Wednesday, May 18, 2016

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat [DX11]







I'm happy to provide a fix for a game that was long overdue for the 3D treatment. This game is all about immersion (even moreso with the Misery mod!), and I'm of the belief that we all love 3D gaming for the immersion it brings, so the two are a match made in heaven! Speaking of Misery, this fix is fully compatible with that mod, but if you're not a masochist (or just want vanilla gameplay but nicer visuals) it also works perfectly fine with Atmosfear 3 and Absolute Nature/Structures mods (and both work fine together, and are completely recommended). Also recommend installing an increased grass draw distance mod/tweak, as the grass pop in is quite noticeable without it.

With this being a very early DX11 title, creating this fix came with it's own set of unique struggles to overcome, and with that comes a disclaimer: There are some significant issues that could occur in this game with 3D enabled, however if you follow the instructions then with the correct settings these issues should be mitigated and you *should* be able to enjoy a flawless 3D experience with this title.


Instructions:


1) Download fix: HERE

2) Extract archive to your ...\Stalker - CoP\bin directory. Same location as the xrEngine.exe file

3) Optional: If you intend on using the HDAO setting for SSAO (which provides the nicest overall visual quality) then you will need to import the STALKER-CoP.nip profile using Nvidia Inspector. Otherwise, you can use HBAO or default SSAO without needing to import any profile.

4) Windows 7 only - Optional/HIGHLY Recommended:  Uninstall the 'evil' Windows update KB2670838 (please do a Google search for how to do this).

5) Load the game, go into the options and set the Renderer to "Enhanced full dyn. lighting (DX11)"

6) Select either the High or Maximum quality settings preset.

7) Click Appy, click Yes on any prompts that appear.

8) Exit the game and restart

9) Now go into the Advanced video settings menu. You may now adjust any settings to your preference, but there are 2 settings that are mandatory, as follows

10) Make sure the Texture Detail slider is right in the middle. Unfortunately going any further causes 3D to completely break. If you did step #4, though, then this *should* not be a problem and you can increase this setting to max.

11) For best results turn on AA to either 2x or 4x. Turning it off with cause some haloing around objects. You can fix the haloing by pressing the \ key, but then that will break the HUD. However, you can toggle the HUD as needed if you REALLY need the extra performance from turning AA off entirely.

12) Restart game again after setting all your options and you should now be able to enjoy the game!



Troubleshooting:


If at any time during gameplay you experience a sudden break in the 3D image, or have a static image, go into the Advanced video options, and change the Sun Quality setting to something different, then return to game. The video adapter should reset and the issue should  be fixed. You may then switch back to your preferred Sun Quality setting.



Special thanks to:
-bo3b for providing an updated build of 3DMigoto to fix an incompatibility with this game on Windows 10
-DarkStarSword for providing assistance with fixing bloom rendering in one eye
-f3likx for putting me up to the task of fixing this awesome game


Like this fix? Donations are always appreciated.
Paypal: www.paypal.me/DShanz

51 comments:

  1. thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so so so much. This is a dream come true! My favourite game and mod of all time. You are doing God's work - I'll donate to you!!!

    Best Regards,

    Miguel Pedras

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    1. Cheers! As long as I've made one person happy, then I'm happy with my work. Please report back if you experience any issues.

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    2. Hey DJ-RK may I add you on steam? here is my steam page: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198018445478/ <- send me a friend invite. The reason I wanna be friends on steam is so I can ask you some questions about your fix for Misery Mod.

      Best Regards.

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    3. Sure thing. I'll send an invite now (even though it's like 4AM where I am), but I'm leaving tomorrow to go to a cottage and wont be back until early next week.

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    4. OMG!!! Freaking AWESOME!! Can't wait to play this game now!!!
      Big big thanks DJ-RK!!!

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  2. Thank you so much for your great work.

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  3. This is my favourite game of all time, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. wow, big thanks, man !!!! downloading now

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  5. how is the performance with a single 980ti ?

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    1. Surprisingly, this game is very demanding. With a 980 Ti, on maximum settings at 1080P you will mostly see 50-60 FPS, however there will be dips at times when you have a wide open view on a sunny day (especially if you increase the grass draw distance via a mod).

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    2. yeah ! it's very demanding for not a lot and my gpu is not at 100 % (av.80%) but thans anyway for your skills .

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  6. omg this is a dream come true. thank You, thank You, thank You (^_^)

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  8. Thankyou!!!!!!!!!!

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  9. Wow! Really wasn't sure if this game would still be so popular after all this time, but I'm really happy to see so many people are either enjoying it, or will be at some point in the near future. I take it those that are playing it aren't having any issues?

    I picked up all 3 STALKER games in a bundle, so if people want to see a fix for Shadow of Chernobyl or Clear Sky, then let me know by commenting here. Can't make any promises, though, but it would definitely be in the realm of possibility if there's enough demand for it.

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    1. Putting in a vote for that. I had long ago given up the dream of trying a STALKER game in 3D, with all its' wonderful dynamic shadows intact.

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    2. Pretty please work on the others like SOC and CS! thank you sir! But if your time is limited then work on SOC please, I wanna replay it and in 3D :P

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    3. Well... I was playing SOC and came here for that, so yes please.
      This game is like art with good sound design, good graphics and what an atmosphere !

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    4. Sorry mate, probably not going to happen. Took a look at that, it's running on DX9 (little surprise there), and the first thing I came across, which should have been the simplest thing to fix, wasn't working. After spending God knows how long, like 2 or 3 hours on this one GD thing without result I decided I wouldn't waste any more time trying. Sorry to disappoint.

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  10. HUD is partially broken with this, in particular health + ammo bars. None noticed it?

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    1. Weird, it shouldn't be broken, just at screen depth. There were some very significant issues with the HUD that I could only fix by having it at screen depth. I wonder if somehow my HUD fix isn't working on your end.

      What exactly are you seeing? Do the health & stamina bars always look like they are full? If you pull up the inventory window, does your FPS drastically drop?

      A couple things you can try:
      1) Press the \ key, which will toggle the HUD being 'fixed' or not
      2) Open the d3dx.ini file, and look for the line 'rasterizer_disable_scissor=0' and try commenting it out (just put a ; in front of it)
      3) If you're not playing at 1080P, then switch to that resolution, as that's the resolution I had fixed the game at, and is the only setting I could think that would affect the HUD.
      4) Uninstall the fix and reinstall it, making sure you follow all of the directions entirely.

      If none of the above helps, then please send me some screenshots at dj.ryan.king@gmail.com

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    2. The problem is the following: as soon as I start the game actually the HUD is NOT at screen depth, so I have to do CTRL+F6 until it reaches screen depth. Is it normal? If I do it all bars and HUD are OK but iron sight or crosshair are not so good to see even if at correct 3D. Putting comment at rasterizer didn't do anything good. Also "\" does anything (NOW I REPEAT HUD IS CORRECT after CTRL+F6).

      Thanks bye.

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    3. P.S. = I use depth at 100%.

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  11. You're an absolute fucking legend, man!

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    1. Thank you for tasking the man for this great, great and challenging job! I love Stalker very much and misery mod is amazing! Thank you Sir.

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  12. Sad news everyone. It does not look like a fix for Clear Sky is possible. It only has DX9 and DX10 modes, no DX11. I tried all the Helixmod DX9 wrappers, and they all crash the game (some at least load to the menu, but then crash when selecting any option). There is no proper DX10 wrapper, only an experimental 3DMigoto build, which I tried but cannot get to be picked up by the game whatsoever. Odds are we're probably looking at the same thing for Shadow of Chernobyl too.

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    1. Try hook version.

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    2. Just tried that now and no luck, doesn't even load the dll (no red text). I also tried the different overridemethods, and UseExtInterfaceOnly = true. I'll give Shadow of Chernobyl a shot still, and if it works then clear sky will just be the odd man out. A couple of people told me it's not worth it anyway, I was really just hoping to get 3DMigoto to work with it and hope that it would be an easy port of my CoP fix to it.

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    3. Got some good news, and not so good. I was running into the same issue with SoC crashing with the Helixmod wrapper before on Win10. Decided to give it a go last night with Win7, and it was able to load no problem. The not so good news is that I couldn't even get the first broken effect fixed. What should have been a standard stereo correction is only shifting the broken effect to one side or the other... so in other words, it looks like it'll be a tough nut to crack, and having to work with the Helixmod wrapper, which is far less user friendly than the DX11 3DMigoto wrapper, doesn't help a ton... so anyways, there is potential for a fix, it just might take a while.

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  13. Glory to the Monolith, that's the best news this year! Time to go back to The Zone.
    BTW, thanks for recommending my mods - AtmosFear and Absolute series ;)

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    1. Crikey! Did I really say I recommend your mods? That's a mistake... more like they are ESSENTIAL to the experience! Thank you for dropping by, and I hope you enjoy this fix as much as we've all enjoyed your great work.

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    2. Tested it and noticed one thing: HDAO doesn't work for me even with the provided profile installed. Everything in the shade is just black and r2_sun_lumscale_hemi command has no effect at all. Maybe it's my drivers fault. Anyway, the other SSAO methods work just fine so it's OK.
      Great work!

      If you could make a fix for Lost Alpha when the Dev's Cut is finally released it would be fantastic. LA has CoP renderer and shaders incorporated already but up to DX10 only. LA DC will have DX11 support.

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    3. Interesting. I found that when I used HBAO on High that all the sun shadows looked pitch black and didn't like it very much. I figured it was just how that setting was, and all other settings (including HBAO on medium) had lighter/more detailed shadows. What you described sounds to be quite similar, so could be a bug on some level (like you said, maybe the driver). Can't really provide any further suggestion on that front, but glad that other methods are working accordingly at least.

      I'm certainly willing to revisit and attempt to update my fix for any major new mod releases, such as Lost Alpha DC or Misery 2.2, if needed.

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    4. Now, when a brand new update to Lost Alpha DC is available maybe you'd have some time and make a fix for that. It uses CoP DX11 renderer so it should be relatively easy to fix.
      That would be awesome.
      Any chances for that?

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    5. Unfortunately both my time and energy is limited these days, so I'm hardly able to even get in much recreational time playing video games, let alone working on 3D fix projects. It probably wouldn't be too difficult if I did manage to muster up the motivation to take a look, so there's always hope that I could whip together something, but can't make any promises in that regard.

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    6. Totally understandable mate. I feel pretty much the same these days. Let's hope that with the new year you'll get some kick :)
      Happy New Year to you!

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  14. Apparently my last comment failed to post.
    Is there a known fix for the lack of depth/convergence when aiming down sights? In static lighting mode with AA disabled there is a great depth while aiming down sights, but in DX11 with the patch that convergence seems to be lost and thats rather unfortunate as the depth when aiming adds a huge level of immersion in my eyes. Also wondering if there is a fix for the broken scopes in DX11 mode, the sides show open and you can see the background; this once again appears to be an issue that doesnt arise with static lighting.

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  15. Okay, so while the scope issue persists, i delved into the d3dx settings and figured out adding depth to ADS, the issue is that iron sights fail to line up. Is there any way to adjust individual offsets or create a seperate focal point for ADS convergence?

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    1. Yeah, for scopes, press the ] key, which will essentially break the HUD, but will allow you to look through a scope. When done, press the ] key to reset the HUD. You can change the ] key to another of your choosing by editing the d3dx.ini file.

      As for the whole ADS conundrum, that's been the bane of FPS' in 3D. In some cases, it is possible to adjust convergence values for individual shaders, but unfortunately that was not the case here in STALKER, or else I would have implemented a better solution. Sorry to say, but lowering the convergence is literally the best it gets here.

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    2. Thanks, yea it would appear we've been duped by Nvidia on the ADS factor. Apparently there are other 3d drivers out there that will let you set a different convergence point (the end of the weapon) when triggered by the associated ADS button...but naturally said drivers break 3dvision and thus become useless.
      Thanks anyways though! Rather unfortunate, as the look of iron sights with depth is absolutely awesome.

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  16. DHR Thanks for the Stalker..awsome game @3d
    In some ways its super beautifull and atmospheric more than many modern games.
    I played it through with glory 3d.
    I had pripyat installed and i installed call of chernobyl, your fix and autum leaves and some nature addon to compensate for the absense of absolute nature 4.
    I had everything ready it Was looking great. I suddenly noticed its using dx8, i switched to 11 and shadows ect broke i tried pribyat and its also botched. Well in not asking whats wrong... propably Something in asking is there a big deifference visually dx8 vs dx11 in this old game ?
    It might be drivers or the profile messed because of driver update.

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    1. Uh, you might note that this fix was made by DJ-RK, not DHR.

      Play what works. If you are getting good 3D with the old version, definitely go with that. There are possibly some changes because of the DX11, but you will have to really look for them.

      The only reason they moved to DX11 was to support the new consoles, not to make the game look better. In my opinion, 3D is 10x more valuable than anything DX11 provides, but everyone has their own preferences.

      No idea why the fix is broken for you. Could be changes in game or drivers, but not super likely. Double check your installation, especially making sure the profile is setup right.

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  17. Hi I was wondering if I could get some help with this, is this the best place to ask? The fix doesnt seem to work as the shadows are still broken. I feel like 3dMigoto isn't activating as none of the hotkeys function. I also tried setting 3dMigoto to hunt mode in the .ini file just to see if its activated but no luck. Does anyone have this issue or any ideas?

    Many thanks

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    1. Best place to ask is on the nvidia 3D forums, only a small handful of people read these comments.

      https://forums.geforce.com/default/board/49/

      For this problem, make sure you are installing it in the right directory. Based on the instructions, it's not the normal spot. You could also try Paul's Fix Manager, which will be set with the right spot.

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    3. EDIT: Sorry I posted this by accident instead of reply.

      Thanks bo3b , that was my initial thought but I have definitely put it in /bin folder with xrengine. I will give it a shot with the fix manager though. I will request help in the geforce forum if no luck thanks.

      On another note Ive been working through your tutorials for shader hacking in my spare time. I'm really keen to help make fixes. My mathematics is not up to scratch with you guys, but so far I can hunt shaders dump them out and edit them in notepad++. Past that point is obviously the hard part and I'm feeling out of my depth but will keep at it. Thanks for all that you do :)

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  18. Thanks bo3b , that was my initial thought but I have definitely put it in /bin folder with xrengine. I will give it a shot with the fix manager though. I will request help in the geforce forum if no luck thanks.

    On another note Ive been working through your tutorials for shader hacking in my spare time. I'm really keen to help make fixes. My mathematics is not up to scratch with you guys, but so far I can hunt shaders dump them out and edit them in notepad++. Past that point is obviously the hard part and I'm feeling out of my depth but will keep at it. Thanks for all that you do :)




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  19. Don't know why i inputter DHR ..
    sorry DJ-RK
    Yes the lowest api dx8 basic looks geometricly ok. The lightning though is not dynamic anymore. Or Atleast Flash light does not cast shadow if Something in the path. Though 3d is 3d :D

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  20. Hey,
    thank you so much for the fix! It works flawlessly with Call of Pripyat, even with Atmosfear and Absolute Nature installed.
    Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with Call of Chernobyl or Call of Misery mod. I'm getting the same problems as without the fix, like broken and flickering shadows. As this is the pinnacle of Stalker games so far I would be amazed being able to play it in 3d. If you have the time and interest, please take a look at it. (http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-chernobyl)

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