S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - v1.0004 Patch Released

After considerable discussion over time, the v1.0004 patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is actually available for download. Oblivion-Lost.de has the patch notes and you can grab the file from them and usual mirrors such as Internode (US, International) and Gamer's Hell (US, International)
Thanks, Dark Savant.
More information.

Optimization:

1. Calculating detailed objects was moved to the second CPU stream.
2. Engine optimization, which resulted in FPS 10-15% gain.
3. Shaders optimization.

Click to expand...

Might be able to run it now

Is this a cumulative patch, or does it need to be installed over 1.0003?

I would assume it's cumulative, but did not see anything in the patch notes that clearly state one way or the other.

One line in the read me says "Saved games from 1.0003 version will work with 1.0004 version." So I'd assume that you need 1.0003

They included that saved games work because an earlier patch didn't work with previous save games.

The other patches said if you needed previous patches or not. Just check when you get it.

I'm pretty sure that if you patch anything other than the 1.0 version, your saves will be preserved. In other words if your saves are in the 1.0 version and want to patch to a later version, you have to start over. Also, I recall it's one of those deals where you have to do individual patches, ie patch 1.0 to 1.1 then 1.1 to 1.2 etc. but I could be wrong; it's been a while since I played it, but I don't recall a cumulative patch. STALKER is a flawed, but atmospheric, creepy and challenging game, IMO. This one reminded me a little bit of a System Shock 2 moves to Chernobyl type of game, although the story in STALKER wasn't nearly as well developed.

At this point STALKER has become a sad joke.

6 months and 4 patches after release the game still isn't finished. I still won't start a new game because they're already talking about a patch 1.1, actually they announced it before 1.0004.

It has? I thought general agreement was it was pretty damn good, if a little quirky.

I'm talking about the patch situation.

Even unfinished the game still has merits, but just imagine how much better it could have been.

JDR13:

I agree; this is yet another example of a game that was released WAY too early. What really griped me about this one is I bought the game on release, played the 1.0 version about halfway through and gave up because of bugs, and stopped playing to wait for a patch. Then when the patch comes out, I had to start over from scratch because my saves weren't compatible. Not good, IMO. But I think it's a pretty nice game in its current, patched, form.

What really annoys me is that they still haven't fixed most of the major bugs that are drawing the most complaints.
For instance....

The A.I. is still horrible. Npc's make no attemt to avoid anomalies and will walk right through them, sometimes even killing themselves in the process.

The PDA is still buggy, with stashes showing up on the map that you shouldn't know about and finished quests sometimes not being removed.

Monsters and bandits still respawn at an insanely fast pace in certain places, not sure if 1.0004 fixed that but I didn't see any mention in the patch notes.

I've even seen a lot of complaints about the new patch over at GSC forums. Some people are claiming even worse performance now and apparently grass shadows are now broken.

I still think it's a good game but I'm going to wait longer before I restart it, probably until version 1.1. I think part of the problem is that they've been devoting most of their resources to working on STALKER Clear Sky, instead of fixing the problems with the original game which is a shame.