ArmA demo tweakguide (work in progress)

[BigGaayAl]

This is a preliminary tweakguide from tweakguides.com, the people responsible for the excellent bf2 tweakguide. I reccomend watching this site for updates.

http://forums.tweakguides.com/showth...8502#post58502

One thing I learned from another forum is that apparently Arma is really heavy on the cpu, so turning many graphics options off may have very little effect on performance. I have yet to try this out, but it makes sense. Unlike BF2 there is a lot of AI calculating to do in ARma.

The way I see it people with a weak cpu as me should avoid hosting games; you don't have to calculate AI when you are a client.

[jepzilla]

Originally Posted by BigGaayAl

Unlike BF2 there is a lot of AI calculating to do in ARma.

There is? News to me.

[BigGaayAl]

Originally Posted by jepzilla

There is? News to me.

Well, I'm not saying they're smart . They should have coded in the I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. from Team America.

[Coridon]

I followed that tweak guide and I can use the scope on my M4 now. Huzzah! Now only time things my framerate really nosedives is when I'm in the middle of a bush trying to use my scope. Maybe the lag teaches everyone the difference between concealment and cover, heh.

[BigGaayAl]

Originally Posted by Coridon

I followed that tweak guide and I can use the scope on my M4 now. Huzzah! Now only time things my framerate really nosedives is when I'm in the middle of a bush trying to use my scope. Maybe the lag teaches everyone the difference between concealment and cover, heh.

Aha you are not lagging then, but your caught up in the bush and getting cut by its thorns. Remember this is more realistic then BF!

[houdini]

Trying to squeeze as much juice out of this old 9800XT before my new card arrives.

That said...for those that are having real performance issues (regardless of how sweet your rig is), the following seems to be helping everyone (until the real tweak guide is final).

1. Goes without saying, update your video/sound card drivers. Get with the program! Sheesh.

2. Update your DirectX to the December update:

DirectX December update

3. Update your OpenAL drivers. (some say uninstall/reinstall). This link takes you to a Creative Page, so if you have something other than a Creative Soundcard...I'm not sure if this is advisable. It looks like it's hardware independent though.

OpenAL Drivers (Dec 06)

4. Change your card settings:

1. Anti-Aliasing: OFF (let the game decide)
2. Anisotropic filtering: OFF (let the game decide)
3. Vertical Refresh (VSYNC): OFF (for ATI cards...make sure this is set to ALWAYS OFF). Armed Assault will default it to ON if it's set otherwise.

Here's how I'm running Armed Assault preferences to get about 20-30 fps on this 9800XT. Keep in mind that I'm running this baby at my native resolution of 1280x1024. I can't stand the way it looks at lower resolutions. Still have some problems with forest areas...but I can deal with that for the time being.

For low/mid-range cards:

shaders: Low
shadows: OFF or Low (The shadows make the game look better IMO)
objects: Low
terrain: Low
textures: Normal
blood: Low
anti-aliasing: OFF (I can run AA at low with minimal impact...I'm on the fence with this)
anisotropic filtering: OFF
postprocessing: Low

Hope this helps my fellow video card challenged brethren.

[houdini]

Oh yeah. Forgot this:

ArmA Troubleshooting WIKI (BIS)

[BHack]

The game runs great, for the most part, on my PC. From my experiments, it is more CPU bound than any game in recent memory. A good video card will only get you so far.

Rest assured though, even on my (relatively) high end rig (E6600 7900GTO) zooming in on dense shrubbery drops my frame rate into the mid to high teens. Its not a big problem because it really isn't often that I'm zooming in on a bush, but it does cut my frame rate at least in half when I do that. I have yet to walk through a large forest to see what happens there. Where is a good one to test with on the demo island?

[Jusb]

haha - when I zoom in I make sure I'm looking at the sky first with my sights - trees and brush are like molassas...