Talk:S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

I can't figure out how to install Stalker patch 1.0008, can anyone help me?

Copy all of the files from "binaries_release" to the same folder, that game's .exe file is.

thanks, I have the Steam version, a beta patch 1.0007 is available, should I install this too?

You don't have to, if you've installed 1.0008 on top of the 1.0006 patch.

thanks again, unfortunately by inserting the patch on the Steam version the game doesn't start, can you help me?

You had to do something wrong. It should've worked just fine.

@Celux are you by any chance getting an error that says "Pixel Shaders v 1.1 required?" Because I'm having that same error.

Spent some time investigating the differences between different versions of the game, here's what I've found.

For Shadow of Chernobyl - there are two base versions of the game: the Russain version and the WorldWide version. Their gamedata archives encoded with a different key and their content is a little different, which sometimes causes issues with mods. Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat have no such version separation.

The current ShoC version on Steam is the WorldWide version. Initially, the Russian version was sold separately, but was delisted somewhere in 2012.

Each installation differentiates itself by a registry key InstallSource, which is then used by patches to ensure users install the correct version of the patch.

Here's what installation types I've collected.

Shadow of Chernobyl:

stk-rus-pack-starforce-keydisk-r - retail Russian/CIS release (DRM StarForce).

stk-for-pack-securom-keydisk-efis - retail European release (DRM SecuROM).

stk-for-pack-noprot-efis - retail American release (DRM-free), as well as the Steam version (DRM SteamStub).

stk-for-pack-securom-activ-efis - Digital Distribution version (Direct2Drive). Release DRM unknown, but the patches are completely DRM-free.

Clear Sky:

stkcs-rus-pack-r - retail Russian/CIS release (DRM StarForce).

stkcs-for-pack-efigs - retail European release (DRM Tages). There was also an Italian Covermount version, which is completely DRM-free.

stkcs-for-pack-ef - retail American release (DRM Tages).

stkcs-did-pack-r - Steam version (DRM SteamStub).

stkcs-tol-pack-efigspcjh - Digital Distribution version. Although i haven't found examples of this version, the patches for it exist and contain Tages DRM.

Call of Pripyat:

stkcop-sj-rus-pack-r - retail Russian/CIS release (DRM StarForce).

stkcop-rd-for-pack-efigs - retail European and American release (DRM SecuROM).

stkcop-st-for-pack - Steam version (DRM SteamStub).

For GOG - every version contains GOG string as it's InstallSource. The GOG release of Shadow of Chernobyl provides both the Russian and the WorldWide version of the game.

I don't know where that came from, but none of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games make use of the DirectX 8.

1. Static lighting uses D3D9, as MSI AB/RTSS overlay shows.

2. Minimal system requirements state ATI Radeon 9600 and Nvidia GeForce 5700 which are DX9-class GPUs.

3. There are no references of d3d8 or d3dx8 in the binary files.

I checked some earlier S.T.A.L.K.E.R. development builds from 2005 and they also don't use D3D8. So it looks like DX8 was ditched from the game long before the release.

I can confirm DX8 is not used in the STALKER games by using DgVoodoo 2, which, by default, puts a watermark on the screen when a given renderer is used. I only used the DX8 and DX7 DLLs for dgVoodoo2, and while the game defaulted to static lighting, the watermark did not appear - so definitely DX9. The R1 renderer, the one used when static lighting is selected, could still be using DX8-level shader models since DX9 also supports them, but that's speculation on my part.

Static Lighting: DX9 libraries compliant with DX8.1 hardware (shader model 1.x)

The Video settings section shows a green check mark for Vsync, but I've found that the in-game Vsync option has no effect. (You can confirm this by turning on rs_stats in the console.) TweakGuides agrees; see this page.

TweakGuides also claims, however, that you can force Vsync using your graphics card's control panel, and I was unable to do this using Catalyst Control Center. The option to force Vsync exists but again rs_stats reveals that it doesn't work.

One solution is D3DOverrider, a tool packaged with RivaTuner, but I'm not sure if there's a good place to download D3DOverrider by itself.

I've been using GeForce for years and switched to AMD/ATI in February this year. Was absolutely disappointed with how little you can do with Catalyst Control Center and how often it doesn't work, anyway. About Stalker, thought - you're probably right. I've tested Call of Prypiat, which I have installed and it really doesn't limit the framerate to 60 no matter how you set up the game, even though it should. However, RadeonPro as usually works just fine. Just be sure to use it with xrEngine.exe.

Thanks for backing me up and changing the page. I've changed Vsync from Impossible to Hackable, though, since it can be fixed with other software. (Let me know if I'm wrong about what Hackable is supposed to mean here.) I also changed the citation for broken Vsync to the aforementioned TweakGuides page, and added a reference to D3DOverrider alongside RadeonPro. Finally, I've added the same information to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat since they seem to have the same issues. I hope this is all right.

Actually, I treat RadeonPro as forcing it from a level of graphics drivers, which I've seen some pages mark as false (hence, I've marked it as false as well). All that is actually lack of few standarization rules - I've already made a thread about it on a forum, so in such examples we have a clear rule on what to do. It's here: http://community.pcgamingwiki.com/topic/748-standarization-forcing-settings-from-graphics-drivers-panel/

Would you treat D3DOverrider the same way? I honestly have no idea if it works in the same way as RadeonPro. In any case, I was mostly guessing about the Impossible/Hackable distinction; I had seen that Field of View (FOV) was marked as Hackable, and I figured we had a similar situation for Vsync. If you do change Vsync back to False on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the same change should be made on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat as well.

I honestly, have no idea how to treat D3D Overrider. RadeonPro I pretty much treat as an expansion of abilities in Catalyst, although it's not exactly that. But, I don't think, I'll hurt anyone by saying, what abilities Catalyst has, are actually pathetic when compared to Nvidia's Control Panel. Either way, I won't change it anything now, until we have a clear rule how to treat Forcing Settings from Drivers. Then, I either change this and Stalker pages or I'll look for pages where forcing settings from graphics drivers counts as false. It all depends on what is going to be decided on forum.

I redid the entire page according to the new pcgamingwiki template and updated all of the information, replaced or removed dead links, rewrote most sections. Feel free to give some feedback as I continue.

Thank you, really great job. I made a few small changes to the Game Data section and a few grammatical/formatting fixes elsewhere. The only problems I've found with the article are that it lacks sources and the settings tables (check the Sample Article). If you can add references that'd be great, but the settings are much more important.

If you find any issues with what I added please feel free to fix them.

I added quite some stuff in the page but I feel the need to point out that all of these info were gathered in the Stalker community and I dont take any credit for their creation or finding, I simply placed them here for everyone to see.