GSC GameWorld has announced its 2025 plans for STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The team is currently working on upgrading the game to Unreal Engine 5.5.4 to improve its stability and overall performance.
As we’ve reported, STALKER 2 suffers from traversal stutters. So, this engine upgrade will hopefully reduce them. At the same time, we might also get a better performance. After all, UE5.5 brought major performance improvements to both Lumen and Path Tracing.
One of the coolest features in Unreal Engine 5.5 is its MegaLights technology. However, it doesn’t look like GSC GameWorld will add this feature to STALKER 2. Instead, it seems the devs will just upgrade the engine so it can use the newest optimizations. Still, this upgrade should be more than enough to make most STALKER 2 fans happy.
There is currently no ETA on when this engine upgrade will happen. All we know is that the team plans to make this happen in either Q3 or Q4 of 2025. After that, the devs will further improve the A-Life system, they will extend the Day/Night cycle, and they will add an immersive display mode. They also plan to add new content to the game. As such, you can expect new missions, anomalies, and a new weather scenario.
Speaking of STALKER 2, you may also want to try these mods for it. A really cool mod is this one, which adds a Parkour-like climbing system to the game. Then we have this mod that allows you to fast-travel anywhere on the map.
In December 2024, we shared a mod that let you loot all mutants in STALKER 2. This was a feature from the older STALKER games that was missing at launch. Luckily, GSC GameWorld added it later through an update. So now, you don’t need the mod anymore. Still, it shows how modders were able to bring back features that fans missed.
Another great mod you should try is this one that turns Achievements back on. Normally, the game blocks Achievements if you’re using mods. But with this mod, Achievements will work even when mods are active. So you can still unlock them while enjoying your favorite mods.
You can also download a mod that will remove the inventory carry/weight limit. I’m not a fan of this last mod, but hey, some of you may like it. There is also this mod that adds realistic death animations. Finally, we have a mod that can further improve the game’s graphics. Among other things, it can also enable GTAO. So, if you want to improve STALKER 2’s graphics, you should give it a go.
Finally, there is a mod that adds a crafting system to the game. By using it, you will be able to craft a lot of different items. This mod offers a fresh take on collecting and using items in the game. This is something that the devs should implement via a new update. At least in my opinion.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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> suffers from traversal stutters
But it's not. Unlike other UE5 games there was not so much traversal stutters, but CPU performance was abysmal
If only all games running on UE got this treatment, I'm guessing they're probably doing this as part of the porting process to PS5.
At this rate they should just hold out for UE6 or whenever they fully address traversal stutter for good in UE5. Unreal is currently broken in many ways.
the hardware for UE6 doesnt exist.
It exists now, it's just the engine is bloated and carries over a load of code from UE4. Sweeney even said the engine isn't multi threaded in the interview with Lex Fridman.
Tim's quote:
"The biggest limitation that's built up over time is the single-threaded nature of game simulation in Unreal Engine. We run a single-threaded simulation."
That aspect alone is, doesn't mean it doesn't use different threads for other systems, otherwise it wouldn't even be able to run today's games, albeit with the stutter.
And even then, the stutters happens in games in areas with pretty much nothing to simulate, so it's due to other internal handling of processes and resources, not the former.
There has to be some video of Devs using these later builds of UE5 that compare what the new practices are supposed to do about the stutter and issues in older builds. I'd imagine its also tough because different projects probably push different levels of issues.
The CM on Discord mentioned 5.6 is being looked into, might switch to that… Though honestly, i suspect the performance problems are not coming from the engine alone…
Nice to see the engine upgrade. I have been holding off playing this due to technical issues, jank, and missing features. The game should be in a good state in 2026.
*narrative tools
Russian mods incoming.
Immersive display mode?
Does that mean a gas mask overlay? Finally?
Something something can't polish a turd.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WirNl3BUc-g&pp=ygU0QmFjayBpbiBteSBkYXkgd2hlbiB5b3UgYm91Z2h0IGEgZ2FtZSBpdCBqdXN0IHdvcmtlZA%3D%3D