ArmA 2 Ultimate Tweak Thread Thread

Sfod-delta.com

All you guys you should read this! After applying this tweak, I could play ArmA 2 on max settings with only Q6600 and 260GTX. By the way, the author of that topic is me!

Do not remove this thread without my permission! I don't have a backup of it! I worked several hours compiling all this. Please pin it to the top of this forum.

Ok to start of with my tutorial, I will first give you my system specifications:

Processor: Intel 2 Quad Core Q6600 @2.4 Ghz
Graphics Card: Nvidia 260GTX
RAM: 4Gb
OS: Windows 7 x64

My settings before:
Fillrate: 100%
Texture Detail: Highest
Terrain Detail: Lowest
Video Memory: Default
Object Detail: High
Anti Aliasing: Low
Anisotropic Filtering: Highest
Shadows: Disabled
Post Processing: Disabled
Mouse lag: heavy
Smoothness: 6/10

First of all most of you encountered fancy threads or topics with limiting cpu count. Well in my opinion that is just useless. Why should you limit to use 2 cores instead of 4 if you have 4. Well don't.

First set your in-game settings before you continue! Because some may overwrite your tweaks. Note that all tweaks are tested by me online and are verified to work. All tweaks are completely safe and should not conflict with anything, nor BattleEye nor any server.

1. Overclocking
Not the best solution available, not for everyone. I only overclocked my CPU from 2.4 ghz to 2.75 ghz. And it is running stable and well. Note that my case is continuously open to have fresh air! I am not going to write this here how to do it because I don't want to ruin your computer. You should never do overclocking, unless it is your last resort.

Graphics Card Overclocking
Softpedia.com (ASUS ATI & ASUS Nvidia only)
Evga.com

Processor Overclocking
For locked BIOS which cannot be unlocked, follow this tutorial. Confirmed to work.
Zuneboards.com

Unlocked BIOS, supported by manufacturer by default. This is very dangerous! Only do this if you know what you are doing. Matching the wrong FSB with the wrong clocks can result in permanent system damage. I suggest you use the software which precalculates everything.
Wikihow.com

2. In-game settings
These are my recommendations. The value default for video memory uses all your video memory available by your graphics card. If you have a 896Mb card for example, it is useless to set it to Very High because Very High is equal to 512Mb.

Video memory - Default
Post processing effects - Off

3. Optimizing your profile
Your profile configuration file is found in "Documents/Arma 2" or "Documents/Arma 2 Other Profiles"

Change these lines to the values I provide:
shadingQuality=0 ;make sure this is always 0
fovTop=0.975 ;this changes your field of view, don't set it too high. Higher value increases performance
fovLeft=1.55999999 ;this changes your field of view, don't set it too high. Higher value increases performance
mouseSmoothing=1 ; changing this to 1 instead of 30 made a great difference. This is the most important tweak. Changing this made a huge difference how ArmA 2 plays. Even when meeting the system requirements.

4. Graphics card control panel
First of all get the latest drivers of your graphics card:
- Nvidia.com Nvidia
- Ati.amd.com ATI
- Guru3d.com Usually you can find good beta drivers here

Nvidia control panel:
Ambient Occlusion - Off
Anisotropic Filtering - Application controlled
AntiAliasing Gamma Correction - On
AntiAliasing Mode - Application controlled
AntiAliasing Setting - Application controlled
AntiAliasing Transparency - Off
Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames - 8
Multi-Display/GPU Accelaration - Single Displace Performance Mode
Power Management Mode - Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering Sample Optimization - On
Texture Filtering Negative LOD Bias - Allow
Texture Filtering Quality - High Performance
Texture Filtering Trilinear Optimization - On
Threaded Optimization - Auto
Tripple Buffering - Off
Vertical Sync - Off

ATI Catalyst:
Not finished, similar to nvidia options.

5. Windows Settings
Mouse Related
If you're finding an annoying amount of mouse lag (and pulling the view distance back as suggested above doesn't help) try turning off "Enhanced Pointer Precision" in Windows. For XP you want Control Panel>Mouse>Pointer Options>Enhance Pointer Position and in Vista look for Windows Control Panel>Mouse>Enhance Pointer Position.

Vista and Windows 7
Smartpcutilities.com
Just follow the menus it should be easy to follow. Just answer the questions it asks you.
Also make sure you visit the Gaming Mode tab. There you will find a menu to easiliy adjus the visual effects of windows I suggest you turn all those off except for visual styles on buttons and windows.

6. Optimizing Computer
Defragging hard drives
Defraggler.com
Iobit.com
Auslogics.com

Defragging registry
Registry-clean.net

Cleaning registry
Ccleaner.com

Appendix
I. Cooling issues
This can speed up your GPU fan. (Credits go to SGT-NoAim)
Softpedia.com (ASUS ATI & ASUS Nvidia only)
Evga.com

X. My current settings
Memory - Default (so it is using 896Mb from my 260gtx)
Texture Detail: - Highest
Terrain detail: Lowest (The grass gets in my way anyway so don't feel like enabling it.)
Object Detail: Highest
AntiAliasing: 8
Post-Processing: Off (Makes the game look bad anyway)
AF: Highest
Shadows: Highest
Fillrate: 133%

Processor: Intel 2 Quad Core Q6600 @2.75 Ghz (Overclocked by +15%)
Graphics Card: Nvidia 260GTX (Default clock speeds)
RAM: 4Gb
OS: Windows 7 x64

Mouse lag: NONE
Smoothness: 10/10

SSD, OC'd processor = win.. Also turn off AA.
Nothing else really matters.. I get virtually the same FPS with a 8800 GTS 512mb, as my 5870..

Well if you turn off AA the game really looks like crap. Jaggies everywhere... Which makes me think enemies are everywhere...

Well at least disabling mouse smoothing helped the most for me.

A lot of decent information there. Glad you took the time to work it up.

i wouldn't thank him so much, its just a copy/paste from the website he linked :p so i would thank him to post it here, thats it xD
second, its not stated in the post what resolution your using, but, if your resolution is high enough then there won't be no jaggies when you turn off AA
AA is usaualy the first thing i turn off, because i'm not a gfx whore, but mainly because it causes the most slowdowns
if you read up on AA you will see that it renders the resolution of the scene 2, 4, 8, times
then downsample it to your resolution again
therefore, if you have a high resolution from the start -> AA = useless and eats up performance >_>

Well said Sigma. I love nice graphics, but I want performance.
You can get so much more out of your system by taking the time to learn how to
properly streamline it.

Edited by: jjawinte

if my games looks fugly but runs great, then il go with fugly :p at least i can do what the game was designed for -> having fun
AA is the devil spawn >_< everyone think it makes theyr game look 4 times as good, but it just makes the game run 4 times as crap :p

Amen ! Fugly it is then.
AA does have a functional purpose in the grand scheme of gaming to be sure, but like so many other features, it's not a necessity for many of us.

In the so called " demand for better graphics ", the system demands are growing faster ( for non-console play ) than our financial ability or willingness to upgrade our PC's hardware. I'm not going to burn cash upgrading every time a game I'd like to play is released. That's nonsense !

The best we can do is keep tweaking and pray they don't forget us happy-go-lucky bastards that just want to enjoy playing the goddamn games. Old school still works gets me off just fine.

Edited by: jjawinte

That is actually very true... In two years time I finally saved up enough to buy a 260GTX... Which is able to play latest games for now... I am now willing to buy a new processor... But that would involve buying a whole new PC!

In one word: CRAP! I have spent my whole life tweaking games and computers to play all latest games lol... I am really enjoying that actually. It give me some kind of yea enjoy.