Most people who play any of the STALKER games always complain about lag and unoptimisation. The developers made an excellent game so it is up to the community to improve the game performance. I used to use a NVIDIA 9600GT 512mb and I have played Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat at almost maximum settings at a playable framerate. Assuming you have already toyed with a few of the ingame settings here are a few tips to help you get the peak performance out of the game.
Step 1. Background Applications
Yes, yes, we see this step in every performance guide. Personally I skip this step because I don't use anti-virus or fifty little programs and instant messengers that hang in the task bar. If you are already hogging for performance it is time to cut threads and end a few processes to free up some RAM and CPU cycles. Also make sure you aren't running something that is CPU intensive while you are playing STALKER.
Step 2. Improved Memory Allocation
It is common place amongst the STALKER community to use the launchparameter '-noprefetch'. This has been known to correct problems with the pre-existing prefetching system that loads files to be used onto the RAM. The problem is that it doesn't work very well and 'noprefetch' is used to fix this up. The best bit is that it is confirmed to improve performance, reduce stuttering and also reduce the amount of memory error related crashes.
Steam users- Right-Click on 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl' and select 'Properties'
- Select 'Set launch options..'
- Type '-noprefetch' without quotations into the input box and click 'OK'
Non-Steam users
- Right-Click on your shortcut to STALKER which is usually located on your desktop and select 'Properties'
- Add '-noprefetch' without quotations to the end of the 'Target:' line e.g. 'C:Program FilesTHQS.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of ChernobylbinXR_3DA.exe' -noprefetch
- Click 'OK'
For 64-Bit Operating Systems with 4GB+ RAMRead here for extra awesomeness.
Step 3. NVIDIA Control PanelATi users may have to attempt to emulate these steps.The NVIDIA Control Panel is home to many more elaborative tweaks whichhandle the way the game renders images and how threads are handled. ATi users would be using the ATi Tray Tools to do similar tweaks.Here are a few tweaks that may improve performance.
- Right-Click on your desktop and select 'NVIDIA Control Panel'
- Go to 3D Settings -> Manage 3D Settings
- Click on the 'Program Settings' tab
- Find STALKER in the list of games or manually browse to it with 'Add'
- If you are getting above 60fps skip to Step 7.
- Set 'Maximum pre-rendered frames' to '2'
- Set 'Threaded Optimization' to 'On'
Most STALKER players complain that the game is very unoptimised. Blame THQ and download some optimised shaders.
- Download the latest version of the optimised shader pack.
- Delete your existing shader folder located at 'STALKERLocationgamedatashaders'. Ignore this step if the shader folder doesnot exist
- Extract the shader folder from the downloaded RAR file to 'STALKER Locationgamedatashaders'
- Go to 'STALKER Locationgamedatashadersr2' and open 'ShaderSettings.txt'
- Replace the data inside the file with the data below
Note - You can enable features in the shaders for improved graphics that weren't included in the game
The problem with most people is that they forget to defragment theircomputer. This is the major cause of stuttering, pauses, hangs and longloading screens. This can be done with any de-fragmentation software. Personally I use Defraggler but other programs and the standard Windows Defragger should work just fine.
NecronLord15 also recommends that using Enditall along with Defragglerwill ensure a better defrag than standard. End it all closesunnecessary background programs, which is good for better defrags, orfor low memory computers. Defraggler is just a better defraggingsoftware than what's built into your computer.
Click the link here for instructions
For additional but somewhat outdated information visit Tweak Guides.
