Seeing only the sky in STALKER? Here is how I fixed it.

[mentok1982]

My setup:
Evga 8800 GTX
Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit
Forceware 158.18 and 101.09.

I was using the 158.18 drivers for Vista 32 bit and when I loaded the game, it would play the
opening cut scene, but when the game started all I could see was the clouds and everything
else was a mat gray color. I could still hear the trader talking and I could put my cursor on
the chest and lockers and get the messages for opening them.

I looked around for a solution. I saw that someone fixed it by going back to older drivers. I
installed the 101.09 drivers and I still had the same problem.

I looked around some more for a solution. Someone said that they had AA forced in the
Nvidia control panel and after they turned that off everything was fine. I went to my control
panel and I did not have AA forced but my Performance Quality slider was set to quality.
After I set the option to let the application decide, the game worked fine.

I can now play at 1600x1200 or 1920x1080 with all settings maxed, mid slider in Aniostropic
and full dynamic lighting. I have not tried going back to the 158.18 drivers, but I am pretty
sure they would work as long as I left the Performance Quality set to application controlled.

I hope this helps some people.

 

[Draax]

Vista + 8800 leads to problems with Stalker. The game will look like crap, but you will probably need to set the lighting to static and not either of the dynamic options.

 

[mentok1982]

Vista + 8800 leads to problems with Stalker.

Really? Well I have been playing it without problems since I fixed my initial problem. I have
played for about 12 hours in the last two days. Yesterday I played for about 6 hours on my 37"
1080p LCD, and it looked great.

 

[mentok1982]

Vista + 8800 leads to problems with Stalker. The game will look like crap, but you will probably need to set the lighting to static and not either of the dynamic options.

What are you talking about? Read my full post. I am not having any more problems.

 

[Draax]

If you type "stalker vista 8800 problems", in google, there are about 120,000 results ... you decide if theres a problem.

 

[mentok1982]

If you type "stalker vista 8800 problems", in google, there are about 120,000 results.

True. But my point was that it sounded like you were trying to help me fix a problem that I am
not having. Everything is fine for me. I just posted this to let people know of an easy way to fix
this specific problem. If you want to trash the game please do so in another thread.

 

[Draax]

True. But my point was that it sounded like you were trying to help me fix a problem that I am
not having. Everything is fine for me. I just posted this to let people know of an easy way to fix
this specific problem. If you want to trash the game please do so in another thread.

Oh please, I very much enjoy Stalker, as I have stated in numerous other threads. I was simply stating that stalker has problems with 8800 cards and vista which 120,000 google results also suggest.