S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha?

[Toonces]

Saw this over at SimHQ, linked to Rockpapershotgun...

I never finished the original STALKER.  I've been thinking of giving it a go, though.  Anyway...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/28/green-hell-zone-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-lost-alpha-out-now/

[Nefaro]

The Stalker games looked like something I'd enjoy, from what I've played, but it gave me motion sickness.  I'm still very sad about not being able to play them.   :'(

Do you really want to hurt me?  :P

[RooksBailey]

I finally finished the original Stalker just a few weeks ago.  What a great game.   I used the Stalker Complete mod which was great.  This one sounds quite good, too.  If I ever get around to revisit the game, I will definitely give this one a spin.

[Nefaro]

Damn yous!  Damn yous'all!

Which one did you guys think was the best?  Aren't there two or three different ones?

Maybe I could fit it in letterbox at 4:3 ratio and be able to avoid a splitting headache and nausea, if I tried them again.   ???  Although with some of these first-person games that does this to me, I think it's the way the graphics engine displays your 3D peripheral vision on the 2D monitor screen that causes it.   :-[

[bbmike]

Picked the three of these up for a song at GOG.com recently but haven't tried it yet. Maybe I should.

[Shelldrake]

Saw this over at SimHQ, linked to Rockpapershotgun...

I never finished the original STALKER.  I've been thinking of giving it a go, though.  Anyway...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/28/green-hell-zone-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-lost-alpha-out-now/

Seems that this mod doesn't require the original STALKER to run so a great opportunity to test drive STALKER for no cost. I have all 3 games in the series but have only completed the first one, which is a great game and very immersive. Play at night with the lights off and prepare to be scared!

[eyebiter]

.

[PanzersEast]

I have played two - Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat

Clear Sky when I played was buggie and I did not finish it.  It is regarded as we worst in the series. 

Call of Pripyat - Is considered by most the best in the series and there are two mods that I have played.  I was late to the game so I started with the Misery Mod, which I do not recommend if you are new to the series as it makes the game very hard.

Call of Pripyat Complete mod is what I am playing now and I would recommend it as it tweaks a lot of the game and adds new graphics.  It is easier than Misery, however it recommended for new players.  I know there are a lot of other mods, however these are the two I have tried.

Overall the game has a ton of atmosphere and is semi open world.  I have enjoyed it thus far and plan to finish the Complete mod and then maybe retry the Misery Mod, or try Clear Sky Complete mod, and or try back to the original with the Lost Alpha mod as well.


Call of Pripyat Complete
http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-pripyat-complete

Call of Pripyat Misery
http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-misery

PE

[James Sterrett]

I've played all 3 extensively.  I highly recommend the Complete mods - not least because they fix some of the bugs.

Shadow of Chernobyl (SoC) and Call of Pripyat (CoP) are more or less tied for me.

CoP is definitely the most polished game.  They finally got all the various systems more or less in balance and things jell nicely.

That said, SoC is the creepier, more atmospheric game.  It definitely lacks polish, various systems don't work quite right...  but of the three, it nonetheless delivered many of the most memorable locations and experiences.

Clear Sky was an attempt to get the SoC systems more polished, which they did, but not well enough.  Bugs have kept me from ever finishing the final stage of it.

These days I tend to come back to Pripyat; but that's partly because I spent a heck of a lot of time in SoC with a mod that cranked up the ALife activity.  It was fun - though definitely *not* recommended for the first time out - but it's left me a bit burned out through overexposure.

Final note: On the first time through, don't activate the parts of any mods that increase your weight limit.  Yes, the weight limit is a pain, but it forces hard decisions about what to carry and ratchets up the tension.

[Nefaro]

If possible disable motion blur that should help with the motion issues.

I always do that.  But it wasn't the motion blur.  It's just something to do with how the scenery near the edge of the screen is display when you're running or moving the view around.  It doesn't quite match up with what my brain expects to see when moving my vision, hence the sickness. 

Not all shooters do this to me, but the few that do are pretty torturous.  Sometimes I can squeak by if I put it into a standard 4:3 ratio screen resolution, but some of the newer games only support widescreen (like Borderlands 2, which kinda does this to me too).   I'm not alone - there is a sizable minority who get this with these same games.  I wonder if it's because I'm far-sighted and have pretty wide peripheral vision in RL?

[Shelldrake]

Patch is now out for this game. Lots of fixes in the changelog.

[ross_ntu]

If possible disable motion blur that should help with the motion issues.

I always do that.  But it wasn't the motion blur.  It's just something to do with how the scenery near the edge of the screen is display when you're running or moving the view around.  It doesn't quite match up with what my brain expects to see when moving my vision, hence the sickness. 

Not all shooters do this to me, but the few that do are pretty torturous.  Sometimes I can squeak by if I put it into a standard 4:3 ratio screen resolution, but some of the newer games only support widescreen (like Borderlands 2, which kinda does this to me too).   I'm not alone - there is a sizable minority who get this with these same games.  I wonder if it's because I'm far-sighted and have pretty wide peripheral vision in RL?

I get exactly the same thing, but am short sighted.  I used to get car sick if I ever tried to read on journeys when I was younger - I wonder if it's related?  I also find some games are fine -I played quite a lot of Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead without problems, as well as Skyrim etc, but Half Life 2 and various others have be virtually unplayable they have made me so nauseous. 

[Nefaro]

If possible disable motion blur that should help with the motion issues.

I always do that.  But it wasn't the motion blur.  It's just something to do with how the scenery near the edge of the screen is display when you're running or moving the view around.  It doesn't quite match up with what my brain expects to see when moving my vision, hence the sickness. 

Not all shooters do this to me, but the few that do are pretty torturous.  Sometimes I can squeak by if I put it into a standard 4:3 ratio screen resolution, but some of the newer games only support widescreen (like Borderlands 2, which kinda does this to me too).   I'm not alone - there is a sizable minority who get this with these same games.  I wonder if it's because I'm far-sighted and have pretty wide peripheral vision in RL?

I get exactly the same thing, but am short sighted.  I used to get car sick if I ever tried to read on journeys when I was younger - I wonder if it's related?

It must be related, because I would get a severe headache if I read while on the bus home from school when I was a kid.  It wouldn't bother me if I was looking out the window and watching where we were going, but if I didn't keep my eyes out it would happen. 

I also find some games are fine -I played quite a lot of Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead without problems, as well as Skyrim etc, but Half Life 2 and various others have be virtually unplayable they have made me so nauseous.

Same.  Although Skyrim kinda does it to me, but not as bad as others.  Sometimes raising the FOV in a game helps (it did with Skyrim IIRC), but sometimes it doesn't (STALKER).  I'm pretty sure it's just the way the 3D environment is shown to be moving in relation to your viewpoint.  If it doesn't match up with what your brain expects to see, then you get motion sickness.

The funny thing is.. I can fly about in dogfights with TrackIR glancing all around and be fine.  So it's just something to do with the way the graphics are displayed on-screen in certain games.  Low FOV on a widescreen resolution is bad, of course, but it's not necessarily the cause.

[Darkspire]

I'm not alone - there is a sizable minority who get this with these same games.

That is why VR Headsets were dropped, to many probabilities of law suits and to much of a grey area to warrant input.
VR headsets are still trying to become mainstream but until they find out what really causes it and release a human brain patch / upgrade it will forever be a niche product.

Darkspire