Fallout 3 / New Vegas 0.237

[ENBSeries]

Then it's not because of last changes in the mod. Drivers, their default setting after update or you did something to them.

[Billy1969]

Then it's not because of last changes in the mod. Drivers, their default setting after update or you did something to them.

Ok thanks, I'll concentrate on the drivers then, I might have changed something to test stuff, I'll keep you informed if I find out what it is so other users can avoid having the same problem, if I find the cause I'll post it here

[DragonWrath]

Then it's not because of last changes in the mod. Drivers, their default setting after update or you did something to them.

Ok thanks, I'll concentrate on the drivers then, I might have changed something to test stuff, I'll keep you informed if I find out what it is so other users can avoid having the same problem, if I find the cause I'll post it here

I'm using the latest ENB and nVidia drivers (331.81), everything is at default in the driver (did a clean install awhile back and haven't changed ANY driver settings since so it's pure default). I haven't tried it with fallout 3, however I can tell you that with Fallout New Vegas it works and loads perfectly fine. So if there is a problem, it's localized to Fallout 3 or something in your settings.

DragonWrath
Well, welcome to ENB!

Now before I start answering your questions in total, I'll preface this with this: I'm very experienced with Skyrim ENB and have only dabbled in Fallout 3 a little (game never grabs me) and I don't even own NV. However, in this respect at least, Skyrim and Fallout ENB's are very very similar (perhaps even the same?). So, on to your questions.

The proper formula for your system would be option 1. However, if for some reason that doesn't work (CTD's, ILS, massive frame stutter, a drop in fps, etc.) go with option 2. If there's still an issue go with 3. Options 2 and 3 are primarily for, and someone correct me if I'm wrong (Boris?), 32-bit OS. You have a x64 so go with Option 1.

The ReservedMemorySizeMb is based on your actual, physical VRAM. However, as I've seen with Skyrim, sometimes even with more than 2gb of VRAM, 256 works better. So, in your case, go with 256, maybe even 128 if you're having any issues. That parameter reserves a certain amount of VRAM for... umm... well, I forget why, but the memory is reserved (i.e. not used for normal purposes) so if you don't have a bunch to spare, don't reserve too much. So go 256.

For the final one, I believe you have to set it to false. Some of the more experienced FO enb users can answer that more definitively. Skyrim has a bit different method so I'm just not 100% sure. Logically, though, that would seem to be the case (based on my looking at the files briefly).

I hope that was helpful and should at least get you started on the right path. As I said, I'm more familiar with Skyrim, so any Fallout ENB users can correct anything I said here, but I've given the info as I know it.

Cheers!

Thanks for the welcome and all the information you provided . I did as you suggested and found that using the first setting works great on my end so far (got about another 5-10 FPS boost), now switching to the 256mb for reserved memory and trying it again to see how that does (hopefully even better). I noticed that my VRAM was constantly 950-1024 last night with the 512 reserved, so I'm reducing it to 256 and will let you know how that goes in a few hours!

@Jafin,

Skyrim has a evolved (bethesda altered) Gamebryo engine so it's definitely different from the Fallout Gamebryo engine.
It has much more state of the art functionality even if the core is derived from the same engine.
The scripting engine is also a separate one in Skyrim and is no longer integrated into the gameengine to improve stability.

But i don't know what that does in relation to ENB, but i don't play SKyrim and i only play Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas,
so i can tell DragonWrath my experience with it.

@DragonWrath,

Just set the VideoMemorySizeMb= to the amount of VRAM that is on your vidcard.

I currently play with these settings and it works very good;
This is what i have understood as to what the settings mean.

[MEMORY]
ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true - Defrag/Memory optimization (the process can allocate greater size of memory blocks, if required)
ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true - Enable ENBBoost Memory manager (reduce CTD's)
DisableDriverMemoryManager=true - Disable Original video drivers memory management ( i use AMD and need to set this to true otherwise i get temporary freezes)
DisablePreloadToVRAM=false - When set "true" can give faster cell load times as geometry/textures are not loaded into video memory until visible.
EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=true - Workaround mode for users experiencing large amount of stutter, typically systems with large amount of VRAM (4GB+) (for testing only)
ReservedMemorySizeMb=512 - Buffer for memory/VRAM swapping
VideoMemorySizeMb=3072 - Amount of VRAM (can be changed to lower values if performance is not with full VRAM)

you can probably set it like this with NVidia;

[MEMORY]
ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true
ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true
DisableDriverMemoryManager=false
DisablePreloadToVRAM=false
EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false
ReservedMemorySizeMb=512
VideoMemorySizeMb=(whatever your VRAM size is)

I don't know the code behind it, so i don't understand what precisely happens, so i could be wrong,
but this is what i've come to understand in the last few days after searching and asking some questions.

It could be that it's wise to not have two memory managment functions active at the same time (just guessing here),
so incase of poor performance, set DisableDriverMemoryManager=true.

Just mess with it a bit, the important thing to remember is that the ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true enables the ENB memory manager.
So to make use of the ENBBoost function this needs to be at true.

There is 1 more setting, the compression setting, i have it at true, cause i do not notice a difference in performance,
so i guess it's better to compress the data with the same performance cause that means i can load more data, i play with a lot of high res textures.

Hello Marc (hope you don't mind me calling you that for short). My original setting had my VRAM at 1024 and I still wasn't getting great performance. It was much better than before I started using ENBoost, but not spectacular aka constant 45-60fps, it bosted the average in populated/heavy areas from 20-25 to 30-35, reduced load time and load time stutter, made it much smoother, etc. I'm still tweaking because I want to see just how high I can get my average FPS (35-45 seems to be the rough average). While I greatly appreciate that you took the time to try and help me, your post however, unfortunately, is ultimately unhelpful for me. I mean no offense to what I'm about to say so please do not take any offense. The reason your post is very unhelpful for me are as follows:
[*] You answered questions I didn't ask and/or already knew and understood
[*] None of the questions I did ask were actually answered. You told me to just put 1024 for my VRAM setting, but you didn't explain why and you completely ignored the all information about the formula which is what I was actually asking about, not how much ram to put in but rather the formulas and how to tell which to use, and so on which was the entire basis of that particular question.
[*] The settings you list are the default I had gotten (and used first) by the "Enb Calculator". I had it previously to 512 reserved and 1024 for VRAM and in the test area I chose for new vegas, I was getting about 30fps with those settings. When I changed it to just the VRAM to 7168, I gained about 5-10 fps on average (one moment it's up at 40 then the next it's hovering around 35, then back up to around 40).
[*] Everything that you listed and talked about was covered in detail on the Memory Quotes page and the Skyrim ENBoost wiki page on the S.T.E.P. forums.
[*] What may work best for your ATI card, may not for my card as it is an nVida card which uses very different processes and has very different way of doing things that can achieve a similar outcome (example being they both do AA, but in very different ways and have 2 very different AA types). It's why some games just flat out play better on nVidia or ATI (recent example being Tomb Raider, nVidia cards have a harder time with it while ATI cards had very little problems).

I do however, appreciate you taking the time to respond and try to help me out. If you can actually help shed light on some of the nuance questions I asked such as how to completely disable all shader and effects so that -only- the ENBoost is running, I would very much appreciate that.

Ok, sorry the post is SO long, however, I do have some more questions (well 1) so I'll make it short and sweet. I couldn't find any specific information about this except for 2 settings.

[*] Q: What settings should I change in my options besides turning AA and AF off? Should I turn off/change shadows to minimum, max it. Any other settings besides AA and AF that I should change at all?

Appreciate the help and the time people are taking to respond to my post. Thank you! (that includes you Marcurios, I still appreciate the fact that you took the time to reply).

DragonWrath

[Marcurios]

Yeah, i didn't read very well, i was tired and the post was lenghty, i just spewed some stuff i learned because you said you where new to ENB.
I always like short and sweet by the way, to the point..

i believe this is a version that has only the boost function, no graphic effects in here.
http://www.enbdev.com/enbseries_fallout ... nboost.zip

if you use this version, i believe you can use it with AA and AF on, but i'm not sure, you need to ask Boris if that is possible.
And normally with the graphic ENB you need to disable AA, AF and water displacement.

You can also use the latest version with Graphic effects and press Shift-F12 when the game runs, it shuts off all shaders.
But with this version you need to disable AA and AF and Water Displacement for sure.
Again, for the Boost only dll you have to ask Boris if you need to disable them..

Turn shadows off when you use the ENB with graphics effects and use detailed shadows from ENB, that's much better, turn them on when you play with ENB boost .203 only.

And from what i understood the Vram setting needs to be set at your VRAM amount that is on your card or lower.
I tried higher then my VRAM is and i always get worse performance.
But hey, i'm no ENB guru or something so i could be all wrong, ask around a bit.

the Ram/Vram swap function is a question of searching for a good value i guess, but i always leave it at default.
But you read the information which you slapped me around my ears with, so you should know that it said 512 for 2GB as a baseline,
but 256 could work better but needs testing.
You probably want to try a bit lower and test it out, see what works best for you.
I don't know if it is reserved in RAM or VRAM or both, again, you need to ask Boris for what's best there.

[Billy1969]

Well, been testing a lot and I can safely conclude it's not a driver problem. Made a clean install of the latest WHQL driver and the three others predating it and while every version of enb before 0.237 everything runs fine while with the latter I always get the crash to desktop upon initializing the enb problem.

So, that leaves me with an internal Fallout 3 problem/conflict or a shader problem, since that is what was changed from 0.232 to 0.237 I am more inclined to think it might be the shader thing, When I installed my new 770 gtx, Fallout 3 assigned shader package 13 to it, is that correct?

Edit: I also use a brand new 144hz monitor as my main screen, but I wouldn't think that might cause a problem for a shader problem I have?

[ENBSeries]

Billy1969
If you don't have crapware running, then try 0.232 version, i heard complains many times that previous version worked fine and only new won't run and almost always old version do not work too.

[ENBSeries]

Version updated, download again
Removed landscape shaders patch

[Marcurios]

@Boris,

All of a sudden just out of nowhere my shadows became superdark, especially closeby.
Do you know how this can happen ?

If i try .237, .232, .230, and .216 now (the ones i have on my disk) the shadows are like black.
The .194, .190 and .173 CTD with me so i would know what they do if i could try them.
But if i try .161 everything is allright again.

The strangest thing is, everything was working perfectly up till yesterday, i didn't change anything,
didn't install new software or drivers or whatever, it just happened when i restarted my game all of a sudden.
But the strange thing is, is that all the newer versions have it all of a sudden, but the .161 doesn't..

i don't understand it at all, maybe you have an idea ?
I only have it with Fallout 3 by the way, New Vegas is still okay.
I'll mess with my ini files a bit, compare them to my New Vegas files.

[ENBSeries]

Listen, it's not of my business, latest version is same as 0.232, i'm in very bad mood already and won't read any compains as all of them are not objective and what the fuck is going on i don't want to research. Mod is fine, period.

[Bael]

Dragonwrath. Your first formula is the one to go with. Total RAM both GPU and System minus 2048. You can play within the number and I beleive it was mentioned, deep within one of the skyrim updates, that it's only good to 8-10 gig. I have mine running at 10240 and have little issues. Minor stuttering, but that's more to my textures and the fact I can't decide which companion I like most so I travel with many and between their textures and their armor textures it's a system hit.

The 512 is for the GPU RAM.

As for the rest of your questions. I do not know. I would suggest contacting one of the more helpful ENB preset authors and see if they wouldn't mind enlightening you.