Status update on 1.4 news - Swartz Mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

I am extremely busy lately and will continue to be for about three more weeks, but then I should have lots of time to devote to this project. I felt it was time for a status update :)

* Fixed the issue with inventory icons not displaying correctly with certain systems under DX9 (thanks Cromm Cruac). Apparently DX9 has issues with texture bigger than 2048x2048 for UI textures, so they've been adjusted so they should work regardless of renderer chosen.
However, I have not fixed the upgrade icons under DX9. Unless people are okay with really small upgrade icons there isn't much I can do as they really need to be big files. What I might do is create a separate file for those who want to use DX9 that simply uses much smaller icons, as that's the best that can be done really.

* I didn't get much feedback in the poll I posted on the forum...so I went ahead and removed all of the weapons listed. The following guns will be removed from 1.4 (you can see my reasons for each on the board): FN P90, M-14 Sopmod, Scorpion, RPK-74, Colt Anaconda (didn't list this on the board: this has to go because it has no sights and I don't want to offer .44 magnum rounds this time), and the VSK-94. I listed the Aek-971 in the poll too but decided to keep it in.
Don't worry, I'm just getting rid of any trash. There will be new weapons, as always, but I'm not prepared to announce what to expect yet. The only new weapon I'll confirm has been added is an MP5/10 which will be a late game weapon carried by Mercs (already modified the Shoker MP5 model to use a stick mag and changed the texture to read the new caliber and model properly).

If anyone would like an explanation as to why I'm adding the 10x25mm caliber this time around I'd be more than happy to explain my new-found love of this caliber, as well as why I feel it fits the Zone (for Mercs anyways).

* I've spent a great deal of time going over the ballistics model for the game and I feel I've found a really great balance between realism and fun which should work out quite well.

* Added back DOF effect upon reloading your weapon that was present in Clear Sky but removed from CoP for some reason (note: the tradeoff is I had to disable dynamic DOF from Atmosfear 3 for this to work, so it will be optional).

* I feel I've found good values for all mutants in the game. No more dogs that can take half a mag from an MP5, and likewise things like Pseudogiants have had their health and skin-armor turned down a little.

* No longer will you have to deal with trying to figure out which scope belongs to which weapon (since some weapon models had different scopes which corresponded to new scope attachments). Now it's simple: Acog scopes for Nato type weapons (the Susat is considered out-dated from what I've been reading; Acog is the new standard), and the 1P29 scope for various Soviet assault rifles (I would have gone with the 1P78 as it is better, however it only magnifies 2.8x whereas the 1P29 can do 4x. However, give me a good reason to use the 1P78 instead and I will).
Note: I'm not just adding new icons for them or something, I'm editing
each model as well to take these new scopes as attachments.

* Nimble now also offers rare ammo and accessories as well. However, it is not done through dialogue, it's done through a regular trade window. To avoid clutter I'm using infoportions to determine whether the player has encountered weapons of a certain less common caliber, and he will only start stocking that caliber than.
Similarly, Trapper now sells hunting supplies and will pay you well for mutant parts.

* Sleep deprivation script adjusted. Previously in Swartz mod it could be difficult to differentiate between the effects of sleep deprivation and radiation poisoning. Now one of the first things you'll notice when really sleep deprived is lights appear a bit brighter and light sources have a bit of a halo around them. Then of course you'll start yawning and shaking your head around, and eventually you'll just collapse from exhaustion. I'm going to see if I can "hack" a new sleep icon into the game via script.

* I used a cool tool originally linked at GSC (and available at Skyrim Nexus) that can compress textures without any loss of image quality. The result is of course much better performance without having to sacrifice quality visuals. Using it brought my current textures folder down from 1.88gb to 1.67gb :)

* I will be using Cromm Cruac's Nano-Hud for the mod, though I may make some minor adjustments (like needing to add a place for the sleep-deprivation icon if I get it to work). I see no reason to make some new HUD from scratch as I feel it works quite nicely. One thing I may change is I may disable the notification sound you get of new enemies in your proximity, and also make the red "enemy" icons on your mini-map go away as soon as you're out of sight.

Work in progress:

* If within a very short range of an NPC firing a loud weapon your ears will start ringing for a short period. I'll likely make this optional. [Not done because I need a little lua help on this, but it's definitely possible and do-able]

* Re-designing ALL icons the game uses.

* Optimizing all LUA scripts to maximize performance. I've been reading a lot of tutorials on this and adjusting scripts accordingly, however it's hard to tell what is true and what people just think makes a difference. If you know LUA send me a message so I can get some help.

Anyways, that's where things stand now. I'll start posting more news and start posting screens in early May. I've also updated the FAQ (it's under the 'Features' section).

Note: Sorry for the awful formatting. In the preview the bulleted lists it generates got all screwed up so I had to improvise. I'd just edit it in HTML mode but I'm lazy.