Can't continue installing mods without getting a crash

[GlassWizzard]

Hi, I'm following the guide and have reached approximately the point of installing WMK. However if I enable any more mods I get a crash. I installed WMK, Plasma Rifle Awsomified, RH Iron Sights, 20th century weapons and EVE but I can't enable them without getting a crash, even if  just enable one, although sometimes the game will actually start with Plasma Rifle Awsomified enabled.

 

Sometimes it's an immediate crash, sometimes the music will actually start, if that happens then I'll see a small red lie in the bottom middle of the screen as though I took damage in game, very strange.

 

Any way, I have no idea how to trouble shoot this and was hoping someone would help me out, I've been at this for days lol.

 

Thanks

 

Edit: After the installation of each mod I started the game up to see if the game worked but I didn't load a save, I just let the menu load, which was a mistake because I just tried to load an old game (and start a new one) with this setup so far (everything up to but not including WMK is enabled) and the game crashes immediately despite the main menu loading up fine. Any files that have missing masters have been disabled so that's not the issue (I think).

Edited December 7, 2015 by GlassWizzard

[Kelmych]

It sounds like you are having game stability problems. What are your hardware system characteristics? Are you using ENBoost? Have you done any performance testing to see if you are getting close to the VRAM limits for your system (this is unusual in FO3 since it is less demanding than newer games).

[GlassWizzard]

Here are my specs.

 

I am using ENBoost, and I REALLY doubt my vram is filling up, I have 4gb of the stuff. Besides the game crashes before there is a chance for things to be loaded.

 

I don't know if this is useful information or not but I might as well tell you, I can get the game working and successfully loading my old saves and starting new games if (starting from the end of the mod list, WMK so far) I untick all the mods right up to and including the citadel retextured. So all the first mods upto NMC's texture pack work fine using 1.8gb of vram.

 

I have followed every single step of the guide to the letter, this is my second attempt at following it.

 

Edit:

 

 

I can get the game working and successfully loading my old saves and starting new games if (starting from the end of the mod list, WMK so far) I untick all the mods right up to and including the citadel retextured.

This only sometimes works.

Edited December 8, 2015 by GlassWizzard

[Himself]

Try remove/disable ENB just to see how it goes. It may be indication that your ENB needs some tunning, ENB can be tricky (since it has many options and different setups for AMD and Nvidia cards). There is a link to an ENB section into the guide with more info.

 

Loading an old save (pre-mod or another mod setup) can be tricky too since that save relies on information being ABC and a change in mod setup may have that info turn to XYZ instead, leading to instant AND/OR long-term problems.

This can be discarded when you're installing mods that dont provide additional 'information' to the game (like re-textures without meshes).

 

Also try going only for the CORE mods (I even skip some like flashlight) and those that seem indispensable, most of the non-core can be installed/added later on with just a few tweaks (if any) needed. Since we nowadays have better PCs everyone is probably going to add everything thats in the list, wich IMO is the wrong approach.

 

Try a 99% flawless core first. Altough the guide can be followed that way, its not enforced or optimized for that. Solving post-core conflicts gets easier as extra-mods only need be "retrofited" to fit in the core or to solve issues with other extra-mods.

 

Hope it helps!

Edited December 8, 2015 by Himself

[GlassWizzard]

I did try installing everything in the list, I thought that was the point.

 

ENBoost doesn't seem to be causing any issues, but I've disabled it.

 

I'm not too sure what you mean by core mods, I only see core fixes. But if I enable everything from the first mod up to FWE Talon Loot Fix the game loads up fine.

[Himself]

"I think" you can always turn ENB on again after you've everything done and already tested it for a few 10-20 mins and game seems ok.

 

Some mods have Core in their description -displayed under the name&link- at the guide.

UPDATED Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch

Core 

 

Many other mods are optional or just textures/meshes and etc, some of the mods you have to choose (like male body replacement to use).

 

I did try installing everything in the list, I thought that was the point.

 

Theoretically yes, but it takes a bit of practice and some trial to sort problems, like you did with enabling/disabling mods.

When you have problems (# of mods increases problem chance), go for the core and build from there. If you're familiar with FO3, some optional mods are pretty much core.. never saw anyone playing without MMM or EVE.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Himself

[Kelmych]

I did try installing everything in the list, I thought that was the point.

Yes. It's a good idea to make MO profiles after installing one or more groups of mods so you can more easily test for problems. The guide has been tested with all the mods installed, but of course users may prefer to leave some out, 

 

ENBoost doesn't seem to be causing any issues, but I've disabled it.

 

I'm not too sure what you mean by core mods, I only see core fixes. But if I enable everything from the first mod up to FWE Talon Loot Fix the game loads up fine.

I don't recommend installing only the core mods.  Core mods in this guide are not quite the same as those in the STEP Skyrim guide. Core mods in the FO3 guide are ones that provide important capabilities (e.g., the game configuration menu in FWE) or affect other mods that get loaded (e.g., many weapon/armor mods use stats based on FWE for consistency). There aren't many mods labelled as Core since the expectation is that users will likely leave out a few non-Core mods. It's better to install the mods in groups as this, and other, STEP guides typically provide. The UI mods are especially important to install as a group.

 

You might have a corrupt mod file; those can be hard to find unfortunately. When I have problems like this I usually use different MO profiles, each with an increasing number of mods, to help determine the problem.

[GlassWizzard]

I found the problem! For some strange reason the UHQ texture pack causes my game to crash when I load my save. Any ideas how to solve this? I mean I don't mind not using it, but I'd like to see if it's fixable. Shall I do a simple reinstall of the mod?

 

Apart from that mod I now have all core mods enabled as well as all the mods from the beginning of the guide right up to the talon loot fix plus five or six more, I think I got it sorted now :)

 

Edit: Nope for some reason the set up that I got working yesterday doesn't work today. This is impossible for me to troubleshoot as the crash is not consistent, it seems random and not related to the mods I select. UHQ seems to be in the clear for this reason.

 

Edit 2 : And now it works again lol. Isn't there a log somewhere I can look at to see what may be causing this?

 

Edit 3: Can I add Fellout to this setup? Would th replace dynamic weather or work with it? I REALLY need dark nights.

 

Edit 4: UHQ does cause an instant crash.

Edited December 9, 2015 by GlassWizzard

[Himself]

You can try re-download UHQ to fix any possible corruption.

 

If it stlll crashes you can attempt to insert UHQ by parts (1 folder at a time, dunno the exact procedure in MO but I guess that setting folders to "hide" will cause the game to ignore those folders, so in MO hide everything from UHQ and go un-hiding until you find the crash source), and if/when you find the exact folder/file that is causing it, try to fix or remove it. 

 

Alternatively you can try to use DDSopt for the textures of that mod (refer to guide section of Fallout DDS optimizing), though I dunno if that could fix the issue.

 

Inserting content by parts is how I usually try to fix most of my issues. Repairing or editing a given file takes knowing that file structure and how it applies to the game, so its again more work =]

 

Edit: Just to comment that, after start playing when I die or load a save (even going to main menu for load) sometime causes things to behave strange/erratically for reasons completely beyond understanding (guess the engine IS BAD). So I often have to exit the game and re-launch, that seems to fix. If anything thats an incentive to staying alive and doing things right the first time around, LoL.

 

Edit2: If you just want the dark nights, try the file attached (change extension to .ESP, load as close to the end as possible), dunno where I got it initially, been sitting in my old FO3 data folder for years.

There are other mods/plugins wich attempt to darken the nights, but this one seems pretty basic.

Changing to Fellout would 'probably' require removing the dynamic weather mod and maybe enhanced weather too, but lets see if kelmych has something else to say.

Night Only - INTENSE.txt

Edited December 9, 2015 by Himself

[GlassWizzard]

I've given up on trying to follow the guide, even going for a core build was insanely unstable. Unstable with nonsensical random crashes and texture bugs to which the process of elimination can not be applied to determine where the errors are.

 

I'll just do what I usually do, go to nexus, download a hundred cool mods, then install them randomly. I have a 99% success rate doing that and the game is usually not buggy or glitchy, but this guide? Man there is no hope for it.

 

I spent a whole week trying and beginning the guide from the beginning over and over again, I'll just accept that there's something about it and my pc that don't mix.

 

Thanks for that ESP that will be very handy :)

[GlassWizzard]

For anyone having this same problem here is how I solved it. I am now running a stable game with almost 300 mods.

 

I first followed this guide to build a stable base (he forgets to include the DCInteriors MMM patch however), then I went through the Clear and Present Danger guide adding almost everything, except RH-IronSights, 20th century weapons and most of the other gun mods (zealots etc).

 

Hope that helps anyone in the same boat as I was.

[Kelmych]

The guide you mention has a lot of mods in common with the FO3 guide here; I have problems with some of the choices it makes. As an example Fellout hasn't been maintained since 2010 and has conflicts with a lot of FO3 mods (e.g., based on posts in many forums it won't work reliably with FWE which is also in that guide). Using FOMM doesn't allow backing out resource file changes added by mods; Mod Organizer allows this so I greatly prefer it although it harder to use. I prefer DarNUI to MTUI. Busworld isn't very robust; I tried it and it crashed a lot. Some of the mods in that guide aren't included in C&PD because the C&PD guide intentionally leaves out some types of mods; the intent of the C&PD guide is to have a stable base to which these mods can be added.

 

Are there any mods you use that you think should be added to the C&PD guide?

[GlassWizzard]

The guide you mention has a lot of mods in common with the FO3 guide here; I have problems with some of the choices it makes. As an example Fellout hasn't been maintained since 2010 and has conflicts with a lot of FO3 mods (e.g., based on posts in many forums it won't work reliably with FWE which is also in that guide). Using FOMM doesn't allow backing out resource file changes added by mods; Mod Organizer allows this so I greatly prefer it although it harder to use. I prefer DarNUI to MTUI. Busworld isn't very robust; I tried it and it crashed a lot. Some of the mods in that guide aren't included in C&PD because the C&PD guide intentionally leaves out some types of mods; the intent of the C&PD guide is to have a stable base to which these mods can be added.

 

Are there any mods you use that you think should be added to the C&PD guide?

Not really no, the only reason I followed that other guide first was because anything else caused a crash, I'm thinking about totally removing all mods and trying again to get C$PD to work.

 

One mod I do like is Asharas Character Presets, which I personally would always add no matter what guide I was following. Oh and Enhanced Shaders! Gotta love Enhanced Shaders, since there doesn't seem to be any good ENB's for FO3.

Edited December 26, 2015 by GlassWizzard