Logo New Vegas Rebuilt

Essentials

We now begin the first section of New Vegas Rebuilt. This covers essentials - script-extending utilities many mods rely on alongside bug fixes and performance improvements.

Manual Utilities

The following four utilities should be run manually before installing any other Collections. They act as an optimization base for everything else. They are not included within the Collections as you need to to follow the steps for each mod carfeully.

4GB Patcher

Installation instructions:

  1. Download the Main File - 4GB Patcher
  2. From the downloaded archive, extract the .exe file to the game's Root folder
  3. Right-click on FNVpatch.exe and select Run as administrator
  4. A command prompt window will open and should say FalloutNV.exe patched!
  5. Close the command prompt and a file named FalloutNV_backup.exe should appear in the game's Root folder
Makes the game large address aware, meaning it can use 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB.

This is required for both Steam & GOG users! The 4GB Patch included with the GOG release is obsolete as it lacks NVSE integration. Gopher's Collection includes this mod, but you'll still need to run it manually so you may as well do it before installing any Collections.

DXVK

Strongly recommended for big performance gains if your hardware supports Vulkan (it likely does). Check if your hardware supports it by downloading GPU-Z and checking the Advanced tab. Most graphics cards from 2016 onwards do. Please be aware that this still may not run as expected since Vulkan is designed for Linux systems, but I found it worked flawlessly and for many it's a free significant performance boost.

Installation instructions:

  1. Install and enable the Main File - DXVK
  2. In the Vortex Mods tab double click on DXVK, then on the right hand pane change the Mod Type to Engine Injector
  3. Click Deploy to ensure DXVK is placed in the correct Root folder
  4. If you have an nVidia GPU follow Wall_So GB's Performance Guide section about enabling Flip Model for maximum performance. You'll have to install OneTweak but really tweaked to to ensure this and also set fullScreen=0 in your Documents/My Games/Fallout NV/FalloutCustom.ini file so alt-tab works without freezing NV.
Massively optimises New Vegas performance by running Fallout through the Vulkan API. It has a much lower draw call overhead than Direct 3D 9, which is one of the main performance limiting factors in this game. On my setup it practically doubled my FPS from late 20s/early 30s up to 60s to a much more comfortable 45-60FPS average. Highly recommended especially for older PCs.

BSA Decompressor

Installation instructions:

IMPORTANT: Make sure you follow these instructions precisely or else you will end up with missing meshes in your game.
  1. Download the Main File - FNV BSA Decompressor and extract the contents of the archive anywhere outside of the default Windows folders
  2. From the extracted archive, run FNV BSA Decompressor.exe
  3. Under the Fallout: New Vegas header, click Browse and choose the location of your game's Root folder
  4. Click Decompress, wait for the process the finish, then exit the program once finished
  5. Go to your Documents/My Games/FalloutNV folder and open fallout.ini
  6. Press Ctrl + F and search for SArchiveList=
  7. Replace the existing line with the following:
  8. Repeat this for falloutCustom.ini
IMPORTANT: Make sure the new section is one line when pasted. It is likely these lines have already been set in both INIs, but your game will not function properly if they are not.
  1. Save and exit
Repackages the BSAs without zlib compression to increase performances and fixes certain sound effects not playing.

Ultimate Edition ESM Fixes

Installation instructions

  1. Download the Main File - Ultimate Edition ESM Fixes and extract the contents of the archive anywhere outside of the default Windows folders
  2. Click the second to last folder icon mo2 folder button along the top of Vortex in the Mods tab and select Open Mod Staging folder
  3. Create an empty folder called Fixed ESMs inside of the Mod Staging folder and note the directory. Close Vortex after doing this
  4. From the extracted Ultimate ESM Fixes archive, run Installer.exe
  5. Under the Fallout: New Vegas header, click Browse and choose the location of your game's Root folder
  6. Under the ESM Fixes header, click Browse and choose the Fixed ESMs folder you just created
  7. Click Install, wait for the process the finish, then exit the program once finished
  8. Reopen Vortex. A window will appear saying Mods changed on disk and you should now see it say Added:-"Fixed ESMs". Click Apply Changes
  9. Go to your Mods tab, search for Fixed ESMs and enable it
  10. Vortex will show a notification in the top right that Fixed ESMs contains multiple plugins. Click Enable all to ensure the fixed ESMs are loaded to replace the default game ones
Vortex will show the multiple plugins notification many times as you install mods that contain them. Ensure you click Enable All every time so these mods function as expected via their required plugins being enabled. Some are plugins specifically for Fallout 3/TTW/other mods not included in this guide, so if you see a Missing Masters error notification in the top right, click the More button to investigate and determine if you require that plugin or not. You can enable and disable plugins as required on the Plugins page accessible on the left hand pane of Vortex.
Optimises and fixes thousands of records across the base game and DLC ESM files to increase performance and stability.
From now on, you should run the game through the Play button on New Vegas in Vortex. This ensures the game runs as expected with your mods and xNVSE loaded.

Collection 1a/10 (Utilities): Gopher's Stable New Vegas

This was the starting point for my modding journey. Gopher's Collection primarily includes various script extension tools many other mods rely on. Installing this Collection first will install the below 7 mods automatically alongside the 4GB Patcher you already ran.

Mod Limit Fix

Installation instructions:

Raises the game's file handles limit and improves performance/load times, even if you are far below it.

JIP LN NVSE Plugin

Installation instructions:

NVSE extension with new functions and many engine bug fixes.

JohnnyGuitar NVSE

Installation instructions:

Another NVSE extension similar to JIP LN.

yGTM - Gameplay Tweaks and Madness

Installation instructions:

Another NVSE extension similar to JIP LN restoring funtions that enhance some mods.

New Vegas Tick Fix

Installation instructions:

Works to fix micro-stuttering, improve performance, and allow playing at higher framerates.
In order for this mod to work properly, make sure you installed the DirectX and VC++ requirements from the Introduction page.

Yukichigai Unofficial Patch

Installation instructions:

Fixes thousands of bugs with both the base game and DLCs.

Unofficial Patch NVSE Plus

Installation instructions:

Fixes many bugs like YUP, but takes advantage of NVSE and JIP LN.

lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes

Installation instructions:

Collection of many configurable quality of life improvements/bug fixes. Settings can be further enabled/disabled/tweaked in the new Tweaks section added to the main menu.
Vortex will show you a 'Some mods are redundant' notification after installing the Essentials INI as it replaces the blank placeholder Stewie Tweaks INI installed via Gopher's Stable New Vegas. You can safely click 'Disable suggested'. You will recieve a 'Some mod dependencies are not fulfilled' warning in the corner for Gopher's Stable New Vegas after this which you can ignore. The Stewie Essentials INI makes the blank Stewie Tweaks INI no longer required.

Utilities Testing

  1. Restart your PC (Otherwise some plugins will print out 0)
  2. Launch the game via Vortex as previously described (the play button on New Vegas card image in the top left)
  3. If you see a black console window appear, it means NVHR is working
    • If not, NVHR is installed incorrectly
  4. Once the game has reached the main menu, hit the ~ key (Above the tab key) to open the console
    • You will need to unplug/disconnect any controllers to be able to use the keyboard
  5. Enter GetNVSEVersion, and the console should print NVSE version: 6
    • If not, xNVSE is installed incorrectly
  6. Next, enter GetIsLAA, and the console should print GetIsLAA >> 2
    • If it prints >> 0, then the 4GB Patch was applied incorrectly
    • If it prints an error message, then JIP LN NVSE is installed incorrectly
  7. Next, enter GetINISetting "bUseThreadedAI:General" and the console should print INISetting bUseThreadedAI:General >> 1
  8. Next, enter IsDLLLoaded CobbCrashLogger, and the console should print IsDLLLoaded "CobbCrashLogger.dll" >> 1
  9. Next, enter IsDLLLoaded NVTF, and the console should print IsDLLLoaded "nvtf.dll" >> 1
    • If not, then NVTF is installed incorrectly
  10. Next, enter IsDLLLoaded mlf, and the console should print IsDLLLoaded "mlf.dll" >> 1

Collection 1b-c/10: Essentials

This is the first Collection for this guide. It adds many bug fixes, performance enhancers and further utilities designed to extend Gopher's Stable New Vegas. It also includes some HUD upscaling mods.

Asterra's Many Fixes

Installation instructions:

Bug fixes and vanilla-enhancing tweaks covering areas overlooked in other bug fix mods.

Aqua Performa Strip Performance Fix

Installation instructions:

Drastically improves performance on The Strip by getting rid of water LOD.

Bathroom Doors Fix

Installation instructions:

Replaces windowed bathroom doors with solid ones.

Clean Vanilla Hud

Installation instructions:

Adds super clean, minimal, immersive minimap icons.

Collision Meshes

Installation instructions:

An older mod refining poor collision meshes i.e. shoot through car windows, towers, railings etc.

Combat Lag Fix (NVSE)

Installation instructions:

Improves framerate in combat by fixing an engine bug that lowered framerate while attacking an enemy with a health-bar visible.

Consistent Pip-Boy Icons

Installation instructions:

Thousands of Pip-Boy icons re-made from scratch in HD along with many bug fixes.

Console Paste Support

Installation instructions:

Adds Ctrl+V as a hotkey to paste into the in-game console, along with a few other helpful shortcuts.

Crash Logger

Installation instructions:

A DLL that logs raw crash data.

Distributed Necklaces and Chains

Installation instructions:

Randomly distributes (visual only) necklaces and chains to NPCs covering visible neck seams.

Elegant Lockpick Retexture

Installation instructions:

Replaces lockpick textures with Fallout 4 ones.

Elijah Voice Audio Files Fix

Installation instructions:

Fixes audio glitches in Elijah's voice during Dead Money.

Extended Roombounds (exRB)

Installation instructions:

Changes roombounds around interior cells for a performance boost.

Extinguished Fire Barrels

Installation instructions:

Replaces the fire effect in barrels with smoke for performance on lower-end PCs. Fire is one of the bigger FPS drop causes in the Gamebryo engine.

Fog-based Object Culling

Installation instructions:

Culls objects obscured by red fog in Dead Money for massive performance gains.

FOV Slider

Installation instructions:

Adds an FOV slider option to the MCM menu you'll set up in HUD. I'd recommend setting your FOV to 80 otherwise first person feels claustrophobic.

High Res Local Maps

Installation instructions:

Increases the resolution of local maps to a configurable target resolution.

High Resolution Screens

Installation instructions:

Increases the render resolution of in-game screens (Pipboy, terminals, character creation menu) to match game's screen resolution.

High Resolution Water Fog - Water Aliasing Fix

Installation instructions:

Renders water to your screen resolution instead of 512x512 to improve aliasing. May have a performance impact as water is performance-intensive in Gamebryo.

Improved Lighting Shaders

Installation instructions:

Fixes engine-level lighting bugs and allows for 4x the normal amount of active lights.

Installation instructions:

Fixes navmeshes.

New Vegas Heap Replacer

Installation instructions:

  1. Download the Main File - NVHR using the Manual Download button
  2. From the downloaded archive, extract everything to the game's Root folder
Replaces the game's heap management system with a much faster version, which can lead to large performance gains.

New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod

Installation instructions:

Optimizations and fixes for over one thousand meshes throughout the base game and DLCs.

No Muzzle Flash Lights

Installation instructions:

Disables the lights cast by muzzle flashes, which can greatly improve performance in combat.
This mod does not disable the actual muzzle flashes, but rather the lights the muzzle flashes cast on the environment. It also only disables the effect for NPCs by default, but that can be configured via the included INI file. See the mod's screenshots for details. Like any mod in the guide, it can be skipped if you like the effect and don't mind the performance hit.

Ogg Vorbis Libraries

Installation instructions:

Updates Ogg Vorbis Libraries for performance.

Pipboy 4k

Installation instructions:

Upscaled Pip-Boy textures.
Whilst this guide generally recommends avoiding 4k textures to maximize performance, since you'll be looking at your Pip-Boy a lot 4k is acceptable. This mod offers no 2k option.

Pip-Boy Mesh Fix

Installation instructions:

Fixes Pip-Boy's broken default mesh (visible holes when looking at the sky).

Pip-Boy Shading Fix NVSE

Installation instructions:

Fixes Pip-Boy's shading, making it not ignore lights around it.

SmoothLight Pip Boy Light Enhancer ScriptRunner

Installation instructions:

Extends and smoothens your Pipboy light so it’s more useful with the above mod. You can open its single .txt file to customise the light range and colour as you prefer. These are my personal settings:

ShowOff NVSE

Installation instructions:

NVSE plugin adding new functions and engine-level tweaks & bugfixes.

Strip Lights Region Fix

Installation instructions:

Resolves the lights of the Strip not being visible from certain map regions.
You’ll have to install several compatibility patches for other mods in the other Collections throughout this guide. Make sure the Strip Lights Region Fix patch plugins are installed after Strip Lights Region Fix and its relevant mod in your Plugins tab.

Throwable Weapon Fixes

Installation instructions:

Miscellaneous bug fixes and tweaks for throwable weapons.

Upscaled New Vegas Worldmaps

Installation instructions:

Upscaled world maps.

Vanilla Loading Screens HD

Installation instructions:

Upscaled loading screens.

Vendor Containers Respawn Fix - Simple Edition

Installation instructions:

Resolves vendor item respawns not functioning consistently.

Minor Bug Fixes

The below mods fix self-explanatory minor bugs. Download the single Main File for each of these mods.

Performance and Stability Guide

The NVTF Section is mandatory if you play at resolutions higher than 1080p or plan on adding custom textures.
In-depth guide about how to fix the game's lackluster performance, display issues and alt-tabbing.
Covers topics such as DXVK, framerate limiting, fullscreen & windowed modes, lag and HDR.