Help for Low-End Systems: Rambooster
#1

I want to share a program that I found--it's small and free--that has done
wonders for Il-2's playability on my system. I have enjoyed so much stuff
on this site, and received so much help setting up my game and fixing
issues that I hope this post of mine will help someone else out there.

It's called RAMBOOSTER 2.0

I have a "modest" system. Many of you would call it an antiquated piece of
junk.

6/25/2009, 01:01:43
Machine name: YOUR-7008FFA13B
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Compaq Presario 061
System Model: PN211AA-ABA SR1200NX NA440
BIOS: Rev. 3.11
Processor: AMD Athlon™ XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 1984MB RAM
Page File: 287MB used, 2570MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce FX 5500
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0326&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200

The only good thing about it is the two Gigs of Ram that I cannibalized
from another old computer. The vid card is obviously far less than adequate.
The mother board will not even support a decent video card. I can play on Perfect Mode, by the way,
with 1x shaders, though I don't. I use Safe settings in Il-2 setup. My card likes those settings
the best apparently.

That said, I am able to play Il-2 at 1024x768 32bit with high graphics
settings--depending on the map, I can play at Exellent terrain with
everything else maxed (Africa-Pacific/areas with low density of buildings.
With lots of buildings I have to dial down the visibility distance).

I have been steeped in Il-2 for weeks now. Pulling my hair out, trying to find some
compromise for my system that will make the game look decent and play smoothly. I have tweaked my
config.ini ad infinitum. I have made various registry tweaks to try to improve page file usage, changed
my vid card drivers about five times, tweaked the nvidia control panel....all with indifferent results.
As soon as I thought I had made real progress, I would find myself in a mission with the screen freezing
for three or four seconds at a time, chasing bf109s over towms at frame rates of 8,9,4(!) and getting
immensly discouraged. Stutters were bad. Radio chatter caused my game unexpectedly to freeze for seconds at a time,
explosions the same.

Having tried pretty much everything else, I began to look at Ram. It occurred to me that my Ram might be getting
clogged and if I could find a program that would "clean" it, it might help a little. I tried a couple freeware programs,
then I came across RAMBOOSTER 2.0. There is a vid on Youtube with a reputable-looking guy praising it and explaining how
set it up. I installed it and the improvement has been far more than I had hoped for. Stutters still occur, but they are
so short-lived that I hardly notice them. My frame rates in heavy activity and high structure density maps still drop below
twenty, but apparently, with enough free Ram, 16 fps still looks damn good.

This post is primarily for other poor SOBs like me with old, under-powered computers, but I'm sure it could help people
with better systems too. I've seen many posts by people with far superior vid cards to mine that complained of stutters. I
suspect that this program might help a lot, perhaps more, for people that have less Ram than I do.

Yours Truly,
Nodlew
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#2

Thanks mate, nice of you to share this info, I will give it a try. Smile
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#3

Having a clean-bare minimum operating system just for games with a swap file on a different disk drive is better than many of so called ram boosters.

The ram-booster these days is called... more RAM. As I see you have 2GB and your system should do IL-2 just fine.
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#4

As soon as I figure out what that means, I'll try it. Lemme see here, swap file, swap file....
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#5

When i had 2 gb RAM I stopped having a paging file and although photoshop would warn me about it... it ran much faster and better like that.
Now I have 3 GB RAM :wink:
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#6

I have been using Ram-Booster, to boost fps, for quite a long time and with 'Ashampoo's 'Core Tuner', it solves the Duel Core problem by making the game use both cores with the result that the frame rate does increase noticibly.

(late edit)
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#7

Hey Nodlew, If your looking for a better vid card you can get a gforce8400 for that rig. I got one for my pci, not pci-e, and it only cost me $50 on amazon. I got given a rig that had a 2.4 celeron and 1 gig of ram. After upgrading to dual 1 gig sticks($30 a piece) and finding a 2.8ghz P4($35), I thought I was doing pretty good with 15-20 fps. Then I got my 8400gs and I was so pleased to see that it more then doubled my fps. I now run on perfect with 30-40fps. IL-2 is so dependent on a good graphics card that upgrading yours will be like night and day.
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#8

Thanks for the tip, Davis. As soon as I wrote that about the card I thought "Gee, I really haven't even looked to see what better sort of card my Mobo will support. The 8800 sounds perfect--cheap too.

Also, I hadn't finished trying things out with the Rambooster. It turns out that now I can pretty much play the game in perfect mode. The only compromise I've made is Visibility is set to Low--those damn buildings. Compared to what I've been dealing with for weeks now, the game really looks good now. I am pleased--and I couldn't recommend this program more highly. You see endless scam offers on the Web for programs that will "boost performance". They all want your credit card number and I've never heard of one that really delivers. This program DID improve my computer. A LOT. And it cost absolutely nothing.

Oh. I'm using the fx5500 set up ID in config ini now. Now it works--didn't before.
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#9

I'll look into doing away with the page file. I've already curtailed it a lot.
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#10

People searching Low-End systems will find this thread. Here's some more
advice.

Display Drivers are CRITICAL. Swapping out display drivers, I discovered
that the newest Nvidia drivers that are supported by my card have
a huge impact on the look and performance of the game on my system.
With the older driver, Perfect terrain slowed my computer to a crawl (even with Rambooster)
and the colors looked bland. The newer driver allows me to play on Perfect, with
Visibility set to High--lighting, and detail maxed. Almost no stutters. Colors look rich.
Game gets a tad slow on some maps flying over cities with a pile of flak--
I can live with it and I refuse to tone down my AAA. 95% of the time, the game plays milky smooth. Here is the OpenGL section from my config.ini:

[Render_OpenGL]
TexQual=3
TexMipFilter=3
TexCompress=0
TexFlags.UseDither=1
TexFlags.UseAlpha=0
TexFlags.UseIndex=0
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=1
TexFlags.UseClampedSprites=0
TexFlags.DrawLandByTriangles=1
TexFlags.UseVertexArrays=1
TexFlags.DisableAPIExtensions=0
TexFlags.ARBMultitextureExt=1
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineExt=1
TexFlags.SecondaryColorExt=1
TexFlags.VertexArrayExt=1
TexFlags.ClipHintExt=0
TexFlags.UsePaletteExt=0
TexFlags.TexAnisotropicExt=1
TexFlags.TexCompressARBExt=1

TexFlags.TexEnvCombine4NV=1
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineDot3=1
TexFlags.DepthClampNV=1
TexFlags.SeparateSpecular=1
TexFlags.TextureShaderNV=1

HardwareShaders=0

Shadows=2
Specular=2
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=2
VisibilityDistance=3

Sky=0
Forest=0
LandShading=3
LandDetails=2

LandGeom=3
TexLarge=1
TexLandQual=3
TexLandLarge=1

VideoSetupId=4
Water=0
Effects=1
ForceShaders1x=1
***********************************************

Note that HardwareShaders=0 but ForceShaders1x=1. Also, Sky, Forest,
and Water are 0. Setting Forest to 0 had a huge impact. I'm using Flushie's Bumpification
mod (love it) and the maps still look gorgeous.

Reinstalling the drivers, I used Driver Cleaner Pro 1.5.0.0 (free), fixed the registry and
swept my system with CCleaner 2.20.0.920 (free--excellent, recommend for anyone to maintain their system),
and did a complete defrag with JkDefrag 3.36.0.2 (free, fast, excellent defragmentation
utility).

Following Fabianfred's lead I turned off my paging file. Helps some--I think, certainly doesn't
hurt. I don't know how much Ram you need before this becomes an option.

Sounds: I've updated my sound card drivers. In setup I have Minimal selected. Sounds better for my comp and is supposed to be the fastest. Don't neglect to tweak your sound settings. Sound is a major performance issue in this game, more so than any other game I've ever played.

Nvidia Control panel: I would like to try Nhancer, but my vid card is not supported, so I make do with Control Panel. Anti-Aliasing is 2x. 2x looks fine--anything higher is a major performance hit for little gain. Anistropic is Application Controlled, which I think in Il-2 means none. Anistropic, on my vid card, doesn't seem to do anything anyway. Vsync is force-off. Vsync does make the game look somewhat nicer, but there is a noticeable performance hit on my system. Texture Quality is set for High Performance. The degradation of image quality is modest and the performance gain is large.

That's about it. Some of this stuff will be specific to my system. The details of the config.ini settings will have to be hashed out by you, finding just the right compromise for your set-up. One of the things I absolutely love about this game is its flexibility. You can tune Il-2 to play on just about anything. Well, maybe not an AppleII or a TRS-80 (ah, Highschool), but almost anything.

Major point: Get the BEST driver for your card. That might not mean the latest driver. But don't assume because the game is "working" without obvious graphics errors that your driver is optimized. My experience proves this is not the case. The right drivers will optimize your frame rates.

Yours truly
nodlew
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