Cryostasis

Cryostasis

Developers
	Action Forms
Publishers
Steam	1C Company
North America	Aspyr Media
Europe	505 Games
Japan	Zoo Corporation
Engines
	AtmosFear 4
Release dates
Windows	February 27, 2009
Reception
Metacritic	69
IGDB	65
Taxonomy
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Adventure, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Arctic, Horror, Supernatural

Key points

Supports Hardware PhysX and allows for additional PhysX effects on Nvidia cards.

Badly optimized and has numerous problems with performance, even on systems with specs way above recommended ones.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		StarForce 5 DRM (Russian release) and SecuROM 7 DRM (Europe release) . Russian title - "Анабиоз. Сон разума" (literally "Anabioz: Son Razuma")
GamersGate (unavailable)
GOG.com (unavailable)
Steam (unavailable)
Amazon.com (unavailable)		Digital download is no longer available.

Original (russian) retail-release can be played without needing the CD, if installed official patch version 1.01.

North American retail version and GamersGate release has no DRM.

This game is not available digitally anymore.

Essential improvements

Patch

Patch 1.1 can be downloaded here. Among other things, it enables PhysX and disables DRM. Already included with digital releases.

Skip intro videos

Edit init.cfg
Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Scripts\ Open init.cfg with a text editor. Change r.showlogos 1 to r.showlogos 0 Save the changes.

Patch 32 bits Cryostasis.exe to use 4 GB on Windows 64 bits

Patch Cryostasis.exe to use 4 GB RAM in 64 bits Windows

Because Cryostasis is a 32 bit program, in Windows it only can use 2 GB of memory for the game. In 64 bit systems, it also uses as 2 GB at maximum, but you can patch 32 bits EXE to use 4 GB of RAM in 64 bits systems. Download NTCore 4GB Patch Apply the patch in <path-to-game>\Cryostasis.exe Play the game It increases the performance and helps avoiding known issues. Only works when playing the game in 64 bits Windows. Doesn't work with the Steam version, but you can use the EXE from the 1.1/PhysX patch to replace and patch the Steam Cryostasis.exe.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\config.cfg
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/7850/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data\Save\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/7850/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

General settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Natively supports 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions such as 1920x1080 and 1680x1050.
Multi-monitor			If needed change @r.aspectratio = 1.600000 to the desired aspect ratio in config.cfg. Game is Vert- and FOV needs to be increased to compensate.
Ultra-widescreen			If needed change @r.aspectratio = 1.600000 to the desired aspect ratio in config.cfg. Game is Vert- and FOV needs to be increased to compensate.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Default FOV is 80°. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Borderless only. See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Enable Windowed and select the desktop resolution in-game.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Toggle On/Off
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Toggle On/Off
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No frame rate or refresh rate cap. DirectX 10 (Shader Model 4.0) mode is switching the display to 60 Hz refresh when using fullscreen.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Edit config files

Open these files with a text editor: <path-to-game>\Data\Scripts\init.cfg <path-to-game>\Data\Scripts\game\movie_proc.s <path-to-game>\Data\Areas\BIOS91\Scripts\startup.cfg Find the first instance of r.fov 80 and change 80 to the desired FOV in all three files. Save the changes. Notes Changing FOV can be tested in the console by modifying the r.fov cvar. The distance of the player camera can also be changed.

Windowed

Edit init.cfg[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Scripts\ Open init.cfg with a text editor. Change r.windowed 0 to r.windowed 1 Save the changes. Notes Only works if using Shader Model 2.0 or 3.0 in-game. The window is locked to the top-left corner of the screen.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Single volume slider
Surround sound		Up to 7.1 output
Subtitles		Located under "Game" settings
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 5.0.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Retail Only.
French
German				Retail Only.
Hungarian				Retail Only.
Italian				Retail Only.
Polish				Retail Only. Patch for digital release here.
Russian
Spanish

Issues fixed

Noclip bug

A common problem that is encountered after saving in certain places and then reloading from that save point is the player will suddenly start clipping through walls and be unable to progress normally.

Use console commands[citation needed]
Open the console with ~. Type in d.noclip=0 and press ↵ Enter. Type in d.fly=1 and press ↵ Enter.

"The program cannot start because PhysXLoader.dll is missing from your computer" error at launch

It provides no error message if launched from Steam. This error only appears on direct launch.

Install PhysX legacy
Install the NVIDIA PhysX Legacy System Software.

Advanced PhysX effects not rendering in-game

Install PhysX and set it up
Install Legacy PhysX Software and up-to-date PhysX Software. Choose your GPU as PhysX Processor in Nvidia Control Panel. Select Shader Model 4.0 and enable Advanced Effects in the game's video settings.

"Cryostasis Termination" error on startup

On startup, the game crashes directly to an error message stating "Effect::Load() failed. screen_00.fxo File not found".

Change Shader version in config file[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Open config.cfg in a text editor such as Notepad++. Change @r.shadermodel = 3 to @r.shadermodel = 4.

Black Screen on startup

On startup, the game is a black screen but has audio.

Change Resolution in the config file to your native resolution
Go to the installation folder. Open config.cfg in a text editor such as Notepad++. Change @v.sx = 800 to @v.sx = (x width). Change @v.sy = 600 to @v.sy = (y height).

Cryostasis Termination: Can't upload texture / Random Crash

Termination Window Error "Can't load Textures" (When loading a savegame)

Termination Window Error "Can't load Textures" (Randomly during the gameplay)

Randomly during loading a savegame, or simply trying to doing somethiing, it crash without warning but sometimes with this kind of warning.

Example:

Cryostasis Termination

Can't upload texture:

***PATHFILE***
Size: 2048x2048
Probably your video hardware has no enough video memory.
Try to set less texture quality.

Script Stack Call:

→ uploadlevelresources
loadsavegame
loadlastsave
server_work_pfire
server_work_player

***PATHFILE*** is something like levels\materials\transp_frost\frost_n.tga, characters\creatures\jailer02\jailer02_n.tga, weapon\mosinnagan9130\mosin_optic_n.tga and many others, in a random way, as sometimes when reaching a point it happens, but the next time doesn't. The Script Stack Call section sometimes appear, sometimes doesn't.

Patch Cryostasis.exe to use 4 GB on Windows 64 bits
Only works in 64 bits Windows OS.

Lower the quality video settings
Only if you can't or wan't to patch the game with the 4 GB patch.

Random "Effect::Load() failed. ***.fxo File not found" crashes during gameplay

Termination Window Error "Effect::Load() failed" (When ending a level to load the new one)

Termination Window Error "Effect::Load() failed" (Randomly during the gameplay)

Random crashes (sometimes happen, sometimes doesn't) with the next template:

Effect::Load() failed. ***.fxo
File not found

Script Stack Call:
...
...

The ***.fxo filenames are like blur_00.fxo, optic_glass_00.fxo, screen_00.fxo, refract_screen_00.fxo, energy_noise_00.fxo, etc. The Script Stack Call section doesn't show every time.

Don't change the Shader Model during a playthrough

If you change the Shader Model version in settings, you need to start a new game, although the game allows you to do continue the game with old saves. Older saves created with a different Shader Model setting can carry the old Shader Model setting and create a conflict in random parts of the game. Tested with two different playthroughs from beginning sticking with Shader Model 3.0 and 4.0 seems to work. Changing the Shader Model between them in the middle creates the issue, although reverting the change seems to fix it.

Permanent blury vision

In Chapter 14 "Poison" after doing one of the Mental Echoes, the game will have permanently blury vision, even after reaching the next level.

Disable the various blur effects/water reflection/caustic and trigger the Mental Echo with a melee weapon equipped.

In Chapter 4 framerate drops to extremely low values

In Chapter 4 "Storm" while doing one of the Mental Echoes, if Advanced PhysX effects setting is On the framerate can drop to unplayable values.

Set Advanced PhysX effects to Off in video settings.

(Alternative) Turn off the water PhysX effects via config
Go to the installation folder. Open config.cfg in a text editor such as Notepad++. Change @p.fluids = 1 to @p.fluids = 0.

Аfter the end of this Mental Echo, you can turn it back on.

Crash with "Could not create fluid. Probably Invalid fluid parameters" error

In Chapter 14 "Poison" while doing one of the Mental Echoes, if Advanced PhysX effects setting is On, the game will crash at the moment when the glacier collides with the starboard side of the ship.

In Chapter 17 "Chronos " If the battle with Chronos lasts too long and Advanced PhysX effects setting is On, the game can crash.

Set Advanced PhysX effects to Off in video settings.

(Alternative) Turn off the water PhysX effects via config
Go to the installation folder. Open config.cfg in a text editor such as Notepad++. Change @p.fluids = 1 to @p.fluids = 0.

Аfter completion this Mental Echo, you can turn it back on.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9, 10
Shader Model support	2, 3, 4

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Enable the console

Edit init.cfg
Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Scripts\ Open init.cfg with a text editor. Change d.consoleh = 0 to d.consoleh = 1 Save the changes. Notes Console is opened with ~ in-game.

Change camera distance

Setting a value above 30 causes visual bugs (if you stand with your back to any wall or door).

Edit autoexec.cfg
Go to the installation folder. Open autoexec.cfg with a text editor. Add c.camdist # where # represents the distance of the player camera (default is 0). Save the changes. Notes Changing camera distance can be tested in the console by modifying the c.camdist cvar.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista SP1
Processor (CPU)	Intel Dual Core 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon 4000+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 5200+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) / 2 GB (Vista)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	6.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 7600 AMD Radeon X1900	Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT AMD Radeon HD 3870