shuurajou
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Posts posted by shuurajou
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Coincidentally I bought mine on steam.
The publisher did say they are apparently working on it but it's not easy to fix.
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Dissapointingly I've had a ticket open with IDEA games (publisher and our 'official' way to get support) since the 28th of August and I was told today that they recommend I return the game for a refund. This is after quite a lot of time providing dxdiag, specs etc to help them pass the issue onto BIS to troubleshoot and being told it was passed onto the developers... doesn't fill me with confidence this is going to get fixed if the publisher is telling users to get refunds.
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Yup, detects the RAM correctly. It didn't detect properly with certain drivers (Although the game played fine - 186.xx's were a big culprit).Eth
For me I've found with or without the -winxp parameter, when using the BIS recommended NVIDIA drivers (e.g. latest) my VRAM is detected incorrectly (specifically VRAM, not RAM). Limiting to 4GB in MSCONFIG or removing 4GB resolves this detection issue for me.
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Np mateMachine one is in my sig
Machine 2 is :
i7 940 @ stock
Gigabyte EX58 Extreme
8 GB Mushkin DDR3 1600
EVGA 285 Factory OC
Auzentech Home Theatre 1.3
Etc
Machine 3 is :
i7 920 @ 3.33
Gigabyte EX58 Extreme
6 GB Corsair DD3 1600
BFG 280 (Factory OC)
SB X-Fi gamer
Etc
All Win 7 64 (Retail - MSDN) (but worked well with XP 64 before)
Latest driver builds/BIOS on all boxes. Using -winxp & cpucount=4 on all boxes
Cheers
Eth
So, with the -winxp command line argument, looking at your localVRAM parameter, it has correctly detected your video card memory on all machines? Might be useful to paste your localVRAM & nonlocalVRAM detected parameters for each machine.
Adding these command line switches doesn't limit the game or make it run with less function than it was designed to do??? In fact it makes it run AS it was designed!Never heard the need to edit MSCONFIG to run Arma2.exe - why do you do that when the command line switches fix the problem?Adding the -winxp doesn't limit system memory in any way so what are you going on about?
From your own mouth.
The command line argument -winxp does not fix incorrect VRAM detection in the scenario of having 8GB+ RAM. On some setups it can change the VRAM detected so the game runs without graphical glitches but it still detects it incorrectly. MSCONFIG does help with this.
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I have 2nd computer I've also bought ArmA 2 for, it's an iMac with a 3gz core 2 duo & this card - 2gb ram and whilst you won't get blazing FPS if you turn up the GFX, it's certainly playable. Of course 'playable' is subjective.
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No mine aren't correct either, Arma 2 auto detects:localVRAM=1947303872;nonlocalVRAM=1947303872;Should be 6Gb DDR3 and 896MB Video memory. I read somewhere that you can edit the file yourself and make it "read only" if its a concern to you.
Even if you set the read as read only ArmA 2 only writes to those parameters to help with debugging, it doesn't read from them so you can change them to 2MB and it won't help.
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Taken from the ARMA II Startup Parameters Wiki Page HERE-winxp= use it in Vista/Windows 7 to enable multi-GPU support (Arma2)
-maxmem= Limit memory allocation (in MB). 2047 is hardcoded maximum at the moment (Arma2 1.01 final, anything higher falls back to 2047).
When running on Win7 64-bit I use -winxp -maxmem=2047 -nosplash (and if I'm testing a beta build -cpucount=4 as I have an i7) and i don't get any texture issues.
That may be true, but if you look at the nonlocalVRAM & localVRAM parameters in your ArmA2.cfg are they accurate (convert bytes to megabytes)? If they are inaccurate and then you are likely getting performance that isn't taking full advantage of the RAM on your video card.
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You did read other threads in the forum?You can either try the command line tag -winxp , which limits the RAM used to ~2GB, or you can manually remove (thats what I did) some RAM.
VRAM detection is still broken even if you use -winxp.
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FYI for me, if I removed 4GB of RAM from my comp, performance improves dramatically as VRAM detection then functions and the 'default' video memory setting allows me to take advantage of my 1024MB RAM on the video card.
So this is certainly a bug linked with 8GB RAM. BIS attempted to fix this in 1.02. Hopefully they'll try again!
On that basis though the game won't 'always' be bad, and isn't 'always' bad now. Just depends what bugs impact you.
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dxdiags Display section reports 1012Mb total graphics memory - combine the local and nonlocal VRAM reports from the ARMA config file (and do the divide by 1024 twice) and that comes out as a match. Thats gotta be the VRAM section of config explained, apart from I cant think of any good reason to tweak this manually unless the game has managed to mis-detect the amount of RAM on your graphics card.The thing is you can't actually manually change the VRAM in the config - ArmA 2 writes those values, it doesn't read them - so even if you change them to 2MB it doesn't make a difference, they were made for debug so developers could validate what VRAM ArmA 2 was detecting. You can't change them sadly :(.
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In the end of the day the OS supports 8GB so it's not acceptable to have bugs because a computer has 8GB. That's like saying it's OK for the game to have bugs on 24" monitors or an xbox 360 is OK to have bugs with wired controllers. If it's officially supported by the core OS then all subsequent pieces of software need to be able to co-exist with that config without negative impacts.
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wheelcipher, if you like, you can put the other 4GB back in and try the -winxp Parameter in the Game Shortcut. That worked for me and i dont have to limit my 64bit System to 4GB.The only problem being in that case I believe VRAM detection will still be broken and the 'default' setting won't result in the optimum performance of his 4890. May be different with ATI though.
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I have an ATi X1950XT 256Mb and my localVRAM config is 265662464(256Mb * 1024 * 1024 = 268435456 so its pretty likely that this line is the game reading the amount of RAM on the card in bytes - maybe some is reserved by the cards firmware so that the game sees a little less than the true amount?)
Does that tie in with other peoples video RAM and config file contents?
The text itself implies that its the amount of RAM on the card, but the developer response of "resources" implies that my thought above may be true, that it's what's left available on the card after any firmware has allocated some.
My nonlocalVRAM is showing as 795791360, or a little under 759Mb when divided by 1024 twice. I'm on a 2Gb machine running Vista32 and my thought on this is that maybe there are around 759Mb available in system RAM after the game engine is loaded to use to cache graphics into? The use of nonlocalVRAM certainly implies that too, ie VRAM that is not locally on the card itself.
I think the -winxp switch, while a bit of a misnomer, has been cleared up. Reference the link in Dwardens post "use it in Vista/W7 to enable multi-GPU support", that shows that whatever code the switch activates also enables the Vista/7 graphics system to use multi-GPU with the ArmA2 engine
You can use SLI setups without the -winxp switch since newer 190 nvidia drivers. Which are a multi GPU setup of sorts. It seems '-winxp' forces Arma 2 in vista/win7 to use XPs version of Direct3D 9, the GPU enabling on some setups seems to be just a side effect.
It sounds like your VRAM detection is working fine. Again, you have 2GB RAM so I'd expect no issues with your VRAM detection.
If you run dxdiag, and 'save all information' to your desktop and look at the dxdiag.txt file. Scroll down to the 'display devices' section, then, look at 'dedicated memory' I believe this is what localVRAM should translate to (after you've done bytes - megabytes conversion). I believe 'shared memory' is what your nonlocalVRAM value should translate to.
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When I limited my 8GB of system ram down to 6GB using the msconfig thing mentioned upthread, localvram was detected as 213mb, as opposed to 255mb when I have the full 8GB in place. I'm almost tempted to physically yank some ram out and run a true 6GB just to see how that affects the localvram detection. You'd think it would be the same as using the msconfig thing, but who knows. There is no way I'll go down to 4GB mind you, and I doubt I'd leave it at 6gb beyond a quick test.It'd be worth trying 4GB I think. Just as a test :).
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http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1295579&postcount=1i have edited and added some descriptions to the commandline in first post in past ... you may find them useful or so ...
Thanks for your contribution Dwarden.
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That is absolutely fine and I have no expectation that ArmA 2 will actually make use of my 8GB RAM. I mention 8GB RAM because it seems that because my computer has 8GB RAM ArmA 2 is unable to accurately detect my video card RAM (1024MB).its a freaking 32bit app. It will never see more/use more than 2gb system.
I haven't used one of these tools before - can you suggest one? I don't want ArmA 2 to use 2GB of VRAM as I only have 1024MB of VRAM - I just want it to use that correctly. It cannot use it correctly if it doesn't realise it's there (because autodetection of VRAM for me (which the 'default' video setting requires to be accurate) is broken).If you want to see how much vram it uses then get a vram mapper. But its also up to the driver to use the buffers correctly for the dx calls, It will never use more than 2gb of vram...
I don't know enough about Datter's specific problems to really comment on that side of things. I too am coming to the conclusion though that 8GB is a massive pain for very little gain in most circumstances. Regardless, the OS supports it so it should work. I could do with a beer right now too...Datters lack of usable vram(225, instead of 680? 1200mb?) is do to his drivers and OS/SLi being borked right now... The 8gb has been a issue is in alot of games for both ATi and NVDA. 8gb is for the most part complete insanity on old MB chipsets and or of any use in any app bar some VM/encoding/PS,RAMdrive. And i would bet you that 3d encoding with SLi'd 8800gt's is not getting ANY where close to 8gb...maybe a spike at 4.5gb on rc7x64...8gb is for the most part a nightmare for ppl to get stable at any OC filling up all the slots with 2gb sticks is a huge drain on most chipsets from intel,they dont run at the true speed/ timings , and is in the disclaimer on ALL MBs, fill the slots its slower. But hey its only 20$ to 40$ more so buy the SLOW ddr2 pc6400... I would rather just buy more beer.
The thing is, the way BIS have designed the game, in order to get the benefit from having a GFX card with more than 512MB VRAM, you have to use the 'default' setting, and that is dependant (seemingly) on the VRAM detection working, which it doesn't with the 8GB bug. So, BIS can let us manually define our VRAM value so ArmA 2 doesn't have to autodetect, or, they can see if they resolve the bug.That being said It will be nice for Bis to "fix" the issue, then the noise would go down here for unused ram on old comps borking the renderer.
I acknowledge that ArmA 2 cannot make use of more than 2GB system RAM. It's 32bit of course. However, I have come across instances where the nonlocalVRAM value has been detected at 3GB, but this is the graphics card shared memory, so not necessarily wrong. If you run dxdiag & export dxdiag.txt, I believe, if VRAM autodetection is working as designed, the values detected in nonlocalVRAM & localVRAM should be very close to the 'Dedicated Memory' & 'Shared Memory' output in dxdiag under the 'display devices' category.with or with out the para,it can only detect upto 2gb vram, and 2gb_nonv, your whole premise is how/why it detects? The -winxp flag is so you can use SLI rt now and or limit the ram detect if using x64OS with over 4GB, making it a 32bit OS to the engine? Running the -winxp on a 32bit XP, because you have 8gb is wacky in more ways than i can mention.For example...
---------------Display Devices
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Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 285
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_05E3&SUBSYS_0F7D19F1&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4079 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1007 MB
Shared Memory: 3071 MB
This is a snippit from my DX diag. I believe if I have 4GB RAM, the values ArmA 2 detects align almost perfectly with 'dedicated memory' (localVRAM) & 'shared memory' (nonlocalvRAM) from dxdiag.
I just want to be clear I'm not here to argue - just trying help everyone get the most from the game with their systems and where possible, furnish BIS with as much information as possible.
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I have the following configuration:MoBo: ASUS M2N32 WS Professional
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5200+@ 2613Mhz
RAM: 8Gb DD2 Kingston HyperX
VGA: nVidia GeForce GTX 295
I've tryed latest drivers, older... SLI Patch... and can play more than 25FPS... maximum! average of 16
Arma2 setup is this one:
Resolution: 1680x1050
3D Res: 1680x1050
Texture quality: High
Video memory: High
Aniso: low
Antialiasing: low
Terrain detail: normal
Object detail: normal
Shadows: normal
Postprocessing efects: Low
And draw distance 2017
¿Does anyone know why can I get more than 25 FPS? and what is causing this extreme LOW average???
Thanks a lot!
This might sound crazy but just try it.
Remove 2x sticks of 2GB (leaving you with 4GB RAM), delete arma2.cfg and then setup your setting again, but choose default video memory this time. Then restart Arma 2. See if it makes a difference.
This is assuming you have 64bit Vista or Win 7.
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Updated as I misread the initial calculations. Without the -winxp command line argument the game actually only detects 2MB localVRAM & 2MB nonlocalVRAM (4MB total?!).
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Wow...setting the video memory back to default fixed all the problems I was having with my GTX295...slow texture loads and slow fps.....the only setting I hadn't tried lol....I can see from your other posts you have 4GB RAM, so default I think has worked as intended for you.
If you have 4GB RAM it seems VRAM (Video RAM) autodetect works.
So... going through the logic.
You have a GTX 295. This card has more than 512MB video RAM, so you should use default video memory for best performance.
The default video memory setting relys on Arma 2's automatic VRAM detection entirely.
You have 4GB RAM so Arma 2's automatic VRAM detection works (if you had 8GB it likely would not), so, default has done the job it was meant to and now things are better for you :).
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Oh ok!Sorry then!
Didn't know about that... just thought you had it mixed...
---------- Post added at 12:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 AM ----------
2 MBs LOL!!!!
No worries... I know - 2MB is crazy.
Many GTX 285/275/260 users with 8GB RAM may get blank looking textures when you do not use '-winxp' or anything like that - if you look at your CFG file and calculate the bytes value into megabytes users will likely find a similar value to 2MB has been detected (if you're one of these users). It explains the blank one colour textures really - you can't fit much of any maps textures in 2MB.
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Re-read your post...You're talking about VRAM and then you talk about RAM at the very end....
The setting is for VRAM not RAM!
VRAM stands for Video RAM - it is the RAM that is on your graphics card. However, I knew what I was saying. There is a bug, that if you have 8GB normal system RAM, Arma 2 doesn't correctly auto detect your VRAM. It was meant to be fixed but has not been.
In Bohemia's words from the 1.02 change log - "Fixed localVRAM detection on Vista x64 systems with 8 GB RAM and more" - this bug is still present in 1.03 sadly.
I am well aware the in game setting is surrounding video memory (VRAM). However, the in game 'default' video memory setting, autodetection of VRAM, the localVRAM paremeter & 8GB of PC RAM are linked.
The 'default' video setting makes use of Arma 2's auto VRAM detection - but if you have more than 8GB RAM, the auto-detection is often broken for VRAM, making the default 'video memory' setting do more harm than good as in some examples it only detects 2MB of VRAM.
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Seems like they were right :rolleyes:JW Custom, if you are only here to try and add unhelpful, valueless, throwaway comments then feel free to stop. You aren't helping anybody at all in doing that. I'm just trying to do something to help people.
This thread has over 7,900 views and over 91 posts with people trying to understand how to correctly use the video memory option because there's no guidance with it. This clearly demonstrates a need for assistance from an official source to explain how to use this setting appropriately. As you can clearly see, this thread isn't just me - so clearly this isn't my own 'personal frustration' but the frustration of every post in that thread.
This thread has over 26,100 views and 177 posts. Many people in this thread are advising each other to change their localVRAM & nonlocalVRAM settings without actually understanding truely what they are there for and how to use them to help diagnose an issue. This also, clearly demonstrates that the community at large has issues here and needs assistance from an official source. I am aware that in 1.02 BI attempted to fix this issue however it's not completely fixed yet. As you can also clearly see, this thread too, isn't just my frustration.
I suspect that the localVRAM setting is where ArmA 2 will update your cfg file with what it has autodetected your video card memory to be. It is not user configurable. If this could be confirmed as true then many users would be in a position to provide BI with data around when ArmA 2 does and does not correctly auto detect their video cards RAM. As it seems the 'Default' video memory setting is linked with this auto detection, if auto detection is broken then users with more than 512MB video cards won't be able to get ArmA 2 to run optimally.
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I'd also try and default your controls. It's also worth turning off video capture software (fraps, clawplay) and restarting the TrackIR 5 software as they can conflict.
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Yes it's impossible to spent a little time tweaking to find out whats best for your computer and yet so many people are playing and having fun :confused:I've spent hours tweaking and trying different things, but, there's on setting I can't tweak because it is totally reliant on Arma 2's auto detection.
Default 'video memory' should be best for my computer (going on the only guidance available on this setting) but auto detection of localVRAM is still broken as you can look in your ArmA2.cfg file and see what Arma 2 thinks you have. I know Arma's getting mine wrong, and Arma only READS from that part of the CFG, it doesn't write to it, so you can't change it manually.
Not everyone has the bug as it seems to depend on 4 variables - OS (must be 64bit), RAM (should be 8GB), drivers & gfx card.
Some people only have 32bit so don't seem to get impacted. If you have under 4GB RAM on a 32bit OS it seems autodetection of VRAM works...
I've tried hard to do as much tweaking and analysis as possible; it's taken hours, and this is what I've found.
ArmA2 8GB RAM Problem
in ARMA 2 & OA - TROUBLESHOOTING
Posted
Hi All,
I raised CIT bug #4042 and also a bug with the IDEA GAMES publisher reference 'IDEA-GAMES-RT #10871'.
I raised both of these originally, specifically for the issue where the VRAM values in ArmA 2 cfg were incorrect (indicating ArmA 2 had incorrectly detected VRAM).
If you're unsure what these values should read (i.e. so you can determine if the beta patch fixed it for you), export a dxdiag report and look at the Display Devices section, you'll see some memory values. Convert your ArmA2.cfg nonlocalVRAM & localVRAM values to MBs and compare.
I'll test with the latest beta patch tonight and post my feedback.