Should i get a retexture mod or just stay vanilla?

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

I've just started playing NV and i find the game kinda ugly. I was wondering if i should go for a retexture and a reanimation mod for the game, or should i play vanilla?

[Bansheebutt]

All the animation mods are incomplete and all the retextures are too dark.

I'd advise accepting the fact you're playing a game that was made almost a decade ago and was only half decent then.

[Boromir, Son of Faramir]

Instead of using retextures, you could instead look at lightweight Shader/Weather/Lighting modifications such as FNV Realistic Wasteland Lighting [www.nexusmods.com] and, if you're feeling a bit ambitious, getting New Vegas Reloaded - NVGE [www.tesreloaded.com] on top of FNVRWL and installing a preset for it, specifically this one: https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/66650?tab=description. The screenshots from this last mod link gives you an idea of what the finished product would look like if you correctly installed everything. If it doesn't appeal to you, then there isn't much point in getting all this. If you do decide to go this route, though, be extra careful and read and re-read instructions from every linked page so as to not result in catastrophe.

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

Wow, this mod looks great. But for the viva las vegas mod it says i have to install NVGE, i'm worried because the instructions are real confusing and i'm wondering if i even need NVGE for it

[Boromir, Son of Faramir]

You can download FNV Realistic Wasteland by itself without requiring NVGE, but you will unfortunately require NVGE for the Viva Las Vegas mod to work (in addition to FNV Realistic Wasteland, but that one isn't much of a problem to download). I'll look into sending clearer instructions for the NVGE + Viva Las Vegas installation.

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

aright thanks dude, i really need clear instructions cos i'm pretty damn new to modding.

[Boromir, Son of Faramir]

Hmmm before I get into the instructions, I think it would be wise to ask you if you are already comfortable with downloading mods through a mod manager, such as MO2, Vortex, NMM, etc. If you aren't, it would be essential to first go over how those work, otherwise nothing I would say would make very much sense. On top of that, I'd like to know if you already downloaded essential base mods, such as NVSE, without which the mods I linked would just crash your game / not work.

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

oh don't worry about that, i've already downloaded nexus mod manager and have watched a few of gopher's tutorial vids on the basics of it

[Boromir, Son of Faramir]

Alrighty then, here goes nothing.

First things first, let's make sure you download FNV Realistic Wasteland Lighting [www.nexusmods.com] properly. Visit the linked Nexus page, scroll down and open the Files tab. Download either "... - All DLC" or "... - No DLC", depending on if you have all of the DLCs or not obviously. Afterwards, scroll further down into Optional Files and download one of the two "Patch Collection" files, All DLC or No DLC. Go into NMM, install the two files you decided normally, and make sure to put "FNV Realist Wasteland Lighting - All/No DLC.esp" at the 3rd last spot in your load order, with "...Brighter Nights.esp" and "...No Overcast Weather.esp" below it. FNVRWL and its optional file should now be properly installed.

Afterwards, go to the New Vegas Reloaded - NVGE page [www.tesreloaded.com] and scroll down to the "DOWNLOAD LINKS" section. Download NVR v.1.3.0. Extract "binkw32.dll" to the New Vegas' main directory, aka the place where you can find FalloutNV.exe and where you presumably downloaded NVSE. Overwrite when prompted. Install the rest of the archive through NMM (just like how you would for manual downloads). NVGE should now be properly installed.

And now for the final part. Go to the Viva New Vegas - NVGE Preset [www.nexusmods.com] and download+install the main file through mod manager. Add the following to your FalloutCustom.ini (if you have one; if not, read ahead):

[Water]
bUseWaterHiRes=1
bReflectExplosions=1
bForceHighDetailReflections=1
uMaxInteriorWaterReflections=60
uMaxExteriorWaterReflections=60
bForceHighDetailLandReflections=1
iWaterReflectWidth=2048
iWaterReflectHeight=2048

If you do not yet have a FalloutCustom.ini, make sure install JIP LN NVSE Plugin [www.nexusmods.com] through your mod manager. Once that's done, go to New Vegas' main directory (again, where FalloutNV.exe is located), and now it will likely be necessary to disable a dumb Windows feature (if you're running on that). Follow the guide here [www.howtohaven.com] on how to force Windows to show file extensions. This is needed to be able to able to transform a .txt file into a .ini file. Once you finished the steps shown on the linked guide, go back to New Vegas' main directory and create a new text file. Rename the new text file to "FalloutCustom.ini" and click "Yes" if prompted that the file may become unusable. Open it and copy+paste the values shown earlier above, then save and exit. Everything should now be ready. Run the game through your mod manager to make sure if everything went alright.

OPTIONAL:
You could do a little extra with your newly created "FalloutCustom.ini". Namely, some perfomance/quality of life tweaks may be of use. Here are a couple you may want to consider adding to the .ini file:

NOTES:
– Change INumHWThreads to the number of cores your CPU has, including hyperthreading
– Both fXenonLookSpeed tweaks can be removed if you do not run in a 16:9 aspect ratio
– Use bFull Screen=0 only in combination with a borderless windowed mod, like OneTweak [www.nexusmods.com] (which I do strongly recommend getting, as it fixes alt+tab issues)

[General]
bUseThreadedAI=1
INumHWThreads=4
bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1

[BackgroundLoad]
bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1
bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1

[Display]
bFull Screen=0

[Controls]
fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0
fXenonVertLookSpeed=1200.0000
fXenonHorizLookSpeed=1500.0000

[Grass]
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000

[Audio]
iAudioCacheSize=8192
iMaxSizeForCachedSound=1024


Annnnnnd that should be all. Hopefully these instructions are clear enough, but if they aren't you can always ask for clarifications.

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

hey thanks man! i'm gonna look through these tomorrow as it's basically midnight over here. I really appreciate the help dude ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[Boromir, Son of Faramir]

No problemo, though I will say a lot of the credit goes to Quinn Olore's Viva New Vegas [hackmd.io] for the general instructions I based myself off of. Cheers and good luck tomorrow

[a quality meme]

NMC's Texture Pack. Doesn't kill your game frames or make it even more unstable, but optimizes all of the textures in the game to look much better with more resolution. You have options too, so you can choose just how high res the textures are depending on how good your computer is with NV. Its just good.

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43135

[Boromir, Son of Faramir]

NMC's is good but it can really push the New Vegas engine to its limits. I suggest trying out either the Small version of NMC's first before trying the others to see if it does the job or, even simpler, {HIVATKOZÁS TÖRÖLVE} NMCs Roads , which only covers, you guessed it, the roads, but for some that's about all they need. Some other good retextures can be found in this part [hackmd.io]of the Viva New Vegas guide

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

thing is i'm a little confused, i have both mods but i don't exactly know what to do about the load order situation. I have two mods, not three and i can't seem to get any of the specific files that are in them

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

ah ok nvm, it's in plugins

[Mark the Chinese Lawyer]

wait, but for the fallout.ini thing it says that i need NVSE. should i get that too?