Arma 1.2 is SLOOOOW and crash-prone

[cmstea0]

hey all,
i have XP SP2 on a decently fast computer. i installed the gamersgate Arma on a patched doomsday fresh install, and then updared Arma to 1.2. my code is VBLV or VLBV or whatever everyone else has. the basic '36 GC is HORRIBLY slow. probably twice as slow as my old DD 1.3 install. and it just gets worse and worse. the Armageddon and Abyss scenarios rapidly become unplayable.

this is on a new SATA HDD that has been defragmented. does anyone else find that Arma slows things down this much? i'm trying to figure out whether i should just go back to DD, because i honestly don't care about naval brigades that much when i can't even stand to play the game.

also, i get a lot of "appcompat" CTDs, frequently after i do something, such as launch an attack, or make a trade. the CTDs are usually seconds after i make an action, and not always at the start of a new in-game day. any suggestions?

thx
c

 

[sbr]

hey all,
i have XP SP2 on a decently fast computer. i installed the gamersgate Arma on a patched doomsday fresh install, and then updared Arma to 1.2. my code is VBLV or VLBV or whatever everyone else has. the basic '36 GC is HORRIBLY slow. probably twice as slow as my old DD 1.3 install. and it just gets worse and worse. the Armageddon and Abyss scenarios rapidly become unplayable.

this is on a new SATA HDD that has been defragmented. does anyone else find that Arma slows things down this much? i'm trying to figure out whether i should just go back to DD, because i honestly don't care about naval brigades that much when i can't even stand to play the game.

also, i get a lot of "appcompat" CTDs, frequently after i do something, such as launch an attack, or make a trade. the CTDs are usually seconds after i make an action, and not always at the start of a new in-game day. any suggestions?

thx
c

First off, in any Paradox game rename the avi folder to avi.old(or anything else the point is to not have it used). The Bink player used in the opening video causes some serious stability issues for almost everyone.

Second make sure you close ALL other programs running in the background. I don't know much about specfic parts and pieces so I can't comment on your system but on my old one I had to shut down everything including my antivirus to run the HOI2 and it was a bit slow.

You can also delete the sunk ships and history log from your save game file to help with speed.

 

[unmerged(107768)]

It seems to me that Arma 1.2 is causing more problems for alot of people than what it is solving. Just an observation. I recommend running 1.1 myself.
I'd rather have a bugged game than an incredibly slow one.

 

[unmerged(50618)]

Sorry man... it's you and not the game. I have a plain 'old computer... nothing special and the 1.2 has NEVER crashed on me and I've played it for over a hundred hours. Try cleaning up your computer and making sure you have a clean install. That means deleting any old register keys you may have from older version installs.

 

[unmerged(107768)]

Sorry man... it's you and not the game.

Was that a reference to me or him? It does sound like it is more probable to be a hardware issue than a software one though. Or it could be operator error......

 

[cmstea0]

i'm not sure who he was referring to. i actually just put this game on a new HDD that gets defragged once a week. there are no old registry keys. the key point that people seem to miss is that ARMA 1.2 RUNS ABOUT 33% AS FAST AS MY OLD DD 1.X. it's not my computer, it's not my anti-virus, or whatever. when DD runs fine and ARMA doesn't, the issue is obviously something with ARMA. it's a shame, because it's a decent enough mod, but i'm not going to mess with it anymore because i can't stand to play it. on Extremely Fast mode it takes almost 10 minutes to go from 1936 to 1937. that's ridiculous. my old 400 MHz computer ran hearts of iron 1 faster than that in 2002.

so my question was, does anyone have any suggestions to speed up my game play? have i configured something incorrectly? does anyone else have the same issue with ARMA causing things to be much slower?

 

[unmerged(107768)]

I don't really know what to say but that I think there's limits to all software, that hardware just cant push. I think you might have expected too much out of this new computer, and when you didn't get what you wanted - you blame the software. The game can only run so fast. I have a game that requires 4Mb of RAM, a Pentium 1, and a 2Mb graphics card and it doesn't make the high speed any higher whether I install it on my brand new desktop with a Gig and a quarter of RAM, 2.4Ghz processor, and a 512Mb graphics card or my antique Toshiba from the early 90's. It takes me about 5 or 10 minutes to advance a year in the game, but why would you want to go any faster? You wouldn't have time to strategize - to work out a plan - to even think - if it went any faster. I don't think there's a solution to your problem. Because I fail to see that there IS a problem.

 

[coreymas]

i'm not sure who he was referring to. i actually just put this game on a new HDD that gets defragged once a week. there are no old registry keys. the key point that people seem to miss is that ARMA 1.2 RUNS ABOUT 33% AS FAST AS MY OLD DD 1.X. it's not my computer, it's not my anti-virus, or whatever. when DD runs fine and ARMA doesn't, the issue is obviously something with ARMA. it's a shame, because it's a decent enough mod, but i'm not going to mess with it anymore because i can't stand to play it. on Extremely Fast mode it takes almost 10 minutes to go from 1936 to 1937. that's ridiculous. my old 400 MHz computer ran hearts of iron 1 faster than that in 2002.

so my question was, does anyone have any suggestions to speed up my game play? have i configured something incorrectly? does anyone else have the same issue with ARMA causing things to be much slower?

If you are trying to compare Doomsday performance with Arma performance then you are comparing apples to oranges.

Arma has so many more features, an improved more comprehensive AI that cause it to perform slower than its older Doomsday brother.

Care to share your computer stats? (via DXDiag)

 

[unmerged(107768)]

Arma has so many more features, an improved more comprehensive AI that cause it to perform slower than its older Doomsday brother.

Thank you for saying so. I couldn't find the right words to explain it in a paragraph and you found a way to do it in a sentence. Much appreciation.

 

[unmerged(107768)]

my old 400 MHz computer ran hearts of iron 1 faster than that in 2002.

And OF COURSE it ran HOI1 faster. HOI was, in my opinion, a rather loose concept of the later games, and has many fundamental flaws (such as a weak AI, lower graphics, and less complex programming). All of which made it such an easy game to run. I had an HP 600mHz with 256 RAM and it ran HOI like there was no tomorrow, but the moment I got past 1938 on HOI2 DD, it l-a-g-g-e-d. It's a much more fundamentally complex game.

 

[cmstea0]

I don't think there's a solution to your problem. Because I fail to see that there IS a problem.

if you had said that at the beginning i could have ignored your post and saved some time. i'm not interested in your game, your old computer, or what you think is the appropriate speed setting for playing the game. that doesn't help solve my problem, and is therefore a waste of our time. i'm aware that HoI1 is fundamentally different from Arma1.2, as my current computer is fundamentally different from the one i had in 2002. i was attempting to illustrate a point and apparently i failed.

Arma has so many more features, an improved more comprehensive AI that cause it to perform slower than its older Doomsday brother.
Care to share your computer stats? (via DXDiag)

sure!
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz
Memory: 2048MB
DirectX 9.0c
Windows XP Professional (5.1 Build 2600)

In a test run of DD1.3a and Arma 1.2 i loaded as USA 1936GC and let the game run for 1 week. Arma1.2 took 22.XX seconds, and DD1.3a took 14.XX seconds. A similar run as Commie China in the 1944 scenario produced similar results, over a minute to progress 1 week in Arma1.2 and less than a minute to progress in DD1.3a.

Despite the advice of people that seem to think i'm not supposed to play the game faster, i really enjoy playing on EF setting and the slow speeds in Arma are driving me nuts. If you say the performance difference is due to more advanced AI, and that's it, then i guess i'll have to cope.

i hope HOI3 runs faster!

 

[unmerged(107768)]

In a test run of DD1.3a and Arma 1.2 i loaded as USA 1936GC and let the game run for 1 week. Arma1.2 took 22.XX seconds, and DD1.3a took 14.XX seconds. A similar run as Commie China in the 1944 scenario produced similar results, over a minute to progress 1 week in Arma1.2 and less than a minute to progress in DD1.3a.

You're making a fuss over a few seconds that you have to wait. That's what's wasting our time. I only answered this post because I thought it was dreadfully slow and unbelievably unplayable. It's seems though that I only answered a post to someone who was just being hard to please because they didn't understand that a more complex game would run slower. The software will only run as fast as the programmer designed it to be run. All the fancy bells and whistles in the world won't make it run faster. It sounds like it is running just fine to me, and I've had this game since it came out and easily have a few thousand hours spent playing it - therefore I feel that I have the right to say that I fail to see a problem. And next time you post and would like someone to help you, try and use some manners. I was only making a reference with my parable about my old computers and games and there was no need to be so hostile and rude toward the person trying to help you.

 

[coreymas]

if you had said that at the beginning i could have ignored your post and saved some time. i'm not interested in your game, your old computer, or what you think is the appropriate speed setting for playing the game. that doesn't help solve my problem, and is therefore a waste of our time. i'm aware that HoI1 is fundamentally different from Arma1.2, as my current computer is fundamentally different from the one i had in 2002. i was attempting to illustrate a point and apparently i failed.



sure!
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz
Memory: 2048MB
DirectX 9.0c
Windows XP Professional (5.1 Build 2600)

In a test run of DD1.3a and Arma 1.2 i loaded as USA 1936GC and let the game run for 1 week. Arma1.2 took 22.XX seconds, and DD1.3a took 14.XX seconds. A similar run as Commie China in the 1944 scenario produced similar results, over a minute to progress 1 week in Arma1.2 and less than a minute to progress in DD1.3a.

Despite the advice of people that seem to think i'm not supposed to play the game faster, i really enjoy playing on EF setting and the slow speeds in Arma are driving me nuts. If you say the performance difference is due to more advanced AI, and that's it, then i guess i'll have to cope.

i hope HOI3 runs faster!

What you are experienceing is completely normal..... and as i said is due to an improved more complex AI, more complex game system etc.

Now there is the Ghost Fleet issue in Arma that does seriously effect performance... this was partially resolved in 1.2 and could be having an effect on performance.

Now if you read your original post you were saying that things ran twice as long ...but in your own test you did not reproduce that. 50% slower for all the AI stuff is not great... but it is not exactly game breaking.

Also no where have i seen you tell us about the Crash Prone part.... please explain when this happens (so that we can better diagnose the issue)

I am not trying to be confrontational here.... just trying to assist you in getting a better experience out of your game.

 

[coreymas]

It seems to me that Arma 1.2 is causing more problems for alot of people than what it is solving. Just an observation. I recommend running 1.1 myself.
I'd rather have a bugged game than an incredibly slow one.

I would recommend that you go with 1.2.... at least an attempt to solve the Ghost fleet issue was made there.

 

[unmerged(107768)]

I would recommend that you go with 1.2.... at least an attempt to solve the Ghost fleet issue was made there.

You can just swap the palette files from DD to Armageddon and that fixes it without 1.2. But you have to know what you are doing. You can also download Bebros newer skins with the new palette files which also will fix the problem and give you 3-D units. (Which look alot better if you ask me.) I didn't see a crash part either. I was thinking the same thing. He did, however, say it was giving him an appcompat message or something of the like.

 

[cmstea0]

*sigh*
man, stop trolling me. i'm not trying to hurt your feelings. i'm just saying, as diplomatically as i know how, that the things you are saying are not in any way useful in addressing the issue that i have been posting about. i'll say it again, i don't care if you're happy with the speed at which the game runs on my computer. that's not the point. if the only response you can muster is "well, it seems fine to me" then please stop posting and just accept that we have a difference of opinion.

would a kind mod mind deleting this post and any other that doesn't address the specific topic of this thread? thx in advance.

 

[cmstea0]

crash prone:
as in first post, often there are crashes when left clicking to perform an action. it isn't recurrent or repeatable, but is semi-frequent (1x / 2 hours). there are also the usual CTDs upon game exit but that's nothing new.


disabling bink video does not solve the problem.

 

[coreymas]

You can just swap the palette files from DD to Armageddon and that fixes it without 1.2. But you have to know what you are doing. You can also download Bebros newer skins with the new palette files which also will fix the problem and give you 3-D units. (Which look alot better if you ask me.) I didn't see a crash part either. I was thinking the same thing. He did, however, say it was giving him an appcompat message or something of the like.

Kellister,

The "Ghost fleet issue" i am refering to is not graphic related... it refers to the ai creating mulitple empty fleets.

cmstea0

I also occasionally get the end of game crash (right where the victory screen should come up instead CTD)

I dont think that you consider that to be game breaking.

However some of the other CTD's that you are referring to are known. While not pleasant they do happen. A major one is when you try to select a unit aboard a transport....

Did you look at the thread marked Cumulative 1.2 bug list.... are the CTD's that you are getting listed there. If you get a CTD that is not listed there i recommend posting the case there....

Also hold out hope for a fix....

 

[unmerged(107768)]

Kellister,

The "Ghost fleet issue" i am refering to is not graphic related... it refers to the ai creating mulitple empty fleets.

Oh, in that case I withdraw my statement. I was mistaken as I talked to another person with the graphics problem and that was his choice of words to refer to the subject. I apologize. Also, I apologize for wasting the person's time who asked about this whole thing. I only tried to reply with the best answers I knew, and I'm sorry that none of them were helpful.