EvE Using a RAM Drive

I've recently joined the group of people who run Eve using a Ram Drive in an effort to improve performance.

Probably the best way to improve performance though is to purchase a faster RAM, better CPU, Motherboard to match, faster accessing Hard drive and Graphics card. Currently, this is not an option for me so I'm tweaking what I have.

To get the most improvement in performance it is recommended to put the entire Eve folder onto Ram drive. However, as I only have 1.5 GB of RAM anyway, this is not an option given the size of the Eve folder and available RAM. If I had 4GB or you do, follow the instructions below and adjust accordingly such as adding the Program Files Eve folder as a Ram drive etc.

Also, it is important to note that following these instructions will give only minimal performance improvements as most improvements are needed when the main .stuff texture files in the main Eve directory load up - and that is not cache related which we are looking at here.

So the next best thing that only offers small performance increases is to place the cache onto a RAM drive.

The application I use to create a RAM drive is not one of the free ones. I tried those and none of them worked for me for some reason so I paid for one.

One free version that has been mentioned on Eve-o forums is one from AR Soft.

And a complete though outdated guide detailed at the bottom of this blog.

The important component is the NTLink which "fools" your pc into thinking the RAM Drive is your Eve folder.(The one in Application Data - not your Program Files one, we go nowhere near that.)

Conceptually, figuring out how to put your cache folder on a RAM drive is harder than putting your entire Eve folder on, so hang on to your hats.

Set the RAM Drive to 100Mb. That's all you really need for this to work. Feel free to add a little more but don't take too much RAM from system use otherwise any gains over small file transfer speed will be lost.

You need a place to put your cache folder and settings folder when NOT on the RAM drive - i.e. when you quit the Eve application.

So, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\CCP\

*NB: The above directory is the one that needs to be linked to the RAM Drive.

Copy the entire contents to:
C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\EVEBACKUP

Now you need a script that reads the information in the EVEBACKUP folder and puts it all onto the RAM Drive which is linked to the CCP folder in C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\

This one worked for me, it's hacked to bits from the original code and confused the hell out of me at first but that's because it was using the H attribute and hiding files from view!

Quote:

@echo off

set EVEPATH=C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE

@echo copying files, Please wait
xcopy /C /I /D /K /R /E /H "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\EVEBACKUP\EVE" "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\CCP\EVE"
@echo files copied
@echo removing machonet
rmdir /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\CCP\EVE\cache\machonet"
@echo machonet removed
"%EVEPATH%\eve.exe"
PAUSE

@echo (only press when you shutdown eve)
pause
rmdir /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\EVEBACKUP"
xcopy /C /I /D /K /R /E /H "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\CCP\EVE" "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\EVEBACKUP\EVE"
@echo Copying complete
pause
rmdir /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\CCP\EVE"
REM mkdir %RAMPATH%
exit

Essentially, the code above when first used copies the entire EVE folder in C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\EVEBACVKUP to the
RAM drive then launches Eve.

When you quit the game - click in the DOS window to bring it into focus and hit space.

It then copies the contents of the RAM drive to your EVEBACKUP folder.

That's it. Hope this helps.

Thank you and acknowledgements to all who have contributed to this project so far and those who undoubtedly will in the future.

Attached is a bat file you may use if you wish. At your own risk of course.