Hi everyone

I would just like to make people aware of an issue with SoC, which appears to be with every digital release of the game. I made a post about it donkeys ago on NeoGAF in regards to the Steam version, the post explains it all really, and I noticed it when i bought the GoG release it has the same issue -

"Ok here are my shots showing the difference between Retail & Steam. Both screens use the exact same in-game settings (1680x1050, Full Dynamic Lighting, Maximum settings).

Its all because Steam doesnt include the "user.ltx" file which the retail install puts into the STALKER-SHOC folder, it instead generates a default one which looses all these effects (deleting this file from the retail version leaves the game just like on steam).

As i consider STALKER to be a game where the graphics greatly take part in the experience, i was a little miffed with Steam for not doing it properly, although no-one seemed to care :lol Ah well, for £3.50 its well worth it, just try and get that proper user.ltx file put in so everything shown as it should."

Another issue with this is that the default mouse aim has additional acceleration/smoothing on it.

I have attached the retail shots to this post.

And here are the Steam (digital version) shots, notice the stretched shadows and less detail at a distance. Game also has mouse smoothing added.

Interesting, thanks for posting. I'm using the Shaders MAX mod, which significantly enhances the visuals and performance of the game, any idea if that fixes this issue?

Possibly. If the mod was developed using the retail version, and the mod replaces the user.ltx with its own, it should hopefully have been developed with the correct user.ltx as its base so to speak.

Im going to try and get this normal user.ltx and post it on here so that people can use and see the difference themselves.

Well I just installed my original retail copy of Shadow of Chernobyl on my Windows install & compared the user.ltx from that to the GOG version and while there are some differences initially, after the starting the game (then exiting immediately without making any changes) it's pretty much identical to the GOG version.

Those corrupted shadows in the attached pictures is an old bug that, as far as I know, was never fixed. I've seen them in both my retail copy and now in GOG's copy. I've seen them for many years using a few different video cards and numerous new drivers.
The only way to get rid of them is to turn off sun shadows in the advanced video options. The retail dvd game does not turn on dynamic shadows and therefore leaves the sun shadows off. When you turn on dynamic shadows the sun shadows automatically get turned on. But you can turn them off separately.

EDIT: Damn, I meant to say full dynamic lighting not dynamic shadows.

Here is the default user.ltx file installed with the European Retail THQ release, anyone fancy trying it and seeing if they can see a difference ? I just tried it, vs the GoG (and other digital) release, and again I can see immediate differences with the mouse aim, and graphics. This file is installed before the game is even launched.

www.dropbox.com/s/tr79w75ok7y9fj3/user.ltx

And thanks for the replies guys, its interesting what you are saying, and I am not saying you are wrong, but the difference is so obvious to me, and after looking into it years ago, seeing digital versions still acting so differently than the retail UK release I played so long again, I just cant help but feel this is being missed. I know its just a few settings with different values in essentially a text file, I just fear many people wont even notice these differences and play through the game in a albeit very minor difference.

Had a quick look and there were some differences in the file. I also tried applying it and it has certainly was different. Mostly better as well. I'm guessing that for whatever reason the digital copies include a different user.ltx setup?

r2_sun_near_border was still 0.75, which causes minor shadow glitches around the edges. Probably since the setting isn't suited for bigger widescreen resolutions.

Anyway, I didn't look through every setting so I don't know all the differences.

From what I could tell with the Steam version, it doesn't install any user.ltx file at all, and so the game generates a new one, but with different settings than the one that comes "pre-installed" so to speak with retail versions. Just tried re-installing the GoG version, and it seems to install its own user.ltx file, but again I see the same problems as with the Steam version.

The only difference being is that the GoG version, by default (On my Windows 8.1), launches in admin mode.

I need to do more testing ....

According to a forum post I found on Steam, it looks like the file may be in a hidden folder:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1408781&highlight=retail+user.ltx

For convenience, the file directory is steamapps\common\stalker shadow of chernobyl\_appdata_\user.ltx, and I know appdata is a hidden folder within the profile directory for Windows 7 - 64 bit. Thanks so much for the file upload, I noticed those weird lighting glitches after viewing your screenshots and it really started to bug me!

That is the version that my retail copy of SoC installs, that I tested earlier today. However if you start the game then exit immediately (i.e. without changing any settings or anything else) and check it again, you will find that it will have been updated to almost match the GOG version. With identical ingame settings, my retail install looks and behaves exactly the same as my GOG install.

Edit: As IronBar pointed out, try tweaking the value for r2_sun_near_border. I just gave it a quick test it and found that setting it to 0.85 appears to resolve the shadow issue for me.

Edit 2: This guide may also be of use

Thank you for this!

I forgot about Tweakguides. Thank you. Very Helpful.

Interesting, glad to know im not the only one who noticed it ! Now i feel less mad :)

Another issue i have found, which seems to be exclusive to the GoG versions, is a bit of a delay in mouse movement on the main menus for each game, not present anywhere else. Maybe the game is applying V-Sync or something ?