This is basically the ultimate shader mod. It is a compilation of effects from EVERY shader mod and has been insanely optimised to give improved performance. These shaders also give a higher-frame rate than vanilla and much higher than Sky4CE's shader mod.
The easiest way of looking at the optimisation is "Pluck all the hairs from your body to minimise drag before you go competitive swimming. Except your eyebrows because then you would look like a tool." That means there is absolutely no graphical disadvantages in anyway and the performance is astounding in comparison to other available shader mods.
A list of features include:
Parallax Occlusion Mapping (Sky4CE)
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (Sky4CE)
Depth of Field (Sky4CE)
Dynamic Depth of Field (Meltac)
Sun Shafts (Sky4CE)
Shadow Jittering (LURK)
Saturation/Contrast Filter (LURK)
Custom Shadow Map Resolution (Kingo64)
Forceable Motion Blur (Kingo64)
Float32 2.0 Mod (Float32 Team)
All of these shaders were originally based on Sky4CE SkyGRAPHICS v2.0 RC4.1 and Stalker Forever Water Shaders v1.0, Float32 2.0 combined with the shaders that come with LURK 1.0552.
Step 1. FSGame.ltx
If you have not used a mod before in STALKER it is required that you enable the game data folder. To make this happen, look inside your STALKER root directory and you will find a file called fsgame.ltx. Open it up and it should be the second line you need to edit. It will appear (If you haven't edited it before) like this:
$game_data$ = false|true|$fs_root$|gamedata\
This is telling the game to ignore everything and just read the game files in the database archives. We need to change that. Change that line to appear as:
$game_data$ = true|true|$fs_root$|gamedata\
Now it will load any files you have in the gamedata folder instead of the same named files in the databases. Simple? Save and exit.
Step 2. Extracting
Extract the shader folder into your STALKER gamedata folder. If a shader folder already exists, delete it to ensure compatibility.
Step 3. Setting up
Make your way to gamedata\shaders\r2 and locate a file called "ShaderSettings.txt". From there you can enable and disable all the features included in the mod. Remember, there are many features that are disabled by default which you can activate yourself.
How do I install SSM over another mod?
Delete the current shader folder located in gamedata/shaders then replace it with the contents of this mod. I suggest you then modify your ShaderSettings.txt file or use a preset settings file to suit your needs.
Can you describe the preset files?
Full Performance - All extra shader effects disabled, more FPS than Vanilla
Balanced - A balance between performance and quality
Extreme - Everything maxed out.
I keep getting the error "Your video card doesn't support Pixel Shader 1.1 or higher"
There are three causes for that error to show up:
1. You did not configure ShaderSettings.txt properly and caused an error
2. You installed over the top of a conflicting mod and it somehow bugged out instead of replacing the existing shaders
3. I could have broken a shader file
So how do I go about fixing that?
Here are the solutions to the above scenarios:
1. Try either rolling back your ShaderSettings.txt file or restoring a preset or the original ShaderSettings.txt from the mod
2. Delete the current shader folder located in gamedata/shaders then replace it with the contents of this mod
3. If you can't figure out how to fix the problem, go to %AppData%\XRay Engine\reports and email me the crash ZIP file at Kingo64@gmail.com
Comparison Images
SSAO Comparison
Parallax Mapping Comparison
Depth of Field Comparison
Sun Shafts Comparison
Shadow Jittering Comparison
DirectX 8 = Static Lighting
DirectX 9 = Dynamic Lighting