Readme File:

'Better Lighting, Depth of Field and FPS' v1.0. 

By NeilMc

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Description:

Enhances Lighting, Depth of Field Blur and keeps Framerate at very playable levels, (if you have a decent graphics card- an ATI 3870 or 8800gt or equivalent). 

This is designed for Windows XP using DX9 settings and using the latest 1.5.04 patch, however may still work with DX10 Vista users and earlier patches, BUT NOT TESTED.

When I first played S.T.A.L.K.E.R ClearSky, I found the visuals amazing, but some of the new graphics features such as Depth of Field / Distance Blur to be a little conservative, so these have been tweaked to look more like Gothic 3. Three variation have been included- High, Medium and Low.



This 'mod' is a simple 'user.lxt file' that adusts visual settings to enhance lighting and DOF to make the game appear clearer without affecting frame-rates, which I'm sure you would all like to hang on to! Strictly speaking its not a 'mod', more 'tweaked settings' to get the best visual impact.

This mod should give-

* Brighter clearer lighting and darker shadows, and includes sun-shafts/ 'god rays'.
* Better depth of field Blur
* Better FRAMERATES as compared to Enhanced Full Dynamic lighting at 'High' preset (about 15fps more- see the screen shots!)

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Notes:

1) I use an ATI HD3870 (PCIex) graphics card overclocked to 760/1250 and a q6600 processor overclocked to 3.4Ghz.

2) You will have to reset your Screen Resolution, Key settings, Audio settings and Difficulty settings to your own preferences.

3) I use patch 1.5.04. This mod has not been checked with other earlier patches so may cause some problems.
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Installation

1.) MAKE A COPY of your original 'user.ltx' file found in your 'STALKER-STCS' folder
( the full path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\STALKER-STCS )
(replace the 'C' with the letter of your own hard-drive)

2.) Extract the mod from the .RAR folder and place the new 'user.ltx' file in your STALKER-STCS folder 
( the full path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\STALKER-STCS )

3.) Play!


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Uninstallation:

Replace my user.ltx file with YOUR ORIGINAL SAVED COPY.

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Copyright/ Legal:

You can adjust this file to suit your own personal taste- tweak away!. However if you use my unaltered mod as part of another mod distributed on this or any other site, I would appreciate a credit to 'NeilMc' (that's me)in your 'read me'. Thanks.


If you have questions or suggestions, post 'em below