Stranger’s Wrath HD update now out, contains a lot of fixes

Oddword has released a PC update for Stranger’s Wrath HD, and it is a massive list of fixes that will most probably improve the game. This patch is for the Steam versions of the game, and the patch for the non-Steam versions of the game will be released soon.

“In the dusty, undeveloped wastelands of Western Mudos, cantankerous townsfolk find their settlements besieged by belligerent outlaws. Along comes Stranger, a tall, dark and enigmatic bounty hunter with a critter-firing crossbow. First released in 2005, Stranger’s Wrath has been passionately upgraded for this HD release,” reads the official description.

Here are the features in the HD version.

• 720p, 60 FPS gameplay and cut-scenes
• More than 80 characters remodeled and retextured
• Music, voice and SFX upgraded from 8-bit 11KHz or less to 16-bit 44KHz
• Environments boast better poly-counts, textures and reflections
• Hidden easter eggs, unlockable extras and 37 PSN trophies
• Three modes of difficulty

Check out the patch notes below.

Stranger’s Wrath HD PC – v1.5

Changes from the original 2010 PC port
======================================

== Characters ==
– All 84 character models have been updated with increased polygon counts and higher resolution textures.
– This includes all three variations of Live Ammo: Those in the environment, those on the Crossbow and those in the General Store.
– Zappflies left in the environment glow.
– Fired Thudslugs left in the environment are now not an older design.
– Wolvark Sloghandlers now release Slogs instead of Slegs.
– Professor Dimble now has glasses and an academic tome.
– Made Blisterz Booty unkillable.

== Environments ==
– All environments have been given higher resolution textures.
– Most vegetation has been updated with increased polygon counts and/or higher resolution textures.
– A lot of environment now reflects in water where it didnít before.
– Many, many pipes and barrels rounded.
– Floating debris displays on water surfaces correctly.
– Eliminated some methods of escaping levels as pointed out by Brody Taylor (thank you!)
– Added Abeís Oddysee and Munchís Oddysee easter eggs to the game.
– Added Blisterz Bootyís broken crud gun to the floor by his bolaíd body.
– Sektoís Office has been changed to more closely resemble that seen in the FMV.

== Audio ==
– Sound effects in Bounty Store menu fixed.
– New female voices have been recorded for two characters.

== Display ==
– Fixed shader bugs that were affecting ATI and Intel users.
– Support for 4x and 8x FSAA.
– Anistropic filtering and GPU synchronization togglable in the launcher.
– Instance rendering togglable in the configuration file.
– Vertical synchronization is now checked by default.
– Frame rate has been capped at 100 FPS to lessen the problem of Stranger becoming immobile. This cap can be changed in the configuration file.
– All 16 menus have been updated with a new design based on original unused concepts.
– All menus now support keyboard, mouse and gamepad input.
– Textures added to stamina and bounty bars.
– New posters now occupy the inventory menu when no bounty is accepted.
– Radar fixed to show all enemy vision cones.
– Alt-tabbing is now supported properly.
– Fix to stop movie playback looping.
– Fix to snow effect.

== Controls ==
– Duplicate controls in the configuration menu now show up in red text (but to permit you maximum customaziation, you can still set duplicates if you like).
– In the controls configuration screen Up, Down, Left, Right and Select have been renamed Menu Up, Menu Down, Menu Left, Menu Right and Menu Select respectively.
– Added ammo selection controls separate from menu controls. You can map them to the same keys if you wish.
– You can also now interact with the ammo selection screen using your mouse and fire left/fire right controls as well.
– Added support for tiltwheels.
– The controls youíve mapped now appear in gameplay dialogue boxes (except for ëMovement Controlsí and ëCamera Controlsí) and are listed correctly in the layout schematic.
– Non-dynamic gamepad layout image replaced by dynamic list upon user configuration of gamepad control mapping.
– Tutorial dialogues can be closed with Esc and primary mouse click as well as Jump and Menu Select keys.
– Clicking to close tutorial dialogues while in first person mode will cause the corresponding barrel of your Crossbow to be fired.
– Removed deadzone on camera if mouse-controlled.

== Difficulty ==
– All armour upgrades increase Stranger’s health (they did nothing in the original 2005 Xbox release).
– Added difficulty levels to the game: Easy, Medium and Hard.
– In easy mode Stranger has twice the health, enemies have half the health and stamina.
– In hard mode Stranger has a third less health and enemies take a bit more to kill.

== Unlockables ==
– Added 12 brand new Steam achievements.
– Hideout Seek renamed Junkyard Challenge.
– Get to Last Legs renamed Giving a Leg Up.
– Concept art and movie extras for completing each region of the game.

== Language ==
– French and German audio has been added.
– Togglable subtitles for pre-rendered and realtime cutscenes, and for vital GameSpeak.
– Full text translations for French, German, Italian and Spanish.

== Launcher ==
– Only one instance of the launcher can be created at any once.
– Launcher displays a warning message if youíre not running OpenGL 2.0 or greater.
Fixes v1.5
==========

Updated credits movie.
Improved shutdown code.
Improved frame rated compensation code to smooth out stuttering.
Changed Steam Achievements so they can be triggered while playing offline.
Fixed jerky motion of Stranger.
Added FXAA.
Re-enabled SSAAx16.
Corrected name of SSAAx9.
Reduced number of vertex shader uniforms to improve graphic card compatibility.
Added support for none depth/stencil hardware, mainly Intel chipsets.
Added screen capture support. These are saved into folder Documents\Oddworld\Stranger’s Wrath HD\ScreenShots\. If playing with SSAA, screen shots will be extra large. Capture key can be redefined in the launcher. (Filenames are randomly generated, view the files by date to find the most recent.)
Added key binding to QuikSave and QuikLoad. These can be redefined in the launcher.
Added new language translation for text: Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Polish and Portuguese.
Changed menu fonts to support Russian and Polish characters.
Fixes v1.4
==========

Added missing achievement “Slakker Clakker”.
Fixed issues with some achievements not getting triggered correctly.
Fixed in launcher audio language selection problem.
Fixed in launcher joypad configuration issues when using dpad controls.
Added into launcher new advanced options. Shadows, Vegetation & Water Reflections can be disabled to improve frame rate. Mip Map Bias can be adjusted. Max frames per second can be set.
Guide to configuration file
===========================
The configuration file for your installation of Stranger’s Wrath HD can be found in your Documents directory under Oddworld > Stranger’s Wrath HD > config.txt

The majority of the file comprises your control scheme mappings. Other settings can be changed to affect the game’s performance on your computer.

– “bbp” stands for ‘bits per pixel’, describing colour quality. It will only accept 32 or 24 as its value.
– “maxfps” defaults to 100 if unset, but you can lower it yourself. This caps the game’s framerate, which can be useful if you have a problem with Stranger getting stuck on the ground.
– “novsync” is present if you have unchecked ‘Vsync’ in the game’s launcher. Vertical synchronization caps your framerate to your monitor’s framerate, which can be useful if you have a problem with Stranger getting stuck on the ground.
– “anisotropicon” is present if you have ‘Anisotropic filtering’ checked in the launcher. Anisotroping filtering makes textures look better when they’re at an angle to the camera, but can slow down the game.
– “useinstancerenderer” is present if you have ‘Instance rendering’ checked in the launcher. Instance rendering draws all like decorators in a level at once. This improves performance but can cause graphical glitches on some graphics cards. Disable if vegetation appears skewed in your game.
– “mipmapbias” controls the distance at which mipping comes into effect. Mipping is a graphical improvement that makes distant textures lower res to reduce visual noise. Making this value more negative pushes away the distance at which mipping occurs, making distant textures sharper. Making the value zero or positive pulls that distance in, making textures blurrier.
– “antialiasing” can be set to 0 for no antialiasing, 1 for 4xFSAA, or 2 for 8xFSAA. Be aware that antialiasing in Stranger’s Wrath HD is more resource-intensive than you may be used to in modern games.