Stalker clear sky

sadas25 · 7 Mar 2012 at 18:53

Hi, yesterday i installed stalker clear sky and patched it with the complete mod, then proceeded to whack everything up to max in the settings thinking my HD7950 will breeze an 08 game, turns out i was mistaken.

At the starting area im getting 30-40 fps and outside im getting 40-60 dependant on the time of day in game. What i want to know is if this is normal for this game to be so consuming on a top end gpu like mine, one that has no problem maxing games like crysis and bf3.

sadas25 · 7 Mar 2012 at 19:09

No one here played stalker cs i take it?

Sycho · 7 Mar 2012 at 19:19

Last time i played it was when i had a 5870 which struggled a lot too but apparently it's to do with the dx10.1 lighting so try lowering that and see if fps improves.

sadas25 · 7 Mar 2012 at 19:27

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah i thougt it was due to the lighting because when its midday and sunny my frames drop by about 5-10 as opposed to when its overcast or dark.

I have managed to get it at a stable 50 frames average by turning SSAO to low and leaving everything else on max, im just really surprised how consuming this is on my 7950. Also iread this is by far the best looking stalker out of the 3, i wouldn't know as im yet to play pripyat.

bainbridge · 7 Mar 2012 at 22:26

Installing the Complete mod makes it look even nicer

arc@css · 7 Mar 2012 at 23:34

I only had lower frame rates when my character was at the Clear Sky base. From the numbers you've given, I would say that isn't bad performance at all considering how demanding the lighting is. I remember getting around the teens - mid 20's with my 4870X2, it was fine anywhere else, but that bit at the camp made it run like a dog. Even my overclocked gtx480 doesn't fare 'that' much better at the base, but then again it is an ATi title. The Stalker games employ the most resource heavy, and without a doubt the best lighting I've ever seen in any title.

Devious · 8 Mar 2012 at 13:02

Yep, the start area is the most demanding part. Wonder how many players were put off playing it by that

The game is a complete buggy mess later on though. Wouldnt wish the time I horrible time had with it on anyone.

Shame really as the first one is one of my favourite game.

strumpusplunket · 8 Mar 2012 at 14:33

I found the same thing. Choppy at the first base, but perfectly smooth elsewhere, even in areas with more detail.

It does look very nice with the complete mod and the visuals whacked up.

I was getting 50-70 fps in the first base (only 1680x1050 res, though), but it definitely felt choppy and stuttered a bit. Once I got into the swamps and beyond, though, it ran perfectly.

Was surprised how much I enjoyed it given that I'd already played about an hour of this game and discarded it a couple of years ago. It seems the combination of the latest patch and the Complete mod that it's now in a fairly good state. Played to completion the other day. The faction wars are still a bit of a pain, especially with regards to the behaviour of your faction's squads, but I didn't experience any other noticeable bugs.

titaniumx3 · 8 Mar 2012 at 14:43

Biggest performance killers in Stalker CS are the following options:

- Antialiasing
- Antialias A-tested objects
- Sun Rays

Turn these features off, but everything else maxed out and the game will fly, even on graphics cards two generations old. All three of the features have massive performance penalties and most likely aren't implemented very well or have some issue with the game engine.

On my GTX580 I can still get reasonable fps with 4x 'Antialising' enabled, but 'Antialias A-tested objects' is still out of reach as that attempts to apply AA on all transparent textures such as foliage, which there is a lot of in Stalker. My guess is that AA in stalker is sort of tacked and not optmised at all (something to do with the deffered lighting engine used by the game). Also bare in mind that the starting area in CS is probably the worst performance you'll get through out the whole game.

The 'Sun Rays' option is another poorly implemented feature that eats up performance. The strange thing is that it only causes a performance drop during certain times of the day. You can drop the setting to medium or low to reduce the performance drop. That said, my GTX580 can just about manage it on high without fps dropping too low. I also think the effect is very pleasing to look at, so I leave it on.

In conclusion, no it's not your graphics card, the game has some very poorly implemented/optimised features - turn these off and the game will fly. On my GTX 580 I am able to play comfortably at 1080p, max settings except 'Antialias A-tested objects' disabled. A 7950 should be able to do even better.