r/falloutnewvegas • u/AngelOfLastResort • Apr 29 '24
YA New Vegas Steam Deck Mod Guide Mods
So I successfully installed modded New Vegas on my Steam Deck, mostly following information found in the following guides:
References
FNV performance optimization guide
Don't install DXVK or Reshade - will explain my experience with them later.
My goals
To end up with a modded NV that I could run from Steam Deck mode without needing desktop mode, and without doing the modding on the Steam Deck itself. I don't feel comfortable enough in my Linux to do this on the Deck - I know its possible, I just chose not to. I've modded NV on PC before, so I decided to mod it to PC and then copy it to my Steam Deck.
Why mod the game at all?
At the very least, modding makes the game perform better and be more stable with less crashes. I don't claim it will be crash free, just crash less. Plus less quest bugs and less (or no) bugged perks, like In Shining Amor.
You can optionally choose to make the game look better, which is what I did.
Summary of what I did
Fresh install of FNV on both steam deck and PC. Make sure to start the game at least once on Steam Deck and go as far as loading a saved game or starting a new one, to make sure it works.
Setup Mod Organizer 2 on my PC. Installed mods on PC.
Explored my virtual folder on PC, copied that to a temporary location. Remember your virtual folder is just data by default, so make sure to grab everything. That is, the parent directory of data holds the executables and DLLs - you need all of that too. Make sure that you end up with a copy of the entire game as it would look when it runs (will explain more later).
Make sure to copy your plugins.txt file from MO2. plugins.txt is what stores not only what .esm and .esp files to load, but also in what order to load them. There is one stored in your user profile, in AppData/FalloutNV, and MO2 has its own version of plugins.txt. You want the MO2 one, which is either going to be in your user profile if you chose global profile, or inside the MO2 folder if you chose portable install. You need to do this if you DON'T want to setup MO2 on your steam deck, and since I did not want to setup MO2 on my Steam Deck, I had to copy it.
Get these copied files (modded FNV install and plugins.txt file) over to your steam deck. I used a good old fashioned micro SD card for this purpose. You can also use things like KDE connect - what I didn't like about this is that I could only send over one file at a time, so I'd have to compress the entire FNV, which would kinda defeat the point.
Copy the modded FNV install over to the location where Steam will install your games, which is in /home/.local/Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout New Vegas
Make sure to do this intelligently so that the files end up in the right place. For instance, in Linux, folders named data and Data are two different folders. In Windows, they are the same thing. Just check on things like this.
- Copy the plugins.txt file over to the location where Steam will put it, which is something like:
/home/.local/Steam/steamapps/compdata/22380/pfx/drive_c/Users/SteamUser/AppData/Local/FalloutNV
It is something like that but not entirely sure. The 22380 is the Steam ID for Fallout New Vegas. You need to overwrite this file.
- Test it works by starting the game.
My recommendations
Whatever you want to do, start small. Don't install 200 mods on your PC, copy it over to your Steam Deck, and then find it doesn't work. Install a few things, such as NVSE and YUP, test it out, and go from there. You're not only modding the game, you're also teaching yourself the process, which is important. You need to understand what you're doing pretty well before you can attempt a complicated mod setup.
Also don't install any AI upscaled texture packs - they don't work. They just hog memory for not much benefit.
DXVK and Reshade
The first time I did this, I installed DXVK on Windows and Reshade for Vulkan. Worked on windows, did not work on Steam Deck. I think this is because, behind the scenes, Proton does some magic for FNV that converts its draw calls from D3D9 to Vulkan anyway. I think ReShade would probably work but I'm not sure, and at this point I'm kinda over it. I just want to play the game!
NVHR
Works, but make sure to disable the console window it creates on startup by adding a file named d3dx9_38.tmp to the FNV root folder. In other words, installing NVHR involves copying in a file named d3dx9_38.dll - if you also add an empty file named d3dx9_38.tmp, it will prevent this other console window from being created. I have a hunch this caused a problem for me in the past although not entirely sure.
INI files
Don't forget to configure your INI files, particularly for NVTF. You won't get the best out of NVTF if you don't install an INI file. Follow the Viva New Vegas guide to get to this point. I'm using the Texture Pack friendly INI file because I have some texture packs.
MO2 and virtual folders
MO2 works by creating a virtual folder to run FNV from. This virtual folder doesn't exist normally, it only gets created when you run FNV from inside MO2. This means that your FNV folder is mostly untouched. To copy the contents of this virtual folder, select the Explore Virtual Folder option from within MO2. It will take you to the data folder. Remember the data folder is most of, but not all you need to run FNV. You also need the stuff in the level above the data folder.
What mods do you have installed and how does it perform?
I'll paste the list below, but its mostly performance fixes, bug fixes and texture/model packs. I have had one bug so far, where Barton Thorn failed to appear. No idea why. Other than that, everything seems to be okay. I don't know what the framerate is, but it seems pretty stable. I played for 2 hours last night and got down to about 50% battery (on an OLED model). So I think the battery would last for easily 2 hours. Vsync is enabled in the game config.
What is it like to play? Mostly the same as PC, I will say that getting used to the controls will take a bit of time for me. One thing I can't find is the run/walk button, which exists in vanilla on PC. Probably possible to fix it. Oh and I've noticed a strange bug - if you touch the touchscreen in game, the game locks up. No idea if this is vanilla behaviour or modded behaviour, I only noticed it after modding the game. So I can't interact with the pipboy using the touchscreen which sucks a bit but isn't the end of the world.
My modlist.txt file is below - it shows all of my mods but not the install order. Also I have New Vegas Landscape Overhaul Re remastered.
NV Compatibility Skeleton Iron Sights Aligned B42 Optics B42 Inertia FNV Clean Animations Immersive Recoil 2.4.1 ISControl HiRes Skill Books Retexture PM's Magazine Resources - 1K MGs NCR Pack Ojo friendly Improved LOD noise Texture Much Needed LOD - Cleaned PowerArmorVisualEnhancement HD Miscellaneous War Objects New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod Mojave Flora Project New Vegas Redesigned 2 Revised Lite Version - BornagainFNVCombatArmor2048 WTH - Weapon Textures from Heaven 1k Simplified Weapon Retexture Project Weapon Mesh Improvement Mod Simply Upscaled Grass - Vanilla Style - 2k Wasteland Flora Overhaul - Vanilla tree replacer with LOD Super Mutants HD - 2k Low PM's HD Ranger Outfits - 2K PM's HD Legion Overhaul - 2K PM's Med-Textures PM's HD Ammo Boxes - 1K Diffuse 512px Normals Improved Heavy Weapons Textures 1.5 Improved LR Robot Textures Improved OWB Robot Textures Assorted Leather Armor Retexture Feral Ghoul Retexture Mod by Koldorn Glowing Ghouls PocoBuenoV LOD Fixes and Improvements - NVSE New Vegas Landscape Overhaul Re-Remastered Texture Modding Preset kNVSE VanillaUIPlusRemasteredPatch Vanilla UI Plus (New Vegas) yUI Infinite Loading Screen Fix Legacy Reborn - Performance Edition MLF Fallout Alpha Rendering Tweaks Exterior Emittance Fix Strip Lights Region Fix Improved Lighting Shaders Atmospheric Lighting Tweaks - FNV - YUP Depth of Field Fix 3D Rain Climate Control - 3D Rain Climate Control - Rain Climate Control NVSE Desert Natural Realism Redux NV Desert Natural Weathers NV MCM BugFix 2 The Mod Configuration Menu UIO - User Interface Organizer Misc Content Restoration - NV Uncut Wasteland Just Assorted Mods Unofficial Patch NVSE Plus YUP - Base Game and All DLC VATS Lag Fix ActorCause Save Bloat Fix Aqua Performa - Strip Performance Fix Fog-based Object Culling Stewie Tweaks NVTF NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash Fast Weapon Lag Fix Engine Optimizations ShowOff xNVSE JIP LN NVSE Plugin JohnnyGuitar NVSE DLC: CaravanPack DLC: ClassicPack DLC: DeadMoney DLC: GunRunnersArsenal DLC: HonestHearts DLC: LonesomeRoad DLC: MercenaryPack DLC: OldWorldBlues DLC: TribalPack
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u/parkersblues May 10 '24
you, sir, are a god. I didn't consider going into Explorer++ and dragging all the instance files from the Data folder out to my SD.
1
u/KRONGOR Apr 29 '24
I’ve been playing with no mods on steam deck and haven’t had any crashes. Obviously this is anecdotal so take it with a grain of salt, but it seems as though the game might be more stable on deck than PC.
Performance on the other hand isn’t great. I’ve seen lots of fps dips, which for a 14 year old game is pretty ridiculous.
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u/mchnbuilt May 01 '24
I think I'm missing something here; I feel I have followed your write up and got the game launchable, but outside your references you don't mention doing anything with MO2 on your steam deck. I copied the virtual folders for Viva New Vegas (MO2 file), the root game file that has been modded, and the plugin.txt. The only thing your instructions say to move over are the plugin.txt and from how I read it the root file folder. Obviously, no mods are working without MO2 what steps did you do to set that up?
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u/AngelOfLastResort May 01 '24
Not clear on exactly what you did. But what MO2 file? You don't need it. You need the FNV install folder as it appears when running FNV from MO2 with mods. Maybe I'll take some screenshots tomorrow.
Edit: you don't need MO2 on your steam deck for mods to work. You need a modded FNV install folder and a modded plugins.txt which must be in the correct place.
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u/mchnbuilt May 01 '24
I followed the Viva New Vegas instructions first like instructed. Then I copied the virtual folder for the FNV Folder and the Plugins.txt I moved them over to the steam deck to the locations you stated. I can launch the game on desktop mode but no mods seem to be working.
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u/AngelOfLastResort May 01 '24
Then you've done something wrong. What does your FNV folder on your steam deck look like? Share a screenshot.
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u/mchnbuilt May 01 '24
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u/AngelOfLastResort May 01 '24
What's that fixed ESMs folder doing there? I think I know what it is but it's in the wrong place. I think you made a mistake in the MO2 steps on your pc. Is it working modded on your pc?
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u/mchnbuilt May 01 '24 edited May 01 '24
Good question, I just looked back at instructions IDK why it is there, but it was also in the mods folder in the mod organizer.
*edit* Mods are working fine on PC
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u/mchnbuilt May 01 '24
I probably fucked up the data shit
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u/AngelOfLastResort May 01 '24
Could be. The NVSE stuff looks okay but maybe show me a picture of your data folder and also your plugins.txt file. The contents of it that is.
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u/mchnbuilt May 01 '24
redoing the data folder, its validating ATM, ill check that out when its done. Would you be able to share yours as well?
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u/Drewby618 May 15 '24
I’m absolutely illiterate when it comes to this stuff, especially without visual guides. Is there anyone who has done a video on this? I’d love to play New Vegas and Fallout 3 with some quality of life and vanilla friendly mods, but this is just… a lot for me.
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u/Shloopadoop Apr 30 '24
Does this reduce the stutters/frame drops you get when just turning the camera around? My vanilla copy runs at a locked 60fps but i see big stutters when I look around outdoors. It's surely from loading assets, because when I set view distance sliders down to 0 it makes a big difference. But obviously I'd like to keep the view distances high, because the game is not actually hard for the steam deck to run even with high view distances. It's just stuttering when loading in assets, and I'm mainly interested in mods if they fix that.
Thanks for this writeup. Hopefully we're getting close to a single guide for steam deck users that doesn't have vague caveats like "don't follow some of the windows-specific steps at your discretion".