RAMDISK for SWTOR (increased performance)

[Vexxeen]

This is a great program and i want to thank yo9u for taking the time to write it!!

 

I am using 2.9 beta and so far i have launched to ramdisk 10 times without a single hangup what so ever.

 

This program increased my overall performance by about 25% i would say. What i notice most is while i am in fleet, or large open world maps where micro studdering would happen a lot, it has all but gotten rid of that problem for me. I went from getting about 60 fps on average in fleet to now about 90-110 fps on average, and a solid 110 fps everywhere else outside of WZ's.

 

QUESTION: I would really like to narrow down where exactly the asset files are for the WZ's are, because that is the one place where i have always had lag issues and frame rate drops and its the most important place [WZ's] to have high fps! I saw you answered this question for a poster erlier but i was wondering if maybe you could revisit this area to help me locate the assets. I will look through the files, i just need to know where to look.

 

Thanks again for the great program. This made my machine, which ran swtor GOOD, now able to run swtor GREAT, and i love being able to use my 16gb of ram for more than just bragging rights LOL.

 

My machine specs:

 

Intel i5 2500k @stock 3.3 ghz

16gb G Skill RipJaws PC1600 DDR3

Asrock Extreme 3 Gen3 Intel Z68 motherboard

2x Sapphire 6950's in CrossfireX

PC power and cooling 750watt PSU

Crucial M4 Sata 3 SSD <benchmarked at 497mb sec read 208mb sec write>

Win 7 Pro fully up to date.

All system drivers are 100% up to date.

 

TY

Vexx

[exca]

Just received the first usable GUI from my designer friends. It's coming to you before the end of the week I think.

[Kitzinger]

I want to thank you in advance. I will be using this as soon as I can afford the upgrade to my computer.

[Sameria]

QUESTION: I would really like to narrow down where exactly the asset files are for the WZ's are, because that is the one place where i have always had lag issues and frame rate drops and its the most important place [WZ's] to have high fps! I saw you answered this question for a poster erlier but i was wondering if maybe you could revisit this area to help me locate the assets. I will look through the files, i just need to know where to look.

 

Though I have not done this much, look at using process monitor (procmon) by sysinternals. Its a free product and basiclly fire it up when you go into a warzone and see which files are being accessed.

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533

 

Someone might have a different or better way, but I have not seen any.

[HenryChinaski]

That is amazing man, thanks a lot!

 

My loading times have reduced, FPS has increased on the fleet, lot less stutter and less textures popping too late. Plus it was a breeze to install and activate with your unleashed program. Kudos! Bioware should include something like that in the game itself.

 

P.S. I'm using the new beta release, and I had no problem with missing UI settings or anything else.

Edited April 24, 2012 by HenryChinaski

[da_zone]

thanks for this m8 , i've gotta say that nothing has quite up-ed my FPS like your "little" project

i've tried the new beta version you've put up for download and so far its been working great i've not experianced any problems what so ever

 

i'll be experimenting with the assets i usefor the ramdisk a lot more so i'll report any bugs or problems i come across

 

Thumbs up and keep up the great work

 

edit: tried various combinations of assets and it all seems to be working as intended with varying fps increses

Was wondering if anyone found which assets are the most CPU intensive? Since that seems to be the biggest issue in my configuration and i'd like to lighten the load on the CPU as much as possible

Edited April 25, 2012 by da_zone

[Ocmer_]

thanks for this m8 , i've gotta say that nothing has quite up-ed my FPS like your "little" project

i've tried the new beta version you've put up for download and so far its been working great i've not experianced any problems what so ever

 

i'll be experimenting with the assets i usefor the ramdisk a lot more so i'll report any bugs or problems i come across

 

Thumbs up and keep up the great work

 

edit: tried various combinations of assets and it all seems to be working as intended with varying fps increses

Was wondering if anyone found which assets are the most CPU intensive? Since that seems to be the biggest issue in my configuration and i'd like to lighten the load on the CPU as much as possible

 

Thanks, and good to hear this version is quite stable all around now.

As for the assets, I've noted the assets that are most loaded/read by the game. I don't really think the reading is cpu intensive, only you need to know what asset files the game reads in certain scenarios.

 

Btw to all, guess well release 3.0 soon with a very neat GUI as I've seen. So no more ugly oversized placeholder we have currently in version 2.x ;D

Edited April 25, 2012 by Ocmer_

[Liokae]

Got this up and running a few days ago, and I gotta say- the difference isn't exactly mind-blowing but it's definitely noticeable, and I've only got the three main assets recommended loaded because I only have 6 gigs of memory. I'm in the middle of an upgrade project on my computer that includes boosting that to 16- really looking forward to seeing what kind of difference that 10 gigs will make.

[Ocmer_]

Got this up and running a few days ago, and I gotta say- the difference isn't exactly mind-blowing but it's definitely noticeable, and I've only got the three main assets recommended loaded because I only have 6 gigs of memory. I'm in the middle of an upgrade project on my computer that includes boosting that to 16- really looking forward to seeing what kind of difference that 10 gigs will make.

 

Yea it was intended to reduce the hitching when the game loads data and filling the cache files. Once we started to add asset files aswell people reported FPS increase but not all, it is just trying and see

[BogyOne]

It works really great now, never lost settings since 2.8.1.

I have only experienced random chat delays while the game was running smooth but I cannot say it is related to TOT. Has anyone else noticed similar thing?

I was also curious if there would be an update to list of files to put on ramdrive due to patch 1.2, e.g. Denova operation?

 

Regards, Bogy

[Ocmer_]

It works really great now, never lost settings since 2.8.1.

I have only experienced random chat delays while the game was running smooth but I cannot say it is related to TOT. Has anyone else noticed similar thing?

I was also curious if there would be an update to list of files to put on ramdrive due to patch 1.2, e.g. Denova operation?

 

Regards, Bogy

 

Good to hear the progam works correctly now, but the chat delay I did not noticed anything about that on my own system.

 

The most used (read) asset files are probably still the fx and dynamic asset file. I only have seen the last boss of Denova so I have no answer or what asset file that might be. Like I pointed out and others aswell, you can easy see diskactivity in Windows and determine which asset files are used in a certain senario.

[Choeube]

Hi, first off all big thanks for your efort

 

i play mostly PvP

I have 8 GB Ram. Should i only use the 2 main buttons to stay over 6GB Ram or can i spent some "points" in Animations?

Or would you recomend Chardesign? Or the map itself?

[Ocmer_]

Hi, first off all big thanks for your efort

 

i play mostly PvP

I have 8 GB Ram. Should i only use the 2 main buttons to stay over 6GB Ram or can i spent some "points" in Animations?

Or would you recomend Chardesign? Or the map itself?

 

I would say keep about 4 to 4.5GB free for your system and SWTOR. Keep background programs to minimum and you can use quite some for the ramdisk. I would go for char animations before map, but just try it out yourself.

[Zzxe]

When I use SWTOR Unleashed, the button SWTOR Unleashed does not start the SWTOR launcher.

 

What am I doing wrong? Is this intended? Do I have to launch the game manually?

[SavageWolf]

I have an amazing idea. How about BW get off their fat behinds and implement a fix themselves. This guy made a fix and he did it for free. You should be so ashamed of yourselves tht you cry yourselves to sleep everynight.

[Ocmer_]

When I use SWTOR Unleashed, the button SWTOR Unleashed does not start the SWTOR launcher.

 

What am I doing wrong? Is this intended? Do I have to launch the game manually?

 

Did you selected any files to place on the ramdrive (settings), before clicking on the launch Unleashed? And were you using the newest version 2.9beta2? If so please post your log file that has been automatically created here, between spoiler tags.

[jackofrost]

Just FYI... I created a 24gb ramdisk and ran the game from there for a long time... the game grew past 24gb and while I could have increased the size, I give up... because even though the ramdrive benched 3 times faster than my raided ssds, the game load times were still... bad. The ramdrive loading speed wasn't enough of an increase to bother with continuing to use it.

 

for the curious

 

ramdisk: http://i.imgur.com/778ba.png

ssd raid: http://i.imgur.com/Q3Bnm.png (you can ignore the middle and left benchmarks, theyre mechanical drives i did for the hell of it)

[EzoEo]

Just a question related to it.

 

I only have 4GbB Ram and Win 64 so is it worth putting SW:TOR on SSD. My old SSD just died after a month and had my OS and Origin on it with games(ME3, BF3).

 

Since I can't use the RAMDISK to full effect then is MMOs on SSD a good idea or doesn't shorten their life span too much.

 

Thanks for any advice

[Ocmer_]

Just a question related to it.

 

I only have 4GbB Ram and Win 64 so is it worth putting SW:TOR on SSD. My old SSD just died after a month and had my OS and Origin on it with games(ME3, BF3).

 

Since I can't use the RAMDISK to full effect then is MMOs on SSD a good idea or doesn't shorten their life span too much.

 

Thanks for any advice

Well if you both install Windows and SWTOR on the same SSD it might help somewhat as the diskcachearena and local cache are build on the SSD. I run with this setup, and tbh I didn't noticed improvment by only using an SSD.

[ImpulseX]

Hi, might be a dumb question but when I ran Imdisk, nothing happened. A little black box popped up for a second and nothing else. Is that what's supposed to happen or is there more to it? Not quite sure what to do on everything after this part anyway haha.

[Ocmer_]

Hi, might be a dumb question but when I ran Imdisk, nothing happened. A little black box popped up for a second and nothing else. Is that what's supposed to happen or is there more to it? Not quite sure what to do on everything after this part anyway haha.

 

Hello, I see you desided to drop in this thread.

I assume you installed Imdisk and tried to run that, well that won't work on its own. Imdisk is the program our program uses to create a ramdrive, but our program places the files on them.

 

Download the latest program called 'SWTOR Unleashed' and start the game with that. Before you press 'Start Unleashed' make sure you have selected what you want on the ramdisk in 'Settings'. I would recommend to start with 'DiskCacheArena', 'Local cache' and one asset file, 'swtor_main_art_fx_1'. Once you selected this in settings press 'Save, apply and close' and press 'Start Unleashed' to let the program create a ramdrive and copy needed files on it. This will then when done, start the launcher automatically.

 

From here on, everytime you wish to play SWTOR you have to start the game trough our program, unless you want to stop using it and play normal again, you can use 'Play retail' or 'Remove and quit'.

Edited April 27, 2012 by Ocmer_

[DarthVitrial]

Bug report: If I try to download a patch while using SWTOR Unleashed 2.9beta2, the Catalyst Control Center (host application and monitoring application, CCC version 2012.0418.2133.36668) crashes and the installer fails (around 56% of installing Main Assets), requiring me to remove ramdisk, repair the patcher and download the patch via a non-Ramdisk patcher. I can then set Ramdisk back up and use it normally. Edited April 28, 2012 by DarthVitrial

[Ocmer_]

Bug report: If I try to download a patch while using SWTOR Unleashed 2.9beta2, the Catalyst Control Center (host application and monitoring application, CCC version 2012.0418.2133.36668) crashes and the installer fails (around 56% of installing Main Assets), requiring me to remove ramdisk, repair the patcher and download the patch via a non-Ramdisk patcher. I can then set Ramdisk back up and use it normally.

 

This is known and currently we have no 'legal' way to intercept the patching process. If you just read the whole post (or the readme file) of SWTOR Unleashed you see I made a paragraph for it what happens if you patch with an active setup. It is also written you can just ignore the repair process (as nothing is broken!) and launch retail to patch.

[DiabloDoom]

Just a question related to it.

 

I only have 4GbB Ram and Win 64 so is it worth putting SW:TOR on SSD. My old SSD just died after a month and had my OS and Origin on it with games(ME3, BF3).

 

Since I can't use the RAMDISK to full effect then is MMOs on SSD a good idea or doesn't shorten their life span too much.

 

Thanks for any advice

It died after only a month? Did you try a secure erase? What mobo did you have it attached to (did it have AHCI support, marvell chip or anything?) Did you ever defrag or format it because that can kill an SSD.

[cdyerkes]

*edit* Nevermind. I figured out you had to actually start up the game after you ran swtor unleashed. oops

 

Hi I tried installing this and it seems to work up until I click on the "swtor unleashed" button.

 

What I did was,

 

1. Install ImDisk

2. Start swtor unleashed

3. Go into settings and load the suggested items from the list. (first tried the art/fx preselected and the top two), then I tried just the standard 3 suggested and saved.

4. I clicked on the swtor unleashed button and it appeared to be loading and then nothing happened.

 

I have core i7 and 8GB Ram.

 

Here is the text log

 

 

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Settings.IsCurrentComputerSettings()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Launcher.StartUnleashed()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Setup.IsValid()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Settings.IsCurrentComputerSettings()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.IsValidGameDirectory()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.IsValidGameDirectory(directory=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1, tagAsOriginal=False)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Launcher.RemoveUnleashed()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.IsValidGameDirectory()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.IsValidGameDirectory(directory=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryDeleteDirectory(directoryPath=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR_ORIGINAL)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryMoveDirectory(sourceDirectory=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR_ORIGINAL, destinationDirectory=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR\publictest)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR\publictest\settings)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.FileExists(path=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\DiskCacheArena)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryDeleteFile(filePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\DiskCacheArena)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryDeleteFile(filePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryMoveFile(sourceFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1_ORIG.tor, destinationFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] RamDrive.Exists()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] DriveManager.Exists(driveLetter=R)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Launcher.SetupUnleashed()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.DirectoryExists(path=R:\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryDeleteDirectory(directoryPath=R:\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateDirectory(directoryPath=R:\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateDirectory(directoryPath=R:\SWTOR\swtor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateDirectory(directoryPath=R:\SWTOR\publictest)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryMoveDirectory(sourceDirectory=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR, destinationDirectory=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR_ORIGINAL)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateDirectoryLink(linkDirectoryPath=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR, targetDirectoryPath=R:\SWTOR)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateDirectoryLink(linkDirectoryPath=R:\SWTOR\swtor\settings, targetDirectoryPath=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR_ORIGINAL\swtor\settings)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateDirectoryLink(linkDirectoryPath=R:\SWTOR\publictest\settings, targetDirectoryPath=C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SWTOR_ORIGINAL\publictest\settings)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateFileLink(linkFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\DiskCacheArena, targetFilePath=R:\DiskCacheArena)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryDeleteFile(filePath=R:\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1, tagAsOriginal=False)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] RamDrive.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCopyFile(sourceFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor, destinationFilePath=R:\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1, tagAsOriginal=False)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1, tagAsOriginal=True)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryMoveFile(sourceFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor, destinationFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1_ORIG.tor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1, tagAsOriginal=False)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] RamDrive.GetAssetFilePath(assetName=swtor_main_art_fx_1)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Tools.TryCreateFileLink(linkFilePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Assets\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor, targetFilePath=R:\swtor_main_art_fx_1.tor)

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Launcher.Launch()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.IsValidGameDirectory()

2012-04-28 16:10:31 [METHOD] Swtor.IsValidGameDirectory(directory=C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic)

 

 

 

See anything I'm doing wrong? Thanks

Edited April 29, 2012 by cdyerkes
Figured it out