by Molokk on Sat Sep 13, 2008 6:32 am
Ok, well I have tried it, and it works, but there are problems.
I have followed the instructions, I did as follows:
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1. Installed the game (MULTI5, of course, using English language)
2. Installed Patch 1.5.04
3. I copied the entire bin folder to the installation folder.
4. Mounted the stalker_mini.mds using Deamon Tools Lite 4.30.01
5. Launched the game.
6. It asked me to install drivers (StarForce), I installed them successfully.
7. Then I copied the provided protect.exe and replaced the other one in the bin folder.
8. I launched the game again.
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Now, from here what happened first was the following:
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1. The game's main menu appeared, and then after approximately five seconds I got a Blue Screen of Death. Before it crashed my system I had the time to look at the bottom left corner of the screen, and it showed the version number of 1.5.03 instead, that's the first problem, it's not supposed to be showing that I think (correct me if I'm wrong). I suspect that the game's main executable, the xrEngine.exe in the bin folder from the archive is not compatible with the changes made by 1.5.04, but I'm not sure about this.
2. So, after the game crash of course my system restarted. From there what I did was to find the level changers fix I had downloaded earlier (because patch 1.5.04 causes some level changers/arrows to move to next levels to disappear from Cordon), and that fix also includes a patch database unpacker. So I used the unpacker to extract the files contained in the xpatch_04.db file, and it automatically placed the resulting extracted files into a gamedata folder.
3. After that I placed the gamedata folder where it should be, and then I edited the fxgame.ltx file so that it can read data from the gamedata folder instead of the patches folder. And then I applied the actual level changers fix (only requiring the removal of one .script file and the replacement of another, and nothing else).
4. Then, I launched the game. This time around I did not get any BSOD, but the version number shown at the bottom left corner is still 1.5.03 and not 1.5.04 like it should be.
5. I left it as is anyhow, and I started a new game on the Stalker difficulty setting. I played for about ten minutes, and after my first mission I decided to explore around and talk to a Guide. Note that I manually saved the game just before talking to him. So, I decided to talk to him and I ask him to bring me to the 'Village Ruins', then what happened was that the screen went black, and it stayed black for a moment, and then the game crashed to the Desktop.
6. From there I re-launched the game again, and tried to load my saved game. Now what happens is that each time the loading process reaches the 'Synchronization' part, at the end, just before the level appears, then the game crashes to the Desktop with a Bugtrap error. I tried to do this with the auto-save file, but it does the exact same thing. Now I cannot play the game from my saved game, but I can still start a new one.
So I still have problems with this. I think I will just wait for a proper scene release, something like Razor or Reloaded.