Ultimate guide/information thread to increase performance

[suspense 210]

Hello everyone, lately i've grown a little tired of writing up the same replies to people having performance issues in several constant new threads, so i am making this in order to gather all my knowledge in one place, as well as hopefully have others share their experiences aswell.

Let me start out first by saying this is only PART of the problem. Performance will never be optimal as long as object cleanup is bugged in Day Z

Information and tips for advanced users(Such as overclocking, hardrive platters and ramdisk) will follow at the end of the post.

Game Settings and Configs

ArmA 2's ingame settings can only do so much, people with good rigs are experiencing low performance in ArmA 2, both singleplayer and DayZ(Even moreso Dayz due to object cleanup) the reason for this can be many things, ArmA 2 is not very efficient on multicore, ArmA 2 is also very dependant on the harddrive, which alot of PC users rarely think of as a bottleneck.

You will find all your configs in your "My Documents" Folder, within the "ArmA 2" folder. Here you will have 2 config files containing various options, lets sart off with

ArmA2OA.cfg Note! Please do not copy paste my set-up and use it as your own, make the edits as i describe which function does what, some settings here are specific from system to system and should NOT be changed.

language="English"; //Dont edit this
adapter=-1; //Dont edit this
3D_Performance=-4194304; //Dont edit this
Resolution_Bpp=32; //Dont edit this
Windowed=1; // 0=fullscreen 1=windowed mode
Resolution_W=1680; //Use this to set Resolution specificaly, people with windowed mode will find this usefull as resolution sometimes wont stick
Resolution_H=1050; ^
refresh=60; //Dont edit this
winX=1729; //Dont edit this
winY=33; //Dont edit this
winW=1680; //Dont edit this
winH=1050; //Dont edit this
winDefW=1680; //Dont edit this
winDefH=1050; //Dont edit this
Render_W=1680; //This is 3D resolution -Editing this to match the ingame resolution can improve formance
Render_H=1050; ^
FSAA=0; //This is Full Screen Anti-Aliasing. It blends pixels in order to make edges "blur" this creates a more natural picture at the expense of performance - 0 to disable
postFX=0; //This is post processing, ads motion blur to the game - Disable to grealy increase performance - 0 to Disable
GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1; //GPU Render ahead buffer - Options supported 1-1000(0=decided by driver) May lower mouse lag/stuttering by reducing.
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1; //Written by engine at start, changing it has no effect
HDRPrecision=0; //This is bit depth precision for HDR 0=disabled, 8=default, 16 and 32 max options.
lastDeviceId="";
localVRAM=1059397632;
nonlocalVRAM=2147483647;
mouseSmoothing=1; //You are likely not gonna find this in your config, this removes mouse smoothing which creates a "muddy" or "delay" effect when moving your mouse. Add the line to remove the effect

PPAA=0; //This is anti aliasing via post processing, disable to greatly increase performance IF post processing is enabled. 0= disabled
PPAA_Level=0; //Dont change this

AToC=0; //AtoC is extra antialiasing techniques on grass and trees. If anti aliasing is disabled this has no effect! Disable to greatly improve performance. 0=disabled
FXAA=0; //[color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3]enables Anti-Aliasing technique via post processing[/size][/font][/color]

Now to the user profile config, this one is in the same folder but called "Yourusername.cfg" Please note it has to be the OA config, check this by looking at the "type" the file is

shadingQuality=0; //Quality of shadow effects - 0 to disable - Greatly improves performance
shadowQuality=0; //Quality of shadows - 0 to disable - Greatly improves performance
maxSamplesPlayed=32; //Dont change this
viewDistance=1024.8124; //This has no effect in DayZ - Servers decide view distance
terrainGrid=50; //50=very low - Terrain grid controls terrain LOD, which is the distance in which the terrain mesh resolution starts to degrade - Low = distance terrain starts to look bad quicker

anisoFilter=0; //Increases image and object quality when viewed from an angle(a little like aliasing) greatly improves performance if reduced/disabled - 0=disabled
TexQuality=1; //Quality of textures, 1=low.
TexMemory=4; //Texture memory =default. This determines the max memory used for texture memory on the video card, use default for best performance.
useWBuffer=0;
tripleHead=0; //Leave his unless you have ancient 2004 graphics cards

sceneComplexity=150000; //This determines the distance at which objects and scenes are drawn. Lower = resolution of buildings and objects degrade quicker. 150000=low. Greatly improves performance to lower this, at expense of image quality

Here is my personal configs, these are bringing me to 70-100 fps around the world, with 50-60 in cherno/elektro my system specs are

CPU = i7 920 OC 3.8

GFX = Radeon HD6870

Ram = 6gigs DDR3 1600

NO SSD

My config

ArmA2OA.cfg

FSAA=0;
postFX=0;

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1;
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1

AToC=0;
FXAA=0;

PPAA=0;
PPAA_Level=0;
mouseSmoothing=1;
HDRPrecision=0;

My "Username.cfg"

shadingQuality=0;
shadowQuality=0;
maxSamplesPlayed=32;
anisoFilter=0;
TexQuality=1;
TexMemory=4;
useWBuffer=0;
tripleHead=0;
sceneComplexity=150000;
terrainGrid=50;

Launch parameters

Launch parameters can also help you increase performance, such as

-maxmem=			 Limit memory allocation (in MB). 2047 is hardcoded maximum at the moment

-window			 Displays ArmA windowed instead of full screen //OPTIONAL - CAN DECREASE PERFORMANCE

-nosplash       Disables intro and splash screens //OPTIOANL - NO PERFORMANCE EFFECT INGAME

-cpuCount=X			change X to a number less or equal than numbers of available cores. This will override auto detection

ADVANCED USERS

Hard drive storage is perhaps the most major performance hit with A2.

If using a standard hard drive rather than a solid-state drive, you should migrate your entire A2 folder to the outer edges of your platters. You can do this with "Ultimate Defrag". Go into the options and add your Arma2 folder (the entire thing) to the high performance list. Run a "Consolidate" defrag and check the option for "Respect High Performance". Since A2 loads only bits of data from many of it's pbo files, a simple windows defrag can have your hard drive seeking half-- or even full sweeps as it reads one pbo or another that is placed randomly around the drive.

Regards

Suspenselol

Edited July 26, 2012 by Suspenselol

[zenatsu (DayZ) 96]

Free bump

[Ramboness (DayZ) 15]

Let me start out first by saying this is only PART of the problem. Performance will never be optimal as long as object cleanup is bugged in Day Z

so this is whats causing extremely low fps on some servers?

[suspense 210]

Let me start out first by saying this is only PART of the problem. Performance will never be optimal as long as object cleanup is bugged in Day Z

so this is whats causing extremely low fps on some servers?

Exactly. More specifically, things like bodies not disappearing, bodies spewing blood forever causes serious framerate issues.

[Voxgizer 22]

Another free bump. B)

[siiixten 0]

i don't get what you mean with the defrag thing... Should i not make a windows defrag??

[ChinWooMan 34]

At-least it improved some FPS I was at like 10-15 constantly and now at 17-25. Nice!

[suspense 210]

i don't get what you mean with the defrag thing... Should i not make a windows defrag??

Making a windows defrag can improve performance a little bit, but not much. Windows defrag only gathers likeminded files and put them closer to eachother, which in this case wont make much of a difference.

This is an example of a harddrive platter. When a harddrive does a sweep of something it needs, it searches from the outer platter and in. By having ArmA 2 on the outer platters, you reduce seek time on the harddrive dramatically, which allows for faster loading of textures and objects from ArmAs PBO files. ArmA 2 rarely loads full pbo files, instead it loads specifically what it needs within a pbo file.

This means it constantly loads stuff from the pbo files during gameplay, reducing seek time in return increases performance. I only suggest advanced users who understands this, attempt to make an organized defrag.

[Gogster (DayZ) 626]

i don't get what you mean with the defrag thing... Should i not make a windows defrag??

Do not defrag if you are running on an SSD drive.

These suggestions whilst appreciated have made little difference to my FPS, it is still a lowly 24-26. However a very good friend who has an older GFX card and generally an older system is running around 45-55.

This is not tweaking the settings, this is a bug within the rendering of certain GFX set-ups. Prior to the mod being updated (not today, the previous one) I used to get 35-40 on my old card.

[suspense 210]

Do not defrag if you are running on an SSD drive.

These suggestions whilst appreciated have made little difference to my FPS, it is still a lowly 24-26. However a very good friend who has an older GFX card and generally an older system is running around 45-55.

This is not tweaking the settings, this is a bug within the rendering of certain GFX set-ups. Prior to the mod being updated (not today, the previous one) I used to get 35-40 on my old card.

The mod doesnt handle rendering, it barely pushes any textures to the engine.

ArmA2s performance has little to do with the graphics card, more to do with your cpu and hdd. Another reason for subpar performance can be hyperthreading on some systems, and this is not only applicable to ArmA 2, but other games aswell.

Obviously tweaking have different effects on different systems, but above configs that i provided(my own) should give you substantially higher fps then what you have, what kind of cpu do you have? And what branch of graphics? Make sure your drivers arent set to overwride the games profile.

Launch options in ArmA 2 also gives a little bit of an increase, which are you using?

[Gogster (DayZ) 626]

The mod doesnt handle rendering, it barely pushes any textures to the engine.

ArmA2s performance has little to do with the graphics card, more to do with your cpu and hdd. Another reason for subpar performance can be hyperthreading on some systems, and this is not only applicable to ArmA 2, but other games aswell.

Obviously tweaking have different effects on different systems, but above configs that i provided(my own) should give you substantially higher fps then what you have, what kind of cpu do you have? And what branch of graphics? Make sure your drivers arent set to overwride the games profile.

Launch options in ArmA 2 also gives a little bit of an increase, which are you using?

I don't know how you're qualifying your statements, but considering BF3 at ultra run at 45-55 FPS and Skyrim maxed runs at 60 FPS, my finger points back to the mod.

If you can run vanilla Arma without arsing with the files I'll give that a check in a bit and see what the FPS is like.

The circumstantial evidence from a number of users on these forums and guys in our group who can happily play other games, but see their FPS go through the floor when playing this, supports the theory that something is happening with either Arma or DayZ.

[Silent observer 4]

i got a AMD Athlon II X2 235e Processor 2.7 GHz with a nvidia gefore 210...went to can I run it and i meed the min requirements but not the recomended for the CPU and the graphics card( i knew that before lol) ive looked around and have done some stuff and went from having like 14 fps in the woods and 10 in towns to 25 in the woods and like 17-20 in towns. just now i was playing and i got hit by a zombie and my FPS droped to like 8...might have been the server going to poop dont know...

im guessing what im asking is should i be expecting anything higher than these FPS with the card and the CPU I have? also i read that Ram something..the program that acts like another hard drive seems to help a ton, but it seems pretty hard to set up...is this true? if anyone has tried it

[suspense 210]

I don't know how you're qualifying your statements, but considering BF3 at ultra run at 45-55 FPS and Skyrim maxed runs at 60 FPS, my finger points back to the mod.

If you can run vanilla Arma without arsing with the files I'll give that a check in a bit and see what the FPS is like.

The circumstantial evidence from a number of users on these forums and guys in our group who can happily play other games, but see their FPS go through the floor when playing this, supports the theory that something is happening with either Arma or DayZ.

You cant compare BF3 and Skyrim to ArmA. These 2 games heavily store textures in video memory, where ArmA 2 stores a lot of textures on RAM. This results in the CPU and hdd being more important then the graphics.

ArmA 2 has far too many textures to store it all in ram, or in video memory. This results in harddrive sweeps constantly, because ArmA loads textures in pbos, flushes them, and reloads them. It is completely different from "mainstream" games, which is why a lot of people dont understand why their sick graphics card, and insanely fast CPU cant provide them with 200 fps in ArmA.

I played this game for over 2 years, without DayZ. And on domination missions, the fps is not as horrible, but much worse then "newer games" on the same hardware, because of the reasons i stated above.

I already stated that FPS will continue to be even more horrible with object cleanup being bugged. When that is fixed, you should all expect 20-40% performance increase on servers that have been running for a while.

[jholl505 2]

what program would u use to do this stuff

[Problem? 33]

No offense but seeing those settings it looks like you have disabled everything and chosen poorest quality settings to get the best fps except your resolution.

[tufting 21]

You have my beans, sir.

[ast65 11]

so 'mousesmoothing=1' removes mousesmoothing?

...thought it would´ve been other way round...

[suspense 210]

No offense but seeing those settings it looks like you have disabled everything and chosen poorest quality settings to get the best fps except your resolution.

In my case, i have. I prefer performance over image quality. That is not the point of this thread tho, the point was to explain each setting in the configs to a degree so people are able to personally change their configs to their liking, not for me to dictate what should be used.

so 'mousesmoothing=1' removes mousesmoothing?

...thought it would´ve been other way round...

You cannot completely "remove" mousesmoothing, but reducing it to 1 more or less disables it.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Suspenselol

[jholl505 2]

i tried to do this but when i do nothing happens but a screen that is like you dont have the program to do anything. HELP!!!!!!!!!

[j5dude 1]

I've pretty much more or less did all of this and I get poor fps in big cities. Any help?

[termhn 20]

I've pretty much more or less did all of this and I get poor fps in big cities. Any help?

Yes, you'll still get poor fps in citys. There's no way around it. The only possible way would be if you had an INSANE amount of RAM, made a RAMDisk big enough to fit the whole arma 2 / arma 2 OA on it, and ran it off of that. If you read anything in this thread you would know why that would help

[Irenicus (DayZ) 289]

Strange. I have a much lower spec PC than the OP yet I can run the game with higher settings...

PPAA doesn't make any difference to FPS on my system.

Definitely SceneComplexity helps, setting it to 150k or 100k.

Post Processing should most certainly be off if you want extra frames, at the cost of having no DOF or bloom. Those I can live without.

ATOC=0 - this is a must, but note ATOC only works if you have FSAA on.So if you already had FSAA off, setting this to 0 will not be any different. Sure trees and grass are a bit "sharper" and not very smooth, but hey it's worth the extra frames, and another side effect is slightly better visibility as you can see past edges of some trees, whereas with ATOC enabled (5 for dayz) you get much more bushy trees etc.

Frames Ahead- 1 or 2. Personally 2 works better for me, no idea why, but setting it to 1 results in lower FPS.

If Vsync is on it's worth downloading 3dOverrider and forcing triple buffering. Much smoother though uses more vid memory if I recall correctly.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Irenicus

[siNeon (DayZ) 1]

Great guide, but I have a question. Is it possible to focus the game using my grafic card since I have a preatty outdated CPU.

Thanks in the advance.

EDIT : Best config I've tried so far, have decent FPS, no lag spikes.

Edited August 2, 2012 by siNeon

[Irenicus (DayZ) 289]

Great guide, but I have a question. Is it possible to focus the game using my grafic card since I have a preatty outdated CPU.

Thanks in the advance.

EDIT : Best config I've tried so far, have decent FPS, no lag spikes.

Good to hear. What things from this thread did you change? It might help others, cheers

[wubbel 0]

wtf colors, cant see anything ! ^^