S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Cryengine? Yes plz...

[Dirk Diggler]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/07/modde ... yengine-2/

A brave Russian mod team has challenged themselves to port the whole of GSC’s survival horror, STALKER, into Crysis’ more advanced engine. The project’s called Cryzone – Sector 23, and is far along enough for the team to have released a video of the mod in action. You’ll find the video embedded below.

The mod is the work of a team called World of Stalker. It’s still a work in progress, but famous elements from the STALKER series are already in there, including the bleak landscapes, anomalies, and groups of terse Russian men sitting around campfires.

The video shows off some of the destructability and improved physics that comes with the upgrade to Cryengine 2. The mod plans to add some new features to the game, including a Far Cry 2 style healing system, in which your character must fix wounds by injecting themselves, or removing bullets from wounds. For more information on the mod, check out the Sector 23 page on the AP forums. It’s a staggering undertaking, but judging from the video below, the results could be pretty spectacular.

I'm a little concerned about revamping the wound system, but as long as it's shift further toward survival-oriented type gameplay it will probably work out for the better.

 

[Raapys]

Why bother? Stalker already looks great, and we've all played it already. The physics would be an improvement, sure, but hardly anywhere near as large as to warrant all that work. If they're going to do a project as big as that, they might as well come up with something new( or at the very least a new story).

 

[Tycn]

Sounds like a cease & desist waiting to happen.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Why bother? Stalker already looks great, and we've all played it already. The physics would be an improvement, sure, but hardly anywhere near as large as to warrant all that work. If they're going to do a project as big as that, they might as well come up with something new( or at the very least a new story).

I'll take any little bit of STALKER I can get, thankyouverymuch.

 

[Jaesun]

Besides very pretty graphics... what else makes the CRY engine so special?

 

[Jigawatt]

Why bother? Stalker already looks great, and we've all played it already. The physics would be an improvement, sure, but hardly anywhere near as large as to warrant all that work. If they're going to do a project as big as that, they might as well come up with something new( or at the very least a new story).

My thoughts exactly, and this seems to apply to a few other projects as well.

Go to any game-dev website and people will be saying ideas a dime-a-dozen but very few people put in the effort or have the skill. And then here you've got people putting in so much work but no original ideas in sight :/

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Besides very pretty graphics... what else makes the CRY engine so special?

Good physics, big maps, pretty darned swell AI, destructible environments, and the potential for vehicles(not that I necessarily want them in a STALKER game, just saying...).

 

[Felix]

Inb4 Skyway is in every S.T.A.L.K.E.R thread.

 

[Sceptic]

big maps

That was the first thing crossing my mind when I saw the thread. I don't know how big Cryengine maps can be, but the entire Zone fitting in a smaller number of maps would be very, very awesome.

Still, I think they should've made their own STALKER-inspired mod and recreated a similar atmosphere and setting instead of turning the mod into just a port.

 

[MetalCraze]

Why do people call CryEngine advanced? It's pretty primitive. Unable to handle large maps, unable to handle many AIs, unable to handle large multiplayer etc etc

 

[baronjohn]

It's pretty primitive. Unable to handle large maps, unable to handle many AIs, unable to handle large multiplayer etc etc

At least it's not a BIS engine

 

[MetalCraze]

BIS engine is far more advanced than CryEngine actually.

It can handle 3-digit square mile maps, hundreds of AIs with complex scripts going for each (whereas in Crysis they just stand there waiting for the player to come and kill them), every bullet trajectory and deflection modelled in real time - and all this being sent over the network and doesn't lag for a hundred of human players (now how many players are there in Crysis MP?).
The only two things it doesn't have are fancy shaders and physics (with the latter in CE being almost disabled in MP though)

So I don't understand what you are getting at here.

Speaking of Real Virtuality - there are Stalker mods for it as well that are going on on a one huge seamless map instead of small ones. Unfortunately it's being done by a single not really talented modder and the result is meh.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Well, i'm playing stalker now and it's the first time I'm really investing on the game, since I started so many times but nasty bugs aways made me lose interest.

But recent a thread about stalker recomended using the stalker complete 2009 mod, and I',m really enjoying. And graphically, I say the game is prettier than crysis, and that's something.

Also, the phisics and gunplay mechanics in stalker are more fitting to the game. At first it may be annoying not being able to hit a target 5 meters away, but when you get better weapons and get ued to the mechanics, it's actually quite fun. The randomness of Npcs being in different places and sometimes getting killed by natural hazards is great. (NPCs and Mutants carring bodies around is great, though it's a feature in the complete mod, it still uses the original engine).

I bet this mod will dumb down the gameplay and every shot aimed correctly will hit the mark, and AI will not die in the enviroment.

About map size, crisys had loading between levels, and in stalker, I don't consider it being an issue. In fact, it adds to the feeling that theres some distance between each section, and being a big map would give the feeling you were in a small area playground.

the only addition cryengine would make that was mentioned is enviroment destruction, but i would hate having a building being destroyed, to return to that point later and everything reconstructed again so you can redestroy it.

But anyway, I don't really believe this mod will ever see the light of the day.

 

[MetalCraze]

CE is inferior to Stalker's engine as well. At least to what is there in CoP.

CoP already has ballistics modeled at relatively bearable levels, then it also keeps dead bodies intact (I was surprised to find every monster still being where I killed them 3 real-time days ago - meaning savegames also keep them). Then there are AIs going about their own thing. Yeah they are getting spawned as well but in CoP it looks believable enough.

And then there is a lot of other gameplay stuff CE doesn't have.

It's pretty telling that both in Crysis and that MMO (Aeon or whatever?) AIs just stand there waiting for you to grind them.

I mean the best we'll see is some fancy shaders and physics. But it will fail as a game because I've yet to see something else than a tech demo on CE.

Better graphics != advanced.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Besides very pretty graphics... what else makes the CRY engine so special?

Good physics, big maps, pretty darned swell AI, destructible environments, and the potential for vehicles(not that I necessarily want them in a STALKER game, just saying...).

MetalCraze wrote:
It's pretty primitive. Unable to handle large maps, unable to handle many AIs, unable to handle large multiplayer etc etc

Who do I believe?

 

[deuxhero]

What's a BIS engine?

 

[Gerrard]

pretty darned swell AI

Every fucking time I hear about good AI in Crysis I remember this happening when I played
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJkCWQcZYKo

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I didn't say that Crysis had good AI though. Try again.

Who do I believe?

Well, the most that it's going to cost you to believe me is a bit of bandwidth.

And seriously guys, I get where some of the naysaying is coming from, but the more effort that people put into projects like this and the more media attention that STALKER gets, the better the chances are of us getting more great games like it in the future.

 

[Raapys]

Yeah, now that Stalker finally got some attention with CoP, the next Stalker game is also coming to consoles. Joyous news!

 

[torpid]

Yeah, now that Stalker finally got some attention with CoP, the next Stalker game is also coming to consoles. Joyous news!

Yeah, we can't win.

 

[MetalCraze]

Yeah, now that Stalker finally got some attention with CoP, the next Stalker game is also coming to consoles. Joyous news!

Actually Call of Pripyat was supposed to be multiplatform AFAIK.
This is why graphics were nerfed so hard compared to previous installments. But obviously consoles couldn't run it so it was PC exclusive once again and now GSC decided to make an engine for consoles from scratch.

So basically Stalker 2 will look even worse, won't store bodies and loot and will have much smaller maps (can't do much with 256 MBs of RAM). And I think even AI will get nerfed because there is only so much you can do with 6 years old CPU.

 

[Raapys]

Well, it will no doubt be dumbed down, but the console hardware isn't actually that slow; it's mostly the GPUs in them which are lagging behind. Well, that and RAM of course. The IBM-made PowerPC processors are still very decent in the PS3 though.

But yeah, looking forward to how it'll turn out. I do seem to remember them coming with the obligatory "It won't be dumbed down at all" comment, or at the very least something along the lines that console development wouldn't affect the PC version. Always bodes badly when they say that.

 

[deus101]

DAMNIT!

Stalker 2 is going to make me sad...i just know it.

Stalker needs to be infused with MOAR RPG mechanics.


Nothing advanced, but...something to specialise in different skills that might be needed in the wild.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I want XP to be kept out of my STALKER, thankyouvermuch.

 

[Twinkle]

I don't know how big Cryengine maps can be

Theoretical maximum is 68719 sq. km. In reality, however, they'll hardly can be much bigger than vanilla's maps (8 sq. km) that required close to 2 Gb at maximum settings.

Anyway, I fail to see the purpose of this mod. They'll need to recruit really talented artists, modelers and animators to produce superior graphics (ripping content from a real STALKER game is a guaranteed "Cease and Desist"). Also, complex scripting is required to emulate A-Life, anomalies, factions etc. IMO, the only valid reason of switching to CryEngine is adding vehicles.

This is why graphics were nerfed so hard compared to previous installments.

I'm pretty sure bigger maps are the real reason.