Installation and links

## Installation

OP-2.2 is a standalone release based on a custom build of the engine. It doesn't require the base game, and also doesn't conflict with any other Shadow of Chernobyl installation. The English translation is already included in the base mod. About 40GB of drive space is recommended for the game and save files.

**OP-2.2 main installer** download locations:

* Rutracker.org link - official torrent distribution from the devs. Run op-2.2.exe to install.
* Direct magnet link for your torrent client, from the same Rutracker link as above.
* Google Drive reupload, in case your ISP doesn't allow torrents. Files are the same, inside a single zip archive. Unpack it and run op-2.2.exe.

**The latest update** (March 15, 2023):

* Google Drive link - official distribution from the devs.

**Fixed translations for Safe Route and Art of Marksmanship** in English and Ukrainian:

* MEGA link - provided by StormTetris

Install the mod first. Install the update into the same directory. Make sure you have DirectX runtime installed as well.

Don't install into `Program Files` or other read-only directory controlled by the system: the game won't be able to save the settings there.

Avoid non-English symbols in the path (check if your username in Windows has any, if installing to `C:\Users\...`).

If you see an empty message box during installation, just press Enter. It's unknown why it appears on some systems but not others.

### Switching to English

The game is in Russian by default; here's how to switch it to English:

* Open the options
* Switch to English
* Restart the game

If that doesn't work and the game is still in Russian, make sure you didn't install it into `Program Files` as noted above!

Let the settings of "Encoding" and "Font (type)" to "Eastern European", don't change this setting.

## Recommended settings

* Since the mod is extremely huge and many things in it require prior knowledge, wanting to reload a save is common here. In the options, turn auto saves on. Bind a hotkey (for example F5) to the "save game at level" function in options, and use it to create a unique dated hardsave every time. That way you will have a save log you will need in the name of your own sanity. Or alternatively, use manual hardsaves. Remember to also save *before* any significant action, not just after it.
* Dynamic lighting (set by default) is recommended. Switching to the static lighting will cause certain reticles and red dots on the scopes to be almost invisible. This is a limitation of the X-Ray engine.
* Turn the head bob down in settings with the slider, otherwise your head will spin 360° on hit, and when waking up. That's a known bug that never got fixed. Small head bob will still remain for immersion even when the slider is at the minimum, it won't affect anything.

## Technical issues

### Stuttering

OP-2 often suffers from stuttering. The mod uses A-life quite a lot, and unfortunately the stuttering accompanies it and is expected. At the very start, the stuttering is harder, as the game populates its locations; it should be reduced after several minutes, but not disappear completely.

Some people advise lowering `objects_per_update` from 6 to 4 in `config/alife.ltx`. It greatly helps with stuttering (but not removes it completely), but also has a chance of messing with game logic in the certain scenarios with AI traveling offline and staying active beyond the online range. Setting this to 1 will break A-Life completely.

The stuttering also seems to be related to the map (Zaton being one of the worst) and to the quality of the textures. So when there is stuttering try to use the "Lightened Textures" that you can find for instance at https://vk.com/topic-22591294\_48189168 (among other addons).

It's also entirely possible that your particular hardware combination or Windows settings are causing micro-stuttering. This is well outside of the scope of this wiki.

### Sound issues

If you have issues with sound, like constant reloading sounds during the savegame loading, or broken sound positioning, try disabling EAX in the settings or/and deleting the hrtf directory in the game folder.

### Known sources of game breakage

The following is known to break the game.

* Traveling to another location while the blowout or horror hour is in effect.
* Some essential characters may fight each other while traveling, an example being Kostya walking to the Dump and killing Kuznetsov in process. Walk away for 160m+ so the NPC could walk offline without entering combat.
* Teleporting out of some advanced location immediately after completing the objective, instead of walking out normally; you could fail to trigger something important on exit.
* Chickening out of large fights by running away without killing all enemies. It doesn't *break* the game per se, but they will remain there, or worse, start roaming around. This can add up to terrible effects (getting instagibbed on entering the location, quest givers dying etc). Be sure to wipe everyone.

## Other resources

This wiki is one of the few resources available about OP-2.2 in English. The mod itself is translated into English, but most of the discussions and videos are in Russian and Ukrainian. Have your online translator ready. GPT-4 and DeepL are probably the most accurate for Russian to English, while Yandex Translate can translate text from the screenshots, last but not least Google Translate also does a reasonable job most often (at least translating to english). The translation feature built into Chrome also is helpful especially for reading the forums mentioned below.

http://stalker-worlds.games/forum/forum/467-\* - the developer forums (in Russian and Ukrainian). There are neighbor boards for OP-2.1 and OP-2.0x, with plenty of guides and discussion.

https://www.amk-team.ru/forum/topic/14491-\* - if you need some cheat edits, they are all made on this forum (in Russian). Don't install all at once, they often include unrelated stuff and/or break the game in unexpected ways. Install only what you experience issues with in real game, and test one by one.

* Double-check that your addon is compatible with the latest patch, as most of them aren't. If it's not, you're on your own (you have to adapt it yourself). At the very least, compare it with the original files and ensure that the edits make sense and are related to what the addon claims to do.
* **Warning: modifying the death\_manager.script will break your game dozens of hours into it, if you don't fully understand what you're doing.**
* Fooling around with spawning certain innocuous-looking items before the story gives them to you may break your save if there's some quest trigger attached to it, and you won't discover it until you're hundreds of hours into the game. (certain guns like WA 2000 "Anomaly" are known for that, and other items that don't look like they're related to quests at first).
	+ NS storyline, in particular, is notorious for breaking when spawning items, since the original NS creator, Arkhara used improvised (and often laughably shitty) methods to solve engine issues. For example, the WA-2000 "Anomaly" pickup from Help to Chernomor is an isomorph (i.e., detected by the isomorph detector), then once picked up, it is now a WA2000.
* Removing the addon mid-game might break it, so once you've installed it you're tied to it. (or it might not - depends on the addon)