Guide to Gaining FPS in Arma 2/3 (Uncomplete, really rugged)
3 posters
Page 1 of 1
Guide to Gaining FPS in Arma 2/3 (Uncomplete, really rugged)
WHY DOES ARMA LAG?
ArmA, its slow. Most people get surprised when they get low frames in ArmA with their gaming computers, why is this?
ArmA uses the Real Virtuality engine. Version 3 to be exact. This engine allows for decent graphics to be paired with the ability to maintain more than 500,000 objects at one time on an average computer, unlimited amount of players and AI, and sophisticated day/night weather cycles.
Vocab i use:
GPU: Graphics Card
CPU: Processor
RV3 rarely relies on the GPU. Compared to other games, a lot more of what you see is given to the CPU to compute. 3D objects are rendered in the CPU, as well as shadows (low-settings shadows only) and a few other graphical pretty things.
Most games leave shadows, 3D objects (buildings, cars, trees/bushes) to the GPU, and textures are usually higher quality, meaning VRAM is used to it's maximum (2047MB usually) extent, but in ArmA, the minimum VRAM/Video Memory setting is nearly around 256MB. That is barely anything, yet ArmA can still survive on it. Why?
CPU does the s***. All the s***.
Let me list the most important computer parts in order for ArmA to run well:
So what is the best option? Either upgrade your parts, which you probably can't do, or try the following steps to speed up your computer and smooth your gameplay on ArmA.
OPTIMIZATION IS NOW YOUR GIRLFRIEND
The following should help your computer cope with ArmA. I'm putting these in order of what i think are the most effective ways.
The most effective for keeping your game from crashing, making Arma start around 10 times faster, and making your computer use all of the processor is the following.
PARAMETER METHOD:
Goto:
Steam>library>right click on whichever ArmA game you are optimizing>properties> "SET LAUNCH OPTIONS..."
Now, if you do not know how many cores and/or threads or processor has, read this:
-maxVRAM=2047 -maxmem=2047 -cpuCount=8 -winxp -exthreads=7 -world=empty -nosplash -nopause
1. Change the -cpucount to your amount of cores.
2. -Exthreads means EXTRA THREADS. ArmA runs through 1 thread on default. If you have 4 threads in total, this should be -exthreads=3 for example. If i have 2 cores, -exthreads=1.
3. -Maxmem is RAM. Your PC should have more than 2gb of ram if it's able to run Arma at all. You shouldn't have to change this. 2047 is hard-coded maximum.
4. -MaxVRAM IS DANGEROUS. KNOW HOW MUCH VIDEO RAM YOUR GPU HAS. GOOGLE IF YOU DON'T
NICE TO HAVE:
Nosplash, nopause, and world=empty will make your game load up to the main menu around 10X faster, additionally skipping the ESRB and ArmA II pictures at startup.
MOD METHOD
The following mods are created specifically for slow computers and speed up gameplay.
I expect that this should help a good bit when on emita:
BUILDINGS FPS MOD
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7280
FOLIAGE FPS MOD
This should help with everything else:
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7251
They also give a tactical advantage by deleting large grass, small shrubs, and making ground foliage shorter, and lesser.
ARMA2.CFG
MaxFrameRender:
You should find this notepad document in Documents>ArmA2>Arma2.cfg(open with notepad)
There's also OA and A2F versions if you want to edit those.
There should be two lines of text that say this, though your numbers may differ from mine:
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="80";
GPU_MaxFramesAhead="4";
Change these variables into:
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="4";
GPU_MaxFramesAhead="0";
MEMORY ALLOCATOR METHOD
ArmA, its slow. Most people get surprised when they get low frames in ArmA with their gaming computers, why is this?
ArmA uses the Real Virtuality engine. Version 3 to be exact. This engine allows for decent graphics to be paired with the ability to maintain more than 500,000 objects at one time on an average computer, unlimited amount of players and AI, and sophisticated day/night weather cycles.
Vocab i use:
GPU: Graphics Card
CPU: Processor
RV3 rarely relies on the GPU. Compared to other games, a lot more of what you see is given to the CPU to compute. 3D objects are rendered in the CPU, as well as shadows (low-settings shadows only) and a few other graphical pretty things.
Most games leave shadows, 3D objects (buildings, cars, trees/bushes) to the GPU, and textures are usually higher quality, meaning VRAM is used to it's maximum (2047MB usually) extent, but in ArmA, the minimum VRAM/Video Memory setting is nearly around 256MB. That is barely anything, yet ArmA can still survive on it. Why?
CPU does the s***. All the s***.
Let me list the most important computer parts in order for ArmA to run well:
- Decending Importance:
1. CPU
2. RAM
Faster RAM, not more, since ArmA is only limited to 2047GB because it runs like a 32-bit program.
Ram allows the overall game to not freeze when opening/using other programs.
3. HDD/SDD
Faster drive means faster loading of everything within the game. Faster startup, map loading, etc.
This will make it easier to run object detail on high, because lots of Level-Of-Detail changes will be made when moving around the map with Obj detail on high/ultra.
4. GPU
Only useful when wanting to play with 4X AntiAliasing, Post Processing on Max, and other stupid useless settings like that.
You aren't going to be playing on high settings on populated servers anyways, you'll want the lowest settings for the clearest view of the landscape.
So what is the best option? Either upgrade your parts, which you probably can't do, or try the following steps to speed up your computer and smooth your gameplay on ArmA.
OPTIMIZATION IS NOW YOUR GIRLFRIEND
The following should help your computer cope with ArmA. I'm putting these in order of what i think are the most effective ways.
The most effective for keeping your game from crashing, making Arma start around 10 times faster, and making your computer use all of the processor is the following.
PARAMETER METHOD:
Goto:
Steam>library>right click on whichever ArmA game you are optimizing>properties> "SET LAUNCH OPTIONS..."
Now, if you do not know how many cores and/or threads or processor has, read this:
- Learn your s*** with the all-powerful Rik0's guide:
Core Count: Goto your start menu.
Type in "Devic"
You should see "Device Manager" (If you don't, open this program via control panel.)
Once you open device manager, go down to processors, click it open. It should look like this:- Image:
That's how to find your core count.
Thread count: To be safe, most processors have 1 thread per core. If you have 4 cores, you have 4 threads. That's pretty much it
-maxVRAM=2047 -maxmem=2047 -cpuCount=8 -winxp -exthreads=7 -world=empty -nosplash -nopause
1. Change the -cpucount to your amount of cores.
2. -Exthreads means EXTRA THREADS. ArmA runs through 1 thread on default. If you have 4 threads in total, this should be -exthreads=3 for example. If i have 2 cores, -exthreads=1.
3. -Maxmem is RAM. Your PC should have more than 2gb of ram if it's able to run Arma at all. You shouldn't have to change this. 2047 is hard-coded maximum.
4. -MaxVRAM IS DANGEROUS. KNOW HOW MUCH VIDEO RAM YOUR GPU HAS. GOOGLE IF YOU DON'T
NICE TO HAVE:
Nosplash, nopause, and world=empty will make your game load up to the main menu around 10X faster, additionally skipping the ESRB and ArmA II pictures at startup.
MOD METHOD
The following mods are created specifically for slow computers and speed up gameplay.
I expect that this should help a good bit when on emita:
BUILDINGS FPS MOD
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7280
FOLIAGE FPS MOD
This should help with everything else:
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7251
They also give a tactical advantage by deleting large grass, small shrubs, and making ground foliage shorter, and lesser.
ARMA2.CFG
MaxFrameRender:
You should find this notepad document in Documents>ArmA2>Arma2.cfg(open with notepad)
There's also OA and A2F versions if you want to edit those.
There should be two lines of text that say this, though your numbers may differ from mine:
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="80";
GPU_MaxFramesAhead="4";
Change these variables into:
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="4";
GPU_MaxFramesAhead="0";
MEMORY ALLOCATOR METHOD
- LOTS OF TEXT:
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
LET the all-powerful Rik0 TEST THIS WITH HIS PC BEFORE YOU
CAUSE IVE GOT LIKE 16GB DDR3 RAM
TEST RAT FTW
STOLEN FROM http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?143792-A2-A2F-A2OA-Tweak-Guide
This is how to use memory allocators. By default, your A2:OA game directory has a folder named "dll" this folder contains a number of memory allocators (in form of dll's) What you need to know about this folder is that if you want to use custom memory allocators you have to put them in this folder and then execute them via commandline.
To execute an memory allocator for your game, in game shortcut parameters add -malloc=NAMEOFMALLOC where NAMEOFMALLOC is memory allocator dll name from dll folder WITHOUT .dll extension.
Test results bellow. Please note that these tests were done with beta version of CO and on a mediocre system, in other words they were pushed to do something a memory allocator wasn't designed to, i.e. run the game on highest settings (with objects, textures, 5k view distance) with only 2 GB of local RAM and 512 MB GPU RAM available (one of my test systems specs) The tests were conducted as follows - All A2: CO vehicles were placed on an area next to player spawn, a helicopter was used (Little Bird) to fly over cities, most used terrain was Bystrica (ACR) and cities (Ex Chernogorsk and Ex Elektrozavodsk) if memory allocator didn't crash by then, another terrain was loaded (Fallujah) and then yet another (Zargabad)
Included memory allocators (these come preinstalled in dll folder):
tbb3malloc_bi - Poor performance, resource hungry and crashes if forced. Couldn't handle two cities in Bystrica. All high settings.
tbb4malloc_bi - Default memory allocator, works decently and can handle things well, crashes if forced. Couldn't handle two cities fully in Bystrica. All High to Very high settings.
jemalloc_bi - Very good performance, loads objects fast, lower level of LOD, crashes if forced and returns debug dialog (memory exception notice) Could handle only one city in Bystrica. High settings.
tcmalloc_bi - Very good performance, loads objects even faster, higher LOD, crashes if forced. Could handle one city in Bystrica. High to Very High settings.
nedmalloc_bi - Exceptional performance, loads objects decently not too fast though, uses "Receiving" screen to handle memory, of which speaking off the more RAM memory you have allocated to the game the faster this "Receiving" screen will disappear. Uses a lot of processing power. Didn't crash at all.
Custom memory allocators:
Hoard (winhoard.dll) - Incredibly fast memory allocator, whatsoever the fastest. Designed for 64 bit systems in mind. Could handle all 3 terrains but crashed eventually. Recommended for multicore users. Very High settings used. http://www.hoard.org/
Windows default (XP, W7 left untested) - Painfully slow, but very stable, could handle all 3 terrains on High settings.
Any other - Suggest and I will test.
lzcadsa
++++++---
And the winner is.....nedmalloc_bi !
Not only did it not crash, but this memory allocator saves on performance, and what's even more so I pushed it to extremes, used highest settings possible in A2:OA (except resolution, 1024p) and it didn't crash, I pushed it even further and ran JSRS, WarFX, COWarMod and even ACE, literally filled an entire block of vehicles in Fallujah and it didn't crash, I did get very low framerate though as expected as my system is mediocre and everything was on highest possible which is quiet a feat (~10 frames)
So what to use? If your processor is fast and you have plenty of ram, you can use the default memory allocator, for big performance gain use Hoard. If you have a mediocre system and your game crashes, use nedmalloc_bi as it will work perfectly fine in all conditions.
Last edited by OperatorDrewski on Tue Jul 14, 2015 7:33 pm; edited 3 times in total
Re: Guide to Gaining FPS in Arma 2/3 (Uncomplete, really rugged)
Does this also fix my autism?
Gunfin- Noble
- Posts : 456
Join date : 2013-05-27
Age : 27
Location : Atlantis
Re: Guide to Gaining FPS in Arma 2/3 (Uncomplete, really rugged)
*Edited by administrator:
Post removed for:
[too offensive/vulgar]
[1] Warning(s) issued to OP.
How about shut the fuck up bass
fuck your shit
m8
I AMMMM THE ADMIN
Post removed for:
[too offensive/vulgar]
[1] Warning(s) issued to OP.
How about shut the fuck up bass
fuck your shit
m8
I AMMMM THE ADMIN
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
|
|