The only folder in my T:/SWTOR/swtor/ file is the "settings" folder.

 

Should there be other folders in there? or just that one?

 

EDIT:

 

And of course the DiskCacheArena file

If you used the batch files, setup ramdisk for swtor. Did you check the paragraph 'Verify' on http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=2684127?

If so you might want to check the folder; '%userprofile%\appdata\local' and check if there is been a folder created called 'SWTOR_Original' and 'SWTOR' [which has an arrow in the icon].

If it doesn't than it still seems my batchscript likes to skip steps :s

(did you got a message, before pressing enter to check the output of a line 'Junction created for ...' and looked if it was correct? This is for using the batchscript ofc.)

Nevermind the:

-DiskCacheStatic

-DiskCacheStream

just popped up

I guess i had to log into the game first, Thanks again so much!!

One thing I noticed. Upon exiting and reloading the game. Some of my primary settings were not saving. Ex: The fact I already watched the opening cut-scene. Graphics / mouse settings all revert to default, same with sound / mouse settings. Keybinds and UI layout are fine.

 

Thoughts?

Did you rename SWTOR in Local to SWTOR_Original, after you made a copy of it?

If you didn't your settings for each boot will become temp.

Steps 3 - 5.

3: Scrolling down you should see a folder called SWTOR, open it and Copy the settings folder to <SWTOR Install Location>\Star Wars-The Old Republic\SWTOR\retailclient\

4: Delete DiskCacheArena if it exists in <SWTOR Install Location>\Star Wars - The Old Republic\SWTOR\

5: RENAME the SWTOR folder in Local to SWTOR_Original

Nevermind the:

-DiskCacheStatic

-DiskCacheStream

 

just popped up

 

I guess i had to log into the game first, Thanks again so much!!

Good to hear, that also why I created a Verify paragraph but guess you missed it. It is also only written on my lil post

Thanks Lemon-King this fix helped me out big time, two questions if you please:

1) Is there any way to keep my video settings on reboot? (Not even close to a deal-breaker given the performance boost, but curious)

2) If I set up the ram drive for the Dynamic Player Data, and still have the DiskCacheArena setup, is the total RAM requirement for the drive 5.5gigs (1.5 DiskCacheArena + 4 Dynamic Player Data = 5.5 gig total)? Please clarify…

1) Is there any way to keep my video settings on reboot? (Not even close to a deal-breaker given the performance boost, but curious)

Hmm, these settings should be kept around as you moved the settings folder to a different location (installpath\swtor\retailclient in this guide) and then create a link from the ramdisk to this folder. All the settings the game creates will be placed by links (first from local to ramdisk and then from ramdisk to retailclient) in the moved folder.

That is ofc if you mean the ingame made configuration.

2) If I set up the ram drive for the Dynamic Player Data, and still have the DiskCacheArena setup, is the total RAM requirement for the drive 5.5gigs (1.5 DiskCacheArena + 4 Dynamic Player Data = 5.5 gig total)? Please clarify…

A total ramdisk of 4GB is good enough. The asset files Lemon_King mentioned are in total of 2.6GB worth of data. Above that is a 1GB DiskCacheArena so you have about 400MB free for the 2 other lil cache files.

I'm tempted to have a go at this juncture before my subs run out, to try and see what I can get.

Just out of curiosity what performance increases, or not, are people getting? I appreciate the fact there is nearly 50 pages, and I can go through them, but don't really have the time at the moment.

Hmm, these settings should be kept around as you moved the settings folder to a different location (installpath\swtor\retailclient in this guide) and then create a link from the ramdisk to this folder. All the settings the game creates will be placed by links (first from local to ramdisk and then from ramdisk to retailclient) in the moved folder.

 

That is ofc if you mean the ingame made configuration.

 

 

 

A total ramdisk of 4GB is good enough. The asset files Lemon_King mentioned are in total of 2.6GB worth of data. Above that is a 1GB DiskCacheArena so you have about 400MB free for the 2 other lil cache files.

Thanks for that quick answer! I mistyped video settings having recently read a previous post in this thread... basically evertime I reboot, the game starts like it did on first run, with the intro vidoes, except I still have my key-bindings. The issue is I have to go back and do things like increase max camera distance, adjust the zoom on my minimap, and I don't remember for sure, but I think if i change a graphic setting, say high to low texture, it will go back to the default on reboot too.. Anyway, pretty sure I followed all the steps, basically "settings" should be in \retailclient and it should have the little arrow by it in that location, is that right? if that's gibberish, please ignore lol

I'm tempted to have a go at this juncture before my subs run out, to try and see what I can get.

 

Just out of curiosity what performance increases, or not, are people getting? I appreciate the fact there is nearly 50 pages, and I can go through them, but don't really have the time at the moment.

Performance increase for me was pretty huge. I was getting 20-30fps prior to this fix with shadows and bloom off, and would get occasional major spikes down to 15 or even 5-10fps... After doing this I stay pretty consistently in the 35-45fps range with no spikes down, and I have everthing on high, have shadows and bloom on, with only v-sync and AA turned off. Big time game changer for me.

Thank you so much for posting this.

This wonderfully created thread has improved my SWTOR game performance in PvP by a huge margin. I can now actually PvP without my game client having a heart attack.

I did the cache, and the dynamic character assets on a 4GB ramdisk. I have 12 gigs to play with.

TL: DR Run the 'Setup Ramdisk For SWTOR' batch file twice and assuming no errors it should be setup correctly.

Ocmer_

First off, a really big Thank You for these batch files to aid in using lemon's performance workaround.

While trying to get this to work using your batch files I ran into some of the same issues that other posters seem to be having. I have looked at the batch files and they all make sense to me except the 'Setup Ramdisk For SWTOR' one.

@ECHO OFF
:: Give the diskletter you are using as ramdisk (Default = T:)
set ramdrive=T:
:: Set the ramdisk size, use M for MegaByte or G for GygaByte (Default = 1500M)
set ramsize=1500M

:ReadRegisteryForLocations 
for /F "skip=2 tokens=3,*" %%i in ('reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\wow6432node\bioware\star wars-the old republic" /v "Install Dir" 2^>nul') do set installpath=%%j
for /F "skip=2 tokens=3,*" %%i in ('reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Local AppData" 2^>nul') do set applocal=%%j

:CheckGets
IF NOT DEFINED installpath GOTO ErrorNoInstallpathFound
IF NOT DEFINED applocal GOTO ErrorNoLocalLocationFound

:OutputInfo
cls
echo ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
echo º This script will prepair your computer and SWTOR for use with a RAMDRIVE.   º
echo º Please use this script only once, with trouble find help on ramdisk forum.  º
echo ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
echo  SWTOR Install location found at:
echo  %installpath%
echo. 
echo  Local application data found at:
echo  %applocal%
echo.
PAUSE

Basic boilerplate stuff, so far so good.

:DelOldBackup
IF EXIST "%applocal%\SWTOR_Original" RMDIR "%applocal%\SWTOR_Original" /S /Q

:CopySettings
IF EXIST "%installpath%\swtor\retailclient\settings" RMDIR "%installpath%\swtor\retailclient\settings" /S /Q
xcopy "%applocal%\SWTOR\swtor\settings" "%installpath%\swtor\retailclient\settings" /E /I /Y
REN "%applocal%\SWTOR" SWTOR_Original

This all makes sense and seems to be working just fine.

:MakeLocalJunction
IF EXIST "%applocal%\SWTOR" RMDIR "%applocal%\SWTOR" /S /Q
mklink /J "%applocal%\SWTOR" "%ramdrive%\SWTOR"

This is where it starts not making sense. You are attempting to make a link (junction) to a folder that has never been created yet. In fact, the whole T drive hasn't even been created yet. Should the code that creates the ramdrive be moved up to before this?

echo.
echo Just a little pause in between to correctly create local SWTOR link.
echo Everthing is ok if the above line states "Junction created for 
echo %applocal%\SWTOR to T:\SWTOR".
echo.
pause

:MakeArenaJunction
IF EXIST "%installpath%\swtor\DiskCacheArena" DEL "%installpath%\swtor\DiskCacheArena"
mklink "%installpath%\swtor\DiskCacheArena" "%ramdrive%\DiskCacheArena"

Again, trying to link to folder on a drive that hasn't been created yet.

:CreateRamdrive
IF NOT EXIST %ramdrive% imdisk -a -s %ramsize% -m %ramdrive% -p "/v:SWTOR_RAM /fs:ntfs /q /y"
IF EXIST "%ramdrive%\SWTOR" RMDIR "%ramdrive%\SWTOR" /S /Q
MKDIR "%ramdrive%\SWTOR\swtor"
mklink /J "%ramdrive%\SWTOR\swtor\settings" "%installpath%\swtor\retailclient\settings"
pause
GOTO EOF

And here is that elusive code to create the ramdrive. It also includes the code to create a link to the settings folder in the install directory rather that the local directory that is attempted above. Unless I'm missing something, the part that creates the ramdrive should be moved up to before the first link is created, and the part that makes the link should be put after the first settings link is made.

:ErrorNoInstallpathFound
echo.
echo ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
echo º Error (nothing has changed)                                                 º
echo º This script could not read the installation path for SWTOR from the default º
echo º registry. Either you are using a 32-bit version of Windows (which is highly º
echo º unlikely and absolutly not recommended) or the register entry that should   º
echo º have been there isnt.                                                       º 
echo º                                                                             º
echo º If you are running a 64-bit Windows and get this message, please post on    º
echo º the RAMDISK forum created by Lemon_King. You can follow there the manual    º
echo º steps to remove the ramdrive and revert the settings.                       º
echo ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
echo.
PAUSE
GOTO EOF

:ErrorNoLocalLocationFound
echo.
echo ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
echo º Error (nothing has changed)                                                 º
echo º I could not read the local application data location from the registry.     º
echo º You still can do it manualy by following the manual steps.                  º
echo ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
echo.
PAUSE
GOTO EOF

:EOF
exit

Error handling stuff, all looks good to me.

It looks to me that all of the problems people are having with not successfully linking stuff is because the batch file they are told to run doesn't even attempt to create the ramdrive until the very end AFTER it has tried to link everything.

I see how the code works if you run it as you are told to. It will fail to make the links initially, then hit the code to create/mount the ramdrive and creates the junction between the settings folders in the ramdrive and the install directory. Let's assume that works and the drive is created and the settings folder is linked. There is still a problem, the DiskCacheArena junction isn't being created again and the settings folder junction isn't being created between the ramdrive and the local settings folder. This results in this whole thing being only partially applied.

I have tried running this batch file twice and it appeared to link everything correctly. I ran the game and all of the files that are supposed to be there showed up.

Again, I don't know for sure if I'm right here, I'm just going by what I know and what I've observed from running this file.

Thanks again for the great files. I hope I've helped!

TL: DR Run the 'Setup Ramdisk For SWTOR' batch file twice and assuming no errors it should be setup correctly.

<lots of text about my code>

Omg... No srsly I kept looking the past 2-3 days at this and asked myself why do people don't get the SWTOR link in local even tho the rename occured.

I never stood still that not creating the ramdrive before linking was the bad guy. The strange thing is, is that the link to DiskCacheArena worked for everyone all the time.

Anyhoe I've updated my batchscript, according to your suggestion and I moved up after coping the settings file to ..\swtor\retailclient\ (as the link from the ramdisk has a location to go aswell) but before creating the junction links to the ramdisk.

For me it now seemed to go flawlessly trough the code WITHOUT having the ramdisk mounted beforehand. Proberly I forgot to dismount the ramdisk between my series of tests, so it seemed to work (but that probs was because it was mounted).

2012-02-13 @ 01:52 ; Setup ;

• Deleted the extra check/pause, didn't seem to help.
• Moved the creating a ramdisk to an earlier position (Thanks Cortoth!!)

Edit;

It also includes the code to create a link to the settings folder in the install directory rather that the local directory that is attempted above.

This should be correct as the settings folder does NOT exist anymore in local (well it does in SWTOR_Original but we won't use that). The folder SWTOR is now just a junction to the ram, and the settings folder has to be there because the game looks there. But due to the nature of a ramdisk at reboots you loose the data, so Lemon_King patched that up by placing the settings folder somewhere different and made a link from that from the ramdrive (while the game still sees the settings folder under the SWTOR folder in local).

Edit2;

Did some testing and indeed for the symbolic linking (single file) the ramdrive does not have to be present, but with creating junctions it was whining about stuff (eg not finding the volume).

Edit3;

Now as I was reading over my Edit, it just fell to me why don't we link the settings folder from the ramdisk to the settings folder in SWTOR_Original. Reversing the process would be easier as you only have to rename it back to SWTOR and you can continue playing without loss of settings. Changing it at this point will be difficult tho, as ppl already followed the guide with this method

Thanks for that quick answer! I mistyped video settings having recently read a previous post in this thread... basically evertime I reboot, the game starts like it did on first run, with the intro vidoes, except I still have my key-bindings. The issue is I have to go back and do things like increase max camera distance, adjust the zoom on my minimap, and I don't remember for sure, but I think if i change a graphic setting, say high to low texture, it will go back to the default on reboot too.. Anyway, pretty sure I followed all the steps, basically "settings" should be in \retailclient and it should have the little arrow by it in that location, is that right? if that's gibberish, please ignore lol

Same thing here.

And I agree Its not the end of the world its just a little bit annoying. Im not really sure why it is necessary. Why do we want the settings on the ram drive?

EDIT: I dont really need to know why. Im just interested to know.

Not bad, Linked it in the OP.

 

It caches data once loaded, so any data access beyond first pull will be faster - better for some applications than others, depending on disk access.

 

Optimal settings for my system is a Read Only 2gig cache for the drive with SWTOR on it.

I wouldn't have Write enabled on any system without some form of battery backup, secondly users using Fancy Cache with Write enabled have encountered some corruption to data, you're fine if its set to Read Only.

 

e: Added Superspeed 5 as its not Beta Software.

i understand the risks of data corruption, specially as it's beta.

however i just adquired a SSD disk too and i think fancy cache defer writing will make my SSD life longer.

my question would be:

with all the scripts for the ramdisk in this thread, will they improve my SSD lifespan? or are this scripts not affecting the files that swtor is WRITING all the time?

Thanks for that quick answer! I mistyped video settings having recently read a previous post in this thread... basically evertime I reboot, the game starts like it did on first run, with the intro vidoes, except I still have my key-bindings. The issue is I have to go back and do things like increase max camera distance, adjust the zoom on my minimap, and I don't remember for sure, but I think if i change a graphic setting, say high to low texture, it will go back to the default on reboot too.. Anyway, pretty sure I followed all the steps, basically "settings" should be in \retailclient and it should have the little arrow by it in that location, is that right? if that's gibberish, please ignore lol

The settings folder in "<installpath>\swtor\retailclient" should NOT have an arrow in the icon. As this is the REAL location where the settings are stored and saved.

The only icons that should have an arrow in the icon are (and please verify);

• %userprofile%\appdata\local\SWTOR [which is linked to T:\SWTOR]
  
• <installpath>\swtor\DiskCacheArena [which is linked to T:\DiskCacheArena]
  

Same thing here.

 

And I agree Its not the end of the world its just a little bit annoying. Im not really sure why it is necessary. Why do we want the settings on the ram drive?

 

EDIT: I dont really need to know why. Im just interested to know.

As you read above the REAL location of the settings folder is now copied to "<installpath>\swtor\retailclient\settings". This is done because after a ramdisk is cleared after reboot so you should not loose any data. The game tho still looks at the local folder SWTOR for the game settings, but is redirected to the ramdisk. Now because the ramdisk has no info about the settings we link it back to the real location in retailclient.

My system (boot) drive is a SSD, SWTOR is installed on a second drive, 10k RPM WD Voliciraptor.

I have 16 GB RAM and an i7 960. Video is a nVidea GTX 580.

Read from this what you will, but SWTOR runs fine with all game options turned up to max.

i understand the risks of data corruption, specially as it's beta.

however i just adquired a SSD disk too and i think fancy cache defer writing will make my SSD life longer.

 

my question would be:

with all the scripts for the ramdisk in this thread, will they improve my SSD lifespan? or are this scripts not affecting the files that swtor is WRITING all the time?

Well I can't say anything about fancycache but the files that are being moved to the ramdisk are the files that are being written to the most (DiskCacheArena, and 2 other cachefiles).

As of tems of files being written to, that is now done on the ram so I guess less writecycles on your SSD.

My system (boot) drive is a SSD, SWTOR is installed on a second drive, 10k RPM WD Voliciraptor.

 

I have 16 GB RAM and an i7 960. Video is a nVidea GTX 580.

 

Read from this what you will, but SWTOR runs fine with all game options turned up to max.

It does run fine, but loading is slower compared to use a RAM disk / cache, even if you got SWTOR on a Vertex 3 or Chronos for that sake, think of it as removing some speed bumpers between your car and your destination on a road, you will arrive your destination faster than with them there.

Your cutting out some I/O delay by making the path shorter, CPU to RAM is faster than CPU to SSD/HDD.

You will never read as fast from a plattern or SSD, even if it is a kickarse raid array.

Hence why SQL reads/writes are faster from/to RAM than to a 32 disk Raid 10 and Raid 5 array, we talk SAS 15k rpm here.

There is no improvement in FPS thou, I get the same with as without (up to 111fps w. everything on max)

i7 2600K, 16GB RAM, SSD for OS & SSD for Game), GTX580.

The game does not run fine, when you hit the fleet with 200+ people there, it's a know issues and will hopefully soon be fixed.

!! CHANGED SETUP SCRIPT !!

2012-02-14 @ 18:16 ; Setup ;

• Added check and error message when trying to execute twice (that is without removing first).
  It only checks if the folder SWTOR in local is a junction by reading the attributes.

Found some way to check if a file/directory is a symlink/junktion by reading out the file attributes and then filter the last attribute out. This seemed to be if something was linked.

FOR %%F IN ("%userprofile%\appdata\local\SWTOR") DO SET ATTRIBS=%%~aF
IF %ATTRIBS:~8,1% == l ( GOTO ErrorFoundLink )

Would be cool to actually read out where the link goes to, that then can be used to verify better if people already setup the ramdisk beforehand.

!! WHY !!

I've build this in because of the nature of the original script, it deletes SWTOR_Original (in local) and/or settings (in retailclient) before it starts executing the setup script. This was done to prevent erros with overwriting and creating links.

Now what the problem was is that, if people executed the script again the backup folder got deleted, including settings in retail. Then SWTOR is renamed to SWTOR_Original. But SWTOR was a junction already, so we lost settings, and just copied the junction file...

@Lemon_King

What do you think of leaving the settings folder in SWTOR_Original. So people only have to rename and create a link with setup. Then for the ramdisk let it point to the settings folder in SWTOR_Original.

To remove it they only have to delete the link and rename it back to SWTOR, and with that all the settings will be consistent when before removing. (that is you don't mention now anyway to copy back the settings folder to the local SWTOR when removing)

**note this would not only be easier for the batchfiles but also for general manual use imo, also I guess people tend to forget to copy back there settings folder

then can be used to verify better if people already setup the ramdisk beforehand.

Add a variable for the ramdisk at top (start of the script):

SET ram_disk=R:\

And check for it before creation:

IF NOT EXIST %ram_disk% GOTO rdCreated

That requires that the variable %ram_disk% is used throughout the script, but looks better and is more real programming to initialize variables at top instead of hardcoding them all over the script.

@Lemon_King

also I guess people tend to forget to copy back there settings folder

I wonder why even bother to load the settings folder into ram..

This one? C:\Users\MyAccount\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings

I got nothing but a few 1KB files for account and character settings there, there isn't even anything added to the parent folders while I play.

Add a variable for the ramdisk at top (start of the script):

 

SET ram_disk=R:\

 

And check for it before creation:

 

IF NOT EXIST %ram_disk% GOTO rdCreated

 

That requires that the variable %ram_disk% is used throughout the script, but looks better and is more real programming to initialize variables at top instead of hardcoding them all over the script.

Hmm what I mean was with setup the ramdisk was "if people did manualy or with my scripts already prepaired there computer and SWTOR to use a ramdisk". I've been able now to determine if a file is a link or not, but would be better if I also could read out the junction location, so I can write a better and solid script even if people mess up.

And btw, ure right about the settings variables, just look at my scripts now. They have already for quite some time a variable to change the ramdisk which the script depents on troughout.

I wonder why even bother to load the settings folder into ram..

This one? C:\Users\MyAccount\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings

I got nothing but a few 1KB files for account and character settings there, there isn't even anything added to the parent folders while I play.

Have tried to explain this already a couple of times but the settings folder is not on the ramdisk. Step 3 of Lemon_King states "Scrolling down you should see a folder called SWTOR, open it and Copy the settings folder to <SWTOR Install Location>\Star Wars-The Old Republic\SWTOR\retailclient\". Because we want to keep our settings as we move the SWTOR folder in local to the ram. So the client looks at local swtor, get directed to the ramdisk and searches there for the settings, but then again got directed to the settings folder in retailclient. This all for keeping settings between reboots n stuff.

Now my suggestion was to leave the settings folder where it is, rename the folder to SWTOR_Original and then just point to this location from the ramdisk. Both setup and reversal got a bit easier + certenty of not loosing any settings.

That would work, if you want it to point to SWTOR_Original\swtor\settings.

Changes no performance and is only cosmetic when it comes to sorting files.

If you want, you can write a batch to copy the subfolder back into SWTOR_Original letting it overwrite the outdated data.

i understand the risks of data corruption, specially as it's beta.

however i just adquired a SSD disk too and i think fancy cache defer writing will make my SSD life longer.

 

my question would be:

with all the scripts for the ramdisk in this thread, will they improve my SSD lifespan? or are this scripts not affecting the files that swtor is WRITING all the time?

While it would, the amount of data it would take before heavy wear kicks in would be years from now.

And yes the scripts for the RamDrive affect the files being written to all the time.