cant run more than 9addons at a time steam?

[natethegreat 10]

hey guys I hope you can help, I have the steam version of arma2 and OA and when I try to run more than 9 addons the game just wont launch. I am using Arma2 launcher by spirted machine, but I also tried to launch just using steam with the launch directories and no luck. Any help will be appreciated.

Edited August 5, 2010 by natethegreat

[no use for a name 0]

try running one at a time and see if it's a single one causing the problem or if it's a conflict between several. Process of elimination...

[natethegreat 10]

try running one at a time and see if it's a single one causing the problem or if it's a conflict between several. Process of elimination...

thanks for the response, but I tried that. Every single combination has been done and it just wont start. Should I try reinstalling the game?

[Sekra 10]

the problem is that most likely the startup line is getting too long and it is a OS restriction. it might also help debugging if you copy the exact startup line from the launcher here.

[natethegreat 10]

the problem is that most likely the startup line is getting too long and it is a OS restriction. it might also help debugging if you copy the exact startup line from the launcher here.

"-mod=I:\arma 2;Expansion;ca;e:\addons\@ace;e:\addons\@acex;e:\addons\@cba;i:\addons\@bb;i:\addons\@gl4;i:\addons\@jsrs-e;i:\addons\@jsrs-v;i:\addons\@jsrs-vw;i:\addons\@jsrs-w;i:\addons\@rh;i:\addons\@rh m14 1.0" -nosplash -cpuCount=4

[7 0]

Just stop whatever it is you're trying to do.

[djdeluxe76 10]

you don't need all the e:\addons ?

Also I remember I was able to reproduce with Steam that after 254 characters for the mod line game just wouldn't launch.

This seems to be a Steam limitation with args passed as string as only the "-mod=..." bit is contributing to the character count limit.

(normal cmd.exe argument lines can be up to 4096 chars long if I remember correctly).

Two ways around this:

One was to combine certain mods like unit, object and effects addons into mix folders and loading those instead of their respective mod folders

(e.g. if you have 3 unit mods @unit1;@unit2;@unit3; make a folder @allunits in there make a folder addons and extract all pbos from the unit1\addons, unit2\addons and unit3\addons folders there.

then add @allunits to the mod line).

Whatever you do though, do NOT (!) do this with sound mods and total conversion mods (like ACE, ACEX etc).

With sound mods I found that due to multiple sounds firing to one single event (such as a gunshot) the hard drive's seek/burst rates would just grind to a halt and so the game because it would need to load multiple files on the same HD cluster all simultaneously. You really need to hand pick pbos from sound mods to make sure you are not loading two mods that cover one event or the same weapon model etc.

Other way and probably easier is to not launch through steam.exe -applaunch 33930 in the .cmd file and call ArmA2OA.exe directly (which will launch steam anyway).

For example my current .cmd file I start OA with contains the following launch line:

"D:\Spiele\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 33930 -nosplash -noFilePatching -world=empty -exThreads=7 -cpuCount=4 -openal "-mod=d:\spiele\steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;EXPANSION;ca;@CBA;x\oac\oac_core;x\caa1;@ACE;@ACEX;@Items;@Units;@Islands;@Editing;@Sounds;@Sar;@Effects"

but instead of "D:\Spiele\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 33930 I could also launch by "D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ArmA2OA.exe" and then I found the "-mod=..." bit could be as long as the cmd.exe limit.

In the steam client if you choose to start OA a dialog box pops up that asks you if you want to start vanilla OA or CO. If you pick CO Steam will launch the file _runA2CO.cmd in the OA root folder. If you know what you're doing you can just create your own .cmd file and link with a shortcut from your Desktop and start the game that way.

[natethegreat 10]

you don't need all the e:\addons ?

Also I remember I was able to reproduce with Steam that after 254 characters for the mod line game just wouldn't launch.

This seems to be a Steam limitation with args passed as string as only the "-mod=..." bit is contributing to the character count limit.

(normal cmd.exe argument lines can be up to 4096 chars long if I remember correctly).

Two ways around this:

One was to combine certain mods like unit, object and effects addons into mix folders and loading those instead of their respective mod folders

(e.g. if you have 3 unit mods @unit1;@unit2;@unit3; make a folder @allunits in there make a folder addons and extract all pbos from the unit1\addons, unit2\addons and unit3\addons folders there.

then add @allunits to the mod line).

Whatever you do though, do NOT (!) do this with sound mods and total conversion mods (like ACE, ACEX etc).

With sound mods I found that due to multiple sounds firing to one single event (such as a gunshot) the hard drive's seek/burst rates would just grind to a halt and so the game because it would need to load multiple files on the same HD cluster all simultaneously. You really need to hand pick pbos from sound mods to make sure you are not loading two mods that cover one event or the same weapon model etc.

Other way and probably easier is to not launch through steam.exe -applaunch 33930 in the .cmd file and call ArmA2OA.exe directly (which will launch steam anyway).

For example my current .cmd file I start OA with contains the following launch line:

"D:\Spiele\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 33930 -nosplash -noFilePatching -world=empty -exThreads=7 -cpuCount=4 -openal "-mod=d:\spiele\steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;EXPANSION;ca;@CBA;x\oac\oac_core;x\caa1;@ACE;@ACEX;@Items;@Units;@Islands;@Editing;@Sounds;@Sar;@Effects"

but instead of "D:\Spiele\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 33930 I could also launch by "D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ArmA2OA.exe" and then I found the "-mod=..." bit could be as long as the cmd.exe limit.

In the steam client if you choose to start OA a dialog box pops up that asks you if you want to start vanilla OA or CO. If you pick CO Steam will launch the file _runA2CO.cmd in the OA root folder. If you know what you're doing you can just create your own .cmd file and link with a shortcut from your Desktop and start the game that way.

7 your a fucken troll I hope you get banned. And Thanks a whole lot DJ, I will try this. The reason I have E:\Addons, is because I have 3 15k scsi HD that are only 36gb and I run arma on them and I put addons on different partitions cause I dont have enough space. Thanks Ill try what you said

[Dwarden 1124]

actually with win7 the cmd line limit is 8k i think ...

anyway there seems to be really issue related to STEAM

and to avoid long paths You can always use the symlink junction (mklink /D /J) and put such path to e.g.

C:\OAmod\

[natethegreat 10]

actually with win7 the cmd line limit is 8k i think ...

anyway there seems to be really issue related to STEAM

and to avoid long paths You can always use the symlink junction (mklink /D /J) and put such path to e.g.

C:\OAmod\

Ya I actually just did what DJ told me and add addons together. Is there anyway I can just copy the game on another HD and just play it without steam. Cause my arma2 on steam works on another HD I copied it on without steam running.?

[Dwarden 1124]

OA needs Steam to run, but You can use beta build the way you asked for