Kroky's amazing combination mod techniques and performance boosts

Korky has a set of mods in which he's fine-tunesd each mod to fit his particular needs and increase performance. This thread is to pick his brain.

Kroky's post on the subject from the SLX mod thread:

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Ok the answer how it works for me:

Arma2 1.05 with latest beta 63164

Mod load order:

-mod=beta;@@panthera;@cba;@ace;@ace_wounds;@acex;$$ acex_sm;@gl4;@jtd;@landtex;@modpack;@slx;@vf;@poen ;+bb;+rksl;@dsai_arab;@dsai_eng;@dsai_gen;@dsai_ru s;$$trsm_fixedwings;$$trsm_rotarywings;$$trsm_trac kedvehicles;$$trsm_wheeledvehicles;@nim_weather;r: \@@isladuala;r:\@proper;@mma -nosplash -world=empty

Ok some explanations:

1. ace_wounds is a .pbo which I made following the instructions of Sickboy, which initializes the ACE wounds system on every mission. (this is not an official ACE addon!)

2. $$acex_sm is basically the original ACEX_SM, but modified to get rotary wings sounds replacement by TRSM.

3. JTD folder includes: FAS, Flies, FatRain, ClearHorizons

4. The Modpack folder includes: CLAY_TopolkaDamFX, sakulightfx, Jon_Editorupdate_V1.3

5. poen is the Polish to English language patch.

6. I use different category of modfolders (with the Spirited Machine mod launcher) to have more overview:

- @@ folders are islands

- @ folders are important gameplay mods that I use on every game start

- $$ folders are sound mods

- + folders are Addons, that I only use for certain missions, where required

- ++ folders are Replacements packs, (for units i.e.)

- r:\ folders are running from RamDisk, for a much better performance and to

avoid LOD texture popping. Game runs much smoother.

7. Slx folder has only these pbo's:

- slx_ai

- slx_ai_dodge

- slx_ai_turnmove

- slx_aiskill

- slx_animals

- slx_bis_bc_fix

- slx_bis_xeh

- slx_cloud

- slx_dialogue

- slx_explosiondust

- slx_findcover

- slx_fov (thanks Solus for this, eventually somebody made a good fov)

- slx_helicopter_ai_fix

- slx_lights

- slx_mimics

- slx_netcode

- slx_ragdoll

- slx_shoteffects

- slx_shout

- slx_suppressioneffects

- slx_uav

- slx_vehicleeffects (this pbo probably fixed for me the ctd)

- slx_wounds

- slx_wounds_ais

8. r:\proper folder contains all the plants and building pbo's made by kju for better performance. Total 10 pbo's.

9. Intentionally left out, after testing:

- Zeus mod, WarFX (This mods conflict in one way or the other and costed me to much performance, compared to the benefit they brought to my mod mix.

Now the settings on GL4_Global:

- Reinforcements true, but reduced to 1 group (performance)

- Reinforcements courage, distance and delay tweaked for better performance

- Artillery set to false

- Air Strike set to true

- Smoke (Man, Tank) true

- Flare true

- House Search true

- Car Weapon true

- Helicopter Paradrop true

- Advancing true

- Suppressive Fire true, (I have to try to disable this since its in SLX already)

- Combat Tactics true

- Body Detect true

- AI detection true

- Rearm false (already running VFAI, which is by far better)

- AI Extraction true

- Body remove false

- Difficult level false, (some problems when true, with ACE)

- Enemy AI Idle true

- Enemy AI Garrison true

- Enemy AI Static Weapons true

- Enemy AI Surrender true (Maybe overlapping with SLX, have to check)

- Simulate Dead true

- Map Marker false

- Recruit true

- AI Advancing and Suppressed true

- Get In System false

Of course there probably could be made some more optimizations. I still work on a better mix between performace/gameplay. But right now, I'm very happy with it.

Hope this helps some people to get better gaming experience with all this super mod!

he, he I thought about creating a topic, but not only with my setting, but with the possibility that everybody can post his setting. So people could try out. Thank anyway mate!

Ok I have a question for you then. You seem to know a good handle on how to get conflicting mods to work together.

I've figured out what mods I want for what (and they're quite reminiscient of your selectino).

WarFX - for tracers.

JTD - for fire that spreads.

SLX - for talking and reactions, dismemberment, and a bunch of other nice thigns it does.

GL4 - for fire inside buildings, explosion effects, blood pools, burning damage to units, collateral damage.

TRSM - for his sounds.

Mando Missiles - for all his missile stuff.

Sakura - no blind and night lighting.

Ace2+ - cratering, damage values, & everything except the above that conflicts.

Not sure what AI I want to go with yet.

So... to try and just get one thing right... If I'm just running the ACE2 stuff and want to make sure TRSM sounds over-rides the ACE2 stuff... how do I do this effectively?

As I stated before in the Slx thread, this configuration makes my squadmates irgnore my orders and regroup randomly. Maybe someone knows a fix for this. It could be caused by some dependency issue.

Kroky, what kind fo performance difference do you find with the RAMdrive?

* Is it an actual increase in fps?

* If so, can you quantify how much?

* Or does it just load faster?

* The TRSM sound effects... if I have them listed in the launch code:

"D:\Games\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -noSplash -noFilePatching -showScriptErrors -mod=@CBA;@ACE;@ACEX;@ACEX_PLA;@ACEX_SM;@TRSM

Will TRSM sounds over-ride all the ACE sounds? I'm concenred since you didn't just do it the easy way, so maybe my way won't work?

* When you wrote this, "- Zeus mod, WarFX (This mods conflict in one way or the other and costed me to much performance, compared to the benefit they brought to my mod mix", were you referring to WarFX or Zeus, or both?

Thanks for all your help! :)

Generally this will work. Although it doesnt overwrite the heli sounds from ACE. So you have to put out the helicopter pbo from ACE_SM. But then for updating you have to put them in again...Thats why I made a seperate folder for it. I used the splitted folders fro TRSM just because I was experimenting with mixing it with other sounds. Basically you can throw them all in one folder.

The performance plus is not that big with RAM disk. The biggest benefit is the faster loading of textures which results in lesser LOD pop ups during gameplay.

I just upgraded to a GeForce 9800 GT and this gave me another big performance advantage...he he. I know this isnt the newest model but its affordable for me.

---------- Post added at 02:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------

As I stated before in the Slx thread, this configuration makes my squadmates irgnore my orders and regroup randomly. Maybe someone knows a fix for this. It could be caused by some dependency issue.

Yes this is an issue. With this mod combo you give a lot more freedom to the AI to do what they think is appropriate. Generally I can live with this. If anything goes wrong, I use the force move command from GL4 and they will move to any location you want immediately. :)

"ace_wounds is a .pbo which I made following the instructions of Sickboy"any chance to share this pbo??

Wow, thanks for all the answers Kroky. You nailed exactly what I was confused with.

Any idea why ACE helicopter sounds would still over-ride TRSM, when you're telling the game to have TRSM over-ride everything including ACE?

And if the RAMdisk lowers the amount of LOD pop during gameplay - that will be fantastic. I don't care about the load times to launch a scenario, but I do care about LOD popping affecting gameplay.

Kroky - about the RAM drive. Is it easy to load/unload the ramdrive? I do a lot of work on my computer and wouldn't want to have 3 of my 6 Gig of RAM always loaded with ArmA2 stuff.

Thanks! :)

Hi, guys!

may i ask about JTD_fire addon? Is it possible to use only its feature (spreading fire), but without changing fire appearance (vanilla fire seems to me more realistic)?

and do you know if this feature interleaves/conflicts with GL4 burning buildings?

thanks.

Kroky - about the RAM drive. Is it easy to load/unload the ramdrive? I do a lot of work on my computer and wouldn't want to have 3 of my 6 Gig of RAM always loaded with ArmA2 stuff.

Thanks! :)

Yes with Superspeed RamDisk you can simply remove the RamDisk if you want to use all your RAM for other purpose. Then make a ramdisk again. It's done in 30 seconds.

Yes with Superspeed RamDisk you can simply remove the RamDisk if you want to use all your RAM for other purpose. Then make a ramdisk again. It's done in 30 seconds.

So recreating the RAMdisk and unloading it is pretty fast/easy?

Are you using the pro or normal version of the software?

yes it is really easy. I'm using the pro version. It's quite intuitive, you will understand how it works after 2 minutes.

@Kroky, Why are those the only SLX PBO's that you use. Like why not use ACE fixes. Do the others cause compatability problems with ACE or GL4. I am just curious as to which SLX PBO's I should be sure to stay away from and which one's are more of just a personal preference sort of thing. Also do you think it would be possible for you to upload/share your ACE_Wounds Mod with us? Thanks for all the info.