Could "Priboi Story" be improved with "Complete 2009" graphical polish..?

[n0bby]

Has anyone around these parts managed to combine the mod "Priboi Story", with some or all of the much-improved in-game visuals of Complete 2009?

I was hoping to be able to cludge the two together, by creating a Frankenstein gamedata directory using elements of both mods - but my efforts so far have resulted in CTDs when the game gets to the "synchronising" stage of loading. Clearly it's not as straightforward as I hoped... :)

So, I was wondering whether any of you mod-minded members might have some ideas about how to improve the look of Priboi Story...

[FreemanForPrez]

Good luck with that... ;)

That would be cool, but I can't even get the no headbob or widescreen ui mods to work with Priboi without CTD's.
I can't get Priboi Story to load its own saves without CTD's, and I'm still trying to figure out what got hosed to cause that situation.
All in all I'd guess it's too unstable to undergo the Complete workup, although it supposedly can be used with that Sky mod - skyace or whatever it's called.

[n0bby]

I can't get Priboi Story to load its own saves without CTD's, and I'm still trying to figure out what got hosed to cause that situation.:o Argh!

I'd only tried testing my attempts at combining the data by loading a savegame - and whaddaya know... when I then tried to just load a Priboi savegame with vanilla Priboi gamedata - I get a CTD too!

Right, so I guess this thread should really be called:

Could Priboi Story be improved by Savegames that work..?

Because I just tested my combined Priboi/Complete 2009 gamedata combo by starting a NEW GAME, and it worked fine. There's a little bit of tweaking to do with some HUD components, but apart from that, it's definitely improved the look of the in-game environment. However, saves just won't load... they CTD.

So, if anyone can help us with the fact that even vanilla Priboi savegames don't seem to work, that'd be great!

[n0bby]

BTW, so far I've achieved my current "stable" (in so far as I can test it, without being able to load saves) Priboi/Complete mod merge by simply doing the following:

Chucking the following folders from the Complete 2009 gamedata into the Priboi gamedata folder, and allowing over-writes:
anims
meshes
shaders
sounds
textures

I then chucked the Priboi intro and UI folders back into the textures folder, and allowed them to over-write.

Very simple and cludgy so far, but I just wanted to get something working, so I could then start fiddling about with it some more.

However, with saves not working in Priboi atm, I don't feel too motivated to continue..!

[marie pavie]

Did you get the 1.1 patch FIX also?
http://priboi-story.extra.hu/engine/page.php?id=22

[n0bby]

Did you get the 1.1 patch FIX also?
http://priboi-story.extra.hu/engine/page.php?id=22Hello... HELLO!

That fixed the CTDs when loading a save... bloomin' marvellous! Thanks mp!

[marie pavie]

Well good!

[FreemanForPrez]

Yes, thanks mp, that could be my problem too. I installed 1.1, but wasn't aware of the fix(es).

n0bby, thanks for the info. :)
So just the 1.1 Fix 02 worked? On the Filefront page it says

"This is the second fix for the newly released Priboi Story 1.1.

This contains many left out little features, and fixes, that we forgot to add to 1.1, and also we got some reports from users, and we fixed what we found.


So I assume this "second fix" is complete, meaning that it can stand alone and doesn't require a 1.1 Fix 01 file?
It looks to me like 1.1 fix 01 was for 1.004 and 1.1 fix 02 is for 1.005, is that right?

Did it end up working with your attempts so far to add Complete 2009 content to it?

[n0bby]

Hi FFP,

Yes and yes. I just added the folders from the archive: Priboi_Story_1.1_FIX_2_1.0005.zip (which after marie pavie mentioned it, I found I'd already downloaded, from the first time that I played Priboi Story).

I installed the folders into my already modded Priboi gamedata directory, and so now my Priboi/Complete hybrid is working. Currently the HUD is a bit of a mess, and needs some further tweaking (it's functional, but ugly) - but other than that, it's fine. I've been from Cordon to the Bar, via several save/loads to test it, without any crashes.

[FreemanForPrez]

Thanks for the info n0bby, I'll check it out. :)
Are you going to release this new modded mod after you've tested it out? Do you want any help testing it? :)
Have you tried it with "leandros_widescreen_ui" mod, by chance?

I'm not that concerned about adding the no headbob mod to it, since that can be fixed simply with:
run_amplitude = 0.0; 0.0075
walk_amplitude = 0.0; 0.005
limp_amplitude = 0.0; 0.011
(or whatever...)
And that shadow problem on a widescreen monitor is easily enough fixed manually ("r2_sun_near_border 1" in the user.ltx, which Complete 2009 changes automatically), but I'd like to be able to use it with the widescreen ui, since it adds so much room to the inventory.

Hmmm, I'm just thinking out loud now. I guess I'll just have to try it on my own with the 02 fix. ;)

[FreemanForPrez]

Oh and in response to what you said in this thread HERE, (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14023462#post14023462) those are the default quick save/load keys. I use F12 for QS and F6 for QL, since (for me) F9 and F5 are for FRAPS.
But like I said, in the vanilla SoC install, the options for QS and QL are there after a clean install, but after installing Priboi, the options completely disappear from the list in-game. The only way to change it is to go into the .ltx file, or after installing vanilla, change it, but before installing Priboi.

[n0bby]

np FFP, happy to share!

I'd also like to get the mod widescreen-friendly. I'll be having a further play with the mod(s) data later on (I'm working atm), and see what can be done.

Thanks for the pointer on the headbob data file change. Is that in actor.ltx?

As for releasing it - I'm not sure whether that would be the right thing to do, seeing as it's all other people's work just lumped together... But certainly it'll be good to at least have a decent "How To" guide here, once it's working right.

[n0bby]

Oh and in response to what you said in this thread HERE, (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14023462#post14023462) those are the default quick save/load keys. I use F12 for QS and F6 for QL, since F9 and F5 are for FRAPS.
But like I said, in the vanilla SoC install, the options for QS and QL are there after a clean install, but after installing Priboi, the options completely disappear from the list in-game. The only way to change it is to go into the .ltx file, or after installing vanilla, change it, but before installing Priboi.Gotcha.

[FreemanForPrez]

Thanks for the pointer on the headbob data file change. Is that in actor.ltx?


NP. :)
No, that's in the effectors.ltx file.

Yeah, I see what you mean about re-releasing. I'll have some time later today to mess around and I'll try to keep some notes about what I've done and post them here, assuming I have some success. ;)

[n0bby]

Nice one. Good luck!

[FreemanForPrez]

I only had a couple hours to mess with it, but I didn't get far.
I am going *crazy* trying to figure out WHY Priboi is screwing with the user.ltx files, particularly with my keyboard shortcuts.

Okay, so here's the deal:
* Install absolutely totally fresh vanilla SoC into empty standard Steam directory (from Steam backup) after deleting all saves and the user.ltx file in my C:\Users\Public\Documents\stalker-shoc folder

* Run SoC menu once and set my all my options the way I like them - this includes changing Save to F12, Load to F6, and various other keys for bandages, medkits, drop weapon, crouch, always crouch, run... you get the idea - I hate all the default settings. ;)

* Quit and startup again, just to get the static lighting option changed to dynamic lighting.

* Then I install the gamedata folder for Priboi, and set the gamedata to true in the fsgame.ltx file, and patch it to 1.1 Fix 02.

* Then I load it up, Priboi starts up at the menu, but all my control options have been set back to default, and the Load and Save are NOWHERE in the list. Just simply gone, as I've mentioned earlier a few times.

* Quit Priboi to check out the user.ltx file in C:\Users\Public\Documents\stalker-shoc and see that it has apparently been overwritten. Well yeah, it gets re-written each time you start or exit, but apparently if there's an existing one already, prior to first launching Priboi, it will create a new one that has all the control options reset to default.

Okay, so I can change all my other options back to what I want using the in-game settings, but again, no Load or Save options.

*Quit Priboi again, and check the user.ltx file in C:\Users\Public\Documents\stalker-shoc and see that Load and Save are actually in the ltx file. Change the keys to what I want manually, save the file, load up Priboi, and...crashola - CTD before even loading completely.

*Wash, rinse, repeat - waste two hours d*cking with ltx files and watching Priboi load and unload and CTD...


This is killing me. I guess it sounds petty to want my Load and Save options, but that's what I want, and it seems simple enough...

I won't even go into what happened when trying to manually put "sun_near_border 1" into the user.ltx file, but it didn't have a happy outcome. ;)

What gets me is WHY is it overwriting my control options with defaults the first time I load it? This is the only mod I've yet seen to do that. I think LURK (IIRC) removed the Load and Save options from the list too, but they still worked at least since they had been set up earlier, and LURK didn't reset all my control options, nor CTD on loading.

So I'm hung up on this ridiculous issue and didn't even get any time to try to play it, let alone messing around with adding other mods or mod parts to it...
.
.

[n0bby]

FFP, that sounds bizarre. I've got custom settings for keyboard too - like tab to get the inventory up, and x for PDA - and all of 'em have stayed unmolested by my Priboi install.

Woah! Hold on - just re-read your post, and I think I've got it. You need to edit this copy of user.ltx:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\stalker shadow of chernobyl\_appdata_\user.ltx

Hopefully, all will then be well...

EDIT: er, except for the problem with your Load/Save missing - which again is working fine for me, as I have Load/Save options in the FE menu of Priboi. But hopefully, the info about the _appdata_ folder will help..?

[FreemanForPrez]

Thanks...
I meant to mention this but apparently forgot - I have tried deleting (and also editing) the user.ltx file in the _appdata_ folder too in the game's directory.
There's got to be something somewhere else causing this problem. Maybe I'm screwing it by running vanilla Soc first and setting my options up that way. A long shot, but I'll have a go at it all some more tomorrow.

[n0bby]

Sorry that didn't help... :(

If it's any use, my current SoC setup has been arrived at by installing the Steam version of SoC, setting everything up as I wanted, then installing Complete 2009, then re-naming the 2009 gamedata dir and adding the Priboi gamedata dir, then modding that dir as I described previously.

[FreemanForPrez]

It's all good man, I'll figure it out sooner or later, and thanks for the workflow tip. I'll try that out tomorrow. :)

[n0bby]

FreemanForPrez,

I thought I'd just mention something that I only discovered today.

I couldn't get any of the vehicles' engines to start. When I checked, I found that the default engine start key "B" is also mapped in user.ltx to "Buy" (I've never used this shortcut, so I wasn't aware of the mapping). So, I changed the "buy" key to something unused in the _appdata_ version of the file and tried again. Still no engine. I then tried also making the change to the user.ltx in my documents\common\SoC folder, and hey presto - it worked.

I also noticed (before I modified it) that the 'modified' date on the documents\common user.ltx was today. So Priboi is definitely altering that file each time you run the game. But as I mentioned earlier, all my other custom settings in the file happily survive each time the game is run (and I have load/save options in the main menu screen).

I thought I'd mention this - although I can't see that it'll help you particularly... :(

So, have you made any headway with your Priboi problem yet?

[FreemanForPrez]

Thanks again for the additional info, n0bby. I'm taking it all in, but haven't acted upon it yet.
No, I got kinda sidetracked by other things over the past few days and haven't messed around with it any, but I'm looking forward to digging into it soon. :)

[n0bby]

Groovy - just thought I'd mention it. I know what you mean about getting sidetracked - I'm currently trying to a) finish writing a book, b) face the prospect of full time work again, in the near future. And all this while I try to decide what fps to get into next, while still remaining semi-obsessed with Stalking. Phew!