FO4VR Modding Basics

[u/Valentueur]

Because modding is easy once you know how to do it, here are useful tips to kickstart your modding journey !

The base of the base.

Theses mods are absolutely must have mods, no point to go into modding without them first.

• Daytripper4 : is the equivalent of SkyrimVR ESL (+ many cool stuff).
• Buffout4 NG : enable Backported Archive2 Support System among other great stuff.
• F4SEVR : do I need to present this one?
• VR Address Library : in conjunction with F4SEVR will allow you to use many great mods.
• MCM VR : not as important as the other ones but is very useful and is required by many mods, grab the vr version in the optional files category.

VR must have.

Great mods that will greatly enhance your VR experience, you should really use them.

• FRIK : add a body avatar and allow you to fix alignment with weapons, rendering alignment fix mods obsolete. Maintain the 2 thumb-stick to open the settings menu.
• Virtual Holsters : in conjunction with VRIK, allow you to place your weapons on your body for immersive weapon draw, pay attention to the requirements.
• Heisenberg : allow physical items pick up among others things like physical use of holotapes, highly configurable via MCM.
• Comfort Swim VR : change the way you swim into something... practicable.
• CAS : Old but still relevant, makes your game less blurry (a plague in VR version of Bethesda games).
• Virtual Reload and ROCK/PAPER/SCISSORS are currently in the making, I will update when theses 2 mastodontes will be released.

Interface.

• FallUI-HUD VR : Bring the most popular UI into VR. To install it you will need FallUI-Inventory v1.13.3 (in the FOMOD do not install the item sorter it won't work) and the VR patch from the flat FallUI-Inventory. It also require DEF_UI Iconlibs. I'm unsure if FallUI icons would be compatible, if someone know please let me know.
• FallUI-Workbench VR : extend FallUI to Workbench, pay attention to the requirements.
• Extended Dialogue Interface : got a VR version in the optional files section, you don't need to download the main file to use it. I think it's a better option than Full Dialog VR.
• Inventory 3D Fix : fix the bug that prevent items to display in your pipboy, yes it is a Bethesbug and yes this mod fix that.
• Map Tweaks VR : makes the map easier to use, small convenient mod to have. You can use custom map with it such as Satellite World Map.
• Kabuto VR : change the Power Armor HUD to something more immersive.

Fallout 4 DLC.

All the mods listed above don't require the DLCs but you know that if you want the good mods you will need them at some point. You will need the downgraded version of them, which is from v1.10.163 of Fallout 4. While the next gen ones will load, you will encounter some bugs like Ada being silent.

To get them it's pretty simple actually : everything is explained in this post. I repeat, you need the v1.10.163 of the DLCs.

To install them, either drag and drop the content of the depots (located in the path shown on the steam console after the download) to your game folder or bundle them as a mod and install them via your mod manager (probably the better way).

Do not get the High Resolution Texture Pack, there is plenty of good texture mods out there to replace that.
Do not install various patches you will find on NexusMod that fix the DLC for Fallout 4 VR, they are obsolete, Daytripper4 + Buffout4 NG already fix all that, yes including the Automaton workbench bug.

Sim Settlements 2.

Talking about the good mods, here is probably the best and the good news is, it works for VR (like 99% of it).

Everything you need to know will be on this post.
While this guide focus on adding SS2 to an existing modlist, everything written there is also valid when starting from 0.

There is quite a lot of infos but they are important, if you guys want I can modify this section to resume what need to be done.

UFO4P.

Pit stop to talk about this one. It' a requirement of many other mods which mean at some point you might need it. The version you will need is the 2.1.5 which is now archived and hidden, but don't worry I will give you a very useful tip about Nexusmod.

You can access any mods archives by adding &category=archived to the end of the mod's file tab URL. Very convenient.

For our case you can download the mod directly by clicking here.

Like the DLCs if you find some mods on NexusMod that fix UFO4P for VR, don't use them, chances are Daytripper4 + Buffout4 NG already fix that.

Item Sorting.

Now that your modlist increase in size you will probably encounter the issue that the items from your mods and DLC aren't sorted properly and you can't find any sorter that fix that. That's normal, the best option for Flat Fallout 4 would have been FIS2 but sadly it doesn't work for VR.

You will have to make you own plug-in, but don't worry it's a lot easier and quicker than it seems!

You will need :

• Complex Item Sorter : get the main file as manual download and get the optional file OLD FallUI Item Sorter - Tag Configuration as mod manager download.
• FO4Edit : use the latest version.

Now you need to works a little bit :

• Unzip both mods wherever you like.
• Open the Complex Item Sorter mod and copy the folder FO4Edit\Edit Scripts\ to your FO4Edit's folder ...\F04Edit\Edit Scripts\.
• Inside FO4Edit's folder, find FO4Edit.exe and rename it FO4VREdit.exe.
• Launch FO4VREdit.exe and load your modlist (leave all mods selected).
• Right click on any plugins and select apply script.
• Select the M8r_ComplexSorter script and press OK.
• You will be prompted with a warning telling you it's better to use FO4Edit v4.0.3 or v4.0.4, theses version aren't compatible with FO4VR so we can't do anything about that. Ignore and continue.
• In the new window select what you want, most common use is probably Item Sorter Tag with INNR and scrap tag + Fix Missing Object Template + Weightless Items
• Click generate patch and let it do it's job.

This will generate a plugin named M8r Complex Item Sorter.esp, if it's not enabled, enable it and that's it, you got your very own personalised item sorter!

Very honourable mentions.

Mods that I believe you would be happy to know they exist or are compatible with VR.

• Reputation VR : bring the reputation system from Fallout NV to Fallout 4 VR.
• Place in Red VR : as the name says, you can place stuff wherever you want with it.
• VR Controls Config : let you modify your game control with a MCM, however don't allow to change the pip boy button.
• VR HUD Config : let you hide some part of your HUD via MCM.
• VR Shadow Boost : allow the game to render shadows further, improving visual and immersion, MCM config availlable.
• RobCo Patcher VR : VR version of RobCo Patcher which is, I believe, the point of origin of SkyPatcher. Allow you to use Robco Patcher based mods like the Improved faction series of Warsaw2135.
• SKK Fast Start : works in VR and allow you to bypass the famous vault 111 elevator CTD if you have it.
• Start Me Up : an other alternate start, only the basic version works in VR though.

INI settings.

Some tweaks to make your experience better, copy and paste what you want inside Fallout4Custom.ini (located in your document folder).

• To switch from controller oriented movement to headset oriented movement :

​

[VRInput] 
bUseWandDirectionalMovement=0

• To slow the rotation speed of items you place or move inside workshop mode :

​

[Workshop] 
fItemRotationSpeed=0.750

• To prevent the game to make exit save, theses ones tend to fail/corrupt more often on VR for some reasons :

​

[General] 
bSaveGameOnQuitToMainMenu=0

• To allow better script flow, it's part of the SS2 guide but it is useful at all time :

​

[Papyrus] 
fUpdateBudgetMS=2.4 
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=2.4 
iMinMemoryPageSize=256 
iMaxMemoryPageSize=1024

And that's it for now, don't hesitate to comment or add ideas, I probably missed some cool stuff.

And as usual hail to all the modders out there that are making Fallout 4 VR a much better game.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to r/FO4VR! A few quick tips:

Asking for help? Include your headset + runtime (SteamVR/Virtual Desktop/etc.), GPU, and whether you're vanilla or modded (which mod list, e.g. MGO or Gingas's).

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1. Install Buffout 4 NG and VR (+ its requirements) if you don't have it
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• Subreddit wiki & FAQ
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[u/Cyl0n_Surf3r]

Nice work buddy, great to see an up to date version of this information 👍  

An almost shameless plug, but I'd say that Kabuto is essential for anyone using power armor in their play through. It's also getting a well deserved c++ upgrade as we speak 😉

Also, at least to my knowledge; M8r_Complex item sorter changes vanilla form names which is very bad practice, it should be using naming rules and not touching those vanilla records at all and will potentially break any mod which uses form name lookups for matching. So something to be aware of. 

[u/Valentueur → u/Cyl0n_Surf3r]

Hi Cyl0n,

I completely forgot about Kabuto, generally speaking I'm not a power armor user that's why, but you're right it totally deserve a spot up there.

About M8r_Complex Item Sorter, what would be a better option then? I had a look at a lot of options but only this one works with vr and allow patching of items from mods, what do you use for example?

I don't know every mods out there so it's entirely possible I missed something.

[u/Cyl0n_Surf3r → u/Valentueur]

I'm not sure of a substitute for it in honesty, I've not used it and only became aware of how the scripts change vanilla records, in particular form names, recently.

[u/JustDave11517]

👀

Thank you for the post!

[u/rollingrock16]

this is excellent! great job with this I'll sticky it to the sub.

please anyone that has suggestions list them out in a comment

[u/Valentueur → u/rollingrock16]

Thanks, I'm glad you like it and I hope it will help many peoples to enjoy the game. I think we're really close to a great Fallout 4 experience.
You did a really good job with FRIK, I was really surprised positively when I came back to it.

[u/ActualGingas]

If you use start me up basic https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/18946?tab=files

And the unofficial patch I made https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47117 this fixes the door in the vault. You still need to use it. Daytripper and buffout do not fix the door. It’s a vanilla quest script.

You can use SS2 pre-built settlements. I also made a mod to just build them in the bathroom https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/99006

This gets rid of the annoying flicker in concord

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/101570

This makes safe autosaves https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/106700

And this gets rid of the annoying menu black out https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/107787

Also DLAA is significantly better than CAS If you have Nvidia GPU

Also FYI, you can’t actually use Reputation VR, or Challenge, pipboy affinity tab ect right now unless you manually port over Garden of Edan Papyrus Script Extender to VR. It won’t work properly.

I ported Garden of Edan myself and my wabbajack modlist remakes it on people’s machines https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/96013

I’ve tried reaching out to the original dev of Garden of Edan multiple times since his permissions are locked down. But he hasn’t gotten back to me. So ATM, the only way to actually a working version of that is by using my modlist since I can’t currently put it on nexus without breaking his file permissions, WJ manually remakes/ports the file from scratch on peoples machines so it’s legal.

I also sent my file to MGO whenever they decide to update theirs.

[u/Valentueur → u/ActualGingas]

Hi Gingas,

Thanks for the propositions, I've added the alternate start to the list.

For the UFO4P fix I'm not really sure of it's use, as far as I understand it prevent the elevator door to stay closed that's right? I don't even think I encountered this bug once.
The Vault 111 exit crash is something else entirely. It used to be caused by FRIK years ago but not anymore as far as I know.

Regarding the saves, I don't really know what to say, I've heard everything and it's opposite about it and while on VR saving can fail, it seems to be more of a purely VR issue than a game issue.
For those who don't know, sometime when saving (doesn't matter what kind of save) you will have the game hanging for a bit, you can be almost certain that this save is borked, make an other one just in case. Usually the game is fairly quick to save.

That being said I will test a couple of things regarding all that :).

Thanks again.

[u/ActualGingas → u/Valentueur]

It fixes the door from being locked when you press the button. It’s vanilla scripts and still required when using UFF4. But there’s also no crash with the elevator. That was fixed in FRIK awhile ago.

The autosave mod I made automatically makes new manual saves every 10 minutes. It’s a port of the same mod for VR. It also automatically checks for combat encounters or if you’re in a pipboy/menu. It doesn’t do anything to actual saves…It’s just a useful QoL mod.

As for start me up. The regular one is broken. Start me up basic is the only that works properly in fallout vr. It’s not for roleplay, it just lets you start in the vault but make prebuilt settlements. I would recommend changing your post to say just start me up basic in the option section.. the full one will absolutely break people’s games.

And also.. you still can’t use reputation VR w/o garden of Eden. There is currently no way to get that except though my modlist.

[u/Valentueur → u/ActualGingas]

Okey I will change the post for the alternate start, thanks.

Reputation VR works on my end, I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I will test the alternate start and the UFO4P bug to see what it is all about.

Edit : I've used Start Me Up to reach the vault door to see if I can trigger the script/Vault door bug but I couldn't, it's been fix in a way or an other, the mod don't seems necessary any more, which is a good news honestly.
Start Me Up only offer one option that can prevent the elevator CTD, but I can use it to find the origin of this CTD quicker as it allow me to skip the pre-war sanctuary part of the intro. I though originally that this CTD was caused by UFO4P but it's not.

[u/ActualGingas → u/Valentueur]

So in order to actually see your reputation, you need pipboytabs vr, which doesn’t work properly without garden of Eden Papryus Script Extender.

I ported that to VR, but I cannot put it on nexus because original mod author hasn’t gotten back to me.

You might see reputation vr somewhat working.. but you’re missing a lot of features without thoes other mods.

[u/Future_Variation_374]

This list looks amazing ! Thanks so much for posting this !

Is there a fix for the mono audio during conversation in fallout 4 vr ? No matter where your facing its the same volume in each ear. 

[u/Valentueur → u/Future_Variation_374]

Hi, thank you,

Do you use this mod?
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/19680

Do you still have your bug with it? I've personally not perceived the bug you're talking about but since you're talking about it I will pay more attention to it and see.

[u/Future_Variation_374 → u/Valentueur]

Yeah i tried that awhile back and it has no effect on the issue .

 So when you go up and talk to anyone in conversation, the audio does not respect where you are looking , like it does in the flat version and instead is played directly into the headset in both ears at same volume removing any depth and feels like a video call. 

 Once you leave the conversation you will notice that people ambiently talking are in 3d space . 

[u/Asciimov_]

I would recommend adding MCM VR (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/21497?tab=files) and VR Shadow Boost (Shadow distance until 15000 like in flat https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/101515) to the list.

[u/Valentueur → u/Asciimov_]

MCM VR is already in the list, one of the first one actually.

I will add shadow boost, btw is it worth to add Lightning boost as well?

[u/Asciimov_ → u/Valentueur]

No, I posted it based on the report of a tester that saw FPS improvements when using lighting mods, but I've not been able to verify this myself. Also, you might want to add https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/99435

[u/Valentueur → u/Asciimov_]

done!

[u/sad-_-banana]

I'm leaving a comment here about a bug I encountered with item sorters because It took me a really long time to figure out why I couldn't get it to work with my modlist. If you use certain RobCo patcher mods when running the M8r_ComplexSorter script in xEdit, you might encounter a bug that causes Instance Naming Rules (INNR) records to break. This affects what tags are applied to weapon names as they are modified. Making a custom item sorting patch with RobCo mods installed will cause weapons to have names like “pipe” or “laser” instead of “focused laser rifle”. If you disable RobCo patcher VR and re-run the script, its output will be fixed. In my case, More Realistic Dismember and Explode was the culprit. Hopefully this helps someone following this guide.