Is Lost Alpha dead? (STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl)
Now I'm browsing the sites dedicated to this mod, and I observe that the latest news from the developers of the mod was more than 9 months ago. The question is brewing: is Lost Alpha dead? How do you think?AddTwisted GP-5 rev.2.0 is
promised, but recently there was news that most of the developers abandoned this business
AddTwisted GP-5 rev.2.0
http://ap-pro.ru/blog/lost_alpha_dc_blog_razrabotchika_3/2015-07-21-1442
vtlk760
Specifically, nothing is said about the completion of work. There are two people left who are working steadily. The rest will either return or no longer take part in the development of the project. A set of new hands is underway, which confirms further work on LA.
07/21/2015
News from Lost Alpha developers should be fully covered on PG.
Source:
Spoilerhttp://ap-pro.ru/blog/lost_alpha_dc_blog_razrabotchika_3/2015-07-21-1442
Hi all! I have not been here for a long time ... well, how long ago, a whole, one might say, a year. The army decided to remind about itself and took me into its arms. Even though the year didn’t drag on too long, even if I managed to brighten up this year by participating in the Victory Parade on Red Square, even if I managed to fly to Kaliningrad for exercises, but still ... if I got to another part where this was not all there, I would just senselessly lose this year. Anyway, back at the end of June, I had a desire to see what has changed on the modding front. Lost Alpha DC, it turns out, hasn't changed as much as I thought, to be honest. As I found out later, some of the developers left after the release of the original version. Vintar, Loxotron, those who did the locations and cutscenes are gone. For some, work began to take a lot of time, someone had urgent serious problems, and there are those who are simply tired of LA. During this time that I returned, I worked mainly Vincent Vega, which we all know from the SWTC weather modification. uta3kr and griph00n worked on the engine. Well, Dezodor over the plot-location component. That's all. The project really needs working hands now, and if you have a desire to fix something, work in the CDC, revive a-life, finish it to the optimal state, contact Dezodor.
Before starting work on my mod, I decided to help with the development of Lost Alpha DC to restore the skill. Too much needs to be improved and, frankly, it would be better if they did it well first, and then they wouldn’t have to fix it. Therefore, there is no desire to work on curvature now at all.
I’ll tell you what I did and what I didn’t manage to implement in this version of Lost Alpha in these 25 days.
There will be no legs
I was asked if in Lost Alpha DC we would see the protagonist's legs looking down. After all, we saw them in the first LA patches. I can only say that the form in which this feature is now coming does not satisfy us. There are many reasons, but the main reason lies in the game animations. Because of them, it is impossible to make the camera not pass through the body model, and this looks very ugly. So in the end we will not see this feature. But modmakers, if they want, will be able to return them, I didn’t cut anything out of the engine code.
Render
When we were doing an updated render for the original, I had a strong desire to add DX11 support to the game in addition to the DX10 render, but due to the tight deadlines, I did not have time to do this. Last week I made this support. Personally, my game is faster on it. It is also possible that the game will have tessellation (smoothing the corners of models). To do this, you need to work on the models, assign them the necessary tessellation, so that the renderer knows whether the model needs to be smoothed, and if necessary, according to what scheme. Here's how tessellation works on one of the models:
In the screenshot, you can see how tessellation smooths out the hood and boots. (Look at your hands, wow 
)
Also, now the detailed bump works in the game, which greatly improves the reliefs on the textures and the objects seem more voluminous:
A parameter such as the quality of the sun has been added to the game. When playing, for example, on DX11, the shadows become softer depending on the distance of the object:
However, these shadows can give good performance, I don’t think that many players can afford to turn the shadows on to the maximum.
Weather
On the graphics side, I work closely with Vincent Vega, who does the weather and environment stuff. Many parameters from the render have been transferred to the weather so that you can fine-tune the weather for different weather conditions. For example, settings were added for the direction of movement of clouds (for the feeling of wind in the game), their speed, the buildup of grass, Depth of Field, the coefficient of general illumination from sunlight. DX10 was improved, some shortcomings were fixed, such as the transparency of skycubes, crooked sunmasks (shadows from clouds on the ground, they moved in the original game in a direction and at a speed different from the clouds themselves) and others.
Ballistics
Tracers returned to the game, which were not displayed in LA. Also, the ballistics of bullets from Call of Pripyat, more realistic by the standards of the game, was taken, along with the parameters of the cartridges. Damage to characters is now calculated using a new formula, taking into account bullet flight coefficients and other parameters. Also, a formula was written for ricochets from characters with good armor. Now, when shooting at a character in an exoskeleton, most of the bullets will ricochet off his armor, but the damage will still be dealt.
Tearing off limbs
I have long wanted to implement this feature. In such a short time, I didn’t make it using polygon cutting technology, as, for example, in Left4Dead 2, but at least somehow. The main thing is that it works smile In this screenshot, I haven't done half of what I planned yet. This is the earliest version. This feature also requires work on models, but according to my idea, only civilian zombies will come off limbs, since a decrepit body from a good cartridge will simply smash, therefore, in fact, there is not as much work as for other features.
Inverse kinematics
Inverse kinematics has been added to the game. This technology has been introduced into the engines of the CHN and ZP. You could see that monsters and stalkers, being on an uneven surface under their feet, put their feet exactly relative to the surface. However, for this feature, as well as for tessellation, you need to work a lot, in this case on animations. At the moment, I have only corrected one animation, which you can see in the screenshot. In general, it's a matter of time.
Canceled plans
There were actually a lot of plans for what could be done for LA DC, this was work with bokeh effects, Depth of Field, less resource-demanding compared to the current one (even some developments were), and a change in the game like thin weapons LA / ZP, as many people really wanted the dependence of the hand model on the costume worn by the main character. However, this, unfortunately, will not happen. This month, apart from me and Vega, no one practically did any work, although this may be due to holidays, everyone will return at the end of the summer and will prepare this addition, I don’t know. But still, the feeling of lack of work on and the creation of edits by other developers that break the floor of the game (because of this, I just didn’t want to implement a change in the thinness of weapons), make me finish the main thing that I started and finish it faster. However, the rest of the devs have stepped up a bit in recent days, so if you have the skills and the desire, you might be able to continue with this add-on and breathe new life into it. Personally, I just don’t have enough for it, I spent too much time on it. Therefore, I think that soon I will be able to leisurely take up the development of my mod on the ZP engine, or, in extreme cases, on the CHN. Vincent Vega, like me, plans to finish his work on this mod in the near future and switch to his new project. Most importantly, almost everything that I wanted to contribute to this project, I contributed, well, I restored my skill. I remembered how to do what, and I hope that I can start my project. I spent too much time on it. Therefore, I think that soon I will be able to leisurely take up the development of my mod on the ZP engine, or, in extreme cases, on the CHN. Vincent Vega, like me, plans to finish his work on this mod in the near future and switch to his new project. Most importantly, almost everything that I wanted to contribute to this project, I contributed, well, I restored my skill. I remembered how to do what, and I hope that I can start my project. I spent too much time on it. Therefore, I think that soon I will be able to leisurely take up the development of my mod on the ZP engine, or, in extreme cases, on the CHN. Vincent Vega, like me, plans to finish his work on this mod in the near future and switch to his new project. Most importantly, almost everything that I wanted to contribute to this project, I contributed, well, I restored my skill. I remembered how to do what, and I hope that I can start my project.
Do not forget that the developers of the modification are dealing with an outdated engine. We look forward to further updates. The zone is not going anywhere.
bravointheua
In general, he is already so handsome, put everything to the maximum and you will see: Z
