[SOLVED] July 15, 2016) Spiked pigeon and Le_Derp_Heavy: Upon starting a new game, the game near immediately crashes. (A SOLUTION IS AVAILABLE. A GOOGLE SEARCH IS REQUIRED!)

[SOLVED] September 28, 2016) MJOLNIRMARKFIVE: "I make it into the game however upon selecting New game the load screen starts the compas at the bottom rotates about 3 times and then I get the message of doom from windows 'Fallout 3 Has stopped working'"
Solution: "Downloading a d3d file and dropping it in my directory fixed the issue."

[SOLVED] July 3rd, 2018) Tractorguy: "When it shows "ONE YEAR LATER", after it shows that after some voices, the game crashes."

after nearly 7 years, i'm back! i had modded Fallout 3 off and on and have brought with me knowledge on some fixes and stability enhancements for you fine folks!


for those who don't want to try and mod Fallout 3, there is a solution: GOG

GOG sells Fallout 3: GOTY with a lot of the fixes i'll go over here pre-installed. it's also DRM free. this isn't an ad or anything, this is just the one i normally run just because of how easy it is to run compared to the Steam version


from here on out, you might have to get your hands a little dirty. for this, you'll need an account with Nexus Mods which is free (but you do have a download size limit).

first, download the mod Intel HD graphics Bypass package by Bren712. even though it's advertised as a mod for Intel iGPUs, it's actually incredibly helpful for ANY GPU. it also makes Fallout 3/NV run better on some Linux kernals.

extract the files to somewhere safe, then place d3d9.dll into Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 3

next, go to Documents/My Games/Fallout3 and drag FALLOUT.ini into the folder. alternatively, go to the existing one (if present) and edit. add under General:

bUseThreadedAI=1

iNumHWThreads=2


this is a file from a different website, ntcore. this is a simple program that patches any 32-bit program it is placed beside to use more than 2 GB of ram. THIS IS NOT REQUIRED IF YOU'RE USING THE GOG RELEASE, IT INCLUDES IT BY DEFAULT

download 4GB Patch from ntcore and extract the zipped folder. you should see 4gb_patch.exe. take this file and place it in Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 3. run the program and follow the prompts.

this fix alone should help out tremendously with crashes. this can be used with New Vegas as well (i even recommend it even more there as the game fails to dump interiors from ram, making a crash guaranteed after a certain amount of interior transitions)


this next fix MIGHT help things, especially if your CPU is being slammed. we're going back to Nexus for this (i know, it's annoying having to go back and forth. i wish it was not as tedious). it says it's for New Vegas but it applies to Fallout 3 as well. this fix specifically fixes issues with audio decoding and boosts performance while reducing the weight on your CPU's shoulders.

download Ogg Vorbis Libraries by KaneWright and extract. inside your Fallout 3 folder, make backups of libvorbis.dll and libvorbisfile.dll[/i]. next, move the files inside the folder you extracted to Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 3.

there is a chance this fix isn't needed anymore if on Steam, but it wouldn't hurt to try. if things seem worse, you'll have the backups

i hope this guide is pretty helpful. i know it really wasn't for the longest time but now, i'm actually good at typing more than 3 sentences! thanks education!

i wish i was able to link to all the mods but valve is a bit too LINK REMOVED happy these days. again, i hope this helped you get the most out of this horribly-aged port and make it playable! don't be afraid to comment any questions! :)