Stalker Clear Sky performance

[GodlessAstronomer]

My brother gave me Stalker Clear Sky for Christmas and I'm very keen to start playing but the game is performing quite poorly. My specs are AMD X4 Phenom II 955BE, XFX 4890 1024mb XXX Edition and 4gb memory running Windows 7 Pro. I haven't taken actual measurements but it feels like around 15fps with significant mouse lag (~0.5 seconds) on medium settings. It runs fine on lowest settings and obviously gets worse on higher settings.

Does this game have a reputation for poor performance? Is there anything I can do to play the game with decent framerates and still retain the beautiful lighting effects? My rig is fairly grunty so I'm rather disappointed so far. I have barely left the starting room, maybe there is just poor performance in that area? I've tried DX9 and DX10 modes.

 

[ZzZGuy]

IIRC, the sun effects are a huge drain on performance, so putting them on low helps. Shadows too.

 

[F1N3ST]

Uhh, I have this problem with FEAR, do you have a Logitech Mouse/Keyboard?

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Its supposed to run like crap, didn't think it was that bad though. I would play with the settings, see what kills performance and leave it off.

 

[Kromis]

Yeah it's one of those games that you can't max out right now.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

What settings are you running it at? Unless you're at something stupid like 1920x1200x4xAA, you shouldn't be at 15fps.

 

[CP5670]

I have it on DX9 at high settings, with a few specific effects that kill performance turned down. I get 40-60fps at almost all times at 1600x1200 with no AA.

 

[marmasatt]

This game is gorgeous and slightly below Crysis in appearance in my opinion. Make sure you have the latest patch obviously. And you should look for some performance mods. Especially "float 32" for Clear Sky. Here are 274 for your perusal. I'll see if I can remember the ones I used. http://stalker.filefront.com/files/Stalker/Clear_Sky/Mods/Singleplayer;10507

 

[lavaheadache]

Sun rays are the biggest performance killer. I run mine on low for this setting and vastly increase minimum fps on a trifire rig no less. Give it a try. Also the wet surface option if you are in the dx 10.1 code path is extra strenuous.

 

[CP5670]

I don't think it looks anything like Crysis. The graphics are extremely inconsistent, looking very good in some ways and quite mediocre in other respects.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I turned down the sun ray effects and the problem is solved, thanks guys. Anyone noticed there are extremely long load times in this game? I have had loads of greater than 2 minutes at times, and it seems to be accessing the DVD often while doing this. Other than that I'm having a great time with the game and it looks really good, but combat is a bit too hard on Novice.

 

[marmasatt]

I didn't say it's *like* Crysis, CP. Only that it rivals it in some of the city environments. I used the Basix Monstrosity mod. http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Basix_Monstrosity_CS;95869 Some nice tweaks. Added agility, balanced weapons, graphics performance, added a few monsters, and drivable vehicles among many things. Was absolutely fantastic and I'd recommend it.

And Godless, I'm not sure what you've heard, but you can't run and gun in this one. You've got to sneak as best you can and take out guys up close. Then when you get better weapons, the game becomes easier.

 

[lavaheadache]

I didn't say it's *like* Crysis, CP. Only that it rivals it in some of the city environments. I used the Basix Monstrosity mod. http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Basix_Monstrosity_CS;95869 Some nice tweaks. Added agility, balanced weapons, graphics performance, added a few monsters, and drivable vehicles among many things. Was absolutely fantastic and I'd recommend it.

And Godless, I'm not sure what you've heard, but you can't run and gun in this one. You've got to sneak as best you can and take out guys up close. Then when you get better weapons, the game becomes easier.

better armor too lol.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Are there any mods I should be playing this game with? Or should I play vanilla for my first go through? People recommend Oblivion Lost for Shadows of Chernobyl, is there something similar for CS?

 

[marmasatt]

Are there any mods I should be playing this game with? Or should I play vanilla for my first go through? People recommend Oblivion Lost for Shadows of Chernobyl, is there something similar for CS?

Yes, it's linked above you.

Easier in the sense that there is better weapons, more of them, better armor, and the gravy is new monsters, graphics tweaks and vehicles so you can get from map to map quicker.

 

[TheVrolok]

I didn't say it's *like* Crysis, CP. Only that it rivals it in some of the city environments. I used the Basix Monstrosity mod. http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Basix_Monstrosity_CS;95869 Some nice tweaks. Added agility, balanced weapons, graphics performance, added a few monsters, and drivable vehicles among many things. Was absolutely fantastic and I'd recommend it.

And Godless, I'm not sure what you've heard, but you can't run and gun in this one. You've got to sneak as best you can and take out guys up close. Then when you get better weapons, the game becomes easier.

Going to have to try this mod.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

SMM really makes stalker mods easy to work with.

http://www.smart-mod-manager.org/

 

[marmasatt]

SMM really makes stalker mods easy to work with.

http://www.smart-mod-manager.org/

Explain to us what that is, Dangler..

 

[Replay]

Tips for rookie stalkers.

Headshots rule in CS.
Try buckshot on the mutated wildlife.
It may seem hard, but there are some tricks for entering Cordon.

I've had allot of fun with this game, and the first one, vanilla and modded. CS is not as scary as the first game, but has it's moments.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

It may seem hard, but there are some tricks for entering Cordon.

Can you please share these, maybe in spoiler tags? Because I'm absolutely stuck trying to get in there. I've tried both entrances, the military destroys me in the north entrance and the Stalkers under the bridge destroy me in the south.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Explain to us what that is, Dangler..

smart mod manager is a little app that can install and activate mods for shadow of chernobyl and clear skies (i assume a new version for call of pripyat is on the way). with this, it's super easy to mod the games, and it will alert you if 2 or more mods conflict with the option of assigning priority, deactivating or removing. i consider it essential to playing stalker.

i play shadow of chernobyl with:
Stalker Weather Overhaul (SWO 3.0)
http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr&lang=en
Zone Reclamation Project (ZRP 1.05, with 1.05 r11 all-spawn)
http://metacognix.com/stlkrsoc/index.html

 

[The Boston Dangler]

GA, your 4890 should be pretty comparable to my gtx275. i think if you go thru some of the mods, there are considerable improvements in performance and graphics quality to be found.

 

[Replay]

Can you please share these, maybe in spoiler tags? Because I'm absolutely stuck trying to get in there. I've tried both entrances, the military destroys me in the north entrance and the Stalkers under the bridge destroy me in the south.

Try the tips in the first of these walk-through sites:

http://www.supercheats.com/pc/walkthroughs/stalkerclearsky-walkthrough01.txt
http://guides.gamepressure.com/stalkerclearsky/guide.asp?ID=5220
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/942067/54710

 

[duragezic]

Can you please share these, maybe in spoiler tags? Because I'm absolutely stuck trying to get in there. I've tried both entrances, the military destroys me in the north entrance and the Stalkers under the bridge destroy me in the south.

Yeah go the alternate route. I think upper right corner of the map after you enter towards the MG then go back. The guides will describe it. That was the only really frustrating part of CS at least for a while more.

I've always thought Clear Sky was more demanding than Crysis. Even the original Stalker is a hog. With my 7800GT, I had to turn OFF dynamic lighting. With either my 7800GT or 4870, Clear Sky runs worse and looks worse than Crysis. So I never looked at any graphics enhancement mods considering I needed all the performance I could get.

 

[BFG10K]

Clear Sky is definitely more demanding than Crysis.