Stalker game running on Linux with Open Xray.

A developer is working on running Stalker games on Linux with Open Xray engine. This means we could have Stalker Dead Air running on Linux. This is very good, more choice in gaming on Linux would bring more people to the platform. Dead Air has good gameplay and is quite challenging in parts. But has so many items and weapons to use. The demo video features Stalker Call of Pripyat running on Linux. This is a game with only 3 maps, but great gameplay. It is fun. There is a mega mod Narodnaya Solyanka Joint Pack 2, but this has the massive cave levels, and they are too confusing to find your way around in, they keep on changing as you walk through, I cannot even finish this part at all. Why do they include this stuff? Anyway, here is the Reddit thread announcing the 64-bit Open Xray engine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/9cn1d2/official_openxray_thread/.

A 64-bit engine offers many more possibilities than an ancient 64-bit engine. The engine is on Github here: https://github.com/OpenXRay.

This screenshot for Dead Air shows a stalker that fell victim to a Whirligig anomaly, this guy then got looted by his friends and then they just walked off. Some friends.

But these games have the Alife system, this provides better AI then other games like Arma 3. That game has terrible AI. But Stalker has roaming packs of dogs, mutants guarding areas, and stalkers that roam the maps and explore the area just as the player is. That is amazing. A detailed explanation of how the A-life system works may be found here: https://blackshellmedia.com/2017/08/12/a-life-an-insight-into-ambitious-ai/. This post gives many insights into why the system is the best for AI. Way better than other games that purport to be the cutting edge for AI like Arma.

Even though the Stalker games are getting old now, they still look very good. The screenshot above, shows the Darkscape level in Dead Air. This was meant to be a level in Shadow of Chernobyl, that featured the player chased by the military after finishing Lab X-18. This would lead back to the Cordon. It is just a long road, shaped like a half-circle. There is a farmhouse in the woods, a huge bridge, and a fuel station. The railway bridge is a continuation of the railway that goes across the Cordon. This also goes across the top of the swamps map. It would be incredible if the Stalker maps were made into one whole map and the player could walk along the entire railway, going through the long tunnels, this would be very dangerous, but doable. I am sure there would be Controllers and Snorks in the tunnels, but it would be worth it. I am sure stashes would be located in there to make it more fun…