Cryostasis Performance Mod

[gunhaver]

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

i assume you mean config.cfg and i also assume the original cfg works. try the following: open the modified config.cfg and set "@p.hardware" to 0. that's the only option that should be able to screw up your game. please report back if this actually worked out. if it didn't the only idea i'd have would be to change each value back to the original one and try the game after each change until you find the culprit that prevents your game from starting. would also be nice if you posted what kind of graphics card you use. could you also be more specific what exactly happens when you start a game? do you see an error message? could you make a screenshot?

Well I went into config.cfg and as it turned out, the only problem was that the resolution was set too high for my monitor to handle. Great mod by the way! You should get a Nobel prize for this.

[allen25]

Thanks for the config. I have a i7 920 @3.9 and 260 SLI and the falling icicles dropped the FPS to 8! I can't believe they set it that way. If my rig won't play it they shouldn't have released it. Are you going to do a higher end config? Putting everything off and at 1 seems a bit drastic. I am going to mess with the numbers and see how high I can put everything and still have it be playable. Thanks for showing which numbers to edit. And I'm glad they made the game so moddable.

[shaq]

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

thanks for the console commands! i'm gonna try that right away! your idea for the enemy spawning is nice. i checked out the level scripts and found two commands that look useful: AddCharacter and AddThisCharacter. They might be used for spawning. i'll try that out. I doubt there is a console command for spawning, because that would require you to specify the level and the spawning location. that and much more information is being loaded through the level script. too complex for a console command if you ask me. would also not be helpful at all. after all, the game doesn't throw enemies dynamically at the player, but always uses the same enemies in the same locations, so there's little point in a command to make them re-spawn. quicksave would be all you need to test the spawning

I was wondering if you could spawn in the console just to test it out. It would spawn them in the same room when you typed the command. Hopefully one of those commands will work for adding enemies. Are they specified per room on the level scripts? I haven't counted but there might be 30-40 rooms per level including echoes. lol It would take an afternoon to modify the whole game.

Maybe you could make a water grenade weapon while you're at it? lol That's my idea for a new weapon. Maybe a water balloon would work better? lol

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

silly me...i misinterpreted that as an abbreviation for gary's mod...as for the size, wow! the last time i used it was cinematic mod 4 and that was may be 2 years ago....6 versions in that time...incredible, but i wonder why the installation is so big? did the author crank up the resolution again?

i had cinematic mod 4 for both hl2 and episode 1 combined into a single directory to cancel out dupes and compressed both games with the mod down to 3GB...i had planned to wait until episode 2 is released to add it into that package and burn it on dvd...i guess i can start over now lol

sounds like steam limits you quite a lot. i only used it once, so i don't have a point of reference, but good to know!
I had problems using mods with steam. may be it's me, but i only got cinematic mod to work after using the non-steam version of hl2, so i'm not that much of a steam fan at all.

I think with 5 on up it required a 64 bit OS. I just downloaded Win 7 RC x64 so I could try it out. I think you can still get it until next week. It might take you that long to get 10 though. lol There aren't many places to dl it yet. I got it off a torrent and it took over a day to get it. Almost all the textures are high-res and it includes mods for all three now (HL2 and EP1 and EP2). Wait you mean you were waiting for episode 3 right? When that comes out it will be up to 12-13 and will be about 22GB. lol

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

Update: Alright I checked out your sparks values. 200 doesn't look that much different from the original value. It seems this is not the number of sparks, but rather the lifetime of them. I thought the amount of sparks was just the same, but they didn't bounce around that long. Anyway, 200 looks more realistic to me and i like it. I also set it to 100 for a try and that would be even more realistic, because many sparks didn't even reach the ground. However, 200 looks nicer.

I also experimented with the fluidbulletshells (10) and fluidicicles (100) and i couldn't point out the difference to the original values with either weapon. I thought the fluidicicles defined the amount of water particles that would be generated for the water gun. When I swing the gun back and forth in a rapid fashion I can see the stream break up into smaller water batches. I thought raising the value might keep it more consistent in those cases, but that didn't work. If you look on the ground while using the water gun, you can see the particles flowing away, so may be this also defines just the lifetime of this effect. I hadn't checked that out though. This might also explain why raising the water particle count of 20.000 doesn't result in more particles. the values for these effects seem to be stored in other scripts. of course, lowering the value would kill off many particles early on before you would even get to see them and thats why it looked like that value would influence the particle count directly. Anyway...I still don't know what the fluidbulletshells variable does. I thought it might have an impact on the watergun's bullet, or the shells that the other guns throw out during shooting, but I couldn't see a difference to the original value. Any idea?

I believe the number in the init.cfg is the total number at one time. So as new sparks/bullets/icicles/water appear the old ones have to disappear to keep it under the maximum value. That would explain why they don't spread along the floor. Have you tried raising any of the sparks to 20000? That could be interesting. lol There must be a way to determine the maximum values for each setting somewhere. It might even be in the nvidia drivers for all I know. I assumed the bullets value was for the spent bullet casing physx. If so it would only affect the ppsh, but it might be for the water cannon too. If both look the same with reduced values then it can be lowered to 200 or less. Try a really low value and shoot the ppsh and see if there are less casings. I don't think I even noticed if the casings stay on the floor after shooting.

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

Also, could you try something? Whenever I deactivate anisotropic filtering before starting a game, I don't get to see the prologue. Does that happen to you too? Which kind of version of the game are you playing, US or European?

Btw, using the give watergun cheat also gives you all weapons + the watergun, which you don't get with give all
Funny stuff: use the give watergun cheat during mental echoes, especially in the first level. It's kind of fun to watergun your huskies while they drag your sled. You can't kill them though. Also cool: in those outdoor mental echoes and in the very beginning of the first level before you open the hatch into the ship, all your weapons have a snow and ice encrusted texture. I can't remember having seen that while playing the game for the first time. Kind of makes it look like a deterioration effect from Far Cry 2. Another interesting thing that happened while using the water gun in a mental echo was that my arms and the gun from the mental echo were transported to the real world and floated in the air. The game resets your weapon slots after each mental echo (at least in the first level), so I was surprised to move after the end of an echo and not seeing my hands move with me. It also looks funny in the echo where you work your way up to the ship. When you have a weapon ready during the standup animation, you get to see 3 hands: two that push you up and one that holds the weapon

You mean the movie when you start a new game? I leave AF off and when I start a new game the movie starts and then I hit esc to skip it. lol At least I do that while I am testing the new numbers. I have US version but they should all be the same. In yours do you have Chronos spinning around on the main menu? lol just kidding Yeah I noticed about the giveall.

With spawning new enemies I don't know how that would affect the pacing of the game. Is there a way for enemies to open doors? Just imagine you just shot two baddies and you take a breath and relax and then BOOM! the door opens just as you were getting ready to walk out. lol I'm pretty sure that is possible. Or even open up the door behind you as you are leaving. It would make the game much better and more intense. Right now it is kind of like Doom 3 where only a couple of enemies are on the screen at one time. Or like on the movie screen when the boss pops out, maybe they could just appear in front or behind you.

[Xiaopang]

Originally Posted by gunhaver

Well I went into config.cfg and as it turned out, the only problem was that the resolution was set too high for my monitor to handle. Great mod by the way! You should get a Nobel prize for this.

thank you, but a nobel prize for that little work would be too much. i'd settle for money instead lol

thanks for figuring the problem out. i totally forgot to change the resolution to a lower value before distribution. oh well, it's always the obvious that gets overlooked

Originally Posted by shaq

Are they specified per room on the level scripts? I haven't counted but there might be 30-40 rooms per level including echoes. lol It would take an afternoon to modify the whole game.

well, it's not that easy. the level scripts are nothing more than a conglomerate of procedure calls. those have to contain the enemy numbers and spawning positions. i had only glaced over that by the time i wrote that, so i still don't know

Originally Posted by shaq

Maybe you could make a water grenade weapon while you're at it? lol That's my idea for a new weapon. Maybe a water balloon would work better? lol

lol may be i could make nesterov use an icicle as a weapon? may be i could also use them regain his health by eating them? i like your weapon idea, but it wouldn't go well with the storyline of the game (ok, same goes for the watergun, but that's a bit more believable)

are you sure there are that many rooms per level? i think a level rather has less than 20 of them and only the fewest even have enemies in them.

Originally Posted by shaq

I think with 5 on up it required a 64 bit OS. I just downloaded Win 7 RC x64 so I could try it out. I think you can still get it until next week. It might take you that long to get 10 though. lol There aren't many places to dl it yet. I got it off a torrent and it took over a day to get it. Almost all the textures are high-res and it includes mods for all three now (HL2 and EP1 and EP2). Wait you mean you were waiting for episode 3 right? When that comes out it will be up to 12-13 and will be about 22GB. lol

yeah i meant ep 3. i just checked the whole thing out. the last official release was 9.5, which you can grab at filefront. 10 is still beta and will still see quite some changes before its final release. i won't get it yet, because according to a news site, the final version will feature an alyx-model that is closer to the hl2-original. the same news site also offered a http-download of the beta, so i have no urge to get it now (or hdd space lol). i guess i will wait till ep3 comes out and download cm then. it will see massive changes, because i think ep 3 will use new engine features and fakefactory always ported those to the older hl2 versions.

Originally Posted by shaq

I believe the number in the init.cfg is the total number at one time. So as new sparks/bullets/icicles/water appear the old ones have to disappear to keep it under the maximum value.

i thought that at first too, but i'm not so sure any more. i made some tests with the fluid bullet value. i raised it to 100.000 with interesting results. it eliminated the water gun's range and set it to zero. it also caused the gun to spill out a constant water stream, even if you don't use it. it poured out so much water that it covered the floor that i was walking on. in other words, it turned the gun into a fawcett lol. i made a screenshot:




the amount of water is hard to see, but it surpasses that of the gun in regular mode.


one thing's for sure. there is no limitation in the drivers. it wouldn't make any sense. the driver's task is to give programmers access to the hardware. it's up to them to decide how they want to use it. take furmark for example. simple graphics, yet highly straining benchmark. then take fluidmark which is the equivalent for physics. the les sources of a card you use (polygon count for example), the more you have for other tasks (physics) so any limitation would kill the hardware's efficiency by forcing a balance. this would also make the drivers incompatible to new hardware, or overclocked regular models.

Originally Posted by shaq

You mean the movie when you start a new game? I leave AF off and when I start a new game the movie starts and then I hit esc to skip it.

exactly, but before you see that movie there is a black screen with a hermann hesse citation. it seems that the american version has a bug that prevents this message from showing when you have AF turned off. in the european one, this bug doesn't seem to exist. there's also an epilogue, so if you missed those, you should check the beginning and the ending with AF turned on

Originally Posted by shaq

of the game. Is there a way for enemies to open doors? Just imagine you just shot two baddies and you take a breath and relax and then BOOM! the door opens just as you were getting ready to walk out. lol I'm pretty sure that is possible. Or even open up the door behind you as you are leaving. It would make the game much better and more intense. Right now it is kind of like Doom 3 where only a couple of enemies are on the screen at one time. Or like on the movie screen when the boss pops out, maybe they could just appear in front or behind you.

true, the enemy spawning is much like in doom 3. i doubt that they are programmed to open doors, because the spawning is always triggered when you are pretty close to them. you could try to run away and see if they follow you, but in the few cases where i wanted to track back, i found doors locked that just had granted me access, so there...

speaking of intense games, try dark messiah of might and magic. there the enemies not just charge at you, but also follow you throughout the levels, up ladders and so on. there is basically no save location. pretty refreshing and quite surprising if you don't know about that. assassin's creed is similar, but less intense.

[shaq]

You did 100000 or 100.000? So the bullet value does affect the water cannon? I thought it did because I lowered it to 2500 and it seemed to shoot out less water so I put it back to 10000. That's kinda funny that it leaks out like that. I think the water cannon is overpowered so if it leaked a little that would be good. It would force you to find icicles. If you could make it leak while still being able to shoot it that is. Maybe less ammo per icicle would be a better idea though.

I thought the drivers might limit the amount of total particles at once. And drivers are easily updated. I haven't really seen any physx demos/games that can max out a 260 as most people say a 9600gt is fine for everything. And it could be the physx drivers that is doing it. Because why can't we do 1000000 particles or even 10000000 particles and have a physx benchmark? That fluidmark never seems to work for me as I always get a black screen.

I see the opening quote fine with AF off. Maybe it's when you have it on and then turn it off right before you start a new game?

They must open doors somehow because remember on that echo where he is shooting the rifle and he goes into the room and runs out of ammo? If nothing else it might be possible to leave some of the doors open in the game and the ai could go though them then? Dark Messiah or Ass. Creed aren't as creepy so you lose out on the atmosphere. And in Doom 3 they do chase you and open doors at least. There are scripts for that game to make any enemies spawn spontaneously so it might be possible in theis game too.

[Xiaopang]

Originally Posted by shaq

You did 100000 or 100.000? So the bullet value does affect the water cannon? I thought it did because I lowered it to 2500 and it seemed to shoot out less water so I put it back to 10000.

i used 100.000. the strange thing is, i also lowered the value significantly and couldn't see any difference, that's why i wasn't sure that it would really influence the water cannon.

Originally Posted by shaq

That's kinda funny that it leaks out like that. I think the water cannon is overpowered so if it leaked a little that would be good. It would force you to find icicles. If you could make it leak while still being able to shoot it that is. Maybe less ammo per icicle would be a better idea though

well, that's how it originally works. you stop shooting and there's still a little stream of water still shooting out until it dies down. kind of like unplugging a running pump. so the value might only be used for the leakage, but what i don't understand is why it disables your range and effectively sets it to zero.

Originally Posted by shaq

I thought the drivers might limit the amount of total particles at once. And drivers are easily updated. I haven't really seen any physx demos/games that can max out a 260 as most people say a 9600gt is fine for everything. And it could be the physx drivers that is doing it. Because why can't we do 1000000 particles or even 10000000 particles and have a physx benchmark? That fluidmark never seems to work for me as I always get a black screen.

hey hey, for me too. strange. well, there is no driver limitation. would be like assuming that there's a limitation for polygon count, or frame rate. and if there was and you would hit the wall, then what? that wouldn't just screw up the visuals, but might actually make a game unplayable. think about a puzzle where you'd have to fill a tank with the water gun to raise its weight and make it crash through a weakened structure. this would also be a saleskiller. who wants to buy a limited graphics card?

Originally Posted by shaq

I see the opening quote fine with AF off. Maybe it's when you have it on and then turn it off right before you start a new game?

hmm, no. i had that directly after installing the game by using original settings and everything. strange

Originally Posted by shaq

They must open doors somehow because remember on that echo where he is shooting the rifle and he goes into the room and runs out of ammo? If nothing else it might be possible to leave some of the doors open in the game and the ai could go though them then?

that's an interesting idea! i had forgotten about that mental echo. the thing is, that this character was not the standard enemy, but a special character, so it's likely that this door-opening ability is limited to his script. it would have to be ported. also his actions were scripted, while you'd have to extend the script of an enemy to give him the choice to open doors. leaving them open might work

Originally Posted by shaq

Dark Messiah or Ass. Creed aren't as creepy so you lose out on the atmosphere. And in Doom 3 they do chase you and open doors at least. There are scripts for that game to make any enemies spawn spontaneously so it might be possible in theis game too.

yeah, may be. funny that you think cryostasis is creepier than dark messiah. i found the latter way creepier with its orks, gloomy cave and big ass spiders. especially if you played it stealthily ( i just played it 3 weeks ago, so my memory is pretty fresh). i didn't find cryostasis creepy at all, because you know what to expect right from the start: walk through 5 empty rooms, find a switch, kill an enemy, find the exit. next level: start over. also the enemies were too weak and too few to really put pressure on you. if i died because they surprised me, then i knew better the next time and i could always heal after battle, so was little tension when i wandered through the game. in dark messiah however, i despised going through spider lairs, having to use up my valuable health potions. the necropolis was just amazing and those huge cyclopses.... dark messiah was waaaaaaay creepier lol

[shaq]

Maybe I should reinstall Dark Mesiah then as I never finished it. lol I got bored a couple of hours into the game and quit.

I think Cryostasis is creepier especially with the axe. It has weight to it and feels like you are actually using it. Another idea for a mod would be just using the axe and take the guns away from the AI or only drop very few rounds for the guns. I think if there were more enemies though it would be more fun especially if someone could get them to open the doors. I think you would find it creepy then. lol And a bunch of the enemies spawn right in front of you after some of the echoes so spawning should be possible.

[Xiaopang]

ah i see. well, if dark messiah bored you, then it most likely is not for you. i found it to be a great first person action adventure that had a cool and very varied fighting system, especially since you can use your own style of fighting, be it magic, force or sneakiness. throw in great level design and stunning visuals and you get a pretty unique medieval game. actually, i only wanted to see how the graphics would look maxed out on my gtx and ended up beating it and i didn't regret it. still looks great despite its age.

i like your idea with the axe. that wouldn't need a mod though, as all you'd have to do is just limit yourself to that weapon. and i agree, more flexible and mobile enemies add a lot of creepiness to a game. that's why dark messiah ranks way higher on my list in that regard. i remember how it surprised me when i attacked an enemy from a tower, just to find him climb up a ladder to kill me. others jumped huge gaps to get to me in other parts, so cryostasis sure would profit from it. today i outsmarted cryostasis' ai, which lead me to believe that it would take a lot more than just to open doors and spawn more enemies. remember the start of level 2? you run down a ladder and get a mental echo, where an engineer is being attacked by a servant. the servant then attacks you in your time. i ran back and up the ladder, having to crouch to get past some icicles, while this guy just ran through them. i dropped down and ran as far into the level as i could without taking the next weapon (the valve). i just stayed around the corner next to the valve. i heard the servant coming, but he never got to me. when i risked a peek, he was standing there, his back being turned to me, staring at the stairs...i attacked him from behind and he didn't even react, other then falling down dead. so my conclusion is, that the ai is really limited. enemies spawn directly ahead of you and apparently the ai is limited to send an attack order to the enemy. once they lose you, that seems to render them useless, so there would have to be a lot more work done to make them chase you, or even gang up on you in an intelligent fashion, for example like in stalker.

[harhol]

Many thanks for the mods Xiaopang, especially the second one. Previously I could only get an average of around 20 fps (even on the lowest settings with your config mod), but since trying the init mod I can play the game at a comfortable 35fps average.

I've played the first two areas so far and haven't encountered any problems. For some reason I get the best performance on Shader 4.0, which is handy as it means I can play at 800x600 without black horizontal borders.

Anyway, thanks again. Hopefully one day I can play this at max settings with all the fancy effects turned on....



[Core 2 Duo @ 2.8 Ghz // 4GB RAM // ATI Radeon HD 4650]

[shaq]

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

ah i see. well, if dark messiah bored you, then it most likely is not for you. i found it to be a great first person action adventure that had a cool and very varied fighting system, especially since you can use your own style of fighting, be it magic, force or sneakiness. throw in great level design and stunning visuals and you get a pretty unique medieval game. actually, i only wanted to see how the graphics would look maxed out on my gtx and ended up beating it and i didn't regret it. still looks great despite its age.

i like your idea with the axe. that wouldn't need a mod though, as all you'd have to do is just limit yourself to that weapon. and i agree, more flexible and mobile enemies add a lot of creepiness to a game. that's why dark messiah ranks way higher on my list in that regard. i remember how it surprised me when i attacked an enemy from a tower, just to find him climb up a ladder to kill me. others jumped huge gaps to get to me in other parts, so cryostasis sure would profit from it. today i outsmarted cryostasis' ai, which lead me to believe that it would take a lot more than just to open doors and spawn more enemies. remember the start of level 2? you run down a ladder and get a mental echo, where an engineer is being attacked by a servant. the servant then attacks you in your time. i ran back and up the ladder, having to crouch to get past some icicles, while this guy just ran through them. i dropped down and ran as far into the level as i could without taking the next weapon (the valve). i just stayed around the corner next to the valve. i heard the servant coming, but he never got to me. when i risked a peek, he was standing there, his back being turned to me, staring at the stairs...i attacked him from behind and he didn't even react, other then falling down dead. so my conclusion is, that the ai is really limited. enemies spawn directly ahead of you and apparently the ai is limited to send an attack order to the enemy. once they lose you, that seems to render them useless, so there would have to be a lot more work done to make them chase you, or even gang up on you in an intelligent fashion, for example like in stalker.

But if some of the enemies have guns it wouldn't be good just using the axe. You don't bring an axe to a gun fight. LOL

I think the AI needs to see you before they will chase. Have you ever managed to get to the next room after they see you and see if they follow? There are a couple of times in the game where there are two enemies or more at once and they all go after you. Are scripts between games similar? Maybe it would be possible to copy some scripting over from a game with better AI? If nothing else just doubling the amount of enemies at once would suffice, but I thought it would be awesome if they opened the doors on you. As you approach the door you see the handle move and hear the creaking of it opening. It could be the boss, the welder dude or the spider. And as you run back to get ready another one approaches from the door behind you. lol

I just ordered a GTX 295 because of the great Bing cashback offer so I will try the game with the 295 for graphics and a 260 for PhysX. Maybe I can run it at 1080p with caustics and reflections back on. If not the GT300 should and I get 90 days to step up to it.