Fallout 3 Vista help

This page is created to assist Vista users playing Fallout 3 and experiencing problems.

Radio Issues
Registry Path: 32Bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout3\Installed Path 64Bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout3\Installed Path Buffers: 4 Duration: 10 or 15 (10 works really nice for me) Maximum Voice Count: 128
 * For Garbled Music: Some users are able to remedy this problem by installing the MAD DirectShow Library Filter, available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/maddxshow
 * For Stuttering Music: For users playing on Vista systems, many people have found been able to fix the problem by recompiling the audio files associated with the problem. Fallout 3 Nexus has hosted such files here: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=350
 * For Creative Sound Cards: If you cannot listen to radio, experience problems like comments being skipped, choppy radio music (it's not a static on the channel), try to get ALchemy which restores EAX support on Vista and eliminates those issues. Settings for Alchemy are:
 * Some say, ALchemy or any other software working alike to restore surround, causes game hang-ups. When I was trying to play with Duration settings on 15, it was hanging up, but when I lowered it to 10, no game crashes, or radio issues anymore. You can get Alchemy from Creative's web page. Goekhan 16:37, 4 November 2008 (UTC)


 * For Realtek HD Integrated Sound Chipsets: If you experience problems like choppy radio music, get Realtek 3D SoundBack (Beta 0.1 at the time of this writing) from Realtek's site, and your problems should be fixed.
 * The Realtek 3D SoundBack Is used only to restore sound to OLDER games. Anything created after 2006 will not be improved and will most likely suffer from having SoundBack on. Using Soundback with Fallout 3 will cause crashes almost instantly when the game is loaded.


 * For Asus Xonar Sound Cards: For radio stuttering problems and/or issues with 3D positional audio in Vista or Windows 7, try installing the latest driver from Asus and enabling GX mode in the Xonar Audio Center.
 * Note that similarly to Realtek's 3D SoundBack solution, GX under Vista/Win7 is a hack for enabling the use of advanced sound features in games made for Windows XP or older. You may experience other issues with Fallout 3 or other programs (especially games made especially for Vista or newer) when GX mode is enabled. Fortunately, however, it is not difficult to toggle the GX feature on and off in the Xonar Audio Center.