Stalker: Call of Pripyat Problems..

On my desktop rig, this game runs TERRIBLE. It takes 2-3 minutes to get to the menu in the middle of playing (complete with frozen screen till menu comes up). Load times are INCREDIBLY long (5-6) minutes and while maintaining high FPS during gameplay, the game stutters, and freezes sometimes. Any ideas?

 

No idea if this will help you, but I had similar issues with CoP when I started. I kept on lowering the graphics settings and nothing helped until i tried raising them - oddly enough the game suddenly became more fluid once I had gone to the default DX10 mode.

Switching off the grass also made a big difference for me.

A

 

If you're running FRAPS, turn it off.

 

Even without Fraps load times are unbearable, and I still stutter even though maintaining 35 FPS and up.

 

Make sure you turn on DX10.1 at least. Are you running your 4890 overclocked? Can you bring it back to standard clocks and test it that way? How are the temperatures?

 

It's factory over clocked, 880/1000, temps are stable, as I turn the fans on high (50%-70%, sounds like a blow dryer). I usually over clock it to 930/1060 and it runs stable while furmark-ing.

How do I force DX10.1?

PS running catalyst 10.3A

 

Just on a whim, put it to the factory overclock. I'm not sure how to force 10.1... I know you can do it in the demo, but I don't have the actual game. 10.3a should be a good driver for you.

Part of it is just that the game isn't terribly well programmed... it's got a bunch of funky bugs in it.

 

I did that and the stuttering seems to have disappeared... but loading times are still ridiculously long, and it freezes for a while when i want to get to the main menu, or I'm about to undergo a mission and I need to talk to the main Stalker, and it's so annoying

 

Load times are typically the hard drive. Got an SSD? You might try defragging, but there's just not much else you can do.

 

Ahh seems like the perfect solution Nope, I'm running a 1 TB Western Digital Black Edition No SSD's just yet, and I think my HDD is fast enough, i can wait a few more seconds for Windows to fully boot

 

well i would use smart defrag and use fast optimise... does defragging very fast

 

I got Diskeeper 2010 Pro Premiere I just forgot to install it

 

Try this, it helped in most of my games, and it's free. You can also take advanced system care from them, i purchased it and it's great. Defraggs, fixes registry, cleans junk files and you it has a turbo boost system which optimizes your OS and closes some of your unused aplications for better speed. Great thing if you ask me.

 

I usually just use CCleaner and Tuneup Utilities but thanks for the suggestion

Biggest annoyance: the freeze that occurs when I want to go to the menu, or when I want to load a game. Itll freeze for a minute or two, then finally start loading the saved game.

 

I know this suggestion is basic but hasn't been asked: have you updated the game with any new patch? There may be one out.

 

are you using patch or version 1.6.02? Using this and the load time is not that bad, going to menu is instant as well.

 

Is there any way to do this without steam?

 

the multilanguage version should come with 1.6.02 installed, for Russian version you need to apply the patch yourself, not sure if yours is the russian version.

 

If it is a steam game it should auto-update itself. You can try to see in their page if they mention anything about the version of the game.

 

Yep, Just checked and I'm already running 1.6.02

 

Have you tried lowering the resolution or disabling some high end effects such as lighting to see if the stuttering decreases?

 

The stuttering went away. my system can handle the highest settings... only problems is the freezing when pressing esc to get to the main menu, and when talking to NPCs.

Changed sound from default setting to the soundmax one, and evertyhing was fine. Then when i restarted the problems started to happen again

 

still nothing

 

Have you tried setting the CPU affinity to one core? That might work

 

Will try that in a few seconds. The issue really turn me off from this game..

 

Doesn't work... Might it be because of the no-cd patch that I'm using?

 

Was the game running okay before you applied the patch/crack? Might want to give a clean install of the game (nuke the directory to be safe) a try to see how it does.