The unofficial "So what are you playing?" thread

I'm getting 100-120 FPS with DLAA on everything set to Epic, Motion Blur off.

HDR was grayed out at first. I realized it was because it was set to Borderless Mode. Set it to exclusive and HDR working great.

Felt like an idiot, I couldn't figure out how to turn the flashlight on. By default its bound to middle mouse.

So far my only grip is the loading screen has good tips/backstory but the game loads so fast I can't read them, wish they stayed on the screen till you pressed continue

Ran into my first major bug. I died and reloaded my game, only getting 30-40 FPS, GPU only pulling like 130 watts, and the camera is crazy wobbly. Had to quit the game.

I read AMD frame Gen doesn't work with Nvidia, that might already be fixed I don't know.

I've been playing with Ukrainian voices since I started, turned the volume of everything down but left music at 100% because the music is so quiet in this game

For better performance I recommend Lossless Scaling. They introduced some great new features in the latest version. You can scale the resolution of the generated frames down to 50% normal resolution. Awesome program. Some of the best $7 I've spent

The main thing with Lossless Scaling is it cannot work if a game is Exclusive Fullscreen, must be windowed mode, also you need some kind of frame rate limiter. They explain it all on the subreddit. I think they have a Discord too, I am not a member tho

If you have issues with it try forcing V-Sync on, Borderless Window mode should still work with Lossless Scaling, but some games claim they are Borderless Window mode but still fullscreen. It gets complicated. Once you have the settings in place Lossless Scaling even works with HDR/RTX HDR which shocked me.

Your in game framerate won't reflect the generated frames, lossless scaling has its own frame counter or you can use Hwinfo to add it to MSI Afterburner.

I have Lossless Scaling start with Windows. Anytime I am playing a game with a 60 fps cap or whatever I hit ctrl+alt+s and bam, higher FPS. HDR complicates things, you have to flip 1 setting if its native HDR or RTX HDR.

DLSS frame gen is better but DLSS is only 2x vs frame gen which is 3x or 4x.

Also I would NEVER use it in a competitive FPS like Counter-Strike/PUBG/etc. For those kinds of games you want exact frame data

Just glad that frame gen is still an option sometimes, even without an RTX 4000. On my RTX 3080, I think TSR + FSR3 frame gen has been the best so far. 100+ FPS, can't complain. Adjusted resolution scale some more (75%, also tried 80%) and it makes fine details like barb wire and other thin stuff look much better.

Still gonna go back at some point and mess with LS some more, but for now the game looks and runs great, will probably just sit back and enjoy it.

Read up more on TSR, it's a built-in feature of UE5 engine:

dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/temporal-super-resolution-in-unreal-engine

Don't see why it wouldn't play nice with LS either, will try that vsync thing and see if it fixes the issue.

*edit* Unsurprisingly, STALKER 2 is #1 on top sellers.

So glad I got a lifetime membership to Nexusmods Premium before they went to a monthly/yearly fee model. I paid $70 set for life.

Already mods coming in for Stalker 2, this one looks like it enables FSR3.1, its basically OptiScaler uploaded just for Stalker 2:
www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/27

There is already Vortex support for Stalker 2. I'm using Vortex instead of manually doing mods. Trying this one right now:
www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/7

Seems to have better performance in town but could be placebo.

Playing my character as a gruff "I don't give a fuck" type since that seems to be his personality. Had a quest where someone asked for an item for their family, and someone else gave me a nice AR if gave it to them instead. Picked the AR

Also I felt reeeeealy dumb, my radiation level kept going up, I thought it was just the area I was in. I forgot that I was wearing an artifact with low radiation exposure. Derp.

I did think about capping fps at 60, but it seems to be running smooth enough with DLSS Quality and FSR3 enabled now. Did notice the framerate does drop from like 100 to 70 when turning around, but it goes back up. Can see why they require an SSD for this game, it probably uses streaming assets or something like that. Saw quite a few threads on the Steam discussions for this game where people were complaining about poor performance, but refusing to list any of their PC specs. I have a feeling they're trying to play it on an HDD.

Also I agree with that guy in the video above, it's disappointing how the flashlight and muzzle flashes in the game don't illuminate more and cast shadows. Hopefully that's something they will add later on, there could even be a mod for it by now.

*edit*

tech4gamers.com/stalker-2-players-jail-russia/

*edit* Ok here's something interesting, after capping framerate in-game at 60, the framerate during gameplay is still above 60 but even smoother now with smaller drops. Could be cause I have vsync off and gsync on. At any rate I'm happy with performance in this game for me, even switched to DLAA and it's still very smooth. Everything is set to Epic too.

*edit* Also discovering that shooting isn't always the best option, ammo is scarce and weapons (so far) aren't very reliable. The first games were like this too, also playing on the highest difficulty, not sure if that affects those things or not. Enemies appear to have super senses, even trying to sneak up with my light off, it seems like they always turn around and notice me.

One thing I was happy to see is that the grass and stuff in the environment actually moves when you walk through it, might not be everything but a lot of it does.

*edit* Finally got to a part where the framerate dropped all the way to 20fps, but it was during a cutscene only. After the cutscene was over, in that same area the framerate went back up. Hopefully this is stuff they will fix in a patch. Also noticed in the first village I found, the framerate gets down to 40's in a very specific spot.

Been testing more and think I'm still getting the best results with vsync off and framerate uncapped. That same cutscene that got down to 20fps with framerate capped at 60, tried again with it uncapped and the fps was much higher. Still got down to 30 (29 a few times for a split second) during that cutscene, but once it was over the framerate shot back up to 60-70fps.

FYI some crates can be busted open with melee attacks. Found a room full of goodies in this underground place and noticed a bunch of crates on the shelf, hit them with the knife and they opened to reveal more goodies.

Finally got the settings in Lossless Scaling to where it works well with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2:

Lossless scaling settings:

Scaling mode: Auto
Scaling type: LS1
Frame generation: LSFG 2.3, Mode X3, resolution scale 90%
Sync mode: Default
Max frame latency: 1
Capture API: WGC

In-game:

Upscaling method DLAA
FSR3 Frame Generation disabled (caused warbly effects on fine details when enabled with LS)
Window mode 1600x900
Vsync enabled
Frame rate limit 60 (monitor has 144hz refresh)
Nvidia Reflex Low Latency enabled

Super smooth now, probably will keep using it. GPU is running cooler for sure, which is a huge plus. Might try turning off the frame generation, it works fine but there are some visual things that stand out sometimes from it, like edges of things persisting. Still, it's a very minor thing.

*edit* changed some stuff. Also have been trying other settings so the above may not remain the same.

Framerate is definitely smoother when using Lossless Scaling properly, still tweaking some settings. Thinking about trying more custom stuff too.

The entire first village in particular seems to cause massive framerate drops just from being there, even with LS it's still noticeable choppy but not too bad. Maybe it's an optimization issue, one difference there is there's a lot of NPC's standing around.

also not sure if I missed something, but when I set Scaling Type to "off" it does this (the black border around the picture):


_

*edit* CPU is getting pretty toasty while playing this game, the likes of which I haven't seen outside of stress testing, but it's still well below tjunc max:



Still not liking how hot it's getting, my case is old and the front of the CPU cooler is slightly blocked from fresh air compared to the GPU. Hopefully that will be remedied by a new case soon. Power draw on CPU has gotten close to 90w in this game too, they aren't kidding about it being a CPU-heavy game. I think this CPU is designed to run hot though, at least that's what Reddit says.

*edit* Did some testing and it seems like LS does put more workload on the CPU, which isn't surprising. This game definitely requires a beefy CPU. edit again - and nevermind I was wrong, the CPU workload is actually better with LS on. CPU temp is about the same though.

*edit* Think I found the sweet spot for LS settings:

scaling mode auto
scaling type LS1
frame generation LSFG 2.3
mode X3
resolution scale 100%
sync mode default
max frame latency 4
capture API WGC
double buffering on

in-game:
window mode 1600x900
vsync on

Getting solid 144FPS like this. Have to use window mode because fullscreen window maximizes no matter what, and just won't play in a window. I think this is also why setting scaling type off causes it to not scale up at all.

Also looked into why my CPU runs hot, think it has something to do with a feature called Precision Boost Overdrive that needs to be disabled in BIOS. Might leave it on though, pretty sure it does improve my framerate.

- edit - and looked into this too, was set to "auto" in BIOS, set it to Disabled instead and performance/temps/etc are exactly the same. Looks like it was never on to begin with, says that enabling it will void warranty but the warranty on this CPU ran out probably over a year ago now. Still probably won't risk it, CPU already runs hot and sucks watts enough as it is. Maybe if I had liquid cooling.

*edit* Got to a point in STALKER 2 where I might wait a bit and see if they release a patch that fixes the day/night cycle. Currently it seems like it's always night time, then it turns day time for about 5 minutes before turning night again and it's really annoying, especially because the game is very dark and the flashlight sucks, had to turn up gamma correction a little. Have a feeling the weird day/night cycle has to do with them moving to UE5 engine, they probably overlooked something. There's also all kinds of lighting anomalies I've seen, like standing inside a house while looking outside, it looks daytime outside. Then you go outside and it's almost pitch black.

*edit* lol btw a funny mishap occurred with LS, I clicked on the start menu instead of the game window and it caused it to scale that instead. Was an easy fix though, just had to unscale in the app.

Noticed the reload animations in this game are actually correct. Like if you reload when there's still 1 round still chambered, the character won't cock the bolt or slide back after putting in a new magazine. Good on them for getting it right, there are so many games where devs don't bother to learn how guns actually work.

Good, you guys keep finding out all the bugs so I can play it smoothly next year

One thing I really hate so far is that enemies will literally spawn in near you (usually behind) out of thin air, usually after you've already won a very difficult fight. Usually I just run like hell after winning a fight.

The good thing is, sometimes friendly STALKERs also spawn in and a big fight ensues.

They should not spawn in like that though, need to spawn in from further away out of sight.

Also stealth doesn't work as far as I can tell.

I think the issue with Magpie is it doesn't do frame generation, the 3x/4x frame generation is the reason I bought Lossless Scaling in the first place. I'm not sure if its Magpie but someone said Lossless Scaling started out by basically cloning an open source app then adding features. I guess this is unethical but if they add features that the open source app doesn't have, like frame generation, then thats on the open source app not keeping up. Being able to triple of quadruple your frame rate, and upscale a low resolution to your monitors native resolution is a game changer especially for people who aren't in a position to upgrade their hardware.

As I said before the only time I wouldn't use it is in competitive FPS. I have no idea what is going on with the pro scene but I could see them banning frame generation, if not you are getting inaccurate data and I could see someone shooting at fake generated frames and missing because of it. I guess this is all academic since I read that some Counter-Strike 2 tournament had all 4090s in their PCs running 1080p 540hz monitors so frame generation is irrelevant in that situation.

So thankfully unlike Dragon Age 2, Veilguard has many dragons in it. I got a ton of side quests at once and decided to do every single one of them till there were none left. Two of them were multistep quests that led to fights with very strong dragons. I tried them both but they were too strong, like I could have done an hour long battle where I used two companions with heals and chipped away at their health but I left them till I gained some levels.

10 levels later I went back to those dragon fights and one of them was still tough but killed it with no issues, the next fight the dragon used Shock and hit extremely hard. I knew I had some item that did 50% bonus to Shock resistance but I couldn't find it anywhere, I figured maybe it was a companion item so I just fought the dragon without it. I had a tough battle with only 20% shock resist vs the 70% I would have with that item.

The way wizards work is you get your wizard staff, or you use a knife and orb. I was going through orbs after killing the shock dragon and found an orb with 50% shock resist.............shit. I looked at wands and armor/rings but didn't check the orbs for shock resist. Doh.

For a long time I was using armor that makes you immune to burning. Then I found armor that returns 5% of your damage inflicted as health. So I switch to that. The very. next. boss. I fight sprayed fire absolutely everywhere leaving burning piles all over the map. Perfect timing