For instructions on how to install and play click here.

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After more than a year of silence, we are finally ready to publish new pre-release with new features, improvements and fixes!

This version also contains fixes for stabilization on Linux and in Clear Sky. A part of the work was devoted to compatibility with the original game and mods: now the engine can run on pure vanilla game! Compatibility with mods has been improved, thanks to this and some other changes. Previously, the engine required some modifications (a little, but still) to the gamedata, without which it worked incorrectly. A huge work under the hood was done to support Shadow of Chernobyl, but it is still in progress, it's still not ready yet.

EDIT: after about 6+ months of this pre-release being available, it became clear for sure, that it is more stable than the previous release. This release is marked as stable now.

Here's a list of the most important changes since release No. 558:

Architecture

• DX10 renderer is fully integrated into DX11 renderer.
  • Doesn't affect players, you can still select DX10 renderer in the game options, but makes it easier for us to make changes to the renderer.

Features

• Engine can now work with either both installed or missing Shoker's HQ geometry fix. Before, it was hardly required by the engine. (#473)
• Returned old mighty infoportions system from Clear Sky! (83417ce8)
  • If you ever modded Clear Sky or Shadow of Chernobyl you know what it is, though, it doesn't support Shadow of Chernobyl features at the moment.
• Console command to enable bloody splashes (bloodmarks) on bodies, disabled by default. Before, the future was enabled with no ability to disable it. (f5f09db0, 47f8863c)
  • You can enable it back with r__wallmarks_on_skeleton console command.
• Support for clouds rotation independent from skybox rotation. (1a351d58)
  • Just add clouds_rotation variable to your weather configs.
• Ability to use more GPU memory to reduce redundant CPU usage. (#585)
  • To use it, enable r__no_ram_textures console command and restart the game.
• Added SSR reflections on water by LVutner. (#641)
  • Unfortunately, currently only works on OpenGL-renderer!
  • Can be tweaked with r3_water_refl console commands.
• Left-handed HUD (#680)
  • To try it, just enable hud_left_handed console command.
• Added CFORM-cache as a test feature. (#698)
  • Significantly increases game loading speed.
  • To test, launch the game with -cdb_cache command line key.
• Added g_spawn console command for spawning items and entities.
  • It's a cheat, so it's available only in Mixed configuration. (special configuration for developers and modmakers)

Fixes

• Fixed original game bug when some scriptable objects are not being registered on dedicated server. (b3f45e17)
• Fixed original game bug with rendering transparent objects on static lighting. (efea4637)
• Fixed original engine bug with DirectX resources leak. (57d3186f)
• Restored filesystem case insensitivity on Windows. (1bfcb2f4)
• Fixed bug in filesystem with file path searching. (384a5d5e)
• Fixed crash with autosave screenshot on Linux. (abee263d)
• Fixed random crashes in multiplayer. (fdd46f36)
• Fixed wrong camera position in cut-scenes. (17ab70ec, 3007c9ec, e053147d)
• Fixed OpenGL sky rendering when vertex texture fetch is enabled. (#537)
• Fixed smashed raindrops on Linux. (a7d0292c)
• Fixed "How to use PDA" tutorial in Clear Sky. (c36d59e4, c7693a65)
• Fixed crash on save-load when zooming with binoculars. (2c7f6782)
  • To reproduce, take binoculars -> zoom -> save -> load -> crash on load
  • Mods based on Call of Chernobyl – check it!
• Fixed crash at exit on Linux. (2d95ed8b, 32cb37a5)
• Fixed crash on load-save with dead psy-dog. (5537924e)
• Fixed missing actor weapon shadow on static lighting. (db22585a)
• Fixed broken reload DOF when ammo count > 0. (491c7148)
• Fixed crash in CStalkerAnimationManager::update(). (1579d1fd)
• Fixed shaders compilation on integrated Intel GPUs. (#681)
• Fixed crashes when loading some saves on Linux. (edbaac6c)

Misc

• Removed FXAA. (4e160bf2)
  • Maybe will be restored in the future.
• Removed the ability to disable wet surfaces optimization.
  • Maybe will be restored in the future.
• Changed LuaJIT optimization level to 3. This may improve performance, but also may increase loading a bit. (07d6759f)
• Changed Lua garbage collector step. Improves performance. (63c0f9b7)
• Shaders cache now stored in shaders_cache_oxr folder, so that it won't mess with original game shaders cache. (e4b3ed6f)
• Implemented simple distance culling for particles for OpenGL-renderer. Workarounds bad performance on OpenGL-renderer. (5b421e68)
• Actor shadow improvements. (#596)
• Shaders are now compiled in the highest optimization level for Release builds. May increase loading times, but also will improve performance. (1f4b23b3, ae0a9db1, 0395b55e)

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