RAMDISK for SWTOR (increased performance)

[ZincThallinide]

I'm not sure if you're right about your problem, but..

 

You aren't required to move the files, you can always copy them.

[Comedicgrudge]

I did some looking and found nothing but aliases with broken links in the assests folder. Now I am wondering if I need to delete and redownload the game or just try to find the missing assest files and add them in manually.

 

Edit - The original files appear to have been renamed and are still present. However manually editing the name of all of them and removing the aliases did not solve my problem, still getting the same error message upon launching the game. Starting the HUGE download of the game again now.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Comedicgrudge

[Ocmer_]

I did some looking and found nothing but aliases with broken links in the assests folder. Now I am wondering if I need to delete and redownload the game or just try to find the missing assest files and add them in manually.

 

Edit - The original files appear to have been renamed and are still present. However manually editing the name of all of them and removing the aliases did not solve my problem, still getting the same error message upon launching the game. Starting the HUGE download of the game again now.

 

It is made so that it is always recoverable, even by hand.

 

The problem was I was sleeping so yea no real help from me on this before you started the download again. But depending on your settings, not only the asset files are renamed and linked. You also probs had diskcachearena and local cache added.

 

Thing is you should have two kinds of error messages. That it says you need at least 2GB of space. This message comes from the cache, the game tries now to place them on a ramdrive but if you did not mount it before hand they cannot be created. Easiest error to resolve.

 

Missing asset file error, comes from if you were able to mount a ramdisk, but the asset file were not copied to the ramdisk, thus the game cannot find them.

 

I am ofc very curious of what exactly was grayed out. Did you mean the whole program? or only the launch and dismount button, but you could enter settings (or viceversa). Did you move only the program? (so not the folder it was in) did it created a file named ProgramSettings.xml? The settings file is very important so the program knows what has changed and if you can press the launch button or not.

[Theagg]

Sorry I/you missed you/me there. I meant the extra 416mb of my ram acting as extra pagefile. I can do it since I've done it before, think it's easily done in properties of the ram drive, but I was wondering if there would be a way to set priority specifically for TOR. I'll look into it, maybe do some tests if possible.

 

I might just buy another stick of ram since it's dirt cheap, thank god I only bought a single channel at the time ^^

 

BTW, wouldn't having no paging file (virtual memory) also be effective? With 8GB at least ofc. This would obviously only help with rendering issues etc.

 

Given how Windows utilises page files and works with virtual memory why would you want to put a page file into ram anyway ?

 

It wouldn't actually improve anything. As a rule, the more RAM you have by default, the less the system will use page filing. Using imgdisk or something similar to commit some of that RAM to a page file actually starves the system of resources.

 

Read here for more detail as to why its pointless to commit RAM to a page file.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1193401/why-it-is-bad-to-store-the-page-file-on-a-ram-disk.

 

To your last point though, yes, if you have a large amount of spare RAM, you can reduce the size of the default paging file to a small amount in the windows settings.

 

And generally thanks to the OP for his work etc. This hasn't solved everything for me (still get FPS drops in warzones) but it has improved it noticably. Now we will wait to see if they have tweaked and improved on these problems in the main game client when patch 1.2 comes out tomorrow.

[Jobeleca]

Ugh, I've discovered that if you reboot the computer without first unmounting the ramdrive then you have just screwed yourself - and with windows automatic updates that is something that WILL happen at some time or another.

 

I the RAM Drive didn't automount when windows started, when I ran the program I couldn't mount it (greyed out) and setup didn't do anything at all. I compared the SWTOR folder against its backup and it was several GB smaller.

 

Fortunately, I had thought to duplicate the game folder as a precaution so it was simply a matter of deleting and recopying the contents.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Jobeleca

[Ocmer_]

Ugh, I've discovered that if you reboot the computer without first unmounting the ramdrive then you have just screwed yourself - and with windows automatic updates that is something that WILL happen at some time or another.

Ok, there is something strange going on, so in a day time your the second person that didn't dismount and lauchbutton grayed out. Altough it should not matter at all, as it only copies the files to the ramdisk so all original files stays (renamed tho) on your system.

 

PS; I just ran a fresh setup with version 1.3.0 and did a hard shutdown after the launcher popped up. After startup I was still able to press launch and even remove the whole setup correctly. (I run Windows 7 64bit as administrator with UAC disabled).

 

PPS; for both Jobeleca and Comedicgrudge, can you both please elaborate the following points for me?

This is to make the program even better, if not to prevent future failure, thanks.

• What is your Windows version (including 32/64 bit)
• What program version did you use?
• Are you administrator on your Windows account?
• Do you have UAC enabled?
• Did you move the whole program folder after setup? (should not matter, but maybe...)
• Did you only moved the program or removed the settings file? (does matter allot!)

Edited April 11, 2012 by Ocmer_

[Comedicgrudge]

Windows 7 64 bit Bootcamped on an i7 2011 iMac

Most recent version of SWTOR unleashed 1.3 I think.

I am the admin, but do not know what UAC is.

I moved the entire game folder, the only things I moved individually were the aliases of the assest files used the first time.

 

-------------------------

 

Ok, thanks you for your quick response but I think I might be in some hot water now. Here's what was happening:

 

After the hard shutdown launching SWTOR Unleashed I noticed 2 things. First, the launch and dismount buttons were greyed out and inactive. And secondly, when trying to add any assests I was using last time to the ramdisk no additional memory was being allocated. This was caused I suspect, by those assets being renamed and the program trying to link the now empty aliases. In this state SWTOR unleashed was not able mount a ramdisk, so I tried to launch the game without it. The game would boot to the first loading screed and immediately crash. I think it was giving me the 2gb disc cache error, but I cant be sure. Either way, after fiddling with it for a while I figured it would easiest to just copy my existing data to the desktop and run the downloader again.

 

One SWTOR had redownloaded I tried launching the new (clean I think) copy. Now it is acting like it is going to show me the opening video - I get the flashy bioware logo - then a black screen. At this point the program will lock up and I have to CTRL ALT DELETE out of it.

 

At this point I am completely flummoxed and any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. After redownloading the client the only option I can think of to get up and running again is to do a clean install of windows, but I am not terribly familiar with file structure in windows and I am sure I am missing some options. Are there any permissions files or preferences stored outside the game folder that could be causing the trouble?

Edited April 11, 2012 by Comedicgrudge

[Ocmer_]

@Comedicgrudge

 

Hmm I dont really get it what you meant with "I moved the entire game folder ...", does this mean you moved the gamefolder after installation and using the ramdisk program? If so both the stored installationpaths in Windows registry and ProgramSettings.xml become invalid and the program is unable to mount or revert the setup.

 

To manual revert the setup do the following;

• In "<installationpath>/assets/"
  
  • Delete any links (shown as shortcuts, arrow in the icon) [are 0kB in size]
    
  • Rename files containing "_ORIG" back to without "_ORIG".
    

  [*]In "<installationpath>/swtor/" remove the link or file named DiskCacheArena.

 

• Go to your local appdata folder, "%localappdata%" or "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local"
  
  • Remove a folder SWTOR if it is a link
    
  • Rename a folder named SWTOR_Original back to SWTOR
    

 

The reason it maybe crashes is that with a reinstall of SWTOR did not fix the local SWTOR folder, thus program is unable to find the settings, nor make them as the target of the link is not present.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Ocmer_

[FooBard]

Buy a good SATA3 SSD with read speeds of 500MB/s and you'll have just as good performance.

 

The CPU actually takes longer to process the data than it takes to read it at that speed.

 

Just saying.

[FooBard]

Ram is much much faster than ssd.

But when the CPU is still taking longer to process the data than it takes to read it, it becomes unnecessary.

[Jobeleca]

This is to make the program even better, if not to prevent future failure, thanks.

• What is your Windows version (including 32/64 bit)
• What program version did you use?
• Are you administrator on your Windows account?
• Do you have UAC enabled?
• Did you move the whole program folder after setup? (should not matter, but maybe...)
• Did you only moved the program or removed the settings file? (does matter allot!)

 

I am using Win7 64

I used version 1.3 - the most up to date version when I made my other post.

I have UAC enabled but am and admin.

I did not move the program folder after setup.

I did not move the program nor did I remove the settings file. (I have now, but not when issue initially happened).

 

My symptoms are identical to Comedicgrudge. Oddly, the duplicate folder I had made for the game isn't working so uninstalled the complete game and am redownloading.... it's a bit ridiculous that I have a 30mbps connection and the game is only downloading at 1.6mbps This will be a while.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Jobeleca

[deathomight]

In preparation for patch tomorrow what exactly must be done so everything works properly?

Is it just dismount -> remove -> patch?

Edited April 11, 2012 by deathomight

[Comedicgrudge]

@Ocmer

 

To clairify, I only moved the main game folder (Electronic Arts/Bioware/. . .) after doing what you just described in your last post. Removing the aliases and renaming the _ORIG files. I did not know about the user data files and that will be the first thing I look into when I get home from work today. I'd really like to get up and running before 1.2

 

I work on apple computers for a living and am more than a little lost farting around in Windows. Ill let you know how things turn out when I get home.

[Ocmer_]

Buy a good SATA3 SSD with read speeds of 500MB/s and you'll have just as good performance.

 

The CPU actually takes longer to process the data than it takes to read it at that speed.

 

Just saying.

 

But when the CPU is still taking longer to process the data than it takes to read it, it becomes unnecessary.

Then again I think people cannot read, I don't want to have discussions here if its reliable or not. I just try to give a solution as it.

 

Beside that, I am running Windows and SWTOR on a sata3 SSD (vertex 3) that has the read/write speeds around 480-510MB/s, I get quite a huge improvement with this.

 

Also with your statement your saying that the current use of the gamefiles, that is read asset -> stream cache -> write cache -> read cache -> show in game (all on the same disk), is all faster than not putting these cache files on ram?

 

Then again Imdisk gets read/write speeds of 5GB/s just saying.

[Ocmer_]

@Ocmer

 

To clairify, I only moved the main game folder (Electronic Arts/Bioware/. . .) after doing what you just described in your last post. Removing the aliases and renaming the _ORIG files. I did not know about the user data files and that will be the first thing I look into when I get home from work today. I'd really like to get up and running before 1.2

 

I work on apple computers for a living and am more than a little lost farting around in Windows. Ill let you know how things turn out when I get home.

 

Ok I am pretty sure the link still in Local appdata is the problem you have now.

 

@Jobeleca

Please try to remove the setup manually, like I described in a post before for Comedicgrudge. Also Jobeleca are you also using mac with bootcamp?

Anyway I give my apologies for any inconvience the program couses you two, I still try to understand what went wrong with you two but honestly I don't quite get it atm. Maybe version 2.0 will have it solved as it has quite some improvements.

 

Ps. It seems like the created settings file was not saved correctly or was corrupted.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Ocmer_

[Ocmer_]

In preparation for patch tomorrow what exactly must be done so everything works properly?

Is it just dismount -> remove -> patch?

 

Yes I was going to make a post for it a bit later on but might aswell do it now.

 

 

Patch 1.2 Tomorrow

For those that have any asset files included on the ramdisk, please remove the complete setup before you patch the game. Also as I heard the update is about 1GB in size there might be a change in ramdisksize required, so once you confirmed the game is running normal as it (as retail), delete the ProgramSettings.xml and start a fresh setup.

[Jobeleca]

I uninstalled both the game and the ram disk program, deleted everything, and am in the process of redownloading from scratch right now.

[Ocmer_]

I uninstalled both the game and the ram disk program, deleted everything, and am in the process of redownloading from scratch right now.

 

Well reinstall wasn't needed, but check your local appdata folder if the SWTOR folder in there is still linked.

 

Anyway after this hassle gonna write up a post "debug and recover section". To put in some possible errors/bugs/crashes with SWTOR and recovery to manual remove the setup and recover to retail.

[Comedicgrudge]

@Comedicgrudge

 

To manual revert the setup do the following;

• In "<installationpath>/assets/"
  
  • Delete any links (shown as shortcuts, arrow in the icon) [are 0kB in size]
    
  • Rename files containing "_ORIG" back to without "_ORIG".
    

  [*]In "<installationpath>/swtor/" remove the link or file named DiskCacheArena.

 

• Go to your local appdata folder, "%localappdata%" or "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local"
  
  • Remove a folder SWTOR if it is a link
    
  • Rename a folder named SWTOR_Original back to SWTOR
    

 

The reason it maybe crashes is that with a reinstall of SWTOR did not fix the local SWTOR folder, thus program is unable to find the settings, nor make them as the target of the link is not present.

 

Edit-

 

Being unfamiliar with Windows this was probably my fault, but I did find the folder and have subsecuently gotten SWTOR running again! And just in time to clear out all my pvp commendations before the patch!

Edited April 12, 2012 by Comedicgrudge

[Ocmer_]

I just got home and took a look for my local appdata folder and I seem to have no such thing. Could it be a hidden folder? I followed you file path exactly and did some looking on my own but I cannot find it.

 

Ok just type in "%localappdata%" (without the quotes) in Windows explorer adress bar.

 

And yes local appdata is hidden by the system.

1. Open up my computer.
   
2. If you dont see the toolbar by default press left alt once.
   
3. Go to "Tools" > "folder options..."
   
4. Go to the tab "view" in folder options
   
5. select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives @ hidden files and folders
   

 

The %localappdata% shorthand should even show up even if the folder is hidden.

Anyway after you unhid folders, go to ure drive where Windows is installed on and navigate to; users > *ure username* > AppData > Local

[Jobeleca]

Finished downloading a clean copy of SWTOR, worked.

 

Ran your program, got an error that the folder was not empty. I chose to continue. I waited several minutes but the "Launch SWTOR Unleashed" button was still grayed out. Below is the error log.

 

 

 

See the end of this message for details on invoking

just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

 

************** Exception Text **************

System.IO.IOException: The directory is not empty.

 

at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)

at System.IO.Directory.DeleteHelper(String fullPath, String userPath, Boolean recursive)

at System.IO.Directory.Delete(String fullPath, String userPath, Boolean recursive)

at SwtorRamdisk.FormMain.TryDeleteDirectory(String directoryPath)

at SwtorRamdisk.FormMain.btnSetup_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

 

 

************** Loaded Assemblies **************

mscorlib

Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.261 (RTMGDR.030319-2600)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll

----------------------------------------

SwtorRamdisk

Assembly Version: 1.3.0.0

Win32 Version: 1.3.0.0

CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Aqua/Desktop/SwtorRamdisk.exe

----------------------------------------

System.Windows.Forms

Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.235 built by: RTMGDR

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Drawing

Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll

----------------------------------------

System

Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.261 built by: RTMGDR

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Xml

Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.233 built by: RTMGDR

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Configuration

Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 (RTMRel.030319-0100)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll

----------------------------------------

1xgp0ndu

Assembly Version: 1.3.0.0

Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.261 built by: RTMGDR

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll

----------------------------------------

 

************** JIT Debugging **************

To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this

application or computer (machine.config) must have the

jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.

The application must also be compiled with debugging

enabled.

 

For example:

 

<configuration>

<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />

</configuration>

 

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception

will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer

rather than be handled by this dialog box.

 

 

 

After it failed, I tried to run SWTOR normally again - I couldn't. I got the following error from SWTOR

 

This program encountered an internal error and will exit.

Error code: 6

 

Unable to create temporary workspace files. Do you have at least 2GB of disk space free?

Edited April 12, 2012 by Jobeleca

[Ocmer_]

Finished downloading a clean copy of SWTOR, worked.

 

Ran your program, got an error that the folder was not empty. I chose to continue. I waited several minutes but the "Launch SWTOR Unleashed" button was still grayed out. Below is the error log.

 

After it failed, I tried to run SWTOR normally again - I couldn't. I got the following error from SWTOR

Well good thing I left that line of code in the program, without proper handling yet, else it would have removed your settings folder. And also thanks for the bug report, now I know it can crash on that aswell.

 

Edit; sorry I skipped the part that said you were able to run SWTOR normally again after reinstallation. Anyway the problem that then happend was that there was still a folder called "SWTOR_Original" which should have been renamed back to "SWTOR" after removing that named folder that was a link. If SWTOR recreated the folder "SWTOR" itself you lost you settings. But don't worry if the folder "SWTOR_Original" still exists remove the folder "SWTOR" (even if it is no link) and rename "SWTOR_Original" back to "SWTOR".

 

Also the error you encountered now by SWTOR (at least 2GB ...) is that DiskCacheArena is linked to the ramdisk, but the ramdisk is not mounted (due not able to press the launchbutton), thus the game cannot create the required cache file.

 

To resolve now again, manually, follow the Manual recovery section in the OP. This will explain how to get rid of the DiskCacheArena and any asset file links the program made.

 

Ps. can you use spoiler tags around the bugreport, it will shrink the post quite a bit and more overview on this page, thanks.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Ocmer_

[Jobeleca]

I'll try that tip tomorrow and let you know what happens, I edited my post with the spoiler tag as you requested.

[Ocmer_]

I'll try that tip tomorrow and let you know what happens, I edited my post with the spoiler tag as you requested.

Should be fine, as since January when I started to make the batchscripts in the old thread I messed up (programming wise) quite a bit, which rendered my game unable to start. But with all the mistakes made, never had to reinstall my game

[Elveswarrior]

sitting and pathcing for 1,2 atm and have never used this program before but a surgestion

 

Fraps you setting up the program?

 

i for one am a ******* to setup even the simplest things from text alone. i can borrow my youtube account and upload the frapsed "movie" if that should be a problem id love to support this initiativ