S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 3: Apocalyptic

MaxDZ8 on 16/4/2009 at 18:31

Quote Posted by Rogue Keeper

Yeehaw! \:D/
Although why CryEngine? X-Ray was very pretty. Damn, this will have high requirements.

Are you joking? It was terrible. I have tried to play Stalker SoC on three PCs. On the first, it won't even load. On the second, it loads, goes choppy and still look like shit.
On the third, it didn't allow me to open doors.
I've reinstalled the game from scratch and redo about (I think) 2-3 hours of game. Same issue.
Reinstalled again from scratch and updated to last version (not save compatible). Replayed agan 2-3 hours. Doors won't open again.

Ok, I'll just live without doors. I can open them with granades after all thanks to the "physics". Too bad after a while I was unable to find grenades... nor guns. Nor ammunitions. Nor medkits... Nor...
*click* in the trashcan.

Quote Posted by Thirith

I've always wondered: a good engine should provide for enough variables to make sure that not every game on the engine feels the same. Add to that the huge difference that textures, models and animations make, and you should be able to create a STALKERish game on (good) engines other than the engine used to create the original game.

Actually this approach is old (you're able to choose from a pool of pre-considered combinations), and typically referred to "content-expandibility". Successful systems nowadays allow to be "logic-expandable", a degree of complexity far more advanced and effective.

Quote Posted by Muzman

Something tells me that dynamic loading/streaming was what held the SoC release back for a year or two (ie, not getting it to work). If they really really badly want to have it they might have to change, but they could save some monay and stick with Xray as far as I'm concerned.

I cannot resist: :laff:
SoC was put back in the queue multiple times as they were having alot of trouble with all sorts of subsystems in their technology. If memory serves, GPU Gems 2 has some gory details on their troubles: they initially went D3D7, then went to 8, then to 9... in the end I'm still not impressed by the results.
SoC still needs a ton, a ton of work. As for the sequel, I haven't played it, nor I plan to do but considering they now have some money to license (this wasn't an available option previously) I would just license UTech3 and trash everything... Just comparing LUA to UScript makes me feel the urge to run away screaming! :devil:

Quote Posted by 242

I personally don't believe in Stalker on a foreign engine. If they won't create a new specifically crafted engine for Stalker 2, I'm somehow sure the new game will suck.

If they will create a new tech for the next stalker, I'm somehow sure it will suck (but the above reasons are rather objective to me). :nono:

242 on 16/4/2009 at 18:54

Quote Posted by MaxDZ8

I can say there is something very wrong with your 3 PCs if they aren't too outdated of course. SoC is smooth as silk on average modern game PC.

PS: About doors, are sure you pressed F to open them?? Maybe 3rd PC had problems with keyboard.

Quote:

Are you thinking of that from a technical standpoint or is it just a random hunch?

Observation ;)
I can't remember any sequel built on a foreign engine that wouldn't suck compared to the original.

steo on 16/4/2009 at 19:02

Gah, Damn you and your stealth posting 242...

@MaxDZ8

1. Get a new PC. SoC looked amazing on high settings, the lighting was incredible and yet it scaled very well too if you used the lower lighting modes. If you can't play it using static lighting, get a PC that isn't a bucket of shit/more than six years old.

2. Did you try patching the game? Most doors in the game don't open anyway, and the ones that do are generally automatic. You are pressing the right button aren't you?

3. You must be quite bad at computer games if you can't find enough guns/ammo in stalker, what with every person dropping at least one gun with ammo (the amount goes down as you increase difficulty but there's still enough for your next kill and you can buy as much as you like anyway). Did you try the easy skill?

4. You're right, stalker was clearly pushed out a lot earlier than the developers would have liked but they set their ambitions pretty high. Even so, it's still a damn good game and there's a veritable menagerie of mods around to add to the game and make it play like you want it to. As for them not previously having money to license an engine, they've been going since 1995 and made a lot of money out of Cossacks, which is how they were able to fund such a long development with stalker (well that and they're based in Ukraine). Also, given the amount of time it takes to develop an engine, I'm not sure it's actually cheaper to develop yourself instead of buying it from someone else.

5. As I'm sure you can tell, I'd be quite happy for the next game to use a later version of the X-ray engine, particularly since GSC clearly put a lot of work into developing it. Then again, I'm also sure they know a lot more about their own engines capabilities than I do, so if they want to use someone else's engine it's probably for the best.

MaxDZ8 on 16/4/2009 at 19:25

Quote Posted by 242

I can say there is something very wrong with your 3 PCs if they aren't too outdated of course. SoC is smooth as silk on average modern game PC.

It was a out of the box Q6600 with 8GB of RAM... it has an Areca Raid-6 enabled 5-disk array... just to let you know I know what I'm writing.

Quote Posted by 242

PS: About doors, are sure you pressed F to open them?? Maybe 3rd PC had problems with keyboard.

The keyboard had to be replaced **after** I tried to play it. :rolleyes:

Quote Posted by steo

1. Get a new PC. SoC looked amazing on high settings, the lighting was incredible and yet it scaled very well too if you used the lower lighting modes. If you can't play it using static lighting, get a PC that isn't a bucket of shit/more than six years old.

LOL! The vid card is a Quadro... it costs more than a typical PC. The RAID card itself costs more than a typical PC. The disks themselves costed more than some PCs... even the case could suffice in buying more than half of a typical PC! :laff:

Quote Posted by steo

2. Did you try patching the game? Most doors in the game don't open anyway, and the ones that do are generally automatic. You are pressing the right button aren't you?

Sure. Anyway, one of the affected doors was the one on the starting bunker. If memory serves, it used to open by itself.

Quote Posted by steo

3. You must be quite bad at computer games if you can't find enough guns/ammo in stalker, what with every person dropping at least one gun with ammo (the amount goes down as you increase difficulty but there's still enough for your next kill and you can buy as much as you like anyway). Did you try the easy skill?

No, they don't. I have elaborated, it's the same bug, obviously.

Briareos H on 16/4/2009 at 19:54

get out

Bjossi on 16/4/2009 at 19:59

Quote Posted by MaxDZ8

LOL! The vid card is a Quadro...

That is definitely not a gaming-friendly card.

Renzatic on 16/4/2009 at 20:18

Yup. If you bought a Quadro thinking it'd be a good game card, you wasted a ton of money. They're great for doing high-end 3D/cad work, but that doesn't correlate to them giving you high framerates in Crysis. Quite the opposite, actually. At best, they'll give you middling performance in games.

steo on 16/4/2009 at 22:08

Quote Posted by MaxDZ8

It's all bugs, my pc is the best in world etc.

My only explanation is that you have multiple personality disorder which you may or may not know about, and one of your other personalities has maliciously modded the fuck out of your stalker installation and/or sabotaged your PC, though as bjossi said, your video card is not designed for gaming.

Either that or you're just bullshitting about having the best pc in the world because we accused you of trying to run it on an inadequate machine.

Nonetheless, mutants aside, every enemy you kill has a gun - and ammo - which you can take from them when they die. Unless your installation's fucked, there is no bug that stops them from dropping ammo. Not in version 1.00, not in the latest patch.

EvaUnit02 on 17/4/2009 at 01:33

Quote Posted by MaxDZ8

LOL! The vid card is a Quadro...

That's your problem. The drivers for specialised business GPU's aren't optimised for games.

Fafhrd on 17/4/2009 at 02:02

It sounds like his entire rig is a graphics workstation or somesuch. Which is pretty lolling in and of itself.