Performance ramifications of various mods

[Psycho78 10]

Ok, having ARMA2 for a month or so I've built up quite a collection of content. Of course things like SLX and CBA must make a memory/CPU difference, but what are the memory/cpu/video ramifications of launching ARMA2 with things like islands or sound mods loaded? Can I just leave all the islands enabled instead of having to relaunch each time a mission requires a different island?

[Gunter Severloh 4051]

Hello,

You can do anything you want, but if you leave addons/mods eneabled or

basically loaded in your target line the game will always load them.

I think maybe what you need is a launcher for your game, which would allow

you to check what you want to launch versus having to change your shortcut target line.

What are your computer specs, are you having issues with fps at all,

or just curious as to know what you can do?

[Psycho78 10]

I have a launcher, I'm just wondering if having 5 or 6 islands enabled will slow things down. For example, if a mission does not require Isla Duala, does Isla Duala take up any system resources?

[PuFu 4600]

I have a launcher, I'm just wondering if having 5 or 6 islands enabled will slow things down. For example, if a mission does not require Isla Duala, does Isla Duala take up any system resources?

No, it doesn't

[Gunter Severloh 4051]

I remember in Arma with the Ace island pack, as well as other islands,

I must have had like 20-30 islands in the list, I had to scroll,lol but I had no fps hit from having all of them there,

with all them islands, and or mods and stuff, game only loads what its needs.

[Psycho78 10]

That's good to know, I'll just leave all the islands checked then.

[[frl]myke 14]

Loading addons will raise your used RAM for a few Megabytes (we're really talking about single digit number, maybe low two digits) but it will not slow have impact on general performance.

At gamelaunch, the configs are loaded and dependancies checked. No model data or textures are loaded at this time, also no scripts (except some very special addons like CBA) are executed.

My modfolder is around 2GB and loading it raises used Ram for ~10MB. There are Units, weapons, vehicles and a handful islands.

:EDITH:

In other words, if loading or not loading addons becomes an issue, it might be about time to think about a general PC upgrade. ;)

[Windexglow 10]

Games are pretty good about loading only the bare minimum needed to play. So if there's no need to have something in memory - it probably won't be in there.

[Crunchie 10]

:EDITH:

In other words' date=' if loading or not loading addons becomes an issue, it might be about time to think about a general PC upgrade. ;)[/quote']

EDITH - Why did you bring HER into this??

[Gunter Severloh 4051]

Your loading time may increase if you have alot of stuff loading,

but in general if you wanted to speed up the loading time then add these codes to the target startup line,

before all your mods:

-nosplash -world=empty

-nosplash is one pretty much everyone knows,

and Im sure the world=empty as well but it def helps get you to the menu quicker.

[Psycho78 10]

Never thought about using -world=empty for faster load times, I'll try it.

[IronTrooper 0]

I think that as long as the mods don't contain too much of scripting or special effects, it shouldn't slow down the game. ACE does a little for me, WarFX in some situations, SLX a little, but most of the others are usually just replacement mods/addons (sound, vehicles, units, islands, ...) - those are no problem.

[Gunter Severloh 4051]

Heres a good wiki for you for startup Parameters:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma2:_Startup_Parameters

[maturin 12]

-world=empty will make the game launch must faster, but you will still have to wait the same amount of time in a different screen if you then go load Chernarus. The menu screen is a camera placed in the world, not a movie.

[Psycho78 10]

Probably a good tradeoff. I'd rather be able to pick my mission more quickly and while it loads go get a drink or whatever.

[andersson 285]

If you dont have -world=empty and you want to play on isla duala, then chernarus is first loaded when you start the game and then you have to load isla duala so you loose time.