S.T.A.L.K.E.R Series Megathread: Maybe someday games releasing edition
999 replies, posted
Ooh, a Cordon revamp or something completely new?
Cordon "revamp" - in the sense that almost everything is going to be different.
The whole reason I was even expirementing with porting UE4 landscapes over to Stalker was because Stalker's level editor has no terrain system - a map's terrain is just modelled. With that - and the fact that I should be kept as far away from modelling programs as possible due to my lack of any shred of artistic talent - in mind, I wanted to find program that I could sculpt terrain with seeing as I do however have some experience with Source's displacement system.
My current plan is to flatten that giant unused hill that seperates the two different level transitions from Cordon > Garbage at the top (the pipe and the outpost) and put some more stuff there.
If anyone has some ideas on what they'd like to see ( on any map ) please let me know. I just figured out some more ways to considerably open maps despite the lack of a true modeller.
this has always bothered me, did the originally just generate a terrain in 3ds max and then modify it and export it into the engine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT_xDC7que0&t=
"Brief verbal GSC demonstration tutorial on the X-Ray Engine for STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl." - so i'm going to assume this is somewhat "official" (from the video description). This channel also has a lot of similar videos.
It's stated that "geometry is created in one of the three 3D applications - 3DS Max, Maya, or Lightwave". So yes, terrain is sculpted a 3D editor, along with a lot of the buildings and main map geometry.
This is pretty unfortunate for me because I'm an awful modeller and the maps are stitched together in such a certain way that removing only small parts of buildings or terrain is extremely difficult.
If you have STALKER Anomaly some of the transition zones could use a little touching up to make sense with how each level connects
man i hope all the level guys got decent pay, this looks like horror to work with tbh
I'm going to be completely re-doing most of the transitions - so this will happen.
Now imagine how painful it is for someone who has no modelling experience - atleast until now.
Here's some more pictures. Also, the quality of lighting/models is awful because this is from a "draft" (quick) compile. It saves a lot of time while I'm working on the map - the final map will be compiled with much higher settings.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/bf6ed1b0-559f-44ed-9c91-1b66c37efba6/12c465eeaf23b78704c98277699ac8b0.jpg
Opening up and editing Cordon's bandit village. Removing all the fake doors, opening up the area, and adding some improvements.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/c42d5ac6-1852-40f2-a92d-640ecb75c25a/xrEngine 2019-02-26 17-27-52-15.jpg
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/b4fea08d-2046-4c6f-9d82-cf3d31e7395a/xrEngine 2019-02-26 17-28-02-03.jpg
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/52dca2b2-638c-4511-8c58-6a70d353d059/xrEngine 2019-02-26 17-28-32-83.jpg
Thanks! I really dont need examples I know that you are one of small number of people who know how to deal with stalker.
As I said its really lazy work, because this is really a "meme" mod as you could saw from videos that I posted earlier, we made small stuff once per month.
We just stuck at making it because we need to put more spawns for enemies and mutants on map so it will be more fun to play it.
Here is our discord channel: https://discord.gg/928Bk9
Overall situation is that we have overall concept for story, bunch of F up models, annoying sound and music and half way-translated text to English, and plan to finally modify world maps/textures to fit this meme mod... In terms of planing im not in charge so I will poke with stick main dev to post in discord plan and explanation of what we really need.
Also in the same time. If you need any models just post what you need. Even if I stopped doing Stalker mods Im always happy to help.
Last time when I was playing with level editor I actually separate most of those big stalker models to smaller ones(buildings vehicles etc) and then do most of work in Blender using LE just to compile it as a map.
This doesn't work for you?
Editing all.spawn
Anyone taken a look at Radiostalker? Someone on youtube is putting together Dark Ambient music together from a whole bunch of different places into compilations with a obvious Stalker theme.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh9XtCshUYVJxRXgOMQ7kmA/videos
fun fact:
most mods include gigabytes of detailed bump map textures and then forget to include a simple 1 KB file that enables them
they also dont believe in compression
Know that pain.... few times I forgot to actually use bumps in my mod....
As for compression, I would love to see stalker that use normal bumpmaps, not those green ones that need to have Alpha channel so their size is really big because they need DXT5. All my source files for Two-K saved as normal bumps weight less than half of current ones when saved without alpha... Still we would need to deal with shininess in them because stalker bumps have them saved in bumps(R layer, or anything that is yellow)
DXT5 fucked up the quality of blue channel. It's noticeable on shines part.
As for comparsion first uncompressed and second comressed with DXT5 linear.
https://i.postimg.cc/vDwWJp1h/bump-un.png
https://i.postimg.cc/N2btj6G4/bump-co.png
oh hey look i actually released something
wepl's Hit Effects addon
First of all I never had such artifacts on DXT5.... It look more like DXT3 not 5. Are you sure that its not 3? Because I never had such problem.
But in terms of compression what other choose you have beside DXT5?
DXT1 is good for flat textures without alpha channel(or just one flat alpha channel),
DXT3 is just worst DXT5, size is the same but quality is worst.
DXT5 is good for storing alpha data.
BC4(and 5 really) is better DXT5 because it have 8bit per color data, but it have some compatibility issues sometimes... mostly because it was made for DX 10.
DXT5n is really the same as normal DXT5 it just mix channels differently for better quality of normalmaps but stalker dont use default ones(those purple colors) so it dont have any use for Stalker.
i wish implementing hit effects like tarkov has would be easier, but its just not feasible with XREngine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661PyLuH_cQ
nice addon though wepl, just cant see myself using because i hate having my aim thrown off by getting hit, just personal preference. not meaning to discredit your work. i still think its awesome you added in different effects for different armors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atE9bWPv_-4
I am definetely sure it is DXT5 saved with latest nvidia photoshop plugins. So you want to tell me that stalker support DX10 dds?
Messing around with artifacts activation but unfortunately NPC's are obviously immune to them. Fu?k!!! But monsters not at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkA3_73jwhQ&feature=youtu.be
This explains for me why so few mods have ever attempted to make new levels. Its basically a massive artist rendering. There must be a reason/benefit they did it this way as opposed to more conventional methods of level design.
I was under the impression the vast majority of games have their maps made as models; having a map editor like Hammer or whatnot with which you can create level geometry isn't really the norm.
@wepl
Do you have documentation on your current workflow for map editing?
I see that you're using Blender and the Stalker Level Editor, does the level editor use OGF files?
My own knowledge of Stalker Modding is limited to model import/export
I made some vanilla mesh improvements before, and i would like to dabble in map editing in the near future
I'm a sucker for opening up buildings, there is something really interesting about working with the limitation of the building architecture and making sure that the layout is realistic
I would nut if there was a mod that allowed sight misalignment on weapons (think Red Orchestra 2 / Rising Storm 2 : Vietnam)
Is that even possible to achieve?
Today? Yes. But at the time, remember that the VAST MAJORITY of engines were using BSP style maps. XRay actually compiles the entire level into a OGF (model file) essentially. Which is EXTREMELY weird for the time.
Also even though mapping is shifting to more model-heavy editors, UE4 and Unity do still include terrain editors. Most buildings, scenery, and geometry is model based today, but a terrain editor is still extremely useful for quick world edits.
How much documentation do you need? I'll list the general stuff but if you need anything more specific let me know.
The CoC SDK is here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-chernobyl/news/sdk-files-for-coc
Blender OGF/Object plugin: GitHub
Intro Map Tutorial: A guide to the Call of Pripyat SDK. tutorial
List of mapping tutorials: SDK and 3D modeling/animation tutorials
Another list of mapping/other tutorials (some are outdated): Category
> I see that you're using Blender and the Stalker Level Editor, does the level editor use OGF files?
The level editor imports stuff as .object files. The SDK download I linked includes ALL raw stalker object files (so you have access to everything in stalker, decompiled) which is why the file is so huge.
> Wouldn't it be possible to use Hammer to map for Stalker? I mean, it's possible to convert VMF brushes into SMD and import those in Blender.
In theory, yes, but keep in mind the blender plugin is somewhat expiremental. I have no idea what will actually happen if you do this. Feel free to try it though, it'd be cool.
Okay, everything X-Ray related is set-up
Now i'm gonna move to blender, and find the units of both Source and X-Ray and try to create something from there
Also, what the fuck were the devs thinking when they made the key bindings of the level editor?
Not sure.
My suggestions:
Save early, save often. The level editor will crash.
Bind what you want, then bind the rest to keys to something you are very unlikely to accidently press. (You cant unbind keys for some reason.)
This way you never accidently do something you don't want and not realize it.
All "scene" objects (the terrain, skybox, etc) all default to 0, 0, 0 position and rotation. If you accidently delete one, just find it in scenes\level\ and re-add it. Then set its position and rotation to 0.
If you're going to be doing a lot of edits to the map, I'd actually reccomend deleting any scene objects that you aren't using and might get in your way. Edit what you want, and then when you're ready to compile just re-add what you removed.
Create backups of the original objects if you plan to edit them. However, for this, I'd instead reccomend making the changes you want and then exporting it as a new OGF into a personal objects folder.
Also, make backups frequently of your level. You need to backup both the .level and the level's folder. (IE: save a copy of l01_escape.level and l01_escape's folder in another directory)
I'd also reccomend to backup all the entire "original"/"vanilla" level folder so you can edit what you want but always have a backup of the originals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YSBVrs7cbY
is multiplayer stalker still a thing because this shit seems fun as hell
It still works as far as I know
We should totally stage a FP STALKER MP night or something.
Any idea if it's possible to host servers with custom scripts or something of the sort? Now that'd be interesting.
Also, I've managed to fix the bug where spam clicking with a low rpm "pump"/"bolt" weapon would cause the weapon to fire twice.
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