** Arma II - tweaking & troubleshooting thread **

[Darkman]

I'm not sure how the game calculates your video RAM. I've got a GTX 280 with 1GB onboard RAM.

According to my config file localVRAM=1059127296 (or 0.986 GB). 1GB = 1073741824 bytes.

Is it being conservative, or is the full 1GB not actually available?

P

 

[Lowe]

Are you sure that's the case about Win 7 being slower than XP? Can that be verified? I ask since ArmA 1 runs about 30% quicker on Win 7...

 

[L33]

Are you sure that's the case about Win 7 being slower than XP? Can that be verified? I ask since ArmA 1 runs about 30% quicker on Win 7...

I've personally verified it, see quoted post below from the main Arma2 thread. As always though, these things can be different on different hardware so this may not be the case for absolutely everyone, but there are lots of similar cases on the BIS forums (XP faster than 7)

I experimented by comparing Win 7 and XP x64 last night, as I noticed my friends machine running WinXP was actually running smoother than mine despite his rig being much lower spec.
If you don't want to read all below then to summarise, XP runs this game MUCH smoother.

I was running a few week old Win7 x64 build 7127 and fresh XP x64 SP2. After comparing I then made a completely fresh install of Win7 x64 build 7229 to make sure it wasn't the clean install that was making the difference rather than the OS.

My specs:
Core i7 @ 4.50Ghz
6GB DDR3 @ 1600Mhz
2x ATi Radeon HD 4890 1GB in crossfire
etc etc

Settings: All at highest except view distance 4000, fillrate (render) 100%.
I used the exact same settings and drivers on all installs.

Both the old and fresh Win 7 installations averaged around 35fps and both suffered from stutter.
XP x64 averaged around 50fps and was as smooth as silk. Looks like I'm going to have to keep an XP install just for this game.

EDIT: It seems I'm not the only one that has noticed this. According to this post on the BIS forums, Win 7 or vista combined with an i7 processor is the problem, specifically hyperthreading.

 

[judmann]

To get 45-60 fps high to very high this is what i did,

set all your settings to very low
close game
load game
then start increasing settings one at a time,you will notice that the fps doesnt change that much but the graphics look better,
keep increasing until your happy with your fps and graphics eye candy.

i expect many people as soon as they installed the game wacked there settings to very high to see how the game looks i know i did,to notice it struggled then decreased settings to find out they wasnt getting anymore fps and at times making the game go blurry.

to me the settings system is all screwed up

Q9450 2.66ghz
3gb ram
Ati 4980
win xp

i hope this helps.

 

[valerian]

is this game worth it?

 

[neverender]

Problem/Fix I posted in the official thread, but may be of more help here:

On starting Arma II your monitor may go immediately out of range.
To fix, browse to the arma2.cfg file and change the resolution and refresh rate variables to be supported by your monitor, eg.

refresh=60;
Render_W=1280;
Render_H=800;

Change the variables to suit.
I believe this was also a documented issue with Arma 1 for some users.

 

[Totality]

Is there any way to turn off bloom, blur, etc in the demo? Everything is soft at a distance and hard to distinguish! Have never liked bloom!

 

[spookywillow]

verriding Vsync 'off' in control panel does not work
How to test: Use Fraps to see your in-game FPS. Vsync will limit your FPS to equal your monitor refresh rate (normall 60 for LCD monitors)

* (ATi cards) Use ATi Tray Tools to force VSync off. Choose the 'Vista workaround' option.

help me find which menu its in. lol

same here, cant find that option anywhere

 

[gord]

Is there any way to turn off bloom, blur, etc in the demo? Everything is soft at a distance and hard to distinguish! Have never liked bloom!

Post Processing none should do that.

 

[Devlish]

Any way to skip the slowwww frikkin intro?

 

[Clairvoyant]

-noslash in your short cut.

 

[titaniumx3]

I tried setting the video memory setting to 'default' but I get huge artifacts (like giant polygons all over the screen) and also missing textures/objects. This doesn't happen straight away, but as soon as I start moving and new things get loaded into memory. If I set it back to 'very high' it returns to normal.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[L33]

Any way to skip the slowwww frikkin intro?

Yes, add -nosplash -world=none to your shortcut/command line

(ATi cards) Use ATi Tray Tools to force VSync off. Choose the 'Vista workaround' option.
help me find which menu its in. lol

same here, cant find that option anywhere

Go to Game Profiles > Manage Profiles. Create one if you dont have a default one already, the vista workaround option is in the Direct3D Tweaks tab

 

[L33]

I tried setting the video memory setting to 'default' but I get huge artifacts (like giant polygons all over the screen) and also missing textures/objects. This doesn't happen straight away, but as soon as I start moving and new things get loaded into memory. If I set it back to 'very high' it returns to normal.

Anyone else experience this?

I believe this is the same problem as listed in the 1st post under 'Flickering distant textures when using Default Video Memory setting'. Try enabling catalyst AI if you're an ATI user, and make sure your localvram setting is correct (see 1st post)

 

[spookywillow]

thanks thats sorted it but the mouse lag and acceleration is still there

 

[spiki]

This thread is a really good idea & hopefully I can get a possible solution to the my constant lockups when playing the Razer Two mission in campaign.

I can play for about two minutes upon moving on the town of Novy Sabor (?) and then my system just hangs, prompting me to Task Manager out of it. Has happened tonight about five times in a row. Was using the latest nVIdia drivers but have gone back to 182.06. I hadn't played this part of the campaign before so it seems teh revised 1.02 patch may be the cause.

Anyone have a workaround for lockups? BTW this doesn't happen in Boot Camp or a couple of scenarios I have played.

 

[jmc007]

Yes, add -nosplash -world=none to your shortcut/command line

Cheers for this tip. Works nice and a good twenty seconds off the load up time.
Probably saved my life of a good few minutes waiting overall. Cheers

 

[scum]

AA issue?

I'm using crossfired ATI HD 4870s (1GB) and if you turn on AA at any setting it's fine until you start playing. Then it simply crashes to desktop. Going to have a bit of a play around and will post if I get this working.

 

[mach1user]

I have a specific problem when running this game, i have yet to find a solution.

The game runs very well, only problem i am getting is when i press escape i get a freeze that lasts around 10-15 seconds. It then occurs again when i rejoin the game. Apart fro that it runs like a dream.

Any sugestions?

PC Spec
i7 3.2GHz
6Gb Ram
HD4870 X2

Just found on another forum that the g15 can cause the problems i am having, i will check this out tonight

 

[Sarcasm]

is hyper threading enabled on your CPU? if so disable it i heard Arma2 dont like hyperthreading