vohk

I would love to get some input from all of you wonderful folks on what sort of server hardware you're running (dedicated or virtual, cores/clock/RAM, etc) and how it's working out for you now that the game has been out for a few months (performance/typical player count, style of missions/mods, other software or servers running off the same box, anything like that). I've been looking into setting up an A3 server for a while and I'm trying to get a more complete picture of what sort of specifications are needed to provide a satisfactory experience before taking the plunge. I've been digging around for a few days but most of the information I've found around these and other forums has been somewhat incomplete and often a little outdated. I'd really love to hear from those running smaller servers (10-20ish slots) but also those who have managed to get large packed ones running smoothly. Really, any experience in that department is appreciated. As a followup, I'd be grateful for any recommendations for good hosts in western NA (particularly in the ballpark of Seattle or Vancouver, Canada). I find the idea of a DS or VDS more appealing than a managed game server but that does seem to drive the cost up in a hurry, especially for a smaller server. Right now a VDS from NFOservers.com is looking pretty appealing although I'm concerned the performance might be a little borderline. For what it's worth, I'm looking to operate a fairly small server (~10-20 slots) and aiming to run primarily objective oriented (for lack of a better description) co-op missions and Zeus-enabled DMing for group sessions a few times a week, rather than always on Wasteland or Insurgency type sandbox missions. Being able to squeeze in a Mumble or TS server would be nice but that's secondary. Any input you have would be much appreciated!

I don't suppose anyone has used SoYouStart or Kimsufi (both part of OVH)?

Thanks for the input! Sadly, I'm out near Vancouver so eastern Canadian pings are somewhat borderline, let alone European. A quick ping of your TS server averages 180ms for me. Shame really, they have some very compelling prices, especially under the auction section.

I just leave mine alone, other than shifting most of it off my OS drive and onto a spare/storage disk. Good article explaining why it generally isn't worth it to mess around with them here. (Forgot to mention I'm using the Volume version, although that only matters if you want to try caching a single partition.) That's about the same as I noticed. Not so much improved FPS as less in the way of hangs and pop-in. Time to go fly low over Chernogorsk.

I've only played around a little bit with FancyCache and Arma, but it looks promising. LOD switching seems a bit smoother. After the initial start-up, greatly improves loading times for most games. I have 8GB of RAM as well. YMMV, but: Block size: 16KB (Smaller is supposed to be better, up to disk cluster size, but increases overhead/wasted RAM on large volumes. I have a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, 4KB cluster size. I find a larger cache more useful than a 4KB block size so far.) Algorithm: LFU-R (Takes frequency of use into account) Cache Size (L1): 4000MB (Have to leave enough memory for windows, the game, any other running apps) Caching Strategy: Read-Only (I've heard of a few people having issues with read/write, especially deferred write, and file corruption. Can't confirm, don't want to go there.) No L2 Cache (Only useful if you have a separate SSD* to put the L2 on, and still much slower than the L1) The above set up leaves me with ~2200MB of free RAM at the desktop. I don't believe I've ever seen Arma2 go past ~1.8GB, but it's always good to leave a little headroom. Keep in mind it only helps with file calls that have already been made at least once, but once a game has been running for a bit the performance monitor usually shows a 75-90% read hit rate for me. *edit: or if you have more RAM than your 32-bit OS can use. re: 'Invisible Memory'

That error comes up when the games tries to run for the first time without admin privileges and can't write to the registry. Close Steam, right click on the steam.exe (in the main Steam folder), 'Run as administrator'. When it loads up, then launch the game and you should be good to go from then on. (edit: You can also do this with the shortcut from Properties->Compatibility, but that will give it admin rights every time it launches from that lnk.)

If you want multiplayer where you can just hop in a random server, blast through a few rounds of nice, straightforward modes, get BF3. If you want to play a more serious simulation, where you can play through a huge supply of existing missions (stock and community made) or create anything you like on maps measured in km as apposed to metres, get Arma. Arma does have good MP, but it's much more group oriented. You are unlikely to be happy if all you want out of it is competitive pub MP. Two totally different games. Kind of like asking if you should get DCS A-10 or Tom Clancy's Hawx.

One thing that immediately stuck out to me- making almost any change in the video options menu causes the scene to instantly reload. I'm used to this behaviour from Arma2 but, since it feels like the load times are significantly longer with TOH, it would be nice to be able to adjust multiple settings before applying the changes. Less time consuming.

It's not a problem with W7. My guess is you have an older system and/or have your settings too high. What are you system specs? Updated your video card drivers recently?

That is really more of a feature request than a bug. I agree it would be nice if all of those little rough patches got polished up, but I think it is hard to argue that the improvements to interpolation will have a much greater impact on overall gameplay. There's always something to work on and they can only do so much at a time. (...and I believe that fix would require a content upgrade, re: major patch, anyway)

If I (running this beta) am connected to a server (vanilla 1.59), the problem I described with Domi/Insur* occurs only for me. Everyone running 1.59 or an older beta (pre-interpolation) sees everything as it should be, so I assume the problem is client side. The more I read it sounds like it is related to the SetPos/SetDir issues, but I don't understand the scripting enough to be sure or to make a decent repro. *On JIP: Dom- MHQs are always in base at default spawn locations, even if moved and/or previously, MHQs still show correctly as deployed but teleport always returns you to MHQ spawn ; Insurgency- HQ 'spawn' is at the default location in the corner of the map, irrelevant of actual location.

Ah good stuff. I do note that, if it is the same issue, the client-side issues occur whether or not the server is also running the beta. If that matters.

Apologies if this has been covered already, I didn't see anything that quite fit in this thread. This beta does something funny to join-in-progress on missions like Domination and Insurgency. Playing BLUFOR in Insurgency, on my screen the 'HQ' spawn is stuck in the default location in the far corner of the map, even though it's been moved several times. Other players (also JIP, using vanilla/older betas) see it where it's supposed to be. Similar issue in Domination- if an MHQ is moved and deployed by someone else, I am able to use the teleport function but it moves me to where the MHQ spawns in the base. It seems like the positions arn't updating as they should. Sorry I can't provide a repro. I do know that both servers were not running a beta version and I havn't been able to test if it occurs on a server running the same beta.

Always a good idea to take a peak at benchmarks before pulling the trigger on a new GPU. Keep in mind every new generation brings in a complete range of cards; the 9800 is getting pretty dated but was on the upper end of its gen, where the 430 is pretty close to the bottom of its cohort. Enthusiast hardware usually tops economy stuff for a generation or two, in raw performance at least.

1. You need to become acquainted with the search function. 2. Close Steam. Launch Steam 'as administrator', then launch the game normally. 3. If that still fails, reboot and try the above again. By the way, you can view serial keys for games purchased through Steam by right clicking the game in the library and then 'View game CD key', although that won't help here.

You don't. Arma2/OA seems to select the Windows default recording device on start up. If you have Windows 7: Control Panel -> Sound -> Recording Devices. Make sure your desired input is the default device and ideally disable any recording devices. Ensure it is working in Windows, then launch the game. Don't unplug or disable the mic while the game is running, or you'll have to restart it. If that doesn't work, I have no idea what's going on.

You're sure you're running vanilla Arma2, not Combined Operations or any mods? Double check your shortcut ('Launch Options' on Steam*) to make sure there's no -mod= parameter set. They do have A2Free, not the free promo from GNG? I know there were some serial key issues with that GNG version. To see if it's a port issue you could load the dedicated server executable on your machine and see if they could connect to that. *edit: It just occurred to me- you can't get A2Free on Steam, can you? Haha, nm that part.

Wow. Just wow. I understand the frustration, I really do, but what exactly do you expect? What exactly constitutes 'real support' to you? This thread is full of people trying to help you solve your problem. Pretty much every likely cause has been covered. Has it occurred to you that no one has a solution? It's fairly obvious there is something unique about your system causing the problem, rather than a defect in the game code. Unless someone has been hiding a magic bullet, about the only remaining diagnostic is to tear the whole system apart and go over it with a fine-tooth comb. Are you seriously expecting BI to expend those kind of man hours to figure out what's broken on your system? Unless you skipped something already suggested, your only real option at this point is to format your drive and reinstall Windows.

Thanks!

I was under the impression that the RC betas, as opposed to the regular ones, also overwrite game files and required a reinstall to revert. Pretty sure that was the case with the previous ones at least. Did I get that wrong? Most of the betas at least do mention the 'Are you sure you want to update to version 1.xx, etc, etc'. Again, not saying this one does, just wanting to double-check first.

Could someone please confirm this beta is still a 1.59? I noticed the installer warning has a blank space where the major release version normally is. Probably a typo but I'd rather not take a chance on losing MP compatibility at the moment.

I feel consoles have somewhat disproved that argument, sadly. I am currently unconvinced that Arma2/OA could be ported in their current form to a service like OnLive. If it were to happen, what almost inevitably follows is you end up with two completely different games, or one branch of development that is neglected in favour of the other. The hostility you're getting is from one part your mildly excessive praise of OnLive and two parts your advocacy of shifting development focus to what is perceived as an inferior, and let's be honest- unproven, platform. Most PC gamers can think of at least a few franchises that have suffered after spreading to consoles. It isn't something that engenders warm, fuzzy feelings. Same problem in much of rural Canada.

I have to disagree with you on mod support. What makes modding on the PC great is the lack of oversight involved. You can get whatever you want from anywhere, and store it on your computer. The minute you move it onto their end you get some kind of approval process and general storage issues. Who gets to upload mods? Only major teams? Can anyone upload whatever they want, and if so many GB? I also just don't think the service is practical for most people. It suffers the same issues any streaming service- downtime and bandwidth. I live pretty close to a major centre and yet I still loose internet access for short bursts fairly regularly. Most internet plans' bandwidth caps also don't take kindly to what's essentially streaming 720/1080p video (plus other data) for the length of time people play games. You would also be introducing MP levels of lag into SP, varying based on where their server is located. I'm not saying it couldn't work, but I just don't see that working out anytime soon.

Make sure your mic is plugged in and working before you start Arma. Once launched the game won't detect a new mic, and will won't find it back if you unplug it and put it back (or disable/enable the device). Also, make sure your desired mic is your default recording device; ideally disable any others.

If Arma2 is listed with the mods/expansions, you're running CO. As far as I understand.. If A2 and OA (or RFT) are installed in the same directory, launching OA (/RFT) will automatically load up as Combined Operations. I have something similar going with the Steam version and symlinks (using the method Dwarden posted in the CO thread). If they're in separate directories (re:Steam), you need to launch OA(/RFT) with some extra stuff in the "-mod=" launch parameter* (what I used to do) or use the provided batch file. *"-mod=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;Expansion;ca;" <-- Steam A2/Win7