Best Vanilla Wasteland Tweaked Look

[Deleted21304489User]

I found a great way to make the wasteland look good, without the use of weather mods, flora mods, or ENB. Try this:

 

1. Grab a copy of UHQ if you're able to and install it. Let it overwrite NMC if you're using that. Remove the grass folder UHQ installs. FO3 grass is awesome. (we're gonna tweak the grass)

 

2. Install the Imaginator mod and set the following: Soft focus = low, Horizon Clean = medium, Saturation = +2, Tintor = Blue +3 (removes the green haze).

 

3. Install View Distance Decreased mod (version 2) This will throw enough fog out in the distance to reduce ugly LOD's and add atmosphere. Version 2 is not that extreme.

 

4. Install the new EXE effects textures enhanced mod. Has lots of cool VFX stuff, plus distant LOD's.

 

5. Install FO3LOD Gen mod. Even if you're not using a flora mod, it will greatly improve distant object LOD's in your game. A must have no matter what you're doing, imo.

 

6. Grab the sun and sunglare files from Enhanced Skies mod and throw it in your textures directory. It's a toned down sunglare that reduces eye adapt, and adds a soft look to your game.

 

7. Open up your ini file and make the following changes: Set bForceFullLOD=1, Set iMinGrassSize=30, bDrawShaderGrass=1, Set iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=7... this will improve your grass.

 

8. Grab a copy of Mojave Nights (FNV) and just delet the esp file after install. All that does is reduce the size of the moon. This is by far the best moon and stars out there.

 

I promise you that this will make your game look great, while keeping it the way Bethesda meant the wasteland to look. It's basically the vanilla look pumped up on steroids. You can tweak your ini settings any way you want, but I found the above settings to be a balanced between a great look, while maintaining performance. Another option and one that i use... is to inject Ojo Bueno textures from FNV, to add to the look of your game. You just want to be careful of the overwrites. As stated before, I've tried just about every weather and lighting mod out there and have come back to just doing this. For many reasons it's just the best.

 

Enjoy !! :D

 

 

 

[datwastelandtho]

This sounds pretty cool. so Im curious, is it a possibility to post a video? my game is picky even after reinstalling so im wondering how it really looks, maybe i can get a better idea to decide if I would be capable of trying. I just did some enb for the first time, considering I doubted it would allow decent framerates with how its running as it is and I saw that it had to go -_-

You could let me kno what rig you run, thatd also give me a ballpark estimate :D

[Deleted1205226User]

As usual, interesting info and suggestion. I wouldn't mind to see a couple of (comparative) screenshots, though. :P

[Deleted21304489User]

Haha... you guys are funny. It would be quicker for you to load up and make the settings, than for me to make a video and screenies. Here, look at this: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/images/44400/?

 

That's using all of the above. Notice the grass is taller, plus I've got pointgrasslighting enabled, which basically shines sunlight and moonlight off of the grass, making it more vibrant and colorful. Notice the sky is blue, and the sun up there is from Enhanced Skies. Notice the ground textures... those are from UHQ, but that's no longer available on the Nexus now. Then if you stand up, the distance is fogged over, but you can still make out trees on mountain tops, because of FO3LODGen. Notice how blue the sky is. That's from Imaginator settings. To give you an idea about the fog. Imagine standing at the entrance to vault 101... normally you can see Megaton plain as day. Well, with the fog, it's barely visible, but you can still make out that somethng is over there.

 

Either way, this is far less taxing on the game performance that any ENB. I personally don't like enb's due to their inheirant glitchyness and how most of them make textures look. That's just me though.

 

I got a pretty good gaming rig. Alienware, but I'm only currently running a GTX 970 FTW 4gig video card. I can honestly state that this would probably work just fine with a 1.25 video card. No doubt a 2 gig.

 

Here's my current load order:

 

GameMode=Fallout3

Fallout3.esm=1
Anchorage.esm=1
ThePitt.esm=1
StreetLights.esm=1
BrokenSteel.esm=1
PointLookout.esm=1
Zeta.esm=1
iHUD.esm=1
DC Delight.esm=1
T6M Equipment Replacer.esm=1
Mart's Mutant Mod.esm=1
Kayla.esm=1
DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm=1
CaravanUpgrades.esp=1
ImaginatorFO3.esp=1
DarNifiedUIF3.esp=1
krzymar-MoonSize_120%.esp=1
RubblePilesFix.esp=1
FO3LODGen.esp=0
Simple Saves.esp=1
FirstPersonGunFollowCrosshairs.esp=1
HZSmoothLight - FO3.esp=0
Distributed Necklaces and Chains - Females Only.esp=1
GNR Enhanced.esp=1
BnB.esp=1
NukaColaJukebox.esp=1
TWSTW_Megaton_Player_House_Door_With_Punisher_Skull.esp=1
Simple Realism.esp=1
UniqueWeaponsRetextured.esp=1
UniqueWeaponsRetexturedPITT.esp=1
7_HolsterForHandGunsV1_1.esp=1
Miniguns Non Replacer.esp=1
MMM-Miniguns Non Replacer-Patch.esp=0
Bornagain Outcast T-45d Texture Patch.esp=0
Revolution Clothing for Fallout 3.esp=1
SteamPunkArmor.esp=1
sunglassescollection.esp=1
F3Eyelashes.esp=0
Kentbury Way.esp=1
DogmeatEssentialToken.esp=1
Dogmeat Distance.esp=0
Dogmeat_outfits.esp=0
Dogmeat Whistle.esp=1
T6M Equipment Replacer for DLC.esp=1
T6M Jeans Outfit FO3.esp=1
T6M Unique Item for FO3.esp=1
Type6 Combat Uniform.esp=1
Immersive Pickup Sounds.esp=1
majormodder's Junk Food to Barbeque Crisps.esp=0
FO3_WRP.esp=0
Mart's Mutant Mod - DC Interiors.esp=0
Mart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.esp=0
FleshBurningPlasma.esp=1
NoMegatonTricycle.esp=1
NoTheftComments.esp=1
Chess Set.esp=1
Metro Ticket Tower.esp=1
6IXES Clutter Texture Pack.esp=1
Immersive Pickup Sounds Patch.esp=0
PinkPrincessOutfits.esp=1
AnimatedFanV2f3.esp=0
Quieter and Smaller Wadsworth.esp=0
Quieter Mole Rats.esp=0
Quieter Nuka-Cola Sign.esp=0
Quieter Guns.esp=0
Ham Radio.esp=1
megalightlight.esp=1
Tree-logy Pt2 FO3.esp=1
PittGalStatsFix - DarnUI.esp=1
FO3 Slower Experience.esp=1
lessviewdistance.esp=0
Darkened Interiors.esp=1
CRBSOR.esp=0
Bashed Patch, 0.esp=1

 

I'm only using MMM... no FWE, and no EVE. Those mods are all full of bloat (most of which I don't like). They have glitches, missing meshes, sound files, etc. MMM is best, because it keeps the wasteland alive and kicking. Plus with a few tweaks to it, I've made it so it won't CTD my game. The main reason for just using MMM and none of the others... is that Blackened has about 22 ITM records in it that can't be removed, unless you want to break the in game menu for MMM. That being said... ITM records will cause your game to CTD, not matter if they need to be there, or not. They are "dirty" edits.

 

I also use my own modified version of Simple Realism. Just what I want to use from that mod. This takes care of FWE. Notice I also don't have a merged patch. Simply because I don't need one. There are no race, faction, form id, etc to be merged together. In fact... when you run a conflict report on this load, there's only about 10, or 12 conflicts. That's it. !! Those conflicts are neccessary .

 

I've merged together my Trade Caravan mod to work with MMM's edit to it, plus it's trader faction. Out of a 74 loard order, it's reduced to 55, because of my bashed patch. Plus I merged together 24 esp files to furthur decrease my load order. That's 98 esp files reduced down to 55. Bam !! :smile:

 

I decided not to use weapons mod kits, because the bloat cost is not worth what the mod actually does. Plus there are graphical glitches with it and Weapons Enhanced mod. Weapons Enhanced along with the EXE mod gives me nice looking weapons, with awesome improved vanilla VFX.

 

I use DC Interiors mainly, because MMM get's injected into those new areas, which is awesome.

 

I've basically got a revamped and improved vanilla game through mods, that doesn't polute the game with immersion breaking mods, bloat, and stuff that just doesn't fix the Fallout 3 world. I'm happy and my game runs so much better for it. Example: After I decided to uninstall EVE and WMK... things have never been better on the performance end. That's even after I patched them to work flawlessly together too. Anyway, take from all this what you will. I guess the moral of the story is... more is not always better. heh

Edited April 19, 2017 by ejroberts49

[BlackRampage]

That being said... ITM records will cause your game to CTD, not matter if they need to be there, or not. They are "dirty" edits.

 

Sorry, but that's just not true. An Identical To Master record is just that. A record that's identical to its master in that none of its values differ from whatever .esm the parent plugin is mastered to (usually Fallout3.esm).

 

Far as I know, It doesn't cause save bloat, CTD's or any other doom scenarios, it's just a redundant record. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Only reason why you would normally want to clear out ITM's is because you may get another plugin that changes one of those ITM records too.

Which means that if the mod with the ITM is loaded after the plugin that changes said record, it undoes whatever the plugin changed. (crappy explanation, I know)

This point is moot in the case of blackened though, because Blackened is supposed to load last.

 

Blackened ITM's:

 

The reason for those ITM's is simple. When you've got both MMM and FWE loaded, FWE's features will override whatever changes you make to MMM's Master Menu Module, because FWE and its vast amount of plugins load after MMM.

Only way to circumvent it is to have the master menu module load after FWE's plugins. FOIP resolves it thus, Blackened resolves it the same way. Heck it was MMM's author himself who included it into both FOIP and Blackened.

I honestly have no idea why you still appear to be second-guessing such a simple, elegant, tried-and-true solution. Don't know if that's actually your intent, but that's how it comes across.

 

TL;DR: Don't obsess over a couple of ITM's. there were good reasons for including them.

[Deleted1205226User]

 

 

plus I've got pointgrasslighting enabled, which basically shines sunlight and moonlight off of the grass, making it more vibrant and colorful.

 

That's the bit I'm more interested in, I've tried to fiddle at mesh level to allow grass lightening, I've tried to change INI settings too, but never had interesting results.

 

Does the grass cast the Pip-boy light too?

 

Would it be possible to detail the steps to follow, pretty please? or point me to a how to. Thanks.

[datwastelandtho]

URWL is cool. I enjoyed it since i started playing thru this game. Idk how taxing it is for me, but I think its alright. Hoping that the ideas youve had would work, I tried out some of them and its good, this mod works with the view distance which makes it look different. . . Now, i would have liked to think that with the fog out there doing its thing and what not, that its also allowing the game to get tricked into thinking it doesnt have to load more of whats out beyond it, but that is tough to say. Do you know, would that allow the game to not run so harsh a lot of the times to a degree..? Certainly would like thinking so lol

[Deleted21304489User]

@BlackRampage - I meant no disrespect towards your fine Blackened patch. In fact the info you gave above is helpful and clears up a lot of questions I've had. My intent was to get back to a vanilla game play. Over time, I've found those huge mods to just be plagued with so many of their own glitches... that it actually takes away from the immersion, during gameplay. IE: missing sound files.... creatures spawning in rocks... bloat, and obnoxious textures... blah blah blah... the list goes on. My thinking is that, illiminating any possibility of game CTD's is always a good thing. That's it and nothing more. I've actually got a game set up on very hard that is way more challenging that anything FWE could throw at me. Utilizing other not so popular realism elements out there.

 

My questions and proclamations on here are more of a way of trying to educate myself and find things out. It works most of the time, but tends to raise brows as well. My apologies...

 

 

 

@datwastelandtho - I think I used URWL once and found it to just be a rip off of the great Enhance Rain and Snow mod. Those are find if you can tolerate the sound of the rain cutting off when you reload your game, or rain drops getting stuck in the sky when you wait. I found these two things immersion breaking, so I don't use rain mods now. VDD works great with rain mods, no doubt.

 

As far as View Distance Decreased improving performance... I guess it could on lower end systems. I saw no improvement myself, but I've got a pretty beefy rig. I think in the comment sections, people have reported improvements in performance. I mainly just used it to hide the ugly LOD's the game generates. Since this post, I've returned to Enhance Skies and edited in my own fog settings for it.

 

You can see the results here: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/images/44443/?

 

I've also since gone back to using WMK, without EVE. I actually find no performance issues with just using WMK. Maybe it was the patching that I had done before. *shrugs

 

 

@pixelhate - This is the only setting I know to improve grass lighting in game: bDrawShaderGrass=1 / In my experience it's more noticable at night, believe it, or not. It also tends to add more coloration to the different types of grass. Withe it enabled, or not... I've never had success with the pipboy lighting up the grass. Just the ground under it. I do know that different weather mods have different effects on the grass. Some make it look awesome, like Fellout... others, like Project Reality, tend to make the grass look dark, or very bright... depending on weather conditions and lighting in the environment. I personally find Enhanced Skies to be the best all around for me. I play with a female character, so being able to view her pretty face at any angle, or any weather type is a must for me. Enhanced skes does this best and makes terrain look great. As the above screenie demonstrates.

Edited May 9, 2017 by ejroberts49

[Deleted21304489User]

BlackRampage - I just re-read your reply to this post. If I'm understanding you correctly, the ITM's in Blackened are meant to prevent FWE from breaking the menu for MMM. If that is the case, then why would it not be ok to clean them with other versions of Blackened, that are designed to run without FWE installed? I don't use FWE for multiple reasons, but other versions of Blackened are still "dirty." Dirty with no good reason if I'm understanding you. Which means cleaning them will not result in any breaking of MMM. Correct, or still no?

[Mktavish]

you have to clean them yourself and find out ... see if you cough up some fur balls ... its your personal desire that will lead to testing .... not the casual helping on the forums ... is the point pertinent to you ?!