FIX YOUR STALKER 2 PERFORMANCE IN THESE THREE STEPS. (NVidia App centered!)

[Kebsu]

I've gathered three guides from three different threads on how to greatly boost your game's performance, and get rid of annoying mouse acceleration which is permanently on. Main step is only for NVidia users.

A) First is NVidia boost, without the actual NVidia auto optimisation, which I have no idea when we will get (i'm talking about the NVidia Automatic Optimisation of games, which for now doesn't include Stalker 2). Make sure you've upgraded from GeForce Experience into NVidia App:
1. Open NVidia app
2. Go to [System] tab
3. Go to [Performance] sub-tab
4. In the middle of the window you will find "AUTOMATIC TUNING" - click it on and wait more or less 20 minutes until it finish.
5. After 20 min finished go to [Graphics].
6. Then go [Global settings]
7. Make the "RTX Dynamic Viprance : ON"
8. "Power management mode: prefer maximum performance"
9. "Shader cache size : driver deffault"
10. "Low latency mode : ON"
11. Everything else : OFF

B) Now that we're done with NVidia, let's get tp the outsourced optimisation.
(MODS FOR THE RESCUE!)
There's one mod that's essentially a community patch that fixes some optimisation issues without any impact on how the game works or looks.
Go to the NexusMods>Stalker 2 and download a mod called STK2.
(link: https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/9?tab=description)
You can download it with Vortex or MO2 if you use them, and it will automatically get implemented/installed, or if you prefer to do it manually:

1. Unpack the downloaded archive (with WinRAR or 7Zip).
2. Go to your Stalker 2 directory
-if it's on Steam, go to Steam>steamapps>common>S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl
3. Open a folder named "Stalker 2"
4. Inside open a folder named "Content"
5. Then a folder named "Paks"
6. Finally a folder named "~mods"
7. IMPORTANT: If you don't have ~mods in here, create a folder and name it "~mods"
8. Put the unpacked .pak file inside of ~mods.
9. Done

Full path to the mods folder :
"C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl\Stalker2\Content\Paks\~mods"

(Kinda obvious, if your Steam folder is on another drive than C, go there instead of C. If you have Steam somewhere else than Program Files, just go where Steam is...)

C) Now that we're done with graphics and performance, there's an issue of mouse acceleration being 'permanently' on, with no way of turning it off from the ingame menu. If you were wondering why your mouse works weird, slow, sloppy etc, here's a solution to your problem:

1. Open search bar
2. Type in %appdata%.
3. It will open "appdata/roaming".
4. Go back one layer and open the folder "local"
5. Find "Stalker2" folder
6. Inside it open a folder "Saved"
7. Open a folder "Config"
8. Open a folder "Windows"
9. Finally a file named "Input.ini", which will be empty.
10. Into "input.ini" paste these lines:

[/script/engine.inputsettings]

bEnableMouseSmoothing=False

bViewAccelerationEnabled=False

11. Save the file and now your mouse acceleration is off.

Full path for the file:Path:
"C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows\Input.ini"
(note that instead of "...\user\..." there might be your user name.

These three things have single handedly fixed my game into a perfect state of constant 120fps outside of hubs and 90fps in crowded areas, with every single graphic option set on Extreme, excluding motion blur which i've turned down to 0% as i hate that thing.
I do play on RTX 4070 tho, so it's kinda obvious your graphics options will need to get tweaked to fit your specs. Still, these three steps are a Miracle Machine.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm not the author or the founder of any of these solutions, i've merely found them out and gathered in one place on the Steam tab for ease of access, in hope that they will greatly help other stalkers ;) There's also more in the original guides if you want to delve deeper, i've focused on the stuff that was most important for me and that had the biggest impact for me.
GO GIVE THE OG AUTHORS SOME LOVE, ARTIFACTS AND BOOZE!


Here are links to the original threads, or at least the ones that were my sources:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1643320/discussions/0/4626980894528260126/

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1gw3fic/a_guide_to_optimizing_fpshelping_stalker_2_run/

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1gvy5sx/mouse_input_lag_fix/

[anon77777]

Originally posted by Kebsu:

3. Open a folder named "Stalker 2"
4. Inside open a folder named "Binaries"
5. Then a folder named "Paks"
6. Finally a folder named "~mods"

its "Stalker2\Content\Paks\~mods"

[Karpatenhund]

Auto-Tuning is no optimisation, its overclocking?

[Kebsu]

Originally posted by Karpatenhund:

Auto-Tuning is no optimisation, its overclocking?

true, but i wouldn't call it *real* overclocking ,as it doesn't even come near squeezing the juice form your hardware, and it will make the game run better therefore will deal as a temporary optimisation band-aid until they add it into the auto-optimisation tab.

But sure, let's change the title, why not.

[Kebsu]

Originally posted by anon77777:

Originally posted by Kebsu:

3. Open a folder named "Stalker 2"
4. Inside open a folder named "Binaries"
5. Then a folder named "Paks"
6. Finally a folder named "~mods"

its "Stalker2\Content\Paks\~mods"

ah damn, you're right, my mistake lol! Fixed.

[Kebsu]

@Karpatenhund Better now?

[༺T0XIC☬SA1NT༻]

p.s NV low latency mode automatically kicks off when having reflex turned on in game. u can read about this on the NV website....

[Karpatenhund]

Originally posted by Kebsu:

@Karpatenhund Better now? :praisesun::er_heart:

No problem ;) I was just wondering, cause I never used the Auto Tune Feature, I didn’t even know about it:D last time I overclocked my system is ten years ago. I will try it now though. :)

[Hanomag75]

Did all but mouse...still locking up laggy herky jerky..seems like a memory leak issue?

[Medusa]

Advising overclocking to fix game performance is just beyond scamming.

[Clannishsauce86]

i tried this step on my gaming laptop and it worked. i see less stuttering and the performance is better.

[Kebsu]

Originally posted by Karpatenhund:

Originally posted by Kebsu:

@Karpatenhund Better now?

No problem ;) I was just wondering, cause I never used the Auto Tune Feature, I didn’t even know about it:D last time I overclocked my system is ten years ago. I will try it now though. :)

I think this is a new feature of the new Nvidia App? I've never seen it before, but it might also be named differently and burried somewhere.

[Kebsu]

Originally posted by Medusa:

Advising overclocking to fix game performance is just beyond scamming.

Well, i don't work for GSC so there goes the scamming part lol.

Also producent's software-based OC doesn't push the hardware to the limits like the hand-tweaked OC would, and since it's producent's software, it won't melt your PC. I'd go as far to say that if your card has OC unlocked by stock, you're not using the whole product if you don't use the option to OC.

Finally: i'm just giving you options, if you don't want to use them then don't use them. This is by no means a "you must do it this way" thread. This is a "hey, if you want your game to run better you can do these" thread.

[zpc]

How it started: 3 steps
How it ended: 30 steps later...

[Nite69]

Prefer max performance will keeps your GPU at max clocks even when idle don't ever do that its stupid

[kpd]

So how much +fps are we talking about? You said stable 120fps now, how much fps it was before?