What do I do to get the game to launch?

[NightinStarLight]

The old way of setting the graphics of both the launcher and game to High Performance no longer works after the newest update. I don't use mods (and probably won't, but if mods are the only way to fix this then I'll bite the bullet) so any solution would be helpful

[kdodds]

Set your GPU in Windows.

[Vex Hilarius]

If you're using AMD you have to downgrade your drivers to december 2023. AMD is going to release a hot fix eventually according to them.

[forth]

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

If you're using AMD you have to downgrade your drivers to december 2023. AMD is going to release a hot fix eventually according to them.

No you don't. There have been many performance and security fixes that get rolled back doing that.
I wish people stop pushing this a fix for a broken old 2008 game.

[bobanja]

Forth, why are you jumping in on this? You clearly don't play this game or you'd know better. Given the rollback on a driver probably isn't the issue. But they are actively selling this game and it isn't (wasn't?) "broken"... until the last few days. It had some update (not sure why) that just caused things to stop working. This most definitely isn't something that has been ongoing (as your comment suggests) as it worked fine before that.

Kdodds has the correct suggestion, I think it's only for those that have multiple GPUs, like an on-board ♥♥♥♥♥♥ one and one for gaming (to expand on that... Control Panel > System > Display > Graphics, find Fallout 3 and Fallout 3 Launcher and set it to your best GPU, which should be "High Performance" -- not auto). And since they just changed the EXE name, you need to browse to your installation folder and add "Fallout3Launcher.exe" to that list and do the same, set it to your best GPU ("High Performance"). That should do it.

If you did it right everything will be working. Your gaming GPU should show up in the launcher if you go into "options" in the launcher, if you don't have that set right, it won't show up there.

(Updated to add more details.)

[Bobrock-1]

Originally posted by NightinStarLight:

The old way of setting the graphics of both the launcher and game to High Performance no longer works after the newest update. I don't use mods (and probably won't, but if mods are the only way to fix this then I'll bite the bullet) so any solution would be helpful

For me worked by following this procedure:

1. Delete the old configuration folder of the game. Go to `C:\Users\<name>\Documents\My Games\Fallout3` and remove the folder. Make sure to replace `<name>` with your Windows username.
2. Launch the game through Steam and set your desired configurations in the launcher.
3. Close the launcher without starting the game.
4. Navigate to the game's installation directory, usually `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 3 goty`.
5. Swap the names of the launcher and the game executable files. Rename `Fallout3.exe` to `Fallout3Launcher.exe` and `Fallout3Launcher.exe` to `Fallout3.exe`.
6. Start the game from Steam.

Following these steps, the game should work correctly. I hope this helps!

[Jiboomba Jinquisition]

Originally posted by Bobrock-1:

Originally posted by NightinStarLight:

The old way of setting the graphics of both the launcher and game to High Performance no longer works after the newest update. I don't use mods (and probably won't, but if mods are the only way to fix this then I'll bite the bullet) so any solution would be helpful

For me worked by following this procedure:

1. Delete the old configuration folder of the game. Go to `C:\Users\<name>\Documents\My Games\Fallout3` and remove the folder. Make sure to replace `<name>` with your Windows username.
2. Launch the game through Steam and set your desired configurations in the launcher.
3. Close the launcher without starting the game.
4. Navigate to the game's installation directory, usually `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 3 goty`.
5. Swap the names of the launcher and the game executable files. Rename `Fallout3.exe` to `Fallout3Launcher.exe` and `Fallout3Launcher.exe` to `Fallout3.exe`.
6. Start the game from Steam.

Following these steps, the game should work correctly. I hope this helps!

Hello, I tried this. I was able to get the game to actually launch but it won't recognize my existing save files?