Im totally new to pc games, and im getting lock ups far too often. I thought by gettig a new pc with windows 7 i'd be fine. Can you please tell me where i go to to change the fallout.ini file please? Yes im a new player, but i really want to play this game but its impossible at the moment, and i have no idea where i go to change the files you mentioned above. Thanks

It's in your Windows Documents folder.

My Documents\My Games\Fallout3\

:thumbsup:

Thanks, i checked the web today and got the directions from another site, but i can tell you that it worked! My game was crashing atleast every 1 or 2 minutes and since changing that file thing, i have not had one lock up! NOT ONE!! So, i can fully recommend it to anybody else who is have the same problem. I cant believe it worked, the game runs so smooth, ive been playing for hours now without a hiccup. Maybe Bethesda could patch it, or make it an official fix or something, because theres bound to be other people like myself who have no idea but these kinds of things, and it only took a couple of minutes to do. Thanks

Escaping the Enclave base, after meeting with the president you find two Deathclaw cages, after the cages there's a right turn -> I see a long corridor... -> black. GFX-card crashed can only hear sounds looping @ the background.

I guess I'll be joining the crash-club then, sup guys. Atleast I know I won't be buying F:NV, hopefully by the time Skyrim appears they've done something. It's honestly getting a little old.

EDIT: Yes, happens repeatedly, so it's a progress-buster.

Sounds similar to my problems. Could you try these troubleshooting ideas if they apply?

If you're using your nvidia control panel settings to apply aa or af, or other graphics enhancements, set them all to "let the application choose" and instead enable those settings from the fallout launcher (or mod manager). I suggest this because I seem to have gotten marked improvement in framerate and possibly a reduction in crashing (placebo?) by doing this.

If that doesn't work, if you have archiveindvalidation active (using say, MMM or project beauty), disable it and those mods that make heavy use of it. My game still crashes more than I'd like, but nearly all of my progress-busting crashes were alleviated by doing this.

Nah not forcing AA or AF via GeForce control. It's application controlled by default - the rest of the settings are hebrew to me, some of them are On some Off but I don't know enough about 'em to meddle with 'em.

Not using any mods.

I did get past my progress-buster however: I turned HDR off, turned AA off, turned AF off, and travelled through the spot with my head towards the floor in 1st person.

I'll keep playing until I hit the next dead end, after that it's gonna be enough for me. Hoping for the best.

To Slipsticks: I have exactly, I mean exactly the same issues as you do (the crashes in the children s wing of the library, exiting the library I crash, second floor of the tenpenny tower (suites), second floor of the vault-tec headquarters (corporate offices I think). I've testing your results with the archive invalidated, and yes it is the culprit. I'm going to send Quarn a text message to see what can be done about it.


I'm also using FOOK2, but if I disable all the fook2 esps I still get the crashes as long as archive invalidated is still on.




LOL! I've done that before myself. So much for immersion.

Slipsticks, let me know if you get this, i'll send you a pm as well since we have the exact same issue.

Update: Quarn's message box is full, fudge nuts! If anyone knows how to contact Quarn could you post it here or send me a pm, thanks.

Update 2: After further research, it seems like the problem isn't so much archive invalidated, but a texture placed by another mod or texture replacer as seen in this post -> http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/192309-problem-with-archive-invalidation/

I'm going to try and find what texture is causing these freeze ups, I wonder what all these locations have in common... it's not raiders, it's something else.

Ok, here's the solution to the freezing exactly opposite the Arlington library.

1) Stay calm, i know you're excited

2) Go to C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data\Meshes\Architecture\Urban\StreetDressing

3) Delete the Bethesda art file named -> automat01 (if this thing wasn't virtual, I'd kick it's ass).

4) play the game, and the freezing in that area should be gone



I'll update some more, once I do more testing to see if more areas are fixed as well... i'll also do some research as to where this art file came from, so I can notify the author of the file that it causes problems.

Please let me know if it fixed the problem...

Update: The Bethesda art file named automat01 actually come from fook2 1.2, I just found it in the file... i'm going to contact the authors and see if I can find out why it's causing issues on our computers and not in others. Stay tuned!

Awesome work baihbalm, I'm going to test this out!

I want to mention another weird freeze that was caused by archiveinvalidation and the mods that use it. I don't know if it's related, and it might be difficult to reproduce, but it was weird so I'll mention it. Relevant mods include mart's mutant mod, fook2.

It was in the Museum of History Offices, in the foyer of a two story area with a turret directly in the center. It's towards the very back of the museum. I was on the first floor, looking toward the stairwell in front of me. I go to look a dead Rambler (a MMM addition), and take a finger, which causes the hand to explode and spew blood particles from the arm stub. If I attempt to look away while these particles are spweing the game freezes just as the particles go out of view. If I wait a few seconds for the particles to stop flowing, I can look away without a problem.

Update 2: After further research, it seems like the problem isn't so much archive invalidated, but a texture placed by another mod or texture replacer as seen in this post -> http://www.thenexusf...e-invalidation/

In other words, it turn out that the problems are not at all related to archive invalidated, but to corrupt meshes and textures installed by mods. Archive invalidated just simply makes these custom textures and meshes available in game. So if you have any crashes in the future with feezes + the sound continuing to play, you be sure it's not archive invalidated but a corrupt textures or mesh.



Hmmm, I used to have issues like that with my rig. As soon as I turned off Vertical Sync, the crashes mostly stopped. Is it the same type of crash that you described before (with the sound continuing to play)?

If you want to try, here's a good article on how to get rid of vertical sync -> VSync: Vertical Synchronization (VSync) is the synchronization of your graphics card and monitor's abilities to redraw an image on the screen a number of times each second, measured in Hz - for full details, see this page. Whether LCD or CRT, your monitor will have a maximum rating in Hz for each resolution (e.g. 1280x1024 at 75Hz). When VSync is enabled (ticked), your maximum FPS will be capped at your monitor's maximum refresh rate at your chosen resolution, and more importantly in some areas your FPS may drop by as much as 50% if the graphics card has to wait to display a whole frame. Thus enabling VSync can have a negative performance impact. To offset this impact, you can enable Triple Buffering.

Unfortunately in Fallout 3 VSync is enabled at all times, even if this box is unticked. You can force VSync off by editing the iPresentInterval=1 variable in the Fallout.ini file to iPresentInterval=0 (See the Advanced Tweaking section). You should also check to make sure your graphics card's control panel doesn't have VSync forced on - whether via a specific Fallout 3 game profile or in the global options (see the Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide or ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide for more details). Disabling VSync should be the optimal option, as it can increase framerates and more importantly, it will reduce mouse lag. However unfortunately in Fallout 3 it can also increase the micro-stuttering/juddering/skipping issue (as covered in the Troubleshooting Tips section). In any case experiment to see what your results are with this setting, though again, remember that it can only be turned off properly by manually editing the relevant line in the .ini file mentioned above. If you just want to reduce mouse lag without disabling VSync, see the Max Frames to Render Ahead tweak on the last page of this guide.

This information was taken from this guide: http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_5.html Best guide I've come across bar none, it is really worth your time to go through it if you haven't already.

On a related note, the same guy (Koroush Ghazi) who made the fallout 3 tweaks guide, does guides for a bunch of other games and a most excellent guide for XP users -> http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html (I usually don't promote anyone, but these guide are worth the $5.00 price tag IMHO). There's a free edition as well, so there's no reason not to take a look.

Tell me if deleting the file worked for you as well, good luck.

Can this multi-CPU problem also cause stuttering instead of total freezing?

I have had only one freezing, but I have always severe stuttering just after entering to the Atrium section in the Vault. The first section of the Vault runs smoothly, but everything lags like hell after, so I just can't play further!
I have 4-core CPU and Windows 7, but those ini-tweaks doensn't seems to help for the suttering or lagging problem.

Also I have no music, or radio music, and I have to turn music to zero in acces to disable an annoying chirping sound that starts since entering to the Capital Wastelands. That maybe a different problem or maybe not, hor knows, but this game is the buggiest I have ever played...

There's the whole problem anolysis of mine:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1180012-slowmotion-when-entering-atrium-in-the-vault/

I too once tried to play Fallout 3, eventually got extremely frustrated with CTDs, tried everything I could find on google (spent my free time of over a week attempting to make it behave), and had no luck whatsoever with it.

I've just returned to this subject out of random curiosity. Let's say I have a system that potentially meets the "optimum" requirements for Fallout 3.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz)
4GB DDR2 RAM, Dual Channel
Geforce GTX 285 Graphics card (single card)
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

I have the Steam version of Fallout 3. What would be the best approach to take to try and make this svcker run correctly?

If I have interpreted these posts correctly, I believe I should:

Install the game (via download)
Patch GFWL out of the game (via the link provided earlier in this thread)
Leave the default INI's alone (dual-core CPU, hence no fix theoretically required in the ini)
Disable the Steam in-game overlay for Fallout 3

Anything I missed?

Thanks in advance.

look at my post # 35, there's a link to fallout 3 tweaks guide. If you want to make your game run well, i'd strongly recommend you go through the guide -> http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html

Since your on windows 7, take a look at this post -> http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1167290-there-has-to-be-some-way-to-fix-fallout-3/

Much depends on you mod list, which you didn't provide. If you do use mods, there is much advice on the subject in the mods section of this forum (browse the stickies there)

If you're not using mods, then you're all set.

Are we having the same issue?

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1187018-fallout-3-goty-controls-and-game-freeze/

So, for you ... the keyboard and mouse quit responding. But, is the screen really frozen or is the game still playing all around your character (that can't move, can't use a weapon, can't use PipBoy, etc.)