Crysis Mods Instructions

[Stringjam]

I see questions a lot regarding Crysis mods so I thought I would put together a post here to reference how I like to do it, and I'll also host the files on my SkyDrive so that they will all be in one place (a lot of the files are very hard to find now).

First off - - only worry about downloading and playing the Tactical Expansion Mod if you want more of a hardcore challenge (large caliber guns will kill you in one shot, snipers will see you from a LONG way off, etc..).


File downloads for Windows SkyDrive
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=72FA07C8E8C44F50!105&authkey=!AAa-0OKfjLXW-a4

Do a fresh install of Crysis. If you're running STEAM, it will be patched to the appropriate version. If not, you'll need to install patch 1.2 and 1.2.1 before you touch anything.

STEP 1

Go into your ...Crysis/Game/Localized folder and delete these files. They're all of the annoying screens / vids that play before the game starts. Delete these and it will just load straight to the game menu.

STEP 2

Start the game and jump into a level. You don't have to start a new game to do this. Just hit the tilde key (~) which will bring up the console. Type map mine and this will load up the mine level. Once it loads up, quit the game.


STEP 3

You should have all of these files downloaded.

Copy and paste the highlighted .pak files into the ....Crysis/Game directory (you'll notice I didn't highlight the GlobalAmbientLighting .pak...don't copy this one over yet). These are the improved texture / objects files. Your directory should like like this now:

*NOTE* I have included the particle FX mod (XtremeFX2.pak), but this is a VERY INTENSIVE file that will suck your FPS, so don't include it unless you have a very high-end machine. If you include it and your FPS is too low, this is the first file you should delete!!

After copying them into the directory, repeat STEP 2.


STEP 4

Time for the GlobalAmbientPOM/AF mod. This one is very important!

Copy the .pak file into the same directory you just placed the other .pak files in. Now delete the ShaderCache.pak file and then go into ....Documents/MyGames/Crysis and delete the Shaders folder. This will cause the shaders to recompile.

Now repeat STEP 2 again. *Note* When you load up a level this time, it will be all blank and weird for a bit while the shaders reload, so don't freak out.


STEP 5

This is optional, but I highly recommend it. The Tactical Expansion mod adds more realistic gun handling, hit damage (no more bullet-soaking NPC's), and a lot of extra weapons and attachments. It also increases AI awareness and accuracy. You will need to start your new game on "DELTA" difficulty to utilize the mod. The only thing I don't care for is the weapon sounds, but I'm so happy with the improvement that I can look past it.

This one is simple - - just run the installer.

To run the mod you will need to create a shortcut to the Crysis.exe in the ...Crysis/Bin32 folder (right click and then "Send To" , then "Desktop (create shortcut)" ).

Right-click the newly added shortcut on your desktop and add -MOD Tactical-Expansion to the end of the target line.

Launch your game from this shortcut. If it loads properly, you'll see "Tactical Expansion Mod" in the right-hand corner of the Crysis Menu screen. DO NOT LOAD BY CLICKING THE MOD FOLDER IN THE CRYSIS MENU....IT WILL NOT LOAD CORRECTLY. You must use your custom shortcut.


STEP 6

Install the CUDAAT ToD mod. It is important to install this last, so the other mods don't override the settings (some of them will, and then it won't work).

Easy....just run the installer.

One more last little modification to get rid of that AWFUL Crysis hit-indicator sound.

Go into your ...Crysis/ directory and open the "autoexec.cfg" file in notepad. Add the line I have highlighted to it and save the file.

For those of you unfamiliar with the autoexec.cfg file, it is just a script that runs before you load a level in the game (console commands). You can modify any of these values to suit your preference. Google is your friend...I'm not going to go through what they all do.

One last note: For best framerates, turn the Crysis Menu setting for AA OFF. The custom autoexec.cfg file runs a console command to use EdgeAA 2x. This generally looks good and runs much, much better than the AA used in the Crysis Menu. If you decide to use the menu AA, it will override the console command.

 

[HEXiT]

any chance of some click-able thumbs to see the difference of before and after?

 

[Stringjam]

any chance of some click-able thumbs to see the difference of before and after?

If I get some extra time to go through and load up a vanilla install I might do that.

I'll note that this modification is just my personal preference, and I'm not a big fan of the extreme ToD mods (like RealLifesis) that do a lot of "hyping". CUDAATS tends to look very natural, while increasing the quality of shadows, terrain, and also increasing LoD and draw distances.

CUDAATS, IMO, just makes the game look a whole lot more real. The ToD artists who built this mod really had my kind of preference for lighting in mind when they put it together. I don't know exactly what they did, but light and shadows just look amazing.

If someone is looking for a more extreme visual mod, they should replace the CUDAATS install with something like Reli2 or RealLifesis.

Here's a few screenshots:

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Bookmarked as one day I'll stop playing it long enough to do this, and thank you very much for putting it all into one place man,
Moto

 

[JJ1217]

Sweet man, thanks. I remember asking you about this somewhere in July.

 

[jessterman21]

Good stuff - I use most of these. Well I did before Crysis stopped launching... I've got the Steam version, and after running it with RadeonPro, it stopped launching. I tried reinstalling it a few times it now says it needs to access the internet to verify ownership - will not launch. Any ideas?

Hey, so what does the Texture Update Mod do for you? ObjectsHD does a fantastic job, IMO, even though it's kind of a cheap trick.

 

[Stringjam]

Good stuff - I use most of these. Well I did before Crysis stopped launching... I've got the Steam version, and after running it with RadeonPro, it stopped launching. I tried reinstalling it a few times it now says it needs to access the internet to verify ownership - will not launch. Any ideas?

Hey, so what does the Texture Update Mod do for you? ObjectsHD does a fantastic job, IMO, even though it's kind of a cheap trick.

Hmmmmm......not sure what would cause the problem(?)

"Texture Update Mod" is actually Rygel's texture pack (for better or worse.....really it's just a lot of sharpened textures). Slicer's Objects doesn't cover nearly as many textures, but they're better, which is why you want to load them last to overwrite Rygel's.

Chicken from CryDev also has some textures out now. You can just download Crysis Expanded to get them all and play it as a mod - - - one-click install. It's a very interesting mod, with tons of particle effects, added vegetation, and some really dramatic lighting. It's too much for my GTX670 in a lot of areas, though.


Here's some screens from Crysis Expanded:

 

[jessterman21]

Hmmmmm......not sure what would cause the problem(?)

"Texture Update Mod" is actually Rygel's texture pack (for better or worse.....really it's just a lot of sharpened textures). Slicer's Objects doesn't cover nearly as many textures, but they're better, which is why you want to load them last to overwrite Rygel's.

Chicken from CryDev also has some textures out now. You can just download Crysis Expanded to get them all and play it as a mod - - - one-click install. It's a very interesting mod, with tons of particle effects, added vegetation, and some really dramatic lighting. It's too much for my GTX670 in a lot of areas, though.

Great - that's pretty. Great upgrade, by the way - enjoying the extra VRAM? I'm getting myself a GTX 660 for my birthday in a few months and I can't wait. Shoulda gone green a long time ago.

 

[Stringjam]

Great - that's pretty. Great upgrade, by the way - enjoying the extra VRAM? I'm getting myself a GTX 660 for my birthday in a few months and I can't wait. Shoulda gone green a long time ago.

Yes!! This was a big leap from my GTX 570. I can actually play Crysis2 / MalDoHD 4.0 at full glory now. I'm still on a 1680x1050 display...that's the next thing I think I'll upgrade. Though honestly, I can't tell a huge difference between 1920 and 1680 displays.

I've hit around 2GB VRAM in MalDoHD, and 2.4GB in some custom maps. I think once I get another display I'll actually see a bigger usage in the VRAM department.

The 660 is a great card. That'll be a nice birthday present (I love buying myself birthday presents, too! )

 

[jessterman21]

Yes!! This was a big leap from my GTX 570. I can actually play Crysis2 / MalDoHD 4.0 at full glory now. I'm still on a 1680x1050 display...that's the next thing I think I'll upgrade. Though honestly, I can't tell a huge difference between 1920 and 1680 displays.

I've hit around 2GB VRAM in MalDoHD, and 2.4GB in some custom maps. I think once I get another display I'll actually see a bigger usage in the VRAM department.

The 660 is a great card. That'll be a nice birthday present (I love buying myself birthday presents, too! )

That's great to hear. Those resolutions are indeed similar - because the vertical size is so close (that determines the amount of aliasing, too). You shouldn't step up to anything less than 1200p, IMO - which is great, my friend has one.

Btw I got my little monitor to downsample from 1080p, so that's nice, even though it's not quite perfect (aspect ratio). Definitely helps in the games that I can't force anything but MLAA in. Still jaggedy at 900p, and MLAA just blurs it a bit too much.

Can't wait to get an Nvidia card that can use FXAA and force MSAA and even SGSSAA, so I can play games satisfactorily at my native res. I also love me some Adaptive Vsync for third-person games (for some reason screen-tearing is much more noticeable than in FPS?) but though RadeonPro does the trick, it did kill my Crysis install............. Still waiting on a fix from the creator. Interestingly, Warhead works fine.

 

[jessterman21]

Replaced my motherboard cuz mine was dying - reinstalled Windows as well, and Crysis is working again. (Not using RadeonPro, since I wasn't really that impressed with it, and I finally got the FXAA and SMAA injectors figured out for my games.)

Anywho, I loaded up my usual mods and tweaks, but this time with Rygel's textures and the GlobalAF/POM pak, and it has definitely brought the visuals up just a notch higher. (Originally I opted out of the shader-replacement step because I was a bit leery of it, but it makes all the difference. And is the sun brighter? Do you know if it works for Warhead as well?)

All those textures caused me to have to drop in-game MSAA, but the FXAA Injector does almost as good a job.

Thanks again for this guide.

 

[Artur Balan]

Is there a way to run Tactical Expansion Mod toghether with Expanded or other graphics mods?

 

[napster100]

Copy and paste the highlighted .pak files

Looks like the images have been removed