After reboot you need to recreate the ramdisk and copy the files with junctions to it. You will see no fps increase by storing the files in memory instead (unless something is totally screwing up your I/O), it will only affect loading times since RAM is so much faster for read/write and access times. The files are NOT dummy files, look at their size dude, those are texture packages. Also after closing the game down, all files need to be renamed to their original names and all junctions should be removed, since the next time you start your Launcher it will redownload the entire files if it can't find them, in addition if it gets some updates for the client, updates regarding the mentioned texture files will miss out from an imdisk image too. The imdisk method posted by the OP is missing several line from the original version. As example: :SETVARS for /F "skip=2 tokens=3,*" %%i in ('reg query "hklm\software\bioware\star wars-the old republic" /v "Install Dir"') do set installloc32=%%j for /F "skip=2 tokens=3,*" %%i in ('reg query "hklm\software\wow6432node\bioware\star wars-the old republic" /v "Install Dir"') do set installloc64=%%j IF NOT DEFINED installloc32 IF NOT DEFINED installloc64 GOTO ERRnoinstloc IF DEFINED installloc32 IF DEFINED installoc64 GOTO ERRinstloc IF NOT DEFINED installloc32 set installloc=%installloc64% IF DEFINED installloc32 set installloc=%installloc32% All checks are there for a reason, to make it simple and easy for everyone to use it, don't just throw them out. I still think using disk caching (FancyCache) is so much better, easier and safer than playing around with bat files, specially if you don't know much about the command line. This is how simply it looks: http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/2803/20120207163916fancycach.png

I doubt that a C2D would run the game as well as a CPU with more cores. Seen it run on i7 920, i7 2600K and i5 2400, no problem with any of those. If people see performance drops something else is creating a bottleneck. When I bought my GTX580, I was still with a DP45SG board and a Q9650, for some reason the board did not want to switch to PCI-E 2.0, which worked perfect with my HD5870. No BIOS update was available for it either, and N fix the driver.VIDIA didn't give a flying since there where not enough requests to fix the driver (X38 had the same issue but was fixed). I then switched to an Asus Sabertooth P67 with an i7 2600k, SWTOR runs smooth with exception for something that goes on when many people are in the same zone, which purely is a client or server issue, I didn't analyze it neither do I intent too, that is BioWare's job! Going from 32 to 64 bit is only a question of utilizing more RAM and getting support for 64bit applications, a 32bit OS is not worse performance wise with 32 bit app's. Ramdisk and/or SSD only addresses loading time for the game, but that can have some effect on the rest of your system since you remove some I/O bottleneck. There is a huge difference between loading on my laptops 7600rpm HD and my desktops dedicated game store SSD. You could try out Romexo's FancyCache beta 0.7, if you got enough RAM available, there is really no point in using it neither imdisk on 4GB systems, heck, even on 6GB systems Windows would start swapping a lot to the paging file when people got a lot of stuff running in the background. If most of the client was uncompressed that would speed things up too, plus give a lower CPU load, on the other hand it would require some more disk space. Main issue is buried elsewhere thou, which creates a bottleneck on our systems and by that making GPU drop down in fps. I only experience that issue with loads of players as mentioned earlier thou, so it has something to do with the data related to it. Something like getting data before requested, which is good in some circumstances, but not good if it causes 50% and more drops in fps.

No, you will not gain a fps increase. Only solution to fix fps drops is on BW's hands. I recently startet on a server with 150+ people on the fleet, and noticed a significent drop in fps compared to what I came from (60 people on the fleet) All those characters are not even in visual view, so something is completely messed up in the game code. Last mmo I remember such drops in was WAR with several hundred players in visual view. Poorly optimized engine is all I can say.

Yes, that is what the caching is all about, decreasing the load time. It will not magically increase fps or other things, but it will give a significant boost when loading. Note, you will need enough ram on your system to avoid paging as well. IF you run a 32bit OS and for some odd reason got way more RAM than the OS can handle, imdisk can be used to utilize that extra RAM too. In which case it helps to assign some of it as a RAM drive for the paging file. In such case it is a good idea to check memory utilization to determine how much one needs.

Using Windows fetching methods (Superfetch included) does in no way improve the game loading times, tried it against other games too. Also, my OS reacts a lot faster without. I'm curious to see the official post from MS that states that Superfetch should be enabled with fast SSD's, so please post a link to that. I got another link here supporting my statement, beside the official one I posted earlier http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?63273-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-amp-Utilities-*

Prefetch gets disabled per default when Windows 7 is running on a SSD that minimum meets preset requirements. Prefetch isn't that good caching technology when it comes to large game files either. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

Tried this out and got no difference in performance between using the FancyCache and the imdisk method. I also tried to combine both, no difference there either. But both do give better loading times than either Windows build in methods or no caching at all. imdisk is completely free though, on the other hand a global disk cache works overall. Also, I advice to use exFat for caching when ever possible on systems that support it, instead of ntfs.

Thanks for the info, was wondering if there wasn't a method like texture caching LOTRO. I'm using Romex's FancyCache atm. The game disk has 2GB cache assigned with 120s lazywrite, averaging write amount and release after write, helps loads on loading times even with SSD's. OS disk 1GB, no lazy writes there since that could end up bad in case of a power failure without a battery backup on at least the HD controller. Going to check with imdisk on top, and check if there is any performance difference with exFat instead of NTFS.

True enough but it's down there where it really doesn't make a difference on a bosses last 2%. Most of the times it fails is because people can't figure out their skill priorities and rotation, moving away from danger, maintaining crowd control and other important things in the encounter, not because of a lack in stats. Just look at all the nabs in WoW that top over gear score requirements and yet fail on the things they join.

Sorry, but I had to laugh at this, and you should definitive know why if you are as hardcore as you think you are.

@OP If the force sways one way or another is up to the force itself, not by your illusions of what good and bad is. A pureblood doesn't even know the difference. Taking the obvious right choice is not always right either. It might not have its effect at once, but can come later on a complete different planet. The force might be with you, but that is not a warranty for that your surroundings are with you.

Hi, I created a ticked regarding this and was asked to post it here as well. Probably for some community feedback. My idea comes from another mmorpg, I created the GUI for the tool so it could be easier for people to see what they adjusted. Editing in notepad is only for us nerds anyway. I got a bunch of good feedback on it from different sources, but didn't work on it for a while since I can't force it on SWTOR (yeah the force is NOT with me!) So it will take a while before the other shaders are added to it, it's a spare time project anyway. SMAA might be worth giving a shot too, since it looks better on some games, while FXAA looks better on others. I recommend that a sharpening filter is thrown on top of either method, plus that it should be between the static UI elements + text and the scenery. Note: For those who should try my tool with some of their DirectX 9 games, the HDR shader is currently doing it a bit wrong on glow width, I have to look over it a bit and calculate more accurate values. PS. This suggestion also went to GeForce.com together with proper 3DVision support as my SWTOR competition entry.

The game is fine on my desktop that uses raid arrays and ssd's. On my laptop it is not fine, and that even with a fast hdd. Moving is fine, nothing wrong their.

You don't even need to add it up. I tried last week when I had 30 minutes break from my current networking class, I could reach 2 space missions. The missions take like 5 minutes max for each? Rest was time consumed by login and loading.

What do FASTER LOADING TIMES have to do with easy mode?

I think he made a troll attempt and succeeded.

Exactly, and also reason why World PvP is dead in most mmorpg's. Heck, I don't even care about PvP myself anymore.

Learn to read Specially the last line that you quoted. You might be able to do something with GameBooster, since it can run games in a virtual box, never tried, but might be possible.

Sorry that is not a solution. Seen it done before, it didn't help jack, except for more posts on the forums. The only way to balance would be to deny people logging in on a faction that is in minority. We can all imagine what drama that would give.

There are few of us that chose the underdog when checking a servers PvP balance. Simply to get a challenge instead of easy mode. Most like it easy thou. If people don't see the balance on the server list they will check the forums, I have seen to many doing it that way.

Warhammer Online is a good example of changing PvP balance, with exception that the whole game is based around it. Has nothing to do with which races and stuff there is available. Also posting here and complaining might make more people create Imperial characters, few chose to roll on the "weaker" faction. I have never seen a good solution to balance 2 faction based PvP. Either it's long queues or gankfest.

Looks silly, but I recall someone who did instances (lower level) with a setup like that.

You got a valid point. If it is possible and allowed by BW is another matter thou. It's not cheating unless BW says that it is.

I would not recommend running 2 clients on the same PC for now. Seeing some having performance problems on their SandyBridge systems just says no.

So it is alright to ignore people with less awesome machines where it takes several minutes to load cause of slower HDD's? Lets face it, most laptops (yes a lot of people do play on them) are shipped with 5400rps drives. Instead of thinking alternative solutions it should be ignored? Instantly hopping around is not the original request either, but mainly an option to skip some of the loading between movement from one planet to another. I have a fast desktop PC myself, so the loading doesn't bother me, takes like 10 seconds max. I tried the game from my laptop, since it has a GPU able to drag it, and noticed insane high loading times, even got a fast 7600rpm sata2 drive in it.