Update 1.2.1:
- increased the r.Shadow.DistanceScale=5
- it pushes the treshold at which the higher quality shadows from vegetation are being cast
- resulting that more detailed shadows are visible at bigger distance from the player

Update 1.2:
- fixed the dissapearing shadows from vegetation as you move further away from them
- sadly the values for r.Shadow.MaxCSMResolution=16384 adn r.Shadow.MaxResolution=16384 are bugged (or UE cant handle then) which creates issues where shadows are dissapearing as you move further away from them, its very noticable sadly
- I had to tone down the values to 8192, the dissapearing is fixed, but the shadows are still a bit flickery as you stand close to them (sadly thats probably the best that can be done), so if you want, you can turn the values back to 16384 if you dont mind the very obvious and close fading out of vegetation shadows


Update 1.1:
- I am now running this tweaks alongside VynnGfx Optimized Tweaks
- Use the Base not Boost version of his mod to retain visual quality
- Removed a lot of unnecessary lines, that either did nothing, could be broken/bugged, or are already covered in the Optimizaton Tweaks mod.
- With this setup you will get the same visual quality, and gain around 10-15 extra FPS. Thanks a lot for pointing this out in the comments section.
- To install now, delete your current engine.ini file, download the Optimized Tweaks mod, follow the install instructions there and then copy the new engine.ini file to the location listed below.

Installation Steam version:
Copy the engine.ini into C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows

Installation GamePass version:
Copy the engine.ini into C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Stalker2\Saved\Config\WinGDK

What does this mod does?
1. Fixes the blurry and low quality reflections
2. Fixes the shadows draw distance, so no more ugly, low quality and flickering distant shadows
3. Increases shadows resolution, so shadows are much nicer and much less flickering
4. Massively increases draw distance of trees and other vegetation, which reduces the pop in issues to the minimum
5. Disables terrible bloom effect and reduces the terrible auto exposure effect, making the transition faster and less agressive
6. Also added some optimization and stability tweaks

Note that this tweaks pushes the game visuals even further then whats vanilla max settings, so be prepared to lose some FPS, therefore I really recommend using this tweaks only for high end GPUs.

Me myself having 4080S and playing at 1440p Epic settings. With this tweaks, DLSS quality and FG enabled I am getting around 90-100FPS in Zalissya, with DLAA and FG around 70-80FPS. In 4k most cards besides 4090 will probably struggle. Yes its very tanky, but its not a performance mod, its a visuals mod, so the FPS loss is expected and intended. I personally gladly take this tradeoff for how much better the game looks with those tweaks.

EDIT: If you also use the Optimized Tweaks mod, you will get some FPS back, so with that mod also instaled I am getting 100+ FPS with DLSS, and around 90 with DLAA. So for 1440p the performance is still good, for 4k maybe the higher tier 40xx cards will handle it without problems, but I am not sure. You would need to try and see for yourself.

If you want to increase performance, you can lower the shadows resolution.
Default values are:
r.Shadow.MaxCSMResolution=8192
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=8192

You can tone it down to:
r.Shadow.MaxCSMResolution=4096
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=4096

You will gain some FPS with that, the shadows will still look much better then vanilla, but if you get close, you will still see them flickering quite a bit.

What I still havent found fix for is the terrible ghosting, noise and other visual artifacts this game sadly has plenty of. If anyone has some fix for it please share it, I will very much appreciate it.

Hope you will like the new looks of the game :)