STRAY Cat game Cyberpunk dystopia

Been playing it a bit, there are some occasional hitches but nothing I would consider to be game-breaking or even regular. Just seems like an asset streaming issue or something.
 
It's "free" on playstation so i'm gonna give it a go on my PS5. Looks like a fun time and I just absolutely love exploration games, the fact that the main chracter is a cat is a plus.
 
Apparently my PS+ membership isn't one of the ones that gets free games. I might just drop my membership once it expires at this rate.
 
Domingo said:
Apparently my PS+ membership isn't one of the ones that gets free games. I might just drop my membership once it expires at this rate.
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You have to pay for the "extra" or whatever the hell it is for Stray, however it cost me $20 to get the "extra" and Stray costs $30 so I figured I might as well grab it. I also completely skipped the PS4, so there are a TON of games that I want to play on my PS5 if I ever get time.
 
TheSlySyl said:
You have to pay for the "extra" or whatever the hell it is for Stray, however it cost me $20 to get the "extra" and Stray costs $30 so I figured I might as well grab it. I also completely skipped the PS4, so there are a TON of games that I want to play on my PS5 if I ever get time.
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Yes, you need at least the Extra tier to get the game.
 
I generally could care less about cosmetic customization but none here? Seriously?

No Maine coons or brachies? No Scottish folds? Psh.
 
A new update just rolled out. It adds some new functionality (a true fullscreen mode + resolution render selector that goes up to 200%) along with performance improvements and bug fixes. No clue if that'll affect the hitching, but I hope to have some time to play tomorrow.
 
There is some stuttering but it isn't too bad, Mainly comes up when you're running around fast.

The game is about what I expected. Easy, simple, and a basic story. I have yet to finish it but I think there are only 4 chapters left for me. Was hoping for a bit more environmental story telling. It isn't a great game but amusing enough to keep me playing.
 
RTX 3090 12900K 5300Mhz 4K
DX11 Runs the game the best
Vulkan is a stuttering mess but may be good on AMD machine
DX12 is a train wreck and just about unplayable

Screenshot of API
Stray.jpg
 
I don't know if I used DX12. It ran fairly good for me, with some stutters. It got bad towards the end of the game in the jail level at some parts but I think it might have been caused by me minimizing the game a few times.

Overall fun for what it is. It does a good job of making you understand what it is like to be a cat. Knocking stuff over for no reason suddenly makes so much more sense.
 
For anyone interested for good DX12 PC Gameplay you can add this to engine.ini

[/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]
r.RayTracing=False

[/Script/WindowsTargetPlatform.WindowsTargetSettings]
DefaultGraphicsRHI=DefaultGraphicsRHI_DX12

DX11 vs DX12 above settings in engine.ini file

Stray api.jpg
 
Just finished first playthrough, it's good enough I'll go back and get the achievements. Interesting game, love the story and how it's not fully resolved. Hated a few of the running challenges, but that's mostly because I didn't map keys. 5/7, they are all good dogs Brent.
 
Feels like the new update all but eliminated any performance hitching. I'm not done with the game yet, but I didn't experience any hitching in the large'ish robot town area.
I'm rocking at 4K with "unlimited" (I have Nvidia capping things at 117) fps and am running at 130% resolution render with the details cranked. I think it looks pretty fantastic.

EDIT: Nexus Mods has a pile of mods that let you change your cat's fur color (in addition to making it CJ from San Andreas, LOL), so I'm able to play as a black cat at last.
 
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As easy as it is to mod your cat (you literally just drop a single graphic file into a folder), they could have easily offered people the chance to create their own cat. There don't seem to be any visual issues or quirks in doing so, either. I get not allowing people to turn your cat into a dog or a character from San Andreas, but why not allow fur/whisker/eye customization out of the box?
 
Domingo said:
As easy as it is to mod your cat (you literally just drop a single graphic file into a folder), they could have easily offered people the chance to create their own cat. There don't seem to be any visual issues or quirks in doing so, either. I get not allowing people to turn your cat into a dog or a character from San Andreas, but why not allow fur/whisker/eye customization out of the box?
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Because the game had been years in the making from a smaller developer with (I'd suspect) a limited budget, and they wanted to get a playable game out the door instead of succumbing to feature bloat that doesn't really benefit the actual gameplay or story?

Also, IIRC the cat is modeled after that of the dev's CEO or some other higher-up/lead there.

Maybe Stray 2 will have all that.
 
They reference "orange' in the dialogue at least once when it comes to the appearance of the cat. I don't mind fixed character designs, it adds character. No pun intended. Being able to reference a character's looks adds so much to a game. Of course in Stray, there isn't much to it and being an orange tabby cat wasn't really all that defining to the character. It isn't like the cat was on par with iconic characters like Solid Snake, Laura Croft, Geralt. This is one of those games that would've been great to have some basic customization. Nothing crazy really, just the option to choose a few different colors and fur patterns.
 
Played through the first part of the game at my brother's house, pretty fun. Didn't get to the action parts, but the environment is pretty well done and interaction/movement is pretty smooth for the most part.

The nodding cameras are a bit goofy, though--feel like they could have done something more interesting than that.
 
socK said:
Fortnite explicitly has a shader compilation stage on first launch for this reason.

Digital Foundry talked with an engine dev at some point and Epic is definitely aware of the issue, though they expressed that it's not a trivial thing to fix.

UE5 has the exact same issue unfortunately.
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Not sure why. Most other game engines have this figured out. How hard is it to just run through everything in the game that is a shader on boot and do it? Even small independent developers like Unknown Worlds figured this out with their own in-house engine for NS2.
 
Mchart said:
Not sure why. Most other game engines have this figured out. How hard is it to just run through everything in the game that is a shader on boot and do it? Even small independent developers like Unknown Worlds figured this out with their own in-house engine for NS2.
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I think it is more with "It is hard to fix with how UE does things." It isn't that you can't design an engine to not have the issue, it is just clear that how they've designed UE, it is a problem. Same shit with texture streaming back in the day. UE3 was always having issues with "scene loads then textures load on it in increasing levels of detail." For whatever reason, they designed it such that was how it works.

You can have that issue that once you go down a path it is hard to change things. You see that in pro audio DAWs all the time. A feature will be available in some, but not all, DAWs and the reason it doesn't get added isn't laziness, but the engine works different so while it was easy for DAW X to implement it, DAW Y would have a hell of a time.
 
Mchart said:
Not sure why. Most other game engines have this figured out. How hard is it to just run through everything in the game that is a shader on boot and do it? Even small independent developers like Unknown Worlds figured this out with their own in-house engine for NS2.
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It's the way the engine asynchronously compiles shaders, from what I understand. There is supposedly a compilation option that is supposed to compile all shaders on first boot to cache them, but apparently some developers are not using it? It's not an issue isolated to the PC version of the engine, either. Console games have the same issue.
 
Completed this today, enjoyed it throughout - the real star of the show was some of the environments in the game, they were very well crafted in terms of cohesive visuals - the artists involved definitely had enough experience and skill to surpass typical indie games and have the visual fidelity of doubleA or even tripleA titles (in a couple specific areas).

The lighting especially in many areas of the game was very very well done. Superb.

Worth picking up when you can grab it at 15 bucks or less.
 
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Took a few minutes to figure this out I like how the Cat walks so used to other games where it's just mimics Human Walking
which is floaty with modern 3-D graphics
 
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Picked this game up finally this weekend and finished last night. What an unexpectedly wonderful game. From the story to the mechanics plus visual and auditory vibes.. really well done. Not too long (10 hours) and I don't foresee much replay value but I definitely had a great time playing. I took my time exploring and doing cat stuff... The love they put into this game oozes out of it. Played with a mouse and kb.. as one should with a cat game!

It's on sale right meow for $19!
 
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