FPS Problems and (random?) crashes

[TomSawyer]

Hiho.

 

Wanted to play a bit F3 again with some of the great mods avi but on several occasions/places i got harsh fps drops and from time to time a ctd or a crash with

 

AppName: fallout3ng.exe

AppVer: 1.7.0.3

ModName: fallout3ng.exe

ModVer: 1.7.0.3

Offset: 006e8190

 

My System is

XP 32 bit

Core 2 Duo E6750 2x2660MH

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3

MSI GTX560 TI Twin Frozr II

A-Data Extreme DDR2 800+ 3GB

Seasonic S12II 430W ATX 2.0

 

I am using FOMM, FOSE, fo3edit for the merged patch and was using the FOIP page for the loadorder. Archive invalidation is active. I am using the Fallout Stutter Remover (plugin for FOSE) and have enabled App can handle more than 2 GB of Ram. In my Fallout.ini i have set "iNumHWThreads=2" and "bUseThreadedAI=1".

 

My savegames seems to be clean at this point. I checked that with this method (console: player.adlevel and i had no freeze and could level up).

 

I havent figured out what is causing a) the fps drops or low fps at all in the game and b) what is causing the crashes for me. My fps are dropping down to ~15 at some places (f.e. the mall or inside the GNR building with GNR Building Redux) and at some i got ~60 (inside and partwise outside). The only texture pack i was using is NMCs Texture Pack performance but that doesnt impact my FPS so hard. Even without that texture pack i had the FPS drops and problems. At three occasions i had missing a texture hand in hand with low FPS (again the mall and inside GNR with above mentioned mod).

 

What is realy strange: I tested the fake fullscreen (windowed mode) but that way i got around 5-10 less than normal!

 

Maybe someone could help me a bit with that?

 

My loadorder atm is

 

[X] Fallout3.esm

[X] Anchorage.esm

[X] ThePitt.esm

[X] StreetLights.esm

[X] BrokenSteel.esm

[X] PointLookout.esm

[X] Zeta.esm

[X] CRAFT.esm

[X] CALIBR.esm

[X] Project Beauty.esm

[X] aHUD.esm

[X] iHUD.esm

[X] xCALIBR.esm

[X] CINEMATECH.esm

[X] ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm

[X] DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm

[X] DCInteriors_SideQuests.esm

[X] EVE.esm

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod.esm

[X] DarNifiedUIF3.esp

[X] Project Beauty- Broken Steel.esp

[X] Project Beauty- Point Lookout.esp

[X] xCALIBRammo_FWE.esp

[X] The Pitt Crash Fix.esp

[X] AnchorageGaussgewehrVATSFix.esp

[X] Feng Shui.esp

[X] DYNAVISION - Dynamic Lens Effect.esp

[X] CivilDefenseBroadcastSystem.esp

[X] CONELRAD 640-1240.esp

[X] PointRadio.esp

[X] ArefuExpandedByAzar-Radio.esp

[ ] NoStupidExplosiveCars.esp

[X] Dark Justice Duster.esp

[X] Armored Duster.esp

[X] Backpacks - SedPL.esp

[X] 7_HolsterForHandGunsV1_1.esp

[X] TheProudAmerican.esp

[X] Devils Mistress Unique.esp

[X] DanWessonPPC357(CALIBR).esp

[X] Sete di sangue.esp

[X] BerettaTwoTone AHJr.esp

[X] HZ_M92SE.esp

[X] GNRBuilding_Studio.esp

[X] GNROutpost.esp

[X] Down Under.esp

[X] My_Megaton_House.esp

[X] MMH_More_Storage.esp

[ ] MMH_Even_More_Storage.esp

[X] MMHB_Storage.esp

[X] D.C. Confidential.esp

[X] Scavenger World - FWE Edition v0.08.esp

[X] SuperDuperBasement.esp

[X] BoSPatrols.esp

[X] FalloutFood.esp

[X] FalloutFoods - FWE Master Release.esp

[X] DCInteriors_DLC_Collectables.esp

[X] ImaginatorFO3.esp

[X] Directors Chair - Fallout 3.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Alternate Travel.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Followers Enhanced (BrokenSteel).esp

[ ] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Optional Restore Tracers.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Optional Restore Tracers (automatics only).esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Project Beauty.esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Project Beauty (Followers Enhanced).esp

[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - More Gore.esp

[X] WeaponModKits.esp

[X] WeaponModKits - FWE Master Release.esp

[X] WeaponModKits - OperationAnchorage.esp

[X] WeaponModKits - ThePitt.esp

[X] WeaponModKits - BrokenSteel.esp

[X] WeaponModKits - PointLookout.esp

[X] WeaponModKits - Zeta.esp

[X] EVE.esp

[X] EVE Operation Anchorage.esp

[X] EVE - FWE Patch.esp

[X] EVE - Master Fix Patch.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Zeta.esp

[X] EVE - MMM Patch.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Master Menu Module.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release + DLCs.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release + Project Beauty.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty + FWE.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.esp

[ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.esp

[X] megalight.esp

[X] Realistic Interior Lighting.esp

[X] F3ProjectRealityMkI.esp

[X] F3ProjectRealityMkITweaks.esp

[X] Error Fixes V1.5.esp

[X] Error Fixes V1.5 - Fallout3 Wanderers Edition.esp

[ ] Error Fixes V1.5 - Mothership Zeta Crew.esp

[ ] Error Fixes V1.5 - Realistic Interior Lighting.esp

[X] Merged Patch.esp

 

Ok and i attached some files i recorded with GPU-Z to show whats going on with my GTX. Theyre a bit older but i guess that doesnt matter.

 

So, i hope someone can give me a hint or a hand to fix the problem(s). ;)

 

cheers

[GrindedStone]

First see if there are unused .esm or .esp in the data folder, and also clean up any junk files you don't need in there. If you get a bunch of junk in there it can cause random stuff. You have other crashing that is caused by some of the mods being dirty. Usually about 10% of the mods in a load order like that end up being dirty. When you create a mod with the GECK, you save an load many times, then also click an clack on tons of stuff. The process of creating a mod makes the mod dirty so it's not that anyone did anything wrong. But before the modder uploads the mod they need to clean it. The 10% in your load order is either from people that don't know that or don't care.

 

Identical to master records. - Causes random crashing. By far the worst.

Items set to delete. - One mod deletes X an the other changes X's location, now when that item loads into the game world "instant crash"

Clean masters - Mods using other mods as masters which don't need to be, not as much of a big deal.

Sort masters - The load order of the masters that the mod is trying to load, it can be incorrect compared to what the modder's load order was an what yours is.

 

These are pretty basic operations one performs with FO3/FNV edit. You can't clean the Fallout.esm or the DLC's. Also FWE can't be cleaned, but yet it's insanely dirty. That means that even under perfect conditions anyone using FWE is going to have crashes. It may not be many crashes, but it will have them. It depends on the amount of the game that is dirty. As a modder often I change one tiny thing, then load a save game an it has a seemingly dirty caused random crash.

 

Load up the whole load order. Apply a filter with only the conflict inherited by parent box. Remember to skip the DLC an FWE. Start at the top an right click each mod an pick remove identical to master records, then set delete to disabled. Do these two operations on each mod top to bottom. Remove the filter, go back up to the top. Skip the DLC an FWE. Right click each mod an pick clean masters, then right click again an sort masters on all the mods bottom to top.

 

Now look at how many of these mods are in dark bold type. That means they have been modified, or that something was wrong with them. "dirty" Hit Ctrl S to save it. Then if you wanted to you could create a copy of all your FWE esm an esp, put that in a folder somewhere else. Then attempt to clean FWE as described above to see if it works or if you get an error. Then you could experiment an see if just not cleaning the one that causes the error, but clean the rest.

 

"Shorty's gona be a thug."

 

Multithreading audio will cause random crashing anytime there is sound playing.

 

iNumHWThreads=2 will fix freezing for 4 core CPU's. On a duel core it's only limiting the threads to the amount it was before you put this setting into the .ini It's pretty stupid. This setting is only useable if you have freezing that you can duplicate, then prove by game testing that the setting fixes something.

 

Autosaving, quicksaving, or using a mod to save. Promote coruption. To a degree changing the load order then not starting a new game also promotes coruption. The only way to be sure it to not do those things.

 

Don't tweek the game's .ini you don't know what you are doing. Instead use Fallout configurator, Vegas Configurator, or Skyrim Configurator. An app located on the Nexus download sites that uses a interface to quickly tweek the game. Then use the in-game sliders to set draw distance. Aim for 25% of max on everything except grass, object LOD, and Tree LOD. Set grass about halfway, Tree LOD halfway, then max out Object LOD. You could reduce Object LOD down if you want, but it won't make much of a difference. These are primitive assets that are extremely far away. You need to understand the Tweekguide, but don't follow it. Instead use the configurator to find out what works an what doesn't.

 

"I am not a crook"

 

Fallout Stutter Remover is stupid, just as any mod claiming that it fixes anything. Don't use those. Use the 4Gb enabler if you have more than 2Gb of ram. Fallout has stutter because people jack the settings up then run across a 2 square mile area non-stop. The Cell buffer gets full an ram gets full then it starts to stutter. Ex you get 30-60 FPS everywhere, but every few minutes there's a glitch for a moment. There's also micro stutter, but it's more of a rare an very limited problem, like mouse lag.

 

On that note. FO3 when it launched, there was 4 times as much being drawn on screen. That means that the max settings are 4 times higher than a normal game. You can get by with only 2-4 in-game clicks from min. Which is 80 to 120 feet or more. Most of the stuff past that point doesn't matter an it's detail is more deterimined by texture filtering.

 

In your case using NMC has raised the performance bar besides the useage of the performance or lite pack, meaning you'd have to back those distance sliders down. An alternative to this would be to reduce the screen resolution down to the next size down from Native. Then setting more post processing to clean it up. Like AA, AF, multisampling, and the quality of AF. More distance for example. Whatever you can do to make it look just as good.

 

NMC can be confuzin. There are two packs the lite an performance. You have the medium sized pack. With your CPU I would use the lite. It looks just as good as the vanilla textures if not better due to the difference in flavor. You also can just use the Vanilla textures. In many cases I prefer them even knowing the NMC are better.

 

The FPS issue is prolly the bottlenecked CPU you have. I'd say overclock that to 3.0Ghz or 4.0Ghz but you know it would require some advanced settings. Good motherboards allow simple overclocking, but it's not the same thing. It's an option though if you are wanting to avoid the pain of setting up a true overclock.

 

Next settings can determine where the load shifts, to the CPU or GPU. Depending on your settings you could have more or less load on either the CPU or GPU. I admit I don't understand it in great detail. However I do understand it in simple terms. Part of it would be the game settings an tweeks, but the other part is Nvidia control panel I reckon. The setting "let the 3D application decide" is indeed the safest bet. However the setting "use the advanced 3D settings" is just as useful.

 

Useful to you would be the quality of texture filtering. high quality, quality, performance, high performance. I think those are the listed settings, it's at the bottom in the Nvidia control panel. Set it to high performance. Then use the game launcher to set 4x AA an 8x AF. You also don't have to use AA on this game. It comes in handy for in-game items like the pool table when you are looking at it at a angle. Texture filtering at 8X is basicly 50 feet, then 16X is 100 feet.

 

Transparency Multisampling is useful on grass an trees or the players hair. Depending on the configuration of AA, AF, an multisamping between the launcher settings an the Nvidia control panel settings, one of them is going to work, then the other way will look ugly. Easy to tell if it's working, but it can be hard finding settings that work or even getting it to work. I can't really tell you what to pick besides the texture filtering quality. You'll have to play test it to see which settings work.