It will be a big boost to your game. It makes the game load much faster giving it the ability to use the memory unlimited. Before it was locked at 2 GB, which would make the game crash to desktop on big mods. It also Improves the game graphics to make it more high resolution, and improves the quality to make it more smooth to look at. It does not make the game skins HD. For that you need mods with HD skins. But if you use this the HD skins will look ten times better in the game. This makes the game require more to work. So, if you have an old toaster for a PC your game might crash. Fear not. In the file I will include a folder with the toaster settings. So you can still have faster and better Soulstorm without the improved graphics.
Soulstorm Turbo Mode
This is as the name suggest, only for Soulstorm.
Made by Norwegian_Loki
What is Soulstorm Turbo Mode?
What is this, and what does it do?
It will be a big boost to your game. It makes the game load much faster giving it the ability to use the memory unlimited. Before it was locked at 2 GB, which would make the game crash to desktop on big mods. It also Improves the game graphics to make it more high resolution, and improves the quality to make it more smooth to look at. It does not make the game skins HD. For that you need mods with HD skins. But if you use this the HD skins will look ten times better in the game. This makes the game require more to work. So, if you have an old toaster for a PC your game might crash. Fear not. In the file I will include a folder with the toaster settings. So you can still have faster and better Soulstorm without the improved graphics.
Soulstorm Turbo was made for the DVD version, but works for steam too. I have had 32 people test this for me with no problems so far on both. So I know this works, But just in case take backups of any files before overwriting anything.
How to install? Steam Version.
Due to people not liking the official patches on their steam version since steam has it's own update system, I will respect that and have therefore created one just for steam. It gives the same benefits, but now there is no need to use the official patch originally made for the DVD version.
To install just Copy the mod files to your Soulstorm directory (where it is installed by steam). You need to extract the files there. I used 7zip, but other programs will work fine. Press yes to overwrite files. You should make bacup of these files just to be on the safe side.
Go to the improved file GraphicsConfig then go adjust the screensize to your game. It even let's you test it. Now you can start playing. Enjoy your "new" game.
Does it work with UA LAA patch?
Yes, but only if you install this mod first, then install the LAA patch. Not the other way around.
TroubleShooting.
If the Game crashes to desktop, then your pc was not strong enough to handle the improved graphics most likely. There will be a new folder called toaster. Copy the file in that one to you Soulstorm installation folder. Say yes to overwrite. Now your pc should work fine again. If not, good thing you had those backups. Right? RIGHT?
Large Address Aware: This is a problem for some 32-bit versions of Windows. If you have 64 this does not apply to you. There is this webpage where a guy has a solution for you. He tells you here.
How to get more boost to your game?
Getting greedy, are we? well there are some fun tricks you can do yourself.
A little Performance Boost, and a tiny bit better framerates
You can't get much because you need to have relics tools to remake the game, but here is a way to do this. Thank's to Excogitatoris-Logica for this tutorial.
Important note!: This requires at least 3 cpu cores to work. It will not make any improvements on systems with dual or single core cpu's.
Make a shortcut to your game executable. Right click it and select Properties.
On the Shortcut tab, edit its Target field and add the following before the existing path between quotes and separating it with a space:
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start "DoW" /high /affinity 6
While on it, also add this after the path, also separated with a space:
-nomovies -modname %Your_Favorite_Mod_Folder_Name%
So when you first see it, it will look like this:
"C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn Of War - Soulstorm\Soulstorm.exe"
Now it will look like this:
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start "DoW" /high /affinity 6 "C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn Of War - Soulstorm\Soulstorm.exe" -nomovies -modname %Your_Favorite_Mod_Folder_Name%
Click OK. That shortcut now launches a specific mod bypassing the intro movies, setting the Soulstorm executable on high system resource priority and set to not work on CPU core 1. As most applications load on the first core by default this core is busier and has less free cycles to run cpu intensive apps (such as DoW). By avoiding running DoW on the busier Core 1 altogether you can get a slight performance boost.
For example, if you want to make a shortcut with all that code to the vanilla game which also has a "mod name", 'DXP2':
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start "DoW" /high /affinity 6 "C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn Of War - Soulstorm\Soulstorm.exe" -nomovies -modname dxp2
Misc Tweaks & Fixes:
- Right click your Soulstorm executable. On the Compatibility tab, select Windows XP SP3. Click Apply. This helps with performance and stability by a tiny bit.
- If on Windows Vista/7 (8 unconfirmed), on that same Compatibility tab, check the "Disable desktop composition" checkbox. This will disable the transparency When Soulstorm is running and prevent it from freezing when alt-tabbing. Works partially on the latest Steam version update. I'm looking into it.
-If running Windows Vista/7/8, run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2.
Credits:
Kekoulis
Thudmeizer
Gambit
Lemon Tree
Excogitatoris-Logica
UnsocialLobster
BlackRangerXIII
and Thudmeizer Mod Team for testing, and support.
Thank you all for helping me make this.
works fine!
thank you for this! :)
And thank you for reporting on it. :)
Does it work with mods?
im playing the UA and the unification mod, so yes, it works! :)
Yes. This is not game mod, but a upgrade to your Soulstorm core game. So all your mods will benefit.
i guess it doesnt work for me because i download laa patch first?
can someone answer my queestion plz!!
I have (as have kek) several times. in detail even. read it. you're not gonna get any other answer.
I have an Old Athlon 2 x2 dual 260 Procesor 3.20 GH...Will this work on my PC??
Sorry for my late reply. Yes, that should work fine.
Hi there, i'm wondering if you need to still apply the LAA patch for the UA (ultimate apocalypse mod) even though I already have the turbo mod installed? From what i understand the LAA patch is only 4GB where the turbo mod is unlimited right?. I'm a little confused.
The LAA patch is really for the people who have 32 system on windows. If you have 64 you probably do not need the LAA patch at all. Unless LAA patch gave other edits.I am not sure how UA team made the LAA patch.
Okay, I understand this mod allows unlimited memory and the UA (ultimate apocalypse) mod LAA patch gives you 4GB of memory. Therefore surely this mod can replace the LAA patch to get unlimited memory rather than the LAA patch's 4GB? Does that sound right?
I also notice that after installing the turbo mod with the UA mod, the UA mod menu themes appear to override the turbo mods themes. Is the turbo mod still active with the UA mod installed?
Sorry for all the questions, but any clarification will be appreciated.
I use this instead of the UA LAA patch. I have windows 64 system, so I see it more beneficial for my pc to use this version. The LAA patch makes life easy for a 32 windows system. I have no idea how the amazing team at UA made the LAA patch, but it did not work well for my pc, so I made this version to stop my pc from crashing on the big battles, and it worked. After talking with my modding buddies at the thudmeizer mod team, I decided to share my little fix so more people could play it crash free. The even helped me make it better.
There is no such thing as unlimited memory, but in the SS vanilla exe there was a ram limit to prevent it from using to much ram on older pc. Now with all these big mods more ram is needed or the game crash to desktop.
What's the catch? There simply "patched" exe file on 4 GB?
I am not sure what you mean. The game was never made for those huge mods, so this mod makes it work on bigger mods without crashing due to the 2gb ram limit Relic put there. It also improves all the load orders and other stuff to give the game a boost. It removes DOW SS limits you could say.
Does this EXE affect multiplayer because i can't see open games...
Did you install the correct one? Do you have steam or non-steam?
oof, my ANCIENT tutorial's here. maybe I should clarify: What /affinity 6 does is to run the exe on the 2nd & 3rd threads of your CPU.
If you wish, you can fine-tune affinity using this Mathsisfun.com
In the 'Binary' field, type in reverse order (starting from the last thread) as many digits as threads your CPU has, 0 to disable affinity on that thread, 1 to enable.
For example, 10100000 (translates as A0 in hexadecimal, so you put that in the affinity command) sets affinity on the 6th and 8th threads.
Worth noting cpu core does not necessarily equal cpu thread. Intel models with Hyperthreading and AMD Ryzen 5 & 7 have two threads per core.
Thank you so much! I will implant it in a new version, and give you the credit you deserve. Thank you so much yet again for your amazing tutorials!
This turbo mod affects multiplayer because of what is not visible open games.
I will have a talk with my steam testers to get to the bottom of this. Thank you for reporting.
Without this mod, the game does not start
Did you take a backup of the exe file? You need that to start the game without the mod.