Problem: I have great framerate indoors and in interior-like worldspaces (sans Rivet City but what else is new.) But I chug along out of doors and in the wastes. I'm lucky to traverse medium/large distances without a crash. Sometimes I just crash, most of the time it's so bad the entire computer locks up and forces a restart. That's irritating.

So, here's my Load Order;

[X] Fallout3.esm[X] Anchorage.esm[X] ThePitt.esm[X] BrokenSteel.esm[X] PointLookout.esm[X] Zeta.esm[X] FallsChurchMetroFix.esm[X] Phalanx-PointLookout-Navmesh.esm[X] Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow.esm[X] DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm[X] CRAFT.esm[X] CALIBR.esm[X] xCALIBR.esm[X] Project Beauty HD version.esm[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm[X] Mart's Mutant Mod.esm[X] CRAFT - Activation Perk.esp[X] DarNifiedUIF3.esp[X] CASM.esp[X] Fellout-Full.esp[X] Fellout-Anchorage.esp[X] Fellout-BrokenSteel.esp[X] Fellout-PointLookout.esp[X] Fellout-pipboylight.esp[X] Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow in Fallout.esp[X] Enhanced Weather - Weather Sounds in Interiors.esp[X] Enhanced Weather - Sneak Bonus during Storms.esp[X] CALIBR Ammo Schematics - CRAFT.esp[X] xCALIBRmunitions.esp[X] xCALIBRmunitions_FOSEnhancements.esp[X] Echo_BatteryCharger.esp[X] Echo_UseBothGloves.esp[X] Power Armor Gloves v.3.esp[X] ContinuousCyroCreation.esp[X] ZoomReworked.esp[X] 1PipboyPDA.esp[X] 1Animated Nightvision goggles.esp[X] Dragonskin Tactical Outfit.esp[X] DragonskinBonusPack.esp[X] Gifts4Kids.esp[X] Feng Shui.esp[X] T3T_BetterMegatonStorage.esp[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp[X] DLM_FFOutcastsQuest(FWEEd).esp[X] tubunarFWE.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 - Project Beauty.esp[X] FO3 Wanderers Edition - Project Beauty (HD Addition).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 Master Release.esp[X] EVE Anchorage - FWE DLC Anchorage.esp[X] EVE - FWE with WeaponModKits.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] Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release.esp[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE with EVE.esp[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty.esp[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty (HD Addition).esp[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty + FWE.esp[X] ZL-ACR.esp[X] ACRForFWE.esp[X] BoSPatrols.esp[X] MarkB50K_Wasteland_Patrols.esp[X] MarkB50K_Dynamic_Missions.esp[X] Grouse Slaver Radio.esp[X] Mesmetron Works on Everyone.esp[X] NotSoFast.esp[ ] HeirApparent.esp[ ] IntoTheDeepWoods.esp[X] Mez's Merged Patch 5-0 - DLC-FWE-WMK-MMM.esp[X] WMKAA12Shotgun.esp[X] xCALIBR_FWE5_Override.esp

I'm using nHancer to optimize the game already, and as far as I can tell it makes a hell of a difference.

My specs:

OS: Windows XP Professional SP3
CPU: Intel Core Duo E8400 3.0ghz
RAM: 2GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT 256MB
Monitor: 1280x1024 Max Resolution, 60/75 hertz

So... suggestions? And my apologies if this is the wrong board for this, I figured since mods may or may not be involved I should put it here...

The only things that gave me problems with framerate were Project Beauty HD and Fellout.

Are you using NMC's texture pack?

1. It was like that before PBHD

2. I do not use NMC's textures

When my game was chugging like this, my graphics card was on its way out. Try going into launch advanced options and turning off all the water detail, does that improve things? There is water in every cell so it may.

is it the same with no mods enabled on a fresh game?

First I'll try the water thing (and generally turning down some options, after reevaluating my graphics card's power as mid tier (better than minimum but not close to recommended)

Then I'll check out your thing, orbitor.

I don't know if this will help you, but from the fellout readme:


Would suggest moving enhanced down where you move fellout as well. I like to keep my weather mods after mmm files, and right before any patches. Seems to make everything happy.

[edit to add] Btw, since you are looking to get better performance, try http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html. It allows you to shut down any background tasks while you play your game. I saw someone from the FWE team recommend it and I haven't been sorry since.

Here's a question: Is this on a new or old game? (old, meaning played for some time with current character, levelled, etc).

I always find that after starting a new game, things always run much smoother than they had been on my last playthrough, even with the same set of mods. I think the more mature a playthrough is, the more prone it is to save-game bloat and corruption - things will go wrong eventually.

But yeah, tweak the settings (although I never found them to have that much affect, apart from AA and maybe AF) but keep tabs on your memory/pagefile usage before launching the game. It seems that the biggest impactor on performance is memory (or lack thereof) - if the game has to start juggling things around between ram and pagefile (the chugging and stuttering), it will start to struggle and eventually just drop everything and fall over... Silly Fallout 3 ! :rolleyes:

Don't forget http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html !

:)

Longer running games get bogged down by game bloating. I remember back in Oblivion, Wrye Bash had a feature to fix bloated games. Anyone know if there's something like this for Fallout yet? I'm sure this would help your performance a lot if this is a long running save, OP.

Well, I figured it out. Apparently back when I first installed Fallout 3 I had tweaked the .ini's to go BEYOND that of the Launcher's Limits for the LOD settings. After turning that and water down my framerate is stable at 30-35 out of doors and I traveled the wasteland with no problems except mild stuttering.

But to answer any lingering questions, I was playing this load order on a pretty brand new playthrough. I believe I'm around LvL 6-7. My latest save is about 3,379 KB.

@ Miss Sparkle: Game Booster? I'd have to look into it if there are any problems into the future.

Thanks to all who offered their help. I won't forget it.