Aggression — salamand3r

Retextures

This will cover the vanilla weapons, or at least as many as possible. Later sections will cover weapon add-on packs, as well as two “lazy mode” options.

These are meant to be used in order - TTW-only packs will be marked, and several packs have special instructions. Failing to follow these will result in bugs.

Please note anywhere I mention to “hide” files, you can delete them instead.

WTH - Weapon Textures from Heaven

The most broadly compatible pack - and it generally looks amazing. TTW users should grab the .32 rifle patch as well.

Weapon Enhancement Pack (TTW)

Covers a few FO3-specific weapons. DO NOT USE ANY OPTIONAL FILES. They will break your game.

R91 and Friends (TTW)

Covers the standard assault rifle, Infiltrator, Wanda, and the Perforator - excellent retextures all around.

DKS and Friends

Covers the sniper rifle, including unique and TTW variants. Again, top notch work.

Shovel and Friend

Who’d have thought this even needed a texture?

Varmint Rifle - Retextured - updated

Another Millenia - Chinese Pistol Replacer for (TTW)

C.A.R and OUR Friends (TTW)

xamie returns with more friends! An excellent vanilla+ remade version of the Chinese Assault Rifle and the associated TTW uniques.

Another Lincolns Repeater Retexture (TTW)

WAP Gauss Rifle

Another full replacer - since it’s realistically the best overall option.

Dead Money BAR retex

I don’t know if anyone even uses this gun, but here’s a texture anyway.

IHWT - Improved Heavy Weapons Textures

Hide the meshes folder, and all textures with names starting with: tesla, plasma, 1stpersonplasma, 1stpersontesla, nvdlc051stpersonplasma, nvdlc04redglare, 1stpersonnvdlc04redglare, dlc03tesla, dlc031stpersontesla. This process is mandatory, as several of those either conflict with other packs or are just broken.

Laser RCW red glow

A minor change, but a logical one. Assuming you are following this guide, don’t use the EVE version.

Nail Gun Retexture

Not commonly used in vanilla, but EDGE users especially will want this texture.

Holorifle Re-Projected

Disable the esp - you will have problems otherwise. You may prefer the one included in Weapon Textures from Heaven, I can’t choose for you.

Mothership Zeta Crew Weapon Retexture (TTW)

You need to open the mod in MO2 and make a copy of the file named "dlc05alienpistol.dds” (inside the 1handpistol folder), rename it to "dlc051stpersonalienpistol.dds” then paste it back to the 1handpistol folder and let it overwrite.

Millenia Double-Barrel Shotgun Replacer for TTW

Great replacer for the Point Lookout double barrel - highly compatible and equally recommended.

Physically Based Plasma Rifles

Another Bale instant classic. Be aware - although this uses a scriptrunner, it also uses default file paths for the meshes. For the non-technically inclined, this means it must load after anything else that touches the plasma rifles, including Lumen. If you aren’t seeing these ingame, make sure nothing is overwriting the .nif files.

One-Click Replacer Options

The following are both simple one-click bulk weapon replacers. You can also follow the rest of the list and add these on top.

There are a few caveats - WAP can be heavier on performance, especially in crowded areas. aWRP is one I have not extensively tested, although it has a very good reputation.

WAP Year 1 and TTW patch

For higher spec PCs. High-quality replacers, however the limited coverage can result in some significant visual inconsistencies. Do not use the 4K version. TTW users should use this patch. Please note - WAP doesn’t cover every weapon, or even a majority. You will have a significant visual quality differential between WAP and non-WAP weaponry. This may annoy you, or it may not - but least I can do is warn you.

Performance warning - these weapon meshes are very complex, and can cause performance issues, particularly in areas where a large amount of NPCs are using covered weapons. It can also cause loading stutter with mods like Armed to the Teeth Redux, since it will force multiple to load at once. Those with lower spec machines should stick with aWRP below.

In addition to the full pack, you may also want these standalones - note, several of these are also required by the TTW patch linked. NV users can use the plugins when applicable. TTW users should use the Scriptrunner patch linked above. The ones not listed in the TTW patch don’t require any special patching for TTW.

WAP 10mm Pistol Remaster
WAP 12.7 SMG Rebirth
Laser Rifle Rebirth
WAP F4NV Laser Pistol and Pew-Pew
WAP Laser RCW
WAP F4NV Recharger Weaponry
WAP Single Shotgun
WAP Lever Action Shotgun
WAP Bozar and LMG

If you aren’t a fan of the WAP anti-materiel rifle, the F4NV - Anti Material Rifle Replacer is another great option - use it with PIZZASPULUNKER’s scriptrunner and make sure to disable the original ESP.

aWRP

Built on Millenia’s excellent work, which is now a community resource. More coverage than WAP, but due to the way they are implemented you will need to patch them to use both. I recommend choosing WAP or this, not both, unless you are a more advanced user.

Melee Weapon Replacer Pack

This is VERY based on personal tastes, since it totally changes the feel/look of the melee weapons it replaces - the quality is extremely high, but you find that they heavily impact the vanilla look too significantly for your tastes.

Weapon Adjacent Textures

These aren’t specifically weapon textures, but I do recommend them. Load after Lumen/EVP to ensure proper function.

HQ Goo Piles

For plasma deaths.

HQ Ash Piles

For laser deaths.

Atomization Restored

While not strictly a texture, it fits very well in the section - comes highly recommended!

Enhanced Blood Textures for NV v2_22c

A golden oldie - it still works, and works well.

Bullet Trails

A very subjective choice, but I just love the look. If they’re too much for you, you can also try the Subtler Bullet Trails addon. There is also a duration reducer available in the MEG guide and in #guide-resources on the official discord.

PSRO - Peripheral Scope Reticle Overhaul

Excellent overhaul of vanilla reticles, with some additional features. Be sure to get patches for any of the weapon adding mods that you use.

Kyu's Ballistics - Fixed

To quote the mod page - “New muzzle flashes, tracers, bullet impacts, everything relating to visual effects ballistic weapons use is updated.”

I’m told that is pretty descriptive.

Weapon Add-ons

These are mods adding extra weapons. They will function in both TTW and vanilla New Vegas. They are build with modern methods, and are safe to use in a correctly configured game.

For TTW users - Sweet6Shooter has another excellent mod - SWEEP - in progress for weapons. It will perform a similar function to STARS. It will be added as a recommendation upon release and testing.

Note there is some overlap between these packs - as in they add the same weapons. They do come with ini files with which you can disable overlapping (or any other) weapons to your preference. Since CFWR tends to be the lowest visual quality, I prefer to disable duplicates from that mod instead of the others.

(thanks Conzo for detailing this out)

Between AM and CFWR the overlaps are -

Pancor
Desert Eagle
Mauser Pistol
CAWS

Between Tactapack and CFWR -

Classic Power Fist
AK112

There is a customized ini from SamsyTheUnicorn available on my discord, pinned in the guide-resources channel.

Another Millenia

Another mod based on Millenia’s weapons - top notch weapons, and top-notch implementations. The shop and supplemental mods are also great to have.

Tactapack

A pack of Tactaghouls various weapons. Great stuff, especially for end-game players. Get the hotfix as well.

Tesla Weapons Pack

Unique energy weapons with a great aesthetic. You will want this patch to avoid some visual glitches.

Photon Laser Weapon Pack

Another set of energy weapons - all great stuff.

OWB Atomic Weapons

DLC-specific, but an excellent pair of energy weapons and a great thematic fit for Old World Blues.

VIP - Shotguns

Great set of shotguns for shotty fans - make sure to read the Article on the mod page for install instructions.

ZL Armaments Remastered

Excellent set of classic modded weapons - remastered and re-released by the OG author themselves - excellent addition!

Project Nevada Legacy - Tesla Rifle Prototype

Like the ZL weapons above, another weapon resurrected from the ashes that are Project Nevada. Recommended.

Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered

DO NOT USE ANY OLDER VERSIONS OF THIS MOD. This is an excellent add-on pack that adds and properly distributes dozens of classic weapons and unique variants. While some of the texture work isn’t of the highest crispification, the variety is insane. Note, as with WAP but in the opposite direction. Some of the textures are very low quality, and will be inconsistent when paired with the rest of the guide. Keep this in mind when installing.

Animations

By request, these are what I personally use. This assumes you’ve already installed the Anniversary Animation Pack from VNVE/WSG. If not, install it now.

First, just to be clear - there are a TON of choices for animation mods these days. Basically anything using kNVSE is fine to use. Just searching the New Vegas Nexus using the term “kNVSE” will give you more options than you could want.

Side note about kNVSE - one of the limitations of older animation packs like Asurah’s or the original WAR is that FO3/NV were set up to give animations to each weapon type instead of each individual weapon. This means a lot of shared animations and visual oddities when certain guns behave atypically. Techniques and testing were also much more limited in the past - DO NOT USE Asurah’s or the original WAR (Weapon Animation Replacer). While they are artistically excellent, they are from a bygone era of technical immaturity, and will cause tons of bugs, crashes, and glitches in your game.

These are what I use - since my priority is for animations to not be distracting, they aren’t the most showy animations. Hitman’s animations are absolutely top friggin’ notch and the fact that I don’t use them for guns is not a negative - they just don’t fit with the way I play. They may well fit with the way you want to play, so I encourage you to test. Animation mods are safe to add and remove mid-game, so have fun with it.

Make sure you check requirements on the individual mod pages - many will have secondary requirements or recommendations.

This section will have some significant overlap with the MEG and (soon) WSG guides. Take care not to duplicate mods or functionality.

Non Weapons

JAM or Just Sprint animation replacers

A huge improvement, and necessary to fix some clipping with some weapons when sprinting.

B42 Loot - Animated Physical Item Pickup

Not to everyone’s taste, but I enjoy the animations. Note this can cause crashes with some meshes. I don’t know the reason. For crashing with Spice of Life armors, there is a patch available on my discord.

B42 Interact

Again, not for everyone, but I find again it adds immersion - make sure to download the special Hitman packs linked on the mod page.

B42 Inject

As before, not for all players - however, especially with MUX and playing in Hardcore, I appreciate that it makes Stimpacks (and other drugs) function more like later Fallout games.

Reforged Platinum Chip - B42 Interact Compatible

Added in this section since this is pretty much the only time you will ever see it.

Weapons

Note regarding this section - for the sake of simplicity, I have included only the large packs. The great part about kNVSE is you can mix and match these, along with single replacers as well. rockbiter has released several animation mods that aren’t included in these particular packs, but based on the way animators have release their mods, eventually newer ones will also get added to a pack - and I will then add them here.

Finishing up

At this point, congratulate yourself - you’re almost completely refreshed the look of New Vegas and/or TTW.

Just two more sections to go!

War. War never changes.