Hello everyone, survived the vacation or your usual week?. My laptop didn't had any energy left and forgot my adaptor at a friend's place, so ended up writing code in my textbooks using paper and pencils. So, there you have it. My week wasn't as great as I wished it would've been. Oh well, at least I had enough time to think out some stuff for this new blog entry.
Let's start with something I am a little proud of myself: I was finally able to merge OWR 2.1 Lite with Atmosfear 3 and my custom version (which I might release) of MSO 1.01.
MSO 1.01 is a very interesting mod, which as most of you know, enhance the AI from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat. It is a great mod, but it is filled with bugs (mostly smart-terrain related, so delete everything from "gamedata/configs/scripts" except "axr_companion_logic" and "beh_companion" to get the mod to run, but the custom spawns won't be present in the mod when you do).
The thing that bothered me the most was that it included some stuff it doesn't need, such as the suits being mixed up (monolith using loner scientific suits, a trader file (???), inventory & item upgrades (why?!), a custom mesh for a green and a red scientific suit, and audio I am pretty sure that they are just duplicates.
So, I started removing the stuff I didn't need (audio, inventory & item upgrades, prefetch, the audio files, the model (and it's related files), the weapon files and edited the config file to remove the special models.
If I weren't including a weapon mod, I would've removed the special ammo variant guns from the description files in gameplay. But since I'll use OWR 2.1 Lite and don't need to bother the naming, I just left them be and included the special ammo variant in the weapon config files. I also merged the mp_ranks with the one from OWR 2.1.
A side note, for those who don't know it yet: the AI from CoP don't use their ammo. Another side note: I prefer OWR 2.1 Lite over 3 or any other weapon pack as it is highly mergable, contains my favorite weapon (HK G36C with EOTECH reflex sight & M203 grenade launcher) and keeps the vanilla looks and makes the special variants feel exotic (like if it is a really special weapon in the game). The balancing is also really nice.
I've yet to look at the smart terrain files, which will sure be a b*tch as I've yet a lot to learn about them. For now, just removing them allowed the game to run without much of a problem, which is great!. I should also write a new patch for Atmosfear 3 and use that one just to be sure it works with the newest Atmosfear 3.
Another update on the CoC SWTC and CoC enhanced sunsets & sunrises: they both work in CoP (if Atmosfear 3 is installed) and they really should be used together!. if you use enhanced sunsets & sunrises alone, the sun will look really large and unrealistic. But with the SWTC skyboxes, it suddenly behaves correctly. Other good news: HD models for Call of Chernobyl also work with CoP. Just remove the config file and drop the folders inside the gamedata folder.
At last, I haven't yet got the chance to use the reshade from REDUX 2 Beta, but it looks really promising!. Hopefully it will look as good in my custom merge as his.
Stay safe in the zone, S.T.Al.K.E.R.
