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Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition > Guides > Doggy Friend's Guides

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Play time counter and launcher crash fix

By Doggy Friend

Easy way to fix issues with play time not being tracked and a crash after pressing "Play" in the launcher.

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Created by

Doggy Friend
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Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

20 May @ 2:55am

3 Oct @ 9:14pm

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Guide Index

Overview

The problems

Solution #1 - Renaming files

Solution #2 - Modifying preferred graphics processor

Conclusion

Comments

The problems

Sometimes Steam does not track play time for Fallout 3, instead it tracks time spent in the game launcher. Another common problem is crash right after pressing "Play" in the launcher.

Solution #1 - Renaming files

This solution fixes play time counter issue ONLY!

Right click "Fallout 3" in your Steam library.
Choose "Manage".
Choose "Browse local files".
In the folder that was opened at the previous step note two files: "Fallout3.exe" and "Fallout3Launcher.exe".
Rename "Fallout3Launcher.exe" into "Fallout3Launch.exe" (this is just an example of a new name, any name that is not "Fallout3.exe" or "Fallout3Launcher.exe" will do).
Make a copy of "Fallout3.exe".
Rename the copy of "Fallout3.exe" into "Fallout3Launcher.exe".

That's it. Now Steam will be launching the game itself while skipping the launcher, so time will be tracked correctly. If you need to access the launcher, you will have to do that manually using "Fallout3Launch.exe" in the folder that was used to rename ".exe" files.

Solution #2 - Modifying preferred graphics processor

Alternatively, the issue may also be fixed by making sure that the game launcher and the game itself are using high performance processor. This solution was tested on the Windows laptop that has integrated graphics and high performance NVIDIA processor, so the following steps will reflect that:

Open NVIDIA Control Panel.
Navigate to Manage 3D Settings.
Select Program Settings.
Add or select Fallout3.exe in "Select a program to customize" section.
Choose high performance processor in "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program" section.
Repeat previous two steps for Fallout3Launcher.exe: add or select Fallout3Launcher.exe in "Select a program to customize" section and choose high performance processor in "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program" section.
Apply changes.
Make sure that high performance processor is selected as "Graphics Adapter" in Options section of the Launcher. If you cannot achieve that, try selecting "Global parameters" back in "Manage 3D Settings" section of NVIDIA Control Panel and choose high performance processor as a global parameter.

Now Steam will be tracking time spent in both, the launcher and the game. The possible launcher crash should be fixed by that solution as well.

Windows 11 update: once I moved to Windows 11 this solution stopped fixing the time counter issue, but it still fixes the crash. If you know how to solve this, I would appreciate it if you could let me know!

Conclusion

Feel free to contact me by any means if you have further questions, I will be happy to help!

31 Comments

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donnyshankles01 4 hours ago

thank you much worked like a charm. you are a gentleman and a scholar

Doggy Friend [author] 5 Nov @ 7:20pm

Greenshot, that's strange.
Have you tried this:
Fallout 3->Properties->Installed Files->Verify Integrity Of Game Files

Greenshot31 5 Nov @ 7:02pm

i have a big issue, it only appears fallout3.exe, the other ones aren't there, i'm trapped

dxsaster 21 Oct @ 8:46am

thank you, this also fixed steam input

larr1_lobster 16 Oct @ 8:00am

i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love you

Doggy Friend [author] 4 Sep @ 9:13am

KingGorilla, there are three section in ProgramSettings:
1) Select a program to customize - This is where you select Fallout3 and Fallout3Launcher
2) Select the preferred graphics processor for this program - THIS is where you are supposed to select "High Performance Processor".
3) Specify the settings for this program - There is no need to modify anything here.

KingGorilla 4 Sep @ 5:29am

To follow these are the features available to me after selecting "Program Settings" after selecting "Manage 3D settings" Fallout 3.exe is selected as of now for me as a program. Not sure where to go from here

KingGorilla 4 Sep @ 5:22am

Image scaling
Ambient Occlusion
Ansiotropic Filtering
Antialiasing
Antialiasing Gamm correction
Antialiasing Mode
Antialiasing setting
Antialiasing Transparency
Background application max frame rate
CUDA-GPUs
CUDA-Sysmem Fallback Policy
Low Latency Mode
Max Frame Rate
Monitor Technology
Multi Frame Sampled AA
Open GL GDI Rendering GPU
Power management Mode
Texture Filtering - Ansiotropic Sample Optimization
Texture Filtering - Quality
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization
Threaded Optimization
Triple Buffering
Vertical Sync
VIrtual Reality pre rendered frames
Virtual Reality Variable Rate Super Sampling
Vulkan/Open GL present method

These are the options in program settings Fallout 3 exe

Doggy Friend [author] 3 Sep @ 11:58am

KingGorilla, "High Performance Processor" is not a literal option. It's a general name for an alternative to integrated graphics. If there is still any confusion, feel free to list your available options here.

KingGorilla 3 Sep @ 10:58am

So for whatever reason, " High Performance Processor" isnt an option I can select. Why is that?

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