Post by Created-=Of-God=- (Matt) on Jun 21, 2009 15:11:30 GMT -5
Hey guys,
If you're like me, you're very excited to see AA3 come out, but a little disappointed with all the problems we've been having with it. It seems as though those problems are being addressed, but in the meantime, Andrew [former Strategy-=Of-God=- and soon to be my college roommate] has written this guide to tweaking AA 3.0 to run better. I have not read the entire thing myself, so if there's anything wrong with it any admin should feel free to correct it.
If you're like me, you're very excited to see AA3 come out, but a little disappointed with all the problems we've been having with it. It seems as though those problems are being addressed, but in the meantime, Andrew [former Strategy-=Of-God=- and soon to be my college roommate] has written this guide to tweaking AA 3.0 to run better. I have not read the entire thing myself, so if there's anything wrong with it any admin should feel free to correct it.
The AA3 Guide to performance.
Some of you may think you don’t have what it takes tech wise to play AA3. This may very well be true, and it may not. Up to this point AA3 has been plagued almost exclusively by Authorization related problems. It has been reported in news articles that up to 20MILLION hits were recorded on the opening day of AA3. Imagine what it would be like to live in your current house, but with like… 200 more people. Could you live like that? I doubt it. It’s the same thing with Authorization right now, and I imagine that the devs are doing some remodeling of their “house”. While the problems with authorization are apparent at times like logging in or completing training, it also causes severe problems when transitioning from menus, loading maps, and overall performance.
1. First of all… let’s address Steam. I havn’t used the Deploy Client, so I won’t be able to help you in that area. When you download the game from Steam the single most important thing is to be downloading from an optimal server. To do this, go to File/Settings/Downloads/Download Region. Select the region closest to your location. I was at first downloading from a server based in NYC, and getting about 5kbs. When I changed my location to south America, my dl speed jumped to about 100-150kbs. I can’t guarantee you will see such a large change, but getting a decent server will be better overall.
2. DEFRAG YOUR HARDRIVE! This alone gave me a significant boost in how well AA3 performed. I suggest you download the program Auslogics. www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download
3. Update your graphics drivers. I was having a lot of graphics problems because I had outdated drivers installed. The game itself is just fine, its our hardware/software that gets in the way. If you have an ATI card, disable all forms of Anti-Aliasing, as this will keep your HUD from showing up. If you have an NVIDIA card, then there is a solution to that.
4. Below is attached a tweak guide written by the Beta testers from FilePlanet. Use what you need, don’t be careless with system files. Also, NVIDIA users, be sure to read this:
Remember, backup ALL files before editing them in case you need to replace them and work from scratch again (or wish to reverse engineer some more fixes).
Step #1) Nvidia users go here and download nHancer.
(Sorry ATI guys, I have nothing comparable to link you to)
Step #1.A) Before starting work in nHancer, click the radial button named "Global" at the top.
Step #1.B) After installing nHancer, goto the compatbility mode tab, and change the "Anti-Aliasing compatbility" to 0000041: Unreal Engine 3. This works around Unreal3's inability to produce AA properly, and allows crisp textures with AAx8 on.
Step #1.C) At the bottom of the "Compatibility" tab check the radial button for "Multi-Core Support", this will FORCE AA3 beta to use Multi-Core support (dual-core, or Quad-Core) when rendering textures/objects.
Step #2) In the nHancer program (still nvidia people), goto the "Optimizations" tab, and check "High Quality", "Trilinear Optimzation = On", "Aniso.sample optimization = on", "Negative LOD BIAS= clamp", and "Force DXt3 [OpenGL]= On".
Step #3) (Still Nvidia users =P) Set your Anti-Aliasing as high as you want depending on your card's settings. I have a 280GTX, so my gettings are "Combined = 32xS". Set "Enhance in-game AA setting" UNCHECKED, "Gamma Correction" checkbox checked, and Super-Transparency AA checkbox checked(these three settings are for high end cards, as you might lag with anything below an 8800).
Continue, by setting your Anisotropic Filtering to however high you want, mine is 16x...again 280gtx here ! My vertical-sync is forced ON, along with OpenGL triple buffering ! I also have ambient occlusion set to FarCry2, just for visual appearances sake, again I'm still fiddling with Ambient Occlusion as it adds soft shadows around objects in-game. You might want to fiddle with other settings as well IF you want to.
Step #3) Close nHancer, and it should goto your desktop tray.
Step #4) (woot Ati people can do something now!!) Find your "USarmy" folder in C: drive, or w/e you installed it.
Step #5) Once inside USArmy folder, goto America's Army3/AA3Game/Config.
Step#6) Open AA3Engine.ini with notepad, making sure to UNCHECK "always open with notepad" if your computer doesn't already know to open .ini's in notepad.
Step #7) While in your AA3Engine.ini, ctrl+F and type/copy "DebugEXEName", you should find it near the top with something like "DebugEXEName=Debug-AA3Game.exe", make sure to delete ONLY the part AFTER the "=" sign.
Step #8) Ctrl+F again, inside AA3engine.ini, and type/copy "bSmoothFrameRate". You should find it again, somewhere near the upper half of the ini. Change this from "bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE" to "bSmoothFrameRate=FALSE".
Step #9) Ctrl+F again, and search for "MinDesiredFrameRate". It should be somewhere close to the middle. Change it from "MinDesiredFrameRate=32" to something more desirable IF you have a card stronger than a 7900GT Nvidia!
Finally, Step #10) Ctrl+F again, and this time type/copy "MotionBlur". It should be somewhere near the bottom. Change it from "MotionBlur=True" to "MotionBlur=False". This has been known to be a MAJOR contributor to the massive lag, since this has not be optimized at ALL and causes WAYY too much lag when you move. Hopefully, if they wish to keep this feature for launch, they'll optimize it so it happens correctly.
[UPDATE]: For clarifying purposes ONLY. Do NOT do steps 1-3 if you are NOT running an Nvidia card HIGHER than the 8800 series. nHancer does NOT support anything older unfortunately.
Step #1) Go to:
USArmy\America's Army 3\AA3Game\Config\AA3Game.ini
USArmy\America's Army 3\Engine\Config\BaseGame.ini
Step #2) Ctrl+F inside above ini's for "bDynamicNetSpeed".
Step #3) Change bDynamicNetSpeed=true to bDynamicNetSpeed=false.
5. Alright… last thing, be sure to edit your ingame video settings to best suit your computer. If you put it on lowest, hey, its going to look like total junk, but at least it will be playable. On the other hand, running it on high-settings is quite an experience. One thing you can do is click on “calculate best settings” on the video menu, and this might even lower your resolution to 800x600, so that might be useful.
6. One thing you can do to avoid using Steam when you have to start AA3 is to make a shortcut of the .exe file found in program files/steam/steamapps/common/americasarmy3/binaries. Put the shortcut on your desktop.
7. To see how well your game is running, without the interference of Authorization, disable your internet (unplug the cable, deactivate your wireless… whatever) and then run AA3. You will most likely be surprised how responsive everything is. That has been my experience. Use this as encouragement that once Auth is fixed… you’ll have quite a good gameplay experience.
Thanks for reading!
-Andrew
Some of you may think you don’t have what it takes tech wise to play AA3. This may very well be true, and it may not. Up to this point AA3 has been plagued almost exclusively by Authorization related problems. It has been reported in news articles that up to 20MILLION hits were recorded on the opening day of AA3. Imagine what it would be like to live in your current house, but with like… 200 more people. Could you live like that? I doubt it. It’s the same thing with Authorization right now, and I imagine that the devs are doing some remodeling of their “house”. While the problems with authorization are apparent at times like logging in or completing training, it also causes severe problems when transitioning from menus, loading maps, and overall performance.
1. First of all… let’s address Steam. I havn’t used the Deploy Client, so I won’t be able to help you in that area. When you download the game from Steam the single most important thing is to be downloading from an optimal server. To do this, go to File/Settings/Downloads/Download Region. Select the region closest to your location. I was at first downloading from a server based in NYC, and getting about 5kbs. When I changed my location to south America, my dl speed jumped to about 100-150kbs. I can’t guarantee you will see such a large change, but getting a decent server will be better overall.
2. DEFRAG YOUR HARDRIVE! This alone gave me a significant boost in how well AA3 performed. I suggest you download the program Auslogics. www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download
3. Update your graphics drivers. I was having a lot of graphics problems because I had outdated drivers installed. The game itself is just fine, its our hardware/software that gets in the way. If you have an ATI card, disable all forms of Anti-Aliasing, as this will keep your HUD from showing up. If you have an NVIDIA card, then there is a solution to that.
4. Below is attached a tweak guide written by the Beta testers from FilePlanet. Use what you need, don’t be careless with system files. Also, NVIDIA users, be sure to read this:
Remember, backup ALL files before editing them in case you need to replace them and work from scratch again (or wish to reverse engineer some more fixes).
Step #1) Nvidia users go here and download nHancer.
(Sorry ATI guys, I have nothing comparable to link you to)
Step #1.A) Before starting work in nHancer, click the radial button named "Global" at the top.
Step #1.B) After installing nHancer, goto the compatbility mode tab, and change the "Anti-Aliasing compatbility" to 0000041: Unreal Engine 3. This works around Unreal3's inability to produce AA properly, and allows crisp textures with AAx8 on.
Step #1.C) At the bottom of the "Compatibility" tab check the radial button for "Multi-Core Support", this will FORCE AA3 beta to use Multi-Core support (dual-core, or Quad-Core) when rendering textures/objects.
Step #2) In the nHancer program (still nvidia people), goto the "Optimizations" tab, and check "High Quality", "Trilinear Optimzation = On", "Aniso.sample optimization = on", "Negative LOD BIAS= clamp", and "Force DXt3 [OpenGL]= On".
Step #3) (Still Nvidia users =P) Set your Anti-Aliasing as high as you want depending on your card's settings. I have a 280GTX, so my gettings are "Combined = 32xS". Set "Enhance in-game AA setting" UNCHECKED, "Gamma Correction" checkbox checked, and Super-Transparency AA checkbox checked(these three settings are for high end cards, as you might lag with anything below an 8800).
Continue, by setting your Anisotropic Filtering to however high you want, mine is 16x...again 280gtx here ! My vertical-sync is forced ON, along with OpenGL triple buffering ! I also have ambient occlusion set to FarCry2, just for visual appearances sake, again I'm still fiddling with Ambient Occlusion as it adds soft shadows around objects in-game. You might want to fiddle with other settings as well IF you want to.
Step #3) Close nHancer, and it should goto your desktop tray.
Step #4) (woot Ati people can do something now!!) Find your "USarmy" folder in C: drive, or w/e you installed it.
Step #5) Once inside USArmy folder, goto America's Army3/AA3Game/Config.
Step#6) Open AA3Engine.ini with notepad, making sure to UNCHECK "always open with notepad" if your computer doesn't already know to open .ini's in notepad.
Step #7) While in your AA3Engine.ini, ctrl+F and type/copy "DebugEXEName", you should find it near the top with something like "DebugEXEName=Debug-AA3Game.exe", make sure to delete ONLY the part AFTER the "=" sign.
Step #8) Ctrl+F again, inside AA3engine.ini, and type/copy "bSmoothFrameRate". You should find it again, somewhere near the upper half of the ini. Change this from "bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE" to "bSmoothFrameRate=FALSE".
Step #9) Ctrl+F again, and search for "MinDesiredFrameRate". It should be somewhere close to the middle. Change it from "MinDesiredFrameRate=32" to something more desirable IF you have a card stronger than a 7900GT Nvidia!
Finally, Step #10) Ctrl+F again, and this time type/copy "MotionBlur". It should be somewhere near the bottom. Change it from "MotionBlur=True" to "MotionBlur=False". This has been known to be a MAJOR contributor to the massive lag, since this has not be optimized at ALL and causes WAYY too much lag when you move. Hopefully, if they wish to keep this feature for launch, they'll optimize it so it happens correctly.
[UPDATE]: For clarifying purposes ONLY. Do NOT do steps 1-3 if you are NOT running an Nvidia card HIGHER than the 8800 series. nHancer does NOT support anything older unfortunately.
Step #1) Go to:
USArmy\America's Army 3\AA3Game\Config\AA3Game.ini
USArmy\America's Army 3\Engine\Config\BaseGame.ini
Step #2) Ctrl+F inside above ini's for "bDynamicNetSpeed".
Step #3) Change bDynamicNetSpeed=true to bDynamicNetSpeed=false.
5. Alright… last thing, be sure to edit your ingame video settings to best suit your computer. If you put it on lowest, hey, its going to look like total junk, but at least it will be playable. On the other hand, running it on high-settings is quite an experience. One thing you can do is click on “calculate best settings” on the video menu, and this might even lower your resolution to 800x600, so that might be useful.
6. One thing you can do to avoid using Steam when you have to start AA3 is to make a shortcut of the .exe file found in program files/steam/steamapps/common/americasarmy3/binaries. Put the shortcut on your desktop.
7. To see how well your game is running, without the interference of Authorization, disable your internet (unplug the cable, deactivate your wireless… whatever) and then run AA3. You will most likely be surprised how responsive everything is. That has been my experience. Use this as encouragement that once Auth is fixed… you’ll have quite a good gameplay experience.
Thanks for reading!
-Andrew
