Belated Fallout 3 Video Test - Mostly Fixed, Slightly Modified (FOSE) Version

Wowee... forgetfulness, procrastination and business all piled up!

So much about posting it ASAP after the last blog update, huh? Got busy with work/projects again, and that let to some procrastination in the form of playing some games bought on Steam not too long ago... and then ended up forgetting on what I was supposed to be doing...

Sometimes I don't even know how this head of mine works...

Anyways, enough about that! It's time to showcase the other version of Fallout 3; one that has been thoroughly fixed, tweaked and modified!

This one has Fallout Script Extender (FOSE) installed, as it was needed by some of the other stuff thrown in to help make the game function much better than it did last time...

Metal Blaster... LETHAL LIGHTSHOW, INDEED!

Thankfully, I did remember to keep a note on the various fixes/tweaks needed for this game! This'll help prevent the same mistakes from happening again...

unless of course, I happen to lose those notes one day...

Now... FOSE is pretty much needed, even if one plans to just have reskins/retextures in their game. Some of the tweaks and game fixes requires it to function.

An example would be the Fallout 3 3GB Enabler which helps increase the game's disk usage above 2GB, which is handy when running plenty of mods.

The only stuff used that were remotely close to mods were reskin packs and some retextures for some of the weapons. Other than that it's pretty much same ol' Fallout 3, but not running like ass.

Overall gameplay is smooth, with minor crashes... sometimes the odd freeze or two. Although, I experienced an increased number of crashes once I've started playing the Mothership Zeta DLC. Not sure if it's that DLC's problem, or something from my end....

Recording seems pretty much the same as before; some hiccups and hangs, but it only showed up in the videos and not when I was playing the game. Perhaps I should use some other video recording software to see if there's any change. It could also be this computer showing its age.

Editing the videos was much easier than it was before, and there's still those un-synced moments that I have to rearrange... but not as difficult as it was in the previous trial.

Now I have a bunch more Fallout 3 videos from different DLCs... I think I can still make something outta them. Just that it won't be immediate.

I dunno... bad computer? Switch recording software? Run smaller games? Well, I know what I'm doing... so for now I'll leave the remaining Fallout 3 clips on-hold for the moment... gotta try other games first...

-Panzer Fist-

Small Update

One month goes by without a peep...

Hmm... I really need to get things in order around here... been quite busy for some time, and ultimately forgot about the modded Fallout 3 video edits.

Well... its a good thing I remembered about this, otherwise it might end up with another month or 2 of inactivity. Haven't really checked up much about games, recorded videos or updates from the usual World of Tanks, Armored Warfare and things like that... bet nothing much has happened, aside from the usual Premium Tank shill.

Anyways, I'm looking to finish up the modded Fallout 3 videos by tomorrow... if I can. After that then I'll be seeing what else I could record... or try to record. Looking to try recording much smaller games, as I have several in mind...

-Panzer Fist-

Second Fallout 3 Video Test - Semi-Vanilla (Unstable) Version

And here it is...

A little late uploading 'cause I was busy... but it's finally done, and also up! This one's the somewhat default (or vanilla) version of Fallout 3, with a little bit of re-texture/re-skin mods applied.

This was a bitch to set up... but most of it is my own damn fault as I decided to play a 'semi-vanilla' version of Fallout 3; which means it doesn't use Fallout Script Extender (FOSE) but it does have some mods applied. It's mostly re-skins and re-textures, though.

It's been like what... 4 years (2015) since I've last played Fallout 3, so I kinda forgot all the necessary fixes and tweaks that I needed to apply in order to make the game more stable... it was hell to play! Constant crashes happening randomly around 5 minutes to half and hour intervals.

Had to save after every little thing done... don't know when this shit's gonna go kaput...

It's also pretty 'choppy'; stutters a bit here and there and it just feels... slow for some reason.

Perhaps it was due to me adding in those re-textures and re-skins to the game, but Fallout 3 is already known to be the most buggiest/unstable outta the whole Fallout series... yes, even New Vegas vanilla runs much better than it's predecessor, at least to me.

I guess that's why I prefer playing NV over Fallout 3... these crashes and other slew of problems would normally make me just play another game entirely.

Note to self: keep a note of instructions on what to do to fix Fallout 3 next time...

Well... after a few days of searching around and navigating around the usual sites, I've finally gathered all I need to make the game run at a stable rate. This means I used FOSE and numerous other fixes and tweaks, from old ones like editing .ini files to new fixes like the Fallout 3 Tick Fix. Some old fixes and tweaks didn't seem to work as they're probably not compatible with Windows 10 or something.

It's about as stable as it can be... for now. So far I haven't encountered any crashes since I've applied all these various fixes and tweaks, but the game can sometimes have these split-second freezes... particularly when engaging in a fight or switching weapons.

Recording gameplay footage was fine, and was settled in using Nvidia Shadowplay's Instant Replay to record certain parts that I find interesting.

Had quite a mess to sort out though during editing... the audio isn't linking up with the video, so I had to manually adjust them... to sync them up as best as I can. There were some moments where the audio just completely cuts... possibly the game going into crashing mode, but thankfully they only hanged up for a while.

Well, I guess I droned on for too long there... I plan to get another batch up and running, but this this the game's already been fixed as much as possible.

So let's see how much of a difference it really did...

-Panzer Fist-

Test Trials and Ol' Annoying Problems

Hmm... maybe I should just try a different game instead...

A quick update; I'm currently collecting some Fallout 3 footage. Might be a mistake though... as I'm playing it "raw" without any tweaks or fixes, but with some visual updates in the forms of retextures/replacers for various terrain and weapons.

It's been 3+ years since I've last installed Fallout 3, and I still remember it as the most buggiest Fallout game outta the bunch. Crashes left and right, sluggish performances (even though the com meets it's specs) and many more...

I have a small bunch of recordings from these moments, and currently trying to remember the various fixes and stuff I needed to do for this game to run smoothly... or at the very least to a somewhat stable level.

Yeah... shoulda tried a different game instead. Buuut I'm sticking with what I'm doing to for now, as it shouldn't be too hard to deal with the problems. Thought about getting some Killing Floor 2 recordings for the other blog, but couldn't be arsed to install such a large game back again. That will have to wait till I find something nice to play...

I think I'll do some recordings of smaller games after Fallout 3... they can't possibly be any worse than this buggy mess at the very least! Well, soon enough I'll be done with these Fallout clips... then it's off to some editing and then uploading to YouTube. Here's hoping they look much better than how my first Fallout 3 recording went some years back...

-Panzer Fist-

The Great Tank Race of 2019

And here it is...

Well, at first it was supposed to be 3 videos, but I figured just one will do... as they're pretty much the same as one another, aside from losing/winning and using different tanks.

The Great Race is a revisited game-mode from the past called the Chaffee Races, and I didn't partake in that game-mode (and many others) in the past due to being busy, lack of interest or I was just too late/didn't knew it was around.

The driving mechanics are rather simple, but the "drifting" is automatically done during corners, so it kinda feels... off... at least to me. Maybe I'm just terrible at driving in World of Tanks, 'cause in games like Burnout, Need for Speed and various other driving games I usually have little to no problem with the driving mechanics.

Anyways... here's the video!

Used the Leopard Sport in this replay... and that is the vehicle with the highest top speed, slowest acceleration and poor handling. It also has a machine-gun armament which takes 4 seconds to reload.

I mainly use the T-50 or Leopard Sport as I do okay in those, but not so for the Chaffee. The gun is single-load, but takes twice as long to reload compared to the T-50 and does a bit more damage. Maybe that's just not my taste...

Nothing much to add, as I'm still planning on putting up other videos aside from World of Tanks stuff. Not sure whether to go with Fallout 3, or something smaller... well, that's for me to decide... and so I'll be away till the next post drops...

-Panzer Fist-

Sudden Disappearance and MORE Delays

2... close to 3 months... yikes...

I figured I should at least put up a post before September ends... no need to wake me up for that, though.

Where have I've been? Nowhere, really. Just been so busy that I hardly had time to get things done here! But I was free these last 2 weeks, and been spending time collecting materials to record and post over to YouTube.

First off; some World of Tanks videos... specifically the recent Tank Race and some Frontline replays, no Steel Hunter replays saved as I didn't partake in a single battle in that mode. There's some ST-I replays saved so I can make use of those, too.

Been meaning to expand my horizons beyond just World of Tanks or Armored Warfare videos, although the latter had already stopped before it can even begun [see last post] and a few games come to mind; Fallout 3, and about 5 games that I've dived into it's game genre types before...

Still having some trouble sorting out the recording processes, as about 2 of these new games ran into problems with OBS; can't use Nvidia Shadowplay to record videos for them. Fallout 3 is a buggy mess that needs to be tweaked with a ton of mods and fixes before it'll be anywhere close to being somewhat okay.

Even now these few Fallout 3 clips I've recorded were choppy and stutter between various areas...

Maybe I should try recording some racing games, too. There's Burnout Paradise... not sure about recording any RTS games, as I'm garbage at them... even though I still like to play them from time to time.

Still not gonna be recording any PS2 games like Metal Saga though, those will need more than just videos...

And as for the other blog? That'll be Killing Floor 2 and perhaps the first Dead Space or Doom 3... as Dead Frontier is still the same old thing from before.

Hopefully some videos will be up either later today, or latest by tomorrow...

-Panzer Fist-

Errors, Bugs and Glitches

Ooohh boy, this just keeps getting better and better...

Well... if ya haven't figured it out yet, the damn Armored Warfare recorded footage bunch ran into some problems. Was working fine previously, but decided to show its problems again like last time. 

I'd never asked for this... I'm still unsure if it's the problem stems from the game, the computer or both. But now I'm starting to think it's a little of both.

Reason? Well, another game that I decided to record worked fine (most of the time): Killing Floor 2. The game also ran into some recording issues before, but fixed when I decided to transfer the game to a portable SSD.

Supposedly, Killing Floor 2 would function better if it's placed in a Solid State Drive... and for the most part, there were improvements. One of the most notable improvements was that the game loading times got drastically better/faster.

A portable HDD was used to store recorded footage, as it takes the load off the CPU to do two things at once on the same Hard Disk Drive [running the game while recording footage... on the same drive]. At least now the CPU workload is split at least by half.

So... this is the only game to run into massive problems. Either a recent update in both the recording software and game changed things, or I might need to optimize my laptop better...

I did not go empty handed, however. Decided to make the best with what I've got... but I decided to upload one gameplay footage instead of 4, as the other two were unbearable to watch.

The first one had TONNES of stoppages, hiccups and lags... even though it didn't lag the slightest when I was playing the game. The second was just a black screen but with gameplay audio intact. Now who the hell would wanna watch that?!

The third one was the most "stable" one; little to no lags/hiccups, but the recording software decided to stop recording by itself halfway through a match...

I think that ATGM shot from that enemy AFV did something... must've been one of those high-tech "hacking missiles"...

Again, I wasn't experiencing any in-game lags, stutters or any of that... I just noticed that the recording was saved while I was playing.

The fourth one was probably the worst... the video was corrupted, but the game had an... interesting bug.

One hell of a mirage...

I think the ground is turning into glass from the heat...

Hell, this happened while I was in the garage as well...

Radioactive sands...

...as far as the eye can see!

Yeah, I pretty much gave up after I saw these...

I guess it's back to World of Tanks, huh? Well, at least that one doesn't give me tons of trouble... and I also have some Killing Floor 2 footage that worked out well, so there's something.

Anyway... didn't mean to rant there a bit at the start, but this can get pretty frustrating when it happens occasionally. Maybe I'll try some more Armored Warfare recordings down the line, but for now...

...it's best to just move on to greener pastures. Well, at least one that doesn't look like the pictures above, that is.

-Panzer Fist-

Delayed, yet again...

Wow, two months without a single update...

Remember how I  said that there'll be upcoming videos? Yeah, that didn't work out... reason for this? Busy, just overall been busy these few months... sorry

Things seem to be clearing up soon, as it's just one more week before I can finally relax... I've been meaning to post some stuff here, and also to the other blog to some extent.

Since I've made some extra time for myself this weekend and also had some time off for some of the days next week, so I can finally get some posts done here.

Seems like some stuff happened while I was gone from World of Tanks, but not much in Armored Warfare. I've also tried my hand at recording some games, but had some issues with some of 'em again... slowdowns, stutters and such.

A few fixes and some fresh new equipment later, and it was all okay! Not totally fixed, but the footage is much more better than it was last time. At least the unbearable lags and stutters/video stoppages are gone...

Some of the games I've been testing were Armored Warfare, Crossout, Killing Floor 2 and several other old games, and the last group gave me quite a number of problems as the recording software couldn't detect them.

But I'll figure things out. It's high time I put out something, and there's gonna be one later... so stay tuned...

...and this time, there'll be something to show for, at least!

-Panzer Fist-

Upcoming Armored Warfare Videos

Waited till the ass-end of March, eh?

Been busy, don't even have that much time to spare due to work/studies...

But made some free time to myself recently, so all is not lost. Seems like the Special Operations in Armored Warfare has finally been concluded, with the addition of another two parts...

...but what's more important is the arrival of French Tanks! Hoorah!!!

Finally I can get my hands on the AMX Leclerc series of tanks, as it's not just one. Prototypes included, plus the AMX 30 and 40... and also the AMX 50.

Not the 120mm gun variant with the lowered hull, but the 100mm gun prototype for the AMX 50 tank. And the AMX 40 isn't the infamous 'duck tank' from the 1940's, but actually a progression of the AMX 30 tank from the 1980's.

So far only a few tanks have been added to the game, and the higher tiers [tier 7-10] will be added in the near future. Some tanks might get shifted around, like the Italian OF-40 and Ariete, as the new dealer is home to French and Italian vehicles.

Well, time for some recording work... I got plenty to cover, so it's gonna take some time...

-Panzer Fist-

The Second 'Armored Warfare' Post

It's done, and I'm back...

As the title says, this is the second Armored Warfare post in this blog. Kinda funny, actually... after all this time, there's only been one made so far... back in 2016.

One of the reasons for the lack of Armored Warfare posts was that I only play PVE modes in that game. The ping in the game was enormous; 100+ milliseconds, so that was enough to made me NOT want to try PVP or Global Operations.

So playing PVE only will result in endless loops of the same scenarios, as there's not a lot of content there. I mean, there's the Special Operations... but even those will have about 2-4 'campaigns' or parts, and will usually last for about some months before the next Special Operation batch arrives. All of this happened last year, though.

The normal PVE 'contracts'... well, there's quite a number of them... now, that is. Back then there wasn't much that was offered, about 5-6 contracts, and they don't rotate, meaning that you'll be stuck playing that same contract until the next day.

Anyways, enough of that... it's time for the test recordings that I did recently. The first one's gonna be the result of using the in-built battle viewer that's in the game.

That shot that was fired a few seconds when the battle started... that wasn't a 'real shot', as I clicked the mouse button at that point of the recording, which for some reason results in the cannon firing.

I might not be explaining this properly... but in simpler terms, that was a 'ghost shot', didn't happen while I was playing, but happened here in the replay as I clicked the mouse button.

There's quite a lot of missing features when using the battle viewer. Some of them might be really obvious, if you've seen plenty of World of Tanks replays before.

The cursor broke at one point, which was really bad... had to switch to another player to fix that. It also only tracks the player's movement when you go into 'sniper mode', where you're zoomed in to make more precise shots.

I guess the only use for this battle viewer is to see other player's perspective, and to also get scenic shots or moments... I guess. They just seemed to buggy for me... as in one of my earlier recordings, the vehicles sometimes would just stay at the spawn point, even though they clearly moving during actual gameplay.

There's more bugs than that though, I bet...

Anyways, on to the next video [which was recorded first]; record n' play. I play the game while it was recording...

And here you can see the immediate differences. Plenty, I can tell ya...

The obvious one would be the loadout at the mid-bottom of the screen; what ammo I was using at the time, the capacity, the consumables brought... y'know, essential stuff you need to see in games like these.

Then there's the dialogue in the game; you can see all of it. Everything from the tank crews, the tank commander currently in used and also the contractor's instructions / information.

Plus... the cursor doesn't 'break' at all, as this is live gameplay. Recording this while playing doesn't impact the game that much, about 5 FPS loss... from what I've seen.

So overall, record n' play wins. No surprises there...

There's a problem that both of them share, though... that is the mission info screen [or 'loading screen'] can take a long time to load when the game is being recorded. It contains some info too that must not be left out... like debriefing info and backstory, for example.

Not included here as this is just a test... end battle results were also excluded.

Downsides to using the record n' play method? Gotta record it juuust before the game starts, which means while the game is still at the loading screen. Then there's the 20-30 waiting time. This also means that I'll have a ton of replays piled up, eating away precious disk space...

Ah well, it's what I've chosen to do anyways.

Not sure how or what to put out next for Armored Warfare... I guess I can make videos about the Special Operations, but we're currently at the third batch. Well, we'll see what happens...

-Panzer Fist-

Multiple Tries, Same Results

sigh...

This is seriously getting annoying...

Well, I'm supposed to have something posted through the past couple of weeks, but that didn't happen now, did it?

Having a hard time getting a smooth enough recording of Armored Warfare, and I'm still unsure whether it's the computer or the game that's giving problems. I hope it's not both.

Just as stated from previous posts, the problems were video skips and minor freezes. Game ran fine even while playing (alongside recording) and it's at least better than using the in-built battle replay system that the game has.

I'm gonna leave the bitching for another time [or just not gonna bother with it] as I'm gonna see what I can do. Had some free time now, so now's the best time to use 'em... hopefully, it won't be long till I have something done.

-Panzer Fist-