I was doing a current run with HD models and wanted to be able to utilize Meatchunks Prefetcher.
All vanilla character models were removed and nearly 1000 lines were added for HD model parts.
This has been made to work with Stalker G.A.M.M.A. If you try to make it work with anything else, I can not help you.
What does it do?
Prefetcher takes all the assets and frontloads them onto your ram so the game already has them ready to render. What this means is you will have next to no stutter when running across a map. You will also experience smoother gameplay. HD models are larger files and for those of you who prefer HD models this prefetcher patch makes things much smoother.
Why is it called MeatChunks?
I honestly have no clue...it was the original mod name on the gamma discord and I just incorporated it to make things easy on the gamma folks.
System Requirements?
Prefetcher requires that you have 12gigs of ram mandatory in order to function properly. Someone with 16gigs tried it and claim it works for them. So I personally recommend at least 16gigs on your system at minimum.
Installation
I do not have this setup as a prepackaged installer. No need to try and install it. The original mod is included with Stalker Gamma. It is not a mod that you can find on moddb.
In MO2 right click on MeatChunks Prefetcher and click "Open in Explorer"
click on game data then configs then prefetch.
There is a file named "prefetch_single.ltx"
Simply replace the "prefetch_single.ltx" file with the one from my download after you extracted it of course.
I do not have instructions for anyone who is manually modding without MO2.
Please make a backup of the original .ltx incase you want to revert changes back to vanilla.
Please let me know if you have issues or you get an error telling you the game can not find a certain .ogf file. I tried to make sure this covered just HD models and nothing else.
The original upload for this file is also posted on the G.A.M.M.A. discord.
Discord.com
Original Credit toward the creator of MeatChunks Prefecther. I did not make MeatChunks Prefetcher, I only patched it to work with HD Models.
If you wish to checkout my project I am working on you can check out all the socials here. We are early in our development of our own game and still building a community. Linktr.ee
You're going to have to be more descriptive than that, especially with people new to modding this game like me.
Yeah this would be confusing if I had no experience
Thanks for the input. I went ahead and added a step by step for people new to modding in general. Never posted on ModDB so I appreciate the feedback. I threw this up after a viewer suggested it might get some traffic and help people.
I will go ahead and do the same on Gamma discords side as well.
Great job! A lot better now :)
Figured out where to drop it. When starting a new game I got this crash error.
Expression : <no expression>
Function : CModelPool::Instance_Load
File : ..\xrRender\ModelPool.cpp
Line : 120
Description : fatal error
Arguments : Can't find model file
'actors\mnp_npc_remeikb\stalker_dolg4nosorog.ogf'
Stack trace:
Thanks for that. I got the same info from someone else and it has been removed and I will have the new file updated shortly.
Let me know if any more of the similar errors pop up.
Just to double check so you do not run into the issue again, I will be installing a second fresh install of gamma with just HD models so I can boot it up and make sure I did not add any extra lines.
EDIT: I reinstalled a fresh copy of Gamma with just HD models and it appears to work now.
I'll check it out soon and report back! Works.
I don't get the purpose of the mod, what exactly it does?
Non native speaker here)
The prefetcher is designed to load up assets and keep those assets loaded onto your ram, this way your game will run smoother and load up smoother. The current known issue is that after awhile the loading menu's begin to slow down.
Does this solve the double-rendering issue over the old models? Amazing if so, thanks!
what kind of double rendering are you talking about? HD models have more polygons and use more textures at a higher resolution than vanilla ones. Naturally, they consume more memory.
Meatchunks?
Meatchunks artifacts!
yes, that's what I thought. But I am lost as to what is their connection to HD models...
The prefetcher is designed to load up assets and keep those assets loaded onto your ram. Hd models is not on this file by default. So I added all the HD parts manually and deleted the vanilla ones. (had to delete the vanilla ones so the game does not crash looking for those files)
Its not really made clear for people what it is. But if you like to sprint across a map and have ZERO stutter because all models are already pre loaded, then this is important.
ok, NOW you got my attention :D :D :D
this is awesome!!!!!
(that whole meatchunk thing just completely derailed me, lol)
Yeah I asked the same thing when I first seen the name. I have no clue who made it and when I asked, it sounded like it was a contribution to Gamma or something.
It works amazing, the one downside is after like 30mins-1hr when ever you hit esc or go to a loading screen it can take longer to load up. But I prefer that over getting a stutter at a critical moment in a fire fight.
Pushed a 3rd update which removed another text line that was not needed.
Uh, yeah... you're going to have to link to the original mod "MeatChunks Prefetcher" because it's not on Moddb and Google shows nothing over multiple results pages even after several search variations.
Where is this fabled "MeatChunks Prefetcher" you know, for us vanilla folks?
Sounds like something my Potato Laptop would benefit from.
Its an included mod with Stalker Gamma. It is not anywhere else from what I have been seeing. I originally only posted this for the folks on the gamma discord. I only posted here for others that utilize gamma plus other mods based on a viewers suggestion. If meatchunks does appear anywhere else I will be sure to link it.
I went ahead and made an edit to my installation instructions to let people know so there is no confusion on that topic.
I don't use Gamma, but I experimented with this mod. I extracted 1.5.2's vanilla prefetch_single.ltx file & copied just the HD model's and monsters ogf lines from your mod to add to what's already in the vanilla file (gamedata > configs > prefetch > prefetch_single.ltx).
Initially, I got a handful of errors pertaining to missing ogf files but those were easy to solve (just delete those missing ogf lines in the ltx file as indicated by the error messages, after which the game will load just fine). I think I had less than 10 errors. A few boot up attempts were needed to catch every error, so patience was needed.
As expected, the initial loading took longer than usual and the RAM usage shot up from my usual 50% usage to 90% (that's when you know it's working as intended since it's a huge prefetch). I only have 16gb total RAM.
Once you are already in the game, map changes take normal usual time to load, not longer. Stalker games will always have micro stutters here & there sometimes but for me, this prefetching got rid of a lot of stutters & actually made my game much smoother. Tested on an existing save file with lots of other mods installed.
I'd say it's worth the initial longer loading time every time you boot up the game :) Just plan ahead & go make some coffee or something every time you boot it up and the game will be ready when you're done.
YMMV depending on hardware and how many other mods you have installed but that's my experience with it.
Thanks I appreciate the report on this. And I am not sure where other people are getting ahold of the prefetcher outside of Gamma. Where did you get your prefetcher from or is it a different one that you just Frankenstein'd my patch into?
Yeah with 16gigs of ram that's cutting it close. I have 64gigs so no problems here and I boot up at an ok speed. I had not had the change to run between zones yet so I appreciate knowing that load times are the same between zones.
And thank you for sharing this mod, SteamPunkGears :)
I don't use any 3rd party prefetcher, all I did was just copying the HD model's and monsters ogf lines found in your mod to vanilla 1.5.2's prefetch_single.ltx file and put it into gamedata > configs > prefetch folder within my game's directory.
I did not copy anything else in your mod's ltx file, just the HD models & monsters ogf lines, since those are the heavyweight hitters.
It only affected the initial loading time & RAM usage as expected. Map changes shouldn't be affected since the prefetching was already done on initial game load - well, at least that's what I think prefetching should behave anyway :p I could be wrong, though.
Ah interesting, I dont have heavy knowledge into modding for Stalker. Its more of a free time thing since most of my efforts go into making my own game.
I am glad to know there are other methods to utilize this. If you do have the time to, I would gladly include instructions on how to utilize this outside of gamma for the people who dont use gamma. If not then all good.
I added a "What does it do?" section on the description for those people who were asking about it.
How much RAM do you think is best to enjoy the benefits of this mod?
12gigs of ram is mandatory. It will pretty much frontload "everything" onto your ram. Well at least everything the file contains.
I will add this info into the description as well. Thanks for reminding me.
I went through the ltx file and deleted the ogf lines for those single unique NPCs that are only found in just one map each, like professor Sakharov, Barman, Lukash, Wolf, Beard, and many more. I didn't think they were worth prefetching since you only find them at one spot/map each.
To find out such NPCs' model ogf lines, go to gamedata > configs > gameplay. Each of the location files in there will tell you such NPCs ogf lines under their <visual> tags. Then, delete their lines from the prefetch_single.ltx file accordingly.
Did the same for rare mutants you don't encounter often like Chimeras, Burers, Controllers, Karliks, Borya, etc.
Result: It whittled down the initial loading time and brought my RAM usage down from 90%-ish to the mid 70's%.
If you are using a cutting edge PC close to NASA level, I suppose you can forgo this step, LoL.
Lol yeah my pc meets your nasa levels
LoL, thank you for sharing this mod, it allowed me to learn something new about how the game works with its assets behind the scene :) Game on, Stalker 👍
If i understood you correctly you made prefetch with only vanilla and HD models, would you mind sharing that?
The prefetcher I worked on only supports HD models. The one for vanilla gamma is downloaded with gamma's launcher.
When you say "have 12gigs of ram mandatory" do you mean overall memory, or free memory? (not including system/background ram usage)
Meaning that the prefetcher will use 12gigs of ram and will stay loaded on your ram for the duration of the game session. It is recommended to have more than 12gigs total memory on your system to benefit from the prefetcher.
Here is a screenshot of my task manager to give an example. My client is a bit more modified so mine uses more like 16gigs instead of the 12.
Imgur.com
Thank you for this. Had to remove a few models (not playing gamma), RAM usage is about 13-15GB when the loading screen ends. Also the first boot up into main menu is a bit slower.
But the game runs with less stutters and frametime seems to be more stable. Thanks again 10/10.
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Is there a way to implement it on EFP? I added all of the models in the same manner but the game crashes when starting new game, all of the ogf files added will conflict, or this prefetch is for G.a.m.m.a and G.a.m.ma only?
Do you have any idea how difficult doing this for Dux's Innumerable Character Kit would be? I player with MeatChunks Prefetch on GAMMA with D.I.C.K., and it was buttery smooth, so I want that in my main Anomaly mod list.
Curious if your willing to release a KVMAS And Azetrix Model Merge Project version of this mod.
It can be found on EFP & GAMMA Discord.
nvmd they made 1
With EFP 4.2 work?
I apologize I have not been around for several months. Had some major health issues going on that I wont get into. I will do my best to catch backup on all the updates I have missed. No eta on that. Thanks and I appreciate your patients.
For people asking about if it works with EFP.
I have not as of yet tried it. I will in the near future and report back here with info.
Everything appears to be still working. Mod is up to date.
hello
thanks for listing all hd models parts, very cool.
i also did what Little_Lion did in the posts above.
it does work, it takes a little bit longer to load a save or start debug mode area.
So debug area with no hd prefech uses 1,2gb ram and with hd prefech 7.9gb ram, however as a test i kept spawning in an army squad with 10 guys at the same time there is no difference in the lag which in both cases with and without prefech, was either none or like a slight microstuter
exactly what i was trying to eliminate ;)
anyway could this be because there is no difference in how quick ssd or ram can be read? just wondering, maybe there would be a difference if i spawned like 20 squads at once?
Honestly I cant really say. Its been a minute since I last worked on this. I am not quite sure I understand how you were doing your testing. But in working theory once you are loaded onto a map and the prefecture has finished loading, it allows a player to full sprint across a map without stutters. Depending on your pc specs you may not notice any difference.
FYI, MeatChunk is an Anomaly Developer, you can see him in the Anomaly Discord
Yep I am aware. I spoke to them. They are the ones that posted the original inside the gamma discord. This one has replaced about 1000 lines of code and made only for HD models.
There is also a line where I credit them in my description above.