Not a Happy Camper

[ods3bodkins]

When I began playing Stalker 2 back in December, I experienced the common problem of 'compiling shaders' lock ups and crashes, which were annoying, but once the game actually launched, I could play for hours without crashing. My first encounter with an in-game crash was in Rostock, with which some other people had reported crashing too. Steam says I've played over 140 hours, mostly during this happy time. Then came the now dreaded PATCHES! I naively welcomed these. Patches make things better, right? Reading the posts, this has been the experience of some people, but not for me. So, I've dutifully sent in my notice after each crash, seemingly only to be ignored. And each patch has seemed to make things worse, to the point now where it seems to take six or eight crashes just to get to the game menu, then after I've selected which game to load, it still crashes half the time. If after all of this I actually get to play Stalker, it just crashes within 15 minutes or less. My system is not old, has boat loads of memory, and only once in a great while do my non-Stalker games crash. Other than my Nvidia drivers, my system hasn't changed. In case my driver was somehow the culprit, I've rolled it back to earlier versions. No luck. I've deleted and reloaded the game umpteen times, and have checked the integrity of the files. And no luck with trying some of the many work-arounds others have posted, which I shouldn't have to be doing! The crashing problem lies with this game and its developers. Hopefully they will some day fix what once worked (for me at least), which they have since broken.

As for my system (should the developers ever care), I'm running Windows 11, using an RTX 4090 graphics card and an Intel i9-14900K CPU. Yes, these are not perfect things, but for over 140 hours they got the job done for Stalker 2. Now they don't.

OK. That's my rant. I feel a little better, but the @$%! game still doesn't run!

[SilverX95]

Intel i9-14900K CPU..... you do know about the problems with that CPU right?
did you ever make sure the motherboard bios was up to date?

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/4511003079825555479/

[ods3bodkins]

Thanks for the reply. Given my level of ignorance, I'm reluctant to make changes to my BIOS, especially since the crashing is confined to Stalker, and did not occur before they started patching the game. Also, if it was a BIOS issue, I'd expect to see problems running other programs, but I don't. That said, maybe someday I will try tweaking my BIOS, or just get a new CPU.

[volkov956]

Do you have any other UE5 engine games to try it out on but a bios update won't hurt unless done wrong but they have pretty easy Updaters these days don't need to run dos commands for update anymore

[HiggsLP]

Originally posted by volkov956:

Do you have any other UE5 engine games to try it out on but a bios update won't hurt unless done wrong but they have pretty easy Updaters these days don't need to run dos commands for update anymore

Unless OP has flashback/dualbios I wouldnt recommend it.
Theres still the chance to prick the mobo...

[[STRAT] Oddball]

Bios update fixed crashing on my system- (4090 gpu and 13900k cpu).

[ods3bodkins]

Beyond question there is a community of people who have experienced problems increasing with each patch. So, it seems very likely that at least some of the problems we are experiencing are do to poor development. I find this especially compelling for me because my system as a whole, and the other games I play on it, are having no noticeable problems. No crashing, anywhere. Hence my being upset with the Stalker team. That said, workarounds have seemingly helped other people, and that special one to fix my broken Stalker game may be out there somewhere. I doubt my BIOS is the problems. I have a high-end Falcon rig just over a year old, but who knows? I may gird my loins, grit my teeth, and give it a try. But it would just be easier if there was a way of putting my hope out of its misery, so I can move on to better things.

[SilverX95]

Originally posted by HiggsLP:

Originally posted by volkov956:

Do you have any other UE5 engine games to try it out on but a bios update won't hurt unless done wrong but they have pretty easy Updaters these days don't need to run dos commands for update anymore

Unless OP has flashback/dualbios I wouldnt recommend it.
Theres still the chance to prick the mobo...

only if you turn the power off.
telling them not to do this is just as bad, as bios updates provide fix's to the cpu microcode and fix problems with the motherboard also, and improve system stability.
like the fact most of the OEM 13/14 gen motherboards will over-volt the snot out of the i9's
hope you like buying a $400 CPU over and over again.
if you can't handle doing this sort of thing, then don't buy a gaming computer.
just buy a Xbox series x or PlayStation 5 Pro

its not like there's been news articles allover the place about the intel 13th and 14th gen chips

if your worry about messing up settings, use a phone to take pics of all the setting before hand.

[ods3bodkins]

I updated my Intel BIOS, but still no luck. Game keeps crashing when trying to unpack shaders. Will try to get my stealth fix elsewhere, while waiting for the next patch.

[Othobrithol]

Originally posted by ods3bodkins:

I updated my Intel BIOS, but still no luck. Game keeps crashing when trying to unpack shaders. Will try to get my stealth fix elsewhere, while waiting for the next patch.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016800/Chernobylite_Complete_Edition/
I'm not convinced on this one yet, kind of clunky but its stealth is interesting.

[MorbidLynx]

I guess one question I didn't see asked is whether you're experiencing a hard shutdown or a crash to desktop. My little laptop will run the game when it's downclocked but becomes chernobyl on an overclock with stalker.

Some things you can try are adjusting settings, I find it's usually particle effects or post processing effects like depth of field.