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PREPARATION

Before deep diving into modding, it’s essential to start with a clean and non-pirated Fallout: New Vegas (FNV) installation and a stable system environment. While the game itself is over 15 years old and its vanilla requirements are modest, a modded setup can place significantly more strain on low-end systems.

As a baseline, you should have at least:

  • 8 GB of RAM,
  • an SSD (strongly recommended),
  • and a CPU and GPU roughly equivalent to a mid-range system from the past decade or newer.

VC++ Redistributables

VC++ Redistributables are runtime libraries published by Microsoft that contain the compiled code for common C++ standard library functions, on which most modding tools rely. By installing the AIO package, you ensure you have the right version installed and won’t encounter crashes on game launch or when using certain modding tools.

  1. Extract the zip-archive
  2. Run the install_all.bat (as administrator)
  3. Restart your PC to complete the installation

Disable Base Address Randomization

Base Address Randomization is a Windows security feature that loads executables and DLLs at randomized memory addresses every time a process starts, rather than fixed/predictable ones. Disabling this setting prevents Windows from forcibly randomizing memory addresses for applications that weren’t designed for it, which can otherwise break certain modding hooks.

  1. Open Windows Security
  2. Open App & Browser Control
  3. Open Exploit Protection Settings
  4. Make sure Force randomization for images (Mandatory ASLR) is set to Use default (off)

Fallout New Vegas Installation

Uninstalling FNV

A clean installation is strongly recommended to make sure no leftover files from previous modding attempts can cause issues, and to guarantee the game is installed in a safe location. A safe location means avoiding Windows default directories such as Program Files, as well as folders managed by services like OneDrive, which can silently overwrite or restore files.
Whether you’re using Steam or GOG, start by uninstalling the game through your library. Then manually delete any remaining files in the installation directory (e.g. steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas), as well as the Documents\My Games\FalloutNV folder.

Installing FNV

Install or reinstall FNV as usual, though make sure to select an installation folder outside any default Windows directories. Instead, install the game in the root of a drive, preferably on an SSD, for the best stability and performance.

Steam specific:
If your Steam Library is not located outside of any default Windows directories, or if you’re unsure how to set up a custom library location, you can use the Steam Library Setup Tool ⤓.

  1. Close Steam
  2. Run the downloaded setup tool and add a new entry (Add Row)
  3. Click Accept, confirm when prompted to create a new folder, and exit the tool
  4. Open Steam, install FNV and when asked for install folder, select the newly created library folder

Generating INI files

Before setting up a mod manager and installing mods, it’s important to generate fresh INI files. INI files are configuration files that store game settings, which are read by the game on startup. You can do this simply by launching FNV once through Steam or GOG Galaxy. Confirm when prompted to detect video hardware, then exit.

Warning
If no pop-ups appear when you run the game, it means the INI files from a previous installation weren’t deleted. Go to Documents\My Games\FalloutNV, delete all INI files, and then try running the game again.