S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl installation and modding

Thanks to this thread, I was reminded that I never actually got all the way through SOC because my graphics card was never strong enough to handle some of these gorgeous graphics mods. I tried out Stalker Complete and it's fantastic!

Unrelated... I really wish somewhere in game or manual they described that Stone Blood, Meat Chunk, etc increase Health REGENERATION rate rather than total health pool. I could have saved myself a lot of grief. I was running around Agropom wearing 5 Stone Bloods and couldn't figure out why I kept getting 1-shot killed by the military. I thought I had 11x as much health to counteract the -50% BPC, but clearly that's not the case. Oh well, it's a learning experience I guess.
 
evilsofa said:
6. The flashlight is about 50 times too bright, and sears your eyeballs out if you shine it at a wall close to you. Fortunately, there's a mod called Fallout Flashlight 1.1 that fixes that without interfering with other mods:
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Hey, thanks for pointing that out, it always bugged me too. I addressed it in the slightly updated version of SC2009 1.4.1, my flashlight light color was set to 100% white, the Fallout Flashlight 1.1 mod was about 12%, after a few experiments I made it 40%, enough to let you see in the dark, and gives zero shine when pointed at walls.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009/downloads/stalker-complete-2009-14
 
Yeah - this is a good reminder thread. Now that I'm upgrading my gpu I can not have this run like garbage anymore.
 
Can someone confirm whether or not SC2009 can be installed on Steam version of SOC using SMM? I downloaded it but haven't tried installing it yet since I already played trough a good portion of the game,thought I'd give it a try once I finish.
 
No, SMM does the install, but the game doesn't start, copying the gamedata manually is a way to go until SMM developer does something about Steam.
 
fleggett said:
Huh. Does that mean the D2D download is the 1.0000 version? What would be the difference between the normal, run-of-the-mill patch and that digital distribution patch on Filefront?

(The Steam download is prepatched to 1.0005.)

Sounds like SMM should probably work with the Steam version, too. I'll have to try it to see what happens.
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what absolutely sucks about the D2D version is that there is no 1.006 patch for online play (most of the online play is 1.006), if I had known that I wouldn't have convinced my friend to get it for $5 because that's what he wants to do, play online, he's not really interested in the single player...

also, if any of you S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gurus can help out a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fanatic my medkit will not bind to the assigned hotkey (default "[" or any other key I assign) or my mouse 4 button (MX 518), help...? please, running around the pool (or any other map for that matter) would be hard enough with the ability to use a medkit on the fly, bringing up the inventory screen to do so is almost certain death, to quote the legendary Brian Fantana, "60% of the time, it happens ALL the time"...

help please...
 
wol-va-rine said:
what absolutely sucks about the D2D version is that there is no 1.006 patch for online play (most of the online play is 1.006), if I had known that I wouldn't have convinced my friend to get it for $5 because that's what he wants to do, play online, he's not really interested in the single player...

also, if any of you S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gurus can help out a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fanatic my medkit will not bind to the assigned hotkey (default "[" or any other key I assign) or my mouse 4 button (MX 518), help...? please, running around the pool (or any other map for that matter) would be hard enough with the ability to use a medkit on the fly, bringing up the inventory screen to do so is almost certain death, to quote the legendary Brian Fantana, "60% of the time, it happens ALL the time"...

help please...
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Have you tried this?

Furthermore you can change your key configuration, and bind both the documented and undocumented actions by firstly using the bind_list command to see all bindable actions, and then using the bind command either in the Command Console, or in your User.ltx file. For example to bind the jump function to the J key, type bind jump kJ in the console, or edit the appropriate line in User.ltx. See the Advanced Tweaking section for details.


Once you've changed any of the in-game settings, click the Use button at any time to put them into effect. Note that some settings require that you quit and restart the game for them to be implemented properly.
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Got it from tweakguides: http://www.tweakguides.com/STALKER_6.html
 
cpt.whistlepants said:
Have you tried this?

Got it from tweakguides: http://www.tweakguides.com/STALKER_6.html
Click to expand...

yes, after every uninstall/reinstall (6 so far) I have gone into the user.ltx file and editied them manually after it didn't work in the game options menu, I have tried them (the mouse buttons) as bound to both the primary and secondary options with no success, what pisses me off is that IT WORKS IF I PLAY THE CAMPAIGN, just not online...
 
Got the .exe installer up, it does the fsgame.ltx and user.ltx thing automatically, so this is the end of all install related troubles, as long as game is patched to 1.0005/1.0006:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009/downloads/stalker-complete-2009-141-exe-installer

not tested on Steam though.

New flashlight strength, no glare on the walls:

3999245888_9f1571b7a4_b.jpg
 
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I'll try it for the Steam version when it becomes available and will report back (it's currently awaiting authorization).
 
By the way, I figured out why the default flashlight is so bright - it's actually a car headlight! When you play Oblivion Lost 2.2 with the re-enabled vehicles, they simply use two flashlights for headlights, and the default brightness is just right for that but much too bright for flashlights. My guess is that they were going to make separate light sources for flashlights and headlights, but never got around to it, then removed the cars and forgot to set the flashlights back to flashlight levels rather than headlight levels.
 
I have an annoying problem. :confused: The reason I'm posting here is that this mod seems to address some issues with the game. (I hope) :rolleyes:

I'm currently running v1.0006 of the game in vanilla. This is my first play through of the game. My problem is that when I reach Wolf at the Warehouses he spawns into the middle of the camp fire (which seems a common occurrence in this game) and as such is now deceased. It seems that no matter how far back into the story I reload the game, Wolf still spawns into the camp fire. So now some questions about this inconvenience.

Is Wolf a key part of the plot at this point? (No spoilers please)

Is there a Mod that addresses this issue so that I can complete the game in vanilla?

If SC2009 fixes this issue will my rig be able to handle the enhanced implementation?
(ie. What is the minimum spec?)

To be honest I highly doubt my rig is capable of running SC2009 at a decent frame-rate.

Thanks in advance. :D
 
Samurai7 said:
Is Wolf a key part of the plot at this point? (No spoilers please)

Is there a Mod that addresses this issue so that I can complete the game in vanilla?
Click to expand...

He doesn't do much of anything when he's in Army Warehouses; when I talked to him while playing Oblivion Lost, he just talked about wanting to join Freedom, and he neither gives nor is involved in any quests.

Most major mods include some version of the ZRP bug-fix mod, which, among other things, fixes the campfire bug. You can install the ZRP bug-fix mod by itself, from here.
 
Samurai7 said:
If SC2009 fixes this issue will my rig be able to handle the enhanced implementation?
(ie. What is the minimum spec?)

To be honest I highly doubt my rig is capable of running SC2009 at a decent frame-rate.

Thanks in advance. :D
Click to expand...

From my tests, it runs ok at average resolution, much better than Clear Sky:


@ 1680x1050:

8800GT 512MB: 30fps average, some stuttering.
GTX 260 896MB: 60fps average, smooth.

video settings:
- full dynamic lighting
- vision distance 100%
- object detail* 75%
- grass density 100%
- textures detail 100%
- anisotropic filtering 100%
- antialiasing** off
- sun shadow on
- grass shadow** off
- lighting distance 100%
- NPC flashlights on
- Shadow quality 100%
 
Finished playing Priboi Story. It's all right, but a bit disappointing after Oblivion Lost 2.2. I would stick with playing Stalker Complete 2009 1.4.1 on your first time through the game, and the OL 2.2 build I posted for a second time around with cool added gameplay features. I'm done with SoC now.
 
Now that I'm done with SoC, I've done a major edit and cleaned up my installation posts in this thread.
 
If we stickied installation guides for every PC game in this forum, the first page would quickly fill up with stickies. Better to have a single sticky post posting links to installation guides to many games.
 
I had this game on my old rig, and it never ran well. I picked up Clear Sky, and it refuses to run well on my new rig. The game looks like it would be really fun, but for some reason, I could never get either to run well.
 
evilsofa,

thanks a lot for the SC2009 and other important mods guides, it's a one stop installation walkthrough, that I will point users to. I just wanted to correct one thing. For .exe to work on Steam you'd have to run the game at least once, whether you just run the main menu, change resolution etc. or play the game a bit, this is needed for a Steam version game to create user.ltx and be visible to .exe installer. If it's not done, the installer will show this message (typing it for people who will Google it a lot: "Setup could not find your install of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl"

However it's important to start a new game again AFTER mod is installed. The game engine reads all mod changes from all.spawn file at one time only during the start of new game, and those new settings last till the end of the game. If new game is not created it will crash with this message: ... +165 byte(s)
stalker.png

or if it won't crash right away, it will cause problems later in the form of "constant crashing".

btw, I will include r2_sun_near 20, r2_sun_near_border 1, fix with next version of installer, since installer changes gloss factor anyway, good idea!
 
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evilsofa said:
If we stickied installation guides for every PC game in this forum, the first page would quickly fill up with stickies. Better to have a single sticky post posting links to installation guides to many games.
Click to expand...
Well, the problem with that method is that, while the pointer might be stickied, the guide itself will eventually disappear during the course of Hardforum's automated post trimming. Which is why I suggested maybe copying all this to a dedicated website.
 
artistpavel said:
For .exe to work on Steam you'd have to run the game at least once, whether you just run the main menu, change resolution etc. or play the game a bit, this is needed for a Steam version game to create user.ltx and be visible to .exe installer. If it's not done, the installer will show this message (typing it for people who will Google it a lot: "Setup could not find your install of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl"

However it's important to start a new game again AFTER mod is installed. The game engine reads all mod changes from all.spawn file at one time only during the start of new game, and those new settings last till the end of the game. If new game is not created it will crash with this message:
or if it won't crash right away, it will cause problems later in the form of "constant crashing".
Click to expand...

As always, thank you artistpavel; since I don't have the Steam version, I wasn't able to do a test run with that. I will clarify it in my installation walkthrough.

Edit: added corrections with respect to the Steam version of Stalker to all four installation walkthroughs.
 
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For whatever crazy reason, the automatic version file for STALKER Complete 2009 for STEAM was causing my download directory to take a massive shit and take my computer down with it. Task Manager showed MS Security Essentials hogging 100% of CPU and tons of RAM. I had to delete the file in safe mode. I'm trying to download the manual install version now to see if that works.

Running Windows 7 Home Premium
 
riot8ap said:
For whatever crazy reason, the automatic version file for STALKER Complete 2009 for STEAM was causing my download directory to take a massive shit and take my computer down with it. Task Manager showed MS Security Essentials hogging 100% of CPU and tons of RAM. I had to delete the file in safe mode. I'm trying to download the manual install version now to see if that works.

Running Windows 7 Home Premium
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When running WinXP and MSE, I noticed too that MSE really wanted to scan the SC2009 Steam Compatible .exe file. When I dragged it onto the desktop, no problem. When I dragged it from the desktop to another folder - complete system slowdown. Took about 5 to 10 minutes for MSE to scan the file and allow the drag program to continue. MSE finds no problems in the file, but whenever you do anything with the file, MSE wants to uncompress it and scan it.

First time I've seen MSE misbehave.
 
I've gone ahead and posted this to my personal website, Awful Books, via this link:

http://www.awfulbooks.com/awfulbooks/extraextra/miscellaneous%20stuff/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.%20mods/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.%20mods.html

This is the direct link from Awful Books. It can also be accessed by going to the EXTRA! EXTRA! section on the left and clicking on the "Miscellaneous stuff (non-book-related)." link.

evilsofa, let me know if you have a problem with this. I just didn't want all this work to eventually trail off from [H]ard|Forum.
 
For anyone interested, I've compiled a chart of all the artifacts (vanilla and OL2.2) along with their properties. It's not totally complete yet, there are still some artifacts to go, but I update it as I find more recipes. Input and critique are welcome. Thank you.

Oblivion Lost 2.2 artifact reference
 
micahharwell said:
For anyone interested, I've compiled a chart of all the artifacts (vanilla and OL2.2) along with their properties. It's not totally complete yet, there are still some artifacts to go, but I update it as I find more recipes. Input and critique are welcome. Thank you.

Oblivion Lost 2.2 artifact reference
Click to expand...

Just be aware that OL 2.2 does something a little hinky with resistances - you get your Burn resistance from your Electric Shock resistance instead. You can test this by putting on 100% burn resistance and stepping into a Burner, then putting on 100% Electric Shock resistance and stepping into a Burner. Kanyhalos apparently did this to stop NPCs from dying in campfires. Burn resistance is therefore completely useless.

When I played with the Natural English Language Mod for OL 2.2, some of the Encyclopedia entries for artifacts listed Burn resistance but the actual artifact had Electric Shock resistance instead. I don't know if this is true when not running the NELM mod.

Sometimes I ran with up to 7 Controller Scalps, and having -5131% Hunger seemed to have no effect to my hunger rate (either bad or good), so it is apparently not working. Kanyhalos did have to tinker with hunger to deal with accelerated hunger while sleeping.
 
fleggett said:
evilsofa, let me know if you have a problem with this. I just didn't want all this work to eventually trail off from [H]ard|Forum.
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Looks very good! I've no problem with it. I believe those posts are in their final form, because I don't have SoC installed anymore and don't intend to play it again.
 
I tried using that 2009 graphic mod but my RAM use maxes out and I get heavy swap file usage within minutes. I'm using a system with 2GB of RAM, is more necessary? Sorry if this has been covered, I'm still looking over the thread.
 
Been playing the Steam version of the Complete mod and enjoying it overall,but I have had a few Bugtrap crashes.Also experienced brief freezing,just for a second or two,when walking down roads for extended periods.I'm using the 186.18 drivers,had no problems at all with the unmodded game.
 
Finally got a chance to try SC2009, its amazing!

I downloaded the latest version and works great in steam.

If I wanted to play LURK or Oblivion Lost 2.2 I would have to remove SC2009 right?



BTW, artistpavel, already waiting anxiously for Clear Sky complete!
 
Juic3 said:
If I wanted to play LURK or Oblivion Lost 2.2 I would have to remove SC2009 right?
Click to expand...

That is correct; the major mods are not compatible with each other, and attempting to install one on top of another will hose your installation. It's really best to completely remove Stalker (including the folder containing the user.ltx file and save files) and do a fresh install. Save games are very not compatible between the major mods.

If you follow my installation walkthrough for Oblivion Lost early in this thread, you can bring large parts of the SC2009 graphics improvements into Oblivion Lost.

BTW, artistpavel, already waiting anxiously for Clear Sky complete!
Click to expand...

Ooohhh... Clear Sky Complete? I knew I was waiting to play Clear Sky for a reason! Can't wait until it's done!

In other Stalker news, I see there are at least two projects combining SC2009 and OL2.2 - one called Oblivion Lost 2009, and another called "Stalker Complete 2009 RC1" (wow, they should at least try to have a different name?). Also, the Natural English Language Mod for OL2.2 has had a minor update to 1.1.1.
 
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I started playing Clear Sky recently,the two things I miss the most are the sleeping bag and the repair kits from SC2009,so a Clear Sky Complete mod would be a welcome addition. One thing I've noticed is that the suits in Clear Sky have been seriously downgraded,I'd like to see them beefed up a bit in the mod.
 
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