PC - GPU - driver and game settings Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Already posted this in closed forum, reposting it here for people with simillar issues.

Recently, I have replaced GPU in my PC and have a lot of CTD until figured out what is wrong.
After switching GPU, game CTD few sec. after main menu pop up, renderer error.
I need to delete "user.ltx" to be able to play game again and with DX9 everything runs fine.

Because I wanted to play this game with maxed out all settings that is possible without significant FPS drop, I have tried several settings until choose DX11 renderer.

It sounds strange, becouse DX11 is not smart thing to enable with this game, but with my rig it helped.
With DX10 I was unable to have stable game, only with vanilla defaul "static lighting" renderer.

It seems to me that Nvidia put more effort to optimize DX11 and forgot to check DX9/DX10 in older games titles.

So after few trials and errors I found following configs stable on my rig.

Someone wrote:

First my system setup:
OS: Win7 x64
RAM: 8GB DDR3
CPU: core 2 quad Q8200 @2.33 GHz
GPU: Gainward GeForce GTX 760 phantom edition 2GB
Driver version: 335.23
Nvidia control panel Stalker specific 3D Settings:
Anisotropic filtering 16X
FXAA off
Antialiasing Gamma correction off
Antialiasing mode Application-controlled (off in game configs)
AA Tranparency off
CUDA - GPUs - global setting (all)
Max pre-rendered frames - 3D application setting
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration - single display performance mode
Power managment - adaptive
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization - On
Texture filtering - negative LOD bias - Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality - quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization - On
Threaded optimization - Off
Triple buffering - off
Vertical sync - off

In game settings(most relevant ones):
Resolution 1920 x 1080
AntiAliasing - off
SSAO - default
Sun shadows On
Sun rays On
Vertical sync - off

Another good settings from ponney68

ponney68 wrote:

OS: Win7 x64
RAM: 16GB DDR3
CPU: core i7 780 @ 4GHz
GPU: GTX 570 SLI
Driver version: 335.23
Nvidia control panel Stalker specific 3D Settings:
Anisotropic filtering Application-controlled (MAX in game configs)
FXAA - On (x8)
Antialiasing Gamma correction - On
Antialiasing mode - changing Application control (off in game configs)
AA Tranparency off
CUDA - GPUs - global setting (all)
Max pre-rendered frames - 3D application setting
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration - multi display performance mode
Power managment - adaptive
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization - Off
Texture filtering - negative LOD bias - permit
Texture filtering - Quality - quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization - On
Threaded optimization - Auto
Triple buffering - off
Vertical sync - Application-controlled

In game settings(most relevant ones):
Resolution 1920 x 1080
DX10
AntiAliasing - off
SSAO - default
SSAO quality - low
Sun shadows On
Sun quality - high
Sun rays - low
Vertical sync - On

Now, above settings may or may not work stable on your PC, but I posted it here for reference.
To find good settings for you, try first set those Sun/shadow options and SSAO options to off.
Then turn on one settings at time, check that game runs stable with settings, then turn on another settings, check if the game is stable, etc.

Hope this will help people with OS/hardware/driver/game settings issues.

EDIT:

Someone wrote:

FATAL ERROR
[error]Expression : !m_error_code
[error]Function : raii_guard::~raii_guard
[error]File : D:\prog_repository\sources\trunk\xrServerEntities\script_storage.cpp
[error]Line : 748
[error]Description : d:\stalker\cop\gamedata\scripts\bind_stalker.script:813: attempt to concatenate field '?' (a nil value)

This kind of error is also coused by faulty driver/game settings. If that happens you will have to delete "user.ltx" file and start the game with default settings. Drawback with deleting "user.ltx" could be that your ingame brightnes will be too bright. Metal surfaces could reflect too much light. It is good to backup your "user.ltx" prior deleting so you can compare values with new "user.ltx" file.
What you need to edit to get back normal brightnes settings is explained in Yasti's sticky thread.

Someone wrote:

r2_sun_lumscale_amb 0.4 ; original 0.1
r2_sun_lumscale_hemi 0.7 ; original 0.6
r2_tonemap_adaptation 2.3 ; original 0.2
r2_tonemap_amount 0.7 ; original 1
r2_tonemap_lowlum 0.29 ; original 0.4
r2_tonemap_middlegray 1.3 ; original 1.1

Besides that, to fully enjoy this mod turn off IFF on HUD. Find end edit this line to look like this:

Someone wrote:

hud_info off

EDIT:
EagleEye177 solved his issues with ATI card. Whole story with pictures is in 2.1 bugs thread .
You can try this if anything above fails:

EagleEye177 wrote:

Alright I don't know why this would fix it, but it seems to be fixed for me, for the time being.
I selected the lowest settings on the config menu, and also did just static lighting and played. No artifacting. Then I did maximum graphics with static lighting and no artifacting.
Then I did full dx 11 lighting and max graphics and there is still no artifacting. I will update if it changes at all.

EDIT:
Just to put note about unlimited FPS in game main menu. It was mentioned lot of times in various forum threads, that x_ray game engine issue can overheat GPU cards. It seems that latest generations of GPU cards suffers more of this problem then older GPU cards.
Jasper34 mentioned this in few post below and in bugs thread as well, but it was left unnoticed for some people.

To prevent overheating of your GPU, install some third party application like MSI afterburner, Xprecision or Nvidia Inspector that limits maximum frames to max frame that your monitor support, usualy around 60 since most novadays LCD have 60Hz refresh rate.

EDIT:
Jasper34 wrote some good tips to improve your game performace if you have powerfull PC with lot of RAM. You can use that extra RAM to setup a RAM drive. That will outmatch performance of any SSD hard drive and it will save your SSD drive from degradation over time. More info in his post down below.

EDIT:
CTD on main menu can also be due to old issue with Windows update no. KB2670838 which can be completely forgotten about. There is solution for this on GOG forum: Gog.com

EDIT:
User deldero have also issue with CTD on main menu. It was unrelated with anything mentioned above. In his case, it was due to corrupted save game file somewhere inside savegame folder. Soulution is to move or delete all savegame files and try to run game.More info about all story can be found in bugs thread.

Edited by: kcs123

Hi, I have problems with graphical settings. I tried many combinations of settings. Buildings, NPC stalkers, mutants and other non-floral objects are good, but trees are very fuzzy. I don´t know what´s wrong.

Some of atmosfear effects couse that distant object looks blured, mimics distant fog effect by that way. Another reason why trees become blured is if your actor didn't sleep for a while - part of gameplay.

If none of mentioned is not your case then I realy don't have a clue, you could search on google for some advanced settings in user.ltx file, but I can't tell for that for sure if anything can be done.

Using most of the above settings I played around and settled on grass - minimum, sun shadows off, anistropic half-way, switch distance 500, and everything else pretty much maxed out on DX11 and I am running a very steady 60FPS. I did install a limiter (Nvidia Inspector) to get rid of the 1500 FPS I was pulling on the menu screens and set my max to 60. I'm running super quiet and cool with virtually no stuttering.

While trying to set up a new GPU yesterday I nailed down a couple things to help new GPU owners and first time Misery Stalkers get their rigs set up. If you want to start fresh with the least demanding and arguably most compatible set of video settings do the following: Go to R:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Stalker Call of Pripyat\_appdata_ (substitute your particular install location) and delete tmp.ltx and user.ltx. When you load the game you will have the base low video options set. Each time you want to try a new set of parameters out do the following: Select Medium, High, or Extreme base settings, apply. Before going out of the game and restarting adjust anything else you want changed. Apply again. Exit game and go to the above directory. Delete the tmp.ltx. Copy the user.ltx to the SAME directory; it will make a copy 2. Click once on the second copy and change the name to tmp. Start game and try your new settings. Yes, you will have to bind all your keys and change your non-video options back after deleting both files, but only once. I don't know why, but if you just change options and don't replace the tmp.ltx with the changed user.ltx, some or all of your changes will display in game, but won't actually be applied. After doing a bit more research into HDAO vs HBAO I found the following: HDAO is an AMD ATI product High Definition Ambient Occlusion and Their Products including COP which was ATI branded will use HDAO more efficiently than Nvidia products (with less performance drop). DX11 also has a performance efficiency advantage with HDAO.
HBAO is a lower definition process that will work on both brands. Neither is required and may be turned off if your performance is inadequate.

Edited by: jasper34

I have better performance on Dx11 than Dx10, plus Dx11 don't crash here, while Dx10 is absolutely unplayable. Crash every time. Sometimes takes several minutes, sometimes i can play for a couple of hours. But always crash on Dx10.

Now I have a r9 285, but my happened the same with my old GTX 660. So it's nothing to do with AMD or nVidia.

I really don't get why that performance hit happens with Misery or some of other mods. Complete is the only that have smooth performance (95% of the time we can get 60FPS and almost no stuttering), while any other mod have fps drops when you look for certain areas and stuttering. A lot of stuttering. Almost unplayable.

Performance hit is nothing to do with alife.ltx, because even if you change for original or lower values, the game will have a lot of performance hit (drops to 40fps or 50fps). You can get better results for stuttering only.

I don't think it's XR3 Engine inherent issue, because like I say, the vanilla game - or Complete Mod - almost don't have it.

But there's a obvious CPU bottleneck. I have a Core i5, but XR3 Engine always try to use my first CPU Core to 100% before starting use others. Even with this CPU bottleneck, I don't think the problem is it, because the CPU usage and performance hit don't happens always in the same time. It's random.

What I noticed is low GPU usage. All the time. At all. It's very hard to see a 100% gpu usage on Misery, but I don't remember how this particular thing works on Complete or Vanilla. Maybe it's the same, I just don't remember. In fact, is very commom to see 0% GPU usage. Happens a lot!

So it's a mistery why the Misery performance is so bad. I don't think 40FPS is good, for a FPS game, 60FPS is the target rate. All the time. And even if you put the graphics on low, you will not beat 60FPS on Misery Mod.

You do know Xray engine only uses 1 core period? The MDT squeezed a ton of extra features in as well as lots of new items and variants. These all use resources. Brute single core CPU speed is critical. The faster your hard drive the better your performance. Higher alife switch_distance coupled with objects_per_update of ONE will give you drastically reduced stuttering and shorter durations. See my thread Moddb.com for easy video setup. My R9 290 runs flat out maxed with only grass density turned down (just because I like it more barren). The first thing to lose if your performance drops off is Sun Rays/Sun Shadows. I found HBAO was much smoother (low) than HDAO even though our AMD cards run HDAO more efficiently, it's still more load than HBAO. The default alife in Misery is double that in Vanilla/Complete. Double the default is better if your CPU can keep up. Complete was pretty, but really virtually no new features or difficulty. Even my old GTX 660 ran smooth 60-80 FPS limited until Nvidia finally got it's drivers to self limit at 60FPS. It's really about getting your rig tuned for the game.

Edited by: jasper34

jasper34 wrote: You do know Xray engine only uses 1 core period? The MDT squeezed a ton of extra features in as well as lots of new items and variants. These all use resources. Brute single core CPU speed is critical. The faster your hard drive the better your performance. Higher alife switch_distance coupled with objects_per_update of ONE will give you drastically reduced stuttering and shorter durations. See my thread Moddb.com for easy video setup. My R9 290 runs flat out maxed with only grass density turned down (just because I like it more barren). The first thing to lose if your performance drops off is Sun Rays/Sun Shadows. I found HBAO was much smoother (low) than HDAO even though our AMD cards run HDAO more efficiently, it's still more load than HBAO. The default alife in Misery is double that in Vanilla/Complete. Double the default is better if your CPU can keep up. Complete was pretty, but really virtually no new features or difficulty.

I don't know about the one core CPU theory about XR Engine. Because the CPU usage on MSI Afterburner show me other thing.

But, like I say, I think framerate issue is nothing to do with CPU usage. Even when we have low CPU request, the framerate drop still happens.

I don't think it's graphical settings either. Even if you running it at low settings, you will get serious framerate drops one time or other. Even if you disable SSAO, lower grass density, turn off sun rays, sun, anything. It's impossible get 60FPS on Misery in my experience. At least with my new R9 285 card and my old GTX660.

About Alife, I tried the original file. So I think it's nothing do to with Alife settings either. It's something else.

What is your CPU core speed? I consistently was able to run limited (as in I would otherwise run higher) anywhere I set Xprecision to limit myself from 80 FPF down to 60 on my GTX 660. Turning something down/disabling advanced features is pointless unless you follow the procedures in my thread. Whatever the reason, the changes aren't correctly applied otherwise. Also, look for a bogus user.ltx inside your Stalker call of Pripyat folder. Deleting it gets rid of a lot of stuttering too. There should only be the one inside your _appdata_ directory and a duplicate file named tmp.ltx in the same place. The two should be exactly the same for proper results. I was over my in-laws looking at one of my legacy hand-me-down systems with only a 3.2GHZ CPU and old HD 4850 GPU and an SSD. I installed the game and patch, set my switch_distance to 500 Objects to 1 and maxed everything out on static lighting (for some reason the menu didn't offer DX11, maybe card wasn't capable) the only thing turned down was anistropic filtering and antialiasing. I had to check of the 60HZ and vert sync for it to be compatible with the old LCD monitor. Game runs dead smooth at 75 FPS dropping to no less than 45-50 when looking at a lot of distant trees. Now I have something to do at my in-laws

You built yourself a better rig and sprung for 16 or 32GB of fast DDR3 to "future proof" a bit or just because you could Even if you moved up to an SSD large enough to house all your OS and program files you can achieve performance in excess of double the speed you get on SSD's by utilizing all that excess DDR3 to it's fullest. Detailed instructional videos on setting up a RamDrive can be viewed here: Radeonmemory.com . I don't specifically endorse AMD's ram drive, I simply noticed ads for it when installing a new GPU several generations of white box builds ago and was intrigued. I found theirs to be very easy to set up and use. I keep all Steam files and COP + Mod + Save game files on my Ram Drive image. With maxed out settings my initial load time is about 55 seconds and reloads about 5-6 seconds. Total Ram drive size required is just under 11GB, so if you have 16GB of DDR3 you can easily get away with a 12GB or 12288MB drive. The videos explain in detail, but for simplicities sake I will summarize: You create a ram drive of 12288MB or larger, use windows disk management to view your new partition and format it; FAT32 is fine. Now you can access it to install games files etc. via windows explorer. You save the disc image onto either your SSD or traditional hard drive. This takes a couple minutes. I check off the box to load my image when windows loads. You can now install whatever you want on your ram drive. Prepare to be stunned at how fast things run and load. I save my image whenever I will be away from my computer for a couple minutes. I back the image up regularly just like any other files I value. I do not have the image save automatically when windows closes because it takes longer to shut down. If you do not have an adequate UPS to keep your system either up fully long enough to save your ram disk or in suspend long enough to outlast any power outage do not use a ram drive. Besides the blazing speed in games, using ram reduces wear/leveling loads on your expensive SSD and will keep it running at peak performance longer.

I had to change frame limiters when I switched from an Nvidia to AMD based GPU. I found Dxtory which is free with a 10 second nag screen and works on all brands. While beta testing I initially set it for 75 (just below my monitors max specs) I kept playing with the FPS limit. I had read that limiting to just below your minimum FPS would make things smoothest and coolest. I came down to 60 FPS .. seems smoother, 45 ... smoother, all the way down to 30. The game runs and plays perfectly fine at 30FPS, smooth, I can turn as fast as I like with clear video. Rarely if a large cluster of spawns, especially ones that pop into existence already fighting or chasing something I will dip all the way down to 15-20 for a second or two (which happens anyway at 500 switch_distance) otherwise dead steady on 30 FPS. I know it seems counter-intuitive we spend a lot of cash buying hardware that will zoom and 30 FPS ??? But, it's 30 FPS DX11 fully maxed out across the board and short of going up to 900 switch distance and no stutter or lag at all it's the smoothest I've seen this mod play. Give it a try, it doesn't cost a cent and may make this fantastic mod even more enjoyable

I did some extensive testing on a more mainstream rig than mine I built to play games at my in-laws. The specs and details are on my page. Bottom line: You can use about 200 Meters higher alife.ltx switch_distance dramatically reducing the quantity and duration of lags/stutters by using static lighting vs. DX11.

Edited by: jasper34

Another easy to use and free RAM drive software can be found at SoftPerfect web page.
I just started to use it and so far, haven't found any issues with it.

However, I would recommand to keep your savegame files on normal HDD. Stalker savegame files are usualy in MyDocuments folder anyway although for some other games could be different. Once you have installed game on RAM drive, backup files on regular HDD or create drive image and store it on HDD.
It takes only few minutes to mount/copy files to RAM drive whenever you want to use it and any stuttering that comes from loading stuff from HDD will be gone.

Using RAM drive have advantages/disadvantages. It requires large amount of regular RAM available, you need to store all game files and still have enough RAM remaining for OS and regular game. So generaly, it is good only for high end rigs with 16GB RAM or more when comes to games like Stalker.
Another thing to worry is potential game progress lost if something goes wrong, like power supply loss or some kind of instability with OS in general.
If you save game on regular HDD this problem can be avoided, also saving/loading files don't take so long as loading map level that is already on RAM drive.

Advantage is obvious, speed exceeds any modern SSD drives. Also it is good to use RAM drive even if you have quick SSD, because lot of reads/writes on flash memory that SSD use leads to degradation of SSD drive - it becomes slower over time and flash memory have limited read/write cycles. Although have to be fair and say that number of SSD read/write cycles are quite large, but it is still limited.

RAM does not suffer from those problems, you can have unlimited read/write cycles, but all data is gone if you expirience power loss.

FREE is good I will try that on my next build. I think it was about $30 for Pro Version of AMD's software and it's not transferrable between computers.

Here is some small trick that RAM disk users may found usefull.

Although it is possible to create drive image trough RAM disk software and load that image when you need it, it may be anoying to create image each time you change some scripts or config file. I change files frequently. If you make changes on RAM drive files there is possibility that you lost changes if something goes wrong. So it is better to make changes on regular HDD files instead. To ensure that you always have latest files on your RAM disk whenever you want to play game, create small batch file. Open notepad and write this in it:

@echo off
@echo Copying files to RAM disk..
mkdir Z:\STALKER_CoP_Misery\
xcopy C:\STALKER_CoP_Misery Z:STALKER_CoP_Misery\ /E /H
pause

Save file with ".bat" extension instead of regular ".txt" file. You can save it to desktop or create shortcut for it on desktop for easier execution.
If you done it right when you double click on file or shortcut, files will be copied to your RAM disk.

In my case, I have regular install of Vanilla game and Misery mod in "C:\STALKER_CoP_Misery" folder. My RAM drive letter is "Z:".
When you boot up your rig, RAM drive will probably be empty, so you need to create destination folder first. That is "mkdir" command for.
Extra switches "/E /H" for xcopy commnd ensures that all subfolders and hidden/system files are copied too.
"pause" command is used so you know when job is done. Dos box is closed after that. Without it you could miss it if it is copied properly or not.

Lot of veteran players probably already knows this, but younger windows users probably never used any old DOS batch commands so I wrote this info to help them.

Please help! I am unable to decompress the 7Z file of misery 2.1.1 on Windows 8.1 using the current tools I have, opener plus, 7Zip opener and LZH opener. It seems to take many hours and locks up after 4-5 hours of decompressing with only about 20% of the total file completed. Is there a preferred decompression tool I can use from the Windows store? Please let me know or what I am doing wrong to start playing, have enjoyed CoP for a long time. Thanks to all.

Have you tred 7zip from this page 7-zip.org

Be careful to choose right version, x64 if you have 64bit windows or x86 for 32bit windows. And choose latest stable, not beta versions of downloader.

Kcs123 You are the MFin' MAN! Took me 3 minutes to do with that what I've struggled with for a week and 3 different downloads, one I paid $5.99 for. Thanks again.

Wow, I had scratched up some traces on my motherboard reinstalling my GPU killing the audio and messing up my first PCIe slot. While I am waiting for a new motherboard, I rearranged all my cables and reinstalled the same GPU in the second x16 PCIe slot. The performance is dramatically lower. I went from a Heavenward score of 3459 down to 3081 with all the exact same hardware/drivers just my GPU is in a slot further away from the CPU. I guess I know where I want to install it on the new motherboard

When they say it is the preferred slot, they are not kidding!

Edited by: jasper34

You are lucky that you are able to turn on PC with such damage on motherboard.
Probably warranty does not cover this kind of damage. Well, I hope that at least your data on HDD is undamaged.

Just my pride damaged. It's the first time in several dozen systems I've built where I damaged a component. My GPU is so heavy and even in this huge case it barely fits. I ordered some SATA3 cables with right-angle connectors to give better clearance. My new, same model, motherboard will be here by Friday and I'll gut and reassemble it. I have all the other cables more neatly arranged to provide less to work around. There is only maybe 5-6mm space to spare from end of GPU to hard drive cage. 38 years of installing and uninstalling components, messing up one isn't too bad I guess.

Hello!

I have a technical question about running Misery:

What's the reason when I try to load any saves (or a new game), I have to wait cc. 12 minutes till the game starts (loading screen). The game itself when loaded, runs relatively smoothly in various settings (dynamic, full dynamic, full dynamic dx versions).

My laptop system parameters:

LENOVO IdeaPad Y700-15ACZ
CPU: AMD FX-8800P, 12 Compute Cores 4C + 8G (2.1 GHz)
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 M385X (2 GB)
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz

I have read some of the technical topics, but I have not managed to fix the "problem" (long time loading) with different settings either.

Thank you in advance for possible answers and help.

HUNDutchman88

If you are running the Steam distribution, make sure you are not running the game "As Admin". Steam does not get along with admin settings. You must INSTALL MISERY as admin to apply the proper permissions and create needed folders, but Call of Pripyat should not be run with any compatibility settings except as a last resort.

Thank you for your tips. Oh and I forget to tell, I play with MISERY 1.2 version and original disk CoP game (not a Steam version). I tried the reinstall 'as admin' both the CoP and MISERY but it did the same (long loading session anyway). Would it be possible, that the CPU isn't enough for the game? I read the engine optimized for 1 core and the clock-speed essential.

You system does not meet the minimum requirements for the original game, and MISERY is best with more. Still, if you use the static lighting renderer and lower your switch_distance for alife down to 150 meters or so, it should run. With 16Gb of RAM, it would be possible to use a RAM drive to install and run the game on. Setting that up is a little tricky, but it yields even better than SSD performance.

It is also possible, that with your original DVD and product key you can obtain a DRM FREE digital copy of the game from GOG. The other most likely game loading problem is you laptop having to dedicate too much resources to constantly verifying your DVD DRM.

I did not join the team until 2.0, and I can't help more with 1.2.

Edited by: jasper34

There is no problem with running (playing) the game, I mean I have the recommended sys.req. (except the CPU clockspeed), just that very long loading period is annoying. Anyway thanks for the tips. I'll try it out.

CPU speed is the single most important. Load time is due to DRM issues. GOG version has none.

Sounds good. Thank you.

I got a DRM-Free version from GoG.com. Installed as admin both the game and the mod and it works properly. Run the game, and load a save takes 3-5 seconds. Thank you for the help.

Edited by: HUNDutchman88

Hi. I would like to add that using older Nvidia Geforce drivers can improve performance in both framerate and frametimes. I have no data or any source for my claims, not at the moment anyhow, but still i would like to share what i thought. So Nvidia Geforce Driver 347.88 is the most recent one that i used in which i noticed improvements in Misery. This is especially the case with AN4 for Misery installed for Misery v2.1.1 and Misery v.2.2.1. Not sure which PC info to include so i will just quickly note some parts. i7 3770k, 16GB DDR3 (1866mhz), GTX 770 2GB, Asus p8z77 v pro (LGA 1155). Using DirectX 10 instead of DirectX11. Graphic Options set to Max execpt Viewing and Lighting Distances set to about half and Anti Aliasing set to off. Also using HDAO at High and Sun Rays to low.