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Chernobyl likeness nailed in S.T.A.L.K.E.R
Author: Ryan GarsidePublished: 5th January 2007
Nobody fancied a ride on the Nuclear powered Ferris Wheel.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Developer Diary
- We had the idea of a Zone with anomalies, artefacts and stalkers from the very beginning and we were searching for a realistic location to set this in. We wanted to create something as realistic as possible, given that our newly-created X-ray engine allowed near-photo realism.
It didn’t take us long to find a perfect setting, having the Chernobyl exclusion zone virtually next door. Moreover, it was a truly ‘our’ location – so personal and known, our experience of the past. The atmosphere of destruction and abandonment which was pre-existing for the game was more than fitting for the concept. Naturally, to immerse the game world within the Chernobyl zone authentically, we needed to research information on what this area actually contained.
The many trips to the Zone undertaken by us helped us to truly experience atmosphere we wanted to recreate in the game. Looking at the barren streets of Pripyat, the murky sarcophagus of the reactor #4, the red forest, destroyed settlements and the irradiated vehicle cemetery, we envisioned how this all would look at night, when alone and under the hostile gaze of eerie creatures. Add in to that the added the risk of being killed by powerful monsters or a soulless anomaly and we realised that this was exactly the atmosphere we needed.
We wanted the player to live in the Zone and to be able to sense the world around him. We initially thought about creating one big level where there would be no loading points. However, as we were doing everything in maximum detail and quality and the performance capacity of computers today inevitably have a certain limit, such a plan was soon changed to a more feasible one. The world in its entirety got split into 18 huge areas the player was free to traverse as he wills.
To recreate the environment we’ve known since childhood using realistic textures, we processed an incredible number of photos and video material along with architectural layouts of industrial and residential structures. Of course, we didn’t attempt a total match of the in-game areas with the Chernobyl zone locations as we understood that this would make the game very empty in many areas – hardly anyone would enjoy running several kilometers down a monotonously empty field! We instead recreated the familiar, iconic places and images, joining them into levels as required. Some locations are virtually identical to their prototypes: the central lane and the main square in Pripyat and the Chernobyl power plant itself, for example.
Judge how successful the team has been in recreating the eerie Chernobyl location from the pictures below, on the left you have the inspirational real areas and on the right you have the in-game replicated locations. For the full size images click here, here, here and here. We at bit-tech are cautiously excited about this game. It’s spent so much time in development that the graphics aren’t going to blow us away as we once hoped. However, some of the ideas and plans for gameplay are particularly interesting, so we’ll reserve judgement until our review.
Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R a game you’re really looking forward to in 2007? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (31)Stats: 0.170 seconds
p.s. Chenobyl?
Btw: Chernobyl
Tbh I'm really looking forward to that game though :D
The graphics look good and the gameplay should be good, so lets hope it is.
Sam
Can't wait to see this... multiplayer deathmatch around the reactor... very cool.
Although the film "Stalker" is not actually set near Chernobyl (it makes no reference as to where 'the zone' is), there are some sinister connections.
In "Stalker" an allusion is made to some kind of man-made large-scale disaster which has created 'the zone': an area where normal laws of physics no longer apply. The film is loosely based on the novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, in which 'the Zone' is full of strange artifacts and phenomena that defy known science (except that in Roadside Picnic the suggestion is that Zones are places where aliens had once landed, not with intention to make contact with us, but similarly to when we have no idea what happens with all the tiny creatures when we pack up the picnic and leave the trash behind...).
Stalker was mainly filmed at a deserted hydro power plant on the Jägala river near Tallinn, Estonia; upriver was a chemical plant which dumped poisonous liquids downstream. There is even a shot of this in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. Many crew members had allergic reactions and several died a few years later of cancer.
It is suspected that the 1957 accident in the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, which resulted in a several thousand square kilometer deserted "zone" outside the reactor, may have influenced this film. Others say the film is prophetic, foretelling the Chernobyl disaster: in the Stalker one of the explanations given for the Zone's origin was 'a breakdown at the fourth bunker'. This was six years before the fourth reactor in Chernobyl exploded.
In one scene of the film, Revelation 8:7-11 is quoted:
"The third angel blew his trumpet; and a great star shot from the sky, flaming like a torch; and it fell on a third of the rivers and springs. The name of the star was Wormwood; and a third of the water turned to wormwood, people in great numbers died of the water because it had been poisoned."
"Chernobyl" is Russian for "wormwood".
Did they change the rendering engine again?
Or am I being pendantic again?
And yea, I'll be waiting for this game... like I did in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. :|
It was delayed the first time to avoid having to compete directly against Doom 3 and HL2 as the three were supposed to be released around the same date. Once upon a time...
I've been waiting for a good game for months now. I just can't seem to enjoy some of the newer "high-rated" games like GRAW.
If anybody has some suggestions, that would be great.
.
And let's hope the game is good
So when I saw play had it on pre-order, guess who splurged :D
Back in 2004 Spring I got a chance to run around 2 maps. I guess at that stage they were working on AI (cause it did not work well). So it was mostly just running around and enjoying the view. The amount of detail was just astounding. The biggest difference between STALKER and other game environments I saw was how organic even a simple pavement felt. Small peaces of branches and leaves from trees on the side of the road covered the pavement. And the rust/dirt and damage on buildings was just amazing.
The graphics engine is very good, since at the time I was running it on gf2 mx400, and it ran fine. And I fear that because at the time I had no good comparison I was stunned by STALKER's visuals. Either way it is still one of the most interesting shooters of 2005, I mean 2006 ehhh 2007.
Funny story about watching the film. I have a mate who's rather too squeemish (i.e. a sissy). He came into the room where me and other mates are watching Stalker, just before the three guys go down the "meat grinder" scene. He sits down and watches the movie for a few minutes and then leaves. I asked where he's going and he says "I don't like horror movies". This movie is a PG for crissakes....he was convinced he was watching a scary movie. :)
Well, you're somewhat correct. The last unit to be shut down was Unit 3 (housed in the same building as the destroyed Unit 4) in December 2000, and yes, some 500 or so people live in the Zone again, mostly elderly people who'd returned to their homes against the government orders to evacuate the Zone. And there's about 1300 people in the town of Chornobyl, some 12 miles south-east of the power plant.