Graphical problems and weird stability

[tzvetoslav 0]

Greetings.Now,on to the point...

First - the performance (stability)

The performance/stability is quite weird in my situation...I play the game at everything on "Very High" on 1280x1024 with only disabled VS in the nVidia CP.The frames I get are playable and I'm pleased , but it's not for a long time...Here are some of the things that happen to me - as I play with the nice fps,the game suddenly starts to slutter and I get really low fps and after a while it runs like a dream again!That's not that anoying so I don't mind about it much.Also if I play more time (over 1 hour) the game starts to run slower and slower (and no,it's not overheating) .It starts to "kill" my machine when I look at some vegetation objects.In that case if I restart the game it will run good again,but after a while again the same story over and over again

Now I'm going to talk about the graphical problems I seem to get really often.Here I'm going to show the kinds of graphical corruptions I get :

<span style='color:orange'>The first and most common one is this -</span>

When I look/zoom at the "weird shadows" I get really low FPS.

<span style='color:red'>The second one most of the time is apearing after I see the first one -</span>

Now this one is not only lowering seriously my fps,but if I look at it a little longer my pc gets a blue screen with some white words for about less then a half second and restarts.First I thought it was overheating.I saw the temperatures and everything was fine - ~50 GPU and ~40 CPU .Then I thought that maybe it's from the overclocking and I turned off all the overclocking (CPU,GPU etc.) .This one is really annoying.Sometimes it apears after the first graphical corruption and sometimes randomly (at early gameplay or late)

And also here are two more which are quite "rare" and they don'w apear much -

And

I'm not quite concerned about the last two,but the first and second one are just an inormous pain in the arse So please if someone can give feedback of what can be causing all this and what shall I do,it'll be kindly accepted

[BraTTy 0]

You didn't state specs of your pc

I see your running "very high" so it must be quite the pc

I had similiar artifacts when I first got Arma using my laptop, it wasn't overheating altho it looked like it.I had to downgrade my graphics drivers for them not to be there

And you say its not overheating, which I believe you, I just want to say you cannot always believe the temp readings.

For a few reasons. Your temp could climb while playing and when you alt-tab out to check its temp it could "quickly" cool down. And often the temp probe may not always be in the proper place and always give you a low reading.Just that I have seen all kinds of things.Still can't rule-out overheating. You also say you do overclock

[Viper23rd 0]

Do you get these kind of problems with other games as well?

Which version of Armed Assault and which driver version are you running?

Yours,

[tzvetoslav 0]

Sorry,I forgot to mention the pc specs and ArmA version.I'm running ArmA on 1.12 but it also happens in 1.08 aswell.Now here are my pc specs :

VGA:8800gts 320

CPU:C2Duo E4300 1.8 (stock) get's to 3.0 (overclock)

RAM:2x1 GB 667MHz

HDD:250GB 16mb

I think those are the most important parts.I can give you the mobo and other stuff aswell if you like

@BraTTy - True.But when I Alt&Tap-ed from the game and checked the temps the VGA was about 52C which is fine (concidering I was with overclocking) and if there's a little offset from the Alt&Tap-ing I doubt that the real temps are higher than 55C.In the summer (last year) the VGA was keeping around 58-60C which is quite fine for the 8800's.Well over 62C it is quite dangerous The CPU is fine.It gets around 40-45 with nice overclock.I need to remind you that I've tunrned off all overclocking and the temps should be a lot lower,but the problem still remains.So it seems that the problem is not caused by overheating or just artifacts from the overclocking.Well that's atleast what I think

@Viper23rd - No,I don't have problems like that in other games.I'm running v1.12 of ArmA but the problem also apears in 1.08 aswell.The driver version which I'm using is 174.70

[Master gamawa 0]

I had some amusing distortions too but they happen only once.

A few weeks ago I took an M4 from a body and the weapon expanded all over the place creating walls of stretched metal texture and stuff that blocked my view.

It was like timespace crumbled under the weight of this game.

I also get some funny distortions when I put certain objects on the sides of steep hills!

[Mr_Tea 0]

Nothing like this on my side.

The only "strange" thing is, that i sometimes can look under the texture when i`m crawling uphill.

Tested with 1.12 on Win2K Prof. and Vista Home Premium.

Have you tried the -maxmen switch with different values?

[misinformed 0]

Just to let you know your not alone, I myself have this very same problem with the texture stretching every once and a while.

Ive got a 9600GT, E8200, 3.25 DDR2 memory, 500w PSU. Everything running pretty cool and for once this issue doesn't seem to be heat related. It doesn't occur anywhere else but Arma. For myself to get this issue im usually previewing a map in the editor, the more times i preview the greater chance ill get it, it usually kicks in around 10 i'd guess.

Its also occurred in MP and at least 2 other people ive spoken to have had it happen to on they're machines whilst playing online. One way to get rid of it is to change the texture settings from whatever they're at to a lower or higher setting. If the screen isnt completely engulfed by artifacts, then Arma just crashes on me. It also greatly impacts my FPS too.

Ive also seen other people report this problem on the forums as well.

[Ryan_D 0]

Could just be a damaged card? Or overspeeding it has caused permanent damage?

[rundll.exe 12]

I have the same problem since I updated my ATI drivers to the latest version (X1950 PRO 512, PCIE). Im also sure its not a temperature problem, Its fixed when I restart the game, but then apears sometimes in crowded areas (like flying over a city)

I had this problem prior to 1.08 and fixed it by updating the drivers half a year ago, so I guess the ATI drivers are somehow bugged

(arma version 1.12, XP pro SP2 btw)

Edit: Its also fixed when I change my texture settings if im fast enough, If im not fast enough, the fps will drop to less then 1 and the game will crash most times.

[FritzDaKat 0]

Linux, Windows 3.1, 98se etc.?

If it's Vista, SP1 might fix some issues. Also the 174.85 beta drivers have been getting a good response in general.

With SP1 when my framerate tanks out now it seems as if the buffering is doing a much better job of smoothing the gaps out, much more fluid and shorter spans of "tank-ed-ness".

I'll have to get back to ya' on the 174.85 drivers as I'm on dialup and they're taking forever to DL.

Seems theres a recent update for DX9 as well (Again, crappy dialup so wont DL that till tonight.)

Most reports indicate that when combined, SP1, DX9 update (wether or not you have DX10 installed if you can believe it) and the beta drivers seem to be doing alot of good.

[tzvetoslav 0]

@Mr_Tea - Yes,I've tried the -maxmem command,but It seems it's even worse for me,lol...But thanks for the headsup anyway

@rundll.exe - What would you suggest?Shall I try an earlier version of the nVidia drivers?

@FritzDaKat - I'm running on Windows XP Prof. Again,sorry I forgot to mention that

[Yoma 0]

I used to have the first picture all the time (in 1.08) whenever i alttabbed out of the game and then went back later.

Shortly after that some object ingame would transform into a mega alien thing.

The funny thing was that other stuff where perfectly normal.

For example a machinegunner would morph away into an alien, then i would be fine unless i saw another machinegunner, which would also be "alien"...

Haven't had it in 1.12b though

I would suggest to try the game for a while, and not alttabbing out, to test if it's the same problem.

[.kju 3245]

http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=47587062iy0.jpg

Should be related to the BI magazines model addon.

[KeyCat 131]

I would suggest to try the game for a while, and not alttabbing out, to test if it's the same problem.

Just to confirm Yomas suspicions, I'm experiencing same/similar things with the 1.12 Beta. If I ALT-TAB out of the game the shadows/textures usually gets screwed up at some point later and FPS goes single digits with lots of stuttering.

If I never ALT-TAB it seems like I can play for hours on end without having these issues.

More info and my settings here:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....2;st=60

/KC

[tzvetoslav 0]

Lol,I get these issues without ALT&TAB-ing

[Ghost08 0]

Try lowering your resolution, that helped me solving this. If it occurs again set your resolution back as it was before.

I hope this will help you.

Signed,

Ghost

[tzvetoslav 0]

Well it helps,but after about 1-2 min I have to do it again and so on...That's not the solution I was looking for But thanks for the tip up anyway

[BraTTy 0]

When you get a chance maybe try with your videocard underclocked (ever tried that?)

Back in the day I overclocked a fx5600 hard and it permenantly damaged it. I had to run it overclocked after that.

I also recall c2d users saying that memory timings really matter.Often you setup a system and have to muck with the memory timings (system ram ,not video)

[rowdied 44]

Tzvetoslav,

I have that same card and had problems like you. What seemed to help was increasing the fan speed using rivatuner. I turned it up to 80% and turned down my options in game to settings of high. This was until i junked the card and bought a 8800gt.

This is the worst, and I mean worst videocard I've ever bought. I've had problems in ARMA, GRAW, GRAW2 and R6V and I've had alot of videocards and computers. (play lan alot)

Try older drivers too such as 97.92? I think is what I used. I still had texture problems and tearing but could play longer when I increased the fan speed. I know funny, but it worked for me until I sat it down on my desk so it could watch me play with it's new and better brother the 8800gt  .

My ATI cards, 1950pro and 1900xtx cards were much better and gave me much less trouble. It could be me, but I don't think the games I play like the odd memory configuration of the 320mb card.

Sorry for the babble, try uping your fan speed to atleast 80% and see if that helps.

[boomboomer 0]

I've seen a similar issue on my 8800GTS, after the beta bogged (stuttering) after about an hours play. Exiting the beta into 1.08 then gives the same artifacts. If you reboot the PC the problem will be gone, it's not temperature related, so it seems the GFX driver is being corrupted.

I've added a maxmem to the beta shortcut and haven't had the problem since. Try a different value, e.g start at 512, then 768 etc.

I wouldn't recommend alt-tabbing out of ArmA at all, it seems to cause a memory leak with eventual crash. If i'm intending to play for a while I'll restart the PC first as a cold boot reduces the risk of a crash.