Arma 2 - Ramdisk

BattlingCheese

After talking to Pog on Mumble during games thought I would give this a try and wow!! Big difference for very little work.
I was able to crank settings up a bit higher then normal and framerate is near constant 30fps now. Nice and smooth.

Thought I would post what I did after reading up on it and especially from the thread on the official forums. http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=88388

It's slighly different to what Pog did due to less RAM
I'm using Windows XP (32bit) with 4Gig RAM.

-Installed RamDisk Plus and created a 1Gig Ramdisk(very easy to do) and gave it letter R

-Cut the below pbo's from Arma2\Addons folder and pasted into a new folder called Arma2 pbo backup
plants2_Bush.pbo
plants2_Clutter.pbo
plants2_misc.pbo
plants2_Plant.pbo
plants2_Tree.pbo
Roads2.pbo
rocks2.pbo
signs2.pbo

-Copied these pbo's onto a folder called @ram\addons on the Ramdisk ( R:\@ram\addons\...)

-Ammended Arma2 launcher, if you use one, with -mod=R:\@ram\addons

Thats it.
Just be careful to copy the pbo's to another folder as you will loose them after a reboot on the R drive and would then need to reinstall. Having them in a backup folder just means you can copy back into Arma2\addons\ folder when not using a ramdisk.

More RAM you have the more pbo's you can store on the ramdisk and also you can experiment with different ones. I choose the plants etc as they are relatively small and are always used.

Any questions I'm sure Pog and me can try and answer them.

quiche

Cool - will have to give it a try - had Arma sitting here for a while now, havn't had time to play. Done some tweaking and framerate is ok on my setup at 1920x1080 - but will look at optimizing soon.

Out of curiosity - you guys that play online - who are you with? I'm with NTL - and online gaming has been horrendous with lots of drop-outs. Used to be with smart, and was fantastic connection... wishing I had it back.

cashville

Good man Cheese!!

PogMoThoin

I've used a different program which does the same thing and is free, [URL="ttp://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk"]Dataram Ramdisk[/URL]. The one mentioned in the thread linked above is not free and expires in 15 days.

Just to note that once You create the ramdisk its not going to show up until You format it. Do this by right clicking Computer, select manage, then disk management. Quick format it as ntfs, call it ramdisk and give it the drive letter R.

Here's what I added to my 4GB ramdisk which total 3.2GB, I've also added the few mods I run also to fill the 4GB. Remember to also add the similarly named bi.bisign files

buildings.pbo
buildings2.pbo
Buildings2_Ind_CementWorks.pbo
Ca.pbo
chernarus.pbo
chernarus_Data.pbo
chernarus_Data_Layers.pbo
misc.pbo
misc2.pbo
misc3.pbo
plants2_Bush.pbo
plants2_Clutter.pbo
plants2_misc.pbo
plants2_Plant.pbo
plants2_Tree.pbo
Roads2.pbo
rocks2.pbo
signs2.pbo
structures.pbo
utes.pbo
water.pbp
water2.pbo

Here's a files suggestion for a 1.6GB ramdisk

buildings2.pbo
chernarus.pbo
plants2_Tree.pbo
structures.pbo

Also its wise to have games installed on a seperate drive to windows. My Windows drives are 2x raptors in raid 0, along with this I've a 1TB which I've a 200GB games partion for all my games. Handy for when I reinstall. I've also got a second 1TB drive for media which I've created a 6GB partion just for the pagefile. Although the game doesn't page much, the best benefits for all games will be had by having Windows, the game and the pagefile on three seperate drives.

BattlingCheese

will probably change to that free one Pog now that I know it works.

PogMoThoin

Just to add that You don't need to cut the .pbo files from the original addons folder, just copy them. Because You launch them with a -mod command the .pbo's in the mod folder get priority over the ones in the original addons folder. This way Your game will run as normal without the -mod line and the original addons folder will stay the same allowing You to install a patch without moving the files back in

PogMoThoin

Supposedly there's less need for a ramdisk when running the latest beta patches. When You extract the beta's they extract into a seperate beta folder which contains its own startup .exe to launch the game, not interfering with Your game. You can play online on any server. This beta .exe is also a no-dvd one, as in You won't need the disk in the tray with this, although I always get one myself elsewhere, this is a legit one.

http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

BattlingCheese

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Just to add that You don't need to cut the .pbo files from the original addons folder, just copy them.

Cool, nice to know

PogMoThoin

Had a quick go with the latest beta patch and it definitely gives massive improvements, 5-10fps for me and absolutely no choppiness. You can use this updated version of the launcher, it includes an option to launch the beta patch along with the other mods You run and Your ramdisk (and even covers the Caa1 Sahrani map mod). I'm not sure whether there's even a need for the ramdisk now with this beta, things are looking great for the next patch.
Launcher download
Beta download

Dedicated server control is now integrated in the game menu. It gives server control options in the menu once You've logged in as admin, with quicker access to ban/kick, select missions etc.
Beta patches are allowed on all servers, there's no chance of getting kicked on any server

I'll deffo be online tomorrow eve if anyones up for a game

Maximilian

I just had arma lock my system - couldn't even soft reboot - while loading - I think because of the ramdisk. What settings should I have on that ramdisk program. I'm using that free one you suggested Pog.

Anyway, from the sounds of the beta patch, I mightn't need it. Does everyone need to be running the beta patch to play? ie. If I install it now, will it cause a problem later this evening?

PogMoThoin

I had issues yesterday with the beta patch, although it gave me great increases in fps i got random stutters which seemed to stop when i stopped using the patch. I'm using Ati catalyst 9.11 beta also, so not sure if its this or the beta causing probs, gonna roll back to the 9.9 driver as it was very stable (9.10 completely broke Arma). The beta patch is all client side, the server sees no different so makes no difference if You use it or not.

I'll be on mumble shortly and I'll talk You through the settings max

If I can, broadbands been out all evening, came back, then went again, not sure if i'll be able to play

PogMoThoin

Further to a ramdisk (I'm still running a 4GB one on my ram described above), I've now created a small 6GB partion for all my addons on another drive (I've got the advantage of 5 hd's in this pc as I use it as my media server). I've called it addons and I just put all the mods and addons in this partion seperately and make a symbolic link to each individual @folder in the Arma 2 game folder. This way they work as normal and don't make my game folder bulky, my game folder stays vanilla size. The Yoma updates as normal as it sees the symbolic links as folders and I launch them with the launcher same as I always did.

I'm finding it great as Ace and all the mods get loaded off a seperate drive. They all appear in the same order in my game folder, but they're not really there, just linked

dreamers75

Running a 1gb one with Duala panthera and Quesk Kibrul on it.


vast improvement with view distance.

PogMoThoin

Ya, runs lovely when You put the map in a ramdisk, I've been playing at 6000 viewdistance with grass on medium

Captain Chaos

Just wondering what spec systems you guys have to get Arma2 running at a decent speed. I just downloaded the demo the other night and I'm getting 7fps in the benchmark. Thats with all the settings at their lowest possible, shadows off etc.

My system is currently a 2yr old Core 2 duo 2.2Ghz, 2Gb Ram and an GeForce 8600GT 256Mb and its useless. This game from the sounds alone are making me want to get an I5 or I7 Quad with an ATi 5850 1Gb, maybe throw 4Gb of fast DDR3 in there too to try and get this beast playable, it's very hungry for power.

dreamers75

6850 3ghz duo, 4gb ram, 4870.


Play everything on high with video memory set to low (a bug for me) and post processing on low and AA and AF on normal. View distance normally 3000 but now 6000 running the maps off a ramdisk.


not a great pc by todays standard but does the job.

PogMoThoin

The patched game performs much better than the demo, no comparrison, but that pc is a little low specd, but should play it on low/medium settings and res. For comparrison My young fella plays this on all normal settings, No PP and No AA at 1280x1024 on his pc with a 2.4Ghz C2D, 4GB ram and 512MB 8800GT, He's now got my old quad but hasn't played Arma yet, must get Him to try.

I can run it completely maxed with most settings on V High, Low PP, Normal AA at 1920x1200. Half my game files and maps are in a 4GB ramdisk mentioned earlier in this thread and I've all my mod addons on a seperate drive, so they're not all reading from the one drive. Specs are in my sig, I've upgraded to a faster quad and 8GB ram for this game to perform better. I'm playing on Duala and Quesh Kibrul with 6000 viewdistance and getting 50-60fps

Carsinian Thau

Hope it's ok for me to (transiently) highjack this thread but seeing as we're talking about specs:

I'm thinking of getting ArmaII (because it sounds fun and I'd quite like to expand into playing online with some fellow boardsies). I definitely have enough RAM (6GB) but I'm not sure about the processor: It's a quad core but only at 2.0GHz. Would that be powerful enough to handle it at fairly high settings?

PogMoThoin

Carsinian Thau wrote: »

Hope it's ok for me to (transiently) highjack this thread but seeing as we're talking about specs:

I'm thinking of getting ArmaII (because it sounds fun and I'd quite like to expand into playing online with some fellow boardsies). I definitely have enough RAM (6GB) but I'm not sure about the processor: It's a quad core but only at 2.0GHz. Would that be powerful enough to handle it at fairly high settings?

It should do ok at normal to high settings. Arma uses 4 cores and runs better on quads than duals

Captain Chaos

This may sound silly but why have more than 3Gb of RAM, Windows 32bit can't recognise or use any more than that from what I know of PCs. Do you all have full 64bit setups to support you 4Gb and 6Gb RAM specs.

The last PC I custom built was 2 years ago and I haven't been keeping up to date with the latest specs at all. Just got fed up upgrading every 12 months over the years. All I play now LOMAC and the latest Free Falcon.

dreamers75

64bit Windows 7 here, the ram issue was a reason for the free upgrade

Captain Chaos

dreamers75 wrote: »

64bit Windows 7 here, the ram issue was a reason for the free upgrade

So I take it 64bit drivers are fairly stable these days than they were a year or two ogo. Thats good to know. Think it's about time to put a new rig together and see if Track IR can make the difference in FPS games that it has for me in flight sims.

dreamers75

Find Win7 as good as Xp ever was for games, pog uses trackIR playing arma.

PogMoThoin

TrackIR is like an extra hand, I can't play without it anymore. Great investment.

64bit is the way to go, I've been using it for over a yr without problems. 64bit Xp was a mess, but its much improved since.

Promac

Can't get this ramdisk to work. I have it running, have the drive assigned to R:\ and formatted and visible in explorer as a drive. Copied in the addons to the right path and all but the game and launcher just aren't seeing them.

Any ideas anyone?

dreamers75

Promac wrote: »

Can't get this ramdisk to work. I have it running, have the drive assigned to R:\ and formatted and visible in explorer as a drive. Copied in the addons to the right path and all but the game and launcher just aren't seeing them.

Any ideas anyone?

Use the link maker pog posted on the 1st page.

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html


worked for me but got a pain in arse having to setup the ram disk after every reboot.

Promac

Cool - I'll give that a go later on.

PogMoThoin

Did You symbolic link them into Your arma folder?
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html

I've cut my .pbo's into a folder called @Ramdisk/Addons, I then right click and pick link source and then right click in the Arma folder and drop it as a symbolic link. I've @Ramdisk, @Pantera and @Isla Duala on a ramdisk and all other mods on a seperate partion on another hard drive, my Arma folder is the vanilla game, new mods get added to the Arma Addons partion and my game folder stays unchanged, well besides the .pbo's I cut out, You need to paste them back in to patch whenever one is released