Use a RAM drive to reduce stuttering

[Ataros]

Originally Posted by 15JG52_Brauer

To check VRAM usag use GPU Z

It does not show vram usage for ATI.

Any other program?

[jimbop]

Originally Posted by Ataros

Is there any vram usage statistics on the forums?

Can anyone advise a program to monitor vram usage on an ATI card?

Try AIDA64, there's a 30-day demo available.

[jimbop]

Originally Posted by Space Communist

I think it is perfectly clear at this point that all of the stuttering problems are caused by overflowing vram. Get the settings adjusted so that you aren't running out and the game will run fine.

Hopefully further patching will allow more details on a smaller vram footprint. But I think the number one thing the game needs is estimation of vram use in the setup screen so that you can tweak settings to keep it under your limit.

Both... As Komrad says I think it is, in a practical sense, code-limited. I still get occasional stutters either over fast, low flight in London or when there are multiple planes in sight. On these occasions the GPU use drops from 99% to 50% (memory not full) but the CPU spikes. See posts on this page for discussion.

I think we just have to wait for the patch...

[ATAG_Doc]

Originally Posted by jimbop

Acknowledgments first: here (JG52Krupi) and here (Ataros, post #37).

This is a method to create a virtual RAM drive which can be used to store some of the more accessed game files. I don't know how RAM speed compares with SSD speed? But many of us don't have SSDs yet. You will need some spare RAM that is not being used while the game is running.

The below test seems to reduce stuttering (no effect on FPS) during a quick free flight over Dover. I don't have time to continue testing just now but more later. Please let us know how you get on if you try it.

1. Download ImDisk from here: http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk

2. Install ImDisk then open ImDisk from Control Panel

3. Mount Image. All you need to do is click on Gigabytes under Size of virtual disk and enter 1 in the text box. This will create a 1Gb virtual RAM drive with the drive letter F

4. Format the new drive in My Computer as NTFS

5. *Copy* whichever files you want over to the new RAM drive (I copied bob_3do.SFS, bob_buildings.SFS and bob_ground.SFS in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\parts\bob)

6. Rename the HDD versions of the files with an -OLD extension (or whatever you want - don't delete them but you will need to rename or move them)

7. Download Link Shell Extension and the necessary runtime DLLs from this site: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinks...kshellext.html

8. Open your new RAM drive (F: for me) in My Computer, right-click the file you want to create a link to and click Pick Link Source

9. Open the original steamapps CoD folder where the files are usually located, right click and click Drop Symbolic Link

10. Play the game

11. Let us know if it makes a difference or even if it doesn't, thanks.

This helped a lot. I am concerned about managing updates. But I see a marked improvement.

[335th_GRAthos]

Hallo jimbop,

Thank you (and everybody else) for the interesting contribution!

I did have fun with these two tools (which I did not know they even exist) and spent some time trying to understand how they work (despite your invaluable explanations on how to set things up). I think IQ-tests became obsolete now that we have things like that...

One thing you may need to add to your explanations (if I got it to work right),

After having:

3. Mount Image. All you need to do is click on Gigabytes under Size of virtual disk and enter 1 in the text box. This will create a 1Gb virtual RAM drive with the drive letter F

You need to have turned UAC (User Access Control) off to make this happen, otherwise you may get message "permission denied"
(after the creation I turned UAC on and the system was working without problems)

4. Format the new drive in My Computer as NTFS
5. *Copy* whichever files you want over to the new RAM drive

When finished copying all the files you want, unmount the drive and REMOUNT ticking the option LOAD IMAGE TO RAM
This will make now everything stay in the RAM of your PC (without this option ticked, the image is loaded from your hard disk, which make no difference in performance).
You can check if this worked as expected by watching the memory usage in your Task-Manager window.

This program is great because the ramdisk-image is ready on your hdd and with one commands it loads it on your RAM, great job, I had no idea that somebody had done such a good job!

----------------------
Also during installation of the Link Shell Extension, if you have problems, you may have to disable your Antivirus for a moment (it solved my installation problem).


Now, coming to the juicy part, no it did not make any difference to my performance
On second thought, I think I never had stutters...
But the accumulated experience and knowledge was great


~S~

[jimbop]

Thanks 335th_GRAthos, I've updated the OP. Doesn't make any difference for me now that I have upgraded either! It did seem to make a difference in stutter on my previous system but there was no difference in average FPS even then.

Certainly a fun learning process though! A good set of applications as you say.

[LoBiSoMeM]

Nothing happens here too.

850MB RAMDISK (bob_3do.SFS, bob_buildings.SFS and bob_ground.SFS)

4GB total RAM memory, Phenom X4 3.4GHz, ATI HD 4050 512MB.

[jimbop]

Makes me wonder about the point of SSDs apart from loading time?

[LoBiSoMeM]

What makes me wonder is this question:

- Devs are so stupid that don't put into their softwares checks for amout of RAM available in each hardware?

I don't think so. I believe IL-2 COD check the RAM available and load all the data possible to avoid loading stutters, and what we see now is simple lack of optimization/bugs, don't solved by this solution.

In ArmAII all this "voodoo" is placebo too.

[335th_GRAthos]

Originally Posted by LoBiSoMeM

What makes me wonder is this question:

- Devs are so stupid that don't put into their softwares checks for amout of RAM available in each hardware?

I don't think so. I believe IL-2 COD check the RAM available and load all the data possible to avoid loading stutters

If I understand your words correctly this would mean that on a 3Gb RAM system CoD would use the available (let's say) 2Gb of RAM wehreas on a 6Gb RAM system it would use 5Gb (2Gb as per previous + 3Gb new RAM)? No it does not.

Mind also that a lot of limitations arise from loading/ unloading a lot of graphics details from the hard disk on to the RAM and, the Video RAM (as the plane flies over large distances).


So there is something to be won.

Now, it all depends by the speed of your hard disk (ms, cache, NCQ, transfer rate, fragmantation) and yes, you may get serious stutters.

Since a lot of us bit the bullet and spent a lot of money on new HW and new hard disks, I believe most of us have very optimised hardware (thus no stutters).
But for some people it may be of help.

I believe a RAMDRIVE is better than a SSD because (hopefully) the transfer rate should be much faster (the SSD has to go through the SATA channel after all).

Anyway, I increased my RAM by 6Gb to 12GB because I was curious yesterday.
Created a 6Gb RAMDISK and loaded the whole CoD on it.
I can not say I noticed any substantial difference (on the other side, I do not think I ever had stutters either).
I run SLI GTX570 and my problem is that over land the GPU utilisation drops at 50%-60% against 99% over sea and wanted to see if the RAMDISK would solve some of this.
It did not really although I noticed at times that my GPUs went to 70%-80% above land.
On the other side, I was flying yesterday on the REPKA server for about 1,5hrs at nice 50fps and no stutter at all and very smooth game (it looks to me more like a placebo effect).


~S~