Fallout Is Having A Big Modding Moment Again
If you have been pulled back into Fallout thanks to the TV show, you are not alone. Nexus Mods is currently running a full on Fallout modding marathon to sync up with the second season, and the community is going wild with new creations for both Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3.
The author of the original article jumped back into New Vegas after rewatching the first season and started poking around the new uploads on Nexus. There are plenty of cool toys in the mix already. For example, you can grab a unique upgradable outfit specifically for the Courier or expand the companion wheel so controlling your squad feels smoother and more modern.
But among all the quality of life tweaks and shiny new armor sets, one mod stands out as a real game changer. It does not add new quests or weapons. Instead it quietly fixes something that has been broken in Fallout for years and most of us just got used to it.
The Lip Motion Fix That New Vegas And Fallout 3 Always Needed
The star of the show right now is a mod called Lip Motion Fix. It is available for both Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 because both games share the exact same problem. Their lip syncing has always been off in oddly specific but very noticeable ways.
Modder Asterra, who made Lip Motion Fix, posted a clear before and after video that shows how bad the original system really is. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. Characters will completely close their mouths when they should be pronouncing an open sound like the ee at the end of the word modesty. Other times the system misreads words entirely. The article mentions that the game treats the word town as if it is pronounced tone, so the lips move in the wrong pattern.
It is not just single words that cause problems. The underlying dialogue generation system struggles with all kinds of writing details that are common in game scripts. That includes things like
- Lines that include dashes used for pacing in the text
- Direction or guidance for voice actors placed in brackets
- Various punctuation quirks that throw off the animation timing
The result is that characters regularly drift out of sync with their own dialogue, or just look wrong when they speak. Fallout fans have lived with that for years, but Lip Motion Fix finally tackles it head on.
What makes this mod impressive is how much ground it needs to cover. It does not just patch one or two broken animations. It has to essentially teach the engine a more accurate way to handle speech sounds across the entire game. On top of that, it aims to work nicely with other popular mods that alter dialogue, add new lines, or even change actors completely.
One example the article calls out is Brave New World, a major New Vegas mod that replaces many of the original voice performances with new ones. Then there are cosmetic overhauls that change how NPCs look. Lip Motion Fix needs to stay compatible with all of that so you do not have to choose between better faces and better lip sync. Pulling that off across two separate Fallout games is a serious amount of behind the scenes work.
Installing It Is A Little Technical But Worth It
There is a small catch. Lip Motion Fix is not just a simple install and forget mod. It comes with its own executable file that you need to run if you want it to patch other mods and not just the base game. That means there is one more step in your setup process, especially if you already use a heavy load order full of script edits and NPC overhauls.
The writer of the article jokes about this from the perspective of someone who used to run giant mod lists but has recently tried to stick with a lighter vanilla plus style setup. If you are only running a handful of the best New Vegas mods it is easier to get something like Lip Motion Fix installed and tested without worrying about fifty different conflicts.
Some of the favorites mentioned include
- Convenient Fast Travel Markers for easier navigation
- Just Vanilla Sprint to finally add sprinting without going overboard
- MTUI for a cleaner more readable interface
- Unlimited Followers Everywhere if you want to roll with a full squad
- Brave New World for refreshed voice work
Of course the mod list never stays truly small. The author admits to running Radio Free Wasteland and a couple of other random experiments on top. Anyone who mods Bethesda style games will probably relate to that feeling of thinking you have a minimal setup, then realizing you are quietly pushing twenty or thirty plugins again.
Still, Lip Motion Fix looks like the kind of upgrade that is worth squeezing into almost any load order. It does not change the gameplay or the story. It just makes every conversation feel more natural and a little less like an early 2010s relic. If you are jumping back into New Vegas or Fallout 3 during the Nexus marathon, this is one of those subtle improvements that can make the whole experience feel more polished without breaking the original vibe.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/mod-fixes-17-year-old-lip-sync-bug-in-fallout-3-and-new-vegas/
