Just figured out that ntdll-ForceBottomUpAlloc patch from Wine staging is essential for this game. Without it, it often hangs on memory allocations.

50 hours played :)
Zero stability issues. Longest no-life session was 7 hours in a row.

Enjoying the game a lot. I installed 1 mod though. Increased Carry weight to 150.
https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/53?tab=files

the default carry weight is extremely stupid imo. Specially since quest/mission items have a weight. You can increase your weight with artifacts a bit but not by much.

I still have a bug with Dr. Lodochka mission. Firs the bunker door didn't open to finish the quest. Recent 1.02 patch fixed the bunker door, but now the NPC doesn't have the dialog option to finish it. Luckily its just a side mission, but still.

Other than few bugs here and there its been super immersive experience. Hud is off and playing with STALKER difficulty.

Ohh and also, to disable mouse smoothing/acceleration:

"~/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/1643320/pfx/drive_c//users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Stalker2/Saved/Config/Windows/Input.ini"

[/Script/Engine.InputSettings]
bDisableMouseAcceleration=True
bViewAccelerationEnabled=False
RawMouseInputEnabled=Enabled
RawMouseInputEnabled=1
bEnableMouseSmoothing=False

What does that mouse setting do? I didn't notice anything annoying so far. May be it affects only specific mice?

I found this plugin also: https://github.com/Lyall/STALKER2Tweak

I'm playing on Stalker difficulty too. With that ntdll-ForceBottomUpAlloc patch, it's been stable so far.

Last edited by Shmerl on 1 December 2024 at 7:38 am UTC

the mouse option disables stupid Unreal Engine mouse smoothing.
If you dont find it annoying then you probably dont need it.
I find all kinds of acceleration/smoothing options annoying in any game.


2560x1440, high settings, epic textures, fov 110, DLSS quality, motion blur strenght disabled, FSR framegen enabled, reflex enabled. mouse smoothing and acceleration disabled with ini tweaks. 80-140 FPS. In the wilderness it runs mostly around 120 fps. in bigger camps usually around 100 but can drop to 80 at times.

Ryzen 5800X3D, RTX 3080
6.12-cachyos kernel
565.57.01 nvidia drivers
Arch Linux, MATE Desktop.

Last edited by Xpander on 1 December 2024 at 8:16 am UTC

I'm not using upscaling, and get around 60-75 fps (max settings, 2560x1440, 7900 XTX).

Using winewayland (wine-wow64 build + esync + those alloc patches + dxvk / vkd3d-proton naturally), KDE Plasma 6.2.3.

I think framerate depends on the scene. It's worse in more populated areas.



Last edited by Shmerl on 1 December 2024 at 7:03 pm UTC

One detail I noticed - prices differ when trading and quite a bit. So don't sell / buy items from wrong vendors! I sold a bunch of stuff in the bar while other merchants pay a lot more for some of that.

Last edited by Shmerl on 2 December 2024 at 4:50 am UTC

Yeah. Places where you have green icons will give more money from trades. I sold lots of them on the camps far away from the starting zones with heavily cut prices.
What i think this game is missing is bicycles. There are some rusty ones in the world but weird that you cant use them. I get it that Cars don't work on the zones but why not use bicycles.

nearly 60 hours played now. Story is getting quite interesting also....





capped the framerate to 120 and its been a blast. I run minimal hud so no mangohud up when playing

love how detailed the textures and all the clutter is

Good to hear that story is getting interesting.

I think green icons indicate more friendly merchants? I noticed they turned green in Zalissya after I finished a few missions, so may be it's based on the reputation.

Bicycles could be interesting, but with anomalies scattered everywhere at random, it's probably too risky anyway.

Last edited by Shmerl on 2 December 2024 at 5:59 pm UTC

yeah its a hidden reputation system of some kind. helping out the camp with tasks/sidemissions and killing their enemies i think improve the standing.

Searching for artifacts