# Who is going to be playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2007, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830 "2007-03-21T06:33:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/21 "2007-03-23T19:39:25Z")
Multiplayer? ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/22 "2007-03-23T19:42:36Z")
Clearly we’re in the same boat at Camp AnawannaUninstallVista, Kinthalis. You should do what any irrational gamer would do in this situation. Get another computer of similar spec and load it with XP, like I did with my XPS M1710. 😃 That or, if you’re into partitioning, a dual-boot setup of XP and Vista. Personally, I can’t be bothered with dual-boots. Been there, done that. Too much hassle. Sadly, I have to agree on the Vista complaints. Every game I’ve run on Vista has been “playable” … but not nearly as quick to load or smooth to play as it was on XP, even with the most recent Creative and nVidia drivers loaded. Nice of Argent to be giving us all the insight. Now where is that damn Stalker demo? Don’t make me go buy it! ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/23 "2007-03-23T19:46:24Z")
I picked it up on Wednesday and gave it a whirl. So far I’m pretty underwhelmed. The bugs aren’t as bad as I’d heard, but they’re there, and can be very annoying considering the way the save system works (more on that momentarily). During one mission I approached the NPC to talk to him, and he responded with a long paragraph of text… which immediately disappeared to make room for the “Mission complete!” text (I forget the exact wording, but that’s the gist of it). Ok, that’s a pain, but not game-breaking, I can just read it in my PDA. I pull it up and wade through the options to find it and start reading. I don’t get through a sentence before I’m torn up by an attacking group of evil dogs. Grrr. That brings me to the main menu where I can load up a game I had saved. Of course, it had been a long time since I’d done so, so I had lot of ground to recover. Maybe I’m spoiled by other FPS games, but it’d be nice if they tossed an autosave in there once in a while (maybe after completing a mission). And a note to anyone having trouble quick saving - apparently there’s a bug that causes the function to malfunction if your Windows username has a space in it. Whoops. The graphics are good, but they certainly could use some optimization. I have a decent system (E6400@2.8GHz, 7900GS, 2GB RAM), but I can’t really play with full dynamic lighting without hovering around 30fps. That’s not terrible in and of itself, but in this mode the game also feels just the slightest bit laggy, where my actions aren’t controlling the movements with precision. This effect coupled with the head-bob motion end up making me fell sick after playing for a while, so I had to crank things down to accomidate. And you certainly can see a difference between the lighting modes if you know where to look (Try a building with rafters over your head for example). The weapons that I’ve used so far are a big letdown. The pistol you start with sounds like a water gun. And to aim with it you press the right mouse button to hold it in front of you, which blocks the entire screen. I jumped for joy when I found a machine run to replace that sucker. The accuracy of the weapons is confusing too. I pointed the handgun at a wall using the right-click aiming and unloaded the clip into the brick. Despite the fact that the gun is flailing all over the place on the screen (and blocking even more of the view), the bullets all landed in the same precise spot on the wall, and left only one mark. Conversely, I can aim the same way with one of the machine guns and there’s no predicting where the shot will land. I understand there will be some spray involved, but even the first shot seems to come out askew. Finally, I think what bothers me the most about STALKER is that it just seems kind of… well… old. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I can give an example or two of what I’m talking about. I wandered into a small building that had a teapot on the stove. I shot it, and it make a small bullet mark on the pot. Maybe my expectations are unreasonably high, but this is 2007. I want that teapot to go flying. And the respawn rate for the enemies is annoying. At least once I’ve seen a baddie spawn right in front of me. So much for that immersion. So overall I’m pretty unimpressed, but I’ve admittedly only given it a few hours (it wasn’t nearly compelling enough to keep me away from Supreme Commander). Hopefully the story and action will pick up, and they’ll patch up a few bugs and it’ll get better. edit: [QUOTE=Critical1] Multiplayer? [/QUOTE] Nonexistant that I’ve seen. I’ve tried three times. Once I locked up. The second time there were no games available. And the third time there was only a couple servers that were all full. > [@Argent Towers](#): > > I think certain gamers - the no-life, 24-hour, mom’s-basement kind - had some unrealistic expectations. Oh snap. :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/24 "2007-03-23T21:04:20Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] Finally, I think what bothers me the most about STALKER is that it just seems kind of… well… old. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I can give an example or two of what I’m talking about. I wandered into a small building that had a teapot on the stove. I shot it, and it make a small bullet mark on the pot. Maybe my expectations are unreasonably high, but this is 2007. [/QUOTE] I think this is what it’s going to come down to for a lot of people. Personally, I’m still playing Mafia, which is half a decade old, because the skies and textures and vibrant colors are more interesting for me to look at than the dynamic-lighted, bump-mapped, polygon-shaded grays and whites of F.E.A.R. I don’t mind that it’s old as the hills, by gaming standards, or that it doesn’t have the latest graphics. I still keep a laptop around with Windows 98 for playing 3D Realms games like Blood and Shadow Warrior. So, graphically, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is indeed dated. But even so, I think it pulled off the gritty, realistic, broken down look really well. The game gives you the shitty weapons early on so that when you get the better weapons later, you can really appreciate the difference. I think this was done deliberately. (In Far Cry, for instance, you start the game off right away with what is essentially the best all-around weapon in the game, the assault rifle. ) ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/25 "2007-03-23T21:13:59Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] The game gives you the shitty weapons early on so that when you get the better weapons later, you can really appreciate the difference. I think this was done deliberately. (In Far Cry, for instance, you start the game off right away with what is essentially the best all-around weapon in the game, the assault rifle. ) [/QUOTE] Ahh, but the question is, do you lose all your weapons halfway through the game and have to build them back up[.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=411533) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/26 "2007-03-24T00:11:37Z")
**Slacker,** and everyone else - here’s what to do. I found this on the Stalker forum on Gamefaqs. Some extremely dedicated person posted these tweaked settings, which will allow you to get maximum - and I mean MAXIMUM - performance from the game. Go into your user.ltx file in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\STALKER-SHOC (make a backup just in case) and replace what is there with the following: \_preset Default ai\_use\_torch\_dynamic\_lights on unbindall bind jump kSPACE bind crouch kRCONTROL bind crouch\_toggle kSLASH bind accel kLSHIFT bind sprint\_toggle kX bind forward kUP bind back kDOWN bind lstrafe kLEFT bind rstrafe kRIGHT bind llookout kQ bind rlookout kE bind cam\_zoom\_in kADD bind cam\_zoom\_out kSUBTRACT bind torch kL bind night\_vision kN bind wpn\_1 k1 bind wpn\_2 k2 bind wpn\_3 k3 bind wpn\_4 k4 bind wpn\_5 k5 bind wpn\_6 k6 bind artefact k7 bind wpn\_next kY bind wpn\_fire mouse1 bind wpn\_zoom mouse2 bind wpn\_reload kR bind wpn\_func kV bind wpn\_firemode\_prev k9 bind wpn\_firemode\_next k0 bind pause kPAUSE bind drop kG bind use kF bind scores kTAB bind chat kCOMMA bind chat\_team kPERIOD bind screenshot kF12 bind quit kESCAPE bind console kGRAVE bind inventory kI bind buy\_menu kB bind skin\_menu kO bind team\_menu kU bind active\_jobs kP bind map kM bind contacts kH bind vote\_begin kF5 bind vote kF6 bind vote\_yes kF7 bind vote\_no kF8 bind speech\_menu\_0 kC bind speech\_menu\_1 kZ bind use\_bandage kRBRACKET bind use\_medkit kLBRACKET cam\_inert 0. cam\_slide\_inert 0.25 cl\_cod\_pickup\_mode 1 cl\_dynamiccrosshair on g\_always\_run on g\_autopickup on g\_backrun on g\_corpsenum 10 g\_eventdelay 0 g\_game\_difficulty gd\_stalker hud\_crosshair on hud\_crosshair\_dist off mm\_mm\_net\_srv\_dedicated off mm\_net\_con\_publicserver off mm\_net\_con\_spectator 20 mm\_net\_con\_spectator\_on off mm\_net\_srv\_gamemode st\_deathmatch mm\_net\_srv\_maxplayers 32 mm\_net\_srv\_name BLACKBOX mm\_net\_srv\_reinforcement\_type 1 mm\_net\_weather\_rateofchange 1. mouse\_invert off mouse\_sens 0.32 net\_cl\_icurvesize 0 net\_cl\_icurvetype 0 net\_cl\_interpolation 0. net\_cl\_log\_data off net\_cl\_pending\_lim 3 net\_cl\_update\_rate 30 net\_dedicated\_sleep 5 net\_sv\_log\_data off net\_sv\_pending\_lim 3 net\_sv\_update\_rate 30 ph\_frequency 75.00000 ph\_iterations 24 r1\_dlights on r1\_dlights\_clip 10. r1\_glows\_per\_frame 16 r1\_lmodel\_lerp 0.1 r1\_pps\_u -1. r1\_pps\_v 0. r1\_ssa\_lod\_a 64. r1\_ssa\_lod\_b 48. r1\_tf\_mipbias 0. r2\_aa off r2\_aa\_break 0.800000,0.500000,0.000000 r2\_aa\_kernel 0.5 r2\_aa\_weight 0.250000,0.250000,0.000000 r2\_allow\_r1\_lights off r2\_gi off r2\_gi\_clip 0.001 r2\_gi\_depth 1 r2\_gi\_photons 16 r2\_gi\_refl 0.9 r2\_gloss\_factor 1.4 r2\_ls\_bloom\_fast off r2\_ls\_bloom\_kernel\_b 0.7 r2\_ls\_bloom\_kernel\_g 3. r2\_ls\_bloom\_kernel\_scale 0.7 r2\_ls\_bloom\_speed 100. r2\_ls\_bloom\_threshold 0.001 r2\_ls\_depth\_bias -0.0003 r2\_ls\_depth\_scale 1.00001 r2\_ls\_dsm\_kernel 0.7 r2\_ls\_psm\_kernel 0.7 r2\_ls\_squality 0.5 r2\_ls\_ssm\_kernel 0.7 r2\_mblur 0. r2\_parallax\_h 0.04 r2\_slight\_fade 0.05 r2\_ssa\_lod\_a 96. r2\_ssa\_lod\_b 64. r2\_sun on r2\_sun\_depth\_far\_bias -0.00001 r2\_sun\_depth\_far\_scale 1. r2\_sun\_depth\_near\_bias 0.00001 r2\_sun\_depth\_near\_scale 1. r2\_sun\_details off r2\_sun\_focus on r2\_sun\_lumscale 1. r2\_sun\_lumscale\_amb 0.5 r2\_sun\_lumscale\_hemi 1. r2\_sun\_near 12. r2\_sun\_near\_border 0.75 r2\_sun\_tsm on r2\_sun\_tsm\_bias -0.01 r2\_sun\_tsm\_proj 0.3 r2\_tf\_mipbias -3. r2\_tonemap on r2\_tonemap\_adaptation 1. r2\_tonemap\_amount 0.7 r2\_tonemap\_lowlum 0.0001 r2\_tonemap\_middlegray 0.6 r2\_wait\_sleep 0 r2\_zfill off r2\_zfill\_depth 0.5 r2em 2. r\_\_detail\_density 0.44 r\_\_geometry\_lod 1.2 r\_\_supersample 4 r\_\_tf\_aniso 12 renderer renderer\_r2 rs\_c\_brightness 1. rs\_c\_contrast 1. rs\_c\_gamma 1.2 rs\_fullscreen on rs\_refresh\_60hz off rs\_stats off rs\_v\_sync off rs\_vis\_distance 1. snd\_acceleration on snd\_cache\_size 32 snd\_efx on snd\_targets 24 snd\_volume\_eff 0.8 snd\_volume\_music 1. sv\_anomalies\_enabled 1 sv\_anomalies\_length 3 sv\_artefact\_respawn\_delta 30 sv\_artefact\_stay\_time 3 sv\_artefacts\_count 10 sv\_auto\_team\_balance 0 sv\_auto\_team\_swap 1 sv\_bearercantsprint 1 sv\_client\_reconnect\_time 60 sv\_console\_update\_rate 1 sv\_dedicated\_server\_update\_rate 100 sv\_dmgblockindicator 1 sv\_dmgblocktime 0 sv\_forcerespawn 0 sv\_fraglimit 10 sv\_friendly\_indicators 0 sv\_friendly\_names 0 sv\_friendlyfire 1. sv\_hail\_to\_winner\_time 7000 sv\_pda\_hunt 1 sv\_pending\_wait\_time 10000 sv\_reinforcement\_time 0 sv\_remove\_corpse 1 sv\_remove\_weapon 1 sv\_returnplayers 1 sv\_rpoint\_freeze\_time 0 sv\_shieldedbases 1 sv\_spectr\_firsteye 1 sv\_spectr\_freefly 0 sv\_spectr\_freelook 1 sv\_spectr\_lookat 1 sv\_spectr\_teamcamera 1 sv\_statistic\_collect 1 sv\_statistic\_save\_auto 0 sv\_timelimit 0 sv\_vote\_enabled 1 sv\_vote\_participants 0 sv\_vote\_quota 0.51 sv\_vote\_time 1. sv\_warm\_up 0 texture\_lod 2 vid\_mode 1280x1024 (or whatever resolution you’re using.) You should re-bind your keys if you made special settings. Do this, and the game will run 5,000 times better, and look 5,000 times better. Trust me - I just did it, and it worked for me. Many thanks to whoever it is that came up with this adjustment. ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/27 "2007-03-24T00:28:11Z")
Argent, Any word whether these optimized settings also have the same effect on the game running under Vista? I assume you’re running XP, but was wondering if anyone else on the forum said they helped under Vista. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/28 "2007-03-24T00:59:45Z")
Unfortunately, I think the many problems with Stalker running on Vista will not be helped by this adjustment. Other people on the forum reported no change, or even more problems, with Vista. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830/29 "2007-03-24T02:21:05Z")
Dagnab it. This thread got me interested enough to go out and buy the game, only to learn that my machine’s page file size is currently inadequate for the task. No doubt there’s a simple solution, at least for people who know how to appease the magic lightning living inside the computer box. Good thing I know exactly what a page file is, he lied shamelessly. My contraption appears to be offering me some helpful advice on how to resolve the problem, which is very thoughtful of it… too bad it’s in flippin’ GERMAN! Seriously, what the hell? “Die page datei ist deaktiviert…” Okay, something isn’t working somewhere, thank you so much for that. Sadly my smattering of German was acquired before the advent of the Information Age, and even then consisted mostly of profanity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-going-to-be-playing-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobyl/396830.md?page=1)