Widescreen Gaming Forum

StingingVelvet says he might write a Detailed Report for this one... I don't know if it's worth the trouble mate, I've given up and even finished it in 4:3 :oops: (hurray for nvidia's 'fixed aspect ratio' thingy). Anyway, here's some general stuff I posted on the official forum a while back : http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=6521

And here's a 5:4-to-'classic TH' comparison to go with the rest, I didn't bother posting these over there :




Feel free to use or ignore all this crap. I'm just sharing unused material in case it may save you some trouble... not trying to scare you, honest :lol:

That's pretty lame. It looks like a neat game... but try as i may, I just cun't stand 4:3 (or 5:4) gaming anymore.. :(

HOlding out some hope that someone can come up with a fix.. but it does;t seem too popular a game, so I don't expect one.

But thanks for the info.

I don't remember the tech demo looking that horrible... I'll have to boot it again and see.

Sucks though... still looks like a great game to me though.

Ick that gives me a headache.

The tech demo may seem ok thanks to the "spectator" point of view. It's definitely Vert- too, though, and then again you have to manually force the aspect ratio or everything stretches. Cryostasis is totally worth playing even in 4:3 anyway - clunky shooting but great atmosphere, unique story-telling, and such an insane amount of shaders with none of the usual next-gen bling-bling ! (By the way, there are absolutely no PhysX fluids in the full game... despite the tech demo being choke-full of 'em.) :?

This is a horrible game.


Nothing of value was lost.

An awful shooter, maybe - but a truly awesome survival horror/adventure game... and graphics stress test :lol:
The ending levels are just pure :shock: :shock:

In case anyone wondered, the retail US version is Vert- as well. Haven't got a weapon yet, but I am sure that is the same as well.

It's not so Vert- I am bothered by it though... FOV seems ok... but again, no weapon yet.

This is unfortunate, I have been waiting for this game for about 3 years now. :(

The demo is available for DL if anyone wants to try, 1.05GB. I am going to give it a go.....

Is it just the tech demo or a playable sample of the game ?

proper demo

Odd game, it would be just that much better if the walking speed was just a wee bit faster. But that is probably something I'd get used to. Interesting premise and very atmospheric. Combat was hard with the frames dropping but I think it is supposed to be tough, gun load times slow.
Frame rates are crap... dropping often for me (everything maxed) but only 1920x1200 res. Also looks pretty poor, compared to the vista tech demo!

Still it would be a game I would play if the frame rate drops went, it was hor+ (blehh feel sick after playing 1/2 hour) and I had DX10... maybe I'll wait until Win7. Hopefully it'll be HOR+, patched and cheaper ;)

Bleh, I totally didn't research that before posting. Anyway, Hor+ is possible now, see here for new developments: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15828

[quote]Bleh, I totally didn't research that before posting. Anyway, Hor+ is possible now, see here for new developments: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10369]Wrong game, mate.... you got me all excited for nothing! ;)

[quote]Bleh, I totally didn't research that before posting. Anyway, Hor+ is possible now, see here for new developments: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10369]
.... Please fix your post. I got really excited when I saw it, only to find out that you linked to the Necrovision DR.
G :x :x :x amn cocktease.

:lol:

In other news, there's now a patch with new features for 'high-end nvidia cards' : new PhysX effects and a new weapon, loads of debris at last, yay ! :D
The game is still hopelessly 'narrow' though ;) except for these cosmetic changes :

o FOV is optimized on 13th level. [sigh]
o HUD display is corrected (weapons, ammo, diving suit) for every resolution [that's a start...]

PhysX Patch 1.1 is a 190 MB download.
http://www.1cpublishing.eu/news/cryostasis-nvidia-physx-performance-patch-available

Holy old bump batman!

Did anyone ever stumble across a better fix for this one? I'm trying to pick it back up and I'd love to play it in my eyefinity native res. (hell I'd take 16:10 for my center monitor without vert-)

This game in surround screens would be crrrrraaaazzzyyyy.... :shock:

:lol:

In other news, there's now a patch with new features for 'high-end nvidia cards' : new PhysX effects and a new weapon, loads of debris at last, yay ! :D
The game is still hopelessly 'narrow' though ;) except for these cosmetic changes :

o FOV is optimized on 13th level. [sigh]
o HUD display is corrected (weapons, ammo, diving suit) for every resolution [that's a start...]

PhysX Patch 1.1 is a 190 MB download.
http://www.1cpublishing.eu/news/cryostasis-nvidia-physx-performance-patch-available

Does this patch work for changing the weapon and hud elements to their correct 4:3 proportions? I haven't been able to find screenshots which show this, and the patch cannot be applied to the demo.

This is simply one of the best horror games ever made.

The atmosphere has been mentioned over-and-over again in other reviews, but there is something more.

This game (from a computer science and engineering perspective) is brilliant; from the advanced Physx water and ice effects, to the wonderfully relevant level design … simply brilliant.

But!!!

It requires know-how to get it working properly: -

1) It has also been mentioned that this game requires NVidia, which is only partially true. The game works perfectly fine on ATI, but obviously without Physx. There was a problem on the “pre-patched” version with shader model 4.0 for ATI, but this is now a thing of the past.

2) Anyone that is computer savvy can run a system in Hybrid mode with an ATI as primary video, and an NVidia as physx. Look up – “ngohq hybrid 1.05ff”.

3) ATI Eyefinity is also AOK, however it is a bit mental. Selecting the proper resolution (eg. 5040x1050) from the games menu will run the game at the correct resolution, but will produce the incorrect FOV. This CANNOT be fixed via registry /ini’s etc…… The only solution (I’ve found) is to set the resolution equivalent to a single screen (eg. 1680 x 1050), then, in game, ALT-TAB to desktop, then switch back to game ……. BAM, FOV fixed. Admittedly the resolution is lower than desired, but it’s “the best she’ll run captin’” for 3 up ATI.

4) Now …. This fair bit of trial and error paid off for me. To improve Physx performance, I’ve found the best combo of Physx dll’s to use. Do this by replacing these 2 files in “…Cryostasis” game directory: -

a. NxCharacter.dll – with 2.7.3.4. This may not be required as I noticed only slight performance improvements, but why not hey? (The one from Unreal Tournament III is perfect).

b. NxCooking.dll – with 2.8.1.52 (or later I imagine, and I'm not sure how much earlier). This really seems to help with smoothing out frame drops and the infamous chug-chug-chug-memory-tripping-over-process-sync issue that I’ve spotted with the main .exe. (BTW – Renaming a PhysxCooking.dll works fine if you can't find an Nx.)

5) If after doing all / any / none of the above you still notice "frame popping", go into the game menu, turn off advanced physx, go back to game, ALT-TAB again to re-fix FOV (which resets when leaving the menu), go back to menu, re-enable advanced Physx, go back to game, ALT-TAB again ..... then all should be smooth.

Seems like all the little loose ends were not tidied up by the dev team, especially the FOV calc from menu leaving - which only seems to calc properly after task switching. Probably easy to fix ..... oh' if we had the source!! But hey, the code is probably a masterpiece of complexity, with a few small caveats.

Hope this helps the community.

Regards,
Badman.