Clear Sky Complete Release news

This mod debuts the brad new weather system created by our studio specifically for this title and is entirely different from the work we've done before.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky is a graphically improved prequel that integrates newer visual technology that we introduced in our previous mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. This gave us a solid foundation for further enhancements, letting us focus solely on the design elements of the games' art style and aesthetics.

The most notable feature is the introduction of the brand new set of distant scenery textures that put the player in the middle of a large open world, rather than the previously "enclosed" map. The original photographs used in this project were captured by our studio during our travels to the Russian industrial town of Mednogorsk, which represents how Pripyat once was. Once we returned to the studio we applied our graphic design expertise to edit our real-life environment captures to closely match the fictional in-game Zone environment.

Other graphical enhancements include stunning new lighting effects, natural daytime/nighttime transitions, vivid sunsets/sunrises, redesigned emissions, a new high resolution nighttime constellation map, a full moon, and many other aesthetic improvements too numerous to list.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky features improved textures compared to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, however there was still a lot of room for refinement. Instead doing a total retexture, we only needed to replace select sets with respect to game designer's vision. This new texture set contains the best work by the community along with the introduction of new rendering techniques authored by our studio, such as:

• Reworked foliage and terrain, making the grass draw line less noticeable
• Detailed textures for most of the weapons
• Replaced bricks, concrete, metal and ground textures
• Refined human and mutant textures
• New details such as smoldering firewood, leaves, and stones
• Vehicles now appear realistically rusted and abandoned

The purpose of this sound overhaul was to further enhance the ambience and atmosphere of the Zone with the addition of higher quality and more realistic ambient audio files. Each map now includes a sound theme that varies between night and day. All this has been integrated without diminishing the original sounds unique to Clear Sky, ensuring a superior audio experience. All weapon sounds have been replaced with comprehensive analogues, and footsteps, bullet impacts, anomalies, creatures, and many other sound categories have been improved.

This mod introduces nearly a hundred acoustic guitar and vocal songs. They have been added to campfire music sets, and are unique to each faction. This live music was recorded specifically for this game, creating an unforgettable ambience. Also, some new and familiar music tracks can be heard on the radio and megaphones throughout the Zone. However, this mod doesn't modify the dynamic combat music, which can still be turned on and off in the game options.

Bug fixes are the specialty of the Sky Reclamation Project, a community patch which brings the joint effort of a large number of community members together to address bugs still present in Clear Sky after its final patch, and eliminates many game breaking issues. This mod is included in Clear Sky Complete, and features:

• Crash Fixes - many potential "crash to desktop" errors have been eliminated.
• Quest Fixes - fixed bugs in 9 quests that couldn't be completed under certain conditions.
• Gameplay Fixes - fixed a large number of gameplay bugs that could keep the game from progressing, like preventing the accidental death of important characters and other triggered events.
• Weapon Fixes - fixed animations, incorrect ironsight positions and corrected the depth of field effect on most weapons.

Note: this mod doesn't fix all bugs, but there are significantly less of them.

Various tweaks have been implemented in Clear Sky Complete to create a more fluid experience for a player and to maintain continuity with other games in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Noticeable tweaks include:

• Reducing the grenades available to NPCs to prevent "grenade spamming"
• Bandages and medkits heal and stop bleeding, and less bleeding in general
• All pistols now have ironsights
• Weapons now have real-life names
• Enabled trading weapons with NPCs, and NPCs now sell ammo and supplies
• Reduced military minigunner's vision distance
• Added the ability to carry explosives
• Corrected Bandit behavior so they won't mug the player if their player-status is friendly
• Increased flashlight output

• The Wish Granter - activated via the ESC F1 keyboard shortcut, it is a hidden interface designed to let you enable vehicles, control weather, and place anomalies, characters, mutants and much more on the map. You can essentially build the game around your preferences through this interface.
• Sleeping Bag - allows the player sleep in-game, and now features an advanced safety level indicator.
• Gnomus' Scopes - a scope system similar to one used in most modern FPS games.
• Elite Nightvision - improved black & white night vision.
• Teleport - allows the player to jump between points in the environment with the ability to save custom coordinates for future use.

With the new user interface update you no longer have to skip through introductory movies. Also, the HUD colors have been muted so they don't distract and the inventory window is now semi-transparent, which allows the player to view the weapon currently being equipped. Also, the ESC+S shortcut from Stalker Complete 2009 is added, which works like a "smart quick-save" creating a separate save file with level name, in-game date, and time each time it's used.