ArmA Graphics Problem

[newbieboka]

Hello everyone. I suspect this is an overheating problem, but I'm not entirely sure and I'd just like you all to get a chace to get your two cents in. Anyway. I play for a little while on whatever settings, lower settings means I can play longer, but eventually I get artifacts and wierd elements across my screen as illustrated
Here (http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/4493/graphicstx7.jpg)

System
Intel Core 2 CPU 6600 with 2,40GHz x2
2 GB of Ram
Nvidia 7950GT
Creative Xfi Platinum
ArmA 1.05
DirectX 9.0C

[Karsoesa]

yep! I've had that problem since I changed from ADM to intel. And I really trusted that, ATI or Intel would release a hotfix that will fix the problem but no...

My lineup
Intel pentium Core 2 CPU 6600 with 2,40GHz x2
2 GB of ram
x800GT radeon
320GT Seagate.

And I'm so tired to wait those updates and hotfixes. So I'm going to get a REAL life and use some lot of alcohol and enjoyl the life like everyone should do! http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/notworthy.gif

[Kode]

This might be caused by overheating, but also by overclocking. Can you check the temperature of your GPU? and also, do you overclock it?

[newbieboka]

I actually just checked, and it's 60' Celcius and No, I've not overclocked it.

[m0nkm0nk]

is it only in arma? or does other games have?

[newbieboka]

I havent seen it happen in any other game except maybe once in CoH

[newbieboka]

Bump

[terrasidius]

I have this problem too! mines runs ok then all of a sudden crazy stuff happens, textures turn to s**t et cetera. HELP. Also ive just patched it to 1.8 and same stuff. heres my set-up:

Vista home premium 32x
Intel Core 2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz 2.13GHz
2 gig of memory
Nvidia gforce 7900gs 512mb

I think maybe its got something to do with dual core and vista, anyone? i REALLY wanna play this game properly, and the annoying thing is it used to work fine on this very same rig but when i patched the first time to 1.5 i think, it totally started to go crazy, why??

[Mr_Tea]

The Vista drivers are still far from perfect.
Because of that it can turn out bad, if you do something that would normally improve the game. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

[BroK3n]

Aye. After 1.08 and setting textures to default, I got that spiky graphical glitch as well. Then Arma crashed.

No overcloking, no overheating. Same as i left it with 1.05+.

[Easy_tiger]

In in the same boat and its not caused by GPU overheating!


The handle leak is now sorted but the gfx bug isnt! aaaargh

a ALT-TAB, screen res or refresh rate change will get rid of it for a bit but it will be back....

[neildood]

Yea i have similar spec as you guys and after patching started to play expecting to sort out the texture bug but no, still no joy http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/mad_o.gif Still get the problem that building textures or trees after time become bland and lifeless, i only have vista as it is a new prebuilt machine and still having these problems.

Ive tried all the recomended posts (drivers/maxmem etc, ect) on how to fix but still doesnt run properly, vista and armed assault= not compatible at moment.
Other games i have (which is many) run fine so this will have to go back on the shelf.

Very dissapointed...

[terrasidius]

Totally man, i have a prebuilt machine too, upgraded cus i thought id need a better one to play arma and say Crysis when that comes out, what a sad irony!

I think bottom line like you said vista arma just dont like each other but i also think its got something to do with arma not liking dual core aswell maybe, at least PC Gamer said something along those lines when it reviewed it. So frustrating cus its an awesome game.

Im still very confused about it working before i patched it, i think ill just reboot and not patch it at all then get back to you and tell you guys if that works, stupid situation but thats the way it is i guess. BI need to get their s**t sorted. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

[Enzoblue]

I'm on WinXP and have this same problem, so it doesn't necessarily mean it's a Vista issue.

Dual core Pentium D with a 7900GT, latest WHQL.

[Jtec]

Its a 7 series problem as members of volcbat have the same issue since 1.08, Its results in a chrash too as im running a 7900gs and have crazy artifacts all over the place. only recommend updating to latest driver and having the -maxmem=512 in your shortcut.

Lets hope a hotfix can be introduced for us 7900 users

[Easy_tiger]

Hi

I mite have found a fix that works for me...

...which is killing the catalyst control console process tree (ccc.exe) before running ArmA.

i've been playing ArmA pretty much straight for the last 2hrs which is the longest so far without a gfx glitch/BSOD.

p4 3ghz
1gb pc3200 ram (dual paging)
sapphire x1950 pro 512Mb AGP
ATI 7.5 hotfixed catalyst drivers


p.s i also found that disabling the CCC unlocked a load more screen resolutions and refresh rates in ArmA , so i tried 80-100hz whilst testing without problem. This may be related to the fix or may not.

[anc]

i posted this in the troubleshooting thread:
"At first i thought that this was a good patch, but i was wrong =(
This was supposed to be an AH1:
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/7773/arma2007061115431286ah5.jpg
This was supposed to be a Striker:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3299/arma2007061118544784gy1.jpg
I never had this bug before.
And as you can see the performace is far from good =("

[Switch0r]

LOL

Thats are some nice pictures http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/rofl.gif

I hope they fix it for you , i dont have any problem

[Kango]

Hi

I mite have found a fix that works for me...

...which is killing the catalyst control console process tree (ccc.exe) before running ArmA.

i've been playing ArmA pretty much straight for the last 2hrs which is the longest so far without a gfx glitch/BSOD.

p4 3ghz
1gb pc3200 ram (dual paging)
sapphire x1950 pro 512Mb AGP
ATI 7.5 hotfixed catalyst drivers


p.s i also found that disabling the CCC unlocked a load more screen resolutions and refresh rates in ArmA , so i tried 80-100hz whilst testing without problem. This may be related to the fix or may not.
I returned 2 of those cards after they both eventually started glitching and gradually got worse , artifacts even showing on the boot up screen,
Of course later versions were maybe fixed, but looking between the card and cover plate you could see gaps between some of the chips and the thermal pads.

Eventually upgraded my motherboard and got a X1950pro ultimate PCI Express, better cooling.

[nominesine]

Same problem With:
Intel Dual Core 6600, (2.40GHz x2), running on Vista
4 GB of Ram
Nvidia 7950GT
ArmA 1.08
DirectX 9

I've also noticed that after these graphical problems starts, I cannot quit ArmA without Ctrl+Alt+Del. The game runs fine (except for the graphical glitches) but refuses to let me shut it down.

[Switch0r]

Go to your documents :
Delete or rename ***/arma/arma.cfg
Delete or rename ***/arma/yourname.cfg
Start the game and set settings
The game will make a fresh one
Try this if you have problems:
-Shading details set on very low (fix performance)
-Shadows , turn them off (fix performance, and you see the enemy better http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/tounge2.gif )
Do not set : run on xp if you have vista

i have no problems with Vista Ultimated 64Bit
Most my settings or all on normal only ff and aa are on high with 1280x1024 75Hz

[Jtec]

Its a shame you have to put lower settings on to play the game that would normally easily run at higher settings. Im gonna try putting my textures onto normal now instead of default to see if that stops me chrashing (the maxmem has stopped the artifacts so thats one good thing) http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif

[terrasidius]

Hey guys http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif what is this 'maxmem' i keep hearing about, could it help? could you tell me what to do lol ive never heard of it, i guess it means maximum memory but what memory and what do you do? thanks http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif

[castun]

I was able to fix the problem by getting newer drivers. The latest official nvidia drivers for the 79xx cards were version 94.24. After installing them, I still had graphical glitches and artifacting going on.

Then heard that you can still use the 88xx drivers, such as the 158s. I uninstalled the old drivers, ran the driver cleaner program, then used these drivers instead and the game runs great, no more problems.

I run WinXP 32bit also...

[bubbacat]

I have x1950 Radeon and guess what.. still crashes. Im selling this damn pos game on ebay if they dont fix it.

[gabgab]

Same glitches here but I'm refusing to downgrade drivers or anything else on my rig. Waiting for next patch or fix http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

[KneeTrembler]

Also now getting the problem. Game plays for 5 mins or so then atrefacts before CTD.

Spec is:

AMD X2 4200+
2GB RAM
Geforce 7900GT 256MB

Oddly, I was getting a falling frame rate, then I cleaned all my fans thinking it could be an overheating problem, now the FPS is maintained but the game crashes.

This only happens in ArmA. Nvidia's stress test works fine.

Strange.

KT

[Mr Reality]

Aye. After 1.08 and setting textures to default, I got that spiky graphical glitch as well. Then Arma crashed.

No overcloking, no overheating. Same as i left it with 1.05+.
Thankgod i'm not alone with this issue. The exact same thing happened to me. I've just left my textures on high and i've not had the problem again.

Whats that default setting supposed to do anyway, apart from totaly f**k up your game that is.

[Mak]

I have an 8800GTS 640MB and I'm getting this texture bug which TOTALS my FPS majorly. It's not just the 7000 series.

[JasonO]

Hey guys http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif what is this 'maxmem' i keep hearing about, could it help? could you tell me what to do lol ive never heard of it, i guess it means maximum memory but what memory and what do you do? thanks http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
It limits the amount of memory used by ArmA. Gives a performance increase to most people who use it correctly.

To use you edit your ArmA shortcut so you have
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">....Bohemia Interactive&#92;ArmA&#92;arma.exe&#34; -maxmem=512[/QUOTE]

I believe that using half of your RAM works best.

[Skip_Moniker]

I had similar graphics degradation. I tried many different settings and drivers. Two things finally fixed it for me; I disabled (unchecked) write combining in the advanced display properties > troubleshooting. Then, in the nVidia control panel I set up program specific settings for ArmA and changed the &#39;Force mipmaps&#39; to &#39;None&#39;. That completely cured it. Don&#39;t know why it worked because I had both set that way before, but just not at the same time. No other settings or combinations of settings made any difference...for me.

AMD 64 Athlon 4000+
Biostar 6100 micro ATX
Corsair 2GB
BFG 7800GTX
Audigy 4
WinXP

[Danbri]

old problems I´m afraid:
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=55868 (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=68;t=55868)

I have had this problems since 1.04 straight out of the box. I think its driver related because lately i have had the same artifacts in Medieval 2 (but very little).
I also think i remember this problem with OFP for a short while before i updated the drivers back then.
We had a person from ATI (under the name crossfire) here a while ago and i mailed him about this problem. He would look into it but i haven heard anything since.

P4 2.8c
ATI X800pro
Audigy 2
1gb ram
etc.

[pyro16]

this game is unplayable, so many problems.

1. game freezes very often for about 3 seconds at a time.

2. when playing, graphics have not fully loaded, some objects look basic (square wheels, that sort of stuff)

3. someitmes when loaded, it looks ike someone has exploded a tin of paint
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=55868 (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=68;t=55868)

just like this, but everything does it.

4. when loading, it crashes. (probably 3 times out of 10)

im sure theres more problems, but ive played it for 5mins and gave up. is there any fixes.

ive also patched up to the latest, which i think is 1.08.

apart from that, and when the game runs well, the looks are amazing, but thats when it goes well, very rare.

[Jtec]

this game is unplayable, so many problems.

1. game freezes very often for about 3 seconds at a time.

2. when playing, graphics have not fully loaded, some objects look basic (square wheels, that sort of stuff)

3. someitmes when loaded, it looks ike someone has exploded a tin of paint
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=55868 (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=68;t=55868)

just like this, but everything does it.

4. when loading, it crashes. (probably 3 times out of 10)

im sure theres more problems, but ive played it for 5mins and gave up. is there any fixes.

ive also patched up to the latest, which i think is 1.08.

apart from that, and when the game runs well, the looks are amazing, but thats when it goes well, very rare.
Try using the -maxmem=512 in your shortcut target if you havent already tried. Also make sure your graphic settings are not on default.

[pyro16]

whats maxmem512? cant find it.

[gumby123]

those pics remind me of transformers somehow

[pchaxor]

whats maxmem512? cant find it.
Check page 2 of this thread. This has already been discussed.


Also ... it may help to use this command in game, when things start getting "choppy"

<L> <SHIFT> + <NUMPAD> <-> then type &#39;FLUSH&#39;

This clears vRam and may prevent a crash or clear particles/warping.
If this fixes your problem, then it will be clear to you that it is your video card/driver and not your OS or another variable.

[afforever]

i have nvidia 8800GTX 320MB, and yes this help it http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

thank you

[Mak]

whats maxmem512? cant find it.
Check page 2 of this thread. This has already been discussed.


Also ... it may help to use this command in game, when things start getting "choppy"

<L> <SHIFT> + <NUMPAD> <-> then type &#39;FLUSH&#39;

This clears vRam and may prevent a crash or clear particles/warping.
If this fixes your problem, then it will be clear to you that it is your video card/driver and not your OS or another variable.
This does NOT work. I am running the specs in my signature and doing this command does Activate "FLUSH". However, it doesn&#39;t fix the texture bug, it only resets the Video RAM or whatever it&#39;s doing.

I have reinstalled ArmA 5 times now and downloaded 5 1.08 patches from different sites and I am STILL getting this texture bug which drops my Frames Per Second to a condition where it is UNPLAYABLE.

I&#39;m going to go to my last resort and reinstall Windows XP, because there is nothing else I can do. My graphics card and drivers work fine with any other game, in fact they work extremely well. The only problem I am having is with ArmA&#39;s 1.08 PATCH ONLY&#33;

[AUS_Twisted]

whats maxmem512? cant find it.
Check page 2 of this thread. This has already been discussed.


Also ... it may help to use this command in game, when things start getting "choppy"

<L> <SHIFT> + <NUMPAD> <-> then type &#39;FLUSH&#39;

This clears vRam and may prevent a crash or clear particles/warping.
If this fixes your problem, then it will be clear to you that it is your video card/driver and not your OS or another variable.
This does NOT work. ***I am running the specs in my signature and doing this command does Activate "FLUSH". ***However, it doesn&#39;t fix the texture bug, it only resets the Video RAM or whatever it&#39;s doing.

I have reinstalled ArmA 5 times now and downloaded 5 1.08 patches from different sites and I am STILL getting this texture bug which drops my Frames Per Second to a condition where it is UNPLAYABLE.

I&#39;m going to go to my last resort and reinstall Windows XP, because there is nothing else I can do. ***My graphics card and drivers work fine with any other game, in fact they work extremely well. ***The only problem I am having is with ArmA&#39;s 1.08 PATCH ONLY&#33;
No dont bother reinstalling windows that wont help, it&#39;s clearly a problem with the 1.08 patch, using the 1.07 patch doesn&#39;t have these texture issues.

[Mak]

whats maxmem512? cant find it.
Check page 2 of this thread. This has already been discussed.


Also ... it may help to use this command in game, when things start getting "choppy"

<L> <SHIFT> + <NUMPAD> <-> then type &#39;FLUSH&#39;

This clears vRam and may prevent a crash or clear particles/warping.
If this fixes your problem, then it will be clear to you that it is your video card/driver and not your OS or another variable.
This does NOT work. I am running the specs in my signature and doing this command does Activate "FLUSH". However, it doesn&#39;t fix the texture bug, it only resets the Video RAM or whatever it&#39;s doing.

I have reinstalled ArmA 5 times now and downloaded 5 1.08 patches from different sites and I am STILL getting this texture bug which drops my Frames Per Second to a condition where it is UNPLAYABLE.

I&#39;m going to go to my last resort and reinstall Windows XP, because there is nothing else I can do. My graphics card and drivers work fine with any other game, in fact they work extremely well. The only problem I am having is with ArmA&#39;s 1.08 PATCH ONLY&#33;
No dont bother reinstalling windows that wont help, it&#39;s clearly a problem with the 1.08 patch, using the 1.07 patch doesn&#39;t have these texture issues.
Thanks and I believe you are right. It seems like an isolated problem I guess (1.08).

Oh well, I hope BIS gets this fixed soon, because they might risk losing players if it becomes a long duration.

[shadowstep]

Sorry, but ArmA is UNPLAYABLE. I tried everything, this game is f* up.
C2D E6400
8800GTX
2GB Geil 800MHz
Vista HP x64

[terrasidius]

Hey guys http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif what is this &#39;maxmem&#39; i keep hearing about, could it help? could you tell me what to do lol ive never heard of it, i guess it means maximum memory but what memory and what do you do? thanks http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
It limits the amount of memory used by ArmA. Gives a performance increase to most people who use it correctly.

To use you edit your ArmA shortcut so you have
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">....Bohemia Interactive&#92;ArmA&#92;arma.exe&#34; -maxmem=512

I believe that using half of your RAM works best.[/QUOTE]
Awesome, thanks , ill give it a try, i have 2gig ram so i would use say 1gig for game?

[Sniperdoc]

whats maxmem512? cant find it.
Check page 2 of this thread. This has already been discussed.


Also ... it may help to use this command in game, when things start getting "choppy"

<L> <SHIFT> + <NUMPAD> <-> then type &#39;FLUSH&#39;

This clears vRam and may prevent a crash or clear particles/warping.
If this fixes your problem, then it will be clear to you that it is your video card/driver and not your OS or another variable.

Well, actually it doesn&#39;t make it clear that it&#39;s the video card. They have the same flush command in America&#39;s Army.

All that the flush command does, is dump memory blocks that aren&#39;t being used anymore in the video memory. This is something that:

1. Can be caused by poor driver design.
2. Can also be caused by poor programming on the game developers part.

So, to just blow it off to the video card is erroneous.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed by Bohemia Interactive with nVidia or ATI.

I&#39;d like to see the stats on which make of card has been more successful at running ArmA... nVidia or ATI?

[Sniperdoc]

Awesome, thanks , ill give it a try, i have 2gig ram so i would use say 1gig for game?
I would actually use your Task Manager to see how much physical memory is being used (do not include the pagefile - it should be a static size anyways).

Make sure that ArmA is not running while you&#39;re checking that.

Then check to see how much physical memory is being used by ArmA by checking the Task Manager with ArmA running.

You don&#39;t want to go over the amount of free physical memory when you put in the maxmem= amount. I&#39;d leave a buffer of 256 or 128MB...

Just my thoughts...

MW

[ArmaVidz]

Would it not be smart to open the task manager, go the performance tab and see how many MB&#39;s of RAM you are using on just your desktop, then adjust the remainder of the RAM amount for the maxmem option?

I.e.: I have 2048 MB&#39;s of ram. My desktop UI uses 247MB&#39;s, 2048-247=1801

1801 minus by error margin=1536MB

Now, can ARMA fully use 1536MB&#39;s? I don&#39;t have my G15 keyboard anymore so I can&#39;t see CPU/Mem usage while the game is loaded and playing.

There seems to be some strange occurances in the "streaming" that ARMA is supposed to do. I don&#39;t see much hard drive activity compared to the amount of distance I am moving in-game. If I understand correctly the engine uses a grid of terrain, and a circle is representative of the player, grids ahead, beside and behind the player are drawn, while previous grids are purged from memory. It&#39;d be nice to get some more info on this process so we can try to make it cache the upcoming data better.

I haven&#39;t seen ARMA use more than 900MB&#39;s of RAM, which is a waste imo.

[Sniperdoc]

Would it not be smart to open the task manager, go the performance tab and see how many MB&#39;s of RAM you are using on just your desktop, then adjust the remainder of the RAM amount for the maxmem option?
Yeah... I thought I said that... ? I wasn&#39;t clear I guess...


Quote[/b] ]
I haven&#39;t seen ARMA use more than 900MB&#39;s of RAM, which is a waste imo.

Yeah, I think so too.

[Mr. AG]

All nVidia 7x users need hotfixes in their heads&#33; ***http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/tounge2.gif
7x cards coolers are very very VERY gay design&#33; After 2-3 months of usage tons of dust gets between fan and radiator in enclosed compartment&#33; The card overheats as hell and you get lots of artifacts (like stated in first post), and in most games. (BTW, card tempo screening doesnt help alot, dunno why).
Already cleaned my 7900 and 2x friends 7900 coolers and goes perfectly&#33;
Unfortunately cleaning 7x coolers is not so easy, bu with little screwdriver everything is possible.
EDIT: vCore temperature can go quite high with no artifacts, unfortunately vMemmory gets very unstable in higher temps on 79xx&#39;s. Your vCore can go 60-70 heating whole card, but problems will be from vMemory as on 60-70 it starts crashing.