Dynamic Shaders 2.0 announcement news

Modding friends as well as frequent visitors of my moddb site certainly have noticed that my recent development is going to become much more than a simple "minor release" as intended with the version number "1.2".

While raising the shaders' complexity inevitably by extending the feature set significantly with the latest (striking) new possibilities such as reflective wet surfaces, sun shafts, visor reflections, and general lighting improvements (among other things), I have spent vast amounts of time in improving, or at least maintaining, both compile time and runtime performance, what led to many overall changes and tweaks I had to deal with. Nothing extremely serious, but at least certainly more than just noticeable. And absolutely required to get those new features running on the majority of user systems.

Since I've already done so much work on the planned version 1.2 while still being in the middle of the development cycle without seeing yet any light at the end of the tunnel, I have come to a point where I had to make a decision on how to move on. After what has been said above, I came to the conclusion that it makes much more sense and is more appropriate for the project's future to start a new major version instead of continuing with the next "minor" release.

This said, there will not be a version 1.2 - all things that you have seen since release 1.1 will flow into Dynamic Shaders 2.0 which will be the next official release of my shader pack.

More information will follow soon. Please stay connected :-)

Detailed Information about the mod (moved from summary page)

Compatibility with other mods:

• Tested with patches 1.0004, 1.0005, and 1.0006; works only with dynamic lighting / r2 render mode
• Should work (besides shader mods) that with any other mod; however merging of the bind_stalker.script file might be required.
  

  Tested with the following mods:
  - STALKER Map Pack by Kostya (incl. all extensions, total of 41 maps)
  - Priboi Story
  - Clear Sky Faction Mod
  - OGSE
  - Stalkersoup (with some limitations)
  - Automn Aurora
  - Particle Paradise
  - Twilight Ket
  - Stalker Weather Total Conversion, Dynamic Weather, Stalkerskies

Notes:

• Please backup your user.ltx file prior to installing the mod because it will be modified (affects only r2_aa settings).
• To take full advantage of the zoom DOF effect I recommend the use of the Gnomus Scopes mod.

General merging procedure (if you have installed other mods):

1. Copy the "shaders" folder of this mod into your "gamedata" folder. If there was already such a folder, you might want to backup it prior to replacing with mine.
2. Copy the "shader_control.script\" file into the "gamedata/scripts" directory.
3. Open your "bind_stalker.script\" file in the "gamedata/scripts" directory, and within the function "actor_binder:update(delta)" add a new line with "shader_control.Update()". If no "bind_stalker.script\" file is present, simply copy mine.

Usage & Credits:

You may use, modify, and deploy this mod as long as you are giving credit to the authors:

• Kingo64 for the compliation "STALKER Shaders MAX" (which in turn is based on the work of Sky4ce and other authors; see there)
• Meltac for the dynamic depth of field, dynamic nightvision, and dynamic wet surfaces/reflections shader additions, and for implementing the new sunshafts.
• Ket for the conceptual support, ideas, testing, and implementation advises, especially with the new sunshafts.
• BAC9-FLCL and Sky4ce for the lighting model fix (optimized light reflections).

In case you are experiencing issues:

In order to help me optimize this mod, please report any issues to me along with the following context information:

Files:
- your entire shaders/r2/ShaderSettings.txt
- your entire user.ltx

Questions:
- First of all: Have you properly installed (or merged) all files of the mod, including scripts?
- type of your graphic adapter / GPU
- Do you run any FOV (field of view) switcher mod or tool, such as macron's FOV switcher?
- what other mod(s) are being used at the same time?
- are you using some anti-aliasing feature, and if so, where do you configure it?
- What part of the screen is affected by the issue (e.g. trees only, entire periphery, everything in the distance, entire screen etc.)
- Is the issue occuring while zooming your weapon, or in normal view mode?

Furthermore, providing some in-game video might help as well to locate the issue.

Please send these infos/files by eMail or upload or post it here.

If you are getting an error message saying you'd need support for pixel shaders v1.1 upon game startup:

First check everything said in the previous section.

In many cases the problem is not that pixel shaders v1.1 itself wasn't supported, so that error message is very misleading. Instead, there are several causes for this issue (first 2 come from Kingo64)

1. You installed over the top and it somehow bugged out instead of deleting the exist shaders folder and placing mine in.
2. You did not configure ShaderSettings.txt properly and caused a syntax error.
3. You have edited and broken a shader file.
4. Your GPU has a hardware failure, such as overheating or some manufacture error.
5. Your GPU does not support one or more graphical feature(s) of this mod.
   Some GPUs - even new ones - appear to have troubles with some specific shader settings, first of all SSAO. Disabling that/those feature(s) in ShaderSettings.txt solves the issue in most cases. See also this thread on GSC Forums (for CS, but is also true in ShoC) .

If you are getting weird-looking shadows:

That's not a bug of this mod but a well-known issue in ShoC whose effect be increased with these shaders. To fix it open up your console in-game with ~ and type

r2_sun_near_border 1.0

and hit enter (alternatively you can change that value directly in your user.ltx).
Thanks Loner1 for pointing this out.