Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz

Hey GrandmaWithGun; I don't think they're working unless it specifies when you're connecting. Most large-population public servers (i.e. the berzerk one I see up often, and the BMF aas server) do not accept ANY mods as far as I know. I don't play with any. That being said, I have played with them in the past, and used many mods for ARMA Queen's Gambit. So, if I were you, I would just follow the steps from the armaholic.com link, step by step, even the parts you think you might have done right. I had problems with my mods back on ARMA, and following the steps individually helped me locate my problem (was a problem with where I had placed my "@Addon" folders). Other than that, I'm really not too sure. That seems like it would be the only logical conclusion; that your actual addon folders are in the wrong place, so the launcher is not recognizing/registering the commands you have put in the target line.

"ethne", Bulldogs put his post up 1 minute after yours. He probably did not see your post.

Yep, well I tried adding the -winxp bit in, and I didn't have any stuttering when I played. Those two aren't necessarily linked, however; I might have just gotten lucky with which cores my PC decided to use.

Well, another update. This friggen computer is so unpredictable it makes me sick. I paid $2000 for this piece of sh**, and some days it works, some days it doesn't. ArmA 2 might be PART of the problem, but I think a very large portion of it has to do with my computer. So, I did the -cpucount=4 thing, right? And the first night it worked GREAT. The second day it worked ok; more stuttering than the night before. Yesterday, it worked PERFECTLY, zero stuttering, whatsoever. Today, it doesn't work at all. Stuttering is so bad it makes the game unplayable. None of my settings are changed at all, have not touched them, and no background programs are running. I don't know what the hell to do. It's just ridiculous.

Hey; *W0lle* will probably close this topic, because there is currently a sticky thread dedicated to performance issues at the top. For future reference, I would suggest taking your performance-related issues to that thread, rather than creating a new separate one (I found it out the hard way; they don't like locking threads all day). Anyways, I have: intel i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz 12 GB DDR3 RAM NVIDIA GTX 285 I was having severe choppy/stuttering/laggy issues. After patch 1.04, they added a feature that allows you to put a -cpuCount= shortcut into your ArmA II launcher properties. For me, Hyperthreading on my processor was causing the graphics issues. I would try these things: -go to Control Panel -> Performance -> Power Settings -> set to maximize performance -right-click your ArmA II Launcher, go to properties, and in the Target: window, try these shortcuts: -cpuCount=4 -winxp32 -maxmem=4000 You don't have to try them all at once. For me, trying -cpuCount=4 solved all of my graphics problems.

OK - Bulldogs, Hotel, and anyone else that has been following my situation or has a similar one, or anyone who might have it but hasn't read the other posts: MY PC: intel i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz, 12 GB DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GTX 285 MY SITUATION: The game itself ran with very nice fps (~40-50), but it stuttered horribly. That is, it would run very nicely, but every 4-5 seconds it would have a little "blurp" causing a momentary hold-up, which was BAAAD in combat situations. Nothing at all seemed to help; defragging, adjusting video settings, turning of V-Sync and PhysX, etc. POSSIBLE SOLUTION? I just installed Patch 1.04 and tried the -cpuCount=4 thinger in my ArmA II properties (has a similar effect to disabling Hyperthreading on i7's, which effectively read the PC as having 8 cores instead of 4). I booted it up and ran the same scenario I used to test all my other possible resolutions. The result? A breakthrough! NO STUTTERING! Turned all graphics up to High... NO STUTTERING! Now, my PC seems to kind of work in waves; GTA IV will run amazing one night, and not work for another week, then run amazing for a night. So I'm going to restart my PC now, and try running ArmA II again. If I get the same result, adding the -cpuCount=4 shortcut will be a MAJOR HELP to i7 users experiencing problems. ---------- Post added at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 11:49 PM ---------- Update: HAHAHAAAA, success! SUCCESS I SAY! EUREKIA! Very very veeery minimal stuttering. I don't even think it classifies as stuttering, it's probably just the game loading textures as I run, because it's a fraction of a fraction of a millisecond and only occurs every 30-40 seconds or so. It is AMAZING! The game is playable! Beyond playable! THANK YOU B.I.S., FOR ADDING THIS FUNCTION! For anyone else with an i7 high-end rig, experiencing fps/stuttering issues, right click your ArmA II desktop icon -> properties -> Target: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -nosplash -cpuCount=4 Ohhh baby. Tomorrow after classes I'll attempt to fiddle around with the -maxmem= setting, and see if it makes any noticeable difference as well. Thanks to everyone who helped me; it would appear by limiting my cpu count that it was probably something along the lines of Hyperthreading causing the issues.

An interesting tidbit of information; (Win Vista 64) going to Control Panel -> Performance Information and Tools -> Adjust power settings, I changed it to prefer maximum performance and minimum energy saving, and I noticed a SIGNIFICANT performance boost in ArmA II and a few other higher-end games. However, the ****ing stuttering is still happening, so that hasn't been resolved. It seems to have gotten BETTER; before, it was every 1-2 seconds, now it's back to every 4-5 seconds. Still unplayable, but some progress is being made...?

Yep, classes just started so things are hectic, but I want to speak to the guys at Gateway again and get them to tell me how to unlock my BIOS, to disable HT.

Well, I have exhausted quite a few of my options, but I'll look into this ultimate defrag thing. When I do, I'll send you a PM, Hotel, if you would be so kind as to instruct me how to go about partitioning ArmA II.

Hey Bulldogs, I've got 12 GB of DDR3 RAM. So it's looking like a good defrag system is in store? Would it be worth it to BUY one, or get the free one that Hotel previously mentioned? And I'm using Vista, but I'm having a hard time of findnig my swap file. I can get to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings but I don't know where to go after that.

Allright Hotel, I have some interesting and (possibly) useful information: I booted up ArmA, and for curiosity's sake, ran it under Windows XP (service pack 2) compatability mode, with privelege level as administrator (since I'm running Vista 64-bit). In Utes, on the completely blank island to the north, stuttering continued, but each stutter was noticably shorter. I could run, and I could see the stutters occuring just as often, but they were much faster stutters. Planting myself in the center of Utes with no NPCs / vehicles / etc, on the airport, the stutters became longer, but not as long as on Chernarus. Starting up the editor with placing myself in the middle of the woods on Chernarus, with no NPCs / vehicles / etc, I got the same amount of stuttering that I mentioned in my first post, every few seconds, and noticeably longer than on Utes (which makes sense, from what I hear, that Chernarus is more demanding on a machine that Utes). After running the game for 10 minutes, and looking at my task manager, it would appear that CPU usage is very sporratic. It shot up and capped at almost 95%, then shot back down to about 13%, then shot up and down every 30-45 seconds between 13% - 45% - 50% - 13% - 30% - 60% - 15% etc, bouncing all over the place. Could this be a cause of the stuttering? If my CPU usage is stuttering, would my game stutter as well? I will restart ArmA under normal compatability mode, and see if anything changes. ---------- Post added at 09:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 PM ---------- Hmmm... without going back to normal compatability mode yet, still running windows xp service pack 2, I decided to crank all of the settings to their absolute max. Stuttering still occurred as per normal, FPS dropped considerably to 15-20, and CPU usage looked like a heartbeat monitor attached to a humming bird. Jumping between 30-50% every few seconds. ---------- Post added at 09:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 PM ---------- After another test, putting myself ontop of a mountain and in the center of the airport on Chernarus, more results: No noticeable difference in stuttering when view distance is at 500 vs 1800 vs 2200. Slightly more intense stuttering at airport vs. ontop of the mountain, though not significant. CPU usage seemed more sporratic when graphics were turned down. Slightly less intense stuttering with graphics turned down, though not significant.

Yah randir14 I'm not sure, I remember a friend of mine warned me about getting a 1 TB hard drive because he said it was slower than smaller drives, but he recommended a speed, and I think my hard drive was faster.

Well, I tried phoning, and couldn't understand the guy past his accent. I tried the chat with a tech guy thing, and was disconnected each time. I guess my only option will be to wait and hope it becomes better optimized.

Very frustrating. Angry beyond words that Hyperthreading is locked. Gateway charges like $29.99 per phone call for customer technical support. I really don't want to shelf ArmA 2.

Ohhh, wow. That's very interesting, Hotel. Hmmm. I have a 1 TB hard drive, so it has plenty of space, but at the same time I guess that also means that it has a long way for data to travel. If it's as simple as entering the BIOS menu to enable/disable hyperthreading, I might give that a try first before buying a defrag program. Still don't know how to disable it though... is it risky to do so? Last thing I want to do is wreck an expensive, day-old PC.

"Spread Spectrum Control" is the one and only option under Frequency/Voltage

Hmmm. I've looked a couple of times now, I've got a Gateway FX6800 with an intel i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz, NVIDIA GTX 285, 12GB DDR3 RAM. When I press F2 at startup and go to the BIOS menu, I can see: Product Information Standard CMOS Information Advanced BIOS Features Advanced Chipset Features Integrated Peripherals Power Management Setup PC Health Status Frequency/Voltage Control BIOS Security Features Load Default Settings Save & Exit Setup Exit Without Saving I've tried going to each individual sub-set, but I haven't found anything that looks like an option to enable/disable hyperthreading. Did I miss it? Is it somewhere else entirely? Thank you in advance.

Sorry about the inconvenience, W0lle. I've been told that disabling hyperthreading may be a possible solution to my stuttering/video problems. Would someone be able to tell me how to go about doing that? Or direct me to a step-by-step guide?

Hey everyone! Sorry in advance. I know I've posted in a few other topics but I figured it would be easiest for me to track this problem (and for other people with similar problems to find this topic easily). I'm experiencing major problems with graphics stuttering in-game. Right off the bat, this is my new system, which I purchased last night, specifically designed to handle (hopefully) ArmA 2: Intel i7 920 @ 2.66 GHz (not overclocked) NVIDIA GTX 285 12GB of DDR3 tri-channel RAM Windows Vista 64-bit To clarify, when I say "stuttering" I mean that the game seems to be running beautifully (~30 - 40+ fps), however it is mauled by intermittent stuttering, or brief 0.5 - 1 second periods of completely haulted graphics. So, I end up seeing smooth gameplay and great FPS for 4-7 seconds, and then it completely freezes for 0.5-1 second, then great for another 4-7 seconds, then it freezes for 0.5-1 second. Maybe this isn't so bad if you're just walking on foot, but we all know that ArmA 2 is a huge game, and in a high-intensity moment in a helicopter or a jet, 0.5-1 second lag every 4-7 seconds could result in a less-than-pleasant landing into a tree or the side of a mountain. I've spoken to a few people about this issue, and they have mentioned a couple of possible suspects: -hyperthreading; apparently a problem with i7 processors? I'm not entirely sure what it is (I'm not very PC-savvy) -inability of ArmA 2 to recognize your PC's RAM or your video card's RAM -graphic/video settings in-game (specifically Texture Detail, Object Detail, and View Distance) -PhysX engine / VSYNC under NVIDIA control panel I haven't touched the hyperthreading thing yet because I was warned to stay away, that it doesn't make much of a difference either way. I have tried tweaking all video settings in hundreds of different combinations, but none of them seem to have a significant impact, more importantly no impact on the stuttering. With all graphic settings completely minimized, I'm capped at like 60 fps, but I still get stuttering every 4-7 seconds. I tried de-activating my PhysX engine and my VSYNC options under my NVIDIA control panel, and surprisingly my performance decreased considerably by de-activating the VSYNC option (force off). So, I have heard some whispers here-and-there in various threads about adding a -winxp diddly to my start-up hoodad. Or possibly modifying some thinga-majigger in my ArmA2.cfg file. Opening my ArmA2.cfg file, I see at the bottom: localVRAM=2146959360; nonlocalVRAM=2146959360; I'm not entirely sure if that implies that ArmA 2 is only recognizing 2 MB or 2 GB of my RAM? Anyways, sorry for the massive wall of text. To anyone who reads it and can't provide any advice, thank you for taking the time to read it, and for anyone with any advice at all, please feel free to post a response! I love ArmA 2, and I think it's one of the best games I've played; I just want to be able to play it without the stuttering! ;)

Oh wow - Ok, I'll give the hyperthreading thing a try. Can someone please tell me how I can do it? You can be brief, but I don't know how to do basically anything... I'd need instructions from the start; i.e. "click the start button, go to control panel, open such-and-such" etc. Please, and thank you very much!

Ahh.. so my options at this point seem to be: 1. live with it 2. wait and hope it becomes optimized?

Hmmm... I'm at my wits end. I really want to play, but the stuttering makes it nigh unplayable.

I'm running Windows Vista 64-bit

Hmmm; I've read this entire post, and it seems that differing amounts of RAM may be leading to graphics problems in-game. Currently, I'm having a serious problem with stuttering in-game. I was told that this could be due to high amounts of RAM, or hyperthreading. I hope that guy who freaked out about 8 GB of RAM doesn't read this reponse; Currently I'm running a system with: intel i7 920 @ 2.66 GHz (not overclocked) NVIDIA GTX 285 (1024 MB) 12GB of DDR3 tri-channel RAM The game seems to run very smoothly (~30-35+ fps), however it will stutter every 4-5 seconds and completely bog down briefly, then run smoothly for another 4-5 seconds (and it repeats, repeats, repeats, etc). I've been told that this is a fairly well-known problem but have not been able to find a resolution from reading other posts. Is anyone familiar with this issue? Should I be running the -winxp thinger in my start-up diddly? Or should I be altering my arma2.cfg diddly? Currently, in my cfg file, it says: localVRAM=2146959360; nonlocalVRAM=2146959360; Does that imply that ArmA 2 is reading my PC as having 2 MB of localVRAM and 2 MB of nonlocalVRAM?

Thank you -=seany=-! That's very interesting. I tried tweaking my settings (i.e. having them all at very low, etc), but stuttering still seemed to occur, maybe at a lesser rate. I had come across a couple of posts about RAM issues; I'll look into them again, maybe there is another solution. I have my view distance set to 1600, so maybe that's not the issue, but I will tweak the settings you mentioned, ignore the hyperthreading, and look for solutions regarding RAM issues. Thank you again! Anyone else who has any advice would be greatly appreciated.