BoA eats my memory ?

[Primasprit]

It seems BoA does not release my memory after quitting the game. About 600 MB are still used after I closed the programm (normaly my Windows needs about 200 to 250 MB).
The process which is wasting all the memory isn't listed in the task manager. Is this a known issue?

[Pocus]

First time somebody reports that in fact. Are you on Windows XP?

Second though... are you speaking of virtual memory or physical one? The swap file size can vary depending on what windows is doing, but no worries, it will shrink automatically.

[Primasprit]

I use Windows XP pro with all updates, 1024 MB RAM (McAfee scanner, Sygate firewall).
I rebooted the computer:
Physical Memory (used) 319/1023 MB (ok, more than 200 ..250 MB )
Page File: 277/2461 MB

Started BoA, load campaign, scroll around the map, quit:
Physical Memory (used) 467/1023 MB
Page File: 414/2461 MB

If I start and quit BoA again, nothing changes.

I guess it needed less memory this time because I played no turns but instantly quit.
At the moment this effect is not a big issue for me, since I can play without problems.
I will watch this, it if takes more memory from turn to turn or stays at a specific level.

[Pocus]

can you test by just arriving on the main menu and quitting, without loading a game?

Can some beta test on their side if they have the issue?

[Primasprit]

Start WinXp:
Physical Memory 320MB/1023MB
Page File: 289MB/2461MB

Start BoA, main menue:
Physical Memory 546MB/1023MB
Page File: 503MB/2461MB

Quit BoA:
Physical Memory 324MB/1023MB
Page File: 281MB/2461MB

Start BoA, start campaign, scroll around map:
Physical Memory 986MB/1023MB
Page File: 935MB/2461MB

Quit BoA:
Physical Memory 472MB/1023MB
Page File: 419MB/2461MB

[Pocus]

I have the same behavior, 300 mb appearing to not be released when BoA closes.

I have traced back in the code, and all bitmaps are released correctly though.

I'm not a Direct 3D specialist, but I would say (its just an educated guess) that this is an artefact (ie an erroneous report, we are not speaking of relic here ) from windows, because of 2 things:

1. BoA as a process is fully released.
2. relaunching BoA does not use another 300 MB, in fact this memory is recycled by windows and used again for BoA.

Note also that BoA need a lot of RAM to texturize the bitmaps of the map. As a video card don't hold as much RAM, they query (the video cards) the system and get some general RAM. I would say that once BoA is closed, the system is not informed correctly that this RAM is released too (still flaged as used by the video card), but in fact it is available for future use.

In the coming months we expect to recruit another coder, which is more specialized in D3D (and network too, hint hint ...). Perhaps he will be able to confirm my theory, or correct things if the need exists.

[Sandra]

I'm really not a specialist but I think this is totally normal on WinXP. That's why I (and a lot of people) use a little .vbs file after quitting a game in order to manually free memory (this is a tip easy to find on the web).