Jonney Napalm

I have searched the forum, but I can't really find anything that helps me. Is it possible to run Operation Flashpoint:Cold War Crisis on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine? If so, what do I need to do to make it work (-nomap etc?) I bought the game years ago and came across it the other day, and really fancied having another play. I think it's a version 1.0 game so I'll have to patch it first to 1.46 right? Anyway, thanks for any help.

Hi raybee, welcome to the forums, sorry it's not for a better reason. I too am suffering from the same CTD's as you and have spent hours and hours, since release infact, trying to bottom out theses problems. I have a very simular system to yours, apart from I have 6Gb of ram and I now run Windows 7. TBH I had better framerate on Vista than 7, sorry all you Vista haters ;) I seem to have got my game running stable'ish for the time being. I can play a good session on multiplayer servers with a half decent framerate (30-40 ish) for most of the time. I've not really gone back to 'campaign' mode as I re-installed and can't be bothered to lag my way back through it. That's only an asumption as I haven't really tried it. Anyway I'll post all my settings and you can see whether any of them help. Firstly I'm running the 190.38 Nvidia driver and I'm patched to 1.03. I have all the settings on the Nvidia control panel set at default and I have disabled Hyper Threading in the bios screen. My .CFG file is as the game detected and looks like this:- language="English"; adapter=-1; 3D_Performance=-4194304; Resolution_Bpp=32; Resolution_W=1920; Resolution_H=1200; refresh=60; Render_W=1920; Render_H=1200; FSAA=2; postFX=1; HDRPrecision=8; lastDeviceId=""; localVRAM=1948971008; nonlocalVRAM=1948971008; and my settings look like this:- Visability - 1600 Quality Preference - High Interface Resolution - 1920x1200x32 3D Resolution - 1920x1200 (32) Texture Detail - Normal Terrain Detail - Normal Post Process effects - Low Video Memory - Normal Object Detail - Normal Interface Size - Very Small Anisotropic Filtering - Normal Shodow Detail - High Aspect Ratio - 16:10 Antialiasing - Normal I may be able to up some of these, but to be honest, I'm like you and have almost given up on this game so I can't really be bothered to try anymore. This game has already deleted a large portion of my life tweaking it and not playing. Not ideal, as I sure our set-ups can play this faster if it was optimized properly. Anyways, back to waiting for another patch/and or new Nvidia drivers. I wish you luck, and if you do make a break through, come back and let us know. Jonney.

Right, so I'm totally confused now. I've been trawling through these forums since release day and I still haven't been able to stop my CTD's after 10-20 mins of play. I can't even get through the Armamark test without a crash most of the time! I know my system is 100% stable as I've hammered it with about every stability test and benchmark known to man, GPU, CPU, GPU memory and sytem ram, and it hasn't faltered. My temps remain at acceptable levels throughout (short) play, infact I've seen higher GPU temps in other games. I've re-installed 3 times now and I've patched to 1.02 and now to 1.03. I've re-installed Vista 64 twice and now moved onto Windows 7 Build 7100. I've tried -maxmem, -winxp etc, all setting to high, low and in between. I've even got a new HDD. I've managed to get a 'resonable' framerate but it's useless unless I can get the game to stop CTD'ing. I'm getting crash reports full of 'Error during i-buffer/v-buffer creation' and the faulting module is always arma2.exe. I'm personally convinced it's all caused by the way the game addesses memory or that my config/system settings aren't right and causing the CTD's. If I leave the .CFG file to set itself I get this:- language="English"; adapter=-1; 3D_Performance=-4194304;<Don't ask, sometimes does this. Resolution_Bpp=32; Resolution_W=1920; Resolution_H=1200; refresh=60; Render_W=1920; Render_H=1200; FSAA=2; postFX=1; HDRPrecision=8; lastDeviceId=""; localVRAM=1948971008; nonlocalVRAM=1948971008; As you can see I get localVRAM detected as 1948971008 bytes (1858mb). As I have a GTX 295, total memory 1792mb, which is 896mb per card, as I understand, this value should be set to 896mb (939524096 bytes)? Can anyone confirm this? Also nonlocalVRAM is detected the same. What should this be set to? Is it page file, virtual video memory, system memory, what? I've seen so many contradictions I just don't know what to think now. Can anyone running a GTX295 and a stable copy of Arma2 tell me what they have in their config? Also, if there is anyone running an i7 920/GTX295/6Gb DDR3/ Win 7 or Vista 64 and have a stable and non crashing Arma2 experience, please can you tell me all your .CFG settings and tweaks as I'm almost on the point of consigning Arma to a dusty shelf for the near future. Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading it.

Umm, that's interesting, your 3D_Performance has actually gone from 93750 to -4194304. Mine does this and I don't understand why. I also don't understand how you localVram is detected at 2039 mb when my GTX 295 gets detected at 1858mb, both of which are wrong. I was lead to believe that it should detect 896mb unless yours is a single PCB card and all the ram is on one chip, not split into 2 like mine. Anyways, good luck and let us know how you get on as I'm interested in trying to get my copy to work properly too.

Thanks for your reply Placebo, those few words mean a hell of a lot to quite a few of us on here.

Thanks mate, I've noticed that to. It's harsh when the menu screen taxes your system more than the game.

Mines the same, low fps and CTD's every 10-20 mins. Been through the whole forum and tried every tweak and work around. I managed to get the fps up a bit, and I only mean a bit, and I'm still plagued with the CTD's. You'll hear everything from your memory is broken to you have a slow hardrive/bad sectors or your PSU ain't upto the job. You'll be accused of having out of date drivers or that your set-up is overheating The plain and simple truth is that Arma2 doesn't work on some hardware set-ups, period. I personally believe, and have done for a long time now that it's something to do with the way it addresses memory that causes the CTD's. Basically it fills your memory until it bursts and then CTD's. Lower settings take longer to fill your memory so you get more playtime. Welcome to our club where we only get to play the waiting game and not the BIS one. Well, not until the 'magic patch' comes out anyway, and how long will that be and will it fix our problems? That's a whole new debate.

Have you got any other hardware like gamepads, joysticks, steering wheels etc. plugged in? If you have, try removing them one by one and see if that stops it.

That's what I was wondering. Probably not, as it's the same number (190.38) as the beta and the PhysX version number is the same.

Just seen that the 190.38 beta drivers for Vista (not sure about XP etc) are out. Anyone tried them? Don't seem to mention any Arma related things in the info, and I'm not sure if they enable SLi like the patch did. Can you even use the Nvidia SLi patch with it? Anyways, if anyone has found any improvement, either performance or stopping the CTD's don't be shy ;)

lol, saw your piccy earlier and made me laugh. Nice one.

Well I crash to desktop every 10-20 mins normally. I'm one of those lucky people running a 'high spec' rig, which it seems is about the worst thing for playing Arma 2. On one hand I'm really pissed that BIS felt so little for it's customers that it released a game in Arma's current state of development (or lack of it)! On the other, I can respect that businesses are not normally run by the creative guys that become obsessed, slaveing over their creations. They're run by accountants and 'management' specialists, who I would expect would be pressured by the financial side to get this game out, and on the market before OFP:Dragon Rising came along and took a bite out of profits. I'm really enjoying playing the short bursts that I get and am really looking forward to a patch, which I'm sure will come, to sort this out. I have total faith that the game will be fixed as I'm sure that the guys who created this game are just as frustrated that their 'baby' is receiving so much bad attitude from unhappy people. The one real gripe I have, and this is the one which could, and probably will, stop me buying anymore of Bohemia Interactives software in the future is there total and utter lack of communication. If I owned a company and my customer relations dept were as bad as this, I'd fire the lot of them. Period. Most people on here, who have serious issues running the game, would be happier and less frustrated if someone came along every now and then and just came out with lines like 'We understand your having problem xxxxxx and we're investigating it as we speak. We hope to be able to give you more information when we understand the cause etc. etc.' But no, total silence. I'm not asking for promises of a fix, or dates when it'll be, just that you have acknowledged my problems, and your looking into them. That's all, not really that much to ask is it? Anyways, that's my view and how satisfied I am.

Beat me too it, I was gonna say I think his username explains it all.

When you say black background, do you mean that your desktop picture is missing but you still have all your desktop icons? If so, that's how mines always crashed. No help, I know, but hey, it may not be the new drivers.

GTX295 is made from low fps cheese. :(

Thanks for the reply Pave Low, I might give it a whirl then. It won't stop my CTD's I don't think, as I'm running a similar set-up to delevero, the fatal combo of a core i7 and a GTX295.

No, you want to put it as:- "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -winxp Right click on your shortcut and select properties and then the 'shorcut' tab. Just type it in at the end of the 'target' line with a space in front.

Well if my 3d performance is going to improve by 4294304, then it's gonna look like real life! ;) Seriously, no idea why it's that, but I can still play a bit and it looks great with desent fps.

Nice one. Thank you.

I have absolutely no idea. Maybe related to the problems?

Toxin, Have a look at this thread I posted, don't know if it will help, but maybe worth a try. http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=79136

UPDATE:- Well I've managed to make what I think is an improvement. I managed to play a few scenario's, a bit of campaign and some online fun without too many crashes, although they are still there. This is not a fix, just something worth trying to see if you can at least have a bit of ArmA2 fun. I removed my Nvidia video driver and used driversweep in safe mode to remove all traces. I then rebooted and installed the Nvidia 186.18 (turn off your anti-virus) and the latest SLI patch from Nvidia. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/nvidia_sli_profile_patch_uk.html I am only using the -nosplash command in the target line and nothing else. On the Nvidia control panel, in the ArmA2 program settings, I have only adjusted V-Sync to force off and touched nothing else. In my settings I have:- Visability - 3027 Quality Preference - Very High Interface Resolution - 1920x1200x32 3D Resolution - 1920x1200 (32) Texture Detail - High Terrain Detail - High Post Process effects - Low Video Memory - High Object Detail - High Interface Size - Very Small Anisotropic Filtering - Normal Shodow Detail - High Aspect Ratio - 16:10 Antialiasing - Normal also my .cfg file reads:- language="English"; adapter=-1; 3D_Performance=-4194304; Resolution_Bpp=32; Resolution_W=1920; Resolution_H=1200; refresh=60; Render_W=1920; Render_H=1200; FSAA=2; postFX=1; HDRPrecision=8; lastDeviceId=""; localVRAM=1948971008; nonlocalVRAM=1948971008; Hope this helps a bit and allows you to play at least for a while. It's in no way a 'magic bullet', but worked better than nothing for the time being for me. Let me know how you get on, and if you get to further refine it and make it any better. I have not really had the time to test it totally, but did notice that when I turned AA and Anisotropic up to high the game seemed to crash a lot quicker. I only did this once, so it wasn't very scientific, but I will try and test further when I have time. Oh, and I also deleted my .cfg file before firing ArmA back up again. Jonney.

Only bonus is that it rocks in most other games :)

Yep, If you search through the forum you will find that most people with your rig spec are getting the crash to desktop, myself being one of them. A few with GTX 295's seem to be able to run the game ok, but I think we're waiting on BIS/Nvidia to come up with a fix basically. All I can suggest is that you make sure Microsoft error reporting is turned on and sending the error reports because it has been stated on this very forum that BIS do actually receive those reports. You could also raise an issue at the A2 community issue tracker, the link to which is from one of the stickied threads at the start of the forum. One can only hope a fix is in the pipeline, as no-one from BIS has actually acknowledged that there is problem with the GTX 295, even if it lies with Nvidia. All very frustrating and made 100x worse with the lack of any official acknowledgment/response. Oh well, back to waiting for OFP:Dragon Rising as ArmA2 is a dead duck ATM and looks to stay that way for the near future.

I presume you have both reported this in Microsoft error reports and also done so on the Arma 2 community issues trackers? If the cause, and ultimatly the solutions are to be found then these reports are the only exact method that BIS are going to use to investigate. I have the same issues and have done both of the above. Other than that I think it is just a question of waiting, not ideal I'll admit, but that seems about the only option we have at the moment.