Cryostasis: From Russia, With An Appetite For Fast Hardware

Graphics Tips For Cryostasis And Conclusion

Tips for ATI Cards and Manual Configuration Tweaks

When we tested the ATI cards (Radeon HD 4670 and Radeon HD 4870), we encountered various issues. As a result, we’ve gathered various tips that explain how we addressed the issues.

Screen artifacts:

Reduce the Gamma settings, even though this game is very dark overall. In testing, it also helped when we lowered the memory clock speed a bit.

Crashes:

Turn off Shader Model 3.0 and deactivate PhysX (naturally).

Tips for All Graphics Cards

Crashes When Changing Graphics Settings:

We found it common that, when switching to a different shader model, Cryostasis would hang or outright crash. A simple remedy is to edit the configuration file manually, and then to restart the game.

Auto-Saved Games Don't Appear in the Saved Games List:

This happens from time to time. As a solution, simply load a game you've saved manually, and after you close it, the auto-saved games should also be available. After that, automatically-saved games should re-appear, and be at your disposal.

The Most Important Settings in the Config File:

Config.cfg is a plain text file. It’s stored in the game directory and may be edited directly with any text editor (such as Notepad).

//=================== physics settings ===================

Physics Settings: (0 or 1)

@p.hardware = 1
@p.fluids = 1
@p.cloth = 1

//=================== video settings =====================

Optimizing individual graphics elements: (0 or 1)

@r.sky = 1
@r.realshadows = 1
@r.softshadows = 1
@r.projectives = 1
@r.motionblur = 0
@r.cameramotionblur = 0
@r.diffusemap = 0
@r.normalmap = 0
@r.specularmap = 0
@r.waterreflection = 1
@r.waterenvreflection = 1
@r.anti-aliasing = 1      
@r.vsync = 0         
@r.fur = 1         
@r.postglow = 1        
@r.caustic = 1    

Shader-Model Manual Settings:

@r.shadermodel = 3  (2, 3, 4)

Conclusion

We're going to be frank here. This game only runs well on high-performance PCs, and remains subject to various limitations. At either the minimum or recommended configurations, neither fluid nor trouble-free game play is possible. One can only hope for another patch to help remedy this issue. (Ed.: There is now a patch available, which helps improve performance and adds the same degree of PhysX effects seen in the tech demo, if your hardware is up to the task. You can grab that here.) The various physics effects and textures visible in the tech demo are nothing like what you’ll see in the actual game itself. Those who play the game and find it interesting, yet slow and frustrating, may want to take a long hard look at their systems and consider a hardware upgrade (which may be warranted in any case).

Our recommendations for a workable PC for Cryostasis:

  • Intel CPU: Core 2 Duo at 3 GHz or Core 2 Quad at 2.6 GHz or better
  • 
AMD CPU: Athlon 64 X2 6400+ or 7750, AMD Phenom II X3 or X4
  • 

RAM: 3-4 GB for x86, 4 GB or more for 64-bit systems
  • 
Nvidia graphics cards: GeForce GTS 250, 9800 GTX+ or better 

  • AMD/ATI graphics cards: Radeon HD 4850 or better 

  • truehighroller
    I heard this game was messy. I recently purchased Prototype though and it is a good game...
    Reply
  • werr20
    i played this game and it's nice ! i have x3 720be(2,8ghz),4gb ram ddr2, 4850 512mb .on my pc it runs smooth
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    Penttium D 2.8GHz, 1gb ddr2 533, ATi 4670 (underclocked to hell because of computer stability recently).

    I took the game all not too bad.
    Looks and sounds amazing.

    However, it couldn't really catch my attention long enough to develop an interest to delve even 30 minutes into the game.
    Reply
  • darkpower45
    soooo when did toms start to do game reviews? just a thought. The game looks pretty good though. The good think about the review is that it showed the performance on the low end systems. Good review even if its a game not hardware.
    Reply
  • curnel_D
    I'll be honest, I really didnt like the way the benchmark sections were done. Not because of poor information, but because of poor management of that information. At 3 in the morning, it's hard to figure out what's going on.

    On the flip side, I do like the game reviews lately. Perhaps we can see a resurection of Toms Games, and perhaps even the illustrious Second Take? :D
    Reply
  • You managed to benchmark with Nvidia cards exclusively, you keep reminding me why I almost never visit this site any more.
    Reply
  • Andraxxus
    If you have a good PC it might be an enjoyable experience but if you don't have one then stay away. I could not even run it but i've seen in on a good PC and it looks and sounds good.
    Reply
  • falchard
    I would like to see a game developer say. Screw nVidia, they keep holding back progress and use their developers network as a method to retain a user base. I am going to make a game that completely takes advantage of ATI hardware. From multi-processing units, to tesselation and ray tracing.
    Reply
  • Onus
    I think they mostly used nVidia because of PhysX, at least that was my take on it. They did use some ATI cards too.
    Although this is not my kind of game, the review was written in a manner that I thought gave good information on how it might run on my system.
    I'd like to see Second Take return as well, even though I don't recall it addressing hardware requirements the way this review did.
    Reply
  • marraco
    Is fantasy, not science fiction.

    I played the game entirely, and I don't recommend it until a much needed patch is available.

    The game really gets no benefit from PhysX (I buyed the game hoping to play a game physx capable).

    And the performance is really poor. I was forced to play it on 1024x768, without any antialiasing, on a Geforce 8800 GT oc, and still got lots of glitches, and bad framerates.

    The sound frequently ruined itself completely, and sometimes crashed.

    Sometimes you get stuck on places, and finds yourself incapable of progressing. Then reload an older saved game, and finds that you got stuck because of a bug, instead a by design game. Sometimes a tube bends too vertically, and you cannot escape a room, or fix it.

    The savegame system is broken. Sometimes you save a game, but are unable to reload it, or reload it and after a looong reload time, just finds that the small screenshot and filename does not match what was showed, and you loaded another file.

    Although the game introduces some welcomed original innovations (common First Person Shooters are getting really repetitive lately), all the bugs it have make playing it a really painful experience. I had good hardware, but my experience was poor, and was no exception. I found lots of people with the same problems on internet (although others had slower hardware than me, and got no problems).

    I strongly recommend to wait for a patch to be released, before acquiring the game.

    After it, I played FEAR 2. It was so much optimized software, and played so smoothly, even on max settings, that I really enjoyed it.
    Reply