New beta build 71548 up

[WillaCHilla 10]

New Beta Build 71548 is up!

Click here to download

Changelog:

[71543] File cache size increased a lot on systems with 4 GB RAM or more.

[71484] Fixed: C130 was crashing on takeoff.

Edited June 17, 2010 by WillaCHilla

[nomdeplume 0]

New changelog entries since 71382:

[71543] File cache size increased a lot on systems with 4 GB RAM or more.

[71484] Fixed: C130 was crashing on takeoff.

http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php and also mirrored @ http://mirror.quex.org/arma/beta/

[suma 8]

New beta 71548 contains some improvements in RAM management and some preparations for the next step, which will be enabling the application as LARGEADDRESSAWARE (running as LARGEADDRESSAWARE should fix the out of memory issues on 64b systems).

The point of this beta is to:

- verify the changes made as a part of preparation have not broken RAM management

- verify the increased file cache size of systems with lot of RAM works

[otrebla_snake_ita 2]

WOOOHOOO!

I love you BIS!

One question: did you remove "exthreads" parameter with this patch or it still works?

[maddogx 13]

Awesome stuff. I'll test this ASAP. One good way to fill up your RAM quickly is to grab a fast plane like the F-35 and fly around Chernarus with 10k view distance and terrain+object details as high as possible.

Let's see if it goes higher than 1.2GB with this new beta. :)

If this works as intended, LOD popping and similar issues should be a thing of the past, right?

[jw custom 56]

New beta 71548 contains some improvements in RAM management and some preparations for the next step, which will be enabling the application as LARGEADDRESSAWARE (running as LARGEADDRESSAWARE should fix the out of memory issues on 64b systems).

The point of this beta is to:

- verify the changes made as a part of preparation have not broken RAM management

- verify the increased file cache size of systems with lot of RAM works

Holy smoke this sounds seriously awesome, will test this baby in action later today

[ModeZt 0]

Correct me if I'm wrong. The memory allocation in ArmA is somewhat tricky.

To estimate how much RAM is used by the game you have to look at the total amount of memory used by applications and the operating system, NOT at the amount of memory allocated by the arma2.exe process itself.

[alef 0]

Some articles on the subject:

Using /LARGEADDRESSAWARE on 64-bit Windows for 32-bit programs

Myth: The /3GB switch expands the user-mode address space of all programs

For XP32bit users:

Physical Address Extension.

If beta works fine as it is, would worth doing this test:

• enabling LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag with editbin
  
• run windows XP32bit with /3GB
  
• set the MEM_TOP_DOWN in the registry
  
• run local SP, or no Battleye
  

Edited June 17, 2010 by alef
PAE

[WillaCHilla 10]

[71543] File cache size increased a lot on systems with 4 GB RAM or more

Yeah-sounds really good, though its a test (hopefully not to much bugged).

Don´t forget to uncheck your Ramdrive or give information about it, if you use it additionally.

Will test it after work.

[pestbeule 10]

Hi...

should I remove the -maxmem parameter? This would limit the game... Do I get this right???

[maddogx 13]

Hi...

should I remove the -maxmem parameter? This would limit the game... Do I get this right???

As far as I understood Suma, the game isn't large address aware yet, so the 2047 maxmem would still be the upper limit in any case. Once a new large address aware beta is released, you might want to remove it though.

[AnimalMother92 10]

Exciting stuff, will test asap. Keep em coming BIS :)

[SASrecon 0]

What should I put my -maxmem to? (my specs are in my sig.)

Thanks for any replies.

[suma 8]

the game isn't large address aware yet

Exactly, not yet. This should happen within a week if everything goes well.

so the 2047 maxmem would still be the upper limit in any case

It still is the limit, but it is not exactly related to large address awareness. The file cache we use is not using any virtual space, only physical memory, therefore the address limit does not apply to it.

run windows XP32bit with /3GB

Do this at your own risk and do not expect anything good. We have tried it and the results were quite bad. GPU drivers require a lot of kernel space, and the game needs a lot of paged pool. Both of this is limited with /3GB.

enabling LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag with editbin

If someone feels courageou, you may try this with x64 windows - you should see the RAM usage going quite high, however there might be some issues - this is not complete yet at our side, which is why the flag is not enabled by default.

[sbsmac 0]

Looks like a slight performance increase (and possibly a touch less stutter). I didn't actually watch these run so can't comment on LOD pop-up etc.

System specs: i920:3.85Ghz, SSD for ArmA, 6Gb RAM, Win7:64 bit, GPU:5870

[maddogx 13]

you should see the RAM usage going quite high

How high can we expect RAM usage to go once you've completed this and enabled /LARGEADDRESSAWARE? All the way up to 3GB? Also, can you say what specific improvements you are expecting from this?

I would guess the following:

- Faster and less noticable LOD switching.

- Less stuttering.

- Slightly improved overall framerates.

Are all of the above correct, and did I miss anything? :)

[suma 8]

How high can we expect RAM usage to go once you've completed this and enabled /LARGEADDRESSAWARE? All the way up to 3GB?

I think even more than 4 GB could be possible (remember the file cache is excluded from the virtual address limit). I am not sure if the game really loads that much data, though.

Also, can you say what specific improvements you are expecting from this?

I would expect:

- Faster and less noticable LOD switching.

- Improved loading times between missions

- Slightly improved overall framerates.

- Slightly less stuttering.

As for framerate and stutter, I would expect only minor improvements.

[SASrecon 0]

- Faster and less noticable LOD switching.

- Improved loading times between missions

- Slightly improved overall framerates.

- Slightly less stuttering.

I'm a happy guy; just played on arma for about an hour and the results are significant!

I also noticed they fixed the shadow bug which occured at high/very high shadow settings where a 'wall' of shadow was cast on the floor about 50m around the player.

I was playing at about 20fps (SMOOTH though, not the stuttery gameplay which i got with lower settings in other betas) with everything on very high, aa=8 and 6.5km viewdistance.:459:

(running -exthreads=7 and -cpucount=4.)

Small question, are these changes already present in gold OA? or will they be included in the ARMA2-ARMA2 OA compatibility patch?

Edited June 17, 2010 by SASrecon

[Punisher5555 0]

All the LOD switching//popping/stuttering in the large cities has completely stopped for me now. I can drive real fast through the towns/cities now and not see the LODs/textures pop/switch/stutter. Even when looking around quickly with the trackir. THANK YOU !!!!!!!

But I still have one issue:

Red/orange trees.

These trees are the biggest stutter/FPS problem in the game. I tried this beta standalone, then with the @Proper mod, and then with the Summer vegetation mod.

beta/no mod = stutter/low fps

beta/Proper mod = way less stutter/low fps

beta/summer mod = waaaaaaaaay less stutter/low fps

Please BIS let's change the seasons.

[Richey79 10]

With this build, as long as I turn post-processing off, I'm able to use view distances of 5,000-6,000 quite happily in editor scenarios, even in Chernarus. Probably when the engine starts running a hefty number of scripts this will come down, but the progress that has been made over the last few builds is really significant.

No crashes and seems stable so far (SP only).

[santafee 10]

I can cofirm the faster, less Lod popping up.

Specially if you look through scopes.

I wonder if theres a big difference with bigger videocard memory,

using HD 4850 now with 512 MB, maybe a 5770 with 1024MB would help?

[OrdeaL 10]

Suma could you PLEASE confirm what to set my video memory in-game if i have a 9600GT 512mb nVidia. Much appreciated!

[kroky 1]

Suma could you PLEASE confirm what to set my video memory in-game if i have a 9600GT 512mb nVidia. Much appreciated!

Im also interested in these settings, since I've got a 9800GT

[santafee 10]

As far as i know people with 512 MB should set it at middle.

But like i said, with my HD4850 [which is similar to 9800GTX] with 512 MB i can run with very high pretty smooth.

[suma 8]

Red/orange trees.

These trees are the biggest stutter/FPS problem in the game. I tried this beta standalone, then with the @Proper mod, and then with the Summer vegetation mod.

I have seen this mentioned many times already, yet I did not see a clear and consice repro for this. Can someone create an issue on CIT with clear repro steps and short and easy to understand description? Is this some particular kind of orange/red trees, or all orange trees? ....

Once this issue is there (and sufficiently up-voted), there will be a lot higher chance it will be fixed.