S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shader Mod

dafloppyone

dafloppyone

dafloppyone

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This post on the Ars forums offers the release of the Float32 modification for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, which beefs up the already impressive graphics in GSC Game World's first-person shooter.
Full reflection vector calculations, better bump mapping, real specular effects! All this detail improvement costs nothing in framerate and you will get 20% better framerate than before if not more! Shadows are soft and no longer jagged and the overall graphical quality has been vastly improved. I am not posting screenies as it does no justice. Download it and see for yourself!

IMPORTANT FOR ATI USERS!

There is an error within the shadows. GSC screwed up and did not support hardware shadows with ati hardware. I removed the software shadows from the script to clean it up since nobody who is using full dynamic should be using software shadow. Well, this broke ATI support and I forgot to fix it. So when you install the shaders, delete "shadow.h" and you should be fine. If you have the entire game extracted, then replace "shadow.h" with the stock one after installing my shaders.

I am working on a fix for you ATI folks to enjoy hardware shadows! Expect it within the next few days​
 
Should the file structure be

C:\PF...\THQ\Stalker\Float32...\(files inside the Float32 folder)

or

C:\PF...\THQ\Stalker\(files inside the Float32 folder)
 
Yeah, instructions are a bit vague?

Do I need to unpack all my gamedata.dbx files first, then extract the zips gamedata folder into there? Or will it work with all the gamedata.dbx files in the zip/dbx format?

and do you need to use the user.ltx file?
 
Well all i did was unpack it, read the readme, went into my Stalker folder and saw all those gamedata files etc... (was 13 of them), so i assume they were the ones he was on about, so i backed them up, then just went back to the original zipped up download of the shader mod, and unzipped it again, but this time into the Stalker folder as mentioned in the readme, then i changed that fsgame.LTX to read both true, then just ran the game.

Its been a while since ive played it so i can't say if it does look better, or it looks the same, but it does seem to be absolutely belting along for some reason, the frame rate does seem like its got a helluva boost, or thats the same to, he just seems to be running along now linford christie, its like im in fast forward, but as i said been a while since ive played it so not sure ive done this shader mod right and it was like this before, but im sure it wasnt runnig this fast last time i played it, as as soon as i started running about i was like jesus its well fast.

EDIT: Nah was the same, just deleted it all and tehres no differnce so i didn't do it right, can't fathom out these instrustions at all, wtf are you supposed to do, talk about vague. :(

Anyone got this working care to do an idiots guide of what you did thanks. :)
 
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LoadsaMoney said:
EDIT: Nah was the same, just deleted it all and tehres no differnce so i didn't do it right, can't fathom out these instrustions at all, wtf are you supposed to do, talk about vague. :(

Anyone got this working care to do an idiots guide of what you did thanks. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah why do these people do ridiculous half assed instructions. If they wrote it out FULLY in the first place they wouldnt get all the questions.

I cannot tell any difference from it either... and I went back to stock and then back to the mod... nothing that I can see?

He needs to sort out his instructions... 5 mins thats all it would take :o
 
Yeah definately stupid those, the gamedata files cant be unzipped so god knows what hes on about there, theres about 13 of em in the Stalker folder already, you cant right click em all and unzip, and if you just copy the gamedata shader folder across it don't work, and even if you unzip to there it dont work as it makes a folder called float whatever, and has the gamedata folder inside that.

Oh hang on, wonder if you just copy the gamedata folder across, and then copy those 13 gamedata files into that instead, as you have to change that gamedata path to read true for both in that LTX file, ill give it a try. :p

EDIT: didnt work, wouldn't even load, just kept coming up about some config LTX file that couldn't be found. :(
 
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Theres some screen shots on page 31 of that thread, wont link as its full of swearing, so a heads up to the OP, may be better removing the link to the thread. :)
 
Don't see much of a problem with the instructions. It just doesn't seem to work, at least nothing blinding obvious.

The way I see it:
  • user.ltx goes in Stalker save game folder where the original user.ltx is
  • Fsgame file editing tells stalker to use a folder rather than a file for the 'gamedata' stuff
  • gamedata folder goes in stalker game folder next to gamedata.dbb file
 
This sounds suspiciously like that Doom 3 tweak where you simply unzipped all the .pak files and made directories instead. I know when I did that in Doom 3 it made next to no difference in reality.
 
Yeah I think the prob is, the difference is so small that you cannot tell if its worked or not.

I followed the instructions the the letter (bar using his users.ltx file as i cannot be arsed to do my controls/graphics settings again) and it didnt seem to make a diff?

The only thing I was confused was on do you need to unzip all the dbx files into the gamedata folder? Cos surely the game will not look in the new gamedata folder AND the gamedata.dbx files right? And cos theres hardly an difference in the mod, theres no way of know whats happened?

I've got it all in there still and just playing the game as usual, but I don;t know if the mod has worked :)

Yeah I want to see some comparison screenies!
 
I found this made quite a large difference, could realy tell on the character models... Still does not stop it crashing tho :(
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Theres some screen shots on page 31 of that thread, wont link as its full of swearing, so a heads up to the OP, may be better removing the link to the thread. :)
Click to expand...

it's an indirect link, that's like linking to google and saying "omg, you can see boobies!"
 
BOOBIES!!!! :D

I never bothered with that user.ltx file as it says you don't have to use that, anyway i was reading that forum and someone said they unzipped it to the stalker folder, then went into the float32 folder that it makes in there, and then moved that gamedata folder with all the shaders in it out from there and into the main Stalker folder, then they changed that other file to read both true.

Ive just tried that way, and then i had a run about for a bit, then i deleted it and put it back to normal to see if i could see any differnces, but im not sure, the differences may be very slight, but with the shader mod on it does seem different looking, i just can't put my finger on how.
 
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