Fixing Fallout: New Vegas (2024)

Boot up the launcher, go to settings and turn off Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering, V-sync, and (in the advanced tab) water displacement. Load the game, make a test character, go outside (in the game), make a test save.

• New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE)
  Adds scripting functionality for mods
• FNV BSA Decompressor
  Decompresses some game archives to reduce load times, stutter, and fix missing audio
  If you just want the audio fixes without messing with your game archives grab Ogg Vorbis Libraries instead.
• JIP LN NVSE Plugin
  More scripting functionality for mods + some tweaks and fixes
• JohnnyGuitar NVSE
  More scripting functionality for mods

Beyond this point you should only be launching the game through Vortex (Using New Vegas Script Extender)

• FNV 4GB Patcher
  Lets you use 4GB of RAM
• NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix
  Fixes stutter/FPS on newer systems. A better, less buggier version of NVSR
• OneTweak for FNV
  Adds borderless windowed mode
• NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash
  Stops crashes

• Yukichigai Unofficial Patch - YUP
  Massive bugfix compilation
• Unofficial Patch NVSE
  Additional fixes that require NVSE
• lStewieAl's Tweaks
  Massive collection of optional engine level tweaks, everything comes OFF by default so be sure to change the .ini file.

• Tweaking lStewieAl's tweaks

  Install as normal, run the game, walk around and then customise the generated .ini file (Data/NVSE/plugins/nvse_stewie_tweaks.ini). Or download a preset, I have one that attempts to be faithful to vanilla (in the downloads), while Axonis’s one comes with every setting annotated.

• The Mod Configuration Menu
  Adds menu support for mods that have settings menus
• UIO - User Interface Organizer
  Lets mods add/change UI elements

• Uncut Wasteland
  Restores visual clutter that was cut to improve DLC performance on consoles.
• Lucky 38 World LOD Fix
  Before, looking out the window of the lucky 38, you would see mountains cut in half, a wee fix for that
• Asterra's Many Fixes
  Text/mesh/texture fixes and more
• Weapon Mesh Improvement Mod
  Improves weapon meshes, won't conflict with anything here, but does conflict with a lot

If you don’t see it and you have JIP LN NVSE installed correctly how to check (see #8), just a create new blank file called FalloutCustom.ini, or get mine from the downloads

The vanilla dialogue UI is iconic, and all the UI overhauls I tried messed with that, while not really offering enough improvement to convince me. There’s no SKYUI for Fallout: New Vegas. Though if you want to try some out, fortunately it’s a type of mod which you can tell what it does from screenshots.

• FOV Slider
  Easily change your FOV (note: this can be done through the console or your FalloutCustom.ini)
• Pause Menu HD
  Just changes the pause overlay texture, pretty nice.
• JIP Improved Recipe Menu
  The vanilla recipe menu almost unusably awful

ENB’s, if done right, can be a massive improvement over the vanilla game. If done wrong, they can be distracting and performance intensive

Tweaking your enblocal.ini

Not strictly necessary, but I think an obvious stumbling block that people have with ENB’s is that they haven’t got the settings right for their system

In your Fallout: New Vegas folder, open your enblocal.ini, and make the following changes

[MEMORY]
ReservedMemorySizeMb=Lower for older systems, higher for newer. (128, 256, 384, 512, 640, 768, 896, 1024). The official recommendation is to start at the lowest and incrementally increase until you stop noticing stutter.
VideoMemorySizeMb=Use VRamSizeDX9.exe, to get a "video memory available" number. For Win 10 subtract 350, for Win 7 subtract 170, for Win 8 use the number it gives you.
AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

There are some HD overhaul packs available, but I’ve been (broadly) unimpressed with how different they are in art style.

• EXE - Effect teXtures Enhanced
  Better resolution versions of all the effects textures

If you absolutely MUST have HD textures, here’s the best of the vanilla look. Be warned though, on the poor old Gamebryo engine, they can cause a bit of a performance hit for not a lot of difference.

• Charge's FNV HD Texture Packs
  Upscaled versions of most of the vanilla textures, varying quality but all vanilla
• Vanilla Loading Screens HD
  AI-upscale of the loading screens
• High Res Vanilla Posters and Graffiti
  AI-upscale but for the posters and graffiti
• PM's HD Ranger Outfits
  Faithful re-creation of the vanilla ranger outfits
• PM's HD Legion Overhaul
  Incredible re-creation of the vanilla legion armors/environment
• PM's Med-Textures - HD Chems and Venoms
  Beautiful re-creation of the vanilla chems
• PM's HD Ammo Boxes
  Gorgeous re-creation of the vanilla ammo boxes, if you can believe that.

If you’ve installed everything in this section there will be a few file conflicts. Just make sure the load order matches the order they’re listed here.

I have included some crucial combat AI tweaks in my Stewie's tweaks .ini, under [GameSettings], if you’re not using my preset, copy and paste the below into your own. If you’re not using Stewie’s Tweaks at all, Combat Enhancer will make enemy combat AI a bit better, at the expense of a few bizzare and unnecessary tweaks.

Make enemies less likely to dodge bullets
fAIDodgeDecisionBase = 2
fAIDodgeFavorLeftRightMult = 0.5
fAIDodgeWalkChance = 15

Make it harder to literally run circles around enemies
fCharacterDefaultTurningSpeed = 100
fCombatFiringArcStationaryTurnMult = 0.8

Increase exterior combat/search range, so enemies will actually react to sniping
fAIUseWeaponDistance = 16000 fCombatAbsoluteMaxRangeMult = 5
fCombatSearchCheckInvestigateMaxDistance = 1024
fCombatSearchExteriorMaxRadius = 3500
fCombatSearchExteriorMediumRadius = 2048
fCombatSearchExteriorMinRadius = 1024

If you’ve installed everything in this section there will be a few file conflicts. Just make sure the load order matches the order they’re listed here.

• Return of the Eyebots
  Adds the flying radio bots from Fallout 3, nice addition imo. Simple and, actually, lore friendly when you think about it.
• NV Gutsy Handy Animated Eyes
  Little texture that makes the eyes move like in 4. Very basic.
• DLC Weapon Integration
  Nice way of adding some extra variety to the game weapons, without compromising quality as it’s all from the DLCs. Obviously, very debatable.
• Populated Casinos
  The entire game is very sparse in terms of NPCs, but this packs out the Casinos. A little jarring to suddenly see so many people given the emptiness of the rest of the game but still neat
• Faction Wasteland Presence Compilation
  Small additions to fill out the wasteland a bit. imo The Living Desert tries to do too much, this is a lighter alternative
• Primm Reputation Restored
  Primm serves as a kind of the introduction proper to the games questing, it makes sense for it to have reputation
• Nuka-Cola Victory - Quartz - Quantum - Vending Machines
  The Nuka Cola machines seem pretty boring, this adds back the chance to get variants from Fallout 3 and 4