Although first releases came with its hiccups, America's Army has mostly overcome its teething problems and
is doing pretty well now. Based on the latest version of the Unreal
Engine, this guide will take you through configuring the game for an
optimum performance on your system, better network play and fixing other issues that might arise.
America's Army is a realistic computer game providing
civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in the U.S. Army.America's Army players will experience soldiering in
a state-of-the-art new manner.
Troubleshooting
Sometimes simple solutions work the
best, so begin by downloading the latest drivers for your graphics card
and soundcard. This may solve (most) input or audio problems you might be
experiencing. You can find links to various manufacturers on our Drivers
page. Now install the latest patch/release available at America's
Army download site. This may fix other issues you could be having and
generally includes other enhancements and updates to the game. Install the
latest version of DirectX
on your system. This can also fix problems with sound, graphics &
input devices.
If you’re experiencing lockups
& such after all that then they might be caused by overclocking, if so
try lowering the
Memory/Core speed of the overclocked device to see if it resolves the
problem. If instability problems persist, be sure to check America’s
Army Support page first.
Basic
Graphics Setup
We will start off with the most basic settings for
configuring your video settings, you might want to give this a quick look
but if you are more into tweaking config files, etc., skip
to the next section.
Load the game, click on Settings,
and then select Video Settings.
Gamma.
This slider is used to adjust the level of RGB colour intensity. Moving
the slider to the right will increase the colour intensity
though can reduce texture detail by brightening textures too much if moved
slid too far right & vice versa.
Contrast.
Use this slider to set the level of contrast in the game. Sliding the bar
to the Right will increase the contrast level, though can
also make the game appear more washed out if slid too far & vice
versa.
Brightness.
Use this slider to set the glare level in the game. Sliding the bar to the
Right will increase the glare level, though can also make
textures appear more washed out if slid too far & vice versa.
Game Resolution.
Selecting a lower resolution can improve performance & maintain
a stabler, higher frame rate. Higher resolutions look better
(sharper & smaller jagged edges), they also tend to run slower. This
all depends on how slow/fast your system (Particularly Graphics card) is
of course.
Start Full Screen.
Set this to your own preference, though preferably Ticked of course
for best performance & largest viewing area.
Now press the Advanced
button.
Reduce Mouse Lag.
When Ticked this may eliminate lag from mouse input, although can
lower the frame rate can lower as a result. If you aren’t experiencing
such mouse lag then leave this Unticked to ensure optimal frame
rate.
Use Precaching.
When Ticked this enables loading textures into Video memory
during level loading, which can increase level loading time, though
should provide smoothest gameplay as no textures will need to be uploaded
during gameplay. For Graphics cards with 64MB of video memory I’d
recommend Ticking this option as such, though Unticked
should prove best for Graphics cards with less video memory as textures
need only be loaded when required to.
Use Trilinear.
Trilinear texture filtering
operates by taking 4 samples (texels) from 2 neighbouring Mipmaps, applies
a bilinear filter to them & then interpolates the results. This
results in improved image quality, with more seamless transitions between
Mipmap levels & enhanced texture detail compared to bilinear
filtering. Basically every modern Graphics cards that is
supported by this game should be able to use trilinear with no little
performance issues, & as such you shouldn’t need to Untick
this option.
Use Triple Buffering.
Triple buffering allocates a third frame buffer, which can improve
performance by allowing the hardware to render at the same time that the
3D application performs other tasks. Ticking this is recommended as
a result for optimal performance. That said if your Graphics card has 32MB
or lower Video memory you’d be best leaving this Unticked to
ensure best performance (As the game itself already uses a lot of
textures).
Use Cubemaps.
When Ticked this enables the use of Cubemaps in levels for
simulated reflectivity on certain surfaces, e.g. mirrors. Those of you
with Graphics card that do not support this feature should Untick
this, though given the minimal use of cubemaps in the game you’ll likely
not notice a difference either way.
Use Compressed Lightmaps.
When Ticked this enables lightmaps to be compressed, which
will increase level loading time, though can improve frame rate by
reducing Video memory requirements for levels. If you have a Graphics card
with 32MB or more Video memory you should Untick this option to
ensure lightmap quality is at its greatest as you should have sufficient
Video memory to use them uncompressed, which will also yield slightly
faster level loading times.
No Client Side Effects.
When Ticked this option disables certain non-gameplay
critical effects, e.g. muzzle smoke. This should prove improved
performance though shouldn’t be required unless you already have
problems running the game acceptably, e.g. due to an outdated Graphics
card. Leave this Unticked at all other times.
Texture Detail Level.
This setting controls the resolution of textures used in the game, options
available being Low & High. Highenables
the uses of sharper, more detailed textures & is recommended for those
whose Graphics card has 64MB or more Video memory.
