Hanzu

To be fair I now edited away my comment about reaching 2GB memory usage, since it was not based on my own observations but for observations of another Win7 64bit user. Thank you for that info. Now I'm only puzzled which side wins on those benchmark battles if they still go on fighting behind black end screen. ;) Anyway nice new beta we can actually use again. Going to put this beta on real test with Dogs Of War in the following week.

I'm pretty sure nothing else than that memory leak has been fixed or has been tried to fix since last 81423 because it required so much hard work and time that that this time there was no time for other fixes or changes. This is ofcourse the right strategy stability and crashfixes should always be the highest priority. --- I ran benchmarks for 79600, 81423 and 81785 with minimum and maximum Visibility (and with most of the settings set to Very High). Benchmark 01 with 79600 and minimum Visibility (500) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 450MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 764MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 93 Benchmark 02 with 79600 and minimum Visibility (500) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 850MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 974MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 26 E8: Benchmark with 79600 and minimum Visibility (500) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1057MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1215MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 78 --- Benchmark 01 with 79600 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 812MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1167MB CPU utilization with i7 2600K varied between 19-28 AVERAGE FPS: 23 Benchmark 01 with 81423 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 866MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1227MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 21 Benchmark 01 with 81785 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 863MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1229MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 43 --- Benchmark 02 with 79600 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1251MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1346MB CPU utilization with i7 2600K varied between 25-30 AVERAGE FPS: 11 Benchmark 02 with 81423 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1350MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1483MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 10 Benchmark 02 with 81785 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1279MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1445MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 9 --- E08: Benchmark with 79600 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1539MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1650B CPU utilization with i7 2600K varied between 22-31 AVERAGE FPS: 38 E08: Benchmark with 81423 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1591MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1715MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 37 E08: Benchmark with 81785 and maximum Visibility (10000) arma2oa.exe memory usage in start 1597MB arma2oa.exe memory usage in end 1713MB CPU utilization (not checked) AVERAGE FPS: 37 --- Conclusions Every new beta seems decrease performance if judging from average FPS values. If that is the direction, my now powerful hardware will be obsolete for Arma2 CO sooner than expected. ;) Visibility set to 10000 instead of 500 consumes much more memory. As we all pretty much know it also has serious impact on performace for me it was as much as averages of 23 FPS versus 93 FPS. Also note that running all 3 benchmarks one after another seems to increase memory usage cumulatively, but not unlimited way. Since with 81423 I ran six benchmarks in a row (01+02+08+01+02+08) to see if I could manage to make the game ran out of memory, but I could not get higher memory usage than 1700MB, but its only a benchmark, so with some multiplayer traffic, savegames, warfare elements, enemy corpses and lots of other stuff I could undestand why it could go to 2000MB. Weird thing was that when benchmark end to black screen where it shows... ARMA 2 BENCHMARK AVERAGE FPS: 23 [ Press Space to continue. ] ...the memory usage still kept increasing with slow speed. I waited about 5 minutes in that screen and still saw it increase, can't understand why game would need to eat more memory in such a passive screen with absolutely nothing happening. Have to still confirm check if it does that with newest beta. Note that I'm running dualview so I see Task Manager realtime in the second display. Not sure if that affects average FPS. Probably not. My AToC is left to default 7. So it may have an impact on average performace as well. Some specs: i7 2600K + Asus P8P67 Deluxe + 8GB RAM + GTX570 1280MB + OCZ Vertex 2 90GB SSD + Corsair TX850W + Win7 64-bit Edit: Could not reproduce out of memory crash while playing Badlands mission for about 1 hour. Did not get higher memory usage than 1750MB even though I savegamed multiple times in a row. I consider it fixed by Suma and if not, it is at least way more stable now! Good job!

That's ok - we like to praise and it's nice to be in high expectations. :) By praising maybe we hybbyists can little bit turbo charge you for whom this is a profession. Personally even with not having a fix yet, I'm foolisly happy for just hearing the cause was like I said earlier "So I think its more of a memory leak created something that was added in last two builds." That something beeing "the new technology introduced in the latest patches". Most of us do not know about such things, since they have no entries in patch readme, but obviously, should have known, since so many visual bugs do not come without some technology changes.

Thank you for working hard on that vicious issue only some of us suffered from. Good job Suma & Co!

I agree and if for nothing else for future you should get Win7 64-bit. Since 64-bit has so much better memory utilization that has big meaning for at least many new applications and games. This member has installed Arma2 on all new Windows versions and put them in speed order. Not sure how up to date information it is anymore since Arma2 has been patched intensively since then, but I guess there are no big difference what is was when he tested and now. See the first post at least: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=88388

#1 #2 Yes savegaming consumes amazing amount memory that I have learned from CIT comments by Suma. In this case I think it crashes similarily even before if I do the first multiplayer save. So I think its more of a memory leak created something that was added in last two builds. Since yesterday I played with 79600 build multiple hours without a single crash. For further tests when you are in multiplayer and game seems to show signs of crash by slowing down or press ESC-Suspend then continue to load savegame that is automatically created because of Suspend and somehow that flushes memory and it runs fast again. I'm going to put that task manager memory usage open on my second display next time I play. So I don't need to ALT+TAB to get that info. Also I think reading at least four first columns in article called Windows 7 memory usage: What's the best way to measure? might help us on this.

Debriefing statistics screen should be bigger and show more information like these: Patch version Difficulty settings that was used in mission Not only "Your kills", but also other (human) players kills. Savegame should always include one .bak (backup) file including the second last savegame just in case savegame corruption happens to the newest save. In case of corruption this save could be used by just removing the .bak extension. Possibility to skip cutscenes (if any will be added) with key or keycombination. It's a waste of time watching same cutscenes over and over if you like to re-play same missions. Make a decision if you use the word "Task" or "Objective" for same thing in official missions: In Arma2 for example if you press M for map then, you will see a list of Tasks and when their status will change you will get screenmessages like: NEW TASK ASSIGNED: CURRENT TASK: TASK ACCOMPLISHED: But when you complete mission in Debriefing screen those Tasks are suddenly called Objectives. Ability for server to automatically record last played session and possibility to save it for playback them with ingame player. With ingame player only no compression is needed since it is not real videofile but only some date and coordinates actually. This feature is useful for creating walkthroughs or for identifying cheaters in PvP. There is such a feature in game like Ghost Recon, IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 and Richard Burns Rally.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Maybe worth starting to use them those. However with AA there seems to be some many values in Arma2 that its hard to decide which one to use. The highest(?) ones seem to add white "snow/frost" type artifacts to trees. Also some of the settings seemed to make trees very round like in Donald Duck type of cartoons, so I wasn't really fond of making Chernarus look like that.

Yes I do usually because I don't want to pay for high end hardware for nothing and with only 1680x1050 resolution it should not be too heavy for my specs. To stop out of memory crashes I tried to lower it all the way to minimum of 500 too, but it does not seemed to help much and eventually out of memory crash will come. I also do not use antialiasing, anisotropic, post processing or vsync, since they just cut detail or make headache but everything else is at maximum. Except Terrain Detail that seems to stay only High and can be set to Very High only if I lower Visibility to below 6000. Atoc is set to default too, since I don't like editing gamefiles unless there is real good reason.

So its not because of nVidia then since it happens with Radeons too. Yes. Also said in replies #17 and #30 above. Very peculiar indeed. Your specs are very close to mine with the exceptions of those Raptors and soundcard. Since me and "Ginger McAle" have crashes and both have SSD, could that be related? MadDogX could you try with multiplayer and with visibility set to maximum of 10000? Also if you by any reason continue Harvest Red campaign, try Manhattan and Bitter Chill where I got most of the crashes.

Arma2 + Arma2 Operation Arrowhead + Arma2 REINFORCEMENTS are installed. All installed from their DVDs. C drive (SSD) has pretty much 19GB free space. I have not touched pagefile settings. No maxmem settings either. No mods. (I have never installed or used any custom mods in my system. I'm strictly dedicated in playing official missions cooperatively in multiplayer (or sometimes when waiting others to join - alone in multiplayer) and without mods. So I'm 100% sure this issue has nothing to do with mods.) Intel i7 2600K Asus P8P67 Deluxe Gainward GTX570 Phantom (3 fans) OCZ Vertex 2 90GB SSD CoolerMaster HAF X 924 case (5 big fans) [i'm sure this is not heat issue] Win7 64-bit Ultimate SP1 Xfire and Fraps (latest registered version) are running in the background. But neither one is recording. I only use Fraps for screenshots, previously it has not created problems for me. Microsoft Security Essentials for antivirus. I do not suspect gamesaving is reason for out of memory crashes since it happens even before savegame is used for once. But it might be boosted and/or related to Chernarus map, since I play that map a lot. I also keep launching the game from "Launch Arma2 OA Beta Patch"-icon since launching beta with "ARMA 2 REINFORCEMENTS"-icon is not possible. Here is my command line: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -mod=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -nosplash -skipIntro Actually is there any benefit launching non-beta game from Arma2 REINFORCEMENTS-icon, since it looks like it brings me to same place as launching from ARMA 2 Combined Operations-icon? To reproduce: I think I saw someone else saying it happens in multiplayer, like it happens for me so try hosting missions like Manhattan or Bitter Chill alone and drive around. Eventually game will crash before 10-20 minutes have passed. I have also seen 2 posts saying they got out of memory in editor. I have about 18 crashdumps for those out of memory errors with this build, so maybe we could calculate average running time from there. Also if you have AMD+ATI and can't reproduce, try reproing with Intel+nVidia preferably (GTX500 series) setup. Not sure what I should set for Video Memory in settings for 1280MB GTX570. usually I have it set to Default and when I tried Very High it seemed to crash even faster (just a feeling maybe). Any more questions? I'm happy to help if I can. If CIT ticket helps I can do that too later tonight. Other people who got out of memory errors tell us in what mission or map you got them and could you please post system specs and tell if you were playing SP or MP and using savegames or not? Anyone with AMD+ATI have out of memory errors with this build? Also Maruk, Suma, Dwarden I must apologize for suspecting we are just left alone with this issue due Arma3. Should have known better.

After playing multiple hours (about 20 hours) with this build, I declare it way too unstable even for test playing. I can only play about 10-15 minutes before it first slows down a lot and then crashes to Out of memory errors. No matter if you are not running any mods it still crashes. No matter if you have visibilitity set 500 or 10000 it still crashes. No matter if you have 8GB RAM with Win7 64-bit is still crashes. No matter if you have i7 2600K, SSD and GTX570 it still crashes. SHIFT NumpadMINUS flush will not stop slow down when FPS slowdown starts, but if I ESC-Suspend and then come back game is back full FPS again next 10 minutes. So imagine how many times in I have suspended during 20 hours of playing if I have to do it every 10 minutes. I can't undestand why these kind of betas are released if for next beta we have wait so long, because unstability prevents us all testing things we are supposed to test and report and makes us use non-beta patches or older betas. How can we test new fixes if game is more unstable like ever. I wonder if it is worth of making Arma2 CIT reports or anymore assuming most of the programmers are now working most of their working time on Arma3 development? I still got about 10 crashfiles I for this build I have not emailed to Dwarden, because I already provided 8 crashfiles. Is there any estimation many crashfiles must be mailed before reason for out of memory is found? I have had enough of this beta and I'm going back to 79600 which is still good beta and works stable enough with same hardware and settings.

Thank you xALIENAx this was important information. Can you also tell what A2 version you used when you saw it work last time. Does it still work with A2 V1.09? Now I also know it is not because I played it on multiplayer side with Combined Operations (assuming you played on singleplayer side on both A2 and CO ). My very weak theory of the bug: Maybe the bug is somewhere where CO saves information about choices made in Manhattan. When playing Bitter Chill it tries to load this information which is not found and because of that it defaults to choice one which is "1 I must report it".

Are you running 1.59 or 1.09 patch? Are you running any mods? What map and mission you tried when your friend did not see enemies?

Yes it is a bug that has been there atleast in all the patches between 1.54-1.59 http://dev-heaven.net/issues/20227 So if there is anyne who decided not report weapon cache and got NAPA escort then please provide what patch version you used?

Got it figured out by myself. See edited post above.

I re-completed Bitter Chill mission and decided to go for CDF lines this time instead of NAPA safehouse. As a result mission "Delaying the Bear" is skipped and campaign continues by going straight from Bitter Chill to Badlands mission. Anyone remember if this has always been that way or is it just a new bug? Edit: After doing some more searches. I found out it has always been that way: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1300771 (The first post talks about Bitter Chill and the first reply talks about Badlands) Also now that I rethink it I understand why Delaying the Bear is skipped: If you make a choice in Bitter Chill to go to CDF lines, it is very logical that next mission is Badlands where you start and continue with CDF troops instead of starting Delaying the Bear mission with NAPA troops in that castle. So to conclude - playing campaign on CDF side makes it one mission shorter.

When you need to go to talk to Cpt. Shaftoe only one player should approach him alone and once he starts to talk stop right there and do not move or go any closer. Other players should wait outside the base in a vehicle and if they are human players minimize their activity. Do not touch the poles or cables holding the camouflage net. Do not drive vehicles inside the base. If you drive over or shoot to camouflage net support structures, they will collapse and kill Cpt. Shaftoe. Many players may have never understood what happened and they thought he was sniped because blood and bullet hole are modeled to his dead body. Also do not bring any new vehicles or park old vehicles inside FOB Manhattan or interact with moving AI friendles there. It may result moving AI friendlies to change their scripted paths and walk too near Cpt. Shaftoe or the camouflage net with undesired effects. At least in some old patches Cpt. Shaftoe also had a bad habit of glitching himself to death with his chair, table or laptop. The developers could easily change this in some future patch and really remove all furniture around him and the net over him and put him in the place where he is safe. Some mission designer thought everything looks nice with that furniture and laptop, but I tell you Shaftoe just looks stupid when he stands there with his feet sticking through that chair structures. In the end when you talk with him second time and he says something about russian peacekeepers the screen should fade to black and Debriefing screen should appear. If it fades anywhere before talking about peacekeepers, then something went wrong. If no Debriefing screen appear but game just ends and you are brought to Harvest Red mission selection screen with no next mission unlocked, it is a real proof that something went wrong in there and you didn't actually complete successfully but the game just failed and ended. If you are playing this in multiplayer coop, try telling other players to wait outside the server for awhile and play that part alone using the closest save available. You can always stop on the road outside the base and choose ESC and Suspend to have so called continue save. Next time you start, you should be able to start from there. Always remember to take backups of your savegames every time you quit playing or crash. Savegames are located here, just copy whole folder structure there holding your player name: Default player profile In Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YourWindowsUserAccountname\My Documents\ArmA 2 Other player profiles in Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YourWindowsUserAccountname\My Documents\ArmA 2 Other Profiles Default player profile In Windows 7: C:\User\YourWindowsUserAccountname\My Documents\ArmA 2 Other player profiles in Windows 7: C:\User\YourWindowsUserAccountname\My Documents\ArmA 2 Other Profiles So if a bug or savegame corrupt has happened you can delete your old profile folder and copy that backup in place same and hope you can continue from there and complete the mission with less work than using revert and going to the start of the mission. If destructive effects of a bug are saved in your savegame and you have no earlier saves before that bug happened, then only revert may help you. I wonder if the developers have realized automatic savegame backup would have saved Arma 2 series players from so many problems and frustration.

The most common reason why Shaftoe dies is then player drives inside FOB Manhattan to resupply at ammo and weapon crates behind Shaftoe or drives inside FOB Manhattan to talk to Shaftoe. Hitting camouflage net support ropes with any vehicle instantly drops camouglage net which covers not only Shaftoe but also resupply area all they way to UAV control station. BIS fixed something already in patches 1.04 and 1.05 but I think they didn't realize there were more reasons why Shaftoe dies if precautions I wrote above are not followed. Even if you park your vehicle away from camouflage net. Note that when you Get Out, AI may jump to driver seat and move vehicle a little and accidentally cut camouflage net support ropes. This player didn't realize he made camouflage net to fell down and kill Cpt. Shaftoe: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=83312 Other reports about Shaftoe beeing dead: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1904200 http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1545119 http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=77862 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1538506&postcount=492 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1733750&postcount=131 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1537836&postcount=104 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1523877&postcount=112 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1518693&postcount=8 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1492544&postcount=8 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1460010&postcount=20 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1438711&postcount=6 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1438937&postcount=11 EDIT Looks like camouflage nets suddenly were made non lethal in somewhere around 1.59 patch and even though I recently dropped many camouflage nets over Razor Team and other AI with 1.60 BETA, I did not get any damage done. However I noticed even more common old reason for Cpt. Shaftoe's death is his chair which will first wound him and then kill him when he changes the direction he is facing. So I made a ticket for that bug http://dev-heaven.net/issues/25560 and fortunately the developers fixed it. With the latest information the fix should be included in 1.60 final patch.

There are two misplaced units in Manhattan mission and for CIT report I need to know what unit it is (too much work to swim there to get a visual) this marker? It's like infantry marker but two dots over it instead of one.

Thanks Paladin, actually I have used it as much that I have really read it from cover to cover and Operation Arrowhead manual too, but it was almost a year ago and now that I look it there is indeed a good table for those under section: Strategic Command -> High Command

To answer short in my opinion Harvest Red campaign was better than Operation Arrowhead campaign if measured by enjoyement factor and certainly not by well tested/finished design. Arma2 Harvest Red campaign has 10-11 playable missions (excluding 2 observer missions where you don't have to do anything except wait). It still has quite many known bugs, but none of them prevent you from completing and enjoying the campaign. If you play campaign cooperatively in multiplayer you will notice much more bugs, but it can be enjoyed too with right attitude. Harvest Red campaing includes a lot of cutscenes which are the main source for bugs however cutscenes have major role creating unique plot with twists. Most of the mission include option to collect evidence of warcrimes and the more you collect them more help you will get in a form of friendly troops. When one of the 4 main characters die, you need to load savegame or restart game. 2 last missions include Warfare 2 elements, which most people think should have not been designed there to decrease feeling of realism. Arma2 Operation Arrowhead campaign has 6-7 playable missions (excluding 2 observer missions where you don't have to do anything except wait). Virtually no bugs, no cutscenes, no evidence collecting, no warfare 2 and considerably shorter campaign. When human controlled character will die annoying forced respawn happens (human player will take control of one of the AI controlled friendlies). When played cooperatively in multiplayer all 4 players usually start in different locations and have different tasks, making the experience a bit lonely and more like playing singleplayer. There are no intresting twists in the plot. After you complete it, you are likely to get a feeling I never learned to know any of the main characters. Haven't (yet) played Eagle Wing, BAF and PMC campaigns, but I can tell EW and BAF are singleplayer only campaings and PMC singleplayer or 2 player cooperative multiplayer.

The three things? I think I mentioned just two. Anyway I had already made CIT report for one before your reply so figuring out if it is a bug or not will now (with or without us) be part of the process by CIT moderators and some devs who also serve as moderators there. However even if your theory might turn out true. I still wonder why... Why hide some friendly infantry in sea (bottom left corner of the map) and one friendly soldier in land (top left corner of the map)? Why would the designer choose 2 separate places if they are for spawn purposes. I don't remember any part in Manhattan mission where US Marine would spawn. The only part where I know enemy spawns in Manhattan is three CDF Police with UAZ and 2 lynched corpses (Dr Sova & co.) I also can't undestand why they would need those for radio chatter, because there are 30 something US soldiers in FOB Manhattan which could be used for radio chatter. Also why would some friendly soldier have to be hided from player. If you di stupid things like kill friendly soldier your team will eventually kill you.

And why are you still wasting time with it if you clearly have had enough of it ? ;) I will move on, but when, that I will decide alone. Right now the next game (non BIS game btw.) I'm moving on was just released few weeks ago and is even more unfinished than Arma2. Its a trend one can't avoid when favoring games that are way more complex than some console games for which more finished design often means simplified design.

Were you playing with 1.09 or 1.59 this time? Mission "One Week Later" had a bug with Osprey aircraft tail killing Sabre team members and thus failing, but that was fixed in 1.09/1.58. I have played that mission cooperatively and have not experienced clients player characters thrown off the APC. Sorry to hear you have had that kind of trouble. I was disappointed about the same thing. "Razor Two" mission would have been perfect place to split up and complete tasks and collect evidence simultaneously. We tried this once and it ended up in disaster. If client player picked up map evidence it didn't trigger "Evidence gathered 1/4" and it became normal map even if host re-picked it up. Photos evidence could not picked up by client players at all. However I undestand why they have done it this way. Imagine if 2 players would complete task exactly simultaneously. If there would be cutscenes for both tasks what would happen when both cutscenes start to roll same time. The game should decide which one to show first and if they are rolling one after another why would other players see the other animation if they are not located even close where it happens. Rolling cutscenes simultaneously would result some players never seeing the other cutscene. Or what about dialog. If dialog is played simultaneously what a mess it would be. Or what if two autosaves happen same time. How can game handle that and which save game will be loaded next time someone dies. So many issues. So I'm quite happy only the host can trigger things. All I can comment on this is that Badlands and Dogs Of War still contain many bugs and they are so complicated missions that sometimes it is hard to identify if something is a bug or just limited feature. I liked Operation Arrowhead campaign because there were no bugs that would get my attention, but I disliked forced respawn and the fact we started to far away and without written information what task someone else is doing while you do your own. Missions can be opened with right tools, but you will probably be surprised when you see how complex they are and how little 2D editor actually shows. Posting USER MISSIONS subforum might provide better help on altering missions. Here I would just suggest to report all bugs to CIT and hope to get as many fixed as possible. Anyway it is always nice to read posts from someone who likes coop. Maybe there is something useful for you in here.