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Alex470

Refund? Possibly?

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I swear, before anyone even begins the "optimization" speech...

Now I did a good deal of research and asked around to see how ARMA II would run on my PC, and from what I saw, my computer was well about recommended. I checked canirunit as well. Anyway, upon installing with hopes of being able to HDR to work, I had so much lag that things just froze up. I knocked the settings down, and had more input lag than I knew what to do with. I turned off HDR (which defeated the purpose of purchasing it with the free version coming out shortly). Turning off HDR didn't work. The only way I managed to get anything running to a manageable point was with the 3D resolution turned down to half that of my 1920x1080. Anti-aliasing was off, etc. I made sure what needed to be checked and unchecked was all in order, as well as doing the game's recommended settings, but to no avail. Multiplayer did run *slightly* more smoothly, however it was still just absolutely absurd.

I've got a quad core i5 running at 2.3gHz with 6 gigs of RAM and a nVidia 9800GT. I mean, WoW would run on Ultra in Dalaran with over 100FPS for people who can relate to how bad Dal was. Anyway, I tried emailing through the support form but it would never send properly.

I'm more than willing to forfeit my copy and remove it from my computer and whatever else needs to be done to completely rid myself of my copy if I could just get the 44.99 USD back. It WAS bought through Steam, and Steam directed me here.

All that said, I would like to give a high five to Bohemia for the fantastic move of making ARMA free to play. That is seriously respectable in my book. But, to be on topic, the recommended settings were more than misleading and I'd like a refund.

Again, I'm posting here because it seems like the closest thing I can get to sending an email to Bohemia for support. /shrug

Thanks ahead of time!

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Refunds will always come through the people who you bought the game from and I believe Steam has a strict no-refund policy.

On the other hand, your processor is too slow and your graphics card is too weak but I guess you don't really care anymore.

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Refunds will always come through the people who you bought the game from and I believe Steam has a strict no-refund policy.

On the other hand, your processor is too slow and your graphics card is too weak but I guess you don't really care anymore.

"Question

How do I return a retail game package?

Answer

Please contact the vendor you purchased the game from for a return or exchange - as the purchase of the game package from a retail outlet involves a transaction between you and the retailer. Steam Support will not offer returns for retail purchases."

Nope, I'm supposed to come here. And while my processor may be weak, and same with the graphics card...well...not according to the box. Unless recommended settings is literally everything on lowest detail running at 800x600. Even still, I'd probably have a stupid amount of input lag.

While you may have a beast of a PC, I don't, and most people don't, and most people don't expect the recommended settings to be totally unreliable when investing ~$50.

Edit: And in the cases where refunds are acceptable (ie. misleading packaging), while the purchase IS through Steam, it's paid to Bohemia. I know it's rare, but forum posts do share similar complaints and Steam being able to work with the transaction.

Edited by Alex470

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I don't have a beast of a PC but my processor and graphics card are faster than yours and Arma 2 still doesn't run as great as I hoped it would but it isn't unplayable.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB

2GB DDR2 RAM @ 800MHz

Your case seems a bit confusing. Where exactly did you purchase the game from? If you purchased anything through Steam alone it is up to Steam to decide to refund you, which they will not do 90% of the time. However, your post makes it sound like you own a hard copy in which case you need to contact whoever you bought it at.

Edited by Zipper5

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I purchased it through Steam as a digital download. What I understand from Steam is that they would rather push the blame on to the company the published the game because the recommended settings "on the box" were very misleading. It wasn't a download issue or something along those lines, but an issue dealing with the company that published it.

That makes sense to me, and that's what I'm reading through their support page. Of course, I don't see any support links on Steam. It looks like they're just pointing the finger...and perhaps rightfully so in this case. Not sure, though.

I guess I'll give them a call tomorrow afternoon and see what all can be done.

Edit: And yeah, there was so much input lag that it was just totally unbearable. And that was at half my 1920x resolution.

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You'd be making much more use of your time if you posted your exact settings, so you can get help in getting rid of input lag and getting the most performance for the hardware you do have, rather than complaining that you can't get a refund.

At this point, there's a 99% chance that you'll never receive a refund on any PC game that you'll ever buy from now on.

The fact of the matter is that the game itself does exactly what it was advertised to do. The ironic thing is that your CPU is better than mine, while your GFX card outputs roughly the same performance, and I run nearly everything on the highest settings with great performance.

Comparing FPS to WOW is even more absurd than the occasional comparison to CoD or Battlefield titles. Drastically different games, drastically different engines, and drastically different performance.

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Better CPU then mine and I play ok. Some parts of the map are nasty slideshow.

Either their something bogging things down on your system or your framerate expectations for what you have are too high.

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You'll never get a refund bro.

---------- Post added at 01:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:37 AM ----------

On the other hand, your processor is too slow

Not necessarily. I have a slower processor and I am able to run the game just fine.

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You'd be making much more use of your time if you posted your exact settings, so you can get help in getting rid of input lag and getting the most performance for the hardware you do have, rather than complaining that you can't get a refund.

No, no. I'm not complaining I can't get a refund. If you read the original post, you might notice I was hoping to find a way to contact Bohemia since their contact system is down...or at least it is for me.

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I was hoping to find a way to contact Bohemia since their contact system is down...

Well this forum works. PM one of the devs (perhaps Dwarden) or email them.

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Better CPU then mine and I play ok. Some parts of the map are nasty slideshow.

Either their something bogging things down on your system or your framerate expectations for what you have are too high.

Well I'm used to having high framerates, so watching it go below 15 is painful. Of course, input lag was still the biggest issue.

As far as I knew, the minimum system requirements were different than the recommended. And my computer was far past the recommended. Like...off the charts. I didn't pay for what was advertised, but what was guaranteed with system recommendations, not minimums.

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Steam might be causing the problem or even TeamSpeak 3 if you have that installed.

Both of those have been known to bog down even high-end systems for some people.

TS3 causes severe mouse lag for me.

I've run Arma II on a Sempron, 9800GT with 2GB's of RAM just fine at 1920x1200. No post, everything else normal.. Shadows on high to use GPU.

except for the large cities is pretty smooth and very playable.

Edited by jblackrupert

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Well this forum works. PM one of the devs (perhaps Dwarden) or email them.

Thanks, man. That I will certainly try out!

---------- Post added at 12:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 AM ----------

Steam might be causing the problem or even TeamSpeak 3 if you have that installed.

Both of those have been known to bog down even high-end systems for some people.

TS3 causes severe mouse lag for me.

Oh God, I hate TS. And yeah, the gameoverlay.gui or whatever has been really nasty on my PC's performance lately.

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But, to be on topic, the recommended settings were more than misleading and I'd like a refund.

STEAM often lies about the minimum and recommended system specs for a game. Misleading advertising to say the least. I have half a dozen Steam games that run like crap while according to Steam I should run it just fine. (OPF dragon rising is one of them unfortunately, but also Civ5 for example).

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And my computer was far past the recommended. Like...off the charts. I didn't pay for what was advertised, but what was guaranteed with system recommendations, not minimums.

nah, your system just about matches the recommended specs, and it probably runs decent on reasonable settings.

Try 2000 vd, low terrain and model detail, no aa, no shadows, rest also turned down. still looks decent and probably runs fine.

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nah, your system just about matches the recommended specs, and it probably runs decent on reasonable settings.

Try 2000 vd, low terrain and model detail, no aa, no shadows, rest also turned down. still looks decent and probably runs fine.

No, no, my system was beyond the recommended specs and can not manage to run this without downgrading the 3D resolution to 50%. The view distance I was using was around 1600, as well. I wouldn't be asking for a refund if it worked reasonably. It doesn't; the recommended specs ought to be the minimum; it's why I'm looking for a refund.

---------- Post added at 10:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 AM ----------

STEAM often lies about the minimum and recommended system specs for a game. Misleading advertising to say the least. I have half a dozen Steam games that run like crap while according to Steam I should run it just fine. (OPF dragon rising is one of them unfortunately, but also Civ5 for example).

I don't think Steam lies about the recommended settings, though. They probably just copy whatever the game developer threw on the box.

But regardless, I was looking at the system specs off the website, not Steam.

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It doesn't; the recommended specs ought to be the minimum

Why? My specs are arguably on par with yours and I can run the game just fine.

Minimum & recommended specs really don't mean much in my experience... the only way to know is to try it (demo or whatever).

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What do u call a decent FPS? As this ain't call of duty, so you can easily play it on 15-20 FPS with very little issue. Infact, very few people run it at the much coverted 60+fps easily

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What do u call a decent FPS? As this ain't call of duty, so you can easily play it on 15-20 FPS with very little issue.

I for one wouldn't play A2 at that frame rate. An fps that low is simply hostile to my eyes, no matter what game.

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I agree with Celery about 15-20. It's really in your eyes.

I get 30+ FPS on my system (which is just about right, and not noticeable during action where you are busy with other things) with 3k view distance and mid-high graphics - then again I got to upgrade my videocard too which is like 3 years old now (GTX260).

Expecting a good framerate with 9800GT which is next-to rebranded 5 years old 8800GT from a modern game is futile.

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I'm happy with 25-30. Anything less is a pain in the arse, but if it gets below 15-10 then I don't like it.

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- Whats your full specs?

- What Applications You Running While game is Running?

- What kind of Imputs do you have?

Give us as much information as possible and we can try and help solve the issue :)

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Contact the place where you bought the game from for a refund.

I have no clue how you guys come to the glorious idea of demanding a refund from the Developer of the game while you sure as hell bought it from a reseller.

Closed, for low performance problems we have sticky thread in this forum.

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