If you'd like a BIG in-game memory boost that makes a noticeable difference in game performance in your sims, you can operate on the .exe file and change the file header so that the game addresses more than 2 GB of RAM if you have a 64-bit OS.

It's simple and anyone can do it with ease. The easiest way to do that is to go here:

http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php

Click on "Download Explorer Suite". Once it's downloaded, install it. Make a backup copy of your game .exe file and put it in a safe place. Then launch "CFF Explorer" in the Explorer Suite in your Windows menu and open your operational game .exe file in the main game folder.

Once you've opened it in "CFF Explorer", in the left pane of the window, click on "File Header". You will now see "Click Here" in the right pane highlighted in blue. Go ahead and click on it.

A dialog will open. You'll see an entry that says, "App can handle >2gb address space". Put a tick mark in that, click "OK", then go up to the File menu and click "Save". You'll be asked if you want to overwrite the original .exe file. Click "Yes" as long as you made that backup copy of the .exe file and put it away.

Your game will now address more than the 2GB of memory allowed in 32-bit (if you have that much memory onboard and a 64-bit system), instant memory boost in-game with attending performance improvement.

This memory boost trick will work with just about any 32-bit app in the 64-bit environment. But make sure you make a backup before you operate on the .exe file. I've found one title (Battlestations Pacific) which does not like it, and won't work afterwards. But everything else I've tried it on was fine. It really made IL2 1946 snap right along, amongst others. I couldn't believe how much faster Silent Hunter 4 loaded as well after the memory surgery on the file header.

If an app is already 64-bit compatible, the tick mark will already be in the box. If so, you don't need to do anything to it.

There ya go! It's like getting free RAM! Y'all can buy me a beer if we bump into each other.

Cheers!

Rick...

will try it thx!!!

FYI ROF already supports more than 2GB. You will see that it is already ticked so no need to apply this to ROF.

Jason

But you still have to buy him a beer Jason.

This ACTUALLY WORKED.. MY FPS in BMS doubled..THNX!!

And since I use the S3D it was a Most Considerable boost..

Yeah, it works quite nicely! It will improve just about any title if it hasn't already been done by the developer.

It's a good, easy hack and I thought you guys might like it.

Glad to see that someone has already benefited from this tip!

Cheers!

Rick...

Nice Sauron!! I will have to see if it helps the original flashpoint with all the mods.

Now they just need to get some kind of software to force some of the 32 bit games to actually run in a 64 bit environment.

I have some games that simply will not even install because they are 32 bit games.

If you install them on a 32 bit system and copy over the installed folder and copy it too your 64 bit machine you should be able to get the game to work.. I have done it so far with 2 games that had that problem..

One was a win 95 game Xwing vs Tie Fighter..

If you just want the "4GB patch" only instead of the whole suite (which is very nice BTW, thanks for the link Rick), they also have it separately:


http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

By the way, either method only increases the memory availability (or "awareness") to 4GB.

Not to be a party pooper, but I doubt this would make any real difference at all in your performance (I can detail the reasons, if you really want to know). But, I cant really think of any negative effects just from setting the largeaddressaware flag, so go for it if you like.

Edit: actually, it's possible that some anti cheat software might consider it an executable modification. So you might want to avoid it in multiplayer games.

Yeah, The Nephilim doubled his framerate in Falcon BMS using S3D. I used to be able to go make a sandwich while Silent Hunter 4 loaded, now it loads right up.

You're right Speedo. It can't possibly work. Why would having more memory to use cause an application to run any different?

So don't do it. In fact, you should probably remove all the memory from your machine. Applications don't need it anyway.

Cheers!

Rick...

Rick,

Remind me again how much experience you have with software development in general and game development specifically? To be blunt, you have no idea what you're talking about here.

The proof is in the pudding, and there is a noticeable, even measurable improvement in performance.

And while I may not be a software developer (not that you'd have a clue as to who or what I am), the people from whom I obtained those instructions seem to think that they are.

Now, if you want to argue Speedo, let's have your expert opinion on why The Nephilim's framerate doubled in Falcon BMS with S3D when he did this. I won't even ask you to consider why loading for Silent Hunter 4 decreased from several minutes to several seconds for me. Or why IL2 1946 runs so much better.

Perhaps Jupiter, the planet of increased framerates, just happened to be passing though The Nephilim's 4th house, which governs computer gaming, at the time...

Cheers!

Rick...

Easy gentlemen. Best thing to do is for people to try it if they like and see if it helps.

No noticeable difference with the link Rick provided (using FSX as test). Bib4Tuna's link sped up the load speed on FSX after you pick aircraft etc.

That could actually be the case, so you'd better hang on to that backup of the executable if you play a lot of multiplayer.

In my own experience, Games for Windows seems to recognize it and won't let the game run. But I've only had the one title that had a problem.

Cheers!

Rick...

There wouldn't be a noticeable difference with FSX because FSX comes stock with this already enabled.

Cheers!

Rick...

Correlation != causation.

What testing have you done to verify this improvement in performance? What was the testing methodology? Have you even done the most basic tests to see if the process is even using more memory after the change?



Who were these people? What knowledge do they have?

This raises another good question. Since flipping the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag is such an easy and wonderful performance improvement, why don't developers bother to do it? All these game developers, able to create brilliant pieces of software but unable to change a simple setting in their compiler. Good thing we have you to show us the light!



His statement as given is pretty meaningless. Since he's done nothing to isolate the effects of changing the flag, there are a thousand other factors that could be affecting his framerate.



There is no reason whatsoever for this change to improve load times. Load times are always bottlenecked by hard drive speed. But, I can tell you with great confidence where your improvements would have come from. You can thank Microsoft and their team which wrote the Windows VMM. A VMM which, in modern versions of Windows, tries to devote as much RAM as possible to keeping data cached in system memory. It's quite simple, really. You go to load SH4 while the VMM still has SH4 data in the cache, and when the game starts loading data the Windows filesystem will pull it from cache, instead of hitting the HDD for it. Since system memory happens to be a couple thousand times faster than mechnical hard drives, your load times drop from minutes to seconds.



Again - what performance difference? How was it measured?

Rick, what you fail to understand here is that giving the executable the ability to access > 2GB of memory does not magically mean that a game engine will start to use more memory. It's the same game engine that it was before, and generally in 32 bit games they are actively trying to keep memory consumption under 2GB, since going beyond that threshold without LAA generally means that the program will crash. I've been through all of this very extensively when I was involved in modding Oblivion. That game (with mods) is one of the most memory-hungry out there. In all of my testing with it, the only difference that the LAA made was that when the game started to get in the neighborhood of 2GB memory usage, it was slightly less likely to crash.

I'm not sure why I bothered replying, since I'm sure you'll do what you normally do, ignoring everything in my post and just making some witty retort. I'm not sure why you're so defensive about this to begin with. As I put in my first post, I am (or was, at the time) happy to write a small essay about my past experiences with LAA and why from a programmer's POV I don't expect LAA to have much effect on games. But, given your responses so far I'll just sign out of the thread and stop wasting my time.

The original Flaming Cliffs is another one that wouldn't let me start the game with the altered .exe. Probably due to the Starforce protection.


Seems to speed up loading times for IL-2 1946 and Far Cry.