'Video memory' setting causes artifacts

[Guy123]

When Playing the game on all 'very high' settings, I noticed a serious lag in textures loading. As a very graphically motivated person, this was really killing my enjoyment of the game. I was trying everything to stop it, but couldn't find a fix.

Until I read on the forums, while looking up an answer for my CTD error, that by setting the 'Video memory' setting to 'Default', ArmA2 would make full use of my graphics card (1gb).

I noticed the differences immediately, and everything was gravy... for about five minutes.

Then I started getting SERIOUS graphical artifacts:

1.Lol (http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2992/lolatf.jpg)

2.Uber Lagggg! (http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/5701/lame.jpg)

What is strange is that the game runs perfectly, really high fps, until the artifacts start appearing. The artifacts generally start as invisible soldiers/models. And very quickly it escalates into full screen flickering and unplayable lag.

From my experience, Artifacts are generally caused by graphics cards overheating. However, this only happens when the video memory setting is changed. I can set everything else to 'very high' and graphics memory to 'high' and it works perfectly (just takes way too long to load textures, and I end up spending more time in the binoculars sorting out the lods (forcing them to appear) than enjoying the game).

Here are my system specs:

Windows XP SP3
AMD Athlon 7750 dual core- black edition
ATI Radeon 4870 - 1gb (not overclocked)
4GB DDR2 (800mhz) - Geil black dragon RAM
plenty of hard drive space

ArmA settings:

All - Very high
Video memory - default

When I put all settings to 'high' I notice that it takes about five minutes longer for the artifacts to appear, but they are the same, and still severe.

[ThePainkiller]

what driver do you use for your 4870?

[Hund]

I have the exact same problem. Though I am not entirely sure, I think the issue may have arrived with patch 1.01, since I don't recall having any such problems before applying the patch.

My problems however, are not nearly as severe as the above mentioned. I mainly get a drop in frames (to 10-15) and sections of the ground starts to change from textured to untextured rapidly. The issue goes away upon leaving a game and going back to the editor, but then appears again after a few minutes.

[Guy123]

what driver do you use for your 4870?

I have the very latest drivers (unless Ati have updated them in the last three days).


Though I am not entirely sure, I think the issue may have arrived with patch 1.01

I wish I had a way of checking, sadly I wasn't aware of the 'video memory "default"' feature until this evening.

[callihn]

Yep, same thing here using the latest patch and the latest ATI drivers with all my settings on the lower end of the scale since I have a HD3650. I found that I can Alt+Tab out of the game and back in to fix it, though that's not too helpful when your flying.

Systems specs:

Windows XP SP3 fully patch to date
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850E dual core 2.5Ghz
ATI Radeon 3650 - 512MD GDDR4 (not overclocked)
2GB DDR2 (800mhz) - PNY XLR8 4-4-4-12
Seagate SATA II with plenty of hard drive space

ARMA II 1.05:

version=2;
blood=1;
singleVoice=0;
anisoFilter=1;
TexQuality=1;
TexMemory=1;
useWBuffer=0;
tripleHead=0;
shadingQuality=7;
shadowQuality=3;

floatingZoneArea=0;

sceneComplexity=150000;
viewDistance=1600.0001;
terrainGrid=50;

gamma=1;
brightness=1;

adapter=-1;
3D_Performance=48387;
Resolution_Bpp=32;
Resolution_W=1024;
Resolution_H=768;
refresh=60;
winX=16;
winY=32;
winW=800;
winH=600;
winDefW=1024;
winDefH=768;
Render_W=1024;
Render_H=768;
FSAA=0;
postFX=0;
GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;
HDRPrecision=8;
lastDeviceId="";
localVRAM=536870912;
nonlocalVRAM=256638976;
Windowed=0;

[kklownboy]

slow loads.... Faster HHD? SSD, Ramdisk, or try using Proper lod mods from kju.

[Bulldogs]

This sounds like it's an issue with reading the amount of memory your video card has. Basically I think it's detecting that it has more memory than it does and it's running out of memory and having no where to store the extra textures.

By looking at Calihn's post it looks like it's detecting his video ram correctly (around 512 with buffer space), but I'm not sure about the non-local VRAM (meant to be a segment of the page file). It's detecting 256mb which isn't enough for anything really. Check your page files, you may have to set manual sizes. The error could also be somewhere else but it's a place to start.

[Makake]

same here. it's a ati 4850 on my side. getting increasing amount of artifacts and monocolored shapes after about a minute of play - then freeze - sometimes BSOD. No problems with other games though. Seems old arma 1 problems persist. any help?

[Bulldogs]

Does changing the video memory settings to high or very high help?

[NiKuTa]

same problem.
Radeon 5850 1gb - drivers 10.6

With V.H. or H all works "perfect" but with default setting I got artefacts after some time of playing.

Any solution ?

[No Use For A Name]

same problem.
Radeon 5850 1gb - drivers 10.6

With V.H. or H all works "perfect" but with default setting I got artefacts after some time of playing.

Any solution ?

Uhhh, then use what works and set it to High or Very High....

[@ST]

same problem.
Radeon 5850 1gb - drivers 10.6

With V.H. or H all works "perfect" but with default setting I got artefacts after some time of playing.

Any solution ?

I have the same card and default works best, doesn´t matter which driver version (currently 10.12a).
On other settings I get slow loading LOD´s.
(Have you tried setting everything to default in CCC and deleting your ArmA configfile when you installed a new driver?)
and btw patch your game to latest beta ;)

[TeilX]

Same prob. Ati user :(

[rowdied]

I had the same problems with my 4870x2 using default but when I switched it to high or very high I had no problems.

Using my 5870 now and setting it to default, no problems.

ATI is funny.

[JumpingHubert]

I have these heavy artefacts with GTX570 using default memory settings on winxp 32-bit. Same settings on win7-64-bit without artefacts. Strange. Latest arrowhead-beta used.

[bernatseals]

same problem Aty HD 4770.where to patch to fix this.I am to throw the game away if not fixed soon

[Beagle]

same problem Aty HD 4770.where to patch to fix this.I am to throw the game away if not fixed soonGo and trow it away immediately... And don't forget to delete your forums account. Or simply READ!!!

I repeat it just for you since you obviously cant scroll posts...Use high instead of default in video memory setting.

[HR4 Elite]

I think it’s a problem with the game, I have the Sapphire 5850 2gb toxic card (OC) which will handle the game quite easily on VH settings, but recently have found occasionally that units I have set to player or playable have arrived with body parts invisible, not uniform or weapon just the body parts, I have the JSDF mod and that had the same problem with the 0.5ton V whichever 4x4 vehicle open top model, loaded the tyres and dash the rest was invisible even had the driver so looked really funny, however if I put another vehicle on first before placing the JSDF model I would not get the problem (who knows) but it has been sorted since last update from JSDF.
The problem with the other appears now and then but not very often., I don't have problems with the terrain that all seems to load fine just the occasional invisible unit, if I could get them to take the uniform off it would be really handy for covert missions…....

It’s the game...they can tinkle about with it a little too much.. imo...

'Beagle' don't bother to answer any of my posts, until you get some manners..


.

[bernatseals]

beagle who the hell are you to.:confused: tell me to delete my account. shut up...

[@ST]

Well, he´s a respected member of this community while you still gotta earn your stripes
and he answered just with the same extremeness like you when you threatened to 'throw away the game' :rolleyes:
btw have you actually tried setting video memory to high or very high? :)

[mrcash2009]

After making the changes, in your documents / Arma2 folder rename the file:

ArmA2OA.cfg

To something else like ArmA2OA.cfg_OLD

Load the game and let it re create this, then at the menu exit the game.

Then edit the fresh created ArmA2OA.cfg in a text editor and just re set your ATOC setting and Vsync (if you need to) ..

Vsync off and atoc off for me which are below (obviously set them to how you had them previously, if your not sure edit the renamed config and copy the lines out):



vsync=0;
AToC=0;If your not sure about it heres all the info on the config and ATOC settings:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/arma2.cfg

ATOC is basicly the smooth grass/tree edges that can effect FPS (side issue but thought id mention it all).

Load the game after all that and see how you go & test it out.

The reason I say this is recently I have patched arma2 to 1.10 and also have had 4 or so beta tests added over time and I have changed vid mem settings twice, and things were getting a touch laggy with artifacts LOD load, after doing this FPS sorted it self out and most LOD/artifacts.

This isnt a myth (tried and tested many times) and wont cock up your entire config this is just for video setup, any change/patch/beta try this, mem values written here always change per change/rewrite of that config file. Its something I always do to "refresh" things after a number of changes esp with video settings and post new patches.

BTW this applies to Arma2 only without Combined ops, just no "OA" config.

This might not fix your issue as it could be something else, but def try this along side everything else, or at least first.