Still no SLi Support 4 ArmA?

[azdood 0]

Well ive got a heavy weight laptop for gaming and so far ive been playin new games out (Crysis, CoD4, World in Conflict) with no problem what so ever. I was even able to play them at high settings and run fairly smooth.

ArmA on the other hand.... I love this game! I love the community! But I hate Devs who choose not to keep up with the community...

Maybe i've just missed something. but so far I cant find a solution to my problem... I run one of my 8700's and the game runs somewhat ok... but two things happen

1. Game crash after 30-90 min of gameplay

2. Random texture/shadow appearances (Sometimes a texture appears weird, or a shadow looks like a giant box)

Its hard just to run one of my graphic cards with the other games, so I tried ArmA with SLi on... I get the flashing disco thing goin on. Most people have mentioned it before. Flashing, pulsing white screen. Within moments my game crashes...

My Specs

XPS M1730 (Im Lovin It!

Intel Core2Duo CPU 2.8ghz

4gb RAM

Vista 32bit (So far only prob is ArmA)

2x 512mb NVidia Geforce 8700M GT SLi

I have all the latest hotfixes and drivers for SLi, Vista and GCs

So far ive been able to get my other games to run perfect, ive been messing with my NVidia settings to see if they might help me out. But so far no luck...

If anyone else has any success stories, or suggestions or questions for me please reply... I hope to fix this as I wanna actually enjoy this game... With good graphics...

**Hell if I knew there was gonna be so many problems with this game, I would of just asked to buy one of Bohemia's Testing PC's**

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

nvidia drivers 158.24....and -maxmem=512 is great with no sli (sli cause graphics to just fall apart after 5-10+ mins) (example...I've played 9 straight days on an Evo map...alt/tabing while at work & sleep...) no ctd's.

Newer drivers like 168 and 169 series, are being weird (no -maxmem) (meaning.....it might ctd after 30+ mins and then play for days afterwards, or play for days and no issues) but sli works.

It's hard for myself to pin point what causes any errors..now that I'm using TrackIR, and ASUS on screen display (for in game recording).

Maybe one day we will get drivers and or a patch that will make it all perfect, who knows.

I flip from game to game also, like Crysis, CoD4, Ravenshield, OFP, ect ect.

CoD4 & ArmA are the only 2 with small video issues.

[max power 21]

No crossfire support either

[UNN 0]

I've been running Arma in SLI mode from day one (well almost) without any problems. Although I'm using two 7600's.

[max power 21]

I've been running Arma in SLI mode from day one (well almost) without any problems. Although I'm using two 7600's.

compatibility != support

I'm also seen that some lucky bastard out there has crossfire working with ArmA. Some people are just lucky, I guess.

[azdood 0]

I've been running Arma in SLI mode from day one (well almost) without any problems. Although I'm using two 7600's.

compatibility != support

I'm also seen that some lucky bastard out there has crossfire working with ArmA.  Some people are just lucky, I guess.

I guess so. If you guys would, could you put ur system specs, might help out some people seeing how your the rare breed of ArmA.

Possibly some info on your settings in game?

So far ive got my settings up at high, and im only using one graphics card. somehow everything balanced out and appears to be working. after about an hour the game will randomly crash though...

These were my last 5 lines of arma.rpt

Client: Object 10:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 15:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 9:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 14:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 4:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Not sure what it means. hopefully someone can fill me in, since 80% of my logfile is showing that

[UNN 0]

Well I'm running:

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600

2 x Asus Nvidia 7600GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E

2 x Seagate ST3250620AS 250GB SATAII/300 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Corsair Memory TWINX2048 - 3200C2PT XMS3200 2x1GB 2x184DIMM CAS2

Win XP 64bit

Sorry, I did not make my original point very clear at all. What I was thinking when I posted was. I don't think there is a problem with SLI across the board. Looking at all the people who are having problems with their GPU's. It could be a combination of Arma, the 8000 series and or the operating system? Apparently my motherboard will not support the 8800 under SLI.

For me SLI either worked or it didn't. When it works I get around a 30% increase in FPS and the SLI load graph can be displayed. When it doesn't work, there are no crashes or glitches. Just slower FPS and the SLI load graph won't show up. It was just a case of using Alternate Rendering Mode 1 and deselecting VSynch, to get SLI working.

Quote[/b] ]Client: Object 10:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 15:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 9:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 14:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

Client: Object 4:0 (type AIStatsMPRowUpdate) not found.

I get those sort of messages be default in my Arma.rpt. I don't think it's related to your problems. I think it's just the game log.

Quote[/b] ]compatibility != support

I can't comment on Crossfire, so I'm not exactly sure what you mean?

Red Orchestra is the only other game I run and that worked ok with SLI. But I'm sure that’s down to the SLI drivers being included with the Nvidia drivers. AFAIK games don't have to add support for SLI? But I guess they could some how prevent SLI from working, if they do something that’s non-standard. For example OFP will not see any benefit at all from SLI, even though it looks like it's working.

[kklownboy 43]

CF, and SLI have been working, if you rename the ".exe". Its upto NVDA or AMD/ATi to have profiles for the game. With CF there is a default AFR for all games... but you have to rename the .exe if it doesnt work. I used hl2.exe for awhile... but it stopped, so i went to "fear.exe". With my Cf setup it basicly doubled my frames at 1600/1200,I can even get in the 150+fps spikes with shadows and grass off, with AA normal and the rest high. But then i will still see 20/35 in north island in certin spots on a Evo server... but mostly 60fps with vsync on, on my LCD.

[baddo 0]

If you go to http://developer.nvidia.com/ and spend some time reading, you can find what kind of recommendations nvidia gives for programming games SLI in mind.

Some quotes from nvidia's GPU Programming Guide version 2.5.0.

Quote[/b] ]8.1 What is SLI?

When the two graphics boards are then linked via an external SLI bridge connector, the driver recognizes the configuration and allows you to enter SLI Multi-GPU mode. In SLI Multi-GPU mode the driver configures both boards as a single device: the two GPUs look like a single logical device to all graphics applications.

...

Note that running in SLI mode does not double available video memory. For example, plugging in two 256 MB graphics boards still only results in a device with at most 256 MB of video memory. The reason is that the driver generally replicates all video memory across both GPUs. That is, at any given time the video memory of GPU 0 contains the same data as the video memory of GPU 1.

...

When running an application on a SLI system, it may run in one of several modes: compatibility mode, alternate frame rendering (AFR), or split frame rendering (SFR) mode.

Compatibility mode simply uses only a single GPU to render everything (that is, the second GPU is idle at all times). This mode cannot show any performance enhancement, but also ensures an application is compatible with SLI.

For AFR the driver renders all of frame n on GPU 0 and all of frame n+1 on GPU 1. Frame n+2 renders on GPU 0 and so on. As long as each frame is self-contained (that is, frames share little to no data) AFR is maximally efficient, since all rendering work, such as per-vertex, rasterization, and per-pixel work splits evenly across GPUs. If some data is shared between frames (for example, reusing previously rendered-to textures), the data needs to transfer between the GPUs. This data transfer constitutes communications overhead preventing a full 2x speed-up.

For SFR the driver assigns the top portion of a frame to GPU 0 and the bottom portion to GPU 1. The size of the top versus the bottom portion of the frame is load balanced: if GPU 0 is underutilized in a frame, because the top portion is less work to render than the bottom portion, the driver makes the top portion larger in an attempt to keep both GPUs equally busy. Clipping the scene to the top and bottom portions for, respectively, GPU 0 and 1, attempts to avoid processing all vertices in a frame on both GPUs.

SFR mode still requires data sharing, for example, for render-to-texture operations. Because AFR generally has less communications overhead and better vertex-load balancing than SFR, AFR is the preferred mode. Sometimes, however, AFR fails to apply, for example, if an application limits the maximum number of frames buffered to less than two.

Quote[/b] ]8.2 Choosing SLI Modes

Applications in development default to compatibility mode in current drivers (66.93 and later). Application developers can force AFR and SFR modes by creating an application-specific profile in the driver, i.e., in the display driver control panel, click on the GeForce tab, select “Performance & Quality Settings,†click on “Add Profile,†and enter the name of your application’s executable. Then enable “Show advanced settings†and choose “AFR†or “SFRâ€.

Another option is for the application to programmatically choose an SLI mode. All NVIDIA drivers support a control panel API that lets applications query and set various control panel options. As part of that API the NvCplGetDataInt() entry point allows querying for how many total GPUs are installed and how many of those are currently in SLI mode. The NvCplSetDataInt() entry point lets application set whether the calling application runs in compatibility, AFR, or SFR mode.

Quote[/b] ]8.3 Avoid CPU Bottlenecks

If your application is CPU-bound running it on a more powerful graphics solution has little to no performance impact. To take advantage of a multi-GPU configuration, you must avoid becoming bottlenecked by the CPU. Chapter 2 of this Programming Guide provides guidance how to detect and avoid CPU bottlenecks.

Similarly, if your application artificially throttles its frame rate to an arbitrary and fixed value, then the frame rate cannot exceed that value. Please avoid that situation.

Some things which, according to nvidia, are bad for SLI (GDC 2005 SLI presentation):

- CPU-bound applications

- vsync enabled

- Limiting number of frames buffered

- Communications overhead (both cards must have data)

My not-so-wild guess about Operation Flashpoint is that it is CPU-bound, thus no performance boost for you in SLI mode. A couple of years ago I changed my graphics card to a much better model but did not do anything else to my computer. Result was that I did not perceive almost any performance boost in Operation Flashpoint. The almost non-existant difference was definitely not worth the price of the new graphics card. But I could run dxdll with it so I got something out of it.

BIS could arrange better support for SLI by:

1) Pestering nvidia to add an ArmA profile into their driver.

2) Programmatically force suitable settings.

Why not do it? It's all for improving the user experience.

[h - 169]

Quote[/b] ]1) Pestering nvidia to add an ArmA profile into their driver.

At least the few latest drivers (currently using 163.something) has had both ArmA and ArmA demo profiles..

Unless I have somehow gotten them from somewheres else..

In some older driver profile the SLI was disabled, now it's AFR2 forced which I find peculiar because I'm running two 7900 GTs (256Mb) in SLI and according to the SLI graphs AFR/AFR2 doesn't do pretty much anything (except cause horrible 'mouse lag' and/or horrible graphical glitches especially with the fades between views)..

Using any of the SLI modes offers no performance increase what so ever compared to running the game with single card, at least not for me..

[azdood 0]

Well guys I found a solution for me. This might also help you...

Im currently using nHancer now. But lemme give you some more info

So far the profiles in the nvidia settings are a little messed up, they sometimes dont do what you have set, or they just do whatever they want to. Also, some of the settings are not adjustable...

I dunno if this is the same for most people, but since I am a Vista user, this might just be for a us Vistas....

Anyways, to counter this problem i recently downloaded nHancer. Which allows you to create/customize/copy/ profiles and much more for your nVidia...

http://www.nhancer.com/

What I found to be a solution was the fact that my profile for HL2 worked fine... I could run HL2 and Steam Apps(TF2, CS:S) perfectly, with SLi and my graphics card performing top notch FPS and graphics...

So I duplicated my profile for HL2, and redirected my target file, to arma.exe (This was all completed through nHancer)

So the results when running ArmA?

I was able to run my game for 6 straight hours, no FPS drop, and no weird texture problems... I was able to Alt-Tab, and play several missions without any CTDing.

Well... Ill let you guys decide your own fate, but if your having problems with SLi, I would suggest getting some program to edit your NVidia profiles...

[Flasher444 0]

Well guys I found a solution for me. This might also help you...

What are your performance increase with SLI OFF then ON ?

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Dropped post process to low and switched to th AFR2. Get disco effect whenever the game reloads FP view but it fades instead of escalates. And seems to remain generaly stable.