Streaming DayZ from RAMdisk (How-to/Performance)

[icetbag 3]

If anyone is still struggling with setting up a RamDrive maybe this is of some help: http://www.22ndsas.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=9205

Should apply to Steam users too as far as I can tell (though PBO file locations will differ).

[Method (DayZ) 5]

Went from around 13 FPS in Cherno to around 29-34 FPS. It feels much smoother than 30 FPS though.

I have 8 gigs to work with. Can I include some Arma 2 files to maybe increase my performance even more?

[irl-calibre 744]

thank you! thank you!! thank you!!!

totally solved my nightmare slide show that was zooming or large urban aeras. I can get into 2 of the big citys no bother haven't tested Berezino yet & scope smooth as butter..

great work indeed, this thread should be well stickied.. 5 Stard'd

[Jaleno 4]

Great guide! :D

However only applies to a minority of us :/

Also, would you not have to do this every time you restart your computer? I was under the impression that ram disks only stored data for one session.

[irl-calibre 744]

it's supposed to keep an image & load it when win starts, but it doesn't seem to work on my machine. it only takes about a minute to sort out though on a restart & get up and running again..

[15wileyr 0]

I have a problem at the end where when I change targets in the launcher and I run it i get an error message of

"error creating Direct3D 9 Graphical engine" any help would be appreciated

[CutieMutie 3]

Pls can Anyone try, to make a Tutorial for steam users? Its verry different for Steam users. (The shortcut thing) I use Six Launcher to play DayZ, but i dont get the Six updater thing as a steam user.. its so hard, i tryed over 3 years but it still doesnt works!

I think this Guide is useless for steam users!! :(

[StealthyBrayden 6]

Thanks, I'm sure this will help out loads of people man :)

[syncmaster (DayZ) 63]

Bump.

Besides OP I only see 2 people saying this did anything for them.. Granted I don't see anyone saying it did nothing.

Anyone else try this out and how did it work out for you?

[Cappy (DayZ) 6]

Tryed this, works well, Haven't seen much difference between this and a SSD. (had 32GB of ram so loaded full arma 2 onto it)

A great use for the RAMdisk software too is to make a RAM partition for your pagefile also.

For people wanting to use it with steam you need to download 'symlink' software, where you can move folder to the RAMdisk/SSD and link it to you steam folder so it reads ARMA2/DayZ from your SSD/RAMdisk as if it was within the steam folder.

[grrinc 7]

Just installed a SSD set up and would recommend it thoroughly. The whole computer speeds up, let alone the DayZ game.

I have 8GB so I may try the Ram Disc if it isnt too much hassle. But right now, I have a slick running game so I'm more than happy.

[Neog2 (DayZ) 0]

Pls can Anyone try' date=' to make a Tutorial for steam users? Its verry different for Steam users. (The shortcut thing) I use Six Launcher to play DayZ, but i dont get the Six updater thing as a steam user.. its so hard, i tryed over 3 years but it still doesnt works!

I think this Guide is useless for steam users!! :(

[/quote']

I havent tried this on my computer I'm Playing DayZ on because I don't experience any Stuttering or slow FPS. But As far as steam goes. I have two versions of Arma 2. One downloaded from Steam, and one I bought off Amazon. And I always here people talking about they can't figure stuff out with Steam. Well Every Game I own through Steam that isnt a Valve Game I never launch through Steam. I always run the .exe directly.

I made a shortcut with the -nosplash and put it on my desktop and run that every single time unless Im updating through six launcher then I just run it through that program.

As far as this Ramdisk process above I use to do this on some of my machines in the past that had smaller slower hard drives/and less powerful graphics cards.

But with My new machines all having at least 16GB of ram. And the machine that's running Arma 2 has Two Crucial m4 256GB in Stripped Raid I haven't experienced any issues.

My question is has anybody made a scrip to take advantage of graphics cards ram that has 2GB or more on card. GDDR5 2GB per card would be nice to have ARMA 2 really use that forget my system RAM!

[Cappy (DayZ) 6]

Just installed a SSD set up and would recommend it thoroughly. The whole computer speeds up' date=' let alone the DayZ game.

I have 8GB so I may try the Ram Disc if it isnt too much hassle. But right now, I have a slick running game so I'm more than happy.

[/quote']

As Having your Pagefile partition on your SSD greatly reduces your lifespan of your SSD due to all of the write/deleting i recommend setting up a RAMdisk partition for you pagefile. That way you increase your lifespan of your SSD, and keep super fast read times, rather than moving pagefile to HDD.

[grrinc 7]

Just installed a SSD set up and would recommend it thoroughly. The whole computer speeds up' date=' let alone the DayZ game.

I have 8GB so I may try the Ram Disc if it isnt too much hassle. But right now, I have a slick running game so I'm more than happy.

[/quote']

As Having your Pagefile partition on your SSD greatly reduces your lifespan of your SSD due to all of the write/deleting i recommend setting up a RAMdisk partition for you pagefile. That way you increase your lifespan of your SSD, and keep super fast read times, rather than moving pagefile to HDD.

Thanks. I'll certainly look into that. Appreciated.

[irl-calibre 744]

so, would I get better performance by just using the ram drive for pagefile rather than adding @DayZ folder to it instead?

gonna experiment..

[stimpen 0]

i only have 4gb of ram so putting all the .pbo in the ramdrive is impossible.

but i thougt if i maybe dedicate 1gb of ram to ramdisk and puts dayz there and then the most used .pbo when playing dayz could improve the game?

but how to know which .pbos that is most used when playing dayz?

this loading lag does it have something do do with the zombies not dying immidietly when you shoot them? like the death animation have to load from hd before they die?

[skythe1908 0]

Yeah I had pretty poor performance before using this. (around 20-30 dropping to 15 in heavy areas.) Once I set this up it's pretty much constantly a smooth 60 unless I drop into a heavily populated area which it will drop to 40+.

This is great.

[icetbag 3]

...Besides OP I only see 2 people saying this did anything for them.. Granted I don't see anyone saying it did nothing...

Only users with a non-SSD HDD are going to notice significant improvements using a RamDisk. I have a 7200rpm HDD and at certain points within the game (both SP/MP) I had some performance issues such as:

:: Stuttering whilst moving around (more noticeable at speed in vehicles, more so as you approach cities with many objects)

:: Texture popping (as there is no file caching, textures are streamed in real time from the HDD)

:: Object popping (as above, more noticeable when zooming in)

After moving several Arma 2 and DayZ PBO files to a RamDisk I dont get any of the above, it runs nice and smooth and I've been able to increase my view distance by 100% :)

If you're on an SSD, I doubt you need a RamDisk.

[disorder 344]

you'll want FAT32, for performance and better file allocation.. just sayin ;)

[NeoDestiny 0]

Don't waste your time with this fix. While it's cute, and might sound good in theory, it's absolutely worthless. The bottleneck for this game is always going to be your CPU or the server/hive's connection, not your harddrive. ESPECIALLY if you have an SSD, although any normal 7200 RPM drive will perform just fine.

If people want to say this works, we need to see some benchmarks. This whole "OMG IT'S SO MUCH SMOOTHER NOW" is 100% placebo affect until some solid and controlled benchmarks have actually been released. Some of the tech advice and stuff being thrown around in this thread is revolting, to say the least.

Don't. SSD's are crap compared to RAM. Your RAM is more versatile and does not have a limited amount of read/write before it dies. You can also move the RAM to your next PC (usually RAM cycles are 4 times as long as CPU/Mainboard cycles)

This comes from a guy that has 32GB of RAM and runs every game from it.

FREE no limitation 32/64Bit RAM Disk Tool: http://www.ltr-data....de.html/#ImDisk

This software simply offers you everything, incl. full command line support for creating and loading an Image File into your RAM disk on System Boot.

SSDs are crap compared to RAM? lol? SSDs are much much larger, and what do you mean by "more versatile"? Sure, RAM can be read/written to much quicker, but your bottleneck is rarely your HDD, especially in game performance. And "you can move the RAM to your next PC"...lol? Have you ever even built a system before? The chances of your next system accepting ANY SSD is MUCH higher than your next system accepting ANY kind of RAM. Limited amount of read/write before they die? Dude, SSDs have a ton of read/write before they do, under constant use it won't die for 5-6 years.

32 GB of RAM...i lol'd.

[McClusterfuk 1]

yeah this didn't work on my laptop i actually got shit performance im kind of annoyed on how bad my game stutters

[Put1n 2]

Hmmm. I have a 32gb usb3 flash drive sitting around doing nothing. What if I just dumped the whole game in there? I'd have to use junctions and the ram disk thing huh?

I did that with sc2 once, after about 2 hours it shutdown from overheating :(

[Put1n 2]

Don't waste your time with this fix. While it's cute, and might sound good in theory, it's absolutely worthless. The bottleneck for this game is always going to be your CPU or the server/hive's connection, not your harddrive. ESPECIALLY if you have an SSD, although any normal 7200 RPM drive will perform just fine.

If people want to say this works, we need to see some benchmarks. This whole "OMG IT'S SO MUCH SMOOTHER NOW" is 100% placebo affect until some solid and controlled benchmarks have actually been released. Some of the tech advice and stuff being thrown around in this thread is revolting, to say the least.

SSDs are crap compared to RAM? lol? SSDs are much much larger, and what do you mean by "more versatile"? Sure, RAM can be read/written to much quicker, but your bottleneck is rarely your HDD, especially in game performance. And "you can move the RAM to your next PC"...lol? Have you ever even built a system before? The chances of your next system accepting ANY SSD is MUCH higher than your next system accepting ANY kind of RAM. Limited amount of read/write before they die? Dude, SSDs have a ton of read/write before they do, under constant use it won't die for 5-6 years.

32 GB of RAM...i lol'd.

You just made yourself look like a disabled, dyslexic, down syndrome retard.

If you are 10 and your mom bought your pc from costco please do not insult members of the community.

ddr2 lasted.... fucking ages, 3 pc builds for me

ddr3, its been 5 years now and 2 pc builds for me

ssds are garbage atm and even 1gb per dollar is still very expensive; i would give it a year to half the price

[BlazeN'Chronic 51]

Iv got a corsair 240gb force 3 gs and the thing is amazing... got it on sale at my local shop for $189 one weekend, was such a steal i picked up 3 ;)