Restoring an old save file

[Dubik123]

As much as I would love to be good to play, we still have the bad rendering problem and the z-fighting. If it is impossible to fix, I will move on but it is quite an annoyance.

[Dubik123]

I tried to fix the Z-fighting using the S.T.E.P. guide and the related videos but it did not help at all. I suppose I can add reinstalling this game for the first time to the "worst mistakes in my life" list, because it wasnt this horrible before.

[dubiousintent]

Re: the "z-fighting". Afraid I don't have any better advice to give on that front. It's a problem for which everyone would like to find an answer. One "workaround" is to shrink the distance at which "fog" appears in the INI so it obscures the really deep background, hiding the "z-fighting" to make it less noticeable.

 

Re: the LOD rendering slowly. Other than what I suggested back in post #13, the only other reason that comes to mind why you might have this problem after a re-install when you didn't initially is: file fragmentation. When you have a "new" system files get copied onto the disk drive one sector after another, called "contiguous" placement. Over time all drives wind up placing files in fragments scattered around the drive in available spaces. This is called "fragmentation", and it's much slower to retrieve because the drive head has to move back and forth a lot to hunt for the next fragment. So it's a good idea in general to "defragment" your drive whenever you sees signs that it seems to be slower retrieving files. This ability is built into Windows (open Windows Explorer, right-click on a drive and select "Properties" | "Tools" tab | "Error-checking", and then once that is done "Defragmentation"), but many prefer to use the free "Auslogics Disk Defrag" tool because we think it does a better job. Always perform a disk error check first, or you run the risk of losing data due to a bad directory.

 

-Dubious-

Edited July 7, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

Yes, file fragmentation might be an issue, since I got a "PFN_List_Corrupt" blue screen about three weeks ago (It was actually a day before I started this thread). But the rendering problem started sometime in September 2015 when I reinstalled the game for the first time. I have no idea what could cause this, but it gets VERY bad when I play. Its not only textures now, grass and even some objects like the pipe in Camp Golf or the staircase near REPCONN are practically non-existant until I come close to them. While I could live with Z-fighting until there is a fix, this is a really big issue for me as it makes me unable to see some things and drops the FPS when the objects do initially generate.

 

Thank you for your help so far. I will try to look into this. If you come up with anything, please post it here.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Dubik123

[Dubik123]

I could give FNVLodGen another try. When it asks me which areas to fix up LOD for, should I check Freeside, the Strip and modded areas as well?

[dubiousintent]

As for FNVLodGen, I would check/enable everything. But first I suggest you read the "VWD/LOD Overview" on TESTG. The entire LOD subject is much more complex than most people realize, and someone having the problems you are needs to get a grasp on the issues.

 

My suggestion would be to run through the TES4LL process described on that page, after a full backup of the "meshes" and "textures" folders first. Then TES4qLOD, then add any VWD files you intend to use, and finally FNVLODGen. You are having enough problems you might as well run through the whole routine to try to get your LOD picture straightened out. And then perhaps a disk defrag just to see if things got fragmented again to give yourself the best chance of success.

 

If that combination doesn't solve it, the only thing left is to try to "optimize" the textures with something like PyFFI. That is usually an "overnight" process, and likely not really needed (enough mod creators know about it these days). And then I would run through the entire TES4LL ,etc., process again. I've never tried to use PyFFI on FNV textures myself but v2.1.7 added support for FNV files, so it should be fine. I would recommend a full backup of the meshes and textures folders after the previous process as well.

 

As I recall, you originally said this all started when you got a new machine, correct? If none of the above resolves this, it's time to look into the hardware. Maybe it isn't such a good fit? (Not what anyone wants to hear, but it does happen.)

 

Edit: Late thought. If things have been getting worse, have there been recent changes to the 3 game INI files? Might be worthwhile to rename them (add another extension like "Fallout.ini.old") to all three and let the game rebuild them. See if that improves things. Could be something got changed that is making things worse. If nothing improves, then you can rename them back or compare them for changes and see what you want to restore. And then there are your attempts to fix the "Z-fighting". Related changes typically are going to have a negative impact on some of the vanilla LOD settings. If those attempts didn't improve things, then best to restore to original settings.

 

-Dubious-

Edited July 8, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

Well, backing up the meshes and textures folders... I tried to fix the Z-fighting with a mod that enhances the LOD as it fixed the issue for some people. Its installation required me to place some files into "meshes". However, I still have the original meshes file from the old backup (The one that we used to restore the saves). Will that do?

[Dubik123]

Also, sorry for the second reply, but to answer your hardware question, I need to tell you the whole story.

 

The playtrough we restored and are trying to fix the graphical bugs in was started sometime in September of 2014. My PC had the same hardware I bought it with, the GPU at the time was an AMD Radeon R9 200. I had a lot of fun with the playtrough and some of the best things in my life happened in that period, so they have an association with it. No bugs such as the ones we are dealing with now were present during that time. The thing is, I was kind of new to Fallout and struggled at the beginning of the game, so I used console commands to cheat. This started bothering me a year later when I wanted to have a cheat-free experience with the game. My PC specs were still the same. So I reinstalled the game, but I still kept a backup of the files from the first playtrough in case I would like to go back to it. I started a new playtrough and all was going well for about a week, then stuff started to happen. I actually have a thread titled "Bugs" from that period, I experienced the things I wrote about there along with todays graphical bugs at that time. I was trying to fix it but to no avail. I wasnt very far in that playtrough so I just reinstalled the game again. This time the bugs from that thread disappeared but I still had the z-fighting and the LOD issue. I just gave up then and left the game alone for a while. After a while I got a new GPU, an MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 970. After more time has passed, I remembered the events that occured during the time of my very first playtrough, so, in a nostalgic mood, I decided to restore my old save files and created this thread. So the only hardware change that happened was changing my GPU, but that did not affect the bugs. They were there before and they are still there now.

 

Sorry for the long story, but I needed to make this a bit more clear.

 

As to changing the .ini files, yes, I indeed changed them while combating the z-fighting. But its not getting worse. I am just saying that the z-fighting was a little less present when it started a year ago.

[dubiousintent]

Thanks, that history does help somewhat.

 

The key takeaway I see is that you switched one of the key components of your game environment, the video card. Not merely a new model but also a new brand: from ATI/AMD to nVidia. Did you run through the original vanilla launcher "Options" menu so it detected the new video card and changed the INI settings in that regard at that time? If those changes did not get included in your "backup" save set of files that you have been restoring from, it is likely to be a major part of your graphic problems. The game will think you still have an AMD/ATI card instead of an nVidia one. From what you described, I believe you do not have those INI file hardware changes, which means you need to perform them now.

 

At this point you need to decide if it is really worth trying to restore and continue from that old save or start over; especially if defragging and rebuilding the LOD files doesn't improve the graphic things. If you had been using the game "auto-save" feature, or if you have removed or omitted mods (I'm thinking of the "missing content"), at the time of the "backup" save file set then you likely have save game corruption. Nothing is going to fix that, which could be the source of the "bugs" you were having. (If you have a link for that thread I can take a look at it and see if anything stands out.) That is separate from the graphic rendering issues.

 

Starting over has the advantage of "doing things properly" and avoiding the consequences of mistakes from the past. Taking the time to test each mod thoroughly before actually "playing", fixing issues first, and avoiding potentially damaging behaviors like "auto-saves" during play is about 90% of having a stable and memorable game. We have a better handle on what can go wrong now than even a year ago. If you were having a trouble-free restoration I wouldn't be suggesting this. But as it is we are "reacting" to your restoration problems, instead of being "pro-active" in avoiding them in the first place, which starting from scratch would permit.

 

As for the added LOD files: it depends if they were adding distance "objects" or landscape. (This is why you need to read the "VWD/LOD Overview" article mentioned above.) If "objects" then they were really VWD files, and something needed to see those objects in the distance. If they were "landscape", then they will be incorporated or overwritten when you run through the TES4LL procedure outlined above, depending upon the options chosen. For instance, I added the NMC landscape textures and then ran TES4LL against them with no issues. But I did have to select certain options with NMC in mind to keep it's effects.

 

-Dubious-

Edited July 9, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

I am sorry, but I am willing to do anything to save this playtrough. Losing it to me feels like losing a friend. Its a playtrough I had so much fun with, it made New Vegas one of my most favourite games. As I mentioned before, some of the best memories of my life are tied to this playtrough and I have grown really attached to my character. And it is impossible to completely replicate this playtrough as I dont quite remember some of the choices I made during it. I know it sounds incredibly stupid, maybe a bit sad, but that is the truth.

 

Unfortunately, it is somewhat possible my save file might be corrupted. I dont know to what extent you mean "using the auto-save feature". I had it enabled but never really loaded or continued on from an autosave. However, the LOD issue is not tied just to this playtrough. I believe the sentence "It has been there before and it is here now" is a bit misleading. So I will try to make it a bit more clear to you.

 

PLAYTROUGH NUMBER ONE

Created around September 2014, played with the mods in my current load order, no bugs until its deletion and current restoration.

 

PLAYTROUGH NUMBER TWO

Created after deletion of first playtrough sometime in September 2015, played with mods: CASM with MCM, NVSE Lutana Plugin, Armored Vault 21 Jumpsuit. Bugs: current LOD issue and Z-fighting along with bugs from this thread: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3202834-bugs/#entry28510174

 

Note: this was the first time I used NVSE and the 4GB Launcher

 

PLAYTROUGH NUMBER THREE

Created after deletion of Number Two, only mod I used was Armored V21 Jumpsuit, bugs: LOD and Z-fighting

 

The issue is tied to two different playtroughs before I changed my graphics card, one of which was almost vanilla. It only started happening in this playtrough after we restored it. It is likely my game is just cursed, this is definitely not save corruption as it was plaguing two other playtroughs before.