Stalker adjustment option setting on a weak PC. We play "Stalker" on a weak computer. Change power settings

There are many ways to improve the performance of games on the weak computer. Next, we'll go through them in order from easy to hard, and tell you what to do if S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat slows down.

A simple solution to the brakes in Stalker: Call of Pripyat

1. Download and run the world famous CCleaner(download from a direct link) is a program that will clean your computer of unnecessary garbage, as a result of which the system will work faster after the first reboot;
2. Update all drivers in the system using the program Driver Updater(download via direct link) - it will scan your computer and update all drivers to the latest version in 5 minutes;
3. Install the program WinOptimizer(download via direct link) and include in it Game Mode, which will terminate useless background processes during game launches and improve in-game performance.

Free up disk space

Before proceeding to active actions, you need to make sure that the computer has at least 10-15 GB of free space on the hard drive on which the operating system is installed.

This is usually the "C" drive. This minimum margin is necessary so that the system can create temporary storages of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat files, caches and so on without any problems.

And make sure you have enough space on your hard drive for the game to work properly.

Disable unnecessary programs

Each program that is running in the OS takes up a certain percentage of RAM and loads the processor. It is easy to verify this, just open the task manager using the Ctrl + Alt + Del keyboard shortcut:

If the computer does not have the most powerful processor installed, and the RAM is less than 8-16 GB, then before starting S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Call of Pripyat, you need to disable unnecessary programs. For example, Skype, Discord, Telegram, Google Chrome and so on.

Disable overlays

We are talking about those programs that are able to display their interface on top of the game. Often there are such on the computer - Fraps, Steam, Origin and so on. Even when the overlay is hidden, it is processed by the computer, reducing FPS in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

Therefore, all overlays must be disabled. Almost always, this can be done in the program settings without having to uninstall it. For example, the Steam overlay is easily disabled through the menu:

Update video card drivers, download drivers for Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Regardless of which video card is in the system unit, its drivers must be kept up to date. Therefore, before starting Stalker: Call of Pripyat, you should go to the manufacturer's website and check if new drivers are out:

After installing the driver, you should restart your computer to eliminate the possibility of failures. It is also worth considering that for many older video cards, new drivers are no longer available.

For some games, video card manufacturers release specially optimized drivers. Look for those in the news section about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat - we usually write about them. You can also look at the website of video card manufacturers.

Change power settings

By default, the computer is set to a balanced power mode, which, and in some laptops, in order to increase the operating time, is even set to save energy.

This prevents the computer from reaching its full potential in Stalker: Call of Pripyat, so the first step is to open the control panel, which can be found using the search. After you need to do the following:

• Select the view mode "Small Icons";
• Click on "Power";
• On the screen, find the option "Setting the power plan", click on it;
• Click on "Change advanced power settings";
• In the window that opens, find the drop-down list;
• Select "High performance" from the list;
• Click the "Apply" button, then click "OK".

Enable Nvidia performance mode

After installing the Nvidia graphics card driver, you can speed up S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat using performance mode. This will slightly simplify the graphics in the game, but increase the FPS. Please note that this method is only available if you have a graphics card with an Nvidia chip. Here's how to do it:

• In the lower right corner of the screen, in the tray, click right click mouse over the NVIDIA Settings icon;
• In the window that opens on the right, select the "3D Settings" tab;
• Click on the option "Adjust image settings with preview";
• On the right, check the box next to "Custom settings with an emphasis on:";
• Move the "slider", which is below, to the leftmost position "Performance";
• Click the "Apply" button below.

Next, you need to run S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Call of Pripyat and make sure everything is displayed correctly. If there are problems, then instead of "Custom settings with an emphasis on:" select "Settings according to 3D application".

Disable Windows Effects

If S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat does not work in full screen mode, and in a window, including without a frame, you can increase FPS if you turn off windows effects. To do this, you need to do the following:

• Open "Explorer";
• In the window that opens, go to the "Visual Effects" tab;
• Check the box next to the "Ensure the best performance" option.

If necessary, for last step you can select the "Special Effects" option. In this case, you can independently choose which effects to leave and which ones to turn off.

Increase paging file if there is not enough RAM for Stalker: Call of Pripyat

To compensate for the lack of RAM, you can increase the paging file. This will allow the system to store some of the necessary S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat data directly on the hard drive. Here's what to do:

• Open "Explorer";
• Right-click on "This PC" (or "My Computer");
• In the context menu, click on "Properties";
• In the window that opens, on the left, click on "Advanced system settings";
• In the window that opens, go to the "Advanced" tab;
• In the "Performance" section, click on the "Settings ..." button;
• In the window that opens, go to the "Advanced" tab;
• Uncheck the option "Automatically choose the size of the paging file" (if any);
• Check the box next to the "Specify size" option;
• In the text fields "Initial size (MB):" and "Maximum size (MB):" specify in megabytes a value equal to half the amount of RAM.

For example, if a 4 GB “stick” is installed in the system unit, that is, 4192 MB, you need to enter the number 2048 in the fields above. You can make the swap file larger, but this will not give any increase.

It should be understood that the swap file is effective only when the system does not have enough RAM. If the computer has 8-16 GB, then the paging file is practically not used. And when using an SSD as a system drive, the presence of a paging file can completely slow down the performance of Stalker: Call of Pripyat, so you should not thoughtlessly set a large paging file value.

Degrade the graphics even more in S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Call of Pripyat (potato mode) - turn off anti-aliasing, etc.

If Stalker: Call of Pripyat starts, but slows down a lot, then before starting all the procedures, you should reduce the graphics to a minimum through the game settings. If this does not help, then you will have to resort to the help of third-party programs to configure the video card:

• for video cards from Nvidia;
• for AMD video cards.

After downloading the program, run it. In the case of NVIDIA Inspector, you need to run nvidiaProfileInspector.exe, not nvidiaInspector.exe. At the top, in the "Profiles:" line, you can select any game that is supported by Nvidia drivers.

All available settings are listed below. There are a lot of them, but in order to worsen the graphics in the game to "potato", just a few, which are in the "Antialiasing" section, are quite enough.

The biggest performance gain comes from changing these two parameters:

• Texture filtering - LOD bias;
• Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling.

Each of these settings has different meanings. Some of them can make the picture in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat indigestible, so you should try different combinations of values ​​that give a more or less tolerable playable picture.

In the case of RadeonMod, everything is the same: you need to find the settings responsible for displaying textures and reduce them until the FPS in the game becomes high enough.

How to overclock video card for Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Everything related to "overclocking" is aimed at increasing performance, but these are quite extensive topics, which are difficult to describe in a nutshell. Plus, it's always a risky business. If so, we have warned you.

To achieve more FPS values in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, you can first try to overclock your graphics card. The easiest way to do this is to use the built-in software features from the graphics card manufacturer.

For example, some GIGABYTE video cards come with the Graphics Engine program, which has several ready-made overclocking profiles. This allows you to squeeze out 5-10 additional frames per second from the video card.

If there is no program from the manufacturer, then you can always use the universal solution -. This is one of the best programs for overclocking, it has many different settings.

But here you have to configure everything manually. First of all, you should increase the frequency of the video chip itself (“Core Clock”) and the frequency of the video card memory (“Memory Clock”). On the left are the base values ​​of these parameters. Temperature and voltage increase are displayed on the right - these characteristics allow you to monitor the "health" of the video card.

As the frequency increases, the video card heats up. If the temperature goes over 85 degrees, then you should increase the fan speed (“Fan Speed”). If the temperature rises to 100 degrees, then overclocking should be stopped immediately, otherwise the chip may melt. Powerful "overclocking" requires water cooling, so you should not increase the frequency by more than 10%.

overclock processor

While the "overclocking" of the video card is quite feasible right in Windows, in order to improve the performance of the processor and thereby increase the performance of Stalker: Call of Pripyat, you will have to go into the BIOS.

Gamer "overclocking" of the processor usually involves increasing the processor multiplier (Core Ratio). This can be done not on every processor, but only on where this multiplier is unlocked. Typically, such processors are marked in a special way. For example, Intel uses the 'K' and 'X' markings. That is, for example, the i7-4790 cannot be overclocked using a multiplier, but the i7-4790K can.

But how to find out the exact name of the processor model? The easiest way is to use the program. Having launched it, you need to open the "CPU" tab and look at the very first line - "Name". This is the name of the processor. By the way, in the same place you can see from the multiplier itself. It's in the "Clocks" section, in the "Multiplier" line. If the processor supports "overclocking", then this multiplier can be changed.

To change the Core Ratio, you must first get into the BIOS shell. To do this, you need to press a special key combination during computer startup (before the Windows screen appears).

The combination may vary depending on the motherboard. Often the BIOS can be called up using the "F8" or "Del" key. On the BIOS screen, you need to find the section dedicated to the processor. Here, too, everything is complicated, since the BIOS has a lot of shells. Almost every motherboard manufacturer uses its own, so without knowing English, find Right place not so easy.

You need to change the multiplier gradually, increasing it by 2. After each change, you should restart the computer and carefully check the performance and temperature of the processor. If it gets above 80 degrees during the game, then you need to immediately turn off S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Call of Pripyat, restart the computer, enter the BIOS and lower the Core Ratio value. Otherwise, the processor may burn out.

"Configuring and optimizing STALKER through a file."

* Configuration settings in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stored in a file User.ltx, located at \Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\STALKER-SHOC on Windows XP or Users\Public\Documents\STALKER-SHOC on Windows Vista. The file can be opened with Notepad. Make a backup copy before making changes to it. Let's take a look at some settings from this file. Possible parameter values ​​are written in square brackets.

* The following options with r1_ prefixes refer to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s DX8 mode, which is called Static Lighting in the game menu. Options r2_ - to the DX9 mode, which is called the game Dynamic Lighting.

* The DX8 options will go first. If you are using DX9 then changing these options will have no effect.

r1_dlights– enable/disable dynamic lighting in DX8. A strange option, because DX8 already implies turning off dynamic lighting. Perhaps this removes the light source of your flashlight.

r1_dlights_clip– distance of dynamic lighting when static lighting is enabled… It's a strange option, because in DX8 dynamic lighting is not used at all. Perhaps this affects the range of illumination of your flashlight.

r1_glows_per_frame– Setting the number of light sources. Affects the quality of graphics and FPS.

r1_lmodel_lerp– adjusts the amount of linear interpolation of model lighting. In short, increasing the value will increase the quality of the graphics of some models, for example, your weapons.

r1_ssa_lod_a- Adjusts the main Level of Detail (LOD), the higher the value, the greater the detail and visibility of objects at a distance, but at the cost of a slight drop in FPS.

r1_ssa_lod_b– The setting is similar to the previous one, but controls the detail of some objects within the game world. Again, the higher the value, the lower the FPS.

r1_tf_mipbias [-0.500 - 0.500]– Controls the sharpness of textures at a distance. If you decrease the value, the textures will be sharper, but you will have to pay for this with a slight drop in FPS. Increasing the parameter will make the textures blurry, but may slightly increase the FPS. Prior to patch 1.0004, it was possible to change this value between -3.000 and 3.000.

Now DX9 options. If you are using DX8 then changing these options will have no effect.

r2_gi– Turn on/off a more realistic lighting method where light can bounce off surfaces and illuminate other surfaces. Enabling this option greatly impacts performance.

r2_gi_refl– Adjusts the reflective effect of surfaces when the previous option is enabled.

r2_aa– This option enables pseudo-aliasing. This is not real anti-aliasing, it just blurs the image a little on the screen. If you have an LCD monitor, you can get a similar effect for free by setting the screen resolution to something other than native :). When you turn it on, the FPS drops a little.

r2_aa_kernel– Adjusts the amount of pseudo-smoothing. The higher the value, the stronger the blur.

r2_aa_break– This option controls the distance over which the pseudo-smoothing is applied. You can choose the value that suits you. For example, the value r2_aa_break 0.000000,1.000000,0.000000 will give clear enclosed spaces and blurry open spaces.

r2_aa_weight– This parameter is needed for more precise control of the pseudo-smoothing effect. The higher the values, the stronger the blurring.

r2_allow_r1_lights– When this option is enabled, DX8 lighting will be partially used. It seems that productivity should rise, but in reality it can be the other way around ...

r2_gloss_factor– The higher the value of this parameter, the more glossy surfaces shine.

r2_ls_bloom_fast- Enhances the HDR effect, which can lead to the fact that the picture may be too bright and blurry, has almost no effect on FPS. But it's to taste...

r2_ls_bloom_kernel_b– controls the HDR blur level, the larger the value, the more the picture is blurred.

r2_ls_bloom_threshold– Adjusts the HDR brightness, the larger the value, the lower the HDR brightness. As a result, with a value of 1, the picture will be like on DX8 with bloom.

r2_ls_depth_bias [-0.500 - 0.500]– Range control for the type of light sources. Low values ​​increase the depth and border of the source, increasing the parameter can almost completely remove the light sources.

r2_ls_depth_scale– Similar to the previous setting.

r2_mblur- Regulates lubrication while driving. Looks great with a value of 0.1, and this does not affect the FPS. To activate this, it is not enough to change the parameter in the config file, you need to start the game with the -mblur parameter. Open the properties of the game shortcut, and add –mblur separated by a space in the path to the launching executable. It will turn out something like this: D/Supergames/STALKER/XR_3DA.exe -mblur

r2_parallax_h– This option should control Parallax Mapping, but no visual changes are seen. However, setting it to 0.04 can raise FPS.

r2_slight_fade– Raising this value can improve FPS.

r2_ssa_lod_a- Adjusts the Level of Detail (LOD) for the game world, the higher the value, the greater the detail and visibility of objects at a distance, but at the cost of a slight drop in FPS.

r2_ssa_lod_b– The option is similar to the previous one, but controls the detailing of objects.

r2_sun– On/off the Sun as a light source. If off, trees and houses will not cast shadows.

r2_sun_depth_far_bias [-0.500 - 0.500]

r2_sun_depth_far_scale

r2_sun_depth_near_bias [-0.500 - 0.500]

r2_sun_depth_near_scale

These parameters control r2_sun if it is enabled. This is essentially controlling the level of detail in the shadows and the border of the sunlight and shadow areas.

r2_sun_details– Grass shadows

r2_sun_lumscale [-1.000 - 3.000]– Determines the brightness of sunlight, with values ​​below zero turning off the Sun :).

r2_sun_lumscale_amb- adjusts the brightness of the surrounding world, does not affect the brightness of sunlight.

r2_tf_mipbias [-0.500 - 0.500]– Determines how sharp the textures will be at a distance. . If you decrease the value, the textures will be sharper, but you will have to pay for this with a slight drop in FPS. Increasing the parameter will make the textures blurry, but may slightly increase the FPS. Prior to patch 1.0004, it was possible to change this value between -3.000 and 3.000.

r2_tonemap– On/off Tone Mapping. Enabling it will make HDR better without a performance drop. The following r2_tonemap_ options allow you to customize it.

r2_tonemap_lowlum- This setting adjusts Tone Mapping in dark areas. The higher this setting, the darker the HDR.

r2_tonemap_middle-gray- This setting has the strongest effect on HDR, and if you raise it, the HDR effect will be richer. For example, try a value of 1.2 to make HDR in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. look like Oblivion.

* General settings. Works in both DX9 and DX8.

ai_use_torch_dynamic_lights– On / off shadows from objects illuminated by lanterns.

g_always_run- by default, when you press Forward, Marked One runs, if this option is turned off, he will walk at a walk. Do not confuse this with the Sprint, when the Bullseye runs very fast, wasting strength.

rs_stats- On / off statistics, including FPS display.

snd_acceleration- On off hardware acceleration sound

snd_cache_size- Adjusts how much RAM is used for caching sounds to prevent jamming. This uses twice as much memory, so if you set it to 16, 32 MB will be used.

snd_targets– The option determines the number of simultaneous sound sources, the increase affects performance with a weak (read-built-in) sound card.

vid_mode- Screen resolution setting

texture_lod— The level of detail of the removed textures. The lower the value, the better the textures.

r__geometry_lod— The level of detail of objects. Smaller values ​​correspond to better detail.

rs_v_sync — Vertical Sync. I recommend turning this off.

* Command line options.

There are additional commands that are executed through the game launch command line. Right click on the shortcut, select Properties, then add commands in the path to the object. For example, like this: C:\Program Files\THQ\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl\bin\XR_3DA.exe -nointro -noprefetch -noshadows.

* Now I will list some important commands.

-center_screen- Centers the game window when windowed mode.

-dsound- Uses DirectSound sound instead of OpenAL.

-gpu_nopure– Switches the graphics card's Pure Hardware mode to simple Hardware mode. On new cards, this will not increase performance.

-gpu_ref- Switches the video card mode to the default mode

-gpu_sw- Switches graphics card mode to Software mode

-load [your save]– Loading a specific save immediately after starting the game.

-ltx- Loads and executes a specific "filename.ltx" configuration file.

-nodistort– Removes distortion effects: fire air, anomalies. This may help owners of older graphics cards.

-nointro– Does not show intro videos, the menu is loaded immediately

-nolog- Disables the log

-noprefetch- Disables prefetch. The game will load faster, but there may be sharp FPS drops in the game.

-noshadows– Disables shadows from dynamic light sources (Sun does not count), increases FPS.

-nosound- Turns off all sound in the game

-overlay [folder path]– Specifying the path to another folder with saves / configs / profiles

-psp- Includes third person view

-smap1536

-smap2048

-smap4096

* These commands set the resolution of shadow maps. The higher it is, the more beautiful the shadows and the lower the FPS.

-ss_tga– Screenshots will be taken in .TGA format with higher quality

A little about the hardware - the computer on which we all play Stalker and his mods. So you downloaded the game, installed it, launched it, but everything is somehow wrong: the save takes a long time to load, continuous lags, freezes, frequent incomprehensible crashes associated with a lack of resources and it’s still not clear why ... What to do?
Of course, you can just go to the store, fork out a lot of money, buy a cool new computer. But such a solution does not always give the desired result. Why? And one more thing: what about those who have limited finances? Can they improve something?
Both of these questions are easy to answer if you try to understand how the Stalker engine uses computer resources. Let's start with the fact that the Stalker engine does not need a new computer at all. In our case, this is generally a waste of money. Why? Because the engine was written in 2002, and even then it was possible to play Stalker on maximum settings. Therefore, simply replacing the computer will not help much here.
But there is a solution. Quite simple and inexpensive. Available to almost everyone. We just need to make a small upgrade.
To understand what kind of upgrade we need, let's find out which of the computer's resources the engine needs the most. A powerful processor and a cool video card - no. Processors and video cards of 2007 were quite able to cope with his requests. After the processor and video card, the engine most actively uses the hard disk and memory. And here we can just change the situation dramatically.
First, about memory. The engine, as a 32-bit system, cannot use more than 2Gb of memory. So to maximize the engine's memory usage, it needs to allocate all the 2Gb it asks for. How to do it? Simple: expand the memory to 4Gb and install 64-bit OS Windows 7 or higher. It is important to install the version not lower than Windows 7, because. only this OS has finally learned how to work correctly with more than 2Gb memory and distribute it correctly to applications. When you do this, then in the process of running Windows will completely go into the 3rd and 4th gigabytes, giving the engine as much memory as it asks.
Now about the hard drive. Devices called SSD drives are now sold everywhere. This is the same hard drive, only it is made according to the principle of a flash drive - there are no iron and mechanical parts. The speed of writing / reading from such disks today is up to three times faster than from the fastest iron HDD. Here it is important not to save. Hard drives are the slowest link today, and so we need the fastest SSD available that you can afford. The engine communicates extremely actively with the hard drive, and the speed of the SSD in our case is crucial for improving the overall performance of the Stalker in general and the computer in particular. The faster the SSD, the faster the game and saves load, the faster it works with the paging file, the faster the whole system works. Therefore, when choosing an SSD, do not rush. Read reviews and reviews, see ratings.
The new SSD needs to be made bootable. You need to install Windows 64bit on it, a paging file (by default it falls on the system partition), Stalker, Solyanka, this OP, and put saves. 60Gb is enough. And we connect our old disk as the second one, and we store everything else on it.
When in January 2010, instead of buying a new computer, I made such an upgrade, my Windows performance index immediately rose from 4.3 to 6.1, Windows7 loaded from the moment it was turned on to the desktop in 18 seconds, OP-2 starts up to the menu in 14 seconds, the save is loaded in 40-60 seconds depending on the location, and this despite the fact that the computer is almost 10 years old!!! At the same time, memory crashes and lack of resources have stopped almost completely! And OP-2 is completely made on this old computer) I don’t know what else can improve the performance of old hardware so much at such minimal cost. If anyone has any ideas, be sure to share!
So, let's summarize: in order to maximize the performance of our favorite Stalker coupled with OP-2 at minimal cost and minimize memory crashes, we need to:
1. Increase the memory to at least 4Gb.
2. Buy the fastest SSD available to us. The volume is not important, 60Gb is enough. The main thing is to be as fast as possible.
3. Make this SSD bootable, install Windows 64bit on it, swap file (by default it goes to the system partition), Stalker, OP-2, and put saves. It is not necessary to install the maximum version of Windows, Home Basic or Home Extended is enough, especially if you bought a disk at a minimum, 60Gb.
And that's all.
I myself use: E6750 2.66GHz Duo CPU/Asus Commando/6Gb RAM/120Gb SSD/GeForce 8800 GTS/Win7 Ultimate 64 bit. All hardware, except for additional memory and SSD, was purchased in 2005.
And the last thing: the processors currently being produced can be well "overclocked", that is, their clock frequency can be increased without the appearance of any glitches or freezes on the part of the computer. If you are advanced enough in this matter, then "overclocking" the processor will also increase the FPS and reduce the loading time of saves)

Quick tips to improve game performance:

1. Maximally increase the paging file of RAM (control panel\system\advanced\performance\advanced).
2. Reduce the video quality in the game settings.
3. Every hour or two restart the game (paging file is cleared).
4. Disable all extraneous running processes / programs before starting the game.
5. Periodically clean the registry and dfragment the hard drive(s).
6. Optimizing the user.ltx file helps a lot.
7. Turn off the rain in the game.
/config/weathers
In each file of this folder whose name starts with "weather" change the value of the "rain_density" parameter to 0.0.
8.Question: How can I see the FPS in the game?
Answer: Through the console, with the rs_stats on command (top line). Or third party programs Fraps type.
9. In order for windows to be stable, it is recommended to do a hard disk check.
My computer => local drive C: => properties => service => check => (checkboxes "Automatically fix system errors" and "Check and repair bad sectors".) => launch.
The procedure for C: requires a reboot and hours of work.
Prevents rebooting and crashing into the "dead screen".

Article about commands in game shortcut:

A number of additional commands that you can run when you start STALKER are called Command Line Switches. These "switches" are commands sent to the main executable file XR_3DA.exe, telling the engine to perform certain actions when starting the game. To use the command line switches, right-click click on the STALKER"a shortcut and select "Properties". Next, in the "Object" field, after a space from the last character, insert the switch(es) you want to use. For example:

"C:\Program Files\THQ\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl\bin\XR_3DA.exe" -nointro -noprefetch -noshadows

The -nointro, -noprefetch and -noshadows switches have been added to disable intro logos, preload info (speeds up savegame startup and loading), and disable all non-sun shadows in the game. Otherwise, it is not possible to use the pre-game settings. You can revert the settings at any time by simply deleting a switch with an unneeded setting from the shortcut or by creating another one with the required switches and use it whenever you want to start the game with different settings. addition from --HikeR 14:17, May 31, 2007 (MSD)][
For different situations, you can create several copies of shortcuts to launch the game with different parameters. For example, I use the -nointro switch for all options, the combination -noprefetch -noshadows -nosound -r4xx for any experiments (muted sound, prefetch, shadows, forced use of DX8, fastest loading), and just a shortcut for a normal game

Full list Command Line Switches for STALKER" and the one below is also accompanied by a brief explanation for each where possible. I've tested each and all of the switches, but some switches have no apparent effect or just hang the game at boot time. Instructions for the intended use of the most useful switches given throughout this guide:
Full list Option Description
-_g
-batch_benchmark
-bug
-build
-center_screen Centers the screen when the game is running in windowed mode.
-debug_ge
-depth16
-designer
-demomode
-disasm
-dsound Use DirectSound instead of OpenAL.
-ebuild
-file_activity Writes console activity to a file during the game.
-fsltx
-gloss
-gpu_nopure Switches the GPU state from Pure Hardware (full acceleration) to simply Hardware (simplified acceleration) mode.
-gpu_ref Switches the GPU state to Reference mode.
-gpu_sw Switches GPU mode in Software Renderer (Software Acceleration).
-i
-keep_lua
-launcher
-load Loads the specified saves on startup.
-ltx Loads and executes the specified filename.ltx configuration file. (meaning its analogue system.ltx)
-mblur Allows the r2_mblur command to execute correctly if used.
-mem_debug
-mt_cdb
-nes_texture_storing
-netsim
-no_call_stack_assert
-no_direct_connect
-no_occq
-nodf24
-nodistort Removes distortion effects such as warm air around a fire and curling up near anomalies.
-nointro Skip all intros/intros.
-nojit
-nolog Disables logging.
-nonvs
-noprefetch Disables resource prefetching. Games load faster, game lags may increase or cause freezing.
-noshadows Disables shadows from dynamic lights (except the sun). Can add FPS.
-nosound Disables all sound in the game.
-overlay [directory] Set a different directory for saved games/profiles/config files.
-pure_alloc
-pack
-psp Turns on third-person view mode, and the ability to shoot.
-r2 Starts STALKER in DX9 Full Dynamic Lighting mode.
-r2a Runs STALKER in DX9 Object Dynamic Lighting mode.
-r4xx Run STALKER in DX8 Static Lighting mode.
-silent_error_mode
-sjitter
-skinw
The following switches set the size of the shadow map, which affects the quality of all shadows, similar to the in-game shadow quality setting. Here you can specify the exact highest shadow quality resolution (i.e. -smap2048, -smap3072 and -smap4096) which increases shadow quality but reduces FPS:
-smap1536
-smap2048
-smap2560
-smap3072
-smap4096
-ss_tga All screenshots in the game will be taken in both .JPG and high quality .TGA format.
-start
-sunfilter
-svcfg
-tsh
-tdemo
-tdemof
-techdemo
-tune
-x86
-xclsx

Part 9: Advanced Settings (Part 3)
Part 10: Conclusion

general information

In this section, I provide you Full description, comparison screenshots and recommendations for Stalker's in-game settings, allowing you to personally determine the balance between image quality and performance. While I'm trying to identify the influence of the settings on each other, it's impossible to determine the most successful parameters (at which, for example, + 10% increase in FPS), because it all also depends on the specifics of the hardware, and your other game and system settings in combination with each other . Each computer is unique in its components and parameters that it has, so two people with the same vidyuhi, but different processors, can have completely different frames per second in a particular scene.

To get to the in-game settings, launch Stalker and press the Options button in the main menu. A description of the available settings can be found below:

Types of lighting

Static lighting

Dynamic Lighting of Objects

Full Dynamic Lighting

Render Type- This setting determines which is used on this moment renderer for generating in-game graphics and therefore has a priority impact on the overall visual quality of the picture and performance in the game. This option allows you to choose between static lighting, dynamic object lighting, and full dynamic lighting. Each option is explained below:

Static lighting- Although Stalker requires full DirectX9 support on your graphics card to run, selecting this option switches Stalker to DX8 rendering mode. In DX8 mode, Dynamic Lighting is completely disabled as well as specific effects such as HDR (from the English. High dynamic range imaging - an image with a high dynamic range)). Dynamic Lighting is the realistic interaction of moving lights with objects, such as rendering correct shadows. DX8 uses regular Static lighting, which requires a less powerful graphics card and provides better performance. This mode is recommended for anyone who can't get Stalker to run smoothly regardless of the settings you've set. Dynamic lighting of objects- this mode uses full DirectX9, although dynamic lighting is at a minimum, the only limitation is how the flashlight reacts to objects. Most of the objects in gaming world will not cast shadows. Some fixed objects, such as trees or buildings, will continue to cast shadows, but these shadows will not dynamically interact with light sources - they are tied to lightmaps. For example, let's look at a tree when the sun rises, in this mode the shadows keep the same size and shape. With full dynamic lighting, shadows from trees will be more detailed and will be able to move around the subject and change their shape as the sun moves. Be aware that HDR lighting will also be automatically enabled and cannot be disabled. This mode is a good balance between performance and picture quality, and allows you to enjoy DirectX9 features to some extent.

Full Dynamic Lighting– This mode uses full DirectX9 rendering, including full use of dynamic lighting. This can significantly reduce performance on low-end machines due to multiple light sources such as the sun, campfires, flashlights, etc. and they will all interact with nature and cast complex shadows that are constantly changing, like moving lights. While this is very realistic in locations with a lot of complex objects or NPCs, it can lead to a serious drop in FPS. This mode it is recommended to enable it only on machines with high-end video cards. Note again that in this HDR mode lighting is enabled by default and cannot be disabled.

It's important that while these lighting settings can affect performance quite a bit, FPS also depends on the other settings you have enabled. For example, when you turn 1 or more shadow-related settings on or off (sun shadows, grass shadows, shadow quality), it can prioritize dynamic lighting performance. If we assume you have turned on the Light of NPC flashlights setting, then at night or in underground locations, if there are a lot of NPCs with flashlights hanging around there, this will significantly reduce the FPS. The Lighting Distance setting also affects your FPS when dynamic lighting is active in large open areas.

In addition, there is a large range of advanced options that can help you fine-tune how lighting appears in your game. For example, you can use the r2_gi command to enable a more realistic (but severely FPS-reducing) Global Illumination method, and you can also tweak [HDR ] manifestations using the r2_tonemap_middlegray command; you can adjust the appearance of glossy surfaces in the light using the variable r2_gloss_factor ; you can also add motion blur using the r2_mblur command along with the --mblur command line option. See the Advanced Tweaking section for more detailed information about all this.

Quality settings

Quality settings: You can select 1 of 5 built-in quality settings in Options: (Minimum, Low, Medium, High, Maximum) which will automatically set Advanced graphic settings(presented above) for you accordingly. I do not recommend using these presets, as you will get much better results by tweaking the advanced settings individually to suit your preferences most closely. See the Advanced Settings section for more details.

Other settings

Permission: This setting allows you to select the resolution for the game, the number of pixels in length and width. This option is limited depending on your monitor and graphics card combination. The more high resolutions are selected, the more detailed the picture will be, but the worse the performance in the game. If you are running the game on a widescreen monitor, then in order for the player's field of view to be unclipped (FOV, from English. Field Of View, field of view), you need to install patch version 1.0003.

Gamma, Contrast, Brightness: These sliders allow you to adjust the brightness and contrast of the picture on the screen. They don't affect performance, so you can set them to suit your taste.

Full screen mode: If enabled, the game will run in full screen mode which is recommended for maximum stability. If it is not selected, the game will run in windowed mode, which can improve performance if a low resolution is selected. Again, windowed mode is strongly discouraged because it can cause resource allocation issues on the system. Note that if you want to center the game in windowed mode, you can use the -center_screen option (see the advanced tweaking page).

Advanced Settings

These options will be available when you click the Advanced Settings button at the bottom of the screen. I strongly recommend that you adjust them individually, instead of using the standard Quality Settings presets above.

Visibility Range: This slider determines the maximum draw distance of the game world. If you reduce the draw distance, the FPS will increase, due to the fact that the engine will have to render less of the game world. The comparison screenshots above show the real difference between 100% and 50% parameter settings, as a result, we see that this slider is not particularly significant. On the facts, even at only 25%, a serious difference in the draw distance is barely noticeable. The greatest impact is noticeable between 25% and 0% on the slider settings, at 0% we can observe a fairly serious drop in visibility range. If, after a slight increase in FPS, there was no noticeable deterioration in picture quality settings, setting the slider between 25% and 50% is recommended for you. Note that in any low spots you encounter while playing, the field of view will not expand when using the binoculars.

Detailing of objects: This slider changes the level of Object Detail (LOD, from the English Level Of Detail, the level of detail) in the entire game world. Moving the slider to the left will use a lot less polygons to construct these features, which can improve performance. As a rule, the only major difference when using a slider is the deterioration in the level of detail of the trees. Trees from afar will appear as strange looking blobs and will lose their detailed beautiful branches. This can help increase FPS especially on large, spacious levels, but as a rule, the most appropriate definition in this case is a drop in realism. Note that you can change the LOD level using the r2_ssa_lod_a and r2_ssa_lod_b commands - see the Advanced Tweaking section.

Grass Density: This slider determines how thick the grass will be in open areas. Grass can cause a serious FPS drop when traveling through open areas, as it is located on many of them. Changing the position of the slider from the right position to the 50% mark will reduce the amount of grass, but still leave a relatively realistic amount of it, all this will give a good increase in FPS. A further decrease in the slider parameters will not bring the expected reduction in grass coverage, and will not give a particularly large increase in FPS.

Texture quality: This slider controls the quality of the textures used in the game. Textures are images that cover the surface of every object in the game world. The more the slider is moved to the right, the more detailed the texture data will be. Using animated screenshots, you can compare how these detailed textures will look by clicking on this link. Looking towards the detail of the helicopter, pay close attention to the texture quality of the player's hands and the ground in front of him. The main result of using more detailed textures won't have too much of an impact on FPS levels, but it can reduce level loading times and stuttering/loading pauses during gameplay. This is especially true for those video cards that have less than 256 megabytes of video memory. Important, if you change this setting in order to see its correct result, you will have to exit and restart the Stalker, otherwise external changes will not

addition by --HikeR 04:19, 1 June 2007 (MSD) Absolutely disagree. With all the maximum settings and the extreme right position of the texture quality slider, the use of video memory is kept around 500 mb, I have 256 onboard plus 240 swapped into RAM. The RAM is crammed with 1GB of RAM itself plus 1.3 GB of the paging file. The RAM, in turn, is swapped to the hard drive. The lags are terrible. At the extreme left position, the video memory is 140 plus 34 MB, the operational memory is 710 plus 780 MB. The average fps is the same, but there are no lags at all. In the middle position, the video memory is 200 plus the same 34 MB, the operational memory is 810 plus 850 MB. There are no lags, swapping is not used (almost), so I play in this mode. Bottom line - texture quality affects FPS very, very strongly, because the minimum FPS sometimes drops to zero. To avoid this, you need 2GB of RAM and a video card with 512MB. This is for max settings.

Comment by WincentDark69 10:40 (MSK), May 2, 2011 So I read it and smiled ... Comrades, the quality of graphics and FPS primarily do not depend on video memory, but on the clock frequency of the GPU (It is responsible for the speed of graphics processing) and to some extent on the Video Controller (Efficiency of using the rest of the hardware by the video card (Speed ​​of loading textures from the screw, using RAM instead of VRAM when there is a shortage on the video card) and DAC (Responsible for color clarity). EXAMPLES requirements for the Video Card at maximum settings with an FPS calculation of at least 24: 1) Shadows of Chernobyl DX_9.0 1.1) 550 MGz GPU 1.2) 450 Mb VRAM 2) Clear sky DX_9.0 2.1) 600 MHz GPU 2.2) 550 Mb VRAM 3) Clear Sky DX_10.0 3.1) 650 MGz GPU 3.2) 600 Mb VRAM 4) Call of Pripyat DX_9.0 4.1) 650 MGz GPU 4.2) 600 Mb VRAM 5) Call Pripyat DX_10.0 5.1) 750 MHz GPU 5.2) 700 Mb VRAM I’ll comment right away: The above data are for ATI video cards (on Windows XP), IMHO based on personal experience with the same characteristics of GPU, VRAM, etc. in ATI and NVIDIA cards in the same computer, with the same stalker settings. For some reason (I have no idea why myself) the radeons give out 4-6 FPS more. That is, respectively, for GiFors, the GPU frequency is + 50MGz (Approximately)

Texture filtering(Anisotropic Filtering): Anisotropic filtering (AF) is a method of creating crisp, straight sidelines on the textures of any object so that they display properly at a distance. This slider controls the amount of AF used, up to a level of 16x anisotropy. Most modern graphics cards allow you to turn on a reasonable level of AF filtering, such as 2x or 4x, which will give you good quality pictures without a real FPS drop. Generally, the AF slider doesn't have much of an effect on the level of picture quality in a game, even if it's set far to the right. It looks like this feature is broken in Stalker. You can also use the r1_tf_mipbias or r2_tf_mipbias variables (depending on the renderer you're using) to increase texture clarity - see the Advanced Tweaking section.

Smoothing(Antialiasing): Antialiasing (AA) is a technique for reducing jagged lines in 3D graphics. As a rule, in Stalker the engine uses the Deffered Shading rendering method. This explains quite clearly that it cannot support the appropriate level of anti-aliasing that would remove all the jagged lines in the game world, regardless of the type of video card you are using. This slider does not have a significant impact on performance and picture quality. Later, it became possible to enable anti-aliasing in video drivers by overriding the game settings, which gives a high-quality result, but also requires video adapter resources. It is also possible to use the r2_aa command instead of this setting, and its related commands, to enable and set up a fake form of aliased AA - see the Advanced Tweaking section.