terminal_boy

Build yourself a pimped out PC unless you're considering a fully spec'd out Mac Pro with the new (to Mac) AMD 7950. That Mac Pro would cost you over $4,000 and you'd still be able to build a PC which would wipe the floor with it for under $1000.

8mm Weatherby Magnum... Basketball sized exit wounds... What's the weather like on your planet?

All, Is anyone else seeing far better frame rates with Video Memory set to Very High when using AMD GPUs with 2GB or more VRAM? With my old 1GB HD6850, Default Video Memory gave the best frame rate playing DayZ and Arma 2 OA MP. With my new 2GB HD7870, Default gives me 15-20FPS in the woods and Very High gives over 80FPS in the woods. As this happens running both the latest A2 OA Beta required for DayZ and the A2 OA Stable build, I suspect this is an AMD or CCC issue.

I'm finding that using Default with my 7870 2GB does cause the .cfg file to show that the game's expecting 2GB of VRAM, but I get 15-20FPS in the woods and Afterburner is reporting only 550-600 MB of VRAM being used. Using Very High, I see up to 1600MB of VRAM being used and get 80+FPS in the woods. I've actually enabled Post Porcessing on Low to get the depth of field blurring and enabled Vysnc to stop stop the frame tearing I see when looking over my shoulder while sprinting at 70+FPS. As this happens on both Arma 2 OA Stable and Beta versions, I suspect this is down to some change in AMD VRAM implementation or something odd in Catalyst Control Centre..

Video Memory needs to be set to Very High for a start these days.

If you have Arma 2 CO via Steam and like the super easy to use DayZ Commander, if you tick the "Replace original Arma 2 OA files with Beta so Steam works" box in DZC Settings as it does exactly that and overwrites the Stable A2 AO version with the Beta. If the A2 OA server you play on doesn't allow the Beta, you have a problem. However, I found doing the following (provided you haven't overwritted the Stable A2 OA version), works allowing you to play DayZ using DZC and not stuff up your Stable A2 OA installation: 1. Don't start Steam or have it running. 2. In DZC Settings, ensure both "Launch Using Steam" and "Replace original Arma 2 OA files with Beta so Steam works" boxes are NOT ticked. 3. Use DZC to install the OA Beat and whatever maps you want to play. 4. Find the server of your choice and join it. 5. Enjoy DayZ again. I've checked this method works and then I could still launch Stable A2 OA (via Spirited Machine's excellent A2 launcher) every time after playing DayZ.

I'd love to, but the peasants aren't trusted with such things any more here. But back to your comments.. Cleaning and lubrication are not the same thing. A regular application of Slip 2000 will keep a quality AR-15 using decent ammo running until something breaks or the gas rings wear out unless you have a FTF due to popper primers building up in the FCG or using worn-out magazines. A Bushmaster being fed Privi Partisan or Wolf ammo, no so much.

Are you trying to join DayZ servers or A2 OA ones? Do you use Steam for A2 and A2 OA? Do you use DayZ Commander?

Kill it, kill it with fire!

Hopefully, weapons will deteriorate at a sensible speed and not fall apart before your very eyes as in Far Cry 2. Jagged Alliance had a more sensible system, but you still shouldn't need to clean a modern military weapon after 300 rounds unless you buried it in sand or mud at some point.

32 or 64 bit Windows?

What you need to understand is that GTX 660M is not the same as a GTX 660. GTX 660M = 9800 GXT.

Would the advantage of having a four-legged AI pal to track others be balanced by having said canine bark when it detects a survivor or zombie?

You might not carry them around, but you would pick up the empty cases and take them back to your camp in case you did find an opportunity to get them reloaded. Unless you had several caches full of ammo hidden around the area of course.

Exactly this. I should find an empty server and figure out how the scope works with my 75º FOV, but I'm a lazy sod who can't be bothered. So every time I find a CZ, I get tempted into trying shots I don't have the skill to pull off and end up either eaten by the zombie horde that The Czech Dinner Bell brings or shot dead by the bandit who I just missed.

Welcome to PC gaming. Expect to spend half what you've just laid out on your new PC every year in upgrades. It'll be worth every penny.

Who'd have thought that would be the case??

What triggers KoS for me where KoS provides a significantly better chance for my survival than staying hidden: - Bandit skin - Ghillie suit - Sniper rifle - Player clearly trying to stalk me. -

Bit of a long shot as even Dotjosh couldn't think up a solution... As everyone who owns ArmA2:CO through Steam and uses the simple and elegant DayZ Commander to patch and launch DayZ knows; you have to tick a little box in DZC Settings labelled "Overwrite OA files with Beta so Steam works". Which works beautifully and for 6 months, I greatly enjoyed skulking around the woods, eating Beans and shooting the odd naughty Bandit. And then I got involved with a lovely bunch from the RPS forums who play ArmA 2 MP missions using various mods including ACE and ACRE. The issue is that their (and many other such servers) requires the Stable official version of ArmA OA and DZC had overwritten mine. So I deleted OA from Steam, cleared the entire directory and reinstalled. Several hours and a vertical learning curve regarding ArmA2 OA mods later and I was happily playing along with my new chums. My problem is that I really miss DayZ and don't want to wait until the SA to play again. I did try using DayZ via Steam, but I got kicked from all my usual servers even though they were running the same mod version. I couldn't find any trace of AO beta, so I suspect Steam launches DayZ using the Stable official AO. I also tried Play With Six, but that looked like it also needed to overwrite OA to work via Steam and the GUI is horrible. So, has anyone of you smart and good-looking people found themselves in this situation and did you find a solution?

What OA version is launched when you launch with DZC doing it that way? My installation launches the stable OA - 1.62.95248 which won't work with DayZ as all the servers are running later beta versions.

CZ 550 because it always convinces me that I can make that 500 metre shot on an unsuspecting bandit. Which I then miss and then said bandit or the horde of zombies attracted by the huge noise this gun makes finds and kills me. I don't know if it's my 75º FOV that screws up the reticle or that I'm just crap with sniper rifles, but I can't hit a barn over 400 metres away with the CZ..

Am I going madder than usual or has the latest patch changed the behaviour of the Video Memory switch in Options > Video Settings > Advanced? It used to be that Default gave the highest FPS, now I find Very High gives the best FPS and Default is worse than Low. The very odd thing is I see this running the Op. Arrowhead SP campaign too.. ARMA and ARMA 2 Op. Arrowhead run via Steam. DayZ updated and controlled by Dayz Commander. GPU = Sapphire Radeon 7870 2GHz Edition. Latest AMD Driver 13.10

This is definitely something to do with AMD implementation as the exact same thing happens when running the Stable/Vanilla version of ArmA 2OA. My ArmA2 OA config file shows that ArrmA2 OA is correctly detecting the amount of VRAM my GPU has as it shows 2GB's worth of bytes when set to Default. However, this appears (looking at MSI Afterburner OSD in-game) to limit the VRAM used to around 500MB and drops my frame rate from 80+ FPS to 20+ FPS. Selecting Very High sets the VRAM in the config file to less than 2GB (can't remember exact value), but MSI Afterburner shows up to 1400MB of VRAM being used and I get frame rates above 80 FPS in Cherno during daylight.

DayZ Commander is an excellent tool for people that want a super simple and reliable way to update and run the mod. But as the thread title states, this option does exactly what it says on the tin. The Op. Arrowhead Stable version executable is over-written by the Beta one, so running ARMA2 Op. Arrowhead via Steam (Library or desktop shortcut) will fire the game up using the Beta. Which is fine for playing the SP campaign, but not fine for MP games where the host needs you to run the Stable version..

Mine didn't work that way. Using the desktop shortcut created by Steam to ArmA2 OA, the game would launch reporting the Beta version in the lower right corner. As the Steam shortcuts point to a URL, I couldn't figure out which version they pointed to..