Fallout 4 Message Board  

2. Fix crashes to desktop caused by a faulty XAudio2_7.dll module

Bethesda recently released a beta patch that fixes the crashes to desktop associated with a faulty XAudio2_7.dll module. Please follow the instructions below to download the beta patch from Steam, courtesy of Gstaff:
1.Log into Steam
2.Right-click on Fallout 4 in your Library
3.Select "Settings", then "Betas"
4.A drop-down menu will appear; select the "beta – 1.1.30 Beta Update"
5.Click "OK", then wait a few minutes for Fallout 4 to update
6.When the beta patching has finished, Fallout 4 should appear as "Fallout 4 [beta]" in your Library

Disable the "NVIDIA Streamer Service" to improve performance and reduce chances of crashing

If you are using an NVIDIA GPU, then you are also likely using NVIDIA GeForce Experience. While the latter can be very useful for determining what settings your rig should lean towards, it also introduces a new service, called "NVIDIA Streamer Service", that is only used for streaming your games to SHIELD devices and is actually causing framerate issues in many recent games, including Grand Theft Auto V and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

To turn this unnecessary service completely off and regain your lost framerate, as well as prevent any associated crashes, click on the Start Button on the Windows taskbar, search for "Services" and then right-click its icon and select "Run as administrator".

Using this screenshot as a visual guide, scroll down through the "Services (Local)" list, find and right-click on "NVIDIA Streamer Service", then select "Properties". First click on "Stop" to turn the service off, confirm that you also want to stop "NVIDIA Streamer Network Service" and then select "Startup type: Disabled" from the drop-down menu for both of these services.

Tweak your GPU's Control Panel settings for improved performance, smoothness and visual fidelity

NOTE: The following applies to NVIDIA GPUs, but RadeonPro can be used to apply equivalent settings for AMD GPUs as well!

For improved in-game performance and smoothness

Open the NVIDIA Control Panel, then with the "Manage 3D settings" tab selected on the left-hand side of the window, select "Program Settings", find "Fallout 4 (fallout4.exe)" in the drop-down menu and edit the variables below:

Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: 1
Power Management Mode: Prefer maximum performance
Threaded Optimization: On

Remember to click the "Apply" button before close the NVIDIA Control Panel!

For improved visual fidelity

Also tweak the following variables in Fallout 4's "Program Settings" in the NVIDIA Control Panel to match the values below:

Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: Off
Texture Filtering - Quality: High quality

Finally, click the "Apply" button and you are good to go!

Manually tweak the graphics settings even further

I have listed dozens of tweakable .ini parameters at the end of his official NVIDIA graphics, performance & tweaking guide for Fallout 4. If you are willing to experiment with tweaks other than those listed in this post, first back-up the "Fallout4Prefs.ini" file in your "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Fallout4" folder, then open it with a text editor (e.g. Notepad++) and increase the following parameters above their "Ultra" values to improve visual fidelity, or decrease them in order to improve performance:



Actor Fade Tweak



fLODFadeOutMultActors=X [Ultra value: 15]



Decal Quantity Tweaks



uMaxDecals=X [Ultra value: 1000]

uMaxSkinDecals=X [Ultra value: 100]

uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=X [Ultra value: 40]



Distant Object Detail Tweaks



fTreeLoadDistance=150000.0000 [Ultra value: 75000.0000]
fBlockMaximumDistance=500000.0000 [Ultra value: 250000.0000]
fBlockLevel2Distance=220000.0000 [Ultra value: 110000.0000]
fBlockLevel1Distance=180000.0000 [Ultra value: 90000.0000]
fBlockLevel0Distance=120000.0000 [Ultra value: 60000.0000]



Here is a comparison screenshot taken with the above tweaks!



Godrays Quality Tweak



GR grid=128 [Ultra value: 64]



Grass Fade Tweaks



fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000 [Ultra value: 7000]
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000 [Ultra value: 7000]



Item Fade Tweak



fLODFadeOutMultItems=X [Ultra value: 15]



Object Fade Tweak



fLODFadeOutMultObjects=X [Ultra value: 15]



Particle Tweak



iMaxDesired=X [Ultra value: 750]



Screen Space Reflections Tweaks



NOTE: The following tweaks need to be applied via the in-game console, accessible by pressing the tilde key ("~" in-game!




SSRI [number]: (default value: 1) - adjusts the intensity of SSR

SSRBP [number]: (default value: 1) - adjusts the blending power of SSR

SSRAT [number]: (default value: 0.2) - adjusts the angle threshold of SSR

SSREFF [number]: (default value: 0.2) - adjusts the edge fade factor of SSR

SSRVBP [number]: (default value: 50) - adjusts the vertical blur power of SSR

SSRVAP [number]: (default value: 2) - adjusts the vertical alignment power of SSR

SSRVSP [0.0-1.0]: (default value: 0) - adjusts the vertical stretching power of SSR

SSRRSS [number]: (default value: 8) - adjusts the ray step scale of SSR



Shadow Distance Tweaks



fShadowDistance=17000 [Ultra value: 20000.0000]

fDirShadowDistance=17000 [Ultra value: 20000.0000]



Shadow Quality Tweak



NOTE: The following tweak has a ~ 30 FPS impact!



iShadowMapResolution=8192 [Ultra value: 4096]



uGrids Tweak



uGridsToLoad=7 [Default value: 5; Max value: 13]



Here is a comparison screenshot to exemplify the impact of tweaking uGrids!



NOTE: Just like in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the above tweak can break your save games, so to prevent that, please observe the following instructions from Andrew Burnes:

1.Start Fallout 4 and load up a saved game
2.Press Alt+Tab to switch out of Fallout 4 and move back to your Desktop
3.Edit your "Fallout4Prefs.ini" file as you would normally, modifying the "uGridsToLoad" variable to the desired value. Save the changes to your "Fallout4Prefs.ini" file and close it
4.Press Alt+Tab once again to switch back to Fallout 4
5.Open the in-game console by pressing the tilde key ("~" and type "refreshini"
6.Save your game to a new save slot, and it should now have the correct new "uGridsToLoad" value!

Water Effects Tweaks



NOTE: The quality of water effects cannot be improved in Fallout 4 due to their LOD levels having being hard-locked by Bethesda, but the following individual components can still be enabled/disabled to your liking:



bUseWaterDisplacements=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)
bUseWaterRefractions=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)
bUseWaterReflections=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)
bUseWaterDepth=1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)

Personal working configuration



For quick referencing, I have included below all of the tweaks, fixes and mods that I will personally be using to play Fallout 4:

NVIDIA GeForce Experience settings



Share: Disabled

SHIELD: Disabled



SweetFX/ReShade versions and preset



None, just yet!



NVIDIA Control Panel settings



Anisotropic filtering: 16x

Antialiasing - Gamma correction: Off

Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1

Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance

Texture filtering - Quality: High quality

Threaded optimization: On

Vertical sync: Adaptive (half refresh rate)

Thanks for putting the info together !

Thanks for all the info!

There is NO BETA MENU option for me at least... This is strange..

Well at least we got info, if ya need it. Glad I have not had any CTD's.

Good Job mate. You do the CHM's proud.

You have my respect punisher2504