Artefacts and Graphic Bugs till crash Poll

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

It's gotta be memory related as the game gradually gets worse the longer I play. Flying covers lots of ground (obviously heh) and accelerates the crashing process.

[neojd[ny] 10]

I was getting this bug in 1.0 too, and there it was cause of the memory setting set to high, I switch it to default and i dont really remember, but i guess it was gone then.

However thats not helping now.

But yes its probaly memory related.

I dont know how the comunity bug tracker work either.

But i read Placebo`s Sig and i think BIS noticed.

And because of the poll we do know thats pretty much on every OS.

A hotfix would be awesome , lol :D

[Gutm@sher 10]

update to my previous post concerning aa off - after restart, same results with artifact + crash so no joy. i have methodically gone through everything from reinstall, ram limiting, drivers and everything in between with no luck. @ bushlurker - cant recall numbers exactly from arma config (at work), but roughly - 105xxxxxxx vram and 214xxxxxxx non local vram (both are 10 digits). i have a 1gb gtx 280. these numbers have been constant since i got arma except for when trying 190.86 and 191 drivers. 191 reported double these numbers.

[Akilez 10]

With an i7 920 @ 3.6 and a GTX295 using the latest WHQL drivers (VU64/12GB) I am getting occassional artefacts and CTDs due to grafx driver failure (these latest 190.62 drivers have been best for me by far but still not right).

This is my main rig and I've used the -winxp/-cpu=4 switches and set the config manually which has optimized things but there's still issues.

I literally just threw ArmA 2 onto an old rig (Q6600 stock/WinXP32/4GB/8800GTS 640 (178.13!)) and can play for hours on end without a single issue (albeit with much lower settings to get the frames up. I did however test at higher settings and could not induce an artefact. I used no command line switches other than a couple of my preferred mods which came later.

This sure would seem like something other than a BIS issue to me. I know this is far from a comprehensive test but observationally there is a really big difference between rigs.

Does anyone else feel this is issue is more nVidia's than BIS'? Just curious..

.

.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Akilez
If it wasn't for typos..

[Nazul 10]

I've had this problem with Vista64 and now Win7, ive tried about 5-6 different nvidia drivers. I cant remember getting it with the betas though...?

i7 920 @stock

gtx295

6gigs ram

ga-ud5 mobo

[Alex72 1]

Mine's...

localVRAM=1085931520;

nonlocalVRAM=1085931520;

(tried deleting and letting it redetect - same figures... in-game memory setting makes no difference to figures detected either)

With a 320mb card localVram is obviously wrong for me (4gb RAM and Win 7x64)

B

Just saw yours and im showing you mine (hey! no dirty thaughts! :D ):

Mine:

localVRAM=311492608; (8800GTS 320MB)

nonlocalVRAM=804941824; (2GB Non expanding VM)

The first one looks cool yeah? Sometimes i get 420XXXXXX. And the second one maybe is good or not. Dont know if ARMA2 is supposed to use it all or half, wich this seems to be the case. Unless i read it wrong?

No artifacts though. Looking good.

Alex

[bushlurker 46]

Hi Alex...

Thats interesting, particularly since we have the same card, but not the same problem

Your figures look great!

localVRAM = 320mb minus a few, probably reserved for backbuffers an stuff

Nonlocal VRAM = about 767mb... sounds like about half your pagefile, more or less...

So it looks like Arma 2 is detecting correctly...

I have a fixed size pagefile too, set around 6100mb which = 1.5x my 4Gb RAM - as reccommended...

In my case Arma 2 is using the same figure of around 1035MB for both my Graphic card memory, and my available pagefile space...

Wierd...

I notice we have the same G card and processor... what else is different?

You have 2GB ram - I have 4gb

Not sure what OS you have, I'm guessing 32bit - I'm x64

So it's tempting to decide this is the x64 plus 4GB ram or more problem...

Except the poll suggests it's happening on x86 and x64...

Apart from Telejunky, who's video DOES seem to show the same issue on an ATI card, a browse thru this thread shows almost exclusively Nvidia cards, and 4Gb or more of system ram reporting this problem

I guess that narrows the field a bit - Arma2 actually attempting to USE the misreported localRAM is whats causing the problem, and its happening (largely) to Nvidia owners with 4gb or more of system ram - regardless of 32 or 64bit...

Where exactly does Arma 2 GET its figures from??? If it simply queries the resident Nvidia driver and goes with the figure it's given then it looks like an Nvidia driver issue to me...

hmmm...

B

Edited September 23, 2009 by Bushlurker

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Just to reinforce your theory about nVidia owners usually getting it with 4GB or more, I've got an nVidia card in the GTX 2xx series and 6GB of RAM.

[bushlurker 46]

OK!

After a little CQB with the interface I've successfully logged on to the community bug tracker @ dev heaven...

There's already a "localVRAM detection isn't working" thread, so I added (1) vote to that, and reported our variation on the issue, along with a link to this thread...

HERE's the bugtracker issue page... I believe Devs actually DO look at that from time to time, so if anyone else can survive the Dev Heaven interface and actually register and vote, that would probably be helpful I guess...

Now we wait for the Beta fix... this is a recognised issue - I've every confidence they'll nail it...

B

Edited September 23, 2009 by Bushlurker

[Bulldogs 10]

Just for a bit of fun, I changed my localVRAMsetting to a rediculous number and set file to read-only to see if I could recreate the crashes. I didn't manage to create any crashes but I only played for about 30 mins.

[bushlurker 46]

I'm pretty sure the engine determines VRAM at launch and goes with the figures it detects - if not marked to read only it dumps its latest figures in the arma2.cfg, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually read that file and use those figures... they're just for information...

B

[liquidpinky 11]

It's gotta be memory related as the game gradually gets worse the longer I play. Flying covers lots of ground (obviously heh) and accelerates the crashing process.

Definitely. I Have 8gb RAM and had to use the -winxp fix, I later added -maxmem=7168 after it. When I play I watch the performance monitor on my G15 and the RAM is slowly filling up as I play. The higher the GFX settings the quicker it fills, until above around 52% when the game starts to suffer a little slowdown but the RAM keeps on filling up. Around the 60% and higher slowdown is getting really bad at this point, although it took a few hours of continuous play to achieve. Ram usage didn't clear when exiting the game at this point either and a reboot was required to clear it.

Like GTAIV all over again, same shit different game.

I tried setting the maxmem at 4000 and eventually I get the artifacts and crashes when it gets near this limit, reverting back to a value of 6000 stopped it occurring.

I will be using that flushing command now that I know it, thanks Cogar69. :)

Specs:

OS: Vista64

RAM: 8gb DDR3

CPU: QX9650 @ 4.2GHz

GPU: 2x GTX285 in SLi

Mobo: ASUS Striker II Extreme.

[travnikar 10]

Hi guys,

the new drivers from Nvidia, 191.03 beta, helped my friend with his crashing problem. Its confirmed and tested for couple for hours in MP games.

his rig:

core i7 965

6GB RAM

ASUS GTX 285

asus p6t deluxe v2

win7 64 ulti

-nosplash argument only

test it out and let us know

edit: problem occured again so it's not perfect

Edited September 26, 2009 by travnikar

[no use for a name 0]

I'm definitely giving these new 191 drivers a shot. I never had any problems until I went to the 190.xx and now I get the Receiving bug and artifacting/CTD after several hours of play. I hope these fix it

But I also installed the 1.04 patch around the same time...so we'll see ;)

[Rapier 10]

I don't have a picture (but I'll might take one) , the shoreline flickers like crazy from about 400m and above (flying above), it looks horrible. I tried all sorts of adjustments within the game and outside too + tried 3 different graphics drivers, nothing fixes it.

ATI 4850 1GB DDR3 graphics card.

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.40gig CPU

[no use for a name 0]

I don't have a picture (but I'll might take one) , the shoreline flickers like crazy from about 400m and above (flying above), it looks horrible. I tried all sorts of adjustments within the game and outside too + tried 3 different graphics drivers, nothing fixes it.

ATI 4850 1GB DDR3 graphics card.

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.40gig CPU

Does it cause artifacts? (weird polygons, lines, etc.) Does the game crash? If not then it's a known issue with textures trying to decide which should be "on top" (showing); usually called texture flickering/z-fighting. It's not the same as what the OP is talking about, but yes it is annoying and I hope it gets fixed although it could be an issue with nVidia/ATI since I do see it in other games, just not as bad

Edited September 26, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[neojd[ny] 10]

Here is a link to the 191.3 beta drivers for Nvidia cards.

Its says "Up to 12% more power in ArmA 2" in the changelog

http://www.nvidia.de/object/win7_winvista_64bit_191.03_beta_de.html

I will give it a try soon.

[paelleon 0]

i have the same problem too. Especially when I use the map, it causes the game to freeze (an hard reset is needed since neither CTRL-ALT-CANC works anymore) or the image get all confused and bad colored. Look at this:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsgRu2A

All my drivers are updated, only the BIOS has one year.

Edited September 26, 2009 by paelleon
image missing

[neojd[ny] 10]

@ paelleon

wow your screenshot shows a very heavy artafacting picture.

And you have tried the beta driver i postet above?

I hope its only in ArmA like this? Because it looks pretty painfull for the graphic card.

[bushlurker 46]

That's pretty scary looking graphics corruption!

It's NOT like the effect the OP and, as far as I know, others in this thread are experiencing though!

How is your graphics card temperature Paelleon??

B

[fincuan 0]

So has any of you tried the maxmem=2047 switch? I used to have severe graphics corruption problems(two X1950 Pro 256mb in crossfire), but haven't had them once since adding that to my shortcut.

[Rapier 10]

Does it cause artifacts? (weird polygons, lines, etc.) Does the game crash? If not then it's a known issue with textures trying to decide which should be "on top" (showing); usually called texture flickering/z-fighting. It's not the same as what the OP is talking about, but yes it is annoying and I hope it gets fixed although it could be an issue with nVidia/ATI since I do see it in other games, just not as bad

I've never seen this in other games, but no not artifacts or weird polygons, it looks more like zigzaging grey lines all over and the higher I'm up the more of the shore becomes like that.

So you're saying it's a driver or graphics card problem? I see it as something that needs to be corrected in the game.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

So has any of you tried the maxmem=2047 switch? I used to have severe graphics corruption problems(two X1950 Pro 256mb in crossfire), but haven't had them once since adding that to my shortcut.

What does this do?

[bushlurker 46]

-maxmem=2047 supposedly limits the System RAM used by Arma2 to 2gb

I've tried this, and the -winxp one - to no avail...

However - I HAVE made what I think is some important progress with the Grey Artifacting, etc issue... as shown in the OP's video and other videos posted in other threads...

I've been trawling the Forums and elsewhere trying to find out exactly what the Videomemory Low/Normal/High/Very High/Default settings in Video Options actually MEAN..

The general consensus (best guess so far) seems to be that they're the same as in Arma 1, and the guess as to what that means is...

Low = 128mb

Normal = 256mb

High = 512mb

Very High = 1Gb ???

and Default = use the problematic Arma2 localVRAM detection procedure

*** I may well be totally wrong in the above assumption - I haven't been able to find any definitive official guidelines ***

However - lets assume I'm right for now...

I have a 320mb Graphics card - thats inbetween Normal and High...

If I set Video Memory to "Normal" - Arma 2 WON'T TRY TO DETECT! - it will just go with 256mb of localVRAM as a definite maximum...

Now that's gonna lose me some videoRAM, but since there isn't a "switch" for exactly my amount, I'll just set it to "Default" - it'll autodetect my localVRAM and use the full amount...

When you do this, Arma2 attempts to detect how much localVRAM you have - it arrives at a figure and uses it... (I also believe that at this stage the engine simply writes the amount it has detected into the Arma2.cfg file - it does NOT READ this value and use it - it merely reports it here - so changing that number has NO effect)...

However - we can use that number to see what figure Arma2 is detecting, and therefore using...

In my case it's this...

localVRAM=1085931520;

nonlocalVRAM=1085931520;

So Arma2 starts, it decides I have a graphics card with 1.8Gb of onboard RAM, reports the amount it detected in Arma2.cfg and it proceeds to run, assuming that it has 1.8Gb of localVRAM available...

Since in reality I only have 320Mb - sooner or later it's gonna overflow...

So I found a way to make that Sooner, rather than Later...

THIS benchmarking mission posted by Kju in another thread cameras you around Chernogorsk - loading LOTS of textures very quickly... I found that by running this once or twice, followed by switching to an entirely different island such as Sahrani and going for a chopper ride, I could easly overflow my misdetected memory...

Cue the big grey artifacts, etc, etc

Every time without fail...

Next test was to see if the other settings for Video Memory ARE just fixed amounts, with no detection taking place at all...

I set Video Memory to "Normal" (by my theory, limiting myself to 256Mb), and tried my damndest to induce the artifacting... I played half the night... multiple islands, driving, flying - going from area to area.....

Things were a little slower... FPS was down a little... like you'd expect from a 256Mb graphics card (or so Arma2 thinks)...

But NO GREY/WHITE TRIANGLES, NO ARTIFACTS ALL NIGHT!!!

The figures in Arma2.cfg hadn't changed, but - by my theory - why should they? I didn't ask Arma2 to detect, I TOLD it what to use - and it did - AND NO MORE!

So it looks to me that Misdetected localVRAM when using the "default" video memory option causes these artifacts and crashes...

What causes the misdetection is up to BIS to figure out... Although I can't help thinking that if I AM right, then just abandoning the endlessly problematic autodetection routine entirely and just offering a wider range of clearly labelled videoRAM amounts would work just fine and solve all these problems.

I rest my case...

B

Edited September 27, 2009 by Bushlurker

[neojd[ny] 10]

Ok thats makes some kind of sense.

Ok check this out, i got a GTX 285 1gb ram

ArmA 2 config:

localVRAM=2145822464;

nonlocalVRAM=2145822464;

semse like its detecting 2gb for my card right?

i use the -maxmem=2047 string, but thats not infect my (non)/localVRAM right?