I just want to complain...

[Jokerine]

Darn it! My fellas, I want to ask - is Fallout 3 more demanding than Skyrim, or what? I can run Skyrim just fine on mid-high settings with over 200 mods (I must be crazy) but alas, a friend gifted me FO3 (GOTY, no less) ages ago but I just cannot run it. Even on the barest of minimum settings, with several mods to make everything look even crappier. I cannot even walk around, even if I move literally staring at the ground all the time, it's so laggy it takes me about 10 seconds to turn around and see who just shot me. But Skyrim runs just fine! Why?!

 

Ah, I just wanted to complain. Thanks for listening :P

[Werne]

First, this kinda belongs in Fallout 3 Discussion rather than Skyrim.

 

And second, FO3 isn't more demanding than Skyrim, it's just that it needs more fiddling with Fallout.ini and Fallout_Prefs.ini since some options just can't be set in the launcher. That's annoying but once done correctly, it will run smooth. Hell, even I can run it at 30FPS on high after tweaking the inis.

[Jokerine]

I think I gave that a shot back in the day, but I don't remember it making much of a difference. I'll see, perhaps I could manage to get it running again :)

[gsmanners]

You know, staring at the ground makes the renderer go slower, not faster. If you want better frame rate, you need to aim upward more than downward.

 

That said, you probably have something going on there like maybe GfWL keeps trying to root your system or something.

[Jokerine]

Oh, is that so, it makes it slower? Well, in either case, the lag is still unbearable, unfortunately.

 

Perhaps this topic should be moved to the Fallout discussion area, so someone knowledgeable could help me out :) It's been almost three years since I got it I think, and I haven't been able to finish it once...

[FiftyTifty]

Fallout 3 uses DirectSound. Skyrim doesn't. So if you are playing Fallout 3 on a Windows OS younger than XP (Vista, 7 and 8 ), expect performance to be sub-par.

 

The reason for the performance drop is due to M$oft removing HAL, forcing games to use the CPU for sound instead of your soundcard. This is only the case for games that utilize DirectSound, however.

Edited April 29, 2013 by FiftyTifty

[Jokerine]

Ah, that's so unfortunate. Indeed, I'm running Win7. Would compatibility mode help?

[FiftyTifty]

Ah, that's so unfortunate. Indeed, I'm running Win7. Would compatibility mode help?

Nope.

[Jokerine]

I guess it's no good then. What a waste... Thanks.

[prensa]

Jokerine - Hello!

While it's true that Windows 7 & Vista do not support DirectSound hardware acceleration & Fallout 3 is a DirectSound game, that shouldn't really slow you down much unless your system's really pushing the minimum requirements.

The main difference between Fallout 3 on Win7 without DirectSound is loss of sound fx functionality & some other audio oddities.

There's also a fix for those sound issues in the form of Creative Alchemy for users of Creative cards (like me).

Alchemy acts as a bridge, restoring the sound in DirectSound games:

http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx

Realtek have a simillar software solution too, called 3D SoundBack.

If you can run Skyrim you should be able to run Fallout 3.

Make sure the hard drive Fallout 3 is on is defragged, it's a big game & scattered files will slow it down.

High anti-aliasing settings eat FPS, try turning it down or off & using a better screen resolution.

Piling in high res textures can also hobble a game. If you do use them, use them sparingly & try lite versions that many offer.

Does your game sort of slow & speed up like a messed up film?

That could be micro stutter, a common issue. I get that with my quad core. I fixed it by using the excellent Stutter Remover:

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/8886

I use the older FSR_4-0-7 version.

You can tweak the .ini that comes with it to set the FPS to what suits you. You may need to try a few FPS variations before you get it just right or you may find the default works for you straight off.

That smooths the game right out nicely.

Don't forget to apply the Fallout 3 multi core bug fix.

Fallout 3 has trouble with multi core computers, mainly with ones that have more than two cores & use hyperthreading.

You need to edit your Fallout 3 .ini file, the one you want to change is:

For XP:

My Documents\My Games\Fallout3\

For Vista & Win7:

Documents\My Games\Fallout3

The file you want will be called:

FALLOUT.ini

Open the .ini with Notepad & change this line:

bUseThreadedAI=0

to:

bUseThreadedAI=1

& insert this line under it:

iNumHWThreads=2

Save & close your ini.

Hope this helps!

Prensa

Edited April 29, 2013 by prensa