Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition

Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition

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All Fixes for Fallout 3 On Windows 10
By V
All fixes for Fallout 3 not running/crashing on Windows 10 compiled into one guide.
   
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Method 1
Go to Nexus Mods and find, "Intel HD Graphics Bypass Package," under Fallout 3. While it says Intel Graphics, this also works for AMD.
Once you've downloaded it, navigate to your Fallout 3 local files (Found in properties after right clicking Fallout 3 in your library) and move the d3d9.dll file from the bypass package into your Fallout folder. After that, go to documents>my games>Fallout 3, and then drag the Fallout document into that folder, and replace the old Fallout document.

This is one of the most common fixes for Fallout 3 crashing after the launcher.
Method 2
Go to your Fallout 3 local files, right click the Fallout 3 executable file, go to properties, and under the compatibility tab, run the game with the Windows XP compatibility mode.
Method 3
Follow the steps in method 2, except this time instead of running the game in compatibility mode, tick the run as administrator box.
Method 4
In file explorer, search for falloutprefs.ini, right click on it, and choose open file location.
After finding it, open it in notepad and find bUseThreadedAI=0 and change the 0 to a 1. If bUseThreadedAI=0 is not there, then just add bUseThreadedAI=1 yourself.
Method 5
Find Fallout Anniversary Patcher on Nexus Mods and download it.
To install it, unpack the contents of the archive to Fallout 3 folder and run Patcher.exe. After doing this a black console box should show up which will tell you if there was any error during the installation. Once it's done, you can run Fallout 3, but don't use FOSE loader to run it.
You can also find a video guide for this installation here
Closing Out
Those were all of the methods necessary after the 2021 patch. If you look for methods online, you may see a method telling you to install games for windows live, while this would've been required a few years ago, after the 2021 patch the dependency on gfwl was patched out.

And as a final suggestion, as with any game, always make sure your driver is up to date.
8 Comments
pspence11 17 Jul, 2023 @ 12:15pm 
Buy from Good Old Games GOG. Everything just mentioned GOG fixed. It works out of the box. They didn't update the game in 2021. It's 1.7.0.3. Besides you can download the whole game onto your hard drive. You never have to deal with Steam ever again. Same for Skyrim AE.
V  [author] 20 Apr, 2023 @ 5:10am 
glad to hear it! :)
Agent Smith 19 Apr, 2023 @ 11:02pm 
Thanks for this, these solutions fixed everything for me!
pedro.santos53@hotmail.com 18 Apr, 2023 @ 8:48pm 
i went into my fallout 3 ini file in my documents folder and changed iFPSClamp=144 (my monitor refresh rate) which seemed to fix it
V  [author] 17 Apr, 2023 @ 10:01am 
ah alright, wasn't aware of that fix, will add it now. as for the 10x speed thing, did you try limiting fps to 60?
pedro.santos53@hotmail.com 17 Apr, 2023 @ 9:09am 
also, these fixes didn't work for me, but downgrading a version helped: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/24913

unfortunately, the game runs at like 10x speed, making it unplayable. ended up installing tale of two wastelands instead, but the mod pool is limited
V  [author] 15 Apr, 2023 @ 5:24am 
right, its why they don't have achievements too lol, games so broken and they don't want to bother fixing it for achievements
pedro.santos53@hotmail.com 15 Apr, 2023 @ 4:39am 
the fact you have to do this and they still sell the game on steam lol