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Steam Deck28 Reports
One of the best games in the series with the worst engine in the series. Works fine but crashes too often nowadays to be enjoyable
10w TDP
Crashes every 30 to 40 minutes
Occasionally game would not launch at all. I would have to check the files then it would start. I tried to play the game despite its very frequent crashes and even with autosaves its just unbearable for me to keep playing. I just wanted to play for nostalgia reasons.
There are occasional crashes, but no worse than under Windows. It is a Bethesda engine game afterall.
Works perfectly for me when switched to experimental. No crashes or bugs reported as of now.
Multiple reports of crashes and lag when not switched to a different compatibility. Don't try to run out of box.
protontricks 22370 quartz lavfilters
Radio station songs via the Pip-Boy randomly replaced by silence (low volume clicking audible while they should be playing), fixed by using protontricks to install quartz and lavfilters.
Fallout 3 has many bugs, I recommend also installing Mod organiser 2 via the modorganizer2-linux-installer script and used it to install the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 patch and recommended anciliary mods from nexusmods which greatly enhance the game.
About 1-3 hours, the game will just crash. Combat usually, but unsure if VATS was the culprit.
I tinkered to try and stop the crashes, but I'm unsure what's causing them.
Some journal text
locked at 40 or 45 fps, your choice. Stays under 10W constantly and drops to low 10s very rarely
Use touchscreen to select resolution/graphics options
Very stable once Proton Experimental is used, made it though the entire Operation Anchorage DLC with no issue, exploration with no crashes
PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 %command%
When using sleep/wake audio would break often
Used the unofficial essential fixes from https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Fallout_3 I included a video tutorial I made that shows how to apply those fixes :)
had to add xlive.dll (google) to basegame directory, probably only necissary for german version
When i put the deck to sleep while the game was paused and came back about 30 mins later the audio was pretty crackly. Relaunched the game and it went away.
Game crashes evey now and then for no noticable reason, its happened both in combat and simply walking around. Its not too bad if you save reasonably frequently.
All played hours on SD, You do need to use VATS more than with k&m as shooting without is pretty inaccurate. Save the game often!
Graphics settings
Have to use touchscreen to press play each time you load the game
Pipboy text is pretty small, but not illegible
Game seems to crash after a certain period, possibly when you enter new regions in the game but not always. people say 1 hour but that's not accurate in my opinion.
You can increase graphics up to ultra and still get hours of play with no issues capped at 40 fps
The launcher can only be controlled with the touchpad
Rare crashes after switching to GE-Proton and back
Saved games did not transfer from the cloud
Nothing major, I noticed a small stuttering for a micro second. It happened twice in the two hours that I played (or whatever I played it a bit)
I like using the xbox 360 mapping as it is more mainstream and embedded with the game. However if you want I bet you can use a community layout and turn 360xbox controller off in the game settings. Runs great. Happy with it.
Lowered the TDP to 10W and set the game to High with 2x AA
Some text in the Pipboy is difficult to read
The game crashes once every hour. Then you go back to your last save. So, saving frequently is important. Downgrading to Proton 6.3 didnt fixed for me.
Honestly the harder thing is playing Fallout with a controller, i've tried to keep on third person but the game is design with mouse in mind and playing with a controller requires some getting use to. Im using VATs way more than im used to. Otherwise the game crashes every hour back into the steam deck UI. You can relaunch and it will load your last save but that may be a dealbreaker for some. Performance wise is very good, being an older game the Deck has no problem running on higher settings. Ive put on high with 2x AA and fixed the TDP to 10W. Got 60 FPS locked and more than 4 hours of gameplay on a single charge.
FPS cap at 40
Launcher window pops up on start. I used the touchscreen to select the right resolution and change the graphics options to Ultra.
Manual keyboard needs to be invoked to name your character.
Sounds like there were some compatability issues previously but the latest version on Proton runs this perfcectly. If it wasn't for the launcher window and the single time a keyboard is needed, this would be verified.
Needed to switch Proton to prevent crashes
Works fine but need to switch Proton because of game crashes on regular. Used 6.3-8 fixed crashes.
I've set low settings too. I get working main menu, and when I click (touch) Play Now it goes to the second menu that shows "New Game", and then it freezes. I didn't tried any other fixes like MediaFoundation etc.
Once the controller buttons and configs work this would prove to be a great title on steam deck or Linux.
Touch screen on launch or virtual keyboard
Joysticks worked great however none of the buttons, especially interact/action, would not work when pressed. Also during character creation you would need to use virtual keyboard + RT to confirm and move to next window. Steam default controller configs did not match with what the game was looking for.
Had to use touchscreen to set settings in initial launch window
Game initially started in 900x600, had to change res in launcher using touchscreen to 1280x800, ran quite well, could still get a smooth 60fps even at 5w TDP with the defaulted-to High settings, no noticeable (new) bugs, just the ones present on every platform for this game
It's mostly enjoyable to play. Crashes are infrequent but I have issues listening to GNR songs. Other stations have no issues.
Galaxy News Radio causes FPS drops when songs play. Usually this only happens briefly. Sometimes the lag is so bad and dropps the FPS down to 7-20. Restarting the game seems to fix this.
Windowed mode didn't sync with FPS limit.
Galaxy News Radio causes FPS drops when song plays.
In Megaton, when you choose to help Moriarty, go and get or not his money and when coming back to the bar, the game will start to struggle and when you speak to anyone, the game just crashes. No errors, no window, nothing. The game just freezes and you have to restart.
After playing a while, sometimes the game start to struggle, the struggle becomes in stuttering and suddenly it just dies. You have to restart, for now I've only found it on Moriarty's bar.
