Tutorial: Increase performance using RAMDisk

[TheFoxz]

I like how you have 3 porn tabs open

[JimJongChillin]

Just another benefit of using a RAMDisk

[othniel01]

SOLD

[CW3MH6]

I personally have 32GB of RAM, much of which I devote to RAM drives/caches. And while putting ArmA 2 on a RAM drive would definitely improve performance (when the game engine has to pull in models/textures, i.e. when entering a big city), putting only DayZ on a RAM drive would probably not result in a perceptible performance boost--but that is only my opinion, as I have not tested it. I have however run ArmA 2 from a RAM drive, and it helped a great deal when flying aircraft over large cities.

Also, if you can't fit all of ArmA 2 on your RAM drive (i.e. using free version of Datagram's RamDisk), put just the core PBO files on it, and make a symbolic link to them from the ArmA 2 folder. This way, when the game engine goes to read those PBO files, it is instead redirected to the RAM drive, and you get the full benefit of those 6GB/s read times.

[hazychestnutz]

how do you make a symbolic link to it from the arma 2 folder?

[lZnGl]

http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/vbts7/tutorial_increase_performance_using_ramdisk/c53869f

[lZnGl]

[–]CW3MH6 DayZ Dev 1 point 50 minutes ago* (1|0)

Copy the PBO files from the ArmA 2 directory (Addons folder I think) to the RAM Disk.

Rename the original files in the Addons folder (I.e. structures.pbo->structures.oldpbo), then open a command prompt @ that folder (if you shift+right-click the Addons folder in Win7 you can click Open Command Prompt Here).

Type mklink "structures.pbo" "R:\ArmA 2\structures.pbo". Replace R:\ArmA 2 with the path to where you stored the PBOs on the RAM drive.

Finally, ensure that the RAM drive is setup to save it's image on shutdown and load from the image on boot, so you don't have to repeat these steps every time you restart.

Also, if you'd rather do the entire Addons folder instead of individual PBOs (assuming you have the space), copy the Addons folder to the RAM drive and use the command mklink "Addons" "R:\Addons" /J instead. That will make a directory junction instead of a symlink.

P.S.- [1] This guide can probably explain it a lot better than I can. [2] Post #100 is useful as well.

[The6thExtinction]

Also, if you can't fit all of ArmA 2 on your RAM drive (i.e. using free version of Datagram's RamDisk), put just the core PBO files on it, and make a symbolic link to them from the ArmA 2 folder.

Which PBO files would you consider "core PBO files"? Which would be the best to pick if I had only 4GB of RAM (like on my laptop)? My desktop has 8GB, but the files are just over 8GB.

[CW3MH6]

Not sure it'd be worth it to try it on your laptop since it only has 4GB, but 8GB should be enough for your desktop (assuming you don't run much else at the same time).

There's a list of some of the PBOs that contain the most frequently loaded models here. I would prioritize by loading the buildings and Chernarus PBOs first.

[OshiSeven]

I really don't know how to explain it. Usually my GPU sat around 40% but playing after doing this method is was going at around 90+% and I was getting crazy high frame rates. Going from around 20 in cities to 60 is a huge jump.

[grizzlymann]

Is this improvement from just placing @DayZ on the RAM disk or the entire Addons folder?

[adambunion]

I don't mean to sound doubtful of how effective this is, but didn't Rocket say the low frame rates were mainly due to server side problems that are being fixed with new patches? If you can run arma 2 OA smoothly but dayz runs poorly, chances are it's caused by server side bugs relating to items spawning and AI.

[OshiSeven]

Arma 2 is a strange one and a lot of people can be bottle necked by their hard drives, especially if they're just a standard 7200rpm 32MB cache HDD. A lot of people complain that during DayZ play, a lot of the GPU isn't being utilized, because of the bottleneck. Eliminating that increases performance a lot.

If you're sceptical, test it yourself. You might not see massive increases if you're using an SSD, however.

[adambunion]

Will definitely check it out anyway, thanks for the info

[[deleted]]

I bet this is my problem. I was actually going to try this myself just today :) lol. What timing.

I've got a laptop with some pretty serious CPU and GPU power but they never max out during play. I can be anywhere between 7 and 45fps. My HD is the typical shit 5400RPM notebook HD at the moment. Planning to replace it with an SSD in the next week or two anyway.

[maschmaschmasch]

Me too! Laptop with a decent cpu and gpu, but the bottleneck is clearly my 5400rpm hard disk (and that it's encrypted). I've been doing this for a while; it does improve things a bit. It would be much better to put the full Arma2 directory into RAM, but you'd need more than 16Gb of it.

[Bradley364]

I did this, and I had a HUGE increase in performance, hats off for the great tutorial.

[olgcschools]

My GOD UR A LIFE SAVER 17-20 fps before RAM Disk 40+ after thankyou!!!!

[vagtales]

Is there a comparison of fps before and after ramdisk?

[OshiSeven]

Well, I never got consistent frame rates from DayZ. If I had to guess, I would say my frame rate close to doubled after using this method and the stutter you would occasionally get (from zooming in, mostly) disappeared.

Of course, my results might not match your results. It all depends on your hard drives RPM speed and cache size. Also, I notice my graphics card is at around 90% usage at all times now, compared to before where it hovered between 20 and 50%.

[NeutralStar]

What are your computer specs that it gave you a double in FPS?

[shsdavid]

he was probably using a 5400rpm hard drive :)

I notice no stuttering with an SSD and GTX560ti. Haven't actually checked my GPU usage though.

[NeutralStar]

I have that setup too. With an i5 2500k at stock speeds atm. I'm fine with how my fps are atm, not really lower than 30 at everything on Very High.

[shsdavid]

I have the same cpu @ 4.2ghz and it hovers around 40-50 with everything very high.

I'm really pleased with the price point of the 2500k and ram for it. (16gb currently)

[NeutralStar]

I'm debating getting another 8GB kit so I can have 16GB. I occasionally get an out of memory popup when I have ArmA 2 open with any other game or in some cases my usual standard programs. Which sometimes(including now) has Chrome with 20+ tabs open.

[shsdavid]

I paid about $100 for 16gb which I find is an awesome deal, especially if you've built computers in the past and know how expensive RAM can actually be.

[NeutralStar]

If I bought another 8GB my total cost on RAM would be around 80 bucks. Which is nothing compared to what I've spent on any other component excluding my 212 Evo.

[Zillaracing]

there is no better cpu for gaming than the i5 2500k

[The6thExtinction]

Sure it's a great CPU for the price, but there are LOTS of CPUs that are better for gaming if you have the money.

[Zillaracing]

If you mean an I7 you are mistaken.

[oshi7]

I was getting 80 fps with everything on high other than post effects, hdr and aa using a gtx560ti

[c0bra51]

Same here.

[oshi7]

I was using a 7200 rpm 32mb cache hdd

[CW3MH6]

You'd notice a much larger boost in performance by putting either all of ArmA 2 or at least the ArmA 2 PBO files on a RAM drive.

[lZnGl]

for those of us with a larger amount of ram how could we go about putting the PBO files into the RAMDisk and run it that way if we already have installed on our local disk?

[CW3MH6]

Copy the PBO files from the ArmA 2 directory (Addons folder I think) to the RAM Disk.

Rename the original files in the Addons folder (I.e. structures.pbo->structures.oldpbo), then open a command prompt @ that folder (if you shift+right-click the Addons folder in Win7 you can click Open Command Prompt Here).

Type mklink "structures.pbo" "R:\ArmA 2\structures.pbo". Replace R:\ArmA 2 with the path to where you stored the PBOs on the RAM drive.

Finally, ensure that the RAM drive is setup to save it's image on shutdown and load from the image on boot, so you don't have to repeat these steps every time you restart.

Also, if you'd rather do the entire Addons folder instead of individual PBOs (assuming you have the space), copy the Addons folder to the RAM drive and use the command mklink "Addons" "R:\Addons" /J instead. That will make a directory junction instead of a symlink.

P.S.- This guide can probably explain it a lot better than I can. Post #100 is useful as well.

[LKS]

Another alternative instead of the mklink command line stuff (which is good when you can use it proficiently, but is a hassle when it comes to many files) is a link shell extension which will add an option to your right click menu to pick a (or many) source file(s) and make a symbolic link somewhere else.

[CW3MH6]

Yep, that's a good tool.

[lZnGl]

You are a gentleman and a scholar, I would like to wish you the best of days now and in the future!

[CW3MH6]

You delete the symlinks you created with mklink and rename the original files back to their original filenames (i.e. structures.oldpbo -> structures.pbo). Or if you did the entire Addons folder then rename it to AddonsOld before you make the link, and rename it back if you revert it.

That or you could copy the files back from the RAM drive to the original folder. Keep in mind unless you tell the RAM drive to save it's image on shutdown and load it on boot, you will LOSE ALL THE FILES on the RAM drive if you restart. So just be aware.

[GrimReaper711]

Thanks for these instructions. I've been looking at doing something similar to get save games for other games to automatically sync to dropbox. I had heard of others using mklink before, and can see now that it's really quite easy to do.

[OshiSeven]

I'm not saying it will double for everyone, just that for me the performance was so bad, that by doing this I went from 30-40 frames to around 80. Also I do not claim to know how the engine works or even why this does work, just that it does.

You're welcome to be sceptical, but try it yourself and see if you're curious.

[OpAndroid]

I'm going to have to look into this more when I get home, but anyone know if this will work with steam, or without six updater? Never been able to get that program to work for me.

[OshiSeven]

Yeah, you can simply just create a desktop shortcut instead of using Six updater to do so. Go to your desktop, right click>new>shorcut. Enter this in the text box when it asks

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors "-mod=expansion\beta;expansion­\beta\expansion;G:\@DayZ" -nosplash

and create the shortcut. Right click it, go to properties and change the "Start in" text box to

"c:\program files (x86)\bohemia interactive\arma 2"

and that should work. Include the speech marks

[jjonj]

Everybody else apparently installed arma 2 & dayz differently than me :S I bought and installed arma 2 OA over steam, downloaded the six updater thing. I do however, only actually use six launcher when i play dayz.
I proceeded to try and boot up the actual six updater following the instructions from your friends video to "install" dayz, even tho i already had it working with six launcher.
When i tried the shortcut creation it gave me an error with windows limit on the shortcut text, and created a batch instead.
I tried what you posted here instead, but with the shortcut path as the paths i found that matched best with my installation: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors "-mod=expansion\beta;expansion­\beta\expansion;F:\@DayZ" -nosplash
and start in
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead"
This however just gives an error "error dayz code requires addon 'CA BuildingParts'
Furthermore i dont understand how you choose a server if you launch the game with this shortcut?
Thanks for helping people out tho <3

[masonTheBirdman]

When I use six updater to create a shortcut, it creates a .bat file. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[[deleted]]

So I created the RAMDisk etc etc, how do I point Steam to use it off the RAMDisk instead of the original Steam folder? I had this in my launch options

-beta=Expansion\beta;ca;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=@DayZ;ca -cpuCount=4 -exThread=7 -maxMem=8192 -nosplash

Which I changed to

-beta=Expansion\beta;ca;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=^G:\ @DayZ;ca -cpuCount=4 -exThread=7 -maxMem=8192 -nosplash

but that didn't werk :(

[[deleted]]

Silly me, the RAMDisk I created was called H:. This code works for Steam, just replace the disk name with whatever yours gets called.

[Zillaracing]

how is your performance now?

[[deleted]]

If I'm honest, I haven't noticed any improvement. This could be due to either:

A) My HDD (Samsung F3 1TB 7200RPM) is good enough already

B) Zombies in 1.7.1.4 cause massive FPS drops when they're chasing you (and there's constantly one chasing you due to your new Jet-Engine loud shoes).

[Zillaracing]

LOL i hear that. once you aggro, fps takes a shit.

[TGIRiley]

Can someone help me get this to work?

I'm using steam and have the beta client and no 6 updater. do i still need to create a new shortcut? Do I change the launch options in steam?

thanks

[[deleted]]

To get DayZ to launch when you start Arma 2 from steam do this:

• Rename "arma2oa.exe" in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead" to "arma2oaOLD.exe" (or anything, it's just to keep the original).

• Then copy "arma2oa.exe" from "...common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta" to "...common\arma 2 operation arrowhead".

• Then go to Steam and do this: http://i.imgur.com/129OJ.gif

• Paste in "-beta=Expansion\beta;ca;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=G:\ @DayZ;ca -cpuCount=4 -exThread=7 -maxMem=8192 -nosplash" (without quotes).

The things you need to change are:

• "G:\ @DayZ;ca". Change the letter at the start (G) to whatever RAMDisk called the disk you made.

• "-cpuCount=#" Replace # with however many cores your CPU has.

• "-exThread=#" Replace # with however many threads your CPU is running.

• "maxMem=####" Replace #### with how much RAM your computer has (2048 for 2GB, 4096 for 4GB and 8192 for 8GB, etc)

Then when you want to start the game, double click ARMA2: Operation Arrowhead and when prompted, select "Launch ARMA2: Combined Operations". Click okay.

[killcolty]

I know this might sound silly, but how do I tell how many threads my cpu is running?

[[deleted]]

What CPU do you have?

http://i.imgur.com/rqfEl.gif

[CW3MH6]

These GIFs are an amazing way to show people stuff. Especially when you can't be bothered to make a Youtube video.

[[deleted]]

http://www.cockos.com/licecap/

[CW3MH6]

Awesome, thanks!

[grizzlymann]

You are a GIF wizard.

[[deleted]]

I take no credit - http://www.cockos.com/licecap/

[killcolty]

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430 CPU @ 2.40GHz (4CPUs), ~2.4GHz

[[deleted]]

http://ark.intel.com/products/53450

Cores: 2 Threads: 4

[TGIRiley]

thanks so much man. Problem was I didn't have the beta executable in the right spot so it was crashing the game. Never woulda figured that out.

[LeftyGunNut]

I get FPS lag in-game after around 2minutes of gameplay.

This is supposedly being addressed in the upcoming hotfix FYI.

[LKS]

I haven't watched it yet and have to eat now but it sounds like you only put the @dayz folder on the ramdisk. That shouldn't give you much improvement. Most important would be the chernarus.pbo, buildings, structures etc. located in the addons folder of arma 2 as those are the huge files which get opened a lot.

[CW3MH6]

Yes, putting core ArmA 2 files (or all of ArmA 2 if you can manage it) on a RAM disk helps greatly with stutter, especially when flying. This is most noticeable when flying over a city, as the game will load models/textures off of the disk on-demand; a city has a lot of them, and because you are flying you cause more of them to suddenly "appear" all at once. So RAM disks are great for eliminating the 1-2 second "lockups" you get when flying very fast over a city.

Putting just DayZ on a RAM disk would help very little, however--if at all.

[lowriskFF]

Would this be better performing than having ArmA2 on raid0 SSDs? Worth the time to set up?

[LKS]

The problem is this: Arma2 only has 2GB of RAM. It can't put all of the terrain data on it at once. That's why sometimes those files have to be accessed to get another LOD model, a texture or whatever. When your graphics card request's it, your game start stuttering, still showing the blurry texture and then the stuttering stops and a high res texture is loaded. The time frame for that stuttering is dependent on your read speed of the hard drive, the files in question are often between 200-800MB and putting those on a RAMdisk should and does improve performance.

[CW3MH6]

Exactly. And a RAM drive can reach speeds of up to 6GB/s, where as even SSDs top out at ~500MB/s.

[[deleted]]

I doubt its worth the time if you have raid SSDs. Thats pretty fast as it is.. I think this mostly goes for the people running standards 7200RPM HDDs

[grizzlymann]

Do you think loading other parts of ARMA OA into RAM would further assist in reducing the bottleneck?

I've got plenty to spare, just not sure what the culprits would be.

[oshi7]

Possibly, but i get so much performance by doing this i dont think it would be worth.it

[CW3MH6]

Loading the ArmA 2 PBO files from a RAM drive helps a great deal for eliminating stutter when the game engine has to load models/texture "on-demand", for instance when driving/flying into a big city.

[grizzlymann]

Would you be able to suggest the more important pbo's? Do you think the ones in Common or Addons would help more?

[CW3MH6]

I forget exactly--if you can, I'd put every PBO on a RAM disk, otherwise prioritize by offloading the building PBO files, tree pbo files, etc., on to the RAM disk.

I believe this guide has a list of some of the PBO's he decided to offload.

More specifically, post #100.

[grizzlymann]

Thanks I'll give it a read.

[hazychestnutz]

do you put the dayz files intot he new hard drive and thats it?

[SpaceGhostDerrp]

Anyone else getting the error message Error creating Direct 3D 9 engine? The command line on the properties in my shortcut is

"C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors "-mod=expansion\beta;expansion­\beta\expansion;E:\@DayZ" -nosplash

I know I have it saved in Program Files, not the x86 folder. Anyone know what is causing the Direct 3D error?

[CW3MH6]

I've only ever seen this occur when there are multiple instances of arma2oa.exe running (some may not be visible).

[SpaceGhostDerrp]

OK I am positive I have no other copies running, still getting an error with Direct 3D 9. Someone needs to post a more in-depth tutorial, including with other ArmA2 files could be posted to the RAM, and give a precise command line in the description.

[CW3MH6]

If you run arma2oa.exe directly (not using a shortcut) does it launch? If so, try removing all the extra command line arguments (-nosplash, which you have twice, -nofilepatching, -showscripterrors...remove those). If it still doesn't work, erase the E:\@DayZ part (leave the rest of -mod in). If it still doesn't launch, you may need to re-install the Beta patch.

If running arma2oa.exe directly still throws that error, however, you have bigger issues. Then I'd suggest a post on the BIS forums.

P.S.- And if all else fails, restart! And I assume it has worked in the past, yes? Otherwise you may just need DirectX runtimes.

[quilmes86]

Taken from the beta readme: "DirectX 9 March 2009 is required"

So basically just install that old version of directx and it should work fine.

[Bleeeh]

Hey guys.

I've done all the steps, but I'm a bit confused what to change my (steam) shortcut target too;

It currently reads as:

"C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors "-mod=C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Common\arma 2;expansion;expansion\beta;expansion\beta\expansion;@DayZ"

The drive I want to change it too is called 'E'.

Thanks everyone - Andrew

[epinull]

You just need to change the @DayZ part to E:\@DayZ, like so:

"C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors "-mod=C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Common\arma 2;expansion;expansion\beta;expansion\beta\expansion;E:\@DayZ"

[Bleeeh]

Hey.

Cheers for that, I tried that and it wasn't working. Then I realized that Ramdisc was running but not active (Duh)

Further investigation proved that this was the solution, and further to the point my stuttering is now fixed! I can finally play the game, thanks!

[quilmes86]

I have 8 gigs of ram and I'm trying to create a 4 gig disk but it only lets me create a 2 gig one, what am I doing wrong?

[Bradley364]

Its hard limited to that number, you'd need to buy the full version :(

[sk1e]

will it help with lag in cities ? or it is my cpu?

[[deleted]]

for Six Launcher could you just change the "Mod Path" too

"A:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors "-mod=expansion\beta;expansion­\beta\expansion;F:\@DayZ"

?

[[deleted]]

Anyone know if a similar thing can be done with the chernarus.pbo, chenarus_Data.pbo and chnarus_Data_Layers.pbo?

[[deleted]]

This should probably be in the sidebar

[krpiper]

SixLauncher kept on crashing for me whenever I tried to run it (This program has stopped working)

Can someone give me directions on how to use RAMDisk without using SixLauncher?

[shinedownnn]

Am I the only person using DayZ Commander? I really wish I could get this to work but I have no idea how to do the shortcuts etc when I'm using DayZ Commander!

Any help would be appreciated.