Project Reality Forums

Greetings guys,

I have a quick question regarding the use of RAM and PR:BF2.

I've recently bought a new computer (specs below) and started getting an issue I did not have on my old one.. namely a lot of CTDs. I've fixed that issue by doing the good old "swap textures and geometry to medium" trick, and reduced the number of crashes significantly, but have not yet completely reduced them to zero.

As for the specs of this computer:

CPU: I7 3770k (stock)
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V
GPU: ASUS GTX680 DC II
RAM: 4*4 GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz (8-8-8-24)
PSU: Corsair 750W modular
SSD: Crucial M4
Monitor resolution: 1920*1080 (120Hz)
OS: Windows 7 64 bit SP1

So I was reading the [32Bit XP/Vista/7] Fix memory errors / Allow applications to use > 2GB RAM thread for some extra information, and read that bf2.exe has the Large Adress Aware Flag (LAAF) since the 1.5 patch. That should allow the game to be able to allocate more than 2GB of RAM to the game.. see quote below.

3. Large-Adress-Aware-Flag
Giving programs the opportunity to use it doesnt automatically make them use it
32 Bit Applications (which are most of you are using, so is BF2/PR) need a special flag to be set, so they know they can allocate more than 2 GB.

Fortunately most of the modern game developers know this tweak and implemented this flag by default.
So does Battlefield 2 with the latest 1.5 patch.
Keeping that in mind there is no need to modify the BF2.exe and for this reason it won't get explained in this tutorial.
Fiddling with your game's .exe is not recommended for online games anyway as some Anti-Cheat Tools might kick you for manipulating it.

Thats it. I hope this clears things up a bit and might be a help to some of you.
Thanks to karambaitos, for his thread about this and the screenshot.

Cheers
BloodyDeed, PR Support Team

Disclaimer: Use the steps above at your own risc, the PR Support Team won't be responsible for any damaged caused.

Now as I understand it, PR runs with its own separate pr.exe which uses the bf2.exe? The bf2.exe might support the LAAF, but does pr.exe as well? I've been monitoring my crashes when I was running at full settings (including textures and geometry), and my CTDs kept/keep occurring whenever I reach the 2GB threshold. This leads me to believe that the LAAF is not enabled for pr.exe?

Can someone confirm/deny this, and also tell me if it is possible for me to simply adjust the pr.exe to support the LAAF, without PunkBuster going nuts over it? I know how to edit the .exe file, since I do it for a lot of older games. It's just that I don't quite fancy a global PB ban on my name because I tinkered with the .exe

Thanks in advance,
Nixy

PR.exe does not use much ram at all so even if you wanted to do this it would be necessary for Bf2.exe only.

You have 64bit system this does not apply for 64bit systems.

With win 7 64 bit, you can ONLY do the following from the link you posted:

b) Windows Vista/7: How to setup increaseuserva Bootparameter

'[R-COM wrote:LITOralis.nMd;1786299']With win 7 64 bit, you can ONLY do the following from the link you posted:

b) Windows Vista/7: How to setup increaseuserva Bootparameter

That is only needed for 32 bit systems though. A 64 bit OS only needs the Large Address Aware Flag to be activated in order to use up to 4GB of RAM for an 32 bit application (.exe).


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But if it's not pr.exe in conjunction with bf2.exe I'm not sure why it is capping out at 2GB. I did a check, and the Large Address Aware is indeed flagged 'True' for the bf2.exe.

I'll tinker around with this for a bit. Thanks for the responses so far.