Restoring an old save file

[dubiousintent]

I suspect this is easily solved. Download and run "FNVLodGen". It's a simple "one-click" tool that rebuilds your LOD/VWD "quads" which are highly dependent upon your LO. See this article for the whys and wherefores, along with some related tools you may also want to consider.

 

-Dubious-

[Dubik123]

It did not work. Things still generate right in front my nose and I cant figure out why. Also, the game said that some content was missing, even though I had all my mods enabled.

Edited June 21, 2016 by Dubik123

[dubiousintent]

First, about the "missing content". If you removed the conflicting house mod some time prior in your previous play, it should not still be warning you about it. Once you make a new save (see post #6 in this thread) without that content, it should not be "missing" any more. If it still is, then you have script still running that is complaining about it, or something else that is missing you did not restore. It could be something that doesn't show up in the load order such as some NVSE plugin dependencies. All I can advise in that situation is either hope it doesn't cause long term problems, or start a new game. (I tend to start over; but then I am pessimistic about game stability with known errors.) Perhaps someone else has a better solution.

 

As far as the LOD generating itself as you watch, that is definitely not usual. It suggests to me that your video is being overloaded: either too high a texture resolution or not enough video memory. Are you using any texture replacers? If so, you should consider running "Optimizer Textures" against those files. One of it's advantages is the ability to reduce texture resolution down to something your video card can better handle. Personally I find 1024x1024 is as high a resolution as I can distinguish any differences, and most reasonable video cards (say 1GB of VRAM) can handle that.

 

BTW: The "land walls" mentioned in that article are something that are a problem only in Oblivion. The Fallout series and Skyrim don't have that issue.

 

I have also used the TES4LL tool (see the article listed in post #11). The slow building of the LOD also suggests some of the meshes may be missing "normal" or "mipmaps", which increase performance. TES4LL will help with that as well.

 

I realize this seems like a lot of work, but when you have a situation like this, you have to get into the more esoteric aspects of the game and it's related tools. It's why the TESTG site was created: to help with understanding what needs fixing and how to go about it.

 

-Dubious-

Edited June 21, 2016 by dubiousintent

[RoyBatterian]

It's just the normal Z fighting on LOD objects and imposters (special lod), it can't really be fixed.

[dubiousintent]

"Z-fighting? What's that?" Aha, I see S.T.E.P. Project has a page about that. Guess I've just been lucky enough not to encounter it before.

 

A good day: Learned something new. Thanks, Roy. Time to add another symptom to a wiki article.

 

@Dubik123: There is a video demonstrating the "z-fighting" issue on that STEP page. See if your "flickering" problem looks similar. The "slow rendering" problem would appear to be a separate matter from what I read about "z-fighting". I still think my previous suggestions apply to that issue.

 

-Dubious-

Edited June 22, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

I watched the videos and the flickering mountains are almost identical to mine. I have found that they have a fix for that, there is also a tutorial by Gopher on how to do it, however, those two tutorials are for Skyrim, will it work the same with Fallout?

 

I tried lowering the resolution. The slow LOD generation has only been present since the first reinstall, I never experienced it before on this playtrough and I played it on a lower resolution back then. It didnt fix anything. It was a lot less noticeable, but still visible once I got too close to an area which wasnt generated yet. And on top of it all, the game looks horrible and is moved a little to the right, which makes it harder to see some things.

 

No, I am not using any texture replacers or other graphic mods. My game is quite lightly modded with just a couple of quest mods and armor mods. The strange thing is, that both of my current bugs have happened on two (Now three) different playtroughs and and with two different graphic cards. The first reinstall was sometime in early September, the second one in late September. I got a new GPU since then, and the bugs are still present.

 

As to the recent missing content message, the house mod was removed about a year ago, and I made and loaded a ton of saves since then, with no bugs or messages appearing. Even now, after the third reinstallation of the game, I loaded new saves and nothing appeared. It also only happened after I used FNVLodGen, almost as if it removed something. I noticed one mod which was disabled, but the message appeared even after I turned it back on. One thing I might have screwed up though... In the FNVLodGen tool, when it asked me which areas I would like to load LOD for, I checked everything including modded areas. That might have been an issue. Fortunately, I still have the backup with everything the way it was before all this, so I can just reinstall the game again. It would be a shame to start a new game, since I am so close to fixing this one.

 

Sorry for the long reply, I just tried to respond to every new thing posted here.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Dubik123

[dubiousintent]

Re: long replies. Not to worry. More difficult problems require clarifying and exploring lots of options and more detail is helpful.

 

Generic changes like reducing screen resolution are independent of the game itself. The fixes for Skyrim INI which have equivalent entries in the FNV INI files should work the same. Adding those that don't exist are not likely to cause problems, but the "one at a time" guideline still applies. Both games use the same Gamebryo engine, though they may not use all the same features. How effective those fixes are seems to vary by system too much for anyone to predict. This whole "Z-fighting" issue seems to have a long history of contradictory results from one hardware combination to another. The point is made that some issues are not solvable. You just get the best result you can and try to ignore the rest.

The change in GPU/video card probably explains why some things are displaying differently now. A better card can sometimes be a mixed blessing with things that weren't noticeable before now much more apparent.

To recap what you have said about the "missing content" situation:
* The only mod you have removed from your load order was well before any of the current saves you are trying to use to resume play.
* You didn't have a "missing content" message until you restored (to the best of your knowledge) everything from your last play session.
* You didn't have the "missing content" message after you restored UNTIL you ran FNVLODGen (FLG). But wait: In post #5 (before you ran FLG) you reported the "missing content" issue. So that eliminates FLG as a suspect. (An advantage to discussing troubleshooting progress in a thread: history of steps taken.)

 

* So, the "missing content" is something that did not make it into the restoration.

Given the situation (you believe you have accounted for all the mods you had been playing with before resuming), you are left with either identifying what is missing, or moving on without it, or starting over. All I can suggest to help with identifying "what's missing" is to look at your load order and see if anything jumps out as relying indirectly upon something else. (Please post your LO in "Spoiler" tags. Use the "Special BBCode" button in the "Reply" menu bar). [LOOT] can copy your LO into a file suitable for posting here. (It's under the ":" with three dots to the extreme right in it's menu bar.) The other choices are up to you. But as I mentioned before, it might be related to a mod that doesn't have a plugin in the LO. So please add any other mods you are using that don't appear in the list.

However, if you follow the clean save procedure I laid out in post #6 and still have the missing content message after creating a new save, that is a more serious matter. It's not clear to me if you have tried that yet, even just as a experiment.

BTW: I haven't asked if you are patched up to the current version of Fallout: New Vegas patch 1.4.0.52, released on July 7, 2011. Best not to make an assumption. What version are you on?

 

-Dubious-

Edited June 23, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

Ah, my load order. Its quite confusing to look at to be honest.

 

 

0 0 FalloutNV.esm
1 1 SomeguySeries.esm
2 2 domecity.esm
3 3 FNVChristmasSpecial.esm
4 4 RockwellPursuit.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
HonestHearts.esm
DeadMoney.esm
5 5 ImprovedCompanions.esp
6 6 UnlimitedCompanions.esp
7 7 ContinueAfterEnding.esp
8 8 RNVExpanded.esp
9 9 mojave music radio expanded v1.1.esp
AYgrik_PlayerHome.esp
V21Duster.esp
10 a rexede.esp
11 b OPICA.esp
12 c TheInheritance.esp
13 d RockwellPursuit2014Update.esp
FalloutNV_lang.esp
DeadMoney_lang.esp
HonestHearts_lang.esp
OldWorldBlues_lang.esp
LonesomeRoad_lang.esp
GunRunnersArsenal_lang.esp

 

 

Looking at it now, it is a mess. There are some things I need to clear up to you. There are three plugins you might not have heard of, because they are custom. "rexede" and "OPICA" (Which means monkey in my language-its a random name I came up with, dont worry about it) are two files I made myself. After I downloaded Unlimited Companions and Improved Companions, I was disappointed that I couldnt have ED-E and Rex with me at the same time. An individual in the comments said that it requires making a plugin in GECK in order to have them both. They are not working properly and dont do anything to the game. I really dont know if I should disable them or not, they dont affect the game in any way. "V21Duster" is a custom armor mod made for me by a very generous and patient soul (I noticed that its not enabled - that is fixed now, I am just too lazy to copy the load order again). The rest are mods you can commonly find on the Nexus.

 

I tried making and loading a clean save and no message was displayed for me at the beginning. As far as the generating goes, I will have to test it some more.

 

I also seem to have confused you with the removal of the house mod. I removed it over a year ago and continued playing without any issues. It should definitely not be a major problem in this regard.

 

I realise this reply is a bit rushed, I will let you know once I find out more.

Edited June 23, 2016 by Dubik123

[Dubik123]

I loaded up my clean save and the Z-Fighting got even more horrible - even grass and other land textures are flickering.

[dubiousintent]

Okay then. We are ruling out both the removed house mod and FNVLODGen as problems for the moment. (Don't worry about it. I always expect there will be some confusion communicating, which is why I recap what was said often, to give you a chance to clarify.)

 

That you were able to clear out the "missing content" error with a clean save relieves me of a worry there was a deeper problem. So that is good news.

 

Re: Your load order.

 

You don't seem have the DLC ESM files or the related "_language" files activated (no load order index number). If true, that would account for the "missing content" error. Any "unactivated" mod (installed or not, like "V21Duster") that had been active in your save game would account for that error. Activate those and then try loading the save game you used to create the "clean save" to see if you still get the "missing content" error.

In general, make sure all your ESM files are loaded first with the game ESM (FalloutNV.ESM) as the very first file and those of the DLC next in the order they were released:
* FalloutNV.ESM
* DeadMoney
* HonestHearts
* OldWorldBlues
* LonesomeRoad
* GunRunnersArsenal

and then the "pre-order packs" (if you have them):

* ClassicPack
* MercenaryPack
* TribalPack
* CaravanPack

Mod EMS files should follow.

While it is not 100% accurate, LOOT is a useful tool in my opinion for getting at least an initial load order because it actually reads the file headers of mods in determining how they relate to each other. (I don't argue with it when it alters the above "general rule" about ESMs for that reason.) Where it's author admits it falls down is with "indirect masters", which are plugins that are necessary but not listed in the file header as "masters" of the plugin in question. (This is not something LOOT can overcome. It's the responsibility of the mod author.) This can also occur when you create a "merged plugin". The "Missing Masters" article covers how to go about discovering such "indirect masters" and adding them to the plugin after the fact. And you can use the LOOT "metadata" capability to ensure your "merged plugin" fits into the load order correctly as LOOT will not recognize your personally created plugins.

 

I also believe you need a Wrye Flash "bashed" or manually created "merge" patch plugin, because you have several mods that appear to update vanilla at the record level. See S.T.E.P. Merging Plugins Guide which covers both approaches. (Use of "Mod Organizer" is not required.) Use the Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide to quickly get functional with "Wrye Flash", which I think is the easier approach for a novice modder. See the wiki article Load order and you if you want an approach to manually organizing the LO and creating a "merge patch" file to manually resolve conflicts instead of using "Wrye Flash".

 

Re: your problem with simultaneously having ED-E and Rex as companions. I've been able to do that, using the mod "JIP Companions Command and Control" (JIP CC&C) alone. It enables you to have an unlimited number of companions (though the game gets bogged down the more you have join your character), and removes the "one humanoid and one creature" limitation. Give that a try in place of the "unlimited companions" mod and your custom plugins that don't seem to be working anyway. (And yes, that will require another "clean save", but you should go back to loading the save game from the prior run-through with the inactive mods activated, first. We want to see if we can clear up the unexpected "missing content" question before deliberately introducing some.)

 

Re: Increased "Z-fighting". If creating a "clean save" caused that, it suggests to me that the "missing content" you flushed out was using a lot of processing power that is now being used to speed up texture rendering making the "Z-fighting" more noticeable. ("Z-Fighting" seems to get increasingly noticed as texture rendering speed increases.) So I suggest we get the game stable otherwise (necessary mods installed and sorted), and then attempt to deal with the "Z-fighting". Best to deal with one issue at a time. But do continue to report any issues that pop up or change as you try things.

 

-Dubious- (Edited for minor punctuation and phrasing errors.)

Edited June 24, 2016 by dubiousintent