A data vault of tweaks and fixes for the PC version : Fallout 4

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 8:55 pm

Very warm greetings to all of you PC survivors out there! :tops:

Some of you might know me from my previous tweaks and fixes threads for other games, such as http://forums.eu.square-enix.com/showthread.php?t=142159, http://forum.bioware.com/topic/529838-a-collection-of-tweaks-and-fixes-for-the-pc-version/page-1 and http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/36088-A-compendium-of-tweaks-and-fixes-for-the-PC-version. With the launch of Fallout 4 almost upon us, I thought it might be a good idea to reserve this space for listing all of the tweaks and fixes that will make the PC version of Fallout 4 truly shine and perform to the best of its capabilities. If previous games in the series are any indication, we can certainly expect at least some bugs and glitches come launch, but if we come together and pool our knowledge of tweaking and modding, I am sure we will be able to get all of these sorted sooner rather than later!

The purpose of this thread is to help every PC gamer get the most out of their time with Fallout 4 regardless of their technical expertise, so my only request to you would be that everyone wishing to contribute to this thread must maintain a respectful and mature attitude throughout. Thank you very much for your help and understanding and now, let's get to tinkering!

0a. Updating your GPU drivers to the latest available versions

The latest GPU drivers available for downloading are the http://support.amd.com/en-us/downloadhttp://support.amd.com/en-us/downloadhttp://support.amd.com/en-us/download driver for AMD GPUs and the http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/95553 driver for NVIDIA GPUs (Windows 10 version available http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/95559).

If your GPU driver installer does not offer the option to do a clean install (i.e. uninstalling your current drivers before installing a newer version), then please use http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html to automatically reboot into Safe Mode, uninstall your current GPU drivers and remove all registry entries, then reboot as normal and install the latest available drivers!

0b. Using ReShade+SweetFX to improve visual quality at little to no performance cost

ReShade+SweetFX represents a means of improving the visual quality of almost every PC game by tweaking individual parameters such as contrast, antialiasing, HDR, bloom, texture sharpness, etc. Through the use of user-generated presets, you can tweak Fallout 4 to match your own visual preferences. Please check out this http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/4648/ to see how ReShade+SweetFX can help your game look more to your liking!

Installation instructions for ReShade+SweetFX can normally be found on the page dedicated to the preset of your choice. However, sometimes the author's recommended version of ReShade+SweetFX might not work for you, or there will be a more updated version available. If that is the case, then please follow the instructions below to get the latest version of ReShade+SweetFX working with Fallout 4!

NOTE: ReShade+SweetFX does not work well with any other overlays (e.g FRAPS), so make sure that all overlays are disabled before trying to run any games with ReShade+SweetFX. If you already have ReShade+SweetFX files in your game folder, remove all of them as shown below before installing a new version!

To install ReShade+SweetFX:

a. Download the archive containing the http://www.mediafire.com/download/w0fg4b9sukaqw66/ReShade+1.1.0+with+SweetFX+2.0.7zhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/w0fg4b9sukaqw66/ReShade+1.1.0+with+SweetFX+2.0.7z (2.0 Preview 8 with Crosire's ReShade injector 1.1.0) and unpack its contents in a separate folder of your choosing. The contents of the archive will be: SweetFX folder, EULA.txt, README.txt, ReShade Setup.exe, ReShade.fx, ReShade32.dll, ReShade64.dll and Sweet.fx.

b. Navigate to your Fallout 4 installation folder, then only copy over the unpacked SweetFX folder and the ReShade.fx, ReShade64.dll and Sweet.fx files.

c. Rename ReShade64.dll to "dxgi.dll"

d. In the copied SweetFX folder at the Fallout4.exe's location you will find the SweetFX_settings.txt file containing all of the settings that make your game look the way you want it to. The problem now is, any downloaded preset from the http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/game/1158/ may not be directly compatible with the newest versions of ReShade and SweetFX, which means that you might need to manually edit all of the settings from the downloaded preset into your newly copied SweetFX_settings.txt file!

e. Open the downloaded preset and the SweetFX_settings.txt file side-by-side and manually enable/disable all of the relevant settings (i.e. set SMAA, LumaSharpen, Tonemap, Vibrance, etc., to "1" - enabled or "0" - disabled), as well as edit the individual setting numbers (e.g. SMAA_Threshold, Sharp_strength, Vibrance, Dither_method, etc.) so that they match those in the downloaded preset!

f. Run the game and, if ReShade+SweetFX was installed correctly, you will see a temporary text overlay as your game boots up, displaying the current versions of ReShade and SweetFX that have been enabled. Furthermore, pressing the "Scroll Lock (ScrLk)" button on your keyboard will result in ReShade/SweetFX turning ON and OFF, so that you might better see the difference it makes in-game!

g. Enjoy your flashy new game!

To uninstall ReShade+SweetFX:

Simply delete the following from your Fallout 4 installation folder: SweetFX folder, dxgi.dll, dxgi.txt, ReShade.fx and Sweet.fx files.

0c. Use ENBoost to improve performance and reduce stuttering

PC fans of previous Bethesda games will surely recognise the work of Boris Vorontsov and his excellent ENBSeries graphics mods and ENBoost memory and performance optimisations. Fortunately for us, Mr. Vorontsov recently published an ENBoost for Fallout 4, which helps smooth out framerates, reduce stuttering and fix texture pop-in! Here is how to install it and see if it brings a positive change to your game for yourselves:

a. Download the http://enbdev.com/download_mod_fallout4.htm for Fallout 4 at a location other than the game's installation folder

b. Extract the files from the downloaded archive and copy the contents of the "Patch" or "WrapperVersion" folder (name can change from version to version) to your game's installation folder where the Fallout4.exe file is located

c. Download the http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/332/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Ffallout4%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D332&pUp=1 at a location other than the game's installation folder

d. Extract the files from the downloaded archive and copy the contents of either the "MaximumPerformance_8GbRAM", "MaximumPerformance_16GbRAM" or "MaxStability" folders that best match your computer's hardware to your game's installation folder where the Fallout4.exe file is located, overwriting the previous enblocal.ini file that you had previously copied (e.g. if your PC has 8 Gb RAM, copy the enblocal.ini file from the MaximumPerformance_8GbRAM folder to your game installation folder)

e. Start the game as normal and, if the installation was performed correctly, you will see a welcome message!

If you want, after that you can also open the enblocal.ini file with a text editor (e.g. http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) and also limit your framerate to 60 FPS by editing these lines:

[LIMITER]
EnableFPSLimit=true
FPSLimit=60.0

By doing the above, you can cap your framerate to the game's maximum safe limit (i.e. 60 FPS) without needing to use AMD's/NVIDIA's driver software for it!

NOTE: If you have other programs that hook into the game (e.g. Steam Overlay, xFire, RadeonPro, etc.), your game might crash on startup with ENBoost installed! To fix this, disable any other overlays that you might be using before starting the game with ENBoost installed.

Sources: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/332/?, MrJelle

0d. Use Bilago's Fallout 4 Configuration Tool for easy tweaking

In case you prefer to save some time and not tweak everything detailed in the following sections by hand, you can now use http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/102/? to increase your field-of-view (FOV), disable mouse acceleration, toggle framerate locking, toggle gamepad support, disable the intro videos, tweak your mouse and/or gamepad sensitivity, change your resolution, choose between Fullscreen, Windowed and Borderless Windowed modes, toggle the Developer Console, change your Pip-Boy and V.A.T.S. colours and disable gore!

Please show Bilago your support for his terrific work by voting and endorsing his tool and why not by donating, as well?

Source: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/102/?

1. Skip the intro videos and load your saves quicker

In order to skip the intro videos and get instantaneous input in the main menu, so that you might load your saves and get to playing faster, open your Fallout4.ini file ("...\Documents\My Games\Fallout4") with a text editor (e.g. http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) and add the following lines under the [General] section:

[General]

sIntroSequence=0

fChancesToPlayAlternateIntro=0

uMainMenvdelayBeforeAllowSkip=0

Remember to save the changes to your Fallout4.ini file before closing it!

Source: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Fallout_4#Skip_intro_videos

2. Understanding the graphics settings and their effects in-game

Andrew Burnes from NVIDIA compiled an excellent illustrated explanation of each in-game setting in the official http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/fallout-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide for Fallout 4. If you are curious to see which settings do what or by how much they will impact your in-game performance, then look no further than his terrific article!

For your convenience, here is a quick referencing list that summarizes Andrew's fantastic guide and also provides suggested values for getting the most bang for your buck both visually and performance-wise:

Actor Fade - governs the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-actor-fade-interactive-comparison-001-21-vs-1.html; recommended value: 50% (~ 5 FPS hit)

Ambient Occlusion - adds http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-ambient-occlusion-interactive-comparison-001-on-vs-off.html where two surfaces or objects meet; recommended value: SSAO (~ 7 FPS hit)

Anisotropic Filtering - affects the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-anisotropic-filtering-interactive-comparison-001-16x-vs-off.html, especially those in the distance or on the sides of the screen; recommended value: 16x (~ 3 FPS hit)

Anti-Aliasing - removes the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-anti-aliasing-interactive-comparison-002-taa-vs-off.html of models and textures; recommended value: TAA (~ 2 FPS hit)

Decal Quantity - governs the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/images/fallout-4/fallout-4-decal-quantity-001.png visible on surfaces; recommended value: High (~ 5 FPS hit)

Depth of Field - adds a http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-depth-of-field-interactive-comparison-002-bokeh-vs-standard.html that emphasizes the action, characters, and certain game elements; recommended value: Bokeh (~ 5 FPS hit)

Distant Object Detail - controls the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-distant-object-detail-interactive-comparison-001-ultra-vs-low.html and their visibility at a distance; recommended value: Ultra (~ 4 FPS hit)

Godrays Quality - governs the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-god-rays-quality-interactive-comparison-006-ultra-vs-off.html, as well as volumetric lighting; recommended value: Low (~ 6.5 FPS hit)

Grass Fade - adjusts the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-grass-fade-interactive-comparison-001-21-vs-1.html; recommended value: 50% (~ 7 FPS hit)

Item Fade - adjusts the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-item-fade-interactive-comparison-001-21-vs-1.html, such as buckets, bottlecaps, bones, etc.; recommended value: 50% (~ 3 FPS hit)

Lens Flare - adds http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-lens-flares-interactive-comparison-001-on-vs-off.html when the camera is pointed in the direction of a bright light; recommended value: On (less than 1 FPS hit)

Lighting Quality - adjusts the fidelity of http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-lighting-quality-interactive-comparison-002-ultra-vs-high.html; recommended value: Medium

Object Fade - adjusts the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-object-fade-interactive-comparison-001-21-vs-1.html, such as trees, fences, cars, etc.; recommended value: 50% (~ 3 FPS hit)

Object Detail Fade - has a very, very, very minor impact on the fidelity of objects rendered by Object Fade; recommended value: Ultra (~ 1.6 FPS hit)

Rain Occlusion - rain won't be rendered around your character if you're beneath an elevated highway, for instance; recommended value: On (~ 5 FPS hit)

Screen Space Reflections - adds http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-screen-space-reflections-interactive-comparison-001-on-vs-off.html to reflective surfaces, such as bodies of water; recommended value: On (~ 5 FPS hit)

Shadow Distance - controls the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-shadow-distance-interactive-comparison-001-ultra-vs-high.html, adding some much-needed depth to distant detail; recommended value: High (~ 8 FPS hit)

Shadow Quality - adjusts the http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-shadow-quality-interactive-comparison-001-ultra-vs-low.html throughout the game; recommended value: Medium ( ~ 7 FPS hit)

Texture Quality - governs http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-texture-quality-interactive-comparison-001-ultra-vs-high.html, but in reality has no discernible visual impact; recommended value: Ultra (less than 1 FPS hit)

Wetness - makes http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-wetness-interactive-comparison-001-on-vs-off.html and adds shine to illuminated surfaces and character clothing; recommended value: On (~ 5 FPS hit)

Source: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/fallout-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide

3. Disable the "NVIDIA Streamer Service" to improve performance and reduce chances of crashing

If you are using an NVIDIA GPU, then you are also likely using NVIDIA GeForce Experience. While the latter can be very useful for determining what settings your rig should lean towards, it also introduces a new service, called "NVIDIA Streamer Service", that is only used for streaming your games to SHIELD devices and is actually causing framerate issues in many recent games, including Grand Theft Auto V and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

To turn this unnecessary service completely off and regain your lost framerate, as well as prevent any associated crashes, click on the Start Button on the Windows taskbar, search for "Services" and then right-click its icon and select "Run as administrator".

Using this http://www.techpowerup.com/img/15-04-29/88a.jpg as a visual guide, scroll down through the "Services (Local)" list, find and right-click on NVIDIA Streamer Service, then select "Properties". First click on "Stop" to turn the service off, confirm that you also want to stop "NVIDIA Streamer Network Service" and then select "Startup type: Disabled" from the drop-down menu for both of these services.

Source: http://www.techpowerup.com/212140/reddit-discovers-a-neat-performance-improving-trick-for-nvidia-users.html

4. Disable mouse and/or controller acceleration

Mouse and controller acceleration appear to be enabled by default in Fallout 4, but luckily these can be disabled by adding the following lines to your to your Fallout4.ini file ("...\Documents\My Games\Fallout4"):

Disable mouse acceleration

[Controls]

bMouseAcceleration=0

Remember to save the changes to your Fallout4.ini file before closing it!

Source: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Fallout_4#Mouse_acceleration

Disable controller acceleration

* Temporarily removed until a genuine working solution is found! *

Source: N/A

5. Fix vertical mouse sensitivity being different from horizontal sensitivity

For some weird reason, vertical and horizontal mouse sensitivities are different in Fallout 4, but luckily there is a quick and easy way to fix this! Just open your Fallout4.ini file ("...\Documents\My Games\Fallout4") with a text editor (e.g. http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) and add the following lines under the [Controls] section:

[Controls]

fIronSightsPitchSpeedRatio=1.0000 (Default value: 0.8000)
fPitchSpeedRatio=1.0000 (Default value: 0.5625)

The first parameter controls sensitivity when aiming down the sights, while the second sets the ratio of vertical movement to horizontal movement when aiming from the hip. Bethesda weirdly made the defaults 0.8000 for fIronSightsPitchSpeedRatio and 0.5625 for fPitchSpeedRatio and this is why moving the mouse around felt wrong by default!

Remember to save the changes to your Fallout4.ini file before closing it!

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1137773&highlight=

6. Fix sensitivity when aiming down weapon sights

The default sensitivity when aiming-down-sights is a bit low, so to fix this open your Fallout4.ini file ("...\Documents\My Games\Fallout4") with a text editor (e.g. http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) and copy/paste the following new section and line below:

[Main]
fIronSightsFOVRotateMult=2.136363636 (for 16:9 monitors)

NOTE: This value has not yet been confirmed to work perfectly weel for other aspect ratios!

Remember to save the changes to your Fallout4.ini file before closing it!

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=551069501

7. Change the camera and model field-of-view (FOV) values

The rather claustrophobic default field-of-view (FOV) can be changed by opening your Fallout4.ini file ("...\Documents\My Games\Fallout4") and adding the following two lines under the [Display] section:

[Display]

fDefaultWorldFOV=X, which is your third-person FOV value
fDefault1stPersonFOV=Y, which is your first-person FOV value

For the best results, X and Y should match (e.g. set both to "90"). Finally, remember to save the changes to your Fallout4.ini file before closing it!

Source: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Fallout_4#Field_of_view_.28FOV.29

To also change your model FOV (i.e. the size of your gun model and Pip-Boy) do the following. If you find your Pip-Boy to be too small, press the tilde key "~", then type "fov X", where X is a smaller number if you want the model to be larger on-screen and vice-versa (note that this might take same trial and error to get exactly right!). Next, type in "refreshini", doing so will make it so your game will not revert to the default 80 FOV. Finally, press "~" again to close the console, then save your game and from that point on your game will use the newly-set FOV values!

Here are some visual examples for different model FOV values:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/391046545656531111/09E58449A6D87C4A9955A23C91A87EFA2416ADA5/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/391046545656547266/A1E85A143FA85979C1B470806E8F0ED89B246D45/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/391046545656532979/29A4704C8BAD616798736B69856D78402CC6FAF0/

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=551069501

8. Tweak your GPU's Control Panel settings for improved performance and smoothness

NOTE: The following applies to NVIDIA GPUs, but http://www.radeonpro.info/download/ can be used to apply equivalent settings for AMD GPUs as well!

Donwload http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-inspector-download.html, extract the archive at any location of your choosing and run "nvidiaInspector.exe" (p.s. no installation is required!). In the main window, click on the http://imgur.com/a1oup2f, then in the newly opened window search for Fallout 4 from the http://imgur.com/6uqOcF6 and configure the settings bellow as follows:

Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: 1
Power Management Mode: Prefer maximum performance
Threaded Optimization: On

For your convenience, please check out these http://imgur.com/a/xEVVC. Finally, click the "Apply changes" button and you are good to go!

9. Fix NVIDIA SLI scaling issues

Open http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-inspector-download.html, click on the http://imgur.com/a1oup2f, then in the newly opened window search for Fallout 4 from the http://imgur.com/6uqOcF6 and configure the settings bellow as follows:

SLI compatibility bits (DX1x): 0x080202F5 (Batman: Arkham City)

Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode

NVIDIA predefined number of GPUs to use on SLI rendering mode on DirectX 10: SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_TWO (for two GPUs) or SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_THREE (for three GPUs) or SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_FOUR (for four GPUs)

NVIDIA predefined SLI mode on DirectX10: SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_DX10_FORCE_AFR2

Remember to click on the "Apply changes" button in the top-left corner of the window and you are good to go!

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=551069501

10. Minimise stuttering and eliminate screen tearing

If you are experiencing stuttering, the following tweaks can help mitigate it, if not remove it altogether, with the added benefit of eliminating screen tearing as well:

a. Open your Fallout4Prefs.ini ("...\Documents\My Games\Fallout 4") file and disable the game's internal V-sync:

[Display]

iPresentInterval=0

b. In the same file, force the game to use either exclusive fullscreen or borderless windowed mode (whichever performs better on your system!) by tweaking the following parameters:

Exclusive fullscreen mode

[Display]

bTopMostWindow=0

bMaximizeWindow=0

bBorderless=0

bFull Screen=1

Borderless windowed mode

[Display]

bTopMostWindow=0

bMaximizeWindow=0

bBorderless=1

bFull Screen=0

c. Open http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-inspector-download.html, click on the http://imgur.com/a1oup2f, then in the newly opened window search for Fallout 4 from the http://imgur.com/6uqOcF6 and configure the settings bellow as follows:

Frame Rate Limiter: 60 fps

Vertical Sync Smooth AFR behavior: Off

Vertical Sync Tear Control: Standard

Vertical Sync: Force on

For your convenience, please check out these http://imgur.com/a/xEVVC. Finally, click the "Apply changes" button and you are good to go!

NOTE: Limiting your framerate to a maximum of 60 FPS is critical in Fallout 4, because the game engine’s internal speed is governed by your framerate. Playing at framerates higher than 60 FPS can therefore result in unforeseen bugs and glitches, such as getting stuck on furniture and computer terminals!

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=184906868&postcount=1583

11. Work around the hard-bound keys with AutoHotkey

For some other dubious reason, Bethesda thought it would be a good idea to hard-bind certain keys, preventing us from rebinding the keyboard controls to fit our liking. Luckily for us, iFailed put together an extremely detailed tutorial for bypassing the imposed limitation. Kudos to you, my friend, shame on the person who thought having hard-bound keys would be a good idea in the first place!

Source: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1546356-workaround-for-hard-bound-keys-autohotkey-tutorial

12. Manually tweak the graphics settings even further

Andrew Burnes listed dozens of tweakable .ini parameters at the end of his official http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/fallout-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide for Fallout 4. If you are willing to experiment with tweaks other than those listed in this post, first back-up the Fallout4Prefs.ini file in your "...\Documents\My Games\Fallout4" folder, then open it with a text editor (e.g. http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) and increase the following parameters above their "Ultra" values to improve visual fidelity, or decrease them in order to improve performance:

Actor Fade Tweak

fLODFadeOutMultActors=X [Ultra value: 15]

Decal Quantity Tweaks

uMaxDecals=X [Ultra value: 1000]

uMaxSkinDecals=X [Ultra value: 100]

uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=X [Ultra value: 40]

Distant Object Detail Tweaks

fTreeLoadDistance=150000.0000 [Ultra value: 75000.0000]
fBlockMaximumDistance=500000.0000 [Ultra value: 250000.0000]
fBlockLevel2Distance=220000.0000 [Ultra value: 110000.0000]
fBlockLevel1Distance=180000.0000 [Ultra value: 90000.0000]
fBlockLevel0Distance=120000.0000 [Ultra value: 60000.0000]

Here is a http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-distant-object-detail-interactive-comparison-001-tweaked-vs-ultra.html taken with the above tweaks!

Godrays Quality Tweak

GR grid=128 [Ultra value: 64]

Grass Fade Tweaks

fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000 [Ultra value: 7000]
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000 [Ultra value: 7000]

Item Fade Tweak

fLODFadeOutMultItems=X [Ultra value: 15]

Object Fade Tweak

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=X [Ultra value: 15]

Particle Tweak

iMaxDesired=X [Ultra value: 750]

Screen Space Reflections Tweaks

NOTE: The following tweaks need to be applied via the in-game console, accessible by pressing the tilde key ("~") in-game!

SSRI [number]: (default value: 1) - adjusts the intensity of SSR

SSRBP [number]: (default value: 1) - adjusts the blending power of SSR

SSRAT [number]: (default value: 0.2) - adjusts the angle threshold of SSR

SSREFF [number]: (default value: 0.2) - adjusts the edge fade factor of SSR

SSRVBP [number]: (default value: 50) - adjusts the vertical blur power of SSR

SSRVAP [number]: (default value: 2) - adjusts the vertical alignment power of SSR

SSRVSP [0.0-1.0]: (default value: 0) - adjusts the vertical stretching power of SSR

SSRRSS [number]: (default value: 8) - adjusts the ray step scale of SSR

Shadow Distance Tweaks

fShadowDistance=17000 [Ultra value: 20000.0000]

fDirShadowDistance=17000 [Ultra value: 20000.0000]

Shadow Quality Tweak

NOTE: The following tweak has a ~ 30 FPS impact!

iShadowMapResolution=8192 [Ultra value: 4096]

uGrids Tweak

uGridsToLoad=7 [Default value: 5; Max value: 13]

Here is a http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/fallout-4/fallout-4-ugridstoload-tweak-interactive-comparison-001-ugrids-13-vs-ugrids-5.html to exemplify the impact of tweaking uGrids!

NOTE: Just like in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the above tweak can break your save games, so to prevent that, please observe the following instructions from http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/fallout-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide#fallout-4-ugrids-config-file-tweaks:

Start Fallout 4 and load up a saved game
Press Alt+Tab to switch out of Fallout 4 and move back to your Desktop
Edit your Fallout4Prefs.ini file as you would normally, modifying the "uGridsToLoad" variable to the desired value. Save the changes to your "Fallout4Prefs.ini" file and close it
Press Alt+Tab once again to switch back to Fallout 4
Open the in-game console by pressing the tilde key ("~") and type "refreshini"
Save your game to a new save slot, and it should now have the correct new "uGridsToLoad" value!

Water Effects Tweaks

NOTE: The quality of water effects cannot be improved in Fallout 4 due to their LOD levels having being hard-locked by Bethesda, but the following individual components can still be enabled/disabled to your liking:

bUseWaterDisplacements=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)
bUseWaterRefractions=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)
bUseWaterReflections=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)
bUseWaterDepth=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)

Source: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/fallout-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide

13. Personal working configuration

For quick referencing, I have included below all of the tweaks, fixes and mods that I am personally using to play Fallout 4:

Fallout 4 Configuration Tool settings

http://imgur.com/a/xN6Ww

Fallout 4 Launcher Graphics settings

Aspect ratio: 16:9 Widescreen

Resolution: 1920x1080

Antialiasing: TAA (Best quality)

Anisotropic filtering: 16 samples

Windowed: On (ticked)

Borderless: On (ticked)

Texture Quality: Ultra

Shadow Quality: Ultra

Shadow Distance: Medium

Decal Quality: Ultra

Lighting Quality: Ultra

Godrays Quality: Low

Depth of Field: Bokeh (Best quality)

Ambient Occlusion: SSAO (High)

Screen Space Reflections: On (ticked)

Wetness: On (ticked)

Rain Occlusion: On (ticked)

Motion Blur: Off (unticked)

Lens Flare: On (ticked)

Object Fade: Maximum

Actor Face: Maximum

Grass Fade: Maximum

Item Face: Maximum

Distant Object Detail: Ultra

Object Detail Fade: Ultra

NVIDIA Inspector settings

Frame Rate Limiter: 60 fps

Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1

Vertical Sync Smooth AFR behavior: Off

Vertical Sync Tear Control: Standard

Vertical Sync: Force on

Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance

Threaded optimization: On

NVIDIA GeForce Experience settings

Share: Disabled

SHIELD: Disabled

SweetFX/ReShade versions and preset

http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/4656/

My system specifications

Intel i5-3570K OC 4.4 Ghz, GeiL 8 GB DDR3 2133 Mhz, MSI GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6 GB GDDR5, Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB, BenQ XL2420T 120 Hz, Windows 10 Pro (x64)

Appendix

Other useful links:

- http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Fallout_4

- http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1544248-bug-report-index-pc/

- http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1137773&highlight=

- http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1137422

- http://forum.step-project.com/topic/9309-fallout-4-default-values-for-all-valid-ini-settings/

- http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/game/1158/http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/game/1158/

- http://hastebin.com/raw/eziriberin

- http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/fallout-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:14 am

Modding supplement

Below is a list of Fallout 4 mods that I believe fix or improve upon the vanilla version in ways that might be considered by most to be useful or desirable to have. Please give them a try if they catch your attention and show the modders your support by endorsing their creations!

0. Mod managers

To ease the process of installing, managing and uninstalling mods, please consider using one of the mod managers below:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/495/? by grasmann

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/modmanager/? by Nexus Mods

https://github.com/TanninOne/modorganizer/releases by Tannin

1. Audio mods

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/130/? by Towbiekun - replaces vanilla weapon sounds with more realistic versions

2. Interface mods

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/897/? by xandarori - aids in inventory management by providing a neater means of sorting your items

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1235/? by Cirosan and shadwar - makes the game display the full lines of what your character is going to say in conversation, instead of just a paraphrase

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1215/? by mm137 - replaces the default map with a much higher contrast version, clearly delineating roads, topography and waterlines

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/395/? by Tohkann01 - replaces the XBOX prompts when using an XBOX controller or emulated controller to Playstation 4 button prompts

3. Gameplay mods

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/214/? by The Iron Rose - modifies your character's maximum carrying capability, enabling you to hoard more items without fear of over encumbrance

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/109/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Ffallout4%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D109%26preview%3D&pUp=1 by jet4571 - removes screen blood splatter when injured

4. Graphics mods

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1822/? by Alexander Blade - dynamically controls shadow draw distance as you play in order to maintain your desired framerate without losing too much visual fidelity

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/680/? by 3AMt - improves textures for various rocks around the wasteland

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/244/? by SparrowPrince - offers more realistic water textures with better wave, foam and ripple implementations

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:51 am

This could be an awesome info hub, thanks! I'm getting frequent crashes even though I can run the game at 1080p 60fps, everything maxed except godrays. Running the latest drivers, disabled FRAPS, but I've just tried disabling the Nvidia Streamer Services you mentioned above, so hopefully that solves the issue

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:00 pm

A warm welcome to my humble thread and thank you very much for the kind words, my friend! Indeed, my goal is to make this space a safe haven where every single Fallout 4 PC player can come and ask any question they might have on getting the most out of their game.

Whenever you find the time, please let me know if you found that disabling the two NVIDIA Streamer Services benefited your gaming experience at all. Until then, have a blast playing the game!

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:17 pm

Nope, no difference. Still crashing every 15 mins or so. That's on a GTX 970, and i7 2600k with 16GB RAM. Latest drivers for Windows 10. This really should not be happening.

The game plays brilliantly when it plays. Really weird.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:39 pm

Thank you very much for getting back, Darkstorne!

It is very likely that this is one of the those launch issues that will be patched away in the following days. If not, we'll get to the bottom of it soon enough. Please let me know if you manage to find anything else that helps with your crashing, so that I might update the OP!

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:23 pm

there is no nvidia streamer network services only nvidia network service should i disable that one ??

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:45 am

No no, NVIDIA Network Service is a different component installed by the NVIDIA GPU driver package and should not be disabled as it does not affect performance in any way!

This http://www.techpowerup.com/img/15-04-29/88a.jpg shows the exact service that needs to be disabled, but I guess it might not appear under "Services" if you don't have NVIDIA GeForce Experience also installed. Is that the case with you, by any chance? :ermm:

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:51 pm

Thanks, Verrenus.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 5:18 pm

My pleasure, as always!

I am afraid this is all I could do for now without getting my hands on the actual game, but after it launches at midnight I will constantly update the OP with the latest and greatest tweaks and fixes, just like I did for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so do watch this space from now on!

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:22 pm

Just in case you're an extra awesome genius with an INT stat of 10, this is the crash error that everyone (who experiences crashes) is getting. Any idea what the problem might be? Weird that it works so well for some, and crashes like clockwork for others.

Faulting application name: Fallout4.exe, version: 1.1.29.0, time stamp: 0x5627e510

Faulting module name: XAudio2_7.dll_unloaded, version: 9.29.1962.0, time stamp: 0x4c0643cc

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0000000000032891

Faulting process id: 0x1b6c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d11b173f472384

Faulting application path: C:\Games\SteamSSD\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Fallout4.exe

Faulting module path: XAudio2_7.dll

Report Id: ed0a7277-af5a-463e-8bc9-41db6de1827f

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:38 pm

Without your system specs it′s hard to tell what the exact cause is.

Edit: Ok, that particular dll is part of DirectX. Why it′s the cause of a crash is unbeknownst to me at this point.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:31 pm

The cause is the XAudio2_7.dll as the error report says, I'm just not sure why it could be failing there. I've just been Googling around though and it seems like this is an INSANELY common issue with games in Windows 10. AC Unity and Far Cry 4 also had this problem, but you could solve it by deleting the XAudio2_7.dll file. That led to the unfortunate side effect of some other games not having any audio at all though.

I just tried removing the .dll file and seeing how Fallout 4 coped, and it removed the sound from that game too sadly. So even though that may fix the crashing (didn't hang around long enough to check) it's not a good solution by any means. I'll keep digging.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:02 pm

What soundcard are you using and more importantly what driver? As I don′t own ACU or FC4 I can′t test either game ( I′m running W10 btw ).

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:15 am

It's listed as "Creative SB X-Fi" in my device manager list, and Windows tells me the driver is up to date. Maybe Windows is useless at managing drivers though?

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:26 pm

Thank you very much for sharing the actual crash log with us, Darkstorne!

I am not familiar with this particular crash, but I don't think it would hurt to install/repair all of the redistributables (i.e. DirectX, Visual C++) necessary for the game to run. These can normally be found in a "Redist" folder at every game's main installation location.

Even though Steam usually does this automatically upon first starting any game that needs them, please try to install/repair all of the redistributables that you can find in your Fallout 4 installation folder and report back with your results whenever you find the time. Best of luck until then!

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:29 pm

I somehow suspect a faulty driver there, but I only can guess at that. The reason why I say that is that a buddy of mine had an old Soundblaster 1024 on W7. The driver installed by the OS was an OLD XP driver, guess what the hardwaremanager told my bud: "driver is up to date". Needless to say, that soundcard couldn′t work because of driver incompatibility. In the end, he bought a Xonar. You might try downloading a driver from creative and see if that changes things.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:15 pm

So I tried downloading the latest driver manually, but no dice. Still crashes.

HOWEVER!

Bethesda are clearly aware because they've just released a beta update for the game through Steam specifically designed to tackle this XAudio2_7.dll bug. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1544136-fallout-4-updates/, and might be useful in the OP. I will report back if I get 30 mins without a crash

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:58 am

Well, sorry that you had to waste your time due to my advice. But good to know that Bethesda has taken notice of it.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:51 pm

It's never a waste of time, and it was awesome of you to help with the brainstorming I can pretty much confirm this beta patch has fixed the crashing for me too. Almost 45 mins solid play now, when I always used to crash after 15 mins like clockwork.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:09 am

Great to hear! I still have to wait 4 hrs before I can play it :sadvaultboy:

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:43 pm

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Darkstorne, the OP has been updated accordingly!

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:51 pm

no thats not what i was talking about i was talking about this

there is nvidia streamer service but there isn't any nvidia streamer network service

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:05 pm

I'd like to add that to get SLI working one must set SLI to AFR2, because the nVIDIA profile does nothing.

EDIT: A few other tweaks:

- Go into Windows Power Profile and set PCIE Link State to "Off" (This helps with Framerate spikes caused by GPU clocks switching depending on what the game is demanding)

- Go into Windows Power Profile and set Processor Power Management (minimum and Mximum) to 100%, or use the High Performance profile. (This is basically disabling Core Parking)

This should be set by Default in the nVIDIA drivers, this helps with stutter on pretty much every game even for people with an SSD.

- Disabling Steam in-gme has helped in the past with a lot of crashes, especially when using SweetFX.

- ENBs from Skyrim should be supported by the game.

» Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:43 am

Can someone help me out? The game only launches in windowed and still crashes often, saves don't load. I have the latest drivers and the beta fo4 patch. I always get the message that my drivers crashed and then recovered. My specs: geforce 860 m 4gb ddr5, i7 4710HQ 2.50GHz, and 16 gb of ddr3 RAM, win 8.1 64bit.