S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Lost Alpha

What works

-Installing the game (see details below)

-Playnig the game on maximum & medium settings for 10 minutes

-Changing resolution and quality settings from the main menu

What does not

-Changing quality settings during gameplay

Workarounds

What was not tested

-Completion of the game

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

-Had to download (msvcp120.dll) & (msvcr120.dll) and place them in System32 -Downloaded and installed Directx 9 june 2010

To extract the initial release 4-part rar archive - it is recommended to use the native 7zip utility as follows. Fill in "▉▉▉▉" paths as required for your system. 

# STALKER_ARCHIVE_PATH : folder with 4 part .rar archives for S.T.A.L.K.E.R._LOST_ALPHA_v1.3000_setup
# SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH : path to create installer directory for S.T.A.L.K.E.R._LOST_ALPHA_v1.3000_setup
# WINEPREFIX : standard Wine environment variable
export WINEPREFIX="▉▉▉▉"
export WINEARCH=win64
export SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH="▉▉▉▉"
export SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH="${SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH%/}"
export STALKER_ARCHIVE_PATH="▉▉▉▉"
export STALKER_ARCHIVE_PATH="${STALKER_ARCHIVE_PATH%/}"

# fixed relative paths
export setup_folder="S.T.A.L.K.E.R._LOST_ALPHA_v1.3000_setup"

cd "${SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH}"
7z x "${STALKER_ARCHIVE_PATH}/${setup_folder}.part1.rar"
cd "${SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH}/${setup_folder}"

Tested with Wine Staging 2.7.

Install the main game only. Note: the third party installers are left intact - these will execute correctly with more recent versions of Wine (in both 32-bit and 64-bit WINEPREFIX's).

Fill in "▉▉▉▉" paths as required for your system.

# SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH : path to create installer directory for S.T.A.L.K.E.R._LOST_ALPHA_v1.3000_setup
# WINEPREFIX : standard Wine environment variable
export WINEPREFIX="▉▉▉▉"
export WINEARCH=win64
export SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH="▉▉▉▉"
export SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH="${SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH%/}"

# fixed paths
export setup_folder="S.T.A.L.K.E.R._LOST_ALPHA_v1.3000_setup"

cd "${SETUP_DESTINATION_PATH}/${setup_folder}"
# run main installer
wine "setup.exe"
# setup necessary DirectX 9.0c dll overrides
winetricks d3dx9

Tested with Wine Staging 2.7.

This patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha is cumulative - so you only require the original game to be installed (version 1.3000) - before applying this patch. You will required the native unzip package to be installed in order to unzip the archive.

Fill in "▉▉▉▉" paths as required for your system.

Note: you will need to first cd to the correct path where you downloaded the patch.

# WINEPREFIX : standard Wine environment variable
export WINEPREFIX="▉▉▉▉"
export WINEARCH=win64

unzip STALKER_LostAlpha_patch_1.30013.zip
wine start  STALKER_LostAlpha_patch_1.30013.exe

The bundled 32-bit Creative Labs OpenAL library - that S.T.A.L.K.E.R Lost Alpha installs is completely unmaintained. This library tends to gives ambient audio that sounds like you are underwater!! This problem is not just an issue when using Wine - poor quality sound reproduction is an issue when using native Windows as well.

The fix is to go the OpenAL Soft website and download the latest OpenAL Soft zip archive.

Then follow these instructions to set this new library up:

# WINEPREFIX : standard Wine environment variable
export WINEPREFIX="▉▉▉▉"
# Get OpenAL Soft archive (latest version) - from http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html
# Download this to: "${HOME}/Downloads"
cd "${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c"
cp ~/Downloads/openal-soft-*-bin.zip .
unzip openal-soft-*-bin.zip
# Overwrite bundled all Creative Labs OpenAL libraries with OpenAL Soft libraries
export openal_binary="$(find "${WINEPREFIX}" -type f -iregex '.*\/openal-soft.*\/bin\/Win32\/soft_oal.dll')" 
find "${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c"  -type f -iname "OpenAL32.dll" -print0 | xargs -0 -I file cp "${openal_binary}" file
# Tune OpenAL Soft settings for your system - using bundled Qt4 GUI application
export alsoft_config_utility="$(find "${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/" -type f -iregex '.*\/openal-soft.*\/alsoft-config\/alsoft-config.exe')"
wine start "$(winepath -w "${alsoft_config_utility}")"

Fill in "▉▉▉▉" paths as required for your system.

Either use:

# WINEPREFIX : standard Wine environment variable
export WINEPREFIX="▉▉▉▉"
wine start 'C:\Program Files (x86)\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Lost Alpha\bins\XR_3DA.exe'

or:

# WINEPREFIX : standard Wine environment variable
export WINEPREFIX="▉▉▉▉"
cd "${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Lost Alpha"
wine bins/XR_3DA.exe

These instructions are intended for use with a 64-bit WINEPREFIX.