Low to high texture LOD loading delay

[overvolts 0]

I have noticed that in urban areas or a heavy amount of troop concentration in a single area causes alot of texture LOD loading. It can take as long as 6 or 7 seconds for the extremely low blurry LOD textures to turn into the high LOD textures. This is expecially very irritating when you see an enemy vehicle around the corner, quickly get back behind the corner, ready your rocket launcher and side step around the corner only to realize after about 5 seconds the high LOD textures loads up and you see a burning vehicle in front of you, and I have even wasted a rocket because of this. Is this problem related to lack of enough System RAM or Video Memory? I have noticed if I set the texture detail to low it helps this a lot and texture loading usually takes 1 or 2 seconds at the most. If its not related to lack of system ram or video memory than what is causing this texture loading annoyance?

[usmc123 1]

Same here, figured a bump would be nice so maybe someone can help the both of us.

[ck-claw 1]

I still get it and ive just upgraded to 3 gig of ram.

My g-card has 512 ram but its not the best card either.

[max power 21]

Loading textures is all about vram but I'm afraid that if you travel fast enough you might always see these problems.

[-=seany=- 5]

I suffer from the same problem. I don't know what kind of PC you need to run @ Very High textures. I have 2x9800gtx 512 and 4 gb of ram. I am forced to use High textures because of this, but even still I get it some times. Worst offending town as far as I can see is Corazol.  That town is a texture swapping nightmare..on a busy Evo mission.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the worst thing about this texture swapping is that it reduces your FPS while its happening.

It seems like texture swapping is to improve performance. Eg when I'm in a building in corazol, all textures I can see out the window etc are loaded fine, but then you switch to Command view and look at the outside of your building or the adjacent buildings they are all low textures, trying to load the proper ones, before you notice.  Then you switch back to first person and objects outside the window or your gun model/uniform have gone to low res and need to load the correct textures again.  Is this much texture swapping really needed? cant it just load all the textures immediately around you and keep them loaded?

[.kju 3244]

high res textures = much vram

many different units with unique textures = much vram

too much vram use => texture swapping was introduced as

optimization

that is what my general understanding tells me

you could go a reduce all arma textures to 1/4 with some batch

mechanism and see if that helps

[rundll.exe 12]

I have always had this problem, and its sometimes a real showstopper

The textures on the destroyed vehicles is the most irritating. The black textures only pop up after 2-3 seconds, making you panic, while its not needed.

[.kju 3244]

well you should really use Sakura Chan's damage texture replacement:

PROPER_Effects_Damage_And_Sea_Texture_Replacement_Sakura_Chan

[usmc123 1]

you could go a reduce all arma textures to 1/4 with some batch

mechanism and see if that helps

What?

[max power 21]

you could go a reduce all arma textures to 1/4 with some batch

mechanism and see if that helps  

What?  

I think he means build a program that takes all the *textures* in arma and quarters their size.  If that is true, I'm thinking that that solution is kind of a bad one.  It may reduce texture swapping... but it would also defeat the purpose of v. high textures.  512 megs of vram is pretty standard and has been for years, and is nothing to write home about.  I think you would need more ram than that to run so many textures satisfactorily.  Remember that it's not just the textures you see, but also the normal and as maps that must be loaded..  I also suspect that some of the optimizations in the engine aren't optimal and I'm hoping that in arma 2 it will be less of an issue... but for this game you're going to need more vram and faster in order to improve the situation.

edit: I had the word programs in there instead of the word textures.  Note to self, don't write in forums when you're falling asleep!

[.kju 3244]

btw see if setting texture quality to a lower setting helps

[cjph 0]

Hi All

So, reading the above, would graphics cards with over 512Mb VRAM reduce this problem (especially the ATi 4870 with 1Gb of GDDR5 or Nvidia 2x6 cards) ?.

I ask as I have an 8800GTS 512Mb, and although the eye candy is not all important I get a change in vegetation and tree detail when zooming or using binoculars, a change which can draw the eye and make you think there is enemy moving behind it etc.. Add this to the delay with burnt out vehicles and it does impact the game experience in my opinion.

I recently see there are 9800GT cards now fitted with 1Gb RAM, and I even see old 8800GTX cards with 768Mb of RAM, and both cost around 100 UK pounds, which to me is worth it if it removes the delay - does anyone have experience with these cards, or the 4870 and new Nvidia 2x0 cards with 896Mb/1Gb ? Is the delay still there ?

cjph

[.kju 3244]

yes it is

it is how the engine works

at large distance automatically lower LODs (level of detail version

of the model) are used.

this makes sense as you dont have to see tiny details in distance.

the problem is that the shape changes way too much and at

times even the texture color.

so zoom with RMB/binoc is sth different that model/LOD load

times and LOD switching due to low FPS.

so again LODs are switching also if FPS gets too low

automatically to get above the desired FPS level.

so if your settings get your machine next to the FPS level,

that will trigger these LOD changes all the time.

for this you need to configure your graphic settings properly

to get enough FPS to be above that FPS level most of the time.

[kklownboy 43]

this will happen with any amount of vram.... Vannila ARMA 1.14 and small missions is just about the only way NOT to get this terrible coding problem.... will try out all the other versions as i build up some testing OS's... I think a SSD maybe the only help with ALPHA ARMA1, lets hope BETA ARMA2 will be better, can only hope for a full fixed release in ARMA3, 2011....

[max power 21]

Hi All

So, reading the above, would graphics cards with over 512Mb VRAM reduce this problem (especially the ATi 4870 with 1Gb of GDDR5 or Nvidia 2x6 cards) ?.

I ask as I have an 8800GTS 512Mb, and although the eye candy is not all important I get a change in vegetation and tree detail when zooming or using binoculars, a change which can draw the eye and make you think there is enemy moving behind it etc.. Add this to the delay with burnt out vehicles and it does impact the game experience in my opinion.

I recently see there are 9800GT cards now fitted with 1Gb RAM, and I even see old 8800GTX cards with 768Mb of RAM, and both cost around 100 UK pounds, which to me is worth it if it removes the delay - does anyone have experience with these cards, or the 4870 and new Nvidia 2x0 cards with 896Mb/1Gb ? Is the delay still there ?

cjph

Part of the change you're seeing when you zoom in is probably also a geo LOD change.  More vram won't help this.  The reason why it's so noticeable is BIS used some automated process to generate LODs for that stuff. They turned out not looking enough like the each other for the user not to notice when they are blending.

[cjph 0]

Ok - thanks for the replies - will crank the settings a little lower and save my money for Arma2 and a crate or six of cider - "Ooh arr" - I wonder if US Rangers got their call from the Wurzels . . .

cjph