Stuttering even with "normal" settings.

[Pstftrnt 1]

Hi all.

I have a problem with "Take On Helicopters" bought yesterday (FX Interactive Italian version).

In short terms, even with all graphic settings to "normal" the game has good FPS (EDIT: well.... not SO good... i've got 22fps on Seattle with benchmark) but I have stuttering every 1-2 sec. ARMA II (from Steam) gave me the same problem.

Here my specs:

- CASE: Zalmann GS1000

- MOTHERBOARD: Asus Rampage III Extreme

- PROCESSOR: Intel Core i7-980X Gulftown Hexa-core 3.33Ghz.

- RAM: DDR3 Corsair Dominator GT CMT12GX3M3A2000C9 2000MHz 12GB (3x4GB) CL9

- VIDEO: ATI Sapphire Radeon HD6990 GDDR5 (X2 crossfire)

- AUDIO: Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series

- HARD DISK: SSD OCZ Revodrive 3 240GB PCI Express 2.0 X4 + Western Digital 350Gb. 7200RPM (X2)

- POWER: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W Modulare

- DVD-RW: ASUS DRW-24B1ST DL -R+R/RW

- DVD-ROM: LG GDRH20N SATA

The graphics drivers are Catalyst 12.2 (official) with CAP1 12.2. I have got the same result even if I enable/disable crossfire... no difference. The game running on SSD, so no problems of hard disk. My system is not overclocked.

My OS is Windows 7 64bit (Italian language).

Is it normal this "stuttering" with my specs? Is it a problem of my graphic card?

Is there a solution?

Thanks for your support.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english...

Edited March 10, 2012 by Pstftrnt

[jedra 11]

Did you set your crossfire profile to Arma 2 OA in the 12.2 profiles? I found that this was the best way for Crossfire to operate with ToH.

Try :

Setting the cloud detail to 'disabled'.

Setting PostProcessing to 'disabled'.

Setting PiP to 'disabled'.

Setting AntiAliasing to 'disabled'.

In c:\users\[your username]\My Documents\Take On Helicopters edit TakeOnH.cfg and set;

ATOC=0;

You should get a major FPS boost by doing this (along with the Crossfire profile) and it should alleviate the stutter. If not, then try launching with different memory allocators;

"-malloc=tbb4malloc_bi" or

"-malloc=tbb3malloc_bi" or

"-malloc=tcmalloc_bi or

"-malloc=nedmalloc_bi" or

"-malloc=jemalloc_bi

If you get some success with this, you can start to turn on some of the graphics effects we turned off (above). It's also worth playing with the PPAA (post process AntiAliasing) settings in the Graphics options in-game.

Also, flying over downtown Seattle still gives me a little stutter - all those buildings are just sometimes too much for it.

Lastly you may just be unfortunate (like me) and have an AMD card that is particularly suseptable to the famous Crossfire Stutter :(

[Pstftrnt 1]

OK, it seems that doing this (found in another thread)...

1. In CCC go to Gaming/3D Application Settings.

2. In the Application Profiles drop down box, make sure <<New Application >> is selected.

3. Leave everything as default, but scroll to the bottom and select 'Use AMD Pre-Defined Profile' from the dropdown in the CrossFireX section.

4. In the list off applications that appears find ArmA2OA*.exe and click on that so it's highlighted.

5. Scroll back up to the top and hit save.

6. In the file dialogue that appears, locate and select takeonh.exe and click OPEN (make sure you select the beta version if you are running the beta).

...solved stuttering problem. All settings are "normal" and with benchmark i've got 25fps over Seattle.

Anyway... thanks Jedra for your quick reply.

Is there some chance to set all settings to High or Very High? I don't think so... maybe in 2015... XD

[jedra 11]

Cool - I posted those instructions a few days ago - glad you found them useful!

I think we will need to wait for the next generation of PCs before this game can be played on Very High for everything!

[Pstftrnt 1]

Ok, I've solved stuttering problem but now I have another problem!

After the first mission (that payed me 40000) there is the military mission... In this mission I've flyed over the first waypoint and headed for the second, then I Exit&Save.

Now when I reenter the game I see the screen all white! If I disable Crossfire (in CCC) it reappears cockpit and scenery but I have stuttering. When I enable Crossfire (read above 3rd post) I see all white except the HUD (altimeter, vertical speeed ecc... I play on average difficulty).

What can I do now?

EDIT: OK, i found that the problem is with Pip Detail. If I disable this option and click OK, on cockpit i see slowly fading to normal brightness, while if I enable (even at "low" setting) I see screen becoming white.

Another strange thing: I re-run benchmark. Now I've got 60 fps on Seattle...

Wait... what?

Yes, you read well. Now I've got 57-60fps on benchmark (Seattle) and all settings are at maximum (except Pip wich is disabled). But I've got little stuttering even at normal settings.

This graphics engine makes me mad...

Edited March 12, 2012 by Pstftrnt