Can't start new game or load game.

[Jarrod]

So I upgraded my video card recently to a Radeon HD 7870 (not OC'd) and I wanted to play some more CoP. So I downloaded it and started it up.

After turning everything up at it's highest (except anti aliasing, I hate that crap) and restarting the game, I went to start a new game. The loading took forever, which is fine cause I remember it being that way, but then when it seems like the loading is almost done, the screen goes black, and I get: "X-Ray 1.6 Engine has stopped working"

I'm not the only one who's getting this problem, I know that, but it seems that none of the questions have been properly answered..
Help please..

[sea-x]

Did you install any mods?
Next time you try to start the game and it crashes, click on "Information..." in the Bug Trap window that shows up, then copy the information here.

[Jarrod]

No, I haven't installed any mods, ever. And what is Bug Trap? If that was something that was supposed to pop up when it crashed, it didn't..

[sea-x]

"Bug Trap" is what should pop-up after a Stalker game crashes, giving debug information and crash traces.

Quoting an older post in the Steam Community, hope it helps:

Delete user.ltx and let it make a new one.

^This

This has become an ongoing issue with the Steam version of all these STALKER games, where Steam's game download already provides users with a USER.LTX file, which it should not because it causes some people not to be able to load the game up at all until this file has been deleted. Search for "user.ltx" in your Steam folder and it should find one there (for each STALKER game folder title). Simply delete, then launch the game and this file will be auto re-created again with all game default settings. Once in-game, go to Video Options and select your resolution and apply. Then exit game so it fully saves to the user.ltx file. Then relaunch game to check that your resolution setting works ok and go from there.

These really are great games, but given how Steam gives u a file you shouldn't have, with certain settings already within the user.ltx, this is why so many Steam users are having issues right off the bat with these games.

STALKER also wasn't made with "Steam Community Overlay" in mind, so I highly suggest disable that for STALKER games you install through Steam, via the game's properties under Steam's Library listing.

[Jarrod]

Will try that. Also, I didn't have this problem back when I had my old video card (last time I played CoP was I think like 4 months ago about, and I have not changed anything about my computer other than the recent Graphics Card upgrade)

[sea-x]

It could be that the settings generated while you had your old GPU don't match ones that are generated with your current one. Let me know if the fix doesn't work.

[Jarrod]

Well, I tried that, and turned all my settings back up after they were reset, and it still crashes. (also, still no "Bug Trap" thing) Now I will try NOT turning up the graphics, I should've thought of this earlier..

[Jarrod]

Ok this is weird, so I changed to Static lighting, and it loaded and ran fine. Then I changed it back to dynamic lighting DX11 and I realized that Sun Quality and SSAO quality only went up to high, but when I restart, I can change Sun Quality to Max high and SSAO quality to Very high.

So I tried without changing those two and leaving them at just High, and it worked fine...

[sea-x]

So the game runs just fine now?

[Jarrod]

Sort of... after a bit more testing, if I just leave SSAO quality on "High" it works fine, but if I change it to "Very High" it crashes in the same way.. This is kinda sad because I know from experience with SSAO that it really only looks good when it's on the highest it can be, and looks very poopy and distracting the lower it is. But I can deal with it fine anyway.

Also I have realized that V-sync is pretty non-existant in this game even though it's on.

[sea-x]

Yes, the V-sync is broken I believe. Try setting it manually from Catalyst Control Center or download the D3DO Overrider to force V-sync and triple buffering.

I personally dislike v-sync because it causes me mouse lag.

Have you tested running it in DX10? 10 has never caused me any crashes.

[Jarrod]

I dislike CCC with a passion, I have only had problems with it.
V-sync is a necessity with my rig as I get like 80 to 150 FPS in this game and get major screen tearing.
And no, I didn't test DX10 as I am quite the enthusiast and like my games to look the best they can :3 (PC FTW)

[sea-x]

So you don't have CCC installed? Don't have any driver updates installed?

I'd test it also in DX10, but I don't think SSAO on Very High is so vital. There's a small difference between DX10 and 11 in CoP tho, mainly better shadow physics and tesselation.

[Jarrod]

No, I have the most recent beta drivers w/ CCC still installed (I tried uninstalling it before and it just caused more problems than it solved) and SSAO on Very High isn't vital enough to go down to DX10 so I'm good for now. :P

[IkkYuSoJuN]

V-SYNC can be forced only using D3DOverrider which runs in the background, u dont need the DX11 version just the normal version, and adding xrEngine.exe, and XR_3DA.exe into the profiles. it works for all stalker games, its the only solution iv found for v-sync, grphics control panels wont force it.

[sea-x]

Publicado originalmente por Sojun:

V-SYNC can be forced only using D3DOverrider which runs in the background, u dont need the DX11 version just the normal version, and adding xrEngine.exe, and XR_3DA.exe into the profiles. it works for all stalker games, its the only solution iv found for v-sync, grphics control panels wont force it.

Yes, I mentioned it in a post earlier in this thread. You can also just click on Global and set the V-Sync on, no need to add the game engine into the profiles unless you don't want v-sync to run in a certain game.