Fallout 4

For the VR version, see Fallout 4 VR.

Fallout 4

Developers
	Bethesda Game Studios
	id Software
Publishers
	Bethesda Softworks
Engines
	Creation Engine
Release dates
Windows	November 10, 2015
Reception
Metacritic	84
OpenCritic	87
IGDB	85
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	Cosmetic, Currency, Infinite spend, Unlock
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	ARPG, Open world, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	North America, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series	Fallout

Fallout
Fallout	1997
Fallout 2	1998
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel	2001
Fallout 3	2008
Fallout: New Vegas	2010
Fallout 4	2015
Fallout Shelter	2016
Fallout 4 VR	2017
Fallout 76	2018

Fallout 4 is a singleplayer first-person and third-person ARPG, open world and shooter game in the Fallout series.

General information

PC Report

Bethesda Forum for Hardware & Software Issues on PC

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Incomplete installer.
		Game of the Year Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Game of the Year Edition also available.
GOG.com		Game of the Year Edition.
Humble Store		Game of the Year Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC. Game of the Year Edition also available.
Steam		Game of the Year Edition also available.
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Bethesda.net (unavailable)
Epic Games Store (unavailable)		Expected to release on April 25, 2024. Game of the Year Edition will also be available.
GamersGate (unavailable)		Game of the Year Edition was also available.

The Fallout Pip-Boy App is available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. This feature can be enabled under Options, Gameplay, by setting Pip-Boy App Enabled to On.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Additional singleplayer content.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Season Pass	Contains all paid DLC.
Automatron
Wasteland Workshop
Far Harbor
Contraptions Workshop
Vault-Tec Workshop
Nuka World
High Resolution Texture Pack	(Free) Optional, higher-quality textures for high-end machines. Requires an additional 58 GB of space. 8 GB of RAM and VRAM are recommended.. Many of the textures are just stretched original textures without any improvements in quality. Use Best of Ultra DLC Pack for only improved textures.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Cosmetic	New outfits, mounts, pets, decorations, and material skins can be purchased with Creation Club Credits.
Currency	Creation Club Credits are a real money purchase that can be exchanged for exclusive content created by Bethesda and outside development partners. Creation Club Credits can also be spent on content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition.
Infinite spend	Creation Club Credits can be purchased repeatedly without a practical limit.
Unlock	New types of gameplay (like survival mode), abilities, locations, enemies, companions, and items can be purchased with Creation Club Credits.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Modify Fallout4Custom.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Custom.ini or create it if it does not exist. Add or modify the following lines under [General]: sIntroSequence= fChancesToPlayAlternateIntro=0 uMainMenuDelayBeforeAllowSkip=0

Utilities

Fallout 4 Script Extender (F4SE)

Required by many mods for them to work correctly.

Expands the scripting capabilities of the game.

BethINI

BethINI is a .ini optimizer that also works as a configuration utility. It has well-tested and optimized presets that could improve performance and fidelity.

Download BethINI

Download BethINI. Extract the contents and run BethINI.exe. In the Setup tab make sure Fallout 4 is selected as Game. In the Basic tab choose either Vanilla or BethINI presets and choose one of the available presets. BethINI presets are optimized and trimmed versions of Vanilla presets. Modify settings in each tab as desired. After finished click Save and Exit in the Basic tab, BethINI will sort your .ini files alphabetically and merge already existing tweaks in your previous .ini files. Notes It also supports other Bethesda titles such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Fallout 3, and Fallout: New Vegas.

Patches

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch

A comprehensive bug fixing mod that aims to eventually fix every bug with Fallout 4 not officially resolved by the developers.

Mods

Dynamic Performance Tuner and Load Accelerator

Adjusts shadow distance and volumetric lighting and godrays quality dynamically to achieve targeted frame rate.

Disables frame capping during loading screen to accelerate loading speed.

Installation and configuration

Download the archived file and extract dxgi.dll, dynaperf.ini and the corresponding fallout4-addresses-x.x.x.x.ini file depending on your game version to game directory. If no corresponding fallout4-addresses-x.x.x.x.ini file is available for your game version either read the mod description page to create a new memory configuration file for your game version or download one that has been already created for your game version by the community. (e.g. Configuration Files For Dynamic Performance Tuner And Load Accelerator mod) Open dynaperf.ini with a text editor and modify the following key settings: fTargetFPS=[60] - Target FPS is the highest FPS that the game will be allowed to run at, and is also the baseline for 100% load. fShadowDirDistanceMin=[2500] - Minimum possible shadow distance. (e.g. 3000 from the Low quality preset) fShadowDirDistanceMax=[12000] - Maximum possible shadow distance. (e.g. 20000 from the Ultra quality preset) bLoadCapping=[0/1] - Setting it to 1 enables frame capping during loading screens which disables the loading speed acceleration. Notes Since the values are changed dynamically by modifying the values in-memory, the mod is version-dependent and each update in the game executable requires a new memory mapping. To use it with ReShade graphics mod rename ReShade's dxgi.dll to dxgi_linked.dll.

ENBoost

Fixes stuttering issues when there is no more available video memory, occurs when using high-resolution texture mods.

Can force V-sync, includes a frame limiter to help prevent stutter.

Installing and Configuring ENBoost[citation needed]

Download the latest version of ENBoost for Fallout 4. Unzip all files from the Patch folder in the archive into the installation folder. Open enblocal.ini with text editor, modify the following values: ApplyStabilityPatch=[false/true] - Stability fixes, the effectiveness varies from user to user. If this worsens the performance, set to false. UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=[false/true] - Recommended to enable for maximum performance. ForceVideoMemorySize=[false/true] - Allocates more video memory from RAM and the pagefile. VideoMemorySizeMb=[RAM + VRAM - 300MB for SSDs, or the VRamSizeTest result - 300MB for HDDs] - [See Notes] Forces video memory available in Mebibytes. ForceVSync=[false/true] - Different than the game's default Vsync, and helps prevent stuttering and screen tearing. VSyncSkipNumFrames=[0, 1, 2, or 3] - Mainly for users with high refresh rate monitors (>60Hz) and should be set to '0' for other users. EnableFPSLimit=[false/true] - Caps the frame rate to assigned value. This will solve the physics issues relating to high frame rates, may also solve screen tearing. FPSLimit=[61.0] - The frame rate you wish to cap the game at. DisableFakeLights=[false/true] - Disables rim lights for all characters. Has a small performance impact. Notes If you use ReShade or any other tool that uses the d3d11.dll file, rename that tool's DLL file to dxgi.dll. If the game is installed on an SSD, do not use the VRamSizeTest utility, as it also allocates some HDD space, which can affect your SSD's life. Use the VRamSizeTest utility if the game is installed on an HDD to correctly determine the amount of memory that can be allocated to the game. Some users report that using the borderless window setting with a frame limit increases FPS stability in the game.

Special K

Improves frame pacing, introduces texture caching system to reduce VRAM consumption, eliminates texture streaming bottlenecks and prevent memory fragmentation.

It is recommended to use an up-to-date version of Special K, since most of the settings described in the guide were added as core elements of it.

Previsibines Repair Pack (PRP)

Rebuilds precombines and occlusion information for the entire game, leading to less draw calls and more FPS in CPU-bound situations depending on location.

Requires Unoffical Fallout 4 Patch and All DLC's.

A lightweight, mutually exclusive version designed for players using a large amount of worldspace-changing mods is available.

High FPS Physics Fix

This mod allows you to play Fallout 4 above 60 FPS with normal animation speed and without physics bugs.

Offers the ability to turn off vertical sync on loading screens to speed up game loading.

Modern minimal HUD

Designed to reduce visual pollution on screen and have a tactical modern touch to it, it increases the immersive feeling while still maintaining useful features like mission markers and ammo.

Best of Ultra DLC Pack

This mod is a replacement for Bethesda's official 58GB Ultra High Resolution DLC. It contains only the best HD textures, and leaves out the rest. You will get the same image quality with this 6GB mod as well as better performance, due to cutting out textures which were only stretched from original resolution to 4K without any improvements.

Game data

Gameplay settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/377160/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Saves\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/377160/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud		Stores up to 1 GB of game saves online (maximum 1000 files).
Xbox Cloud

Video

Launcher settings.

Launcher advanced settings.

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Supports 16:9 and 16:10 only.
Multi-monitor			Use Flawless Widescreen.
Ultra-widescreen			Use Flawless Widescreen or TruBy9.
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		80° horizontal. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Missing widescreen resolutions. See Widescreen resolution.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA and TAA in launcher. Download Fallout 4 Upscaler mod for DLAA.
High-fidelity upscaling		DLSS 2.5, FSR 2.1, XeSS 1.0 Download Fallout 4 Upscaler
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Higher framerates require disabling internal Vsync. See Vertical sync (Vsync). Going above 120 will cause some major physics issues at higher frame rates. See High FPS Physics Fix.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Modify Fallout4Prefs.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Prefs.ini. Under [Display] modify the following parameters: iSize W=XXXX iSize H=XXXX

Field of view (FOV)

FOV Slider and Player Height

Download FOV Slider and Player Height. Adjust FOVs/PlayerScale with sliders without messing up the Terminal Display and Pipboy with ingame menu. Use it with Mod Configuration Menu and F4SE. Notes The Mod Configuration Menu is a settings page for mods! It provides a central location for mod configuration, accessible via the Pause menu. ModSettings are stored in per-mod INI files under Data\MCM\Settings, making it easy to backup and restore settings and even change them outside the game if so desired should the mod support it.

Use Flawless Widescreen

Modify Fallout4Custom.ini

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Custom.ini or create it if it does not exist. Under [Display] add or modify the following parameters: fDefault1stPersonFOV=XX fDefaultWorldFOV=XX Notes fDefault1stPersonFOV controls first person camera and PipBoy, fDefaultWorldFOV controls third person camera. Modifying fDefault1stPersonFOV will also modify PipBoy's field of view which might be an undesirable side effect for some users. In that case consider using Flawless Widescreen.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Modify Fallout4Prefs.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Prefs.ini. Under [Display] change iPresentInterval to 0. Notes Disabling vertical sync will cause frame rate to exceed 60 FPS which may cause physics issues and make the game unstable. See High FPS Physics Fix.

Depth of field

Modify Fallout4Prefs.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Prefs.ini. Change bDoDepthOfField=1 to bDoDepthOfField=0. Change bScreenSpaceBokeh=1 to bScreenSpaceBokeh=0. Notes Will cause underwater effects to disappear.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Settlement menus ignore remapping.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Vertical sensitivity is lower on widescreen monitors. See Vertical sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers

Vertical sensitivity

Vertical sensitivity is lower on widescreen monitors.

RAW INPUT - The Ultimate Mouse Sensitivity Fix

Disabled Mouse Acceleration, Horizontal/Vertical Parity, Scalable ADS Multiplier, Normalized Sensitivity

This is an "all in one" fix for mouse sensitivity. This is not just a dummy esp to load an ini. The esp is necessary and contains multiple edits to normalize mouse movement. This mod has nothing to do with vsync, fps limits or game performance in general, but if you want to read and try out my findings, head down to the optional performance section.

- Optional files - ADS Sensitivity options of 100%, 50% and 25%. "Immersive Gameplay" & "Horizon" Versions Available.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, voice, music, sound effects, footsteps, and radio.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		Use X3DAudio HRTF.
Royalty free audio		Combination of original and licensed music.

Localizations

Available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish in most European countries.

Russia and Poland are limited to Russian and Polish, the English language is also available.

The global version has all the languages available, an example is purchasing the game on Green Man Gaming which has all languages, even Japanese.

Most languages are region locked by default.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Not available in Japan.
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation by «BN13»&«tianmiao(天邈) team»
Traditional Chinese				Asia only, not included in Japan.Traditional Chinese version lags behind the international version, cannot use the built-in mod store, and some functions do not support Chinese fonts
French				Europe and North America only.
German
Italian
Japanese				Japan only. No other languages are included.
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese				Central and South America only.
Russian				Fan audio dub (machine translation) on Zone of Games.
Spanish				Europe, North, Central and South America only.
Latin American Spanish

Network

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	27000
UDP	28000

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

These ports are used to communicate with the Pip-Boy app.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Fallout 4.
vorpX		G3D, Z3D, DirectVR Excellent 3D environment. Officially supported Game, see vorpX gamelist.

Issues unresolved

Crash to desktop during Hunter/Hunted

This issue blocks the continuation of a quest chain.

Approaching the quest objective will result in a crash to desktop without any errors. As of current, if you wish to progress the quest-line, you will have to teleport into the related building and then teleport to an area that does not crash the game.

Teleport into building of interest to progress
Open the console and enter player.moveto 00064dfc. Walk around until character of interest spawns. Deal with the situation accordingly. When you're done with your business inside the building, open the console and enter coc sanctuaryExt. Notes You may walk freely within the building, but exiting it will crash the game.

Go into Steam offline mode and turn off internet connection (or block the game in firewall)

Entering Cambridge Police Station makes the player fall through the ground

This issue may block the continuation of a quest-chain.

You may speak to characters inside the building if you enable noclip: open the console and enter tcl.

To exit the building afterwards, as the doors did not spawn in, you must teleport to another location, i.e. coc sanctuaryExt.

Issues fixed

Game's physics run too fast

The game was designed to run at 60 FPS.

See High FPS Physics Fix[citation needed]

Crash to desktop on Nvidia Turing GPUs (RTX, GTX 16 series)

Turn off weapon debris in the launcher
Open the Fallout 4 launcher, then under Options, select Advanced. Click on the Weapon Debris drop down list, select Off. Notes Nvidia FLEX features have to be disabled.

Use Weapon Debris Crash Fix
Notes Weapon debris will have collision turned off.

God rays performance fix and no pixelation

Modify configuration files

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Inside of Fallout4Prefs.ini, change iVolumetricLightingQuality= to iVolumetricLightingQuality=3. Or set god rays quality to Ultra in launcher. Open Fallout4.ini. Add sStartingConsoleCommand=gr grid 12;gr scale .8;gr maxcascade 1 under [General] section Notes Ultra quality god rays at same performance as low setting. Pixelation fix won't work at lower qualities. Value must be set to ultra. Launcher may not always set value to highest. Check configs to make sure isn't set at "2". Set configs to "read-only".

Graphical issues while raining

Instructions[citation needed]
Open the Fallout 4 launcher, then under Options, select Advanced. Check the Screen Space Reflections checkbox as well as the Wetness checkbox. Notes Unchecking Screen Space Reflections while Wetness is checked, Could result to this problem, whilst raining.

Broken shadows

Dark layer example.

The default game does not support 21: 9 and 4k resolution, forcing it by modifying the game causes this problem. Even so, if you want to force 21: 9 resolutions and you don't want to have the problem with the shadows you must follow the steps described below. .

Instructions
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Prefs.ini. Find the following line, and set it to this value. bComputeShaderDeferredTiledLighting=0

Console not opening when pressing the tilde key

Instructions[citation needed]

Press ⊞ Win+R and type control input.dll then select OK. Click on the Add a language button, then find the English language and Double Click on it. Select English (United States), then push the Add button located on the bottom right side. Press Alt+⇧ Shift to switch to the English keyboard layout. Launch the game and push ~. Alternatively, Spanish/Latin American keyboards can open the console using Ñ instead, without changing any settings. For Finnish keyboards the key to use is Ö.

No in-game audio

Set audio playback to 16bit 48000 Hz
Navigate to audio playback devices (right-click on speaker icon) Highlight speakers (will probably be one with a green tick) Click "properties" and select advanced tab Change the "default format" to 16bit 48000 Hz (DVD Quality)

Major screen tearing when Windows Aero is disabled while in a borderless mode

This is due to Aero's double buffering.

Switch Theme to Windows Aero
Right-click on the desktop. Press Personalize. Choose a Windows Aero theme. Press Window Color. Save changes.

Permanent slow-motion

Erase configuration files[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Delete the configuration files.

Frame rate locked at 48 FPS

The game uses a Vsync activated by default and it blocks at 60hz that is, by default it blocks at 60fps / 60hz this cappeo method is not good with the Gsync and FreeSync monitors

Disable vertical sync and cap the game on rivaturner static server[citation needed]
See Vertical sync (Vsync).

Disable G-sync (Nvidia) or FreeSync (AMD)[citation needed]

Mouse cursor not visible in menus

Instructions[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Fallout4Prefs.ini. Find the following line, and set it to this value. bGamepadEnable=0

Slow loading screen

GPU load at the loading screen will be higher.

Use FO4 Load Accelerator

Use Load Accelerator Mod

Duel Bot enemy stuck in Restoring Order

When confronting the Mechanist in Restoring Order, a Duel Bot may get stuck under the ground, preventing progress

Toggle no clip mode
Open the console with ~. Type in and enter tcl to toggle no clip mode. Kill the duel bot, and use the same command to toggle no clip back off.

Bugged progression in Emogene Takes a Lover

Brother Thomas unlocks the door to where Emogene is supposed to be, but she doesn't appear. Instead, the quest points back to Cabot House and the locked section of the house.

Workaround #1
If you did not receive quest objectives from Edward yet, then it is very easy. You can do this at any game stage until you accept the rescue mission. Open the console (~). Paste in ssq ms09. Paste in 47ec4.ForceRefIntoAlias emogeneOld. Paste in 47ec4.ForceRefIntoAlias emogene. Close the console (~).

Workaround #2
If the quest objectives are already in your Pip-Boy Data log. Open the console (~). Paste in ssq ms09. Paste in prid 47ec4. Paste in ForceRefIntoAlias emogeneOld. Paste in ForceRefIntoAlias emogene. Paste in MoveTo 518ce. Paste in enable. Close the console (~).

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11
Shader Model support	5.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok, Nvidia FLEX	. Nvidia FLEX used for optional weapon debris and is exclusive to Nvidia GPUs.
Interface	Scaleform
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.992e

Mod Manager

Mod Managers simplify mod installations, use one of the following.

Mod Organizer

Powerful and easy-to-use mod manager with mod virtualization, in order to keep the installation folder clean.

Features a configuration editor, the F4SE executable can also be set to be launched through the configurator.

Vortex

The official mod manager made by Nexus Mods.

It is designed to make modding your game as simple as possible for new users, while still providing enough control for more experienced veterans of the modding scene.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz	Intel Core i7-4790 3.6 GHz AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	30 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 AMD Radeon R9 290X 3 GB (Nvidia), 4 GB (AMD) of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.