As part of my research for the STALKER mod guide, I paid a visit to thefloatingpoint.org. If you’re not familiar with the site, it’s home to Float32, a tasty shader modification for GSC Gameworld’s shooter that increases the performance of the game noticeably, while at the same time making it look better.
According to the latest post on the site, the creator of Float32 is working on a shader mod for Crytek’s Crysis. You’ll have to keep that raging bulge of excitement in check for the time being, as we may be waiting a while for the goods:
Crysis is going to take a bit of time, so do not expect drastic changes and improvements for the first few releases as it’s clean slate baby!
Considering we won’t have the hardware to run Crysis at its super maximum settings until say, 2151, this isn’t such a big deal.
Float32 for Crysis and STALKER [thefloatingpoint.org] More »
We’re still looking for your recommendations on STALKER mods. I’m in the process of hunting down my own selection, but I know there’s more than a few of you out their with a lot more experience in the STALKER modding scene than myself. Heaps more, actually.
Take Oz Kotakuite Lev Arris for instance, who yesterday made perhaps the largest comments post in the history of Kotaku Australia, when he detailed his suggestions for getting STALKER all modded up. A couple more posts like Lev’s, and we’ll be ready in no time.
Recommend Your Favourite STALKER Mods [Kotaku Australia] More »
I’ve been looking to get back into STALKER, now that the game has several patches under its belt and the performance of the Direct3D 9 engine is up-to-scratch. Not that I’m so concerned about this last part any more, having recently upgraded my gaming machine with a Intel Q6600 and GeForce 8800 GT.
Beastly.
I’d like to put together a short-list of recommended mods that everyone should play with, whether they alter weapons, quests, NPCs or even entire sections of the game. Personally, I’d like to focus on those that improve the game by adding more depth, fix bugs and flesh out incomplete features, rather than add a man portable missile launcher that fires near-critical, poorly designed RBMK reactors in every direction. No cheats, basically.
So, readers, I implore you to post your favourite STALKER mods. I’ll install them, give them a play through, and do a write-up on what I think is the best combination. If you’ve already done something similar to this, I encourage you to post your thoughts. More »
A recent post by community manager Don Reba over at GSC Game World’s official forums suggests the developer may be looking to take its open world post-apocalyptic FPS into the realms of the massively multiplayer.
From the post:
2. Will there be S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Online?
We do not quite understand what you mean by “online”. If it is the cooperative mode, then no, there will be none. Even at the time of development of the first part of the game we said that a cooperative mode is impossible, since Life Simulation would be different at each computer. Synchronizing it would be practically not doable. If you mean an MMOG, then we are seriously considering it.
I’m all for a massively multiplayer STALKER game – heck, it would probably be a lot better than Interplay’s current attempt to transform Fallout into an MMO. But considering THQ had to bring in Dean Sharpe to help GSC Game World get STALKER done after an extremely prolonged development cycle (albeit not as bad as DNF), I wouldn’t expect anything to appear for at least a decade.
There’s also a short bit in the FAQ confirming Direct3D 10 support in the new version of GSC’s X-Ray engine. It won’t make it into STALKER, but it’ll definitely be in the developer’s next game.
Community Q&A 2007-11 Answers [GSC Game World, via Blue's News] More »
