Ram Disk

[facetious1]

Has anyone attempted to put this game on a ram Disk? I have 64GB, created a ram Disk of 48GB.. put the DCS folder on. DCS wont start from the RAM Disk or from the C: drive now, had to delete ramdisk and reinstall DCS.?.?

[hansangb]

I think it needs more than 48G doesn't it? It has a lot of files that it extracts and uses, I thought. I get that RAM is faster than SSD, but I don't know if it's worth the effort of copying all the files every time you start your computer. And i don't know if you'd see *that* much of an (perceivable) increase in iops vs NVMe

[Quadg]

when using a RAM disk you have to setup symbolic links so that windows thinks the game is still in the original location (on the C: drive)

 

this way DRM etc works. and you don't need to reinstall just copy files over.

 

to steam. the games are in their original location but in reality they are on the RAM disk.

 

EDIT: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

 

create a directory junction for the DCS world folder.

 

I have not tried this with DCS (16gb of RAM) but I did use it for arma3 when it was young and only used 4gb of RAM. and was under 10GB in file size.

so I had a 10gb RAM disk for arma with 2gb for windows and 4gb for the game. and got superb performance from it.

 

but then the game got big quickly..

 

disk access is about 10x faster than SSD :)

Edited June 26, 2018 by Quadg

[etherbattx]

what ram disk software ?

[facetious1]

huh, does seem a bit more complicated than I expected. I will have to play with it over a weekend and see if I can come up with something. Reading the article, would it be suffice to say I also have to port the saved games directory to the ramdisk also, then have it sync again when I shut down?

 

I used ImDisk Etherbattx.

[ouPhrontis]

It is tempting, 72GB RAM here, but then of course none of it will survive a power-cycle, which for shifting things across etc would be a pain.

[ouPhrontis]

huh, does seem a bit more complicated than I expected. I will have to play with it over a weekend and see if I can come up with something. Reading the article, would it be suffice to say I also have to port the saved games directory to the ramdisk also, then have it sync again when I shut down?

 

I used ImDisk Etherbattx.

 

Everything in RAM is lost on a power-cycle, you'd have to start over each power-on, i.e. build a RAM disk, move/install DCS etc.

[Quadg]

the softperfect ramdisk creates a disk image on your SSD/HDD which it save changes to constantly.

so if it power cycles you are safe. it has a mirror.

I basically had an image per game. you can set them to load at startup. or anytime.

so its just like a normal disk.

 

you don't have to use symbolic links.

but if you move DCS you have to reinstall it to the new location.

I just used them when I wanted to leave a copy of the game in the original location so I could move between without reinstalling. you just move or delete the link to stop it working.

 

as to the value of a RAM disk, with the way DCS uses ram though. you will probably only see a real speed boost in the loading time.

 

the fastest loading DCS in the west :)

I think it throws enough data at CPU already, more than a single thread can handle.

 

so if you have 72gb I would be interested in the results.

for a laugh create 2 ram disks and copy a really large folder between them.

it will be the fastest windows copy operation you ever see :)

[ouPhrontis]

I'm currently running DCS off an SSD mounted on a PCIe lane and that method pretty much hits the full 6GB/s the SSD is capable of with benchmarks, DCS loads in seconds.

 

Though yes, as a proof of concept a DCS (or anything else for that matter) on RAM disk would be quite amusing. Though currently DCS occupies about 113GB, so I'd have to only select a few modules to test. I could bump my rig to its full 192GB limit, but I don't think I have the sticks available.

Edited June 27, 2018 by ouPhrontis
192, not 196...

[Quadg]

as to the saved games folder.

yes I would copy that to the RAM disk and make a 2nd symbolic link for that location.

another directory junction.

 

the softperfect ramdisk is freeware.

[ouPhrontis]

I successfully moved the entire DCS directory across to another drive without issue, so there shouldn't be any need for soft linking it. Sounds like you've messed with RAM disks before, so as you know they just appear to userland as another drive letter, I doubt there's anything more needed than what I had done with moving DCS from my OS drive to a PCIe mounted SSD. I might give it a go at some point.

[Quadg]

@ouPhrontis

:)

well if you just have this stuff lying about :)

a RAM disk is 3 x faster than pcie SSD :)

[Quadg]

I used symbloic links in the days when steam would not allow you to install outside the steam folder.

you had to con it to get it to work.

and it was better for automatic updates. because that can be a pain if you have lots of images.

I would let steam update to the c: and copy the updates across to images when I had them loaded.

luckily you don't need to do that anymore. with steam.

and if DCS is easy to move without having to reinstall everything then go ahead and move it and don't use symbolic links.

I got varied results from games running them on RAM.

noticeable 20-30% on arma3 but that is mostly server limited anyway.

mostly games that didn't use enough RAM.. and DCS cannot be accused of that.

 

in game set the pre load distance to zero. about the only change I would try and check performance.

[BitMaster]

I dont think that is of any use unless you come along with real high bandwidth, like Xeons or Threadripper and at least 128GB RAM, I'd say 192 or 256 is the real deal.

 

Consider, that while DCS remains in your RAM, it steals bandwidth from the stuff that normally resides in RAM, you then have double the shuffle, have double the bandwidth too to not fall off the bench cold.

 

RAM DISK, imho, is a dead born child unless you have serious oomps beyond what a standard gaming rig can deliver. My opinion, I have the Asus software, but 32GB is useless, gimme 320GB and I try it, along with 100GB/sec bandwidth.

[ouPhrontis]

There's the rub, even at 192GB I'd have to leave enough to not starve the OS and so on from normal use of RAM. I am quite content with how spritely DCS and everything else is from the SSD's nigh-on full speed now. Bandwidth wise, this machine has two hyperthreading hexacore CPUs, triple channel for RAM, so that'd probably be the minimum way of trying such a thing.

 

It'd be nothing more than a proof of concept, though I've not too much desire to mess around with this, or my DCS install (due to not wishing to upset keys etc). I'd certainly be interested if it works when/if anyone else tries it, the machines I have did have an option for battery backed-up RAM, though I doubt mine have this.

[facetious1]

Yeah, I do agree that PCIe memory is nice, I do have a m.2 SSD on the PCI that runs DCS well enough.... I was just sitting here one day and looking at RAM usage and I was only using about 8 GB of my 64GB... thus got me brainstorming on the RAM Disk (just to do a hobby fun thing lol)... My Eagle Dynamics folder is only 55.7 GB as I just have FC3, Normandy and WW2 assets as of now. Thanks all for the contrasting thoughts of it, I might give the other Freeware a go over the weekend, but may wait till I double the RAM if ever ;)

[BlacleyCole]

I’m needing to install the 2 2tb mvne ssds I have for my laptop but I’m not wanting to do the work reinstalling everything right now.

[hansangb]

I’m needing to install the 2 2tb mvne ssds I have for my laptop but I’m not wanting to do the work reinstalling everything right now.

 

 

If you have a temporary parking place, or the ability to mount one of the drives, Acronis can help you move everything over in one shot.

 

 

 

But if you're Internet is fast enough, it really doesn't take that long to reinstall. *IF* you have a fast internet connection.

[BlacleyCole]

I was going. To use my MacBook Pro to clone everything since using the same system causes problems with windows hidden files if they’re in use. I just need to take the time to pull the existing drives as the replacement are either in a usb. Adapter for the m.2 drive the sata ssd replacement is in a sata to m.2 adapter. So. That. Will be easy just like swapping hard drives. I just need to take the existing out of the. Laptop and find. My sata to usb cables for the d drives if I go the cloning way not. Sure but since. Everything is working I may when I. Was having problems I was contaplating reinstalling everything from scratch

[etherbattx]

how did this work out?

save 20% on the load times?

[Mr_sukebe]

Strikes me that if a “full” DCS installation is well north of 100GB, that a RamDrive for the full game is not reallly viable.

The potential however is very interesting.

So if we can’t load the full game, can we address core files that are most used?