Fallout 3 GOTY: How to install, fix, tweak & mod (update 12/15)

This guide is aimed at people who want to get more out of their Fallout 3 experience. Either by turning it into a more stable and more enjoyable experience, and/or by discovering some of the awesome mods out there. This is no easy thing, so be prepared for some technical stuff along the road, but it is doable for anyone who is eager to learn.

Even though it is a classic, Fallout 3 does have its flaws: it is notoriously difficult to get it running (more or less) stable on Windows 7, 8 and 10. Since I've been looking at a lot of guides and posts on how to install Fallout 3 properly, and on how to fix and tweak it, I've decided to write a Steam guide of my own on it. The first major part of the guide will be on the installation, fixing & tweaking. Keep in mind that I only did all this on a Windows 7 pc - I am afraid I am not familiar with Windows 8 or Windows 10 yet.

I know there are lots of guides on this subject already available, so why write another one? Well, first of all: I have already done this for myself. I always keep track of any mods installed, used, played or rejected, so I have the basic notes already here. Secondly: I like to share my knowledge, and the things I find out, with fellow gamers. Also, I noted several of my Steam friends thought the idea of a new guide on Fallout 3 to be a good one, and they told me it definitely would be useful. And thirdly: several of the guides, or even of the tutorials and series dedicated to modding Fallout 3 out there, date from a couple of years ago.

This is true for the great series of tutorials on "Modding Fallout 3" by Gopher on his YouTube channel. What he tells and explains is excellent, but some of the mods he mentions have been reworked, repatched, or even removed since then. Especially the way the mods interact with other and need to be configured properly in order to work together, has undergone major revisions and improvements the past years. I will be referring to several of Gophers video's, so be sure to check out his YouTube channel.

Another really well done series of tutorials - and very much up-to-date - are the video's made by Xuul on his YouTube channel. These are excellent as well and I do recommend these highly since they are very much to-the-point and accessible for anyone with an average pc knowledge.

At the current version (updated december 2015), the guide has reached its final state. This means that I've discussed the majority of the mods I have been using myself. Now that Fallout 4 has appeared on the scene, almost all of the modding activity has turned towards that game, an new mods for Fallout 3 are few, which is not to say there aren't any. But I do want to keep the adventure of modding the Capital Wasteland alive, since it is a lot of fun to do, and I plan to play through the game a third and final time next year, using a different set-up (switching to Mod Organizer) and a completely different character build. With my current build however, I've pretty much done everything I wished to, and I won't be adding any new mods/content to my game or to this guide.

I. Introduction

Fallout 3 is a classic game. Released for pc, Xbox360 & PlayStation 3 back in 2008 by Bethesda, it was the first Fallout game using a 3D engine. The GameBryo engine was developed by Bethesda for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and has proven highly problematic since. While the engine is well up to the task of depicting a barren, war- and destruction-ridden Capital Wasteland, it also had (and still has) an awful lot of flaws and problems, mainly with regard to stability.
So, now in 2015, we are looking at a 7-year old game using a 10-year old engine. That seems pretty stupid, since there were some exceptionally fine open-world rpg's released since then. However, Fallout 3 is such an immersive game, that it still holds its own, mainly thanks to the amazing number of mods that were released for it. These mods manage to completely transform the game from a rather outdated looking and sometimes even repetitive game into a fantastic gaming experience. But it's not all bliss: this experience does not come by itself. Anyone wanting to get the "full", up-to-date Fallout 3-experience, has to be willing to invest time into learning how to fix, tweak and mod this game. And this is what this guide is all about.





Don't look or hope for an easy ride here. Tweaking and modding Fallout 3 is no easy, quick thing. It demands time, and some dedication to the job. There will be hiccups along the road, and some grinding of teeth. But I can assure you: the feeling of satisfaction once you have the game up and running, as stable as possible and with some dozens of mods installed, was unmatched for me in my long gaming career. Yes, I am proud that I have persevered and learned how to "tame" this game, and bend it to my liking. And it is this feeling that I gladly want to share with my awesome Steam Friends and with this great Steam Community.

This guide is aimed at people with a fairly good knowledge of their pc, the setup of their Steam games, and of how to make archives (using programs like WinRar of 7zip) and how to extract them to whatever location wanted. Knowledge such as this is essential for any real modding, so please go and find out about this if you need to – there are lots of excellent tutorials on YouTube for both WinRar and 7Zip.





I will refer regularly to the great series of tutorials on Modding Fallout 3 by Gopher on his YouTube channel. Please go and watch these as well, whenever I refer to them, or simply whenever you just feel like it. No one describes as detailed and yet perfectly understandable the ins and outs of Bethesda games like Gopher. However, since the tutorials for Fallout 3 were made back in 2012 or 2013, they are partly outdated. Moreover, the series is not as comprehensive as his famous Skyrim Mod Sanctuary, which together with the Beginner's Guide to Modding Skyrim and Skylight offers a near perfect and very extensive approach to modding Skyrim.

Another very useful series of great video's on the subject is the one by Xuul on his YouTube channel. These are very much to-the-point and very well updated. I will refer to these as well, and hope to be able to add the right links inside the guide in the near future.





Several of Gopher's guides are essential to anyone who wants to start modding Fallout 3. This is especially true of the tutorials on "Nexus Mod Manager", on "FOSE, or the Fallout Script Extender" and the two on "LOOT": the tool to manage your load order in Nexus Mod Manager. The tutorial on "Fallout 3 edit", a tool for mod makers as well for advanced users, is higly recommeded as well, but I can imagine some of the things covered there might seem a bit daunting to complete beginners. However, after getting used to modding and after having "played" with it for a while, this tutorial shouldn't pose any problems whatsoever.

II. Installation & basic fixes

Aim of this section

For this guide, I will only be using the "Game of the Year" edition of Fallout 3 on Steam. If one opens the page on the Steam store, a big box warns: "Fallout 3 is not optimized for Windows 7 or later". This box is there with a reason: this game has a reputation of being exceptionally difficult to run stable under Windows 7 & 8.
In this section of this guide, I will look into a good way to install and fix the game using Windows 7 64-bit (I do think it's more or less the same under Windows 8 64-bit) and Steam. I will do this in several well-defined steps, so that it is as easy to follow as possible.

Step 1: Prepare your pc

Make sure you don't have any version of Fallout 3 installed at the moment, and if so: uninstall it using a thorough uninstall program such as Advanced Uninstaller Pro. This to make sure there are no references present in your Windows registry to any previous version of Fallout 3.

Step 2: Installation

Install using the "install" button in your Steam library, just as usual.
The installation should use appx 9GB of harddrive space. The download itself should be 7.2 GB large.

Step 3: Locate the game folder

Locate the folder Steam has installed the game to. Depending on the drive you have installed Steam to, this would be something like d:\steam\steamapps\common\fallout3goty. I recommend adding a shortcut to this folder (ie the folder with files like the FalloutLauncher.exe in it) to your desktop, since this will make things easier later on.

Step 4: Run the Steam Launcher

Run the game to access the launcher once before doing anything else. This lets the game create its own folder in "my documents\my games\fallout3". There is a chance you can't even get the launcher working. This has to do with an older version of "Games for Windows Live" that is shipped with the Steam version. The easiest way to fix this is to update your GFWL using the dowload from this link: Update Games for Window Live[www.xbox.com]

Once in the launcher, you can as well set the options for graphics etc to your liking, there are several good guides on this topic available if needed. I especially recommend this extensive tweak guide:

Fallout 3 Tweak Guide[www.tweakguides.com]

After exiting the game, make sure you locate the "Fallout 3" folder in "My games", and add a shortcut to it on your desktop as well. This way the two main folders you'll have to access often, are easily within reach from the desktop.


You don't actually have to go in-game at this point, but it's a good idea to do so just to make sure everything works up till this point. However: chances are pretty great you won't be able to launch the game. This is due to a problem with the "Games For Windows Live" system & files the Steam version comes with, so the first step should be to disable this crappy system.

Step 5: Disable Games for Windows Live

Fallout 3 comes with the infamous Games for Windows Live system. Since this only makes the game instable or even unplayable, it is best to get rid of this as the first step in fixing the game. The easiest way to do this is by using the "Games for Windows Live Disabler" found on the Nexus website.

Disable Games for Windows Live[www.nexusmods.com]

Since at this point you're maybe not familiar yet with the use of the Nexus Mod Manager, I suggest to download this "mod" manually. Do this by clicking on the "files" tab on the appropriate page of thesite, and then choose "download manually". This should download the small file to a location of your choice. Run the program, and remove GFWL. That gets rid of this first major problem.

Note: the two buttons at the bottom of the program are not essential. The "rebind the home key" button is only for those who play Fallout 3 with a controller and want to rebind the home button, and the "Move dlc's" button is useless, since the Steam GOTY edition already has moved the dlc's into the correct place.

Step 6: Fix the hyperkinetic mouse issue

Fallout 3 has an issue with its mouse input. First of all: it defaults to your controller if you have one plugged in, ignoring any input from the mouse. So either you can unplug the controller, or just navigate using the controller to "settings – controls" on the main screen and disable the controller. From then on, your mouse pointer will appear.
However, it will be immediately obvious that your mouse will be way too fast in its reactions to be of any use. This is not controlled by the "mouse speed" setting: that is for the in-game mouse. The problem lies with the way the game addresses the mouse in 2d screens. There is an easy fix for this by editing the fallout.ini file, found in the "fallout 3" map under "my documents\my games".

Since this is our first edit (or tweak) to an .ini file, it is good to adopt a sound habit: always make a backup of any game-related file you're going to edit. In that case, if anything goes wrong, just put the original file back in the place it came from and let it overwrite the altered file. And a second habit: when making tweaks or applying fixes, do so one at a time and check after every tweak or fix. That way, you always know what could have caused any problems.

You have to add these four lines to the [controls]section of the .ini file:

fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0

Copy and paste them there, since they have to be exactly the same. Another good habit: in order to edit an .ini file, right-click on it and choose "edit" from the drop-down menu. That's the smoothest and easiest way.

Step 7: Fix the game crashing randomly, especially entering small interiors

Fallout 3 has a very nasty habit of randomly crashing. It can happen at any moment, at any place. While crashes to desktop are not that bad (provided you have a recent save), they do get very annoying, and are immersion-breaking.So whatever fix there is to at least minimize the number of crashes, is welcome.
These crashes are especially problematic when using a quad core processor. Fallout 3 was not designed for this sort of cpu – it only can handle up to 2 cores. There is a small tweak to the fallout.ini file that resolves a lot of these random crashes - not all of them, but still a lot.

Find the line

bUseThreadedAI=0

in the .ini file (you can use control+f in order to search) and replace it with

bUseThreadedAI=1

After that line, add this one:

iNumHWThreads=2

This will limit the game to 2 cores and prevent the engine bug from causing the game to crash or even freeze.
I recommend this video by Xuul where he explains this and yet another method (very useful for Intel HD Graphics) to fix the random crashes: Xuul tutorial on fix for random crashes

Intermediate Conclusion

When all this is done, you should have a properly working version of Fallout 3, but still on a basic, non-modded level. You could start a new game at this point, when not intending to mod it, but I firmly recommend adding at least the patches & tweaks to have a more stable and more fluid gaming experience.

IIIa. Patches & tweaks: Updated Unofficial Fallout Patch

Introduction

In this part I will concentrate on the essential patches & tweaks to apply, in order to get Fallout 3 run as stable as possible. Keep in mind that I tried all this out on my Windows 7 64-bit computer, so I don't know how well it goes with Windows 8 or 10. I assume it is very much comparable, since these are both relatively recent 64-bit operating systems.
As far as older operating systems are concerned, I pretty much assume that Fallout 3 has less problems running on those. Windows XP-users should be safe anyway, and I guess Windows Vista users as well, since the game was released back then with these operating systems in mind.

Step 1. Install Nexus Mod Manager

Since there are several excellent guides & videos just on this subject alone, I won't go into the process in detail here. The essential tutorial on installing & using Nexus Mod Manager (referred to as NMM) is the one by Gopher on his YouTube channel. But since this video is three years old, I will cover some things myself regarding the latest version of NMM.


The main steps are easy:

• Go to the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com] and choose the Fallout 3 page from the list of games on the homepage (by default, the games are listed by the number of mods available for them and as you can see, Fallout 3 is currently solidly on 4th place).
  
• Create your own account on the Nexus page by clicking on "create account" on the top right-hand corner of the page and just follow the step.
  
• Download the latest version of Nexus Mod Manager and install it. This is done like downloading and installing any piece of software (see screenshot above).
  
• Choose "Fallout 3" during the installation process when asked which game you want the mod manager to default to. I recommend to choose the default installation path as well.
  
• Run Nexus Mod Manager for the first time and get used to its lay-out, have a look at the settings. The mod manager offers a very convenient way to download, install, manage, activate and possibly de-activate or de-install your mods for Bethesda games (it's mostly used for Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout New Vegas & Fallout 3, expect it to fully support Fallout 4 once it comes out).
  
• As for now, your mod manager should be fairly empty, but do have a look at the "Plugins" tab (next to the default opened "Mods" tab). Since you are using the GOTY edition of Fallout 3, it should already have 6 plugins displayed and activated: fallout 3.esm, operation anchorage.esm, the pitt.esm, broken steel.esm, point lookout.esm and mothership zeta.esm. If for some reaoson, they are not in this order (i.e. the order in which the dlc's were released), I suggest to rearrange them by using the up/down arrow keys at the left. It's not strictly necessary, but it's sound practice to organise your plugins for the dlc's always in the same order.
  A word of explanation: .esm refers to "master" files, while .esp refers to "plugins". Master files are the essential game files or the main mod files, plugins are dependent on these and apply the fine-tuning, so to speak.
  
• Get used to the habit of launching Fallout 3 from the Nexus Mod Manager, instead of starting it through Steam. Mind: the Steam client still has to be open and and you have to be connected to your Steam account. You can (and should once any mod is installed) launch Fallout 3 by just clicking on the "Launch Fallout 3" button on the top left.
  There is one major disadvantage to this: when launching the game through NMM, Steam won't keep track of the in-game hours, and the Steam overlay won't be available.
  
• There are several different ways around this for sure, and if you don't intend to use the "Fake Fullscreen Windowed Mode" I am going to discuss later on, you might as well look into these right now – but within the context of this guide, I can't cover all of those. I am going to explain later how to organise your game setup so that you can run Fallout 3 using "MaximizedWindow" as well as the "Fallout Script Extender" and all the mods loaded into your Nexus Mod Manager, and still let Steam keep track of in-game hours with the overlay enables. This might seem like Chinese right now, and it took me some effort to figure it out, but it is definitely possible.

Step 2. Install the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch & activate it

This is utterly essential, and although it is downloaded & installed using the Nexus Mod Manager, it cannot be considered a mod proper. It really is an essential patch, literally fixing a myriad of problems and bugs left unsolved after Bethesda decided not to support the game any further. Although you can do this in the conventional way too, installing the patch through Nexus Mod Manager has the advantage of learning to use the NMM and of getting a feel for its ease of use. The method downloading and installing the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 patch is essentially the method by which you will be installing over 90% of all mods, so it's as good a way to learn this practice as any other.


Open the Fallout 3 page in the Nexus site in your browser, and go to the page for the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 patch by BenWah and HairyLegs. This is the correct link:
Updated Unofficial Patch[www.nexusmods.com]

• Use the "download with manager" option on the "files" section on the mod page. You have to chose the second one of the files, the "mod manager version"! Don't let the warning that this version is for experienced moddes only, distract you. It really is very simple, and since we intend to add other mods later on, it is a good tutorial to download this major patch using the NMM.
  
• As soon as you've selected this option, your Nexus Mod Manager will open automatically, and it well send a "login token" to the Nexus webclient. This in order to check if you are logged in on the Nexus site, so make sure you are by now, or else your download won't continue. The mod manager will show you the progress of the download at the bottom, in its own download manager. It could take a minute or so to download, and it will then proceed to "building" the mod (to be seen in the "mod activation queue" tab at the bottom, next to the "download manager"). As soon as this is done, your first mod will appear in the "mods"' section/tab of the manager, under the category "miscellaneous".
  By default, NMM uses categories to organise the mods you download – I advise to keep these, since they are conveniently synched with the mod sections on the website. Once you feel confident enough, you can change the mods organiser's outlook or manually move the mods to different categories as you like.
  
• Select the Updated Unofficial Patch (the only mod in the list), and activate it by clicking on the appropriate puzzle piece icon ("activate the selected mod") on the left. Don't use the topmost puzzle piece, that's for adding mods manually – use the one below (it says so clearly when hovering your mouse pointer above it). It will take some time for the mod to activate, and when that's done, you have succesfully installed your first mod! Congratulations!
  
• After installing & activating a mod, always go to the "Plugins" tab, and check if the new plugin is activated correctly. For the most part, NMM does a decent job at placing these plugins in the correct order, but as I will show later, there is a tool ("LOOT") that can do this for you. As for now, you don't yet have to worry about this, just adopt the habit of checking the "Plugins" tab every time after installing a mod.

IIIb. Patches & tweaks: Part two

Step 3. Disable v-sync, if you want to

I know, the Steam launcher has a neat tick box to check or uncheck v-sync (the graphics option which keeps your framerate synched with the refresh rate of your monitor). If you like to keep v-sync on (as it is by default), there is no problem and you can skip this step.
However, if you want to disable it (which has some advantages, such as being able to get a framerate above the refresh rate (mostly 60) of your monitor, or smoother mouse movement in-game), there is a problem. Fallout keeps v-sync on, even when this box is unchecked. The only way to disable it properly, is by altering this line in the fallout.ini file (the file in the "documents\my games\fallout3" folder):

iPresentInterval=1

into

iPresentInterval=0

In addition, make sure v-sync is disabled in your graphics driver, either in the general 3d-settings, or in the specific settings for Fallout 3.

Personally, I tried out both options during my first playthrough of the game, and in the end I decided to stick with the default "v-sync on". It seems to provide smoother gameplay, with less of the "micro-stutters" the game has so often issues with (more on these later on). However, this probably is a personal matter of taste. The dreaded "screen tearing", which v-sync normally eliminates, kept creeping up from time to time though, no matter what I tried. Only restarting the game helped against that bug.

One thing to keep in mind though: if you decide to use the very popular mod (complete game overhaul) Fallout Wanderers Edition, it might be a good idea to keep v-sync on. This mod has issues whenever the framerate goes above 60 frames per second: it then tends to speed up the in-game time and player movement, which is very annoying indeed.

Step 4. Enable Fallout 3 to use more than 2GB of RAM

Believe it or not, Fallout 3 uses only 2GB of ram at the most. Since most computers nowadays have more ram, it's a shame that the game won't make use of that. By editing the .exe file of the game itself (which is surprisingly easy), you can make sure the game uses more than 2GB of ram memory.

You can do this by downloading the software CFF-Explorer Suite from a site like this:

CFF Explorer Suite[explorer-suite-iv.software.informer.com]


Install it and right-click on your Fallout 3.exe. Choose "open with cff explorer" and go to the "File header" (under the "NT header"). Click where it says "click here" in the bottom right corner. You get a menu with the essential characteristics of the executable and you have to tick the box next to "App can handle more than 2 GB address space". Close and save the .exe file, and that's it! It may feel frightening to edite an .exe file, so make a back-up first, but there is not much to it.

NOTE: There is a small program called Large Address Aware Enabler available on the Nexus Site, which apparently does the same thing automatically. I have not used it myself, since I prefer to do tweaks like this manually using CFF, so I can't give any feedback on it. But I've read it's pretty ok. Large Address Awareness Enabler[www.nexusmods.com]

NOTE 2: Xuul has a good tutorial on both enabling Large Address Awareness and installing FOSE: Xuuls tutorial on FOSE & Large Address Awareness

Step 5. Install the Fallout Script Extender (FOSE)

The Fallout Script Extender (will be referring to it as FOSE) is an essential tool in order to set-up Fallout 3 for using the more advanced (and the most interesting) mods. It is not strictly needed in order to get to a still unmodded, but fixed and stable game. I do however include installation of this tool in this part of the guide, so that we have a game set up completely ready to start modding properly. In this way, when you want to install mods at any later point, your game and your NMM setup will be competely ready for it. As usual, there is an excellent video by Gopher on the installation process of FOSE on his YouTube channel: Gophers tutorial on FOSE


FOSE has to be downloaded from this site: Fallout Script Extender (FOSE)[fose.silverlock.org]

Choose the "latest stable version", download the archive file to any place you want, and extract it using 7Zip or WinRar. Select the extracted files and simply copy them into your game folder (that is: the folder with the fallout3.exe file in it). Strictly speaking, you don't need to copy the folder "src" with the files, since this contains the open source used by fose's authors.
And that is it: you have installed the "Fallout Script Extender", which opens up a lot of modding possibilities. As for the "latest beta version" on the fose page: I haven't tried that out myself, I always choose the "latest stable version".

But how do you know you've done this correctly? Start up your game (through NMM!), and once in game open the console. The key for this usually is the "tilde" key, to the left of the "1" key (on the keyboard, not on the numpad). Type "GetFoseVersion" and you should see "FoseVersion1" as result. You then know all is ok, and from now on you don't need to worry anymore about this. Just don't forget to re-install fose whenever you re-install Fallout 3.

NOTE: There is apparently a problem with the German versions of the game with regard to FOSE. FOSE fails to recognise them a lot, even though they're supported. Removing the "ng" part from Fallout3ng.exe (and applying the 2gb fix again), Fallout3ng.exe.cfg and Fallout3ng.exe.cat fixes the problem.
Thanks to AbiKagerou for pointing this out and providing the fix!

IIIc. Patches & tweaks: Part three

Step 6. Apply ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated

If you have downloaded the "mod manager" version of the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch, you need to apply ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated.This is a small tool that can be found at the Nexus Page: ArchiveInvalidation[www.nexusmods.com]. It automatically takes care of something rather technical which you otherwise would have to do manually. It's very easy: download the file manually from the Nexus site (use the recommended program version and download manually!), save it to any place you want, and run the executable. That's it, another step done (and you only have to do this once).
However, if you have downloaded the "newb" version of the Unofficial Patch and downloaded it manually, you can skip this step since that version of the patch takes care of it for you.

Step 7. Get Fallout 3 to run in "Windowed Mode" while using FOSE and the NMM & launching it through Steam

This is the final step towards creating a still unmodded, yet stable version of Fallout 3. Why would one want to run a game like Fallout 3 in Windowed mode? Well, simply because that apparently reduces not only the number of crashes, it even improves performance, and by quite a margin - some claim a performance boost of 60%. I do notice a performance boost but not by that much (maybe 5-10 fps). More importantly: windowed mode makes the game feel much smoother for me and it definitely helps in reducing the stutters.

Installing this "mod" – in reality yet another essential tweak, not a true mod – is simple. Setting it up so that in the end you are able to run Fallout 3 in a maximized window from within Steam, using FOSE and loading all the mods from the Nexus Mod Manager, sounds probably like wizardry, and this needs some fine tweaking indeed. So I guess this is for advanced users ;-).

a. Back-up all your .exe files in your Fallout 3 home directory
Yes! Whenever you alter something in an .exe or .ini file, make a back-up. Sound modding practice!

b. Set up your display and game setting. Open the "Steam launcher" of Fallout 3, easily done by clicking on Fallout 3 in Steam's game's library. It is important to get all of your settings right at this point, since by the end of this step, you'll not be using the Steam launcher anymore. Most important: set the correct resolution Fallout 3 should run at (for most people this will be the native resolution of their monitor, probably 1920 x 1080 pixels). And even more important: tick the "windowed mode" checkbox. Have a good look at all the other settings too. Some of them will be accessible in-game, but others aren't. As already mentioned, I consider this one the best guides on tweaking Fallout 3's settings: Fallout3 Tweak Guide[www.tweakguides.com].
For those using nVidia graphics cards, there is always the option of using the nVidia GeForce Experience to access all the settings, just from inside that program. Very easy and I recommend it highly. It still gives access to all settings, even after the Steam launcher has been renamed.

c. Run FOSE through Steam: delete FalloutLauncher.exe (this is why you should have set-up everything correctly in the launcher by now); rename fose_loader.exe to falloutlauncher.exe (this tricks Steam to believe it just launches Fallout 3, while in reality it runs Fallout 3 through the Fallout Script Extender); try to launch Fallout 3 from inside Steam and check if FOSE is working correctly by typing "GetFoseVersion" into the console and getting "FoseVersion1" as a result.

d. Run the game in a borderless fullscreen window while in windowed mode. In order to do so: download the "MaximizedWindow" mod (in reality just one executable) from the Nexus site: MaximizedWindow[www.nexusmods.com].
Download it manually.
I know it's a very early one, and there have been several others doing the same thing since, but this one works great for me together with FOSE and Steam. Extract the file to anywhere on your hard drive – just remember where. Inside the Fallout 3 game folder is perfect. One extracted, right-click on the "MaximizedWindow.exe", and choose "create shortcut" from the menu. I suggest placing this shortcut on your desktop for ease of use.

Rename the shortcut to whatever you want, right-click on it, select "properties". In the "shortcut" tab, under "target", you have to add three parameters, as in this example: "10 1920 1080", without the parenthesis. These parameters refer to: number of seconds delay between clicking the shortcut and actually having to launch the game, horizontal number of pixels & vertical number of pixels (aka the screen resolution, as set in the Fallout Launcher in the previous step).

The final target the shortcut refers to should look something like this:

d:\steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 3 goty\MaximizedWindow.exe" 10 1920 1080

but then with your own correct path to the MaximizedWindow.exe, your own delay for launching in seconds and your own resolution. What I've showed in this step, is actually to insert a delay so that you have time to run Fallout 3 through Steam.

e. Get to run all this together: double click the MaximizedWindow shortcut you edited in the previous step; before 10 seconds (the delay set), navigate to Steam and launch Fallout 3 from there as you normally do; after a couple of seconds, the windowed view will change to a nice but false full-screen game; check "GetFoseVersion" if you want to be absolutely sure about Fallout 3 running through FOSE; enjoy a decent number of extra fps, and most important: a lot of extra, hard-won stability!!

Congratulations if you stayed with me during this last, and fairly complex, process. I know it's quite a hassle, but I found it completely worthwhile.
I do guess there are lots of other methods to achieve the same goals, some of them probably a lot easier, and I'd love to know more about those so feel free to comment!

IIId. Patches & tweak: Conclusion.

Intermediate Conclusion

At this point, you've set up Fallout 3 as good as possible, and you have a good and stable base to go a step further and start modding it in earnest. There are a couple of extra tweaks and mods that are aimed at improving stability & performance, but for me those have given mixed results at best.

You can find extensive guides to tweaking the fallout3.ini file to your heart's content, but those are out of the scope of this guide. There is the Fallout Stutter Remover mod at the Nexus Site: Fallout Stutter Remover[www.nexusmods.com], and it has helped a lot of people to remove or at least reduce the micro-stutters in Fallout 3. But for me, this mod hasn't really solved the problem, in fact it seemed to make my game unstable, while only reducing the stuttering problem slightly. Using windowed mode fixed the stutters a lot better and provided a much smoother gameplay, with the added benefit of extra stability.
Feel free to experiment with the Fallout Stutter Remover mod as you feel fit, but be aware that it comes with a number of fairly advanced tweaks to the fallout3.ini file, and it requires some in-depth attention.
The final part of Xuuls tutorial on making Fallout 3 run smoother (from 7:30 onwards) is dedicated to using this mod: Xuuls tutorial on Fallout Stutter Remover. Just keep in mind that the tool has had an upgrade since, and that you only need to download the main file in its latest version (4.1.36).

In the remaining parts of this guide, I will cover the actual modding of the game, using the setup with all the tweaks, the use of NMM and the windowed mode as decribed up till now. For me, this is the minimal basis to work upon if you want a modded game that is as stable as possible. If you want a patched vanilla gaming experience with a lot of extra stability but no alterations to the actual gaming experience, you can stop here, and have loads of fun. You should be fine, except for some rare and random crashes to desktop, so save often. Be aware that even with all these tweaks, fixes and patches, Fallout 3 can still be a difficult game to tame, with its occasional hiccups and even crashes, especially if you move further into the game and your save game becomes larger.

With regard to the use of the save games and the practice of quick- and auto-saving, I will dedicate more attention to this while covering the casm or auto-save mod. As for now just this advice: save very, very often, and make "hard saves" as much as possible. Hard saves are completely new save points, just hit "save" and choose "new save". Fallout 3 is almost allergical to quick-saves that have been overwritten a lot: these tend to get corrupted. This is just another obstacle to overcome.

IVa. Modding tools: LOOT

Load Order in modded games

When talking about modding a game, a very important point to discuss is "load order". When starting up a modded game, the different mods are loaded one after the other into the game. To be more precise: "master files" (.esm files) are always loaded before any "plugins" (.esp files), as can be seen in the "plugins" section of Nexus Mod Manager (so in this section, both master files and plugins are displayed, not only plugins).


It is extremely important to manage this load order if you want a stable modded game: messing around with it without knowing what you do, or just ignoring it while adding one mod after the other, probably is a recipe for disaster. You may get away with it if you're lucky, but most of the time, your game will simply crash if the load order isn't correct. What's more: chances are it will crash on launch. The number one reason for a modded game like Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas or Skyrim to crash on launch, is an incorrect load order.

So, how does a load order work? There are to things to remember.

1. While loading the files into the game, any file below any other file will overwrite the data provided by the file higher up in the load order. In the case of a conflict between two files (where two files, be it master files or plugins, access different values or data for a certain element of the game), the file that is lower in the load order, will win the conflict.
Of course this means that plugins, in case of a conflict, ALWAYS override the master files, since they are always loaded after the master files. Which makes perfectly sense: plug-ins are the more detailed mods, that want to alter data or values from the more general files, either from the vanilla game, or from a larger mod (the bigger mods often come with their own master file(s)).

2. Several files require other files to be loaded before them in order to get the game working. This is very important, since if your load order does not take this into account, your game WILL instantly crash on start-up. And to make things a bit more complicated: several plugins (.esp files) require one of more master (.esm) files to be loaded before them, which feels logical, but some require another plugin to be loaded beforehand in order to work (some plugins are "masters" of other plugins). So even between plugins, the order in which they are loaded into the game, is critically important. This may seem like a detail, but it isn't: the game will crash when the rules concerning files requiring other files to be loaded beforehand, are not taken into account.

At this point, it may be a good idea to take a look into the folder where all the .esm and .esp files are stored, to make all this a bit more accessible. Dependent upon the location your Steam folder is in, the path to the data folder could look like:

d:\steam\steamapps\common\fallout 3 goty\data


When using a mod manager, you won't be changing much here, but it is a good idea to take a look from time to time, since this is the place where all the mods install their .esm and .esp files (along with the data they provide).

Managing your load order manually and/or with LOOT

So, how do you manage your load order? Well, I won't go into all the technical details here, since I feel that's beyond the scope of this guide, and also because there is an excellent tool with which you can manage your load order, called LOOT.
But as a general rule of thumb, there are two things to keep in mind.

1. Always read the information provided by the mod author(s) on the home page of their mod at the Nexus site. Quite often, they tell something concerning load order, and where their mod should come, either relative to other mods, or in absolute terms (some mods do need to be very low in the load order, for example).
2. Look at the information provided in Nexus Mod Manager itself for every new .esp or .esm file you install. When clicking upon a master file/plugin, in the window to the right you can see which files are needed as "masters" of the file selected. So: Nexus Mod Manager itself provides very helpful information on which files are masters of other files, and as such should definitely be loaded beforehand!

Keeping all this in mind, it is perfectly possible to completely manage your load order by yourself, and keep it healthy and your game up and running. However, while this method can work perfectly as long as you only have limited number of mods installed, things can become very complicated as soon as you install a lot of mods. So, happily there is LOOT that can help you a lot with it. Loot can be downloaded from this site: LOOT[loot.github.io].


Loot stands for "Load Order Optimization Tool", and it is great at doing exactly that. There are a couple of excellent tutorials to be found on YouTube, including two by Gopher. However, with the recent latest release (version 0.7), LOOT has changed looks quite a bit and has grown from a simple tool into a full-scale program. Most of the things the tutorials tell about are easily transferable to the latest version, but you'll have to do a bit of exploration yourself too. The main interface is very clear, with the plugins (.esm and .esp files) at the left side, and a more detailed view at the right. Basically, you can just hit "sort plugins" at the top right, and LOOT will do its job. When click "apply", LOOT changes the loadorder of the plugins in Nexus Mod Manager to the order it suggests.

In almost all cases, you'll be fine with the load order Loot has applied. I always take a look at it myself, and adjust some things that I find more logical, but that's a matter of personal taste. Loot does tend to mix up the plug-ins belonging to different mods, while I want them to be next to each other if possible. So I mostly keep track of the load order myself, which is not that difficult but requires more time. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a "perfect and unique" load order: many plugins can be placed at different places, and still work. Actually, two games modded with the same mods may have very different load orders, and still work equally well!

IVb. Modding tools: FO3Edit

Installing FO3Edit

Once you've set up a properly working load order for your mods, you're almost done. Almost, since there is one tool left to discuss. It's called FO3Edit, and it's the most powerful tool out there with regard to modding Fallout 3. It's a tool you'll only be using once you've installed some mods, but since it's a proper modding tool, I prefer it to discuss it here and not at the end of the guide.
FO3Edit is mostly used by mod authors to fine-tune and clean their mods, but it's equally useful to mod users. Download and installation are simple: it's to be found at the Nexus Website (FO3Edit[www.nexusmods.com]), download the main file manually (there has been a recent update to version 3.1.1). Extract the archive to a location of choice, and keep the two files it generates together for it to work properly.


And that's it, there's not much to it. I always make a shortcut to the .exe file on my desktop, so that I have it within easy reach.

FO3Edit & load order

So I suggest you run the program, and see what happens.


It presents you with a list of .esm (master) files and .esp (plugin) files you currently have in your load order, as you've ordered these in Nexus Mod Manager (by yourself or with the help of LOOT). The masters/plugins that are actually loaded are neatly ticked in the box next to them, the ones you merely downloaded into NMM but did not yet activate, are included as well. Just leave everything as it is, and click ok: FO3Edit will start loading all of the masters/plugins, and shows a debug window while doing so. If after half a minute or so you get to the line "background loader: finished" in the window to the right (be sure to have the "messages" tab selected!!), you know you're ok. FO3Edit has just checked your load order, and it has found no errors in it. You can start working in it now – if something is wrong with the load order, FO3Edit won't even allow you to proceed any further.

When you do get an error warning, it is important to read what sort of error FO3edit gives. It will refer to the exact point where the error occurred during the load process, and what the error was. Most of the time, this information will point you to the solution as well, such as there being an .esm or .esp file missing from your load order. FO3Edit won't offer an easy solution: it will pinpoint the problem, but you have to solve it yourself. Logical thinking will almost always help you out, however.


By clicking on the plus icons next to the differend entries in the panel to the left, you can open any file you want, and view into the interior of all your files, be it the main game file (the Fallout3.esm file), the dlc's below it, and all the master files and plugins of all your installed & activated mods. Feel free to open up these and have a look: it is completely harmless, and gives you an idea on the complexity of the game and any installed mods. Don't change anything (yet), since that could cause problems!

Creating your own merged patch

So, now that we've installed FO3Edit and it has checked our load-order, what other use(s) does it have for a mod user? There are several, but most of these are fairly advanced, so I will concentrate on the one that is crucial: FO3Edit offers the possibility to make a "merged patch".

A merged patch is an extra plugin (.esp file), created specifically for your modded game, taking into account all the mods you have installed and activated. True: there are several large-scale patches available on the Nexus site to guarantee compatibility between most of the larger mods, so that they can happily be active at the same time, and it is essential to use these. More on those later, but consider these as the big, essential patches for any modded game.
A merged patch is much smaller, and it's tailored to your specific situation. It will ceck for any unsolved or remaining conflicts between the mods you use, and offer a solution to those. By making it, you'll greatly enhance the stability of your modded game. Since a merged patch is tailor-made to your setup at the moment the patch is created, it is essential to remove & remake it every time you install one or more mods, especially when these are fairly large or important. Also, when removing any mod, it is crucial to go through the process of making a new merged patch again.

While all this may seem like a lot of work, it actually isn't. Creating a merged patch is very easy: just right-click on any of the files in the left panel and select "create merged patch" from the "other" options down the list. Make sure to give it an easy name, and the patch will the there. Close FO3Edit and click ok, and there will be a new .esp file in your data-folder with the name you've given it. Open up NMM, go to your plugins tab and activate the merged patch. Be sure to always put it at the very end of your load order: since you want it to resolve any remaining conflicts, it has to be loaded last. When removing a merged patch, make sure not only to uncheck it in NMM, but also to delete the actual file in your fallout 3 goty\data folder.


It is a good idea to take a look "into" your merged patch by clicking on the "plus" icon in FO3Edit: this gives you an idea of what the patch has done. If you'd really want, you can even alter the values here and fine-tune your own patch even more, but that's beyond the scope of this guide.

Va. Essential mods: Fallout Wanderers Edition (FWE)

Modding vs Playing the Game as the Developers Wanted

Before we start with properly modding our game, there's one thing I'd like to touch upon. When modding a game, you inevitably alter it, change it into something different than the developers made. This can vary in gradation from a very minor tweak to a complete overhaul, but the change is always there. For quite some people, altering a game into something the developers didn't envisage, is "not done". The argument is almost always: one should play a game "as the developers conceived and made it". That's a valid opinion, for sure, and I can't argue with it . But everyone who has this opinion, should probably read no further ;-). And that's, of course, perfectly fine.

There are a lot of other people who do like to mod their game, but only "after having played it in the vanilla version". Actually this seems the stance most people tend to adopt. And in most cases, I'd agree: it's very often a good idea to play a game in its (patched) vanilla state. But in this particular case, I happen to disagree. I played Fallout 3 myself only for a limited time unmodded, and there were so many things that I didn't like, that I started looking for mods within hours. Take the green lighting outside, for example, which supposedly should invoke the feeling of a post-nuclear wasteland. It's one of the key elements of the vanilla game, actually it almost defines the look of Fallout 3. And yet, I utterly dislike it: I think it's plain boring, and far more important: it's not realistic in any way. Fallout 3 takes place 200 years after the Great War, when the atomic bombs fell. Since then, there were no more bombings, so after 200 years, this post-nuclear green fallout would have disappeared for a long time. I know: it's the developers' choice, and this is how they wanted their game to look. But: I happen not to like it. And since there are very good mods available to change the lighting and the colours in the game, I decided to use those.



And yes, I altered the game extensively by doing just this one thing. So I have very limited experience with vanilla Fallout 3, but I don't care. Bethesda still made a fantastic game. They provided the world, the story, the core gameplay, the characters, the lore. And they provided mod makers from all over the world with the tools to make large scale mods that alter a lot in the game. The mere fact that they did this (I'm not only talking about the GECK, the creation kit, but also about the very modular way the game is built), seems like an indication they wanted people to experiment with the game.

Fallout Wanderers Edition (FWE)

Fallout Wanderers Edition Nexus page[www.nexusmods.com]

Among the nearly 14,000 mods available for Fallout 3, the most impressive is probably Fallout Wanderers Edition (FWE). Wih over 1 million unique downloads, it's also one of the most popular ones. FWE is, as you can read on its own Nexus page, "a major overhaul mod for Fallout 3 that changes underlying game mechanics and adds new features to the game. The aim of the mod is improving the challenge, sense of immersion, depth of gameplay, and range of options compared to the vanilla game. Generally, you'll find the wasteland to be a more dynamic but far less forgiving place".
FWE adds so many new features and alters so many existing ones, that it could be the subject of a guide on its own. Be assured: playing with FWE will totally change the game. It will make Fallout 3 much more difficult, much more immersive, and much, much more fun to play. You won't be able anymore to storm into a raider compound guns blazing, except if you're wearing power armour and wield a very good weapon. You will need to scavenge everywhere, since ammo and especially stimpacks are very, very scarce. And you will even need to eat, drink and sleep at regular intervals, otherwise your fighting abilities will suffer. And radiation will kill you, very fast indeed.

FWE even adds some extra integrated mods, such as the "Spint Mod" and the extremely fine "Bullet Time Mod"! There is also a completely new fast-travel system using a motorcycle you have to maintain and for which you have to craft your own fuel. FWE also needs two mods that it installs automatically: CRAFT and CALIBR. These allow for more extensive crafting and ammo-making. They come with one .esm file each, which has to be high up in your load order (I put those just beneath the Unofficial Patch).

I can't recomment this mod too high, and I wouldn't ever want to play without it. It changes Fallout 3 from an almost casual experience into a hardcore survival-rpg, which is exactly what a Fallout game should be, imo. It is HIGHLY recommended to start a new character once you have installed this mod. The changes are so massive, that any older save games could work, but are bound to give some problems/issues. Also, since the levelling system has been tweaked, it is best to stick with the "default" FWE options as soon as a character has been made for the major elements the mod addresses – these are very well balanced. If you start a new game and don't notice any differences at the start, don't panic: FWE only "kicks in" when you leave Vault 101!

FWE Installation

Installing FWE takes some attention, since it is highly recommended to install this mod manually. Navigate to the appropriate page on the Nexus site and go to its"files" section. Download the three main files MANUALLY: Part 1 & 2 of the 6.0 version, and the 6.03a hotfix. Once downloaded, extract all three files into a new folder called "FWE", be sure to do it in the right order (hotfix last and let the files overwrite each other). Right click this folder to turn it into an archive, then add it to NMM clicking the "add mod from file" option on the left. Xuul has an excellent video on the manual installation of FWE: How to install FWE

I'd like to thank BenWah a lot for pointing out to me that a manual download & adding the mod from the new "data" folder to NMM is to be preferred over a download using NMM.

You will be presented with a menu during the installation, choose whatever options you want. Be sure to select the "alternate travel" option: it makes fast-travelling a lot more immersive & fun. After installation has finished, make sure the relevant FWE-related .esm and .esp files are selected in the "plugins" tabs of NMM , and start up your new, completely overhauled game!

FWE configuration

FWE comes with dozens of configurable options, all of them very easily accessible through the pip-boy under items – apparel. I suggest to have look at most of them: the mod does a wonderful job on describing what it exactly does, so you have most of the information you will need right there in the FWE in-game menu, and on the appropriate Nexus page of course.



The one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that isn't working properly, is the "support for other mods" at the bottom; don't use it. It might be a good idea to have a look at the topmost option, which lets you set all FWE elements to its default value. In this way, the mod is well balanced indeed, so I suggest to start using it this way. After a while, when you're experiencing what it actually does, you'll surely want to alter some settings, I guess. As for the other options: try them out after some time, they are self-explanatory.

Vb. Essential mods: Lighting & Weather

Fellout: total visual overhaul

Fellout page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Fellout has a massive impact on how the world of Fallout 3 looks. It removes the green tint that pretty much covers the entire wasteland in the vanilla game, and it addds much more colour & variation to the lighting. For some this mod may make the game "too pretty", but that's a matter of taste. I recommend installing the "greener grass" option as well, since this adds an extra touch of colour and life to the Wasteland – and those cows surely have to eat something, not?

Fellout: Installation using the merged version by Paradox Ignition

Installation is best done using NMM. Download the Fellout files with NMM & activate (in the correct order: main file version 1.21R2 – dlc support - update to version 1.23 - Greener Grass (optional)). Normally, you'd be done by now, but with Fellout we get to something new with regard to modding: the "merged versions" of several major mods, made by the team of Paradox Ignition.

So: why a merged version? Well, normally Fellout would install a separate .esp file for every dlc. And since Fallout 3 has a big problem with a high number of active plugins (.esm and .esp files), it's a good idea to reduce this number as much as possible. It's hard to tell what the maximum number is, but for most people it's somewhere around or just above 100. While this may seem an awful lot at the moment, it actually isn't if you have several mods installed that require six plugins each (one of the main game and five for dlc). And so the guys behind the Paradox Ignition team decided to create "merged versions" of some popular mods. All mods with a merged version can be find at this place: Paradox Ignition merged mods[www.nexusmods.com]

Installation of the merged version requires an extra step, but it's worth it. Download the merged file for Fellout from the Paradox Ignition page at Nexus. Then, go to your Fallout3\data folder and delete these files from the original installation:

• Fellout-Full.esp
  
• Fellout-Anchorage.esp
  
• Fellout-BrokenSteel.esp
  
• Fellout-PointLookout.esp
  
• Fellout-Zeta.esp

Activate the single esp from The Mergers – let the Pipboy light activated as well (don't delete that, you will need it since Fellout makes the night A LOT darker, almost pitch-black). and that's it: you have succesfully installed the data for Fellout (from the Fellout page) and the merged .esp file (from the Paradox Ignition page). As for your load order: I'd suggest to run LOOT. Normally, lighting & weather mods tend to come rather low in your load order.

There is no in-game options menu for Fellout: the mod comes "as is", you can't change it yourself (actually you can, using FO3Edit, if you feel VERY adventurous ;-)).

Enhanced Weather: Rain and Snow

Enhanced Weather page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Since Fellout does not add dynamic weather like rain or snow, you can add this weather mod if you like. It is perfectly compatible with Fellout and adds some impressive rain and even lightning storms which theaten the Wasteland. The mod comes with some nice extra features, such as offering the possibility to hear weather sounds (wind, rain, thunder) in interiors and even a "sneak bonus" during storms!



Installation is pretty straightforward: go to the mod's page at the Nexus site and choose just the file which says "Recommended - Enhanced Weather". Download this with NMM, and activate. You should now have one .esm and four extra .esp files in your load order, two of which are optional (for the sneak bonus and the interior sounds). As for load order: let LOOT do its job ;-).

Enhanced Weather comes with a neat in-game menu, which you have access to through the pip-boy, as usual.

Project Reality: lighting & weather overhaul

Project Reality page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

There is however a VERY good but less well-known alternative for those wanting their Capital Wasteland look different: Project Reality. It is not compatible with Fellout, since it changes the same files & parameters, but in a different way. It gives the Wasteland a much harsher, more bleak but still hauntingly beautiful look. This mod surely deserves more attention, but sadly it is no longer updated or sustained by the author. Still, it is in perfect working condition. and it is a good alternative for those who think that Fellout adds a bit too much colour to the wasteland.

In fact, after having played with both mods for a long time, I guess I prefer this one over Fellout. Project Reality not only gives the entire game a very bleak, sharp and desaturated look, it comes with an extremely useful in-game configuration menu as well. You can access this through your pip-boy (items/apparel). There are a lot of options here which Fellout does not have, such as heat-haze (which is extremely immersive), and the possibility of turning several weather options on or off.



Just don't use the radiation storms: there are lots of reports that these are bugged. Another advantage of Project Reality is that it comes with own built-in weather system: this is a mod that overhauls lighting, weather & even the look of water, all-in-one. The thunderstorms, by the way, are great, with very deep,

DCMoods: Faboulous lighting in the Capital Wasteland

DCMoods page at the Nexus site[www.nexusmods.com]



The final lighting mod I'm covering is the AWESOME mod DCMoods. It has far less downloads than the two previous ones, but it offers something very special. It is a major overhaul of the in-game lighting, both outside and inside. The weather system is not changed, but the look of the weather definitely has. Of the three lighting mods, this one is by far the most atmospheric with dramatic sunsets, a scorching afternoon feeling and dark nights with a myriad of stars.
Especially the inside lighting has been changed almost beyond recognition - in fact after having played a new playthrough with this mod, I can't imagine myself using any other one soon.

Installation is pretty straightforward: download the files from the Nexus page above and activate them in the correct order (first main file, than dlc). Place them fairly or very low in your load order, as LOOT would also tell you, and enjoy a completely different looking Wasteland. Just watch your back while admiring those sunsets!

Vc. Essential mods: User Interface related mods

User Interface Organizer (UIO)

User Interface Organizer page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

One of the main criticism Fallout 3 has had to cope with, is its User Interface (UI), and especially what you see when in-game, the so-called HUD (Heads-Up Display). It is in this department that Fallout 3 shows more than anywhere else that it was just mas much developed with consoles in mind than with pc's. The rather large HUD which takes up quite a lot of the screen, is something that works very well on a tv screen at 3 metres distance, but not at my pc screen right in front of me. Well, it doens't for me - probably lots of people don't mind at all.

But for those who do mind, there are sveral mods that alter the way the UI/HUD looks and/or behaves. I have to say: I'm so used to playing with a reduced hud or even no hud at all, that I couldn't get used anymore to the vanilla version.

But: installing and de-installing mods that alter the UI, used to be quite a difficult task requiring quite some manual installations. Happily, User Interface Organizer changes all that. This is a meta-mod, which controls all installations/uninstallations of UI-related mods. Actually, it is a plugin into FOSE (Fallout Script Extender), which means that you just have to install it once, and then can forget about it! Download and activate the single file using Nexus Mod Manager, and that's it. There are no plugins, there is no load order to be concerned about: UIO operates deep inside the game, and very neatly organizes things for you. It does its job perfectly, so feel free to install and de-install UI mods as you feel enclined to.


In its current state, UIO offers support for 19 different mods, all neatly listed on its main page over on the Nexus site.

DarNified UI

DarNifiedUI page at Bethesda Forums[forums.bethsoft.com]

Far the most essential mod with regard to the User Interface, is the DarNified UI. This mod greatly reduces the size of the HUD, of the dialog windows (using smaller fonts) and of the UI of the pip-boy (ensuring there is more information available at the same time).


Downloading and installing DarNified UI is different compared to most mods, but not too difficult. First of all: the mod can only be downloaded from its own thread at the Bethsoft forum (see link above). THere are very detailed instructions here on how to install in manually, but there is a "FOMOD" version as well that you can download to your desktop, as well as the hotfix.


After downloading both these files, open Nexus Mod Managerand click "add mod from file" (the tomost icon on the left). Navigate to the main file you just downloaded, click "open" and NMM will create the mod just from the archive file. Add the hotfix too, using the same method. Select the DarNified UI.esp file in your plugins section, as usual. And for load order: let LOOT sort it out for you.

There is one more file you'll have to install when you're using Fallout Wanderers Edition: it's the "DarnUI support for FWE" file at the FWE page on the Nexus site. DarnUI support for FWE[www.nexusmods.com]

Download with NMM, activate (it's in the "Gameplay & Effects" category, not in the "User Interface" category) and you will now have icons for the grenade, the nightvision and the stealth indicator from FWE added to your DarNified UI!

NOTE: Nexus Mod Manager will give a message about a newer version of the mod. Click NO: that's the way to install the mod (the FWE support) normally. Most of the time when NMM comes up with question, the answer will be "no" ;-).

NOTE 2: Nexus Mod Manager will then ask about overwriting data from another mod. Here you have to choose "yes to all", otherwise you won't be altering the data!

Once in-game, you'll notice the massive difference in the UI. The health, compass, action points and weapon condition/ammo are far less intrusive down in the corners now. There is even a lot of extra information: the date, the time, and all sort of things related to FWE such as your hunger, thirst and sleep. And you will have that nice little grenade icon next to the weapon condition & ammo indication.
Your pip-boy allows for much more information to be seen on the screen at once too, thanks to the smaller fonts used. This is a major advantage over the vanilla game for me.



You can tweak DarNified UI to your own liking by hitting espace and choosing DUI F3 from the menu at the right. You have a ton of options here to play with, and there is a very nice "help" section as well.

Vd. Essential mods: MMM, EVE & Blackened

Marts Mutant Mod (MMM)

MMM page at the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Although Fallout 3 offers a decent amount of adversaries and creatures to fight in its vanilla state, there is surely room for improvement. And that is exactly what Marts Mutant Mod does: it is a complete overhaul of the monsters & npc's (such as raiders). This mod adds new creatures, and adds also variations to existing creatures so that some are bigger than others, or it adds "young" versions of some of Fallout 3 best-known enemies.

The mod also increases the spawn rate, so the Capital Wasteland gets a bit more populated, so a bit more dangerous as well. On the other hand, MMM increases the time it takes for an area that you've "cleared" (killed all monsters & raiders) to get reset. That makes the game much more believable, since I think it would take some time for raiders for example to move into a new area.

Dowloading & installing MMM is a bit complicated and requires some attention. I strongly advice to use the "merged" version of the mod, presented by Paradox Ignition on this page of the Nexus website: Paradox Ignition page at the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Step one: download & install the mod's recources from its own page
Navigate to the "files" page on the Nexus page of MMM and download the "FOMOD ready" file (so not the top-most one!) and the MMM 6_2 upgrade using NMM. Once downloaded, first install the main file. During the installation, you'll get an little menu with regard to the in-game menu. Choose to activate the in-game menu and not the .esp menu: this way you'll be able to access a lot of options from inside the game using the apparel section of the pip-boy.Choose "yes to all" when it asks to overwrite files: this is the mod wanting to alter animations & textures from the vanilla game. Install the update next, and again choose "yes to all" when it asks to overwrite some files (this time from the mod itself).

Step two: navigate to the Paradox Ignition page on the Nexus site, and have a good look at the description. It asks you to delete the .esm and .esp files installed by the mod from your steam\steamapps\common\fallout 3 goty\data folder. The merged version of the mod will remove all these by one single .esm file, which is a very good thing since Fallout 3 doesn't like to many files being loaded into the game.

Step three: download the "Marts Mutant Mod Merged" file from the files section using your NMM, activate it and have a look at your plugins. You'll notice you have one one single .esm file that contains all the information for this great mod!

Once in-game, you can tweak a lot of components of the mod by the menu to be found in the pip-boy: items - apparel.

EVE: Energy Visuals Enhanced

EVE page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Fallout 3 contains a lot of "energy weapons": weapons that don't rely on bullets, but on energy to kill. This great mod completely overhauls the way these weapons look, and especially the way the kills look. It adds a lot of new critical kill animations, very detailed weapon textures and even new sounds. If you like energy weapons in Fallout 3, this is a must-have mod. If you didn't play that much with energy weapons yet, installing this mod surely make you doing so. Especially the pulse and plasma grenades got some awesome effects added to them.

Installation is very straightforward: there is only a single file to be downloaded using NMM from the EVE page (the "EVE 099" file), activate it and you'll have a single eve.esm file in your load order. Let LOOT decide where it has to go.

Blackened

Blackened page at the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Now Blackened isn't really a mod proper: it's a series of files/plugins that will allow several of the bigger mods for Fallout 3 to work together in the same game without having conflicts with each other. It's absolutely essential if you use any of the big mods (FWE, MMM, EVE among others) together since thse mods often want to alter the same game elements or resources.

NOTE: Blackened is more recent and far better updated than the Fallout Interoperability Patches, which were used in the past to resolve conflicts between the large mods. So ALWAYS use Blackened instead, except for one case, which I will cover later on.

NOTE 2: Blackened is a project that closely works together with the Paradox Ignition project. So, for every mod you're going to install the Blackened patch for, you HAVE to use the "merged" version by Paradox Iginition, if there is one.

Since for this guide I have installed FWE, MMM & EVE, you have to use the correct Blackened file that ensures compatibility between these three mods. If you decide later on to use Project Beauty as well, replace this file with the one for all four mods. Since Project Beauty has a very complicated installation process, I won't be covering it in this guide I think.

So go to the "files" section on the Blackened page, and choose the Blackened FWE - MMM - EVE file. Download with manager and activate in Nexus Mod Manager. As for your load order: since this is a compatibility patch, it should come really low in the load order, but LOOT knows that as well. And that's it: this patch allows you to use all these three great mods together!

Ve. Essential mods: Tweaks & fixes

CASM: Cipscis' Auto-Save Manager

CASM page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Fallout 3 has a severe problem with its savegames. At the start of a new game, you won't run into this problem, but take a look at your savegames. They are stored in
mydocuments\mygames\fallout3\saves.
If you have already several savegames, you will notice that they very gradually get larger. This is due to the fact that the more of the world you discover of the world, and the more you interact with npc's, the more data has to be stored in a savegame. Not a problem, normally, but Fallout 3 has the nasty habit of corrupting its savegames - not that often, but it does happen, especially when far into the game. This is all the more likely when you rely on one or just a few quick- and/or autosaves which get overwritten all the time. It's exactly that which Fallout 3 doesn't like.

So what does this auto-save manager do? It basically cycles through a chosen number of saves, so that those get overwritten a lot less often. You can tweak the mod's setting in the items-aid setion of the pip-boy, and for example let it cycle through 20 saves. You can choose from a lot of options, so be sure to give this menu a look. Very important: casm is not compatible with the in-game auto-saves since it makes itw own auto-saves (at a given time interval, for example). So disable those in the game's main menu BEFORE installen casm. CASM even has profiles, so you can use saves for up to three different in-game characters at the same time, but be sure to use exactly the same setup of your mods for every one of these.

Download & install with NMM and be sure to keep the single .esp file at the very end of your load order - I normally let it load just above my merged patch. In-game menu via the pipboy (items- aid), and when using CASM you'll have to use F4 as your new quick-save key. Using that key will force the game to cycle through all the save slots, so you'll only be overwriting the quick save every 21st save. Still, even using this mod I do recommend to manually perform a hard save (make a new save game, not overwrite an existing one) regularly, I do it always at the end of a gaming session.

Auto-Aim Fix: Headshot Deluxe

Auto-Aim Fix page at Nexus wesbsite[www.nexusmods.com]

This is a very small mod that fixes an annoying issue Fallout 3 has with aiming. Since it was developed for consoles as well as for pc, Fallout 3 has an auto-aim function that is hard to disable. Fallout Wanderers Edition reduces its impact a lot, but doesn't entirely remove it. This will make your bullets behave strangely when sniping from long distances: bullets will automatically "aim" for the body of an enemy, even if his torso is concealed behind a wall and you can only see his arm. This mod lets you shoot for the arm, and not miss (if you aim correctly, that is ;-)).

This mod supposedly also fixes the problem you can have when shooting just from above cover and still shooting into you cover. For me this issue has never been completely resolved, however. Installation is very easy: download with NMM, activate and place the single .esp file at or near the bottom of your load order (I keep the three files casm.esp, auto-aim fix.esp and my merged patch.esp always at the three lowest spots - there three files need to be at the bottom).

VIa. Major optional mods: Visuals

NMC's Texture Pack

NMC's Texture Pack for Fallout 3[www.nexusmods.com]

Textures in Fallout 3 are not that crisp as we expect from a game nowadays: they are often blurry and vague. This very popular texture pack (one of the most downloaded mods for the game ever) replaces a stunning amount of the textures with newly made ones, of very high quality indeed. The mod comes in different varieties, regarding the quality (and thus performance strain) of the new textures.

I chose the "performance" edition, and it proved a massive difference. Together with Fellout or Project Reality, this is the mod that changes the look of the game in the most drastic way. But since this mod also has quite some impact on your performance, I didn't add it to the "essential" mods – although it really is essential, excect for those playing the game on a relatively slow rig. The crucial thing with regard to performance here is the amount of video memory (VRAM) you've got. My 3-years old GTX 650ti with 1GB VRAM has no problems with the "performance" edition, but it does struggle with the "large" version (not to mention the ultra-detailed graphics the "maximum" edition offer).

Installation is simple but decide which version you are going to use beforehand. The author has offered quite some useful advice on this on the mod's main page. Download the file using NMM, activate (answer "yes to all" when asking to overwrite any files) and you're done. As this is a textures-only mod, there is no .esm or .esp file, so no worries about load order here either.

DYNAVISION: Dynamic Depth of Field

Dynavision page at the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

DYNAVISION provides dynamic depth-of-field and auto-focus effect similar to a camera. This means that your focus changes as you look at different things: when you're close to something and looking right at it, the subject stays in focus but the background blurs, just as a camera with auto-focus on would do. When you look at the background and have an object on the foreground but not in the center of your screen, that object will blur instead.

The mod comes as a single file, download and activate using NMM. Let LOOT decide with regard to load order - it does not matter that much as this mod is only depending on the main Fallout3.esm file. Make sure you have depth-of-field activated in yourt Fallout 3 settings (which it is by default, so you should be ok here - but if the mod seems not to be doing anything, that's the place you will have to look).

DYNAVISION is another mod made by Gopher, and as with all his mods, it is highly customizable so you can completely tweak it to your own liking. In order to access the mod's options, go in your pip-boy to "items - apparel" and select "Dynavision Lens Package". All the available option are easy to understand by themselves, but if you need more background information: Gopher has an excellent tutorial on his own mod.

Fallout 3 Re-Animated

Fallout 3 Re-Animated page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

This mods offers an extensive overhaul of the in-game animations of the player's character (mostly visible when using third-person view), especially with regard to handling the weapons. Several animations of the npc's (non-playable characters) are altered as well to offer a more fluid and more immersive visual experience. It's the sort of mod that alters things in a subtle way, and it's very well done indeed - the author works as a professional animator!

Installation is simple: download the main file (v0.22) and the IdleRevisions2 update using NMM, activate the main file first and the update afterwards. Answer "yes to all" if NMM asks to overwrite existing files. Since this is a mod that purely alters data & resources, there is no plugin, so no worries about load-order.

VIb. Major optional mods: UI & Gameplay

Adjustable Hud (aHUD)

aHUD page at the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

Great mod by Gopher, specifically designed to work together with iHUD. This mod allows you to adapt any element of your HUD to your own liking, such as changing the place of the compass, hiding the brackets around the Action Points, and so on.

Download the correct version (the one for use with DarNified UI or the one for the Vanilla UI) using NMM and activate the mod. LOOT puts this mod quite high up in my load order, and I kept it there without any problems. In order to start the process of altering the elements of your HUD, press F6 and use the in-game menu.

NOTE: With regard to the combination of HUD-related mods, the order of installing those mods is VERY important. The right order when using all four the mods I mention in this guide is:

• UIO (User Interface Organizer)
  
• DarNified UI
  
• Adjustable HUD (aHUD)
  
• Immersive HUD (iHUD)
  
• any other mod altering the HUD

Immersive Hud (iHUD)

iHUD page at the Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]

iHUD is a mod by Gopher that allows you to hide the HUD (heads-up display) whenever wanted. As the author states on the mod's main page: "The aim of iHUD is to provide the immersive feel you get from having no HUD, whilst keeping the usefulness of having one. It takes the permanantly visible HUD elements such as HP, AP, radar etc, and hides them when not needed. Hence the motto: HUD when you need. HIDE when you don't."

As usual with Gophers mods, it is perfectly kept up-to-date and works flawlessly. In order to install it, download the main file using mod manager, and you'll either need the "Darnified FWE" patch (if you're using FWE & DarNified UI - as I explained earlier in the guide) or the "Vanilla patch" (if you're using no other mod altering the HUD whatsoever). Activate the main file and the appropriate patch in NMM, and have a look at your load order. LOOT puts iHUD pretty high in my load order, and I kept it there without any problems.

Be sure you have the User Interface Organizer mod installed before installing any other user interface-related mods, such as this one - this mod really needs the Interface Organizer mod in order to work properly. Also, if using aHUD, you should install and activate that mod before this one! The mod comes with a lot of configurable options, which are accessible through an easy menu wth "i" as the default hotkey.

RH_Ironsights (Merged Version)

RH_Ironsights by Paradox (merged)[www.nexusmods.com]

One of the great things about Fallout 3 is that it offers very different styles of combat: melee, small guns, energy weapons, heavy guns and even unarmed combat. But I guess most people will love the gunplay, although this has one major flaw. When you zoom in while wielding a gun, the only thing that happens is that the field of view gets narrower, so you get the illusion of zooming in a tiny bit. In a classic shooter, pressing the zoom key (by default the right mouse button) will change views to ironsights, giving a much better possibility to aim manually using your own skills.

This fantastic mods fixes exactly that: it adds ironsights to the game. Although this may seem like a small addition, if surely is not. The original version of the mod came with a ton of files, but happily the guys of Paradox Ignition have created a new, merged version with a single .esm file. This can be downloaded from their page at the Nexus website.
Download & activate it using NMM, and I suggest placing the .esm file low in the .esm section of your load order. However, you're not done yet if you have some major mods installed. RH_Ironsights needs so-called "bridges" (small compatibility patches) in order to work together with these mods: FWE, EVE, Weapon Mod Kits & Fallout 3 Re-animated. These bridges can be found at the original page of RH_Ironsights at this location: RH_Ironsights page for compatibility bridges[www.nexusmods.com]

BUT: if you use the Blackened patch to let those mods work together, you should use the Blackened compatibility patch to make RH_Ironsights work alongside Fallout Wanderers Edition and EVE. Download at the Nexus page of Blackened: Blackened page at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com] Install & activate following the instructions on the Blackened page. Then you'll still need the compatibility patch for RH_ironsights to work together with the WMK (Weapon Mod Kits) mod if you have installed that one. This patch is to be found at yet another page, that of the Fallout Interoperability Program: FOIP at Nexus website[www.nexusmods.com]. And don't forget about the bridge to make RH_Ironsights compatible with FO3 Re-animated too, otherwise you the irsonsights animations won't work correctly in third person. This bridge patch can be found at the original page of RH_Ironsights, as mentioned above.

I realize that things do get pretty complicated here, so read all the information provided on the different pages of all mods covered here! Making RH_Ironsights work perfectly together with all other mods can be a daunting task, and in all probabiity there will always be some weapons that don't have ironsights in the end. But it is definitely worth the trouble, as this is one of my overall favorite mods for the game.

VIc. Major optional mods: Advanced Recon Series

Advanced Recon is a whole series of mods and sub-mods devised by Gopher which completely overhauls the way the game can be played. It does exactly what the titles says: the mods offer a way to play the entire game as a stealthy sort of black ops character, right into the endgame (where most people would opt for power armor as the way to go).

Gopher doesn't only include proper armor for this type of reconnaissance character, he also makes sure you'll get all the high-tec stuff you need: there's an underwater breather with improved radiation resistance, advanced night vision gear including some awesome thermal vision capacity and even range finder to attach to any scoped weapon. But there's even more to it: the Detect Traps mods adds a new perk to the game, which let you detect enemy traps while sneaking. All in all, this series of mods is an awesome achievement, and they blend it with each other to perfection.

I realise this kind of stealthy, sniper-orientated playing won't be to everybody's liking, but for those who love to take out their enemies from a distance, the Advance Recon series is a no-brainer.

Advanced Recon Thermal Nightvision

Thermal Nightvision at the Nexus site[www.nexusmods.com]

This mod is the core mod of the Advanced Recon series. It adds two possible models of underwater breathers and nightvision equipment, as well as a TAC (target acquisition computer). There is a main file at the Nexus to download with manager, as well as the mysteriously sounding file "Mister Burkes key". The Mark I breather and night vision equipment are actually placed inside Mr Burke's home in Megaton, so that you can get access to the equipment quite early in-game. As for the very useful target acquisition computer: I won't spoil its location, but you'll come across it if doing the Wasteland Guide quest's third chapter. The Mark II equipment is further into the game.

As always with Gopher's mods, it's highly customizable from inside the game using the Advanced Recon Settings menu inside the pipboy.

VII. Minor but interesting mods

Better Balanced Backpacks

Better Balanced Backpacks at Nexus site[www.nexusmods.com]

A small but very interesting mod that adds the concept of backpacks to the game. These can augment your character's carrying capability, but only on the higher levels. Backpacks are added gradually as you level up, and they can be purchased at a new shop added to the game. This shop is situated in Springvale, right next to the watertower.

Han, the shop-keeper, has satchels and backpacks in several varieties on offer, as well as some trader's outfits. The mod has been made with the harshest weight carrying settings of Fallout Wanderers Edition in mind, but you can use other settings as well of course when you really want to be able to carry more stuff around. The 3D textures of the various backpacks are very well done indeed and fit perfectly into the game.

Download and activate using NMM, the single .esp file can come pretty everywhere in your load order.

Colorful Pipboy Map Icons

Colorful Pipboy Map Icons at Nexus Site[www.nexusmods.com]

Although the Pipboy 3000 is a trusty companion to anyone discovering Fallout 3's world, to me it does have at least one major disadvantage: it's map. The game's map is not at all well drawn on the screen of the pipboy with everything in different sorts of green and all icons - whatever they represent - plain white. There are several mods that try to fix this, but I find this little mod the most helpful. It does just one thing: it alters the color of the map icons, changing them from default white into a colorful whole. Since every color stands for a different type of landmark, with the white ones still used for places you've heard about but not yet discovered, the whole map becomes much easier to read.

There are several versions of this mod over at the Nexus - those of you who use the DarNifiedUI mod must be sure to dowload the correct version, and to use the "white" in-game setting for your pipboy in the display settings. Other users can still change the pipboy's color as wanted. This mod is also perfectly compatible with most other mods that change the pipboy's looks, but not with any mods that change the actual map.

Fallout Street Lights

Fallout Street Lights at Nexus site[www.nexusmods.com]

This mod adds lights and fx beams (some flickering) to most of the street lights and signs, both in the DC ruins and since the latest version also in the remainder of the Wasteland. The mod is especially made to work together with Fellout, since that mod has very dark nights.
When you wander (more stumble) through the DC Ruins during a pitch-black Fellout night, you'll be amazed at how atmospheric these street lights actually are. It's a small but amazing addition (and the street lights surely could have been repaired & sustained by the Brotherhood of Steel, not?).

As for installation: make sure to install this mod AFTER any other mod that affects the lighting, such as Fellout, Project Reality or DCMoods. Download & activate the latest file ("version 2") using NMM. As for the load order: be sure the put the StreetLights.esm file BEFORE the Broken Steel.esm. This is very important, and makes the mod load very early on. I have to admit that this mod does have some stability issues: my games tends to crash more often with this mod installed. It's up to you if you can live with that, or not.

VIII. Conclusion

Fallout 3 is still a classic game, even more than seven years after it was first released. Despite the well-deserved success of Fallout New Vegas and its huge modding scene, mods for Fallout 3 still stand as an example of how thoroughly the modding community can improve upon an already brilliant game, even overhauling it completely and providing new yet still very lore-friendly gaming experiences.

Writing this just days after Fallout 4 has been released, it remains to be seen if the newest game in this great series will become as modding-friendly as the previous two were, allowing the community to unleash their full creative potential at it. Up till now, it looks like Bethesda wants to keep tighter control over the modding scene, with no options yet in the launcher to load different plugins or change their load order.

But even when in a couple of month's time there will be lots of mods and more user-friendly options for the newer game, I rest assured that it will take a long time before mods of the same quality like these that exist for Fallout 3 will be released for Fallout 4. Modding the earlier game might be a task which needs lots of thinking and tinkering with load order, plugins and merged patches, in the end it can be an extremely rewarding activity. When you manage to fundamentally alter or even improve the gameplay and joy you get out of it, the feeling of fulfilment ca be great.

For me, learning to properly and thoroughly mod Fallout 3 has fundamentally changed the way I look at games. I no longer consume and enjoy them as they are presented to me, I look for ways to change somethings, adapt them more to my liking. Ofcourse only a small amount of games actually offer these possiblities, but those that do, like the Fallout and The Elder Scroll series do offer the possibility for any gamer willing to learn to enjoy them that much more than when simply played as they are provided.

I do hope this guide has helped you with this process, and most importantly of all: that is has helped you to have more fun.

[jonmonkeyboy]

For those of you who are using an Intel graphics card, you may need to use this mod to "trick" the game into thinking you have an older graphics card. This may fix the crash when starting the game from the launcher issue. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17209

[Echo Demon]

This is ancient, but instead of the Windows Live remover linked in here everyone should probably use the Anniversary Patcher instead. The mod(s) linked above are 15 years old at this point, holy crap.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/24913?tab=description

[SamWhitetail]

NMM vs Mo2

[Dredmor]

👍

[fartshitwarrior]

windows live die forever! thanks todd

[PrinzEugen]

Apparently this guide is still being read in 2020, but I haven't played or even looked at the game for a long time, so for the moment I'm unable to answer any questions. I do hope to return to it one last time, probably this summer (2020) and make one last, hopefully major, update.

[J0K3R255]

I installed the uninstaller but my game still won't run. i click play on the launcher, it goes black, then it goes back to desktop. what do i do?

[manteanthony]

I tried using the GFWL uninstaller, but it said it couldn't find the fallout3.ini and i needed to run the game, but i couldn't run the game and that's why i was using the uninstaller.

[Patrick The Nobleman]

Awesome guide Diederik! I purchased Fallout 3 on GOG and it runs very well...

[PrinzEugen]

Glad to hear you got everything working! Enjoy this classic game!