[2013-03-13/14 UPDATE] How to make Soulstorm load faster

[demetrius]

those who have more than 4 gb how much soulstorm use??played yesterday and computer was telling i am out of memory,3,8 gb used,by system and game.

[PsykoTenshi]

Soulstorm is limited to 2 Gb of ram by default. This cannot be changed on the steam version to my knowledge.
If you don't have it on Steam, you can try this to remove that limitation (also explained on my 1st post, but the link is a tutorial with pictures!).

P.S.: Even after you "upgrade" the Soulstorm executable, you may continue to get NoMemory errors, but with another of Soulstorm's .dll files as the culprit. "Upgrade" that one as well and at least you're running on 32 bit you should never get a NoMemory-related crash again (it will still crash for other reasons, but... one less!).

P.S. 2: On the "how much memory does Soulstorm use?" question, I think Soulstorm on mods is to RAM what Tyranids are to life. The Great Nommer. On maxed settings and 1080p resolution plus a big mod, I'd say that Soulstorm could use maybe over a whole 4 Gb of ram all for itself.

[RT2]

LoL Ouch, lucky I got a 8Gb machine in the worx.
It'll probably chew up 8GB too.

[PsykoTenshi]

Updated the first post with better than ever red painted goodness.
NON-Steam version of Soulstorm only though.

For those who improved their Soulstorms, I strongly suggest applying the new changes. And those who just see this thread too!

If you found a way to stop Soulstorm from spewing error logs every time it shut down I would love you forever.

I does not understand Do you by any chance mean the ones in the logfiles folder? Those are generated only when in -dev mode. At least I got a somehow different Saladstorm.

Once again, you should make it very clear that Steam versions cannot apply said tweaking

Did now
It's all over the first post though... what reminds me: Maybe I should link to the THQ store page so people with Soulstorm on Steam, not wanting a retail disk, and willing to spend 20 usd can have it...
Yeah I'm doing it.

[corncobman]

If you found a way to stop Soulstorm from spewing error logs every time it shut down I would love you forever.

[Gorb]

Once again, you should make it very clear that Steam versions cannot apply said tweaking

@corncobman: only rarely happens to me, that (and actually it happens to all my DoW games, occasionally). Haven't been able to pinpoint the cause.

[corncobman]

@PsykoTenshi

I mean the Errorlog .txt files that appear in the Soulstorm folder every time I run and exit the game.

It happens every single time.

[PsykoTenshi]

I assume you mean an error log named like this "3-11-2012_18_29_38_ErrorLog.txt" for example. If Soulstorm ever creates those in a non-ctd situation, it never happened to me. I get other issues and... yeah it's a minor graphical-thing-only, but I'm posting a thread about it. Tired of seeing vertical blood splatters. I also call it Bugstorm for a reason xD

EDIT: First post updated with Soulstorm in online stores.

[RMX]

I have those logs as well. Dunno why

[PsykoTenshi]

First post updated with Steam-compatible goodness!
Also I added horizontal lines to the thing for a less eye-straining format

PS-ish edit: @ Anyone using these improvements (the updated dll ordering, not the one I originally posted): Please provide some level of feedback. Please?

@ Steam users particularly: I tested if Steam wouldn't go "alteration detected! destroy! destroy!" if a .dll import list was changed and it didn't. But I don't have Soulstorm on Steam so I can't ensure on a 100.00% that the Steam-Compatible Improvement works. Just a 99.99%.

EDIT:

Didn't kill my Steam version of Soulstorm, didn't notice any improvements r.e. loading times, either for the base game or loading an 8-player map.

I was absolutely sure that Soulstorm at least (on windowed mode) took a TINY BIT less time to pop up.

[Gorb]

Didn't kill my Steam version of Soulstorm, didn't notice any improvements r.e. loading times, either for the base game or loading an 8-player map.

[Chaos Godstone]

@PsykoTenshi
Surely Soulstorm retail keys are activate-able on Steam? So, you have both in your hand, I know I have.

I had my copy of Soulstorm, I think, about a year or more before getting Dawn of War II and discovering STEAM. My kettle does good things for my upload, download is very common living in England ... oh that's precipitation ...

*cough*

Nothing to report as I have only just stumbled on this thread.

[Will20017]

Just like to say that the Steam compatible tweak works without error, and I have noticed a slight decrease in loading times, particularly on the initial loading screen; thank you very much for this useful tutorial.

[PsykoTenshi]

:yay: I knew it (the Steam-compatible tweak) improved something. Since my particular Soulstorm has all the other tweaks too, the difference was quite hard to tell but even then I was really sure the window (I play it on windowed mode) appeared faster.

[Crinvo]

Okay, I don't know if it has something to do with anything here at all (maybe it's the map, maybe my PC etc etc.)
Yesterday I was playing Ultimate Apocalypse with a friend (he was Tau, I was Necron) against 6 Tyranids on my self-made map (1024x1024).
I installed all tweaks except for the multithreading and sometimes I got framerates down to 4-7 fps, but the taskmanager shows me only 1-1.5 GB use.
Any tips or hints what could be the problem?
My system:
OS: Win7 Ultimate x64
RAM: 4GB RAM (2x2GB DDR2)
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9850 (4x2.5GHz)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5670 (1024 MB)

Thanks in advance
Crinvo

[PsykoTenshi]

Mmmmmhhhhhhh.....
Assuming you did not have this issue before, and in a situation exactly like this one (8 player battle on a 1024x1024 map, I'll assume on the UA New Races mod since there's a user with that same name on the UA Steam group, and you were playing a proper apocalyptic battle and vs nids):

sometimes I got framerates down to 4-7 fps

+

CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9850 (4x2.5GHz)

=
That really sounds like what I experience on my system on every battle.

I have enough computer to run Retribution at maxed settings with an average framerate of 40 but on Soulstorm I get a constant 7 fps during heavy combat (and what makes me think Soulstorm is the problem: No matter what graphic settings I use, the performance I get in Soulstorm is the same).

But, I've been using my tweaked Soulstorm for so long, that I've forgotten if it always ran that bad. I assumed yes since I have no memories of smooth framerate on it but...
I must confirm my suspicions. I will proceed to a quick test now. Will edit with results soon.

EDIT: Ok, my tweaks seem to not have influence on the framerate my Soulstorm has after spamming exactly 300 Conscripts on UA (I've used a framerate counter and using both altered and original .exe/.dll's sets the framerate was the same).

What I've found is a weird "bug-like" thing on the UA mod. Using the following game rules I found that the maximum population cap sometimes was 54 (I think it was 54) and others reached 100!
(these were to test the 300 conscript spammage)
AI Properties
AI Dummies
Annihilate
Apocalypse
Game Timer
Heroes
Massive Battles
Extreme Battles

Though this would be better placed on the UA thread

[Crinvo]

Okay, so it's just my system, thank you
And congratulations on finding a bug

[PsykoTenshi]

Okay, so it's just my system

I wouldn't say so. If you ask me, it's DoW 1's exceptionally underperforming engine.

Because, how comes my computer can run not only DoW II Retribution at maxed settings with smooth framerate, but stuff like World in Conflict too (look gameplay videos of it on youtube to see what I mean with awesome graphics on massive scale). But Soulstorm... 7 fps. That has to be something really bad with Soulstorm, not my (or your) computer.

[Cylarne_04]

Yeah, the DOW 1 engine is not the best in anything at all. Most times, it is just little 20/20 cap battles which even lags your game. Not just on the UA mod, but DOW in general also does this. Even UA mod is not equipped to make friggin huge battles go smooth. No mod ever for DOW 1 will do that.

[Crinvo]

What a pity but thank you for the information

[Gorb]

Update: Steam tweak for Soulstorm can and will break your ability to play the game without re-validating the integrity of the game cache. Depends on if Steam Synchronisation hates you or not.

(it hates me)

[PsykoTenshi]

Update: Steam tweak for Soulstorm can and will break your ability to play the game without re-validating the integrity of the game cache. Depends on if Steam Synchronisation hates you or not.

(it hates me)

Whoops. Wait, it's not like I was to blame for Steam being a game cache zealot-y watchdog. Big thanks for the warning though, updating 1st post.

[gorus]

PsykoTenshi, thank you a lot for this guide. But I had found one problem in my game after doing that. When I choose race "random" in first play I get IG in a next play I get Orks and then Dark Eldars... Looks like that my "random" don't work properly. So happens in every game which I played. When I play mods like Skirmish etc. random works good. I hope you'll help me because I can't solve this problem... Sorry for my english if something is wrong i'm not englishman
___________________________________________________________________
Ohh I'm sorry but now it's ok. Seems like it was just unreal luck (5 times successively or more). It passed itself
_______________________________________________________________________
But I have one more trouble with error logs. Every time when I launch a game in folder with game creates errlogs. That is not serious problem but why it appeared? I use Windows 7 x64

Errlog

Soulstorm.exe caused an Access Violation in module ntdll.dll at 0023:77dee3fb.
Error occurred at 5/6/2012 16:08:42.
Soulstorm.exe, run by Gorus.
Microsoft Windows XP?.
2 processor(s), type 586.
2048 MBytes physical memory.
Write to location 00000000 caused an access violation.
MiniDump failed to save - error loading symbols.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0023 EIP=77dee3fb EFLGS=00210202
EBX=42130001 SS=002b ESP=00fcfddc EBP=00fcfe10
ECX=0000006b DS=002b ESI=016869e0 FS=0053
EDX=00000000 ES=002b EDI=42130000 GS=002b
Bytes at CS:EIP:
89 30 8b 45 e0 8b 55 e4 8d 7e 08 f0 0f c7 0f 3b 

Call Stack:
0x33203938:          ()
0x62382030:          ()
0x20353420:          ()
0x38203065:          ()
0x35352062:          ()
0x20346520:          ()
0x37206438:          ()
0x38302065:          ()
0x20306620:          ()
0x63206630:          ()
0x66302037:          ()
0x20623320:          ()
0x0585E800:          ()
0x00FCF588:          ()
0x761914DD:          ()
0x05760000:          ()

Stack dump:
00fcfddc: 00000000 01680000 035210a0 0100f1b4 01680000 00000000 00000000 00fcfd30
00fcfdfc: 0000000d 00fcfe78 00000000 00000001 03521098 00fcfe28 77dee003 03650588
00fcfe1c: 03650588 035210a0 03521098 00fcfe3c 761914dd 01680000 00000000 035210a0
00fcfe3c: 0000000c 0016f1b4 01680000 00000000 035210a0 0017fc4c 00162c43 035210a0
00fcfe5c: 0000000c 00b8c904 00fcfef4 0017fc4c 00fcfe01 00fcfee4 00175928 00000000
00fcfe7c: 00163bdf 0000000c 00000002 00000001 0016501c 035210a0 0000000c 007f6470
00fcfe9c: 035210a0 00b8c8e4 007f659f 78d1a51a 00b8c8e4 007f6838 00b8c8e4 00400000
00fcfebc: 03521ca4 730a19d8 a05b2298 00b8c92c 00302c3b 00000000 03521ca4 03521c90
00fcfedc: 00fcfec4 00fcf998 00fcff78 730a8ced d3b59754 00000000 00fcff88 730a1a4b
00fcfefc: 00000000 00000000 00000000 007b3dad 00000000 a0448d08 00000000 00000000
00fcff1c: fffde000 00000044 0031e368 003245e0 003244b0 00000000 00000000 00000000
00fcff3c: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000c01 00000001 00000000 00000000
00fcff5c: 00010001 00000000 

Module list: names, addresses, sizes, time stamps and file times:
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Debug.dll, loaded at 0x00130000 - 49152 bytes - 4907807c - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:50
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Memory.dll, loaded at 0x00160000 - 135168 bytes - 49078081 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Filesystem.dll, loaded at 0x00220000 - 368640 bytes - 490780d3 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Platform.dll, loaded at 0x00290000 - 180224 bytes - 490780c5 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Soulstorm.exe, loaded at 0x00400000 - 7671808 bytes - 4907b15e - file date is 4/2/2012 21:31:06
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Util.dll, loaded at 0x00fd0000 - 352256 bytes - 490780e6 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:54
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\LuaConfig.dll, loaded at 0x01030000 - 315392 bytes - 490780db - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\GSLobby.dll, loaded at 0x01080000 - 577536 bytes - 49078108 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\Localizer.dll, loaded at 0x01130000 - 90112 bytes - 490780d9 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\seInterface.dll, loaded at 0x01160000 - 446464 bytes - 490780f6 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\DivxMediaLib.dll, loaded at 0x011f0000 - 86016 bytes - 40299282 - file date is 10/27/2008 17:13:20
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\DivxDecoder.dll, loaded at 0x01210000 - 413696 bytes - 40299280 - file date is 10/27/2008 17:13:20
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\FileParser.dll, loaded at 0x01280000 - 86016 bytes - 40299281 - file date is 10/27/2008 17:13:20
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\MathBox.dll, loaded at 0x012a0000 - 122880 bytes - 49078087 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\SimEngine.dll, loaded at 0x012e0000 - 1241088 bytes - 4907817b - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\UserInterface.dll, loaded at 0x01420000 - 1736704 bytes - 49078123 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:54
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\NetConfig.dll, loaded at 0x015e0000 - 15872 bytes - 490780bc - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
C:\Program Files (x86)\RocketDock\RocketDock.dll, loaded at 0x016d0000 - 69632 bytes - 46db07a0 - file date is 9/2/2007 14:57:36
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\dbghelp.dll, loaded at 0x03130000 - 894464 bytes - 4047b322 - file date is 10/27/2008 17:13:20
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\PlatHook.dll, loaded at 0x037c0000 -  5632 bytes - 49078078 - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:52
D:\Games\Buka\Dawn of War - ?????? ???????\Dawn of War - Soulstorm\STLPort.dll, loaded at 0x10000000 - 577536 bytes - 490780bd - file date is 2/12/2012 11:43:54
C:\Windows\System32\dsound.dll     , loaded at 0x6c300000 - 453632 bytes - 4a5bd9fd - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:14
C:\Windows\system32\dwmapi.dll     , loaded at 0x720f0000 - 67072 bytes - 4a5bda07 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:14
C:\Windows\system32\uxtheme.dll    , loaded at 0x72110000 - 245760 bytes - 4a5bdb3c - file date is 7/14/2009 04:11:26
C:\Windows\system32\dhcpcsvc.DLL   , loaded at 0x72220000 - 61952 bytes - 4a5bd9b5 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:12
C:\Windows\system32\DNSAPI.dll     , loaded at 0x72c80000 - 270336 bytes - 4d6f2733 - file date is 6/16/2011 21:22:00
C:\Windows\system32\mswsock.dll    , loaded at 0x72cd0000 - 232448 bytes - 4ce7b8e8 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:10
C:\Windows\system32\dhcpcsvc6.DLL  , loaded at 0x72d60000 - 43008 bytes - 4a5bd9b6 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:12
C:\Windows\system32\apphelp.dll    , loaded at 0x72f40000 - 295936 bytes - 4ce7b73e - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:16
C:\Windows\system32\WSOCK32.dll    , loaded at 0x72fa0000 - 15360 bytes - 4a5bdb63 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:22
C:\Windows\system32\WINNSI.DLL     , loaded at 0x72fb0000 - 16896 bytes - 4a5bdb43 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:20
C:\Windows\system32\iphlpapi.dll   , loaded at 0x72fc0000 - 103936 bytes - 4ce7b859 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:34
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_d09154e044272b9a\MSVCR80.dll, loaded at 0x730a0000 - 632656 bytes - 4dcddbf3 - file date is 4/26/2012 21:14:34
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_d09154e044272b9a\MSVCP80.dll, loaded at 0x73140000 - 554832 bytes - 4dcddc6c - file date is 4/26/2012 21:14:34
C:\Windows\system32\AUDIOSES.DLL   , loaded at 0x73240000 - 195584 bytes - 4ce7b725 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:23:56
C:\Windows\system32\powrprof.dll   , loaded at 0x73280000 - 145408 bytes - 4a5bdb0c - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:14
C:\Windows\system32\WINMM.dll      , loaded at 0x732b0000 - 194048 bytes - 4ce7ba42 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:18
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4940_none_50916076bcb9a742\MSVCR90.dll, loaded at 0x73530000 - 653136 bytes - 4ca2ef57 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:25:16
C:\Windows\System32\MMDevApi.dll   , loaded at 0x740c0000 - 213504 bytes - 4ce7b892 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:23:52
C:\Windows\system32\rasadhlp.dll   , loaded at 0x743a0000 - 11776 bytes - 4a5bdad6 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:14
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Spigot\Search Settings\wth.dll, loaded at 0x74710000 - 23904 bytes - 4f95940c - file date is 4/23/2012 20:48:02
C:\Windows\System32\PROPSYS.dll    , loaded at 0x74c40000 - 988160 bytes - 4ce7b983 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:10
C:\Windows\syswow64\CRYPTBASE.dll  , loaded at 0x75490000 - 36864 bytes - 4a5bbf41 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:08
C:\Windows\syswow64\SspiCli.dll    , loaded at 0x754a0000 - 96768 bytes - 4ce7ba59 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:18
C:\Windows\syswow64\msvcrt.dll     , loaded at 0x75500000 - 690688 bytes - 4a5bda6f - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:52
C:\Windows\syswow64\OLEAUT32.dll   , loaded at 0x757b0000 - 571904 bytes - 4d673de9 - file date is 6/16/2011 21:16:18
C:\Windows\syswow64\PSAPI.DLL      , loaded at 0x75840000 -  6144 bytes - 4a5bdace - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:14
C:\Windows\syswow64\CLBCatQ.DLL    , loaded at 0x75850000 - 522240 bytes - 4a5bd9b1 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:04
C:\Windows\syswow64\MSCTF.dll      , loaded at 0x758e0000 - 828928 bytes - 4a5bda69 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:44
C:\Windows\syswow64\RPCRT4.dll     , loaded at 0x759b0000 - 663040 bytes - 4ce7ba59 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:12
C:\Windows\syswow64\ADVAPI32.dll   , loaded at 0x75aa0000 - 640512 bytes - 4ce7b706 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:30
C:\Windows\syswow64\DEVOBJ.dll     , loaded at 0x75bc0000 - 64512 bytes - 4a5bd9c5 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:15:12
C:\Windows\syswow64\ole32.dll      , loaded at 0x75be0000 - 1414144 bytes - 4ce7b96f - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:02
C:\Windows\syswow64\LPK.dll        , loaded at 0x75dd0000 - 25600 bytes - 4a5bdb3b - file date is 7/14/2009 04:11:24
C:\Windows\syswow64\GDI32.dll      , loaded at 0x75de0000 - 311296 bytes - 4ce7ba53 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:16
C:\Windows\syswow64\SHLWAPI.dll    , loaded at 0x75e70000 - 350208 bytes - 4ce7b9e2 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:23:50
C:\Windows\syswow64\USER32.dll     , loaded at 0x75ff0000 - 833024 bytes - 4ce7ba59 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:22
C:\Windows\syswow64\kernel32.dll   , loaded at 0x76180000 - 837632 bytes - 4ce7baf9 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:16
C:\Windows\syswow64\SETUPAPI.dll   , loaded at 0x76290000 - 1667584 bytes - 4ce7b9d9 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:23:52
C:\Windows\syswow64\CFGMGR32.dll   , loaded at 0x76430000 - 145920 bytes - 4ce7b787 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:10
C:\Windows\syswow64\NSI.dll        , loaded at 0x765d0000 -  8704 bytes - 4a5bdad9 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:12
C:\Windows\syswow64\USP10.dll      , loaded at 0x765e0000 - 626176 bytes - 4ce7ba29 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:18
C:\Windows\syswow64\IMM32.dll      , loaded at 0x76680000 - 119808 bytes - 4ce7ba53 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:26
C:\Windows\syswow64\SHELL32.dll    , loaded at 0x766e0000 - 12872192 bytes - 4ce7b9de - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:04
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\sechost.dll    , loaded at 0x77330000 - 92160 bytes - 4a5bdb04 - file date is 7/14/2009 04:16:14
C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll , loaded at 0x77350000 - 269824 bytes - 4ce7bafa - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:34
C:\Windows\syswow64\WS2_32.dll     , loaded at 0x774c0000 - 206848 bytes - 4ce7ba68 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:23:56
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll      , loaded at 0x77dc0000 - 1292096 bytes - 4ce7ba58 - file date is 11/21/2010 06:24:02

Thanks again, now my game is flying

[PsykoTenshi]

Updated the 1st post with (hopefully) a bit of ease of reading and screenies.

@ gorus: My most sincere apologies for not answering in SO long time, but since the last you sent was "Thanks again, now my game is flying " I assumed there wasn't much problem...

About the errorlogs, I guess you mean something like what happens to corncobman (a problem which I am unaware of how to solve).

I mean the Errorlog .txt files that appear in the Soulstorm folder every time I run and exit the game.

It happens every single time.

"Why it appeared?" you asked. (assuming it didn't happen before) Honestly I have no idea.


Ah, I fergot about this: As usual, feedback, constructive criticism and such are always welcome.

[gorus]

assuming it didn't happen before

That happened (I mean errlogs) even before I had used this guide. Formerly I used Windows XP then it was allright. That happens only with Windows 7.
And your guide has only advantages, thanx a lot (i tried to found something like that for a very long time)

[PsykoTenshi]

Formerly I used Windows XP then it was allright. That happens only with Windows 7

Adding to my list of reasons to not get faildows 7 aka 6.1

In other news, it just crossed my mind that tweaking Dark Crusade in a similar way I did with Soulstorm shouldn't make it load lightning fast , and I shouldn't edit the first post with the new dll order for DC

[Gorb]

Odds are you weren't running the game as Administrator, gorus. Or UAC was preventing something from happening correctly.

I could write a essay/rant on why people who insist on calling Win7 "faildows" are narrow-minded and ill-accepting of advances in technology (you'd have a case complaining about Vista, at a push), and probably don't even remember the horrific state XP was upon release. But I won't!

This is merely my opinion, of course. Just in case someone attacks me for my attitude or the like - this is simply my experience as a burgeoning developer.

[gorus]

Gorb, I'm running game as administrator only. With XP problems like that don't happened. But that logs don't prevent me to play, just clean them up once a month

[Gorb]

Oh, I was assuming your game crashed as a consequence. Error logs don't tend to be generated otherwise.

Is yours the Steam version of Soulstorm, or?

[corncobman]

I have a feeling it's something to do with the 64 bit version of Windows 7. Steam doesn't seem to make any difference. I've had error logs generated on non-Steam versions of Soulstorm as well.

[PsykoTenshi]

Gah I was offline for quite a while. But narrow-minded? Ill-accepting of advances in technology? Let the [offtopic=yay] begin! Just because I admire the mechanicus doesn't mean I share their point of view over... stuff. That post was originally to announce the Dark Crusade tweak. Just to add some humor, I did a mention of the list of reasons to not get Windows 7 which I actually have (made out of pure waste of time)

The list. Warning: I'm a M$ ehh... disliker

-A confirmation sign, that grays out the screen and won't let you use YOUR computer until you answer to it. The question? "Did you run this program?". It's like they did a research on what would be most annoying and implemented as "security features".

-I would love to have DirectX 11. Damn shame that my gpu, while it can run nearly any game at maxed settings on a 1080p display, is an oldie card and only has support for 10.1.
With it's newer equivalent costing over 250 usd and the US dollars themselves not being available to the public (Yes, Argentina's government sent out an order to not sell dollars. How nice of them. Now if you want dollars, get them from the black market at over 150% the market price) a new gpu is just out of my reach.

-"The following programs are stopping Windows (7) from closing"
*no programs are shown*
wat

-I have a 60 Gb (55 usable) solid state drive. I got it to reduce Dawn of Coalescence (over 28Gb) loading times and of course, to make windows load fasta. Thing is that with a 55 Gb C: drive, Hard drive space isn't a feature, but a luxury. Thing is that if I got Windows 7 its (admit it) bloated size would force me to displace at least some of my DoW data.

-I got my memory usage right after startup on Windows XP as low as 170 Mb (checking this on the task manager). On Windows 7? Never went so far personalizing its performance, but... why must memory (+ pagefile) usage be shown in a percentage? Oh and let's not forget the numerous services that are hidden by default and a to see them button must be pressed EACH TIME.

-It's designed to fit the average user (and only the average user), it says that all over it. What's bad about that? I'm not an average user. I'm not scared of .ini files, scripts and the like, I don't skip though installations without checking if I'm putting a (imo) disgusting ad toolbar on the (until a non-sponsored benchmark says otherwise) snail-speed browser that is IE... and so on.
Note: I'm what I call an "experienced user", but I have no idea of what exactly would I be. I've seen self-proclaimed technicians that were less knowledgeable than me (thought very few), but my thing is gaming. Since I had the need, I learned how to fix my own computer as problems arose.

probably don't even remember the horrific state XP was upon release

You got a very good point there. I didn't get to use XP on its early days, and even if I did, I was too much of a little kid by then and still even not capable of being my own PC tech service. But my "counter" is the following: Ask M$ about this, and they'll tell you, without any sign of hesitation "Windows 7 is more stable".

About advances and such: True, Windows 7 boasts numerous practical advantages that XP doesn't have. Yet, I feel like most are a tradeoff. For very, very simple example: The default image viewer in XP can only have one instance. This was addressed in 7, now it can have as many instances as the hardware can stand. But lost animated gif support. 7 is indeed, better optimized for newer hardware, like solid state drives. Which aren't usually very large on Gb. Unlike 7, the by far largest (I admit I have no idea of how much space Mac OSX needs) OS out there.[/offtopic]

Just to make sure, I am NOT trying to get into a fight with a moderator here, I'm not that stupid. It's just that to get called "narrow-minded" and specially "ill-accepting of advances in technology" kinda really hurt.

[gorus]

Gorb, not steam. common licensed version

[Gorb]

corncobman: that could indeed be it. I've started to get them on my Soulstorm on this computer (I chalked it up to mod testing, crashes and the like), but I didn't get them on my XP laptop (which was disc-installed) before the laptop fried itself (water, my eternal enemy).

@PsykoTenshi: bonus points for spoilering it I'll take this to PM as I specifically didn't want to derail with a conversation about Windows.

[SteelDusk]

Lovely guide, PsykoTenshi. You should continue to make tweak guides like this for other games!

[PsykoTenshi]

Ah thank you

The thing is that in this case, I found how to optimize the poorly performing Soulstorm rather easily (by observing Dawn of War II, which is extremely similar).
At least another case of a game with poor performance with a good performing (and similar) sequel is given, I (for now) lack the knowledge to make guides like this on other games

However, there's a tweak that should work on every non-steam game that doesn't have it integrated by default:
Note 1: Note that if it doesn't, it most likely doesn't need it, but if you're running a large mod in it and you suffer crashes, this will quite likely fix it.
Note 2: You could do this on a steam game but it will give you an error when you try to run it. This is a limitation within Steam itself which I can do nothing about.

Removing memory addressing limitation tweak (also found in the guide)

Open the game executable with the CFF explorer, and under "Nt Headers" (click the + symbol), you should see "File Header".
Then left-click File Header and in it, there is a box which says "Click Here". Let's do that.
You will get a little window full of checkboxes. There's one that says: App can handle >2Gb Address space. Check that.
Click OK, save the changes and... Done! Your game will no longer run out of memory!

[SteelDusk]

I see. Any other suggestions? Like modifying the other .dll files like filesystem.dll?

[PsykoTenshi]

Well... There are other (if those are even worth to be called so) tweaks I haven't mentioned, but only because they make such a tiny difference, I'm not sure if those "tweaks" have some effect at all.
But if there is interest, I guess I can post the modified load order for other dll's aside from spDx9.dll, which I have already the instructions posted to get slightly faster load times on startup.

Just to make sure I leave no doubt here, I tried modifying the load order of other dll's in Soulstorm, but that not necessarily improves performance every time. One of said modifications caused crashed on large battles. And so far, none had any noticeable effect on the game's performance.

[SteelDusk]

What about the game lagging when there are too many decals overlapping in a map?

[JSandman]

Hey PsykoTenshi.

How do I see the warning.log that you talked about?

[PsykoTenshi]

@ JSandman: It's on your Soulstorm install directory, you can open it with notepad.

On a note I fergot, added a note for Winvista/7 users on the 1st post.

@ Steeldusk: I didn't respond because... dunno tbh. Maybe because that's mainly a game engine problem, hence it cannot be fixed by "simply" reordering the dll load order.

[JSandman]

Weird... I don't see any warning.log

[PsykoTenshi]

In (typically C):\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War - Soulstorm (or if you have the Steam version, \Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\dawn of war soulstorm). It is not there? No file named warnings.log at all? Because that would be reaaaally odd.

edit: Gorb has a good point, I somehow fergot about that. I for example, have Steam installed in "L:\Program Files\Steam" (if someone's really curious, I may post the funny story of how I ended up with that many partitions lol)

[Gorb]

Or wherever you've installed Steam; you can install it to a specific folder (as I found on this laptop, then remembered when trying to test my toolkit yesterday).

[PsykoTenshi]

Updated with improved dll ordering for faster-than-ever loading times, more graphicalness, and... ehhhhh slightly different title

Dark Crusade loading order didn't get any love because I barely play DC, Retribution multithreading didn't either because I'm not even sure if it does anything at all (y u no provide feedback), I also made the post a bit less aggressive to the eye. A little bit. I think.


Edit: I should try editing that post using a lower screen resolution next time. These images were over 1100 pixels?! :O

[RT2]

will the 32 bit software be able to be modified through gcf explorer to optimize the usage of poly core, not just the listing of the module but that activation of the multithreading and the software calling on it for use with software.
what are the multicore limitations in the dll?
Is there a need to compare the gcf pf retribution to SS to see what differences/liitations there are?

[PsykoTenshi]

... if I understood correctly, you're convinced 32 bit/x86 software is limited to one core? That my friend, is utterly incorrect. For example, 7-zip has a 32 bit release and can do many heavily multithreaded tasks.
The first major limitation that comes to my mind with 32 bit is maximum memory assignment, but nothing else.

compare the gcf pf retribution to SS

? :3


Also, to efficiently and properly "make Soulstorm multithreaded", I'd say a major engine rewrite would be the best option. If I had the knowledge to do that I'd also try increasing its tolerance to epic battles while I'm at it

[Reaper R66]

I just read through the first post and wanted to confirm that, when disabling the page file, the process is the exact same for Windows 7 and Windows XP. So the tutorial you posted for that is pretty much universal.

[RT2]

? :3

Comparing the stats of Retribution in CFF explorer with the stats for Soulstorm in CFF explorer.
Tweak investigation. :P

[PsykoTenshi]

@ Reaper R66: The process should be very similar and yield the same results in all XP, Vista and 7, but since I only have direct access to a system with XP, and Micro$oft's has this nasty habit of making extensive changes on user interfaces from version to version, there are some major differences on the way (on what/where to click, menu/option names, etc).

@ RT2: In fact, the last two "versions" of dll ordering lists are based of Retribution's dll load order, so yeah, I've been comparing them
Though I have no idea what exactly you mean with "stats", that's rather ambiguous...

[Einheriar]

I knew having the retail games would still prove interesting nowadays!

On the second load it seems to go faster as some files might be cached for it in memory or at least faster to load them in.
This is after reboot.............. Does anyone else see this?

As RT2 mentionned it on the last post, on page 1 of this thread, yes, I noticed that too long ago, when you launch SS for the second time, it loads as fast as other DoW games, without any tweak.

On a second note, I've done all the tweaks (for both DC and SS), and SS still loads as slow as if I didn't change anything, and yes, I didn't try on the Steam version, so go figure why it doesn't work for me. Hope I didn't miss anything. :/

On another note, is there a way to allow retail SS to launch without the CD? That would be really sweat!

Thanks anyway for this tutorial, I'll look into it later, I'd reaaly like it to work!

P.S. : As for the ErrorLog.txt files, SS creates them every single time I launch it. It never happened to me while I was on Win XP pro, but since I upgraded my laptop to Win 7 64bits home premium (Intel Core i7 920 2.67 GHz, 6 Gb ram, nVidia GeForce GTX 295), it happens all the time, resulting in a "Soulstorm.exe caused an Access Violation in module ntdll.dll at 0023:7708e41b." error. Maybe that's why I end up with a black screen while I'm playing on a 1v1 skirmish map (against CPU), I can still hear sounds, but no image to be seen! Or maybe it's related to the >2 Gb usage, I have to test this anyway. My graphic card drivers are up to date (latest 301.42 WHQL version), so that can't be due to it.