Video Setting Lock Cannot Go Above Normal for Video Memory

[brzozowsky 1]

Yes guys, you are right. I thing its a bug in Windows 7 x86 if you have 4GB RAM installed.

I found a solution after a long night.

I have found in a german forum a unofficial RAM-Patch for Windows 7 x86. After installing the patch, Windows 7 shows me i have 4 GB RAM installed, before the patch it was 2.99 GB.

...and the dxdiag shows me 721MB, before it was 273MB

Now i can set VERY HIGH - Video memory and VERY HIGH - Texture quality in the settings. I have played Arma2OA v1.60 today about 4 hours without errors or crashes. The system is with the RAM-Patch stable.

Here are informations about the RAM-Patch for Win7 x86: http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html?lang=EN

And here is the Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?bvj55nuurcvcndo

Big thanks to all for helping to resolve this problem!

(Sorry my english)

Edited February 27, 2012 by brzozowsky

[.kju 3244]

nice to hear :)

[volkov956 0]

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=100000;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=2560;

Resolution_H=1600;

refresh=60;

winX=16;

winY=32;

winW=800;

winH=600;

winDefW=800;

winDefH=600;

Render_W=2560;

Render_H=1600;

FSAA=0;

postFX=0;

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=2147483647; (should be 2684354560)

nonlocalVRAM=1877780480;

vsync=1;

AToC=7;

FXAA=0;

Windowed=0;

I currently have a 2.5gb Video Card but I am unable to choose Video memory High and etc there is only 2 options Low and Normal on my other systems with 2 and 1gb cards it gives me all the options...

Anyone know an override by chances

Server 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1 X64

Xeon X5690

12GB DDR ECC

300 15rpm x 4 SAS

Quadro 5000 2.5gb

ASUS PCIE x1 Xonar STX

Dxdiag says video card is 217mb lol rest of aps see it as 2.5gb except arma 2 but then again arma 2 goes off of dxdiag

Edited March 2, 2012 by volkov956

[volkov956 0]

I have the same problem brzozo but its a X64 bit OS so hmm trying to figure that out now

[Horus 83]

Try this patch and hotfix and see if you will solve the problem.

[volkov956 0]

This Patch is not applicable for your computer oh well

[volkov956 0]

Temp Fix is to remove one Memory Module so the system is 10gb now Arma detects and run it fine...

[harakka 10]

I'm suffering from this UI /texture / model flickering issue as well. My specs are Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, Phenom II X4 965 on Asus M4A78-EM mobo, 8GB RAM, HD 5750 512MB, currently running Catalyst 12.2 but have tried a few older versions too without any improvement. Dxdiag only reports 242MB approx. total video memory in the display tabs.

ARMA 2 and OA .cfg's show 137985984 bytes of both localVRAM and nonlocalVRAM. Both Texture Detail and Video Memory dropdowns only have Low and Normal settings available, no amount of resetting to default settings and deleting config files helps.

If any working MS hotfixes, commandline parameter tweaks or other solutions turn up please post them in this thread, as removing memory to be able to play ARMA 2 properly just isn't an option. And if there's any CIT issues that us sufferers can help with or any debugging procedures that can be run, let us know.

Edited March 5, 2012 by harakka
More details

[Horus 83]

Post your arma2oa.cfg file and did you use onboard GPU?

[harakka 10]

No, discrete HD 5750 512MB PCIE card. Also, I must have made a mistake somewhere checking my files the last time, as OA's .cfg actually shows localVRAM=523681792 and A2's localVRAM=268435456. Here's the full ArmA2OA.cfg:

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=46875;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1680;

Resolution_H=1050;

refresh=60;

winX=10;

winY=31;

winW=1657;

winH=972;

winDefW=1657;

winDefH=972;

Render_W=1657;

Render_H=972;

FSAA=0;

postFX=3;

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=0;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=0;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=523681792;

nonlocalVRAM=2147483647;

vsync=0;

AToC=0;

Windowed=1;

FXAA=0;

[Horus 83]

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=46875;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1680;

Resolution_H=1050;

refresh=60;

winX=10; -> 16

winY=31; -> 32

winW=1657; -> 800

winH=972; -> 600

winDefW=1657; -> 800

winDefH=972; -> 600

Render_W=1657; -> 1680

Render_H=972; -> 1050

FSAA=0;

postFX=3; -> 0

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=0;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=0;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=523681792;

nonlocalVRAM=2147483647;

vsync=0; -> 1

AToC=0;

Windowed=1;

FXAA=0; -> delete use last patch and....

PPAA=3;

PPAA_Level=2;

[harakka 10]

Tested those settings with both 1.60 and build 90242 to no effect.

[.kju 3244]

Did you try to remove one RAM stick as a test yet?

[harakka 10]

Not yet, getting to my PC case and taking stuff out is on the borderline of what I'm willing to do to de-bug a game, especially since I wouldn't keep the lower RAM configuration in daily use anyway to fix the situation, as I do other stuff too on this machine than just play ARMA2.

Edited March 7, 2012 by harakka

[.kju 3244]

It seems more like an OS problem, hence the (hot)fixes provided by MS, and affects also other games.

[volkov956 0]

I guess if Bis was nice enough a temp fix could also be that the game stops using DXDIAG for Video Memory Detection or let us manually set it

Ex Startup Line Param -maxvidmem 2048 or etc would a welcome feature to let us force Video Mem

Edited March 11, 2012 by volkov956

[Dwarden 1125]

it came to my attention there is already solution available via commandline parameter -maxVRAM=

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD]-maxVRAM=<number>

[/TD]

[TD] Defines Video Memory allocation limit to number (in MegaBytes). Use to resolve e.g. Windows problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2026022/en-us?p=1

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

i'm very sorry this non-documented command took so long to publish on BIKI, http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma2:_Startup_Parameters#Performance

please accept my apologize

[Horus 83]

better late than never BIS :pet2: ......... :p

[colinm9991 20]

it came to my attention there is already solution available via commandline parameter -maxVRAM=

i'm very sorry this non-documented command took so long to publish on BIKI, http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma2:_Startup_Parameters#Performance

please accept my apologize

What is the default amount of VRAM being used WITHOUT this command line?

Let's say I have a 3GB graphics card and launch the game with "-winxp -skipIntro" how much VRAM is being used for the game itself?

[harakka 10]

This seems to have fixed my issue, so apology totally accepted. Thank you Dwarden!

[Dwarden 1125]

are we sure this is resolved? i getting reports the -maxVRAM= command still not working at all or as expected?

is anyone with the problem still persisting willing to volunteer to help us track it?

[harakka 10]

Since I started using the -maxVRAM=512 parameter, I've still seen the HUD flicker occasionally. It's very rare though and I can't reproduce it. I haven't noticed any LOD flickering at all any more. I still don't have any other options available in Texture Detail and Video Memory than 'Low' and 'Normal', I don't know if that's intended?

Edited June 20, 2012 by harakka

[brzozowsky 1]

Try this: go to c/users/your name/my documents/arma 2/

First open this file: ArmA2OA.cfg

Find and edit:

localVRAM=2147483647;

nonlocalVRAM=1336125440;

now open this file in same folder: YOURNAME.Arma2OAProfile

Find and edit:

TexQuality=3;

TexMemory=3;

Save and start the game.

[harakka 10]

Every piece of documentation I've ever seen indicates that localVRAM and nonlocalVRAM have no effect, they're decided and written to by the engine when starting the game. Setting TexQuality and TexMemory to 3 makes the 'High' and 'Very high' options available but 'Default' is still missing.

Playing with both Texture Detail and Video Memory on Very High via editing the profile file causes constant HUD and texture LOD flickering, I can provide a video if needed. I assume this has something to with the fact that I have a 512MB card though... :)

[brzozowsky 1]

It is the same flickering like this?

Video 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XftMd9ePW10&feature=player_embedded

Video 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwWIOGNwWRw&feature=player_embedded