Can't play Clear Sky??

[runzwithsizorz]

I have a better computer, but was sure I could play Clear Sky on this:
Asus laptop: 5870m vid, i7 Q720 (1.6 GHz), 6 gig ram Win 7 64

I installed the latest patch for the game to utilize DX 10.1.
Problem: I get about 10 minutes into the game and it just quits...I get a black screen (mouse cursor works, so not a total freeze). Ctrl alt del, a restart and same thing...game runs about 10 min and shuts down. This is the beginning, so no action except talking.

Also, every time the game loads, I get "prefetching objects. opening stream, loading CFORM, Client spawning, loading textures, client syncronizing...Never saw this before in any game.

I do have settings pretty high (not maxed), but I thought this Asus could handle an old game. Any help would be appreciated.

The Wife

 

[Stringjam]

The detailed "debug" style of loading screen is typical for all of the STALKER games, so never fear - - it's normal.

It's an old game, but it is surprisingly demanding, especially with the lighting options turned up.

Also....make sure STEAM is NOT running in "Compatability Mode" and that it is running as administrator:

The Compatability mode setting will truly screw up STALKER games, especially Call of Pripyat. I don't know how long I fought with getting that game to run before I finally discovered that little check box.


Apart from that, I found Clear Sky to be buggy as hell. I was never able to finish the vanilla game because of game-breaking bugs. I downloaded "The Complete Mod" and for the most part enjoyed a relatively bug-free experience after.

There may be other mods that fix the CS bugs, but I only have experience with Complete.

Despite that, I really love the game.......especially understanding where it fits in the story of the STALKER series (as a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl). I think it is best played after ShoC, but it really doesn't matter either way, as long as you keep in mind where it is.

One of my favorite games in life (I've probably played through it a half dozen times).

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Thank you for the reply. I played both SOC and COP with no problems at all; COP on the same ASUS. I did look at the "complete mod" and will download it. Also, all of my STALKER games are retail (DVD) and not from Steam. However, I did check run as admin in the Clear Sky game. One last question: Is the Asus able to run this game with the mod?

The Wife

 

[Stringjam]

The complete mod doesn't hit the performance much in my experience.

It DOES increase loading times (higher resolution textures).

Maybe someone will pipe in here with a mod that only fixes bugs and doesn't add graphical enhancements, but for now, that's the only mod I've played with it that fixes them.

I don't like the longer load times, but the increased texture quality does certainly look nice.

If you start having framerate issues, though, the first thing I would start backing off would be the lighting settings, as they have a huge impact on the framerate.

The difference between max lighting and lower lighting levels can result in almost a 100% increase in framerate at some times (especially morning, when dynamic light rays are more prevalent).

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Always like better textures...will see if I have to lower light after installing mod. Makes me want to replay SOC with mods!

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The Complete Mod is terrible.

Its easy mode Stalker.

Run AMK or LURK.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I really want to play the game without bugs! And without it crashing every 5 minutes.All the rest is gravy. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Stringjam]

The Complete Mod is terrible.

Its easy mode Stalker.

Run AMK or LURK.

??? There is no AMK or LURK for Clear Sky that I know of.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Oh yeah forgot that CS didn't have an AMK or LURK

Best CS mods are Reloaded/Faction war, which are overhaul mods.

The sky reclamation project is a community made bug fixing patch if you want just the vanilla experience (Should play using only this the first time around)

 

[Stringjam]

The sky reclamation project is a community made bug fixing patch if you want just the vanilla experience (Should play using only this the first time around)

This looks good.

 

[werepossum]

The detailed "debug" style of loading screen is typical for all of the STALKER games, so never fear - - it's normal.

It's an old game, but it is surprisingly demanding, especially with the lighting options turned up.

Also....make sure STEAM is NOT running in "Compatability Mode" and that it is running as administrator:

The Compatability mode setting will truly screw up STALKER games, especially Call of Pripyat. I don't know how long I fought with getting that game to run before I finally discovered that little check box.


Apart from that, I found Clear Sky to be buggy as hell. I was never able to finish the vanilla game because of game-breaking bugs. I downloaded "The Complete Mod" and for the most part enjoyed a relatively bug-free experience after.

There may be other mods that fix the CS bugs, but I only have experience with Complete.

Despite that, I really love the game.......especially understanding where it fits in the story of the STALKER series (as a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl). I think it is best played after ShoC, but it really doesn't matter either way, as long as you keep in mind where it is.

One of my favorite games in life (I've probably played through it a half dozen times).

Does "The Complete Mod" change the game play? I loved the other two games, but never got into "Clear Sky", far too buggy (and I'm a Fallout devotee!) and just not much fun. I'm thinking about going back and trying it again, but heavily modded and hopefully more stable than Lindsay Lohan on acid.

Runzwithsizorz' Wife, I played it with everything maxed on much less computer, albeit with a faster hard drive (desktop, 7200 rpm) and running XP. You're probably seeing a combination of a very buggy game and an unsupported (or marginally supported) OS rather than hardware limits.

 

[Stringjam]

Does "The Complete Mod" change the game play? I loved the other two games, but never got into "Clear Sky", far too buggy (and I'm a Fallout devotee!) and just not much fun. I'm thinking about going back and trying it again, but heavily modded and hopefully more stable than Lindsay Lohan on acid.

Yes. Complete does make the game easier, as it tends to scatter far more gear about. It isn't as much of an issue as ShoC, where it literally scatters artifacts EVERYWHERE in some levels, but it is still something I would prefer it didn't do. I prefer the vanilla, more sparse distribution of gear.

If I were playing Clear Sky again, I would take a good look at the mod Nikolae suggested that only fixes the bugs.

The Reloaded mod looks interesting though. Since I've already played through the vanilla game so many times, I may give this overhaul a try.

 

[werepossum]

Yes. Complete does make the game easier, as it tends to scatter far more gear about. It isn't as much of an issue as ShoC, where it literally scatters artifacts EVERYWHERE in some levels, but it is still something I would prefer it didn't do. I prefer the vanilla, more sparse distribution of gear.

If I were playing Clear Sky again, I would take a good look at the mod Nikolae suggested that only fixes the bugs.

The Reloaded mod looks interesting though. Since I've already played through the vanilla game so many times, I may give this overhaul a try.

Easier might not be so bad. Sadly, the thing I remember best about Clear Sky was sneaking & then running to get through a choke point where a machine gun was sweeping. Must have taken me the better part of an hour to get past that point, only to have a crash which corrupted the saves so that I had to run it again.

 

[Stringjam]

Easier might not be so bad. Sadly, the thing I remember best about Clear Sky was sneaking & then running to get through a choke point where a machine gun was sweeping. Must have taken me the better part of an hour to get past that point, only to have a crash which corrupted the saves so that I had to run it again.

Yeah. Complete is good for folks that are more into the atmosphere and story than trying to scrounge for supplies.

I think that's fine. Not everybody enjoys the more "grindy" side of building up equipment and better weapons.

There is an optional file with the Complete mods called "Realistic Weapon Add-On" which also removes some of the bullet-sponge from NPCs. IMO, this was really bad on ShoC. I downloaded the file after repeatedly dumping shotgun loads in NPCs and they wouldn't go down. Then they pull out a Makarov or something and take me down in a 2 shots.

The file settings even the playing field a little better. It doesn't make you any less vulnerable, it just affects their bullet soak capacity.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Yeah. Complete is good for folks that are more into the atmosphere and story than trying to scrounge for supplies.

I think that's fine. Not everybody enjoys the more "grindy" side of building up equipment and better weapons.

There is an optional file with the Complete mods called "Realistic Weapon Add-On" which also removes some of the bullet-sponge from NPCs. IMO, this was really bad on ShoC. I downloaded the file after repeatedly dumping shotgun loads in NPCs and they wouldn't go down. Then they pull out a Makarov or something and take me down in a 2 shots.

The file settings even the playing field a little better. It doesn't make you any less vulnerable, it just affects their bullet soak capacity.

I dont know how you can take in the atmosphere without having the game be hard. How much more athmospheric can you get than having to reduce your bullet load to 3 magazines at max plus a single clip of side ammunition and having to scrounge around ammo while in the field while having to eat/drink/sleep/ dodge emissions.

On the hardest difficulty, the NPC have the exact same health and hitboxes as you do. Anything that can kill you, will kill them. Its just that some have a TON of armor and anything less than AP rounds will do minimal damage unless you're hitting their head consistently, while for you, the best armor you can get is the exoskeleton and thats only very late in the game. And even than, when you're going against military guys they're using AP ammo. Also headshots will instant kill you.

Shotguns with birdshot doesn't do much damage against heavily armored enemies. need to switch to the AP slugs for that. Also secondly, in SoC the engine has a limitation where when they are in the "knock back" animation produced by hitting them with a shotgun shell, they're actually invincible, so continually pumping them full of slugs during that animation will do nothing.

This was fixed in the later games.

 

[Stringjam]

I dont know how you can take in the atmosphere without having the game be hard. How much more athmospheric can you get than having to reduce your bullet load to 3 magazines at max plus a single clip of side ammunition and having to scrounge around ammo while in the field while having to eat/drink/sleep/ dodge emissions.

On the hardest difficulty, the NPC have the exact same health and hitboxes as you do. Anything that can kill you, will kill them. Its just that some have a TON of armor and anything less than AP rounds will do minimal damage unless you're hitting their head consistently, while for you, the best armor you can get is the exoskeleton and thats only very late in the game. And even than, when you're going against military guys they're using AP ammo. Also headshots will instant kill you.

Shotguns with birdshot doesn't do much damage against heavily armored enemies. need to switch to the AP slugs for that. Also secondly, in SoC the engine has a limitation where when they are in the "knock back" animation produced by hitting them with a shotgun shell, they're actually invincible, so continually pumping them full of slugs during that animation will do nothing.

This was fixed in the later games.

Well, I am referring specifically to ShoC. Call of Pripyat doesn't seem to have any of the issues that annoyed me in ShoC. I think CoP is best played in vanilla form without any mods. I've played through the whole game with Misery, and that's fine for a 2nd playthrough, but honestly it didn't really bring a whole lot more to the experience to me. However, I HATE it when mods mess with the *brilliant* original soundtrack. Please...just leave that alone - it's perfect the way it is.

I've been playing through with Misery 2.0, which supposedly adds a lot of modifications to AI behaviors, but this was the first thing I noticed. The original score is gone (grrrrrrrrrr).

I believe I've experienced the "knock back" limitation you're referring to in ShoC. It wasn't armored guys I was fighting....just bandits in the Garbage. I know what a shotgun with a proper load can do to something within decent proximity, so it was really pissing me off when I would hit them at center mass and they would respond by pulling out a Makarov and taking me out with their perfect accuracy after I just put two loads of shot in their chest.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Misert 2.0 is pretty bad compared to the first one. Its like they didn't do any playtesting at all.

 

[werepossum]

I dont know how you can take in the atmosphere without having the game be hard. How much more athmospheric can you get than having to reduce your bullet load to 3 magazines at max plus a single clip of side ammunition and having to scrounge around ammo while in the field while having to eat/drink/sleep/ dodge emissions.

On the hardest difficulty, the NPC have the exact same health and hitboxes as you do. Anything that can kill you, will kill them. Its just that some have a TON of armor and anything less than AP rounds will do minimal damage unless you're hitting their head consistently, while for you, the best armor you can get is the exoskeleton and thats only very late in the game. And even than, when you're going against military guys they're using AP ammo. Also headshots will instant kill you.

Shotguns with birdshot doesn't do much damage against heavily armored enemies. need to switch to the AP slugs for that. Also secondly, in SoC the engine has a limitation where when they are in the "knock back" animation produced by hitting them with a shotgun shell, they're actually invincible, so continually pumping them full of slugs during that animation will do nothing.

This was fixed in the later games.

Reducing my bullet load to three magazines max isn't atmospheric, it's just silly. As for the other, I have no problem with NPCs having the same health and hit boxes as do I. In fact, I prefer it. However . . . if you're going to throw up-armored NPCs at me, either give me the weapons and ammo to effectively fight them or give me a way to sneak around them. (And not too many of the latter, else I'm not enjoying the game.) In the Clear Sky choke point, I found neither. I had neither weapons and ammo to effectively fight them nor any concealment for sneaking. Even in the dark I kept getting spotted. And in my opinion, forcing me to run through a machine gun's beaten zone because of an arbitrary fence I can neither cut nor climb is just silly and defeats immersion. In conjunction with enjoying the ambiance and setting I want to think in real time about tactics, goals and strategy, not getting around some game-induced artificial constraint.

I will say however that outside of that choke point, my problems with Clear Sky were bugginess and lackluster design, not difficulty. Neither writing/scripting nor design were up to the other two games in my opinion.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Reducing my bullet load to three magazines max isn't atmospheric, it's just silly. As for the other, I have no problem with NPCs having the same health and hit boxes as do I. In fact, I prefer it. However . . . if you're going to throw up-armored NPCs at me, either give me the weapons and ammo to effectively fight them or give me a way to sneak around them. (And not too many of the latter, else I'm not enjoying the game.) In the Clear Sky choke point, I found neither. I had neither weapons and ammo to effectively fight them nor any concealment for sneaking. Even in the dark I kept getting spotted. And in my opinion, forcing me to run through a machine gun's beaten zone because of an arbitrary fence I can neither cut nor climb is just silly and defeats immersion. In conjunction with enjoying the ambiance and setting I want to think in real time about tactics, goals and strategy, not getting around some game-induced artificial constraint.

I will say however that outside of that choke point, my problems with Clear Sky were bugginess and lackluster design, not difficulty. Neither writing/scripting nor design were up to the other two games in my opinion.

You do get weapons that deal with them fairly early on. Also headshots are still instant kill on heavily armored enemies.

Also there is an alternative route to get to the other side of that machine gun nest. You just have to find it.

 

[werepossum]

Well, I am referring specifically to ShoC. Call of Pripyat doesn't seem to have any of the issues that annoyed me in ShoC. I think CoP is best played in vanilla form without any mods. I've played through the whole game with Misery, and that's fine for a 2nd playthrough, but honestly it didn't really bring a whole lot more to the experience to me. However, I HATE it when mods mess with the *brilliant* original soundtrack. Please...just leave that alone - it's perfect the way it is.

I've been playing through with Misery 2.0, which supposedly adds a lot of modifications to AI behaviors, but this was the first thing I noticed. The original score is gone (grrrrrrrrrr).

I believe I've experienced the "knock back" limitation you're referring to in ShoC. It wasn't armored guys I was fighting....just bandits in the Garbage. I know what a shotgun with a proper load can do to something within decent proximity, so it was really pissing me off when I would hit them at center mass and they would respond by pulling out a Makarov and taking me out with their perfect accuracy after I just put two loads of shot in their chest.

I suppose everything can be made better, but I thought CoP was just about perfect. And I agree about the score; a lot of money is spent on music, so if you're making a mod at least give me the option of retaining the original score even if you think your buddy's garage band or your mixed tape of ripped off Sex Pistols and Monkeys tunes are sooo much better.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I tried uninstalling/reinstalling the game, which just made everything worse. Anyway, I'll just shelve this game for now...spent too much time fooling with it, and I have a lot of other games to play. Someone suggested the "high definition audio device" on the mobo being disabled helped, but I didn't go there. I do know that just touching the slider to lower the music volume in the game options menu made the game crash! I have never had so much trouble with ANY game, including Oblivian, POP, RTCW and the other 2 STALKER games (all played on the same computer).

Anyway, thanks for all the input and advice. I will probably attempt another try later on after making sure all traces of CS and its patches/mods are deleted.

The Wife

 

[Stringjam]

Anyway, thanks for all the input and advice. I will probably attempt another try later on after making sure all traces of CS and its patches/mods are deleted.

The Wife

Sorry to hear that. Out of curiosity, did you ever try the "Sky Reclamation Project" bug patch?

 

[runzwithsizorz]

did you ever try the "Sky Reclamation Project" bug patch?

No, I did attempt to install CS complete which includes Sky Rec Proj. The only other thing I can think of is I installed patch 1.5.10.1 instead of 1.5.10. Also, there was a crash bug report "xr engine executable caused breakpoint in module "D/Games/etc. (where I reinstalled the game)