Wanna play S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl in 2019?

So it's 2019, and you want to play a game that's 12 years old. No problemo, this is PC gaming we're talking about, and in a community centered around PC gaming, we can make our own remasters. Enter my remaster (link to page here), in a thread where i'm going to selfishly promote a package that i've made personally by merging some of the best mods aimed specifically at three aspects:

1. Fix bugs
2. Massively improve the graphics
3. Keep things vanilla and close to what the developers envisioned.

Credit goes to all the creators out there who made these mods:

• Zone Reclamation Project - Bugfixes
• Original Weapons Renewal 3 for SOC - better weapon textures/animations
• Photo Realistic Zone 2.1 - HD textures for environments/creatures
• Shadow of Chernobyl HD Models Addon - MUCH higher polygon models for humans. (released this year!)

Aditional mods used - custom ENB settings.

What i did was take all the mods listed above and merge them together into one tightly knit package that's flawless in its stability and easy to add (drag 'n drop).

Purpose of this package

The purpose of this package is a desire to share with the community what i think is a fantastic way to experience the game - it's purely vanilla, but with vastly improved graphics. This is practically a complete remaster of the game's visuals.

Preparation before adding the mod

• After installing Shadow of Chernobyl, run the game at least once. Before adding anything, you need to start the game at least once after installing it.
• Make sure that the render is set to Full Dynamic Lightning. If you see it at "Static Lightning", change it to "Full Dynamic Lightning". Save and exit. Enter the game again just to make sure it's set to "Full Dynamic Lightning". Once you're sure, exit.
• There's a file called "fsgame.ltx" in the main game directory. Open it with notepad, make sure that the game_data line is set to 'true', for example:

$game_data$ = true| true| $fs_root$| gamedata\

How to install

• Extract the zip file.
• Simply copy - paste the contents of the "XpressTuning" folder into the main game directory folder.
• Replace everything if required.

How to install (alternative*)

• Extract the zip file.
• In the XpressTuning folder you've extracted, there are three folders - "bin", "diffs" and "gamedata". Delete "d3d9_smaa.dll" from the "bin" folder.
• Move the "diffs" and "gamedata" folders into the main game directory folder.
• Move the "injector.ini" and "d3d9.dll" files from XpressTuning's "bin" folder into S.T.A.L.K.E.R's "bin" folder (the "bin" folder should be located in the main game directory folder)
• Now, move the remaining contents of XpressTuning's "bin" folder into the main game directory folder.

And lastly,

• Open "enbseries.ini". At [PROXY], disable both "EnableProxyLibrary" and "InitProxyFunctions" by changing the value from "true" to "false". Also delete "d3d9_smaa.dll" from "ProxyLibrary" and leave it blank. Save and exit.

*The alternative instructions to install should be followed if the first set of instructions do not properly apply the ENB !

Alternative download links (Google Drive): Standard Version|Non-ENB Version

The absolute best way to experience the game.

Recommended difficulty: Master. This is the most balanced difficulty level, and the way the game was designed to be played. Lowering the difficulty level results in weapons being far less accurate and doing less damage, which isn't good because that applies for both you and the enemies; as well as making AI less intelligent. Makes the game much more frustrating because it's not fun dumping a boat load of ammo. "Master" difficulty is what the game is meant to be played in.

Turn off the crosshair. In the Options menu, select the "Game" tab and make sure that "Show Crosshair" and "Dynamic Crosshair" are disabled. They're ugly and big, plain and simple, it's much better to have them off rather than clutter the screen.

Screenshots:

A highly overrated game. Good atmosphere, but flawed in so many ways. I have tried many of the mods and there is just too much stuff that needs to change for me to consider it good.

No, but I'm sure Ghosts4ever does.

Never got around to playing them so I just purchased all 3 in the series on GOG. I will let you know what I think.

@Ghosts4ever

I think pretty much everyone who loves it acknowledges it's problems.

Most of the complaints stem from an experience with the game at a lower difficulty; The difficulty levels were a last addition made by the developers under pressure from the publisher to make the game easier, unfortunately they were extraordinarily poorly implemented, and they're practically a lie. The game was designed from the ground up with one difficulty in mind - Master, that's how the game was balanced around in.

As i mentioned in the OP, lowering the difficulty from Master causes:

• AI to be far less intelligent
• Weapons produce far less damage - for both you and enemies - causing enemies to be bullet sponges
• Bullets hit far less often, here's a more in-depth explanation of that - The LOWER the difficulty, the harder the time bullets have of finding their mark. Thanks to a little value called hit_probability_gd_<difficulty> a certain percentage of bullets quite literally disappear from existence the second they're fired; on the lowest difficulty, Novice, shots fired by you and the enemy have only a 40% chance of registering a hit no matter how accurate you or your opponents are.

I've also tried a lot of mods for Shadow of Chernobyl and none of them were up to my expectations, causing more issues down the road. I've made this package not only because i'm passionate about the game itself, but also because i had lying around an excellent handful of great mods that were up to my expectations and didn't cause any conflicts. Also for the community to experience what i think is a brilliant method to ease in new players.

What were the causes that led to your opinion on the game? I'm curious.

Yeah, i know that insane bastard smudged a shit stain on your perception of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on SW, but don't let that get to you.

@Lucianu: bookmarked the link thanks, will give it a whirl this week, not played stalker for years so this is a good excuse to revisit

Thanks. I will give this a try after i finish witcher 3 for the 5th time. One of my favourite fps series though for some reason i liked clear skies abit more than SOC and COP despite been the buggiest of the 3

I have beaten this game like 10 times before. but thanks for this MOD. nice work.

will try it again.

These are the main things I didn't like about the game...

- Overall presentation and polish is lacking (bugs, load screens, lack of voice acting, boring text to read, etc.).

- Story sucks and is poorly presented.

- Most of the missions are uninteresting and I didn't care much about the faction system or characters.

- Inventory management and UI is tedious. When I play a shooter, I want to shoot shit, not waste time with inventory management.

The game has good atmosphere, but I was unable to get fully immersed in the world due to its shortcomings.

The story is actually very good, one of the best in FPS if we're being honest.

It's just primarily told through breadcrumbs of text than very obvious Hollywood scripted shit seen in most games.

@BassMan: not really overhyped. It gets its praise from people who really like it but that’s it.

It’s not like it’s Fallout 4 and sold the most copies of any game that year and is still a terrible game.

I haven't had time to play any game lately. But, when I do, I'll resume where I left off with CoP and Lost Alpha.

I don't like Shadow of Chernobyl. But, I like Lost Alpha in its place. I also like Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.

Lost Alpha DC - as is

Clear Sky - with Sky Reclamation Project

Call of Pripyat - with Absolute Nature v4.04 + STCoP weapons mod with sample screen:

Oh. I finished all of them (including SoC, both original and with Complete Mod) at Master. CoP and Lost Alpha with no crosshairs.

I also have Call of Chernobyl. But, it's a pure open-world game played at my own pace.

Would like to try this mod but installation isn't working.

Copying both the entire tuning folder into the main directory (which it started up with no change), and its contents into it (which it tries to boot but crashes). I've altered and save the file. Disappointing, this looks like a good mod.

Don't worry, i'll figure it out. I tested the package out on other machines via friends before publishing it, and it worked fine, so it's a little perplexing. But i should have known that there would have been issues; it's bound to happen given the seemingly endless diversity of hardware configurations.

First thing's first though -

1. You should either drag and drop (or copy and paste) the contents of the tuning folder into the game's main directory and replace everything.

2. It should be done on a fresh install; This package is bound to conflict with other mods.

3. This was done with the GOG.com version alone. I haven't tested the Steam version.

I'll make another separate package either way consisting of each mod in a different folder, (XpressTuning Remaster Edition (Step-by-Step) ) and i'll let people add them one by one, with a readme included with the order of adding them of course. That way, it is literally impossible for it not to function.

Oh very cool.

Thank you for the detailed write-up!

@MirkoS77: Well Mirko, i just tested the package again on my own machine. Uninstalled and deleted absolutely every trace of STALKER, reinstalled the game using the GOG installer. Applied the package. Worked flawlessly.

And i think i got it.

Once the game is installed, you start the game and you need to change the render from Static Lightning to Full Dynamic Lightning. Do it, then exit the game. Start the app again to make sure the change applied.

I'll make sure to mention that in the description. So to reiterate and list potential issues that might cause the game to crash:

• It must be done on a fresh install, there should be no other mods present.
• You need to either copy-paste or drag and drop the contents of the XpressTuning folder into the main game directory and replace everything.
• Before adding anything, you need to start the game at least once after installing it. Make sure that the render is set to Full Dynamic Lightning. If you see it at "Static Lightning", change it to "Full Dynamic Lightning". Save and exit. Enter the game again just to make sure it's set to "Full Dynamic Lightning".

@Lucianu: this mod has three folders within the main directory named bin, gamedata, and diffs. My STALKER directory (Steam version) has the folders _appdata_, bin, diffs, gamedata, and mods. Start the game up per instruction and turn dynamic lighting on. Restart it to see that it has applied, which it has. I open the text file and set to TRUE, exit and save. I exit and then go copy the three sub-folders inside the XpressTuning.1 one (bin, gamedata, and diffs) and paste them directly into the root install directory of STALKER (C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl). It copies, but it doesn't overwrite anything. Which I would think it would, as this is typically how mods work....they replace files and overwrite, and three of the folder names are the same. Yet this simply copies, and I'm following the install instructions to the letter, and am also very familiar at modding so I know I'm doing things correctly.

I try to start it up, it crashes. Now when I do boot it, a UAC box pops up asking me permission, so I don't know if that might be causing the issue. But as it is, after I copy everything (which again doesn't ask me to overwrite) it won't boot up. I'd like to try it on the GOG version because this mod looks really tempting, but don't want to rebuy what I already own.

Cool man. If I get the urge to STALK again, I'd love to try this. Waiting to see if you guys can get it running for the Steam version first..

Man, it's been a few years. I loved STALKER when it came out but don't think I have played it in some time. Might want to give it another go.

To the critics: STALKER is one of those games you love in spite of its flaws. It's a total diamond in the rough. If you are willing to forgive its many--but minor--transgressions, you are gifted with a truly unique experience, all the more significant because this is a shooter we are talking about, generally the shallowest of genres. STALKER is the first game where I felt legitimate fear; not scared, mind you, not "oh no I better watch out, something might jump out at me". But genuine fear, where I knew if I went into a certain area, there was a good chance some monster would get me. I think the not knowing of when and where it would get me was the big thing. It was totally possible I would get lucky and the monster would ambush another patrol of STALKERS, or I might be able to waltz through the area safely, or maybe it'd get me.

Been replaying a lot of older games lately, might want to add this to the list. Thanks for the reminder and the potential mod.

Game overhype?

Lol are you serious? The game was heavily criticised at launch because it defnitely was a shitfest of bugs, instabilty and plain old not ready for release.

It was only much much later when people realised that it was actually effing good with great potential when it slowly got patched and PC gamers being the unendingly persistent and imaginative bastards started fixing and modding the game top to bottom.

It's 100% the Steam version, and i'm damn glad i cornered the main culprit here. That's the cause of the crash, more specifically it's the version of the ENB file included in the package. The ENB i've used for the package is the 0.0176 version. Apparently, it crashes with the Steam version but completely works with the GOG version. But surprise ( i sure as **** was, i found about this yesterday), version 0.0074 works just fine.

Anyway, i really want you to try a potential fix, seems like it worked for other people. Download ENB 0.074. Copy the "d3d9.dll" file from 0.074 into the "Bin" folder of Shadow of Chernobyl, and replace. Tell me if it worked.

Either way i'll upload a second package without the ENB file (You'll lose some effects, but you'll get to enjoy the rest).

Edit: Currently uploading on the main mod page, it'll be fully available by tomorrow in the "Files" table named as XpressTuning's Remaster Edition (Non-ENB).

Anyway, here's some screenshots i did without ENB effects. Mind you, game still looks real good, it's just that ENB pumped an additional layer of eye candy on top.

@Lucianu: copying the older ENB file into the bin folder and replacing now allows the game to boot, but if I attempt to start a new game it immediately crashes me to the DT.

Is the splash screen supposed to show that a mod is running? As is, it looks exactly like vanilla, and usually mods have the boot screen show that a mod is active. Is the only way to tell by getting into the game?

Yeah, so the Steam version is a piece of shit and doesn't work with ENB. It's a shame, because it works with every other version, so i didn't expect that. I uploaded a non-ENB version for Steam users, it's available for download. It's basically the same thing, just with less effects; ENB added another layer of eye candy that i tweaked and was pleased with. I appreciate your enthusiasm.

So finally, if you want to give it a go, i recommend a fresh install (uninstall and also manually delete the stalker folder that contains all those mods you added), repeat the previous steps. And you're done.

As for the splash screen question, no. That just depends on who makes the mod.

@Lucianu: GoG has a 70% off sale current, so picked it up for $6. Will try to get it working with the ENB later tonight and let you know how it goes.

@Lucianu: for some reason this just doesn't want to work on my rig.

I bought to GOG version, boot up, change lighting, exit, alter txt file, save, copy the three folders from the main mod folder into main directory, start up, crash. Copy older ENB .dll into bin, boots up fine, start new game, after selecting Master difficulty, instead of crashing to DT like Steam did this locks and requires a hard reboot. Glad I only paid $6 for this, as I suspected it wasn't going to work. Why are these mod files not overwriting anything? This is like 3+ gigs. I don't know how the models and such can be improved if nothing is being overwritten, yet when I copy nothing is. Just to double check, I copy the three folders from inside the main mod folder into the main install directory, right?

Is having it installed in Programs(x86) the problem? UAC possibly? Bitdefender antivirus? Malwarebytes? The next thing I'll try is downloading the one without ENB you uploaded but I suspect that's not the problem. Aside, I really want ENB as it improves the atmosphere significantly, which for STALKER is no small benefit to have.

This is a singular problem i'm trying to troubleshoot with Mirko so he can get the mod running, considering i tested the GOG version across numerous machines and the package worked as intended, i doubt it's a problem that's wide spread. Especially considering i've only gotten complaints from 2 individuals out of over a hundred. Installing takes 2 min. or less.

Then i'm absolutely baffled by the inadequacy of your system configuration, or game configuration to run the mod, i wouldn't have an idea unless i'm there to thoroughly troubleshoot the issue. Could be something so simple that's preventing the mod from running. And i bet it's something incredibly simple that just flew over our heads.. maybe it is Bitdefender, i never used or know anyone who uses that antivirus. Because it's an incredibly simple package that should not cause any problems.. Yes, it should overwrite some stuff.

Don't bother with the non-ENB version, we're going to add each and every mod separately. I'll re-type every single step that i can think of as well. This is my last resort, unfortunately. If this doesn't work, then it's beyond me.

• Delete everything related to STALKER, install the GOG version.
• Edit fsgame.ltx and make sure this is here: $game_data$ = true| true| $fs_root$| gamedata\ , if it's set to 'false', set it to 'true'.
• Start the game once, switch to full dynamic lightning, it'll ask to restart, right? Restart, enter again, but this time start a new game to make sure it works. Save the game, exit. (maybe this was the problem? Who the Hell knows, but let's just check everything off the list of potential and go all out)

Allright, we got it set up. Now for the mods, add each of them as numbered by me. Each mod will contain instructions, but practically you just add them all on top one at a time. Either way, read the instructions as well.

1. Zone Reclamation Project. Download ZRP 1.07 R5 RC, add it, then start the game again. Now, the main menu of the game should show the ZRP version in the lower left corner.
2. Original Weapons Renewal 3 for SOC. Download the full version, add. Then download the patch (ZRP Compatibility Patch for OWR 3 1.1, it's there) and add it on top.
3. Photo Realistic Zone 2.1. Next up, download this. Extract, there should be two folders inside - "Addons" and "Photo Realistic Zone". Don't bother with "Addons". Enter the "Photo Realistic Zone" folder and follow instructions (copy pasting the "gamedata" folder into the game directory).
4. Shadow of Chernobyl HD Models Addon. Download, add.

Overwrite and replace everything it tells you to. Every single mod contains additional instructions. Now, we have everything in place. Start the game, enter it, see if it works.

Now for the ENB file. Add it per instructions. This is the modified base that i've further modified for the package. I'll tell you my exact config. later, first - start the game one final time, see if it works.

@Lucianu: I tried going inside each sub folder of the main mod folder and copying that way. Went into the mod bin folder, copied the individual files, then went into the STALKER install directory and pasted them directly into the bin folder instead of dropping the entire mod bin folder into the main game install directory. This time it overwrote and replaced files. Did the same for diffs and gamedata folders too, which also overwrote. I have no idea why it doesn't do this when I drag and drop these mod sub folders into the main install directory. It should, but whatever. Yet the same shit happens. Crashes on boot up, and when I replaced the ENB file in bin, it starts, yet hangs right after I click Master on the difficulty select screen.

I've got to head out. Before I go through all the above step by step hassle manually, I'm going to do screen capture and post a YT video showing you exactly what I'm doing, and I want you to tell me if you're seeing mistakes.

btw: I have CoP installed as I have been playing CoC for a while. Though probably not the problem, just think it's worth mentioning.

No

Or in 2029

Or in 2039....

It's weird how memories get erased... I don't want to make this personal or anything or cultural I just have no interest in the ... I guess eastern european style if you will....

Technically once upon a time this coincided with well um... WW2 and Nazism and all that... there's a lot of strong similarities in the media presentation it's just sorta couched and so on....

Well that's about as political as I'll get, the point is one way or another even if you ignore all that I just don't like their games much at all.

@Lucianu: Got it working. Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it.

One more question: how do I get depth of field? I hit shift-enter to bring up ENB config menu, select it and save and I get nothing. Have searched around and saw that anti-aliasing needs to be off both in-game through NVidia panel which I've done but still not working. Plus I get major jaggies with it off. Any ideas?

EDIT: even with photo-realistic and ENB going it doesn't look nearly as good as this or this. I found this while trying to find how to get the DoF to work. My game boots up with the ENB in the upper left so I know it's working, but it's still a marked downgrade from the above videos.

EDIT 2: at this point I don't believe ENB is having any effect even though it shows on the splash screen and I can get into the config menu. I'm tweaking settings, saving the config, rebooting, and nothing changes. No bloom difference from on/off, DoF doesn't work with anti-aliasing (on or off). This is very frustrating, I think if I could at least get DoF I'd be happy, but since it doesn't happen when it's shown to be on leads me to believe nothing is working when it's shown to be on.

Bingo. Needed to place not only the ENB files into the bin folder, but also into the main directory as well. Working like a charm now and game looks incredible. Again, thanks for all the help Lucianu, it's time to start stalking.

No problem, i'm glad you got it all sorted out.

@Lucianu: something you may want to mention on your mod DB page comments I didn’t see: for the GoG version, starting up directly from the stalker.exe will always crash on start up using ENB. At least it did for me and probably is for others. Starting from the settings.exe (found in the main install directory) will work. This only applies to the GoG version, as Steam has no settings.exe in its main install directory. I've tried this with your mod and also with AA 2.01 and both work. GoG is the only version I can get ENB working on through launching settings after a ton of troubleshooting, googling, and headache.

@Lucianu: would you happen to know where to find the exact file to mod this? It's the scope for the AK-47 and the lines are far too light to enable quick acquisition in engagements, especially in the daytime. I'd like to change where the two lines intersect to bright red and increase the size a bit.

I've never even thought of modifying them because they were never an issue for me, i don't know of any good ones.

Why yes I do, and I will. I'm either going to have to install an optical drive or re-buy it first, though.

This looks like a really nice package. Might have to look for some sata cables tomorrow. Cheers!

@Lucianu: sorry, misspoke. Not looking for a file to DL as I realize my wish is very specific, but if you know where that particular texture is in the game files that I can modify with Photoshop.

I'm pretty sure they're in gamedata > textures > wpn, but they're .dds files. I used a DDS to PNG converter online to be sure and checked a few of them out, and sure enough wpn_crosshair_svd.dds is:

But the texture you're showing might be a different one, because the font there is white, and here it's black, so no idea.

I'm always reminded how amazing STALKER is every time I play it, and thanks to @Lucianu for getting me to play it again. This game is a prime example of a design philosophy that takes the focus off of catering to the player and places it into creating a tangible, living, breathing, dynamic world, to then drop them into it. Many games model and structure themselves around the player through scripting and triggered events. While the illusion exists, it's still an illusion.

With STALKER it isn't. It’s a world that genuinely exists and evolves without concern for the player at all. The Zone doesn’t give a single **** about you. Factions fight you, each other (even when you’re not on the same map), mutants, and stumbling into battles, ongoing or finished, that have nothing to do with you is common. Actions affect reputation which plays an integral part in forming allegiances and causing rivalries. It’s a constantly evolving dynamic playground that always surprises. Not only does STALKER have an exemplary core design philosophy of complete and total indifference and apathy towards the player, it affords them very satisfying fundamental gameplay mechanics to experience the world in that context. Exhilarating gun play complimented by a realistic ballistics model, highly competent (though not perfect) AI, good inventory management and a weight system which demands consideration, an abundance of items and cool gear, phenomenal sound design, day/night and dynamic weather cycle....then mix all this up with an unparalleled sense of atmosphere, dread, isolation and top it off with an enjoyable story and STALKER is second to none.

I remember the first time I played it I was more than a little underwhelmed and lasted only a few hours and only came back to it years later. It certainly doesn’t start out strong. The early weapons are terrible and don’t feel satisfying, the initial enemy encounters are hard and unrewarding, you can’t really go anywhere without being slaughtered, and the narrative is bland given the amnesia premise. Bugs (which were numerous on release) don’t help either. I'll admit it doesn't give a good first impression. But once you get a rifle with a scope so you can fight at a distance, find some halfway decent gear to explore better, and (most importantly) start to understand how you’re in a world that you occupy but are not the reason of its existence, the game blossoms and there is really no other experience in gaming like it. STALKER is, plainly put, simply a brilliant testament to exemplary game design. That it’s lasted so long, is so loved, and still has a passionate modding community supporting it to this day is indicative of such. Unfortunately, the vanilla game remains an unpolished gem so this is a bit of a necessity and I believe it is something that should be experienced with mods (yes, even for first timers). The vanilla game, while granting an incredibly solid foundation, has visually aged quite poorly and is in need of a few tweaks to see it to its fullest potential.

Nevertheless, I've rarely seen a game with such a strong core to be built off of to realize it, and while perhaps I could understand it's not to everyone's taste, if anyone puts in a decent amount of time into it they at least should be able to recognize the brilliance of what it accomplishes in the design strength of marginalizing the importance of catering to the player's experience and instead pays much more accord to the world they inhabit to be able to enable it. That's what make STALKER so engrossing, and it's not been matched to this day. I can only hope STALKER 2's developers don't forget what makes the first game such a masterpiece.

@Lucianu said:

@MirkoS77 said:

@Lucianu: sorry, misspoke. Not looking for a file to DL as I realize my wish is very specific, but if you know where that particular texture is in the game files that I can modify with Photoshop.

I'm pretty sure they're in gamedata > textures > wpn, but they're .dds files. I used a DDS to PNG converter online to be sure and checked a few of them out, and sure enough wpn_crosshair_svd.dds is:

But the texture you're showing might be a different one, because the font there is white, and here it's black, so no idea.

Yeah, I found the one I was looking for and after changing DDS to JPEG I did this alteration in Photoshop:

Then converted it back to DDS and copied it to wpn folder, overwrote. Shows in game, but instead of the scope being transparent it shows nothing but this texture. Ah well, almost. If you have any idea what the problem may be I'm all ears.

Thanks buddy. Might revisit

@Lucianu:

Current HBO series made me wanna play this so I'm doing a SoC run with just the ZRP and a few graphic mods (absolute nature & structures)

I was wondering about any advice on which of these options to enable or disable..

Also I ran across this post on GoG with some links about the distances enemies notice you at and react, ect...and was wondering what I should change in regards to that ? (last post by AZaph_gog)

https://www.gog.com/forum/stalker_series/never_played_a_stalker_game_before_any_essential_patches_or_mods

I looked through the links and also see people talking about changing the alife setting also if you change the change the eye range, because one effects the other, I guess. I just can't seem to find where the hell the alife.ltx is even located though, as I guess it's in a different place since I'm not playing with all these mods or something.

I absolutely love Chernobyl, that mini series is one of the best things i've ever seen, and there's still 2 episodes left.

Now, as for Shadow of Chernobyl. I'd take a step back if i were you and if you'd want the best possible experience; Absolute Nature and Absolute Structures haven't been updated for Shadow of Chernobyl in a long time and they don't look that good these days in my opinion, i haven't used them in years. There's nothing wrong with those two texture packs, they do make the game look better, but there are other graphical mods that are better at making the game look good than those packs. And as for that GOG thread and the user that suggested modifying detection range and whatnot, ignore it and don't bother with the hassle, there's no need, and as far as i know it's not a recommended thing to do.

Here's my recommendation - head over to my package - XpressTuning's Remaster Edition. Read the summary page for information regarding how to properly enjoy this game. There are two packages available for download. I've packaged the very best mods out there that are aimed at greatly enhancing the graphical aspect of this game, with ZRP included in the package.

Now, Zone Reclamation Project comes with a Modifier application that should be in your "gamedata" folder. Open it, and you should see a list. These are the modifications i highly recommend:

• In the list, there's the "Head Bobbing - Part 1" line. Go there, and check "Reduced head bobbing". Click "Apply".
• Now go to the "ABC Sleeping Bag" line, and check "ABC Sleeping Bag", and click "Apply".
• Lastly go to the "Repair Weapons and Suits" line and check both those, and click "Apply". Just in case you want to repair your stuff at those NPCs.

If you want to stick with your current setup (ZRP + Absolute texture packs), it's cool. Just be aware that if you want (insanely) better graphics, you've got the option available any time you feel like going for it.

Thanks. Trying your package tonight after the show. Hopefully I can get some decent FPS with my old PC/video card. Guess I can still lower some stuff in the in game video options if not.

edit: just tried it and I was getting like 20 FPS and that's even with turning some stuff down. But I did try the ENB version. Think the non ENB one would give me another 10 FPS ? Guess I'll give that a go and find out.

edit 2: Yea the ENB and grass density was killing me. With the non ENB and grass density turned down a lot, I'm actually getting around 60 FPS surprisingly.

@bussinrounds said:

Thanks. Trying your package tonight after the show. Hopefully I can get some decent FPS with my old PC/video card. Guess I can still lower some stuff in the in game video options if not.

edit: just tried it and I was getting like 20 FPS and that's even with turning some stuff down. But I did try the ENB version. Think the non ENB one would give me another 10 FPS ? Guess I'll give that a go and find out.

edit 2: Yea the ENB and grass density was killing me. With the non ENB and grass density turned down a lot, I'm actually getting around 60 FPS surprisingly.

Yep, the ENB is very intensive, and is especially taxing on older PCs. That's why i also packaged the non-ENB version as well. Contains all the improvements minus the ENB effects.

Also, don't forget to play on Master difficulty, i think that's absolutely essential because that's the default way the game was designed as.

The other difficulty levels where slapped on in a rush to please the publisher, and they're not good at all. They lower the damage all around (for you and the enemies) making foes bullet sponges, and they make bullets miss far more often. They also reduce the AI, making them dumb.

Yea, I'm on master and knew all about the difficulty thing. I also added this file that removes the enemies/red dots on the mini map (which should also increase the difficulty)

https://steamcommunity.com/app/4500/discussions/0/530647080132505645/

And I'm gonna try playing most of the time without the hud anyways. (can still bring it up with a quick button press if needed though)

Updated the thread.