Frictional Games Forum

Hey there. I'l cut to the chase. I found this game - dug it up, more like! I hope some people are still active on this forum. Basically, I have got this tech demo, and I want to try and make a stalker environment using the game engine, because it is alot more accessible than the X-ray engine that STALKER uses. Incase anyone doesn't know, STALKER is an FPS/RPG game, set in a massive free roaming world, with a-life (as it is called) where by all the other npcs and mutated creatures live and coexist even when you aren't there, creating a living and breathing world.

STALKER stands for Scavengers, Tresspassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers. It is set in Chernobyl, the irradiated Zone of Alienation in which it is dangerous to set foot. Anomalous formations, like areas of heightened gravity or static lightning formations, can severely damage you if you enter them, but they also can spawn valueable artefacts.

You have to trade with other stalkers, and with traders, to buy weapons, ammunition, and other items in the game. There is a full day/night cycle.

My question is: Is it possible to create a STALKER game, using this Penumbra engine?

Probably not; Penumbra has a difficult time rendering wide areas; and besides storing/setting variables, it can't do much to stuff that isn't loaded.

So, other engines are probably better.

Okay, thanks anyhow. I am just playing the demo - I don't dare go into the next room! The physics system really is amazing - when was this game created!?

It's really freaky the way this anonymous protagonist manages, in a couple of sentences, to go from America to a hatch under Greenland. Although, I must admit, I really really want to go into the next room, just to find out what the hell is going on.

A few other things -

1. I can't change the graphics!? It says I need to restart the game, but the game crashes when I click the exit button. They are on 800x600, and I have a 1680x1050 screen!

2. Do I need weapons and things? Or do I just pick up random objects and throw them at people? I am trying to get the padlock off a locker, but all I have found is a cardboard box. I am considering tossing my dynamite at it, but who knows what mutants (wait sorry, monsters, I played stalker too much) might come running when they hear that.

HPL1 was orignally created in 2005 for one of their games called 'Engertegic'. It was a 2-d game. (So yes, the engine that runs this game was originally 2-d)

They than added an extra plane, which made the engine render in 3-d; they used this engine to create the Penumbra 2006 Tech Demo (the one you're using to play the game)

The penumbra tech demo did amazedly well; over a million downloads. The team decided to make Penumbra into a commercial game, hence Penumbra Overture (e1) and Penumbra Black Plague (e2)



You can change the graphics in
(home directory)>redist>settings.cfg
Use notepad to open the file. Save and exit once you're done, and enjoy.