14 DAY TRIAL // Fallout 4 for the PC has been released for a few days and users have had enough time to enjoy it and hate it at the same time. It's full of wonder and full of bugs, so we've put together a comprehensive list with all the major fixes and improvements that we could find.
In its default state, Fallout 4 is not all that bad. If anything, this has been one of the smoothest launches for a Bethesda game in a while. It doesn't mean that there are no bugs, just that it's not as bad as you might imagine. And that's actually a compliment.
Most of the issues present in the game can be fixed by editing the INI files that can be found in C:\Users]\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\Fallout 4. There is already a tool that can help users to better manage these settings, and it's much simpler to use it than to manually edit INI files.
Performance fixes
Surprisingly, there are two kinds of issues: some affecting players with good system specs and others bothering users with lower system specs. If you're in the latter category, there are a few things you can do to improve the performance.
First of all, this might sound like a broken record, but users really need to upgrade their drivers. For this release, users have to get either the GeForce 358.91 drivers or AMD Catalyst 15.11 Beta.
Now, for the users with Nvidia hardware, you should also consider stopping the NVIDIA Streamer Service service. This can be done by opening Services from the taskbar, looking for the entry named NVIDIA Streamer Service, stopping it and selecting Disable from Properties. Unless you want to stream to a Shield device, you don't need to do this.
Secondly, one of the most taxing features in the game is called Godrays. While there are some scenarios where they look excellent, you won't encounter them all that often, but they are there and turning them off from the options will be felt immediately. The same goes for Motion Blur.
Gameplay fixes
Fallout 4 has a lot of problems, right out of the game, but luckily, most of them can be fixed with just a few changes to the INI files. And we're starting with the most important, FPS lock.
PC users pride themselves on the fact that they can usually play games at 60 FPS or even higher if their hardware specs are good enough. In this particular case, it's good to leave the game capped at 60 FPS. It turns out that the engine speed is tied to the framerate. If your framerate is higher than 60 FPS, players will get stuck in furniture or terminals, for example.
Enabling Vsync can help with these problems. Just open the Fallout4Prefs.ini file in C:\Users]\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\Fallout 4 and change following parameter:
Changing the Field of View (FOV) is also easy. Normally, this is done by editing the INI files (how else?), but there is a handy tool for that, called the Fallout 4 Configuration Tool, which we covered yesterday.
With that tool, users can also Disable Mouse Acceleration, Lock the Framerate, Disable the Intro Video, Enable or Disable Godrays, change the Mouse Sensitivity (which is different for horizontal and vertical movement for some weird reason), Change the FOV, Disable GORE, and much more.
To end this tutorial on a more interesting note, we need to tell you about the ReShade+SweetFX, which will enhance the way Fallout 4 looks, without impacting the performance of the game, but please pay attention to the installation procedure.
These are all the major fixes and improvements available right now, and we'll make sure to come back with more information, once it becomes available.
You can also check our Fallout 4 PC review if you want to know more about the game.