Sgt_BFG on 16/9/2007 at 17:15
Intel Core 2 Duo
1 GB RAM
Radeon X1300
Windows Vista
I was thinking of getting STALKER when I get some spare cash, but the game being all large and stuff I was a tad worried it would lag like hell.
Since I'm no expert on computers, will my computer run the game fine?
mothra on 16/9/2007 at 17:30
for dynamic lightning and decent loadtimes and less background-loading during the game you will need 2 GB of RAM and a better graphics card, 8600 or similar, for high graphics a 8800 or similar cards from ATI.
with your setup (don't know how old/new the Core2D is) I would say you can play at 1024x768 high settings but only static lightning which makes the games graphics look worse. it's still a good game and a friend played it with those settings and loved it, you just should not think you will get anywhere near those screenshots which were released. static lightning makes the game a little darker as well, so prepare to raise gamma.
search a few posts below for a thread I created with STALKER for 10 pounds only. with this price you can buy it, play it once and then wait for a better pc to replay it. it has very good replayability.
242 on 16/9/2007 at 19:59
P4 2.4Ghz, 1.5 Gb of RAM, R9800 Pro.
I play @1024x768 with max settings except textures in static lighting mode.
It runs fluid, of course not counting common occasional stuttering (as I learned - stutters are because game switches nearby objects from "offline" mode to "online" mode).
mothra, as for the 'darker' I don't agree. Nights are very (a way too) light with static lighting :)
Bjossi on 16/9/2007 at 22:12
Quote Posted by mothra
for dynamic lightning and decent loadtimes and less background-loading during the game you will need 2 GB of RAM and a better graphics card
I'm using 2 GBs of memory and a Geforce 7900 GTX, yet I get frequent and sometimes very long (up to 10 seconds) freezes because the game is loading data into memory. And they always happen at the exact same spot so I know beforehand when they happen. Like when I'm coming from military warehouses/wild territory to rostok, I get an extremely long freeze when I'm close to the three Duty guards nearby.
So I ask, why does this happen if I have more than enough memory and speed to process the data? Am I using bad settings, is the engine poorly optimized?
D'Arcy on 16/9/2007 at 23:26
Normally those freezes happen when you accumulate very large stashes, and get close to them. The usual freeze when we're getting close to the Bar coming from the Garbage, for instance, seems to be caused by the usual huge stashes that the players tend to accumulate in the box inside the Bar.
Bjossi on 16/9/2007 at 23:30
But why would that cause long stutters? Stashes in a box are just a bunch of numbers, there are no actual world models until you throw them out of the inventory. . .
D'Arcy on 16/9/2007 at 23:32
I think that the game preloads the models, because when you reach the stash and open it you see all the objects.
Bjossi on 16/9/2007 at 23:34
Preloading is better done during level/savegame load. I'd rather want a bit longer load time than stutters in-game.
D'Arcy on 17/9/2007 at 00:22
As you can see by the diskette icon constantly showing, the game is frequently preloading textures and models even when you're playing.
mothra on 17/9/2007 at 17:27
i had a p4 3.6 ghz/7800 GTx and had only minor stuttering (and NOT in the bar) with a RAID 0 setup. I think the engine is just poorly written.
Now I got a C2D/8800GTS/Raptor RAID0 and what can I say:
STALKER loads in a few seconds and even with preloading on, I get NO STUTTERS anymore. And I can play it in 1680x1050@ALL HIGH and get >50fps all the time. It's such a beauty !
