an 16 AF an run around in fallout like it's 2X or something. Totally opposite from every other game out there.

 

 

Now that we got that out of the way, the tweekguide covers the rest of the grapics settings. So I've got my Vanilla fallout 3 with DLC's running smooth. Now's the time to dump a poop loads worth of mods in there. You can have up to about 255 or so, but anything around 200 is a lot of freaking modz. ZOMGZ, 255 if you can even load that many, would take about a week to fix if not two weeks. That is fix it so that it works as good as vanilla (which is a stretch) Plus heck sometimes vanilla doesn't even work that good. The set up is the key I think, you know that your install is good an your settings are good, you did the RAOTW testing an tweeking. See the pinned topics on installing mods if you want to follow the rules. Anyhowz, once you get it all installed. Open FOMM, dang dang dang, look at that mess, just look at it. You'll want to toggle on the archive invalidation invalidated (only have to do it once unless you have weird problems with textures, then just turn it off an on) Then start with Fallout.esm at the very top, you want to go from top to bottom, then after fallout.esm, load the DLC's in the order they came out, because some of them share settings which were changed as a sort of update to how it runs, (just guessing)

 

 

The key old rules for load orders are mainly, that you want to load things that are the same in groups, like armor with armor, buildings with buildings, perks with perks. You only want one mod that changes race, eyes, faces, hair an such, but that's the old rule, they are merging that kind of thing. Also you can only really use one mod which changes lists, like loot lists, this kind of thing is usually in the read me. Like Fellout says it works great with enhanced weather, but enhanced weather says don't use other weather mods except for fellout in the read me, and either one or the other will control the weather depending on which is loaded first. The same goes for your large mods, the large ones usually touch on the same stuff, hence why FOIP's overrides got overwriten so often, but as long as it works. Then sometimes a read me will tell you to load a optional part before another mod so it doesn't get overwriten. They usually sort of tell you how an where to load it. But that's how they load it, depending on where you load it will determine what it does. Like I used to use Unofficial fallout patch, which was great, but I used Fook with it, an MMM on top of that, so most of the stuff in UFP got overwriten by FOOK, which both were overwriten by MMM in many items.

 

Enter FO3edit, a high performance multiple use tool interface, for doing all kinds of crazy stuff they never thought we would do or could even be done. The old guide for FO3edit was like 200 pages long. So yeah I didn't read it, I just jumpped in there an started messing things up until I figured it out. I sort of learned how to work with fallout from installing an messing it up 20 times or so. Anyway, not anymore. The Web-ensized guide to FO3edit by CSB is great, an interactive guide which you don't have to do all at once, but part by part as you like. There's two parts you want to focus on though, Merge Patch creation, then Master update, these are easy an fix a lot of things that will keep you playing for hours.

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9616 <---------WEBASIZESUPERPWNAMATOR 3000.3 BY CSB

 

Okay so I've got the mods installed. Since I already know all the rules for load orders I can pretty much spit one out that will load up the game. That's the big goal here, because if the load order is wrong it's going to crash before you even get to the load save game screen, or even when you load the save game in your case. This in when I get into the real workhorse of FO3edit, which is the ability to view all the data inside a load order on a color spread sheet type interface. Which if you learn how to create a merge patch first you pretty much know the basics of FO3edit. I load the whole load order then work all the kinks out, which thanks to CSB is now pretty easy for you guys. The basic tools are drag an drop, copy paste, then some things you can't fix by normal means which is where you get into overrides. Your best bet at being new to FO3edit would be to create a back up of all your installed mods, then if you screw up you can just drag an drop them in. At the start though, you can just load up all the mods in FO3edit, an see which one is causing the game not to get to the load screen, because if it crashes that part in fallout then it will not load it in FO3edit an then tell you which one you need to move.

 

 

The other thing about FO3edit, when you go down the list from top to bottom fixing stuff, you can also change things, so that you get a more custom version of the game for yourself. I change names back to English if they are in Russian or whatever (even though Russian is pretty cool) Then adjust some of the overpowered weapons or overpowered charicters. I'll create overrides which allow one mod to use another persons mod's resources. I'll see stuff an change where it loads in the load order to get it not to be overwriten. Simple mods which just change one thing, I'll merge into other mods, I'll change globals, merge optional .esp's into the main esp. An stuff like that while I'm also fixing things. But more recently I've sort of slacked off, in the worldspace (which is the actual open wasteland part of the world), Cell (inside areas), an dialog sections because these three are really large. I might open the first 3 + signs in the tree, but that's about it, it's more of a quick scan rather than a full search.

Now you don't have to make them all match, it's nice if you have the energy, but for the most part just the last entry matters. So yeah I skimp on some of that too, after having done it a few times.

 

So pretty much

 

 

1. create merge patch

 

2. load the whole list an fix it

 

3. run master update

 

4. test test test

 

 

 

However you can merge two mods into one in order to save space, but it isn't done with FO3edit, there's a nice Java plug in utility which does things like that. The merge patch is taking stuff like creatures or lists an putting them all together in a plug in, which you later go back an check the automated programs work, but filling in the gaps an picking things. But what do you need me to tell you for, go to the Web-asupersizednaged guide by CSB.

 

 

 

The other stuff is pretty simple.

 

Like launch FOSE via FOMM (which it auto detects it) then when the game comes up, click the load save game, then don't load one yet, Ctrl Alt Del to open the task manager, then set the fallout 3 process to realtime priority or whatever you like, then close the task manager and Alt Tab back into the game.

 

Sometimes you get a bad load up of fallout 3, so you load a save game, an fast travel, spin the camera around once, then Esc, an load the save game again, an go back to where you were, now things run more smoothly, I noticed I can jam out to WMP as a secondary program, while running around in fallout, this way.

 

Sometimes the system cache goes bad, or corupt, which the only fix is to reboot the computer.

 

Sometimes you get a bad game start, upon escaping Vault 101 from the 10,000 scripts that are running when you exit, but you could try saving the game an loading it again an it might clear that up, the other fix is to go to a small cell without anything really in it like a bathroom at megaton or something, then save it, system reboot, then load that game, an set all your in game FOSE script settings like enclave commander, or enhanced weather, bullet time, an such. Then after all that is done ~showracemenu an make your charicter look right then save it an start the game.

 

 

The Cell buffer gets all kinds of poop in it which will drag down the system. It's good to purge it every so often, more so when you are running around in the wasteland. ~PCB purges it, then you probably want to enter a building or fast travel so it will load up something. I've found that the Groovatron mod works great for this, because Groovatron has a transporter built into it, which you can place a marker in the world then transport to a total black room Hit ~ an type PCB then purge the cell buffer, transport to the total white room, then transport back to your marker in the wasteland where you left it, only all that extra data in the cell buffer is gone. There are a lot of crashes you get into because of that dang old cell buffer poop.

 

They used to rant about running fallout in compatablity mode for XP SP3 in vista as a admin.

 

 

Can't really thing of anything else, or yeah, make clean installs, you don't want a messed up data folder, if you make clean installs then it's much more easy to trace something down, plus you avoid replacing one of your other mods content from checking the folders, in one window your data folder is open then the other is the .rar or .zip mod file an you open them up an go all the way down to see what they might or might not replace. Maybe you don't want to replace that. Maybe you don't even want to use that mod.

 

The best performance tweek I've figured out, was to take all the player made textures inside Data/textures then go thru them looking for the very large ones, or large for how small the item is, then shrink/resize the texture in best quality with supersampling, which cuts the file size down to half or less while keeping most of the detail, then making sure what needs mipmaps has mipmaps, an what doesn't like normals, doesn't. You can also do this with Nifscope on meshes, like the halo mesh is around a GB in size, nifscope will auto sanatize when you save, so all you really do is stripafiy all shapes, or update all tangent spaces, then save it, bam it's down to 300Kb, kind of advanced stuff though, but allows things like 50 npc's doing the moonwalk or shooting at my face.