Kelmych

If you have a good GPU with 3-4 Gb VRAM you don't need to use any size reduction. The value of using DDSopt is when there is a need for size reduction or when DDSopt can provid some improvements in texture quality.

The pictures are related to using DDSopt with different texture types for the vanilla textures, as described in the step by step instructions. What types of textures are you optimizing and how much (if any) resolution reduction do you need?

Redoing the bashed patch shouldn't take very long. If you create a merged patch and it is loading before the bashed patch, it's a good idea to add the bash tags for the individual plugins. The only problem comes when the patches you are combining are intended to load lower in the load order, but if you are just merging patches (vs. mods) this isn't usually a problem.

There are some mods in the list that are good candidates for inclusion in the guide such as "Intro Street Bus and Dupont Alignment" as well as some location mods that aren't primarily player homes. The guide doesn't include many mods that just add player homes since there isn't often significant agreement on which ones to include, and it's hard to manage more than a few. How did you get "Point Lookout Reborn" and "In the Shadow of the Swamp" to be compatible, by the way?

First, if there are issues with the Merge Plugins utility (the Merge Plugins Standalone mod name was changed a long time ago) it's best to post questions in the Mator's Utilities Support subforum where there is a better chance that knowledgeable users will see it. Second, what mods are you trying to merge? If I remember correctly there can be situations where Merge Plugins doesn't copy all the assets if there are conflicts between some of the plugins being merged.

I haven't seen any previous comments on FO3 having problems with 200+ plugins when Windows 7 or 8 is used. I currently have Windows 10 installed, but I don't currently use 200+ plugins. It's hard for me to see how there would be a difference between the retail CD version and the Steam version. Using Mod Organizer for FO3, Steam is not active when using FO3 unless you add "FalloutLauncher Replacer for Steam", even if you install the Steam version of FO3. It's possible that Windows 10 introduced some new limitations to the FO3 game engine, but I haven't tested this. Have you tried reducing the plugin count by merging some of the plugins with the "Merge Plugins" utility? It's in the guide but not discussed much since there haven't been any comments on plugin count related problems. If it looks like it is a problem when running Windows 10 some recommendations could be added to the guide on potential plugin merges. Plugins that don't have any Navmesh records or add new FormIDs are the easiest to merge. For example, the TWPC patches can be merged, a lot of the Additional Fix mods can be merged, and some of the other patch plugins can likely be merged. There is already a mod in the guide that merges a lot of the clothing plugins for Exeter clothing.

Here are the plugins in the main profile I currently use for FO3:

I'm thinking of expanding my post on weapon patches and adding it to the guide with a few examples. There are so many choices, all too often conflicting, in weapon features since the FO3 game engine doesn't include these. Some key weapon mod features from FO3 mods were added to the FNV engine itself, making weapon modding a lot easier. FO4 also added some weapon features to the engine, but I'm not sure they did it right. 20th century weapons was made optional partially because there are so many weapons already and it's so time consuming for a user to get the particular features they want.

In FO3, as I described in a recent post, there are a large set of choices in the features for each weapon. Some of the patches might not choose the selection you prefer, and the last patch loaded that affects the weapon wins. The large TWPC patch I use, (TWPC) DIFF3-RI-EVE-MMM-WMK-PRA-F3HMG-F3HF-20CWRE-Impact-UUF3P-FWE.esp , is the last patch that loads in my game and thus determines what weapons provide. The Wazer and A321 rifles, for example, do not have a scope when using this patch since they are based on the features of the EVE version. I'm not sure why the Drifter's rifle doesn't have all the FWE features. You can always write a patch plugin that loads last with your own choices, but it's quite tedious (and for many users, complicated) to do so with all the choices and options and all the possible weapons. If you only want to modify a few weapons, however, it is fairly easy. There is no simple answer that I am aware of.

You must have a lot of plugins from mods that are not in the guide. I have the guide plugins and some extras and I don't have anywhere near 210 plugins.

Are you running a game overlay program in the background such as the one from Nvidia or AMD? These cause many problems, as mentioned in the guide.

I've never had any problems with UIO adding the DarnUI fonts as long as it can detect that DarnUI is installed. I have no idea why the SPECIAL dialogue isn't working.

Which container objects in Springvale are these? Did you try containers elsewhere like the Nuka-cola dispensers or trash bins outsiide Super Duper Mart or containers in Megaton?

That sounds like a missing texture problem. It's possible that during installation some textures didn't get installed. MMM makes some changes to the raiders; if you installed this check to see if all the textures got installed properly for the main MMM mod and all the support mods listed in the guide.

The guide will be modified to make this clearer; getting the weapons mods setup in Fallout 3 is challenging because the game engine itself doesn't support some of the features that mod authors needed.

In case it helps for when you come back to Fallout 3, I'm using an AMD R9 card with the latest drivers. As MonoAccipeter mentioned, your Fallout series (both Fallout 3 and NV) are great. They are referenced in the Fallout 3 guide, of course.

I changed my system from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 a few months ago. I used the simple upgrade; I did't do a full reinstallation. So far I haven't had any problems with Windows 10. I haven't tried to do any particularly complex with Fallout 3 but I have been able to run the various utilities like xEdit, Wrye Flash, and LOOT. I have read of users having problems with various Bethesda games when updates were installed, but so far I haven't had this problem.

The instructions in the guide are correct: The eXcalibr mod includes both xCALIBR.esm and CALIBR.esm. The instructions only say to move CALIBR.esm to optional esps; xCALIBR.esm isn't mentioned and remains.The FWE mod includes CALIBR.esm; FWE does not include xCALIBR.esm.The 20th Century weapons mod includes CALIBR.esm, and the instructions say that it should not be installed.The "20th Century Wpns -Plus- Reborn for FWE 603-WMK for FWE-Calibrv14-eXcalibrv23" mod includes CALIBR.esm and the instruction say this plugin should be deleted.The version of CALIBR.esm used in the game is from FWE and the version of xCALIBR.esm used in the game is from eXcalibr - ammo eXpansion pack.

It's sometimes a bit complicated if Mod Organizer is being used to handle resource conflicts. For mods like USLEEP that overwrite vanilla resources and are installed early (low priority) there is no need to unpack BSAs. For mods that don't include resources that conflict with those from other mods that might be installed later (higher priority) there is no need to unpack BSAs. I can't think of any of Arthmoor's mods, for example, that aren't in this category; don't extract BSAs for Arthmoor's mods. If mod A has a BSA and mod B has a BSA and you want to have some (but not all) resources (e.g., textures, meshes) in the mod A BSA overwrite those in the mod B BSA, and at the same time you want some of the resources in the mod B BSA to overwrite the equivalent resources from mod A then these BSAs need to be extracted so Mod Organizer can provide the correct set of resources to the game engine. These kinds of conflicts don't happen very often, so in most cases it isn't necessary to extract the BSA. Moreover, most mods that are likely to have these kinds of conflicts with other mods provide their resources as loose files vs. BSAs.

FO3 was the first Bethesda Fallout game and weapon modifications were provided only by mods, and several mods took different approaches in providing these weapon modifications. Some mods don't allow modifications to unique weapons so they don't become overpowered and unbalanced. If you look in FO3Edit (xEdit) at the A3-21's Plasma Rifle you will see that several plugins provide changes to this weapon's records, and a number of the key record changes they make are incompatible with those from other mod plugins. The ingame result depends on which mods you included. I use the Wasteland Patches in my game which load last, and since it is the last loading plugin it determines the weapon properties. In any case you can add a patch plugin which loads at the very end, and you can change the weapon properties to whichever ones you want. Some of the record choices are independent of those for other records, such as the choice of Icon and the changes to support the Impact mod if it is used. For some of the records you will need to make sure your choices are consistent (e.g., all the various records that include the word "Model" and the DNAM flags). For these records it is typically best to choose the record values from one of the mod plugins. With the mods I have installed for this weapon I see five different choices in FO3Edit for the combinations of Model records and DNAM flags. Whatever choice you make you won't get all the possible features and you won't be able to choose among ingame weapon looks since these need to be compatible with the features.

This is a well known problem that has been mentioned multiple times in the Mator Utilities Support threads. A recent Mator post references his github site which includes mentions of some of his work on handling non-English languages.

I've been waiting to see whether the instructions have changed since DoubleYou evolved the SpINI app series into BethINI. BethINI is more capable than the old SpINI series; use it instead.

A post on Sept. 12, 2016 on the Nexus page for Inns and Taverns by winterlove provides the details on this. The existing ETaC patch for Inns and Taverns eliminates the compatibility issues except for a few minor problems (which can be fixed with a small manual patch if desired). The patch: removes the ETaC Karthwasten inn leaving only the Inns and Taverns inn (Pick and Shovel); andmoves the inn from Inns and Taverns in Stonehills so it doesn't conflict, resulting in two inns in Stonehills.There will also be two inns in Shor's Stone, one from ETaC and one from Inns and Taverns at opposite ends of the town. Once the modular version of Inns and Taverns is available if will be fairly easy to remove one or more of these three inns from Inns and Taverns if desired. There might even be a version of the Inns and Taverns mod that does this; otherwise Mator's Merge Plugins mod can be used with the modular inns to create a single plugin for the revised Inns and Taverns. The ETaC Nexus page has an excellent detailed description on the steps for merging plugins that include navmesh (NAVM) records.

It's good to leave it here since it's likely others might have the same problem. It's an easy and fairly common mistake to make especially since installing and configuring mods for any Bethesda game is quite complex. Should the should guide make this step more obvious?

Multiple posts have mentioned problems with the game overlay programs from both Nvidia and AMD. I haven't heard of any problems caused by the Steam overlay.