SWTOR Unleashed (game files in RAM to improve performance)

[DarthVitrial]

Great, how's unleashed for you now?

SWTOR loads faster now, and I have a few more FPS (21-22 instead of 19-20).

[exca]

SWTOR loads faster now, and I have a few more FPS (21-22 instead of 19-20).

Good to hear. Though it's normal you don't get a big max fps increase. But you can try to up your options a little.

[RevanDrop]

So I play TOR on my okay-tier laptop a lot of the time. I had avoided trying Unleashed on it because I figured 4 gigs of ram wasn't enough.

 

I was wrong, combining Unleashed with Gamebooster removed just about all the chugging from my game. Now the only time it chugs at all is when someone messes up and we pull two or three groups and there's 100 things going on, and then it's still playable.

 

Thankyou for this amazing piece of software!

 

Which files did you add to the RAM?

[CrazyCanukk]

I..I..didnt know this existed.

 

I think i just had a nerdgasm...

 

bookmarking to try when i get home.

[Ansalem]

pretty sad that fans are having to develop in game efficiency when the devs keep failing to optimize their game properly. This work with Windows 8?

[dvametragluposti]

I have added most of these files, and somehow, I'm not seeing any improvement. I heave enough RAM to run the game with Unleashed btw. How is this possible?

 

3.44Ghz Intel Core2Duo

8GB 1333Mhz DDR3

Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1

Factory OC'd nVidia 560ti

SSD game disk

 

And some parameters directly bound to performance representing the items we want to place in the RAM drive :

Add DiskCacheArena : the game cache file

Add LocalApps : other cache files (to disable if you have issues saving your in game settings such as the GUI for example until we find a solution for your actually unknown bug)

Asset files (the .tor game's files) : check those to put in RAM

Select FX : check in the list the special effects file

Select Dynamic : check in the list the dynamic items files

Select All : check all files

Deselect All : uncheck all files

 

For improvements on the fleet, raids and pvp (characters rendering);

swtor_main_art_dynamic_cape_1

swtor_main_art_dynamic_chest_1

swtor_main_art_dynamic_chest_tight_1

swtor_main_art_dynamic_hand_1

swtor_main_art_dynamic_head_1

swtor_main_art_dynamic_lower_1

swtor_main_art_dynamic_mags_1

swtor_main_art_weapon_1.tor

 

For improvements in pvp (characters animations);

swtor_main_anim_humanoid_bfab_1.tor

swtor_main_anim_humanoid_bfns_1.tor

swtor_main_anim_humanoid_bmaf_1.tor

swtor_main_anim_humanoid_bmns_1.tor

 

For minor pvp improvements (accessed only a little);

swtor_main_area_misc_1.tor

swtor_main_art_area_all_item_1.tor

swtor_main_area_hutta_1.tor

swtor_main_gfx_1.tor

 

For improvements in war zones (loading times);

swtor_main_area_alderaan_1.tor (alderaan civil war)

swtor_main_area_nar_shaddaa_1.tor (huttball)

swtor_main_area_hoth_1.tor (Ilum, seems strange but hoth/ilum shares this file)

Edited December 18, 2012 by dvametragluposti

[exca]

I have added most of these files, and somehow, I'm not seeing any improvement. I heave enough RAM to run the game with Unleashed btw. How is this possible?

 

3.44Ghz Intel Core2Duo

8GB 1333Mhz DDR3

Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1

Factory OC'd nVidia 560ti

SSD game disk

 

Just try with Arena, Local, Fx and Dynamic.

[exca]

pretty sad that fans are having to develop in game efficiency when the devs keep failing to optimize their game properly. This work with Windows 8?

A few reported it does.

[DarthBama]

I havent tried this yet. I have 32GB of RAM, will this allow me to load the entire game?

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

SSD game disk

 

This is why you aren't seeing improvement. The whole point of SWTOR Unleashed is to increase read/write speeds by leaving the data in memory longer. SSD works so fast and similar to memory that SWTOR Unleashed is not needed and not expected to improve your performance.

[dtjswtor]

I used to run the game on medium graphics, now run it on high with equal or better performance. 8 gigs of ram and no real background stuff so I load all optional files. A word of caution though - when you are done I recommend restarting the application and choosing "remove and quit" before powering down. Without doing that my machine would do strange things when next trying to power on (repeatedly trying to boot but not doing it). Doing that no problems.

[dvametragluposti]

This is why you aren't seeing improvement. The whole point of SWTOR Unleashed is to increase read/write speeds by leaving the data in memory longer. SSD works so fast and similar to memory that SWTOR Unleashed is not needed and not expected to improve your performance.

 

AFAIK people with SSD have had improvements with Unleashed.

 

Plus, I am using both, without improvement, and my PC specs are solid, the game should run smoother.

 

Just try with Arena, Local, Fx and Dynamic.

 

I think I did at first, then added some more, because nothing happened

 

@EXCA: could you recommend a process <> disk activity measuring tool? So I can see what is mostly being read? Or some other method?

Edited December 19, 2012 by dvametragluposti

[jindodog]

I think these guys have the right idea --if you need to quantify and measure the performance boost, you don't need it. I just put 16GB into my A8-based laptop and graphical performance is already improved. When I loaded swtorUnleashed for the first time the drastically cut load times and lack of thrashing from my 5400rpm hard disk were immediately noticeable.

 

If you run Unleashed and don't see a difference in performance, I would call that "Not A Problem."

Edited December 19, 2012 by jindodog

[exca]

I havent tried this yet. I have 32GB of RAM, will this allow me to load the entire game?

Yes but I don't recommend it since people reported it to be a bit useless to do.

[exca]

I used to run the game on medium graphics, now run it on high with equal or better performance. 8 gigs of ram and no real background stuff so I load all optional files. A word of caution though - when you are done I recommend restarting the application and choosing "remove and quit" before powering down. Without doing that my machine would do strange things when next trying to power on (repeatedly trying to boot but not doing it). Doing that no problems.

It's strange, maybe there's an issue with ImDisk :/

[exca]

AFAIK people with SSD have had improvements with Unleashed.

 

Plus, I am using both, without improvement, and my PC specs are solid, the game should run smoother.

 

 

 

I think I did at first, then added some more, because nothing happened

 

@EXCA: could you recommend a process <> disk activity measuring tool? So I can see what is mostly being read? Or some other method?

Stick to those 4 options and look at FPS with CTRL+SHIFT+F in game. Watch especially FPS drops (not max). With unleashed you should stay closer to your max when a lot of actions happen on the screen. Then try to raise graphic settings and compare again with/without unleashed if you're not yet at max settings.

 

To measure used files in real time I used filemon on the 2 swtor.exe process.

[swredrage]

I have added most of these files, and somehow, I'm not seeing any improvement. I heave enough RAM to run the game with Unleashed btw. How is this possible?

 

3.44Ghz Intel Core2Duo

8GB 1333Mhz DDR3

Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1

Factory OC'd nVidia 560ti

SSD game disk

Your system appears to be good enough to where a RAM disk won't make much difference, assuming the devices are configured correctly. What you may notice is that in areas where you may normally get a bit of chop.. that will most likely be reduced.

[Hiramas]

Ok, I played under a minute with this now, and this is truly amazing.

I just upgraded my laptop with 16GB Ram and the 5gigs this uses is not really a concern.

But ingame.... wow. Amazing. Loading Times are way faster, and the micro-lags I previously had are gone comepletly. Even switchting in and out of the game is way faster. You, Sir, have truly done a great deed here.

Thanks.

[smexymage]

Hi Guys,

 

Tried reading through the thread but there are too many replies which really goes to show how good this utility is, so well done and thank you.

 

I was reading the guide on the first post and I noticed that not all assets are selected in your guide so I tried to enable all and it took me up to 18GB of RAM but I only have 12GB so won't work.

 

I was wondering what settings would be best for 12GB as many planet based assets seem to remain unchecked so it seems that performance would change depending on what planet I am on.

[dvametragluposti]

Stick to those 4 options and look at FPS with CTRL+SHIFT+F in game. Watch especially FPS drops (not max). With unleashed you should stay closer to your max when a lot of actions happen on the screen. Then try to raise graphic settings and compare again with/without unleashed if you're not yet at max settings.

 

To measure used files in real time I used filemon on the 2 swtor.exe process.

 

I'll check filemon.

 

Graphic changes result in two scenarios (from very low to very high), others don't have a noticable impact:

 

1 - High shadows cause a general drop of 5-10fps overall, and 10-20 when in warzones and fleet. This is normal, as dynamic shadows are GPU's nightmare. However, I am ALWAYS using the medium setting, so this is not a problem.

 

2 - Number of visible players (this is what I expected to be boosted with Unleashed): lower usually means higher FPS, but it's around 20ish (fleet,warzone,populated areas). ANYTHING higher takes 5fps per level of setting. I am using lowest, and 20-25fps is sort of unacceptable and Unleashed didn't help

 

Your system appears to be good enough to where a RAM disk won't make much difference, assuming the devices are configured correctly. What you may notice is that in areas where you may normally get a bit of chop.. that will most likely be reduced.

 

See above please, especially number 2.

[dvametragluposti]

@Exca: is it possible, for testing purposes, to make Unleashed NOT test available physical memory?

 

I'd like to try and see what happens if I push a little bit more into my RAM, to see what happens if some of the game's stuff goes into SSD's fast virtual memory/page file?

 

I am 200-300MB short (windows+swtor+5gb custom unleashed), I guess that wouldn't cause too much swapping between disk and memory, and it's between SSD and RAM.

Edited December 20, 2012 by dvametragluposti

[VassiliOFP]

Hi, I have a question... Once files are loaded in memory,o we have to start unleashed each time or we can just use regular launcher to launch the game as unleashed ? Cause unleashed prog still takes a good minute to load, even when files are already in the RAM (ramdisk created) Edited December 20, 2012 by VassiliOFP

[exca]

@Exca: is it possible, for testing purposes, to make Unleashed NOT test available physical memory?

 

I'd like to try and see what happens if I push a little bit more into my RAM, to see what happens if some of the game's stuff goes into SSD's fast virtual memory/page file?

 

I am 200-300MB short (windows+swtor+5gb custom unleashed), I guess that wouldn't cause too much swapping between disk and memory, and it's between SSD and RAM.

No since we already know what happens : SWAP and game goes slow like hell.

[exca]

Hi, I have a question... Once files are loaded in memory,o we have to start unleashed each time or we can just use regular launcher to launch the game as unleashed ? Cause unleashed prog still takes a good minute to load, even when files are already in the RAM (ramdisk created)

A few people reported the same issue. Try to reproduce it and post here your log file.

[exca]

I'll check filemon.

 

Graphic changes result in two scenarios (from very low to very high), others don't have a noticable impact:

 

1 - High shadows cause a general drop of 5-10fps overall, and 10-20 when in warzones and fleet. This is normal, as dynamic shadows are GPU's nightmare. However, I am ALWAYS using the medium setting, so this is not a problem.

 

2 - Number of visible players (this is what I expected to be boosted with Unleashed): lower usually means higher FPS, but it's around 20ish (fleet,warzone,populated areas). ANYTHING higher takes 5fps per level of setting. I am using lowest, and 20-25fps is sort of unacceptable and Unleashed didn't help

 

See above please, especially number 2.

It's strange Unleashed didn't help. Assets contains mainly textures. So put textures in max quality when testing it. If you still don't see a difference, I guess it means you have a bottleneck somewhere slowing down your computer maybe.