The zone does not tolerate procedural generation: all locations of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl are created manually

By: Anton Kratiuk | 23.08.2024, 22:15

In recent years, there have been many ambitious statements from the developers of the shooter Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl and one of them was the promise of a well-designed, realistic and exciting open world that will reward the player for careful exploration of all locations.

Technical producer Evgeniy Kulik gave an interview to the portal Pcgamer, in which he told how his team realised their vision.

Here's What We Know

The developer said that, as he knows, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is the largest open-world game created on Unreal Engine 5. He admitted that at first the studio tried to use procedural generation to simplify and speed up the work, but because of the unsatisfactory quality of content GSC Game World completely abandoned this idea and eventually every metre of virtual Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was created manually. Recall, the game's website states that the area of the Zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is about 60 square kilometres.

The producer noted that it took a huge amount of time and effort, but the studio does not regret the decision and is pleased with what it has managed.

In order for artists and game designers to be able to perform their work at the highest level, the programmers created a unique toolkit based on Unreal Engine 5, and that's what allowed to create interesting and atmospheric locations regardless of their size.

Judging by the latest trailers, travelling through the Zone will indeed be as exciting and immersive as possible.

When We Can Expect It

The release of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will take place on November 20 on PC and Xbox Series, the shooter will immediately appear in the Xbox Game Pass catalogue.

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Source: Pcgamer