I'm using the latest beta Nvidia drivers on a fresh install of build 7057.
Interestingly, The game appeared to work fine until I went outdoors. While still indoors I put the game through it's paces: cleaned out the band of raiders holed up inside the northern-most ComSat array. Usual indoor fun with VATS and the shotgun. Within a few seconds of going outside, the game crashes.
One peculiar thing I note is that the crash causes no perceptible slowdown in the system. Maybe 7 is better at cleaning up after killed processes than its predecessor. Any game crash in Vista would cause a massive slowdown for nearly a minute and 7 behaves as if I had just closed Calculator. On 2 GB of memory.
According to the application event logs:
Code:
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 3/18/2009 2:16:59 PM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: COMPY
Description:
Faulting application name: Fallout3.exe, version: 1.4.0.6, time stamp: 0x4981c35c
Faulting module name: nvd3dum.dll, version: 8.15.11.8171, time stamp: 0x49a75061
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00272917
Faulting process id: 0x5c4
Faulting application start time: 0x01c9a7f5a8e93ac5
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Fallout3.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\nvd3dum.dll
Report Id: f82d5a93-13e8-11de-9c3b-00508db2be5d
... Nvidia is the culprit. I know we're only in Beta, not primetime, but then again it took over a year for Nvidia to not occasionally bluescreen me from the desktop, let alone from inside an intense video game. I know ATI had a few problems, but their crashes seem to be fixed already.
I'd like to know if anyone else on Nvidia hardware has similar problems. I'll keep trying a few things, such as different video settings.
8800 GTS 640MB
On a side note about Windows Update forcing the beta drivers:
Microsoft has been irritated with driver developers due to the perceived instability of Vista they largely caused. In a way, it makes it easier for them to say "Well, we did our best. We've provided you with the latest drivers they have. Blame them." I don't blame them for not wanting to put a third of the perceived stability of their flagship product solely in the hands of Nvidia, and Nvidia doesn't want people to stop buying their products because it doesn't work on the OS that came with their OEM computer. So they're holding hands on this one, instead of deferring to one another. Hopefully.