Modding is already part and parcel of the Fallout community. It’s the lifeblood of Bethesda’s fanbase in one sense, with modders putting as much time into their creations as some of the developers themselves.
But now NVIDIA is getting involved in the scene as well, offering up $USD40,000 for some of the best Fallout 4 creations from the community.
The competition is meant to coincide with the proper release of the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, Bethesda’s official toolset for modding. Creators will be able to submit mods in one of the following four categories:
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- Status: Mods manipulating the way things work in the game, like dialogue, audio mods, patches, UI changes, and Utilities
- Inventory: Mods based around creating weapons, enhancements to existing weapons, apparel, aids/chems, miscellaneous items, and more
- Data: Mods focusing on new quests and Fallout 4’s Workshop mode
- Map: Mods featuring new environmental elements— new towns, cities, vegetation, environmental art, and more
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The top five mods for each category will be handpicked by NVIDIA, with the finalists going forward to a public-wide vote starting July 11. The judging criteria is supposedly based on how original and creative the mod is, how fun it is to play, and the general polish and professional quality.
People interested in entering can do so via the NVIDIA landing page. You’ll have to use the Creation Kit Mod from Bethesda to qualify, and you’ll have to upload the mod to the Bethesda website as well.
Once it’s been approved and uploaded there, you’ll be able to submit the Bethesda.net mod URL, along with a video, screenshot and description of your mod on the NVIDIA landing page. You’ve got until July 3 to have everything uploaded, and if you’re fortunate enough to win, or at least make it to the public vote, this is what you’ll get:
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Grand Prize: $USD10,000, Fallout 4 custom PC, Engineering support from NVIDIA
1st Place category winners: $USD5,000, Bethesda Gift Bag, Geforce GTX GPU
Finalists: Bethesda Gift bag, GeForce GTX GPU
It’s interesting that NVIDIA didn’t specify what GPU they’d put up on offer. I wouldn’t expect finalists to be getting a GTX 1080 or a Titan X, but there’s a world of difference between, say, a GTX on the FinFet 14nm manufacturing process and a second-hand first-generation Maxwell chip.
But the real intriguing element from all of this is the “engineering support” from NVIDIA. Precisely what that entails is unknown, and I’ve emailed NVIDIA for clarification. The prospect that an NVIDIA engineer might have coding or optimisation tips for mods that could then filter down into the community is incredibly cool, however, so we’ll see how that pans out.
Either way, this is a neat little move from NVIDIA for an already lively community. The Fallout 4 mod scene has already spawned some remarkable creations — it’ll be interesting to see what people make when there’s extra motivation.
Comments
9 responses to “NVIDIA Throws Money At The Fallout 4 Mod Train”
Has anyone thought of doing a nude mod yet?
Imagine Fallout 4 but with massive dongs!
Check out the nexus, women = done, dunno about wangs tho.
all my mods stopped being recognized by FO4 for some reason so i cant play it anymore. sad times 🙁
So no chicks with dicks?
Any dudes with tits?
I’m curious if you’re manually installing mods yourself… If so, that’s likely your issue.
Nexus Mod Manager has ways around Bethesda’s bullshit of disabling mods that aren’t directly from their mod site anytime you load the game. You can do it manually also, fairly easily, but it’s a bit much to explain here.
using the nexus mod manager, it was all working fine, left it for a while, and ever since that waseland dlc after automatron came out it just stopped recognizing them, even if i disabled it.
I know a lot of people had issues with mods not working when that DLC came out, that was because Bethesda changed something with the plugins loading… At the time I was using a manual workaround, but mod manager has absolutely been updated to do it automatically.
Personally I’d reinstall the game and mod manager, and remove the ini files in the ‘My Games’ Fallout 4 directory when doing so. Then try one or two mods at first to test it… Because there’s really just no reason it shouldn’t be working beyond something messing with the file base.
Cue AMD owners complaining this is part of NVIDIA’s monopoly/aim at world domination/stifling the competition etc.
(Disclaimer: have nothing against AMD cards. Do have something against fanboys on both sides).
Heh. Well this should be hilarious.
Prediction:
The judges will pick something slick and sexy enough for a TV spot, that isn’t just, “We fixed the fucking game,” because admitting that wouldn’t look really great.
The most popular mods on the Nexus like better item sorting, improved dialogue options, unofficial patch and other things that just generally should’ve been there to start with, will be passed over for the big money/PR prize, getting a token acknowledgement award.
The modding community will set everything on fire.
I’d like to think this whole thing isn’t some PR stunt, but merely that some Nvidia exec really likes Fallout 4 and this is their way of buying some fresh mods.
I’m assuming you’ve updated NMM to the latest version? There were some changes to get around how Bethesda disabled the mods.