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IMPORTANT:
Everything in this guide is written down for a reason! It is vital to read everything!
You can NOT skip any paragraphs/instructions and expect your game to function as it should.

Introduction

Overview

Viva New Vegas is a modding guide for Fallout: New Vegas that will carefully walk you through how to install all the mods you will need for a perfectly stable, smooth and enjoyable experience.

The guide is highly accessible for everyone, no matter your modding experience. It is still incredibly important that you read all the instructions very carefully, even if you believe you are experienced enough to skip them. There are many small instructions that are vital for your game to function, and could be easily missed if you aren't careful. Although you don't need any modding experience to use this guide, it is expected for you to be relatively experienced with operating a computer in general.

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Features

  • Stability: The guide includes all the latest and essential stability enhancements.
  • Performance: Every tool, setting and mod in the guide has been carefully selected and play-tested to ensure maximum possible performance.
  • Customizability: The guide is split into 2 sections; all the mods required for the game to work and perform better are contained in the first section. The mods that can be considered subjective and that alter or add game content are in the VNV Extended section, which is fully modular.
  • Better Gameplay: As part of the VNV Extended section, the guide includes many mods that greatly improve the gameplay without drastically overhauling the core experience or straying away from the game's original intent. There is also an Overhauls section that will make the game much more difficult and add some new vanilla-friendly content. This section is highlighted by Lone Star so it is not recommended for first time players.

Requirements

  • An English copy of the game with all DLCs from either Steam, GOG, or the Epic Games Store.
    • Only the English version of the game is supported for maximum compatibility - translations can conflict with mods and cause issues.
    • The Microsoft Store versions are not supported.
    • The Polish-Czech-Russian (PCR) version of Fallout: New Vegas is fully supported as long as the game itself is in English.
    • The German release uses a "No Gore" version, making it also incompatible with xNVSE. If you have it on Steam, you can use DepotDownloader to download the international EXE.
  • You can buy a cheap activation key for the Ultimate edition on Instant Gaming (affiliate link).

  • At least 19GB of free drive space, game included (17GB if you delete all the downloads).
  • Windows 10 or higher (64-bit).
    • ARM64 systems are NOT supported due to Mod Organizer 2's lack of support.
  • The latest VC++ Redistributables:
    • 2015-2022 X64
    • 2015-2022 X86
    • VC++ AIO (not always up to date, making the 2 files above a requirement):
      1. Extract the archive and run the included install_all.bat as an administrator.
    • Restart your PC.
  • A text editor (Notepad++ is recommended, but the default Windows notepad will work).
  • An archiving tool (NanaZip is recommended).
  • The latest GPU drivers (either NVIDIA, AMD or Intel).
  • A Nexus Mods account (a Premium subscription will allow uncapped speeds).

Recommended Specs

The guide will make the game run better than vanilla. The game is much more CPU-intensive than GPU-intensive, and actually scales with modern hardware pretty well. Installing the game on an SSD will drastically improve loading times and decrease stuttering. Here are the recommended specs for being able to run the guide at 60 FPS at 1080p:
  • CPU: Any quad-core processor (2.5GHz or more).
  • RAM: 8GB or more.
  • GPU: Matching or surpassing the performance of NVIDIA's 600 series or AMD's 5500 series.