is it the AI that effects the FPS the most?

[msportdan 10]

For example, the showcase infantry missions im getting low 50s most mission.

Go to the combined arms one with 20 or so men running around , I barely get 35!! but when I lost all my men and I was the loner, running back to base I was getting full 60fps!!! lol

is it the ai that kill this games fps.... do they need to be optimised further? BIS?>

Is there anything our end to lessen the load the ai have on the cpu.?

cheers

[invisibull 0]

Hi Dan, Yes, the AI, if too numerous for your system, will def impact your FPS negatively. Going into large towns is another major cause of lag as well. Unit caching is one way of minimizing lag as it allows your CPU to not have to work as hard when units are some adjustable distance from you. I'd also look into perhaps dropping your view distance a bit and see if that helps. Here's the caching script that i'm currently using: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=26099 It's easy to implement and makes a noticeable difference. Good luck, Dan.

[msportdan 10]

wow cheers mate very helpful post....

ill have to try this tonight.. hopefully will up my fps .. to make my game look stunning and smooth... as at the moment all i have is the stunning lol

[msportdan 10]

hello just trying to install now. Do you have to chuck the whole folder or just use the addon folder inside and chuck th erest?

cheers

p/s I want to use the addon version for Sp.

---------- Post added at 18:38 ---------- Previous post was at 17:24 ----------

ive tried this and this isn't making much difference. im even dropping the gfx and still the same fps almost. just dips below 30 on that combined arms showcase. Ive adjust the config to the minimum but not really any difference. is it placebo this mod

hmmm not sure now I think ive gained maybe 3-5 fps

Edited July 16, 2014 by msportdan

[mamasan8 11]

I'm using this

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?170539-AI-Caching-and-Distribution-System

I do have a HC slot in my mission but I do not run a HC (like Im gonna pay BIS more for the poor performance, HC requires a new license).

With ZBE script version I was getting 8 fps. With AI cache and distribution I'm running at 15-30 fps (intense mission at start, 200-250 AI, jets, bombs, you know... war).

[miketim 20]

I was under the impression there is now a HC you can run for free, that only works as a HC.

Correct me if I am wrong, maybe that was just a free dedi server exe?

:confused:

[msportdan 10]

i wanted to add that i run a test last nite, on that showcase combined arms mission..

Basically drop th gfx setting as low as possible and see what FPs i get. I ended up getting (even at 800x600) low settings, a high of 40!!!! So that means the Ai is really bad for that level to the FPS!!!.. im pretty shocked actually at this. So when im running my normal gfx mix of standard high and low. And getting around 30, is actually okay i suppose, as the AI no matter what you do kill the FPS on the mission.

I just hope there not many SP missions out there with loads off AI running about...

that script above mentioned (may give that a go)and does it work with SP as add-on?

[St. Jimmy 272]

Welcome to Arma :)

AI kills the fps. Only way to compensate this is to try lower settimgs that are CPU heavy. View, shadow and object distances, object detail, PiP if you're in a vehicle and shadows should be either disabled or higher than normal. When those are good you can increase other settings if your GPU isn't fully used so you see only very minimal fps drop if at all.

[jiltedjock 10]

Welcome to Arma :)

AI kills the fps. Only way to compensate this is to try lower settimgs that are CPU heavy. View, shadow and object distances, object detail, PiP if you're in a vehicle and shadows should be either disabled or higher than normal. When those are good you can increase other settings if your GPU isn't fully used so you see only very minimal fps drop if at all.

The other solution - if you have a quad core or greater - is to play your missions as multiplayer missions on a dedicated server instance running on your box, so that the AI is offloaded to the server executable instead (and thus is processed on a core not being used by your client).

[ruhtraeel 1]

I know that for me and numerous other people, it's because of a RAM bottleneck. Both the CPU and GPU utilization drop when I look at scenes with a lot of objects such as towns.

Read "Low CPU utilization & Low FPS" pages 332-336 for the basic rundown of why the FPS drops happen, in terms of hardware.

[kklownboy 43]

Object Distance is a CPU issue. AI is a script/CPU issue. Poor GPU performance (if your GPU is more than your Display rez) is a CPU issue. Stutter is a Streaming and or a CPU issue.

ARMA is a CPU issue... or is a single threaded CPU issue even tho you have more than 2 Cores and use 7 threads. [not talking about MP with that another comp in the mix and netcode]

More CPU hz for a Single thread (ie;5ghz for one core, that is the Windows Primary core, AND Windows wont "distribute" the work load when IT thinks your Core is idle.;AKA CoreParking{sorry AMD}) is better than 4 cores at 3ghz. Or better yet OC correctly and get all your cores up to max. Max is best over 4.0gz+.

ARMA runs better with faster 2 core, than 4 cores at less HRZ.

As for RAM... System RAM is only whats allowed with a 32 binary with Sumas extra access technique .(neat, but not 64bit...) So whatever on the RAM... its what it is.

Game runs fine. with in the boundary's of your kit. Find that and enjoy.

Expectations... well " the dogs bark but the caravan just moves along"

kk

[mamasan8 11]

I was under the impression there is now a HC you can run for free, that only works as a HC.

Correct me if I am wrong, maybe that was just a free dedi server exe?

:confused:

Dedicated server exe doesn't require a license but arma 3 and HC both require separate licenses.

How exactly you would set up that on 1 machine I don't know. Since you can't be logged into 2 Steam-sessions simultaneously AFAIK (1 for arma 3, 1 for HC).

Multithreaded AI and game simulation I see as only option but I'm not holding my breath.

---------- Post added at 05:59 ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 ----------

i wanted to add that i run a test last nite, on that showcase combined arms mission..

Basically drop th gfx setting as low as possible and see what FPs i get. I ended up getting (even at 800x600) low settings, a high of 40!!!! So that means the Ai is really bad for that level to the FPS!!!.. im pretty shocked actually at this. So when im running my normal gfx mix of standard high and low. And getting around 30, is actually okay i suppose, as the AI no matter what you do kill the FPS on the mission.

I just hope there not many SP missions out there with loads off AI running about...

that script above mentioned (may give that a go)and does it work with SP as add-on?

I've only used the script version since it's so easy, just one line in description.ext to use it.

How the HC part works I have no clue but the AI cacheing goes on distance. What distance? This should give a clear picture: #define GLOBAL_SPAWN_DISTANCE (viewDistance + 250) metres. If AI is further away than that, it is cached.

I think it works in SP but haven't tested. I save my missions as MP missions so I can run server and offload some from client, better performance.

It is easy to setup a server with this: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?104991-Tophe-s-Arma-Dedicated-Server-Tool-%28TADST%29

[b00tsy 28]

Unit caching is one way of minimizing lag as it allows your CPU to not have to work as hard when units are some adjustable distance from you.

Pls do correct me if I am wrong, but I played with the cache module and by the looks of it it only unrenders the AI. The AI is still invisibly there on the map doing their pathing/calculating. In any case, I don't notice really a fps difference when units are in cache other then GPU load if they were in line of sight and in rendering range.

[jcleland 14]

I read a lot about the single-core, single-threaded dedicated server issues that people have when the server is managing a lot of AI. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around regarding why the server only utilizes a single core and analogies to math problems being solved in pieces, etc. Let me see if I can add my 2 cents and shed some light on this issue as a software developer of 20+years.

First, let me ask YOU a question: When you join a server and play against AI or other players, aren't you playing in different threads of execution? You are on different cores because you are on different computers. If you are playing on a dedicated server, there are 3 different threads running. This is someone simplified, but the point is valid. What if you're running a headless client? Isn't this the same thing? It's a different computer, but it's synchronizing game data between two threads of execution, albeit on two computers. Your AI is not only running in a different core, but across a network connection.

Many games make use of AI and multiple threads. If you're online playing can adequately manage hit detection and multiple players (all on their own separate "thread"), don't you think the server could do the same thing?

It wouldn't be right to neglect stating the obvious: I don't know anything about arma3server.exe or how it was developed, but I think the argument that BI makes regarding use of a single core is more about sweeping a possibly bad design decision under the proverbial carpet. I'm not trying to bash BI or start a flame war, I love Arma and I've found ways around this issue, but I still think the server could be re-written to make use of multi-core processors.

In case you're curious, my background is based heavily in distributed computing (offloading large computation processing of genetic data to clusters of up to 50 computers). I believe this can be done with arma3server on a single computer across multiple cores using separate threads of execution. It takes time, there will be bugs, and it costs money. These aren't simple changes, they are usually rewrites of large segments of software. I've been there. I've done it. I don't buy the standard argument. Sorry.