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DEVLOG 0 - First steps

DEVLOG 0 - First steps

2022-12-28 by: Red PandaLast Day AlivePSI

Project Description and Goals

This is not just a simple port in the traditional sense - it's a hybrid. All internal processes, NPC behavior logic, shooting, quests, and A-Life are taken from the original X-Ray engine. The graphical part has been replaced with Unreal Engine. To demonstrate the full functionality of the port, the entire trilogy is available: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat.

The goal of the entire project is to create a toolkit for mod creators, making the implementation of any ideas much easier than in the original X-Ray engine.

The current build has been made available to the public by popular demand, as there have been many requests for its release. It is also important to show that the project is not stillborn and is already functional.

Features of the Current Build

The most important thing is that the entire Zone from Shadow of Chernobyl is fully functional. The level logic, quests, firefights, and A-Life simulation work flawlessly. However, there are some minor bugs. For example, due to an unfinished attachment system, the flashlight remains in Sidorovich's bunker and does not follow the player. The weapons and the player's hands are also not displayed. Despite this, shooting and interaction are fully functional. There is a small non-critical bug that causes items to spawn away from the crates and containers they should come from. Most of the console commands from the original Stalker also work here; the commands are executed as follows: xray.{command from X-Ray}.

Minor flaws

  • Accessing the menu is blocked to avoid game crashes (except for loading the latest save)
  • Save and load are performed using the F6 and F7 keys, respectively
  • Accidentally pressing F5 for saving will trigger shader debugging mode, which can be exited by pressing F3
  • Some materials are not configured, including the display of graphic flow boundaries (culling)
  • Grass is missing
  • Interface elements loading issue (related to improperly configured game resource caching)

Performance and Recommendations

Performance

The build is a test version, and many things are not optimized.

  • Resource monitoring is performed continuously
  • The build is launched with the maximum graphics settings available in the engine

Significant performance drops may be observed on weaker systems.

Performance Recommendations

For comfortable gameplay at Full HD resolution, a video card no weaker than an RTX 3060 Ti is recommended. If your hardware is weaker, you can run the game in windowed mode instead of fullscreen or make changes to the settings file to improve performance:

{game}\Stalker\Saved\Config\Windows\GameUserSettings.ini
[ScalabilityGroups]
sg.ResolutionQuality=100
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=3
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=3
sg.ShadowQuality=3
sg.GlobalIlluminationQuality=3
sg.ReflectionQuality=3
sg.PostProcessQuality=3
sg.TextureQuality=3
sg.EffectsQuality=3
sg.FoliageQuality=3
sg.ShadingQuality=2

Replace the values 3 with 2. This will improve performance. Additionally, you can disable anti-aliasing (if your eyes are not sensitive to jagged edges). To do this, change sg.AntiAliasingQuality=3 to sg.AntiAliasingQuality=0.

Download and Installation

  1. Download from https://disk.yandex.ru/d/QA3BsONIYB9zpA (opens in a new tab)
  2. Unpack the contents of the archive in a location of your choice (just make sure the path to the folder does not contain Cyrillic characters)
  3. Launch via Start.bat or Start_FullScreen.bat
    • Start.bat - windowed mode
    • Start_FullScreen.bat - fullscreen mode

You also need to download and install OpenAL 1.1 (opens in a new tab) (OpenAL 1.1 Windows Installer).

Minimum System Requirements

  • Operating System: Windows 10 20H2 64-bit or later
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-9400F / AMD Ryzen™ 5 2400G
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super / AMD Radeon RX 5600
  • Storage: 6 GB SSD

Acknowledgements

Material prepared by Red Panda, edited and narrated by Last Day Alive, blog text adapted by PSI.

Troubleshooting and Community

To solve any issues and ask questions, you can join our Discord (opens in a new tab) server.

DEVLOG 1 - First release of the editor!