Memory Issues

[PBBoeye]

EDIT: Issue resolved. See below in final posts.

What is going on with my computer after playing AACW? Here are two screensnaps of my Task Manager window, both after AACW and then after a reboot. Note that I really have only the essential Windows programs running in the background, as well as Norton A/V (which doesn't hardly affect memory).

So what is going on that I lose this huge chunk of memory after shutting down the game? Even after running ScanDisk I still have this loss.

The only way I know of to retrieve that memory is via a reboot, as the stats show.

[Rafiki]

What does the Task Manager's list of active programs/processes say, sorted by memory usage?

[PBBoeye]

I had made an image of it, but deleted it. Here's another shot made with the exact same processes up and running - I always have these running and go through and optimize everytime I boot up (shut down crap like the HP printer app and so forth). 28 processes, give or take a little bit of RAM:

[Pocus]

As you see there is no ghost AACW process eating your memory. The RAM is it not really missing, and can be used by other apps when needed. What happen is that your video card has still some handles on the main memory, because of intensive memory usage to load all textures, but the RAM will be released and reported as available as soon as you need it.

[PBBoeye]

OK, thanks. So you say using another RAM intensive program will cause the video card to release the RAM it is holding onto when the need is done elsewhere?

This would make sense because I picked up a 256MB video card.

[PBBoeye]

Sorry to bug, but I guess its all that RAM taken up by caching the regions. After I close the game and then start other programs, I still can't get the RAM freed up. It takes 2-3 minutes to get the computer to reboot (just to actually cycle off first). Very bad for me.

So how can I clear that cache of all that data used for the regions graphics? The new video card I bought was a GEForce FX 5200 (Nvidia) - 256-bit card.

[Pocus]

what happen if you load the game and then quit it immediatly (reaching main menu and that's all), is the RAM freed?

[PBBoeye]

I did as you suggested. If I quit the program right after the program loads (Main Menu only, no new game or saved game), then the system RAM is fine. Can't even tell I ever loaded a program.

However, if I play a bunch of rounds of AACW, then there are problems. I just finished playing through April - August of 1861 Campaign (to track the repeated units problems) and this is what my Task Manager reveals on the system status, and I waited some time before taking an image of it:



The only option I have after something like this is to completely reboot the machine. The lag is horrific.

[Pocus]

Do others suffers from that? I'm rather sure it is dependent of the video card, as textures are freed when the game exits.

[PBBoeye]

I tend to believe you. I am just not sure how to correct the issue. I'll have to check in with the manufacturers.

[Pocus]

Some utilities exists which try to use the max memory possible, and when they are done with that, they release it, so in essence, this force Windows to flush out of memory any 'residue' and unneeded processes.

[PBBoeye]

I upgraded my video card driver to the most recent one - done like two weeks ago. What a pain with integrated graphics! leure:

Nonetheless, I feel pretty confident that this driver will probably handle the problem correctly. At least I hope so.

All the same, I've d/l a utility called EZ Mem, so hopefully something resolves this for me.

[GShock]

http://www.guru3d.com holds advanced (unofficial) drivers for most vidcards which, coupled with coolbits release some features that manufacturers like Nvidia do not fully exploit (registry-wise).

I had somehow a better performance, very slight though, in the loading (and unloading) of textures with these drivers in ArmA which eats resources like crazy.

[PBBoeye]

Thanks, GShock.

What is 'coolbits'?

[Massattack]

I suffer the exact problems as PBBoeye with AACW. My specs are Intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz CPU, ATI X800 256mb graphics with Omega drivers. After many turns of AACW, I close the game and my computer struggles. I get the popup message from Windows saying I have insufficient memory, and only a shut down/restart up restores my computer to normal operation. I normally shutdown most background applications including antivirus software when playing this and any other games.

Regards

[GShock]

Coolbits is a registry file that works in conjunction with the advanced drivers guru3d releases. IT basically unlocks features the normal nvidia drivers don't use.

I think it could be your drivers. I'd try this:

1) create restore point
2) boot in safe mode
3) UNINSTALL VID CARD (cpanel -> hw resources -> find vid card -> uninstall)
4) Reboot

When you reboot, winxp will find ITS driver, and reinstall the card. Then you may reinstall the latest drivers.

I hope this helps, i've monitored this thread and seen what everyone suggested before speaking...at this point i think it's the only thing you didn't try yet and might be worth a shot.

[PBBoeye]

Well, things have really gotten ugly for me. The system is getting absolutely swamped (physical memory). First, here's my system:

2.4Ghz P4 (ok, a bit old)
40MB Hard drive w. 12.8GB freespace
1.25GB RAM
256MB GEForce FX 5200 video card (July 2007 driver)
22" Acer LCD Flatscreen, set at 1680x1050

So, that really should be enough to rock and roll, no? Well, here's what happened tonight, in pictures.


Played four turns of the campaign game. The game was getting really bogged down, so I tabbed out to Task Manager:



So after getting sick of the whole thing, I shut down AACW and rechecked Task Manager.



Well, not looking too stellar there. The RAM never freed up and increased, so I tried a memory flush utility (EZMem, which has worked wonderfully on other things). There was little change after using EZMem, and it isn't the utility, which I've said has worked well before after using other programs and wanting to flush my memory. Anyhow, this is post-EZMem:



The last thing I can think of is this: I changed my Virtual Memory settings after someone suggested this to take advantage of my greater RAM (it was still set to 256MB RAM settings - too low). So here is a snap of my Virtual Memory settings. As far as I can tell, these are in the correct and desired range for my system. See if there is any problem in there that I am not aware of:


All I know is the game is virtually impossible to play for long, and nothing but a reboot will free up the physical RAM. I've just never seen anything do that to my RAM before, so not sure if it is the new virtual memory settings, the 22" LCD monitor resolution, or what????

ANY help at this point is seriously appreciated.

[GShock]

Despite you pointing out having 40mb hd with 12gb free space (lol) i am wondering if the problem may be caused by the loading of textures in your vid card.

Since it's an old one (you should pick this as worst piece of equipment not the cpu which is good imho) and only has 256mb ram it's *possible* that the problem lies in the textures themselves being loaded/unloaded till the limits, then incorrectly handled by DX when vidcard resources are exhausted (and that's why you point out physical RAM being ultra-busy). Have you tried to see if the minimum detail setting makes things different?

It certainly isn't the VM settings. U got plenty of free space on HD and XP can manage it on automatic. U did a good report though, i think pocus will understand what goes on with your game.

[PBBoeye]

I was doing some research and think it may indeed be the card. I need some alternatives for this system. I have to use a PCI slot card, so I was looking at a Radeon card, which seem to get better reviews than the GEForce series, which is said to have been a general 'failure', or overhyped.

It's a 5200, not a 5300. Not sure why I thought that.

[Franciscus]

Hello, PBBoeye.

Your problem reminds me of my own, although they are really different. I had crashes in the game, with "insufficient memory" due to the textures, although I have 2 Gig RAM (my card is an ATI 1600, 256 Mb; btw, in relation to the textures, RAM memory is the issue, and not the memory of the vid card). Nevertheless, I solved the problem by forcing a more aggressive memory flush each turn. In the generals.opt file there is a line that reads: MemUsage=50 (or 75).This is the % of RAM that AACW is "allowed" to use before a forced flush.When you select High memory in the options you change this to 75 from the default 50.
I found that by changing this to 25 or 15, I got no more crashes, with only a slight "lag" when scrolling through large parts of the map. You could try it. At least wouldn't hurt (and if it works, is cheaper than buying a new vid card)

The thread about this is this one:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4120

[GShock]

Loading/unloading problems are very frequent in the latest games.

I had to install in my XPMCE a new .dll i found on the web just for AACW...might be that this (or another library file) is not good for your card.

Perhaps you should run (and post here) a dxdiag.
I'm sure Pocus is reading this topic and could use that report.

Most likely you're not the only one with this problem.

[PBBoeye]

Thanks, guys. You've given me some stuff to work with. I'll get back to you with results and perhaps a dxdiag.

EDIT: set mine to MemUsage=33 and it seems to be working smoothly. I haven't played too many turns, but I don't see how it could be a problem because every turn the mem gets flushed back out and I have about 600MB RAM available, give or take.

I'll post up a little more as I get more playing time with this.

Franciscus, thanks very much for the tip!

[Pocus]

Keep us informed. Aside from a too old video card which has its memory saturated completely, I don't see an easy answer to your problem. Even in this case, the main RAM should be freed, because very few cards can handle all textures required by AACW themselves (each region is a custom texture), so the process of asking the OS to allocate main RAM for textures is a really common one for the game... problem as you see is that in your case, the system never get it back.

[PBBoeye]

problem as you see is that in your case, the system never get it back.

Yes, I can't explain how with high Memusage values the system would not ever release the memory, even after I canceled the program and then used a dedicated memory flush. So, keeping it under that large absorption value, it seems to be functioning properly. I believe it is related to the card; however, with a PCI slot type I am very limited as to what will work with this - they're basically all 'old' cards now.

So I'll keep you up to date on what I find with the new setting.

[Pocus]

I'm using a PCI GeForce 7600 GS myself, for all purposes, including developing AGEOD games.

[Generalisimo]

I'm using a PCI GeForce 7600 GS myself, for all purposes, including developing AGEOD games.

isn't that a PCI-Express card?
I do not think the GeForce 5200 series has a PCI-E edition... so, he may be talking about PCI slots... the old ones...

[Pocus]

oops sorry this is an AGP one.

[Franciscus]

Hello PBoeye

Any news ?. Did your problem really got solved with the changes to MemUsage ?

Regards

[PBBoeye]

Works like a charm. The truth is, the lower end Nvidia cards used something called Turbocache, which leeches memory from RAM instead of using it's own inherent memory. Which is why my RAM usage went sky high. By limiting the max usage and forcing flushes (sounds hilarious), I keep everything working fine. There is a slight lag at times, which could be solved by going to a Radeon X1300, but it isn't a huge step up and I don't really play 3D stuff, so....

OTOH, I've noticed since I've installed it, that the computer just runs much slower in everything. There is a lag for everything I do, like deleting folders and whatever you want to name. I'd have to attribute this to the card, and not to the 22" LCD monitor. So perhaps it would be best to bump up to the Radeon X1300 (PCI slot only here). My only question would be about the minimum 350W power supply. Where do I source that? This is a 2003 Dell Dimension 2400, so I am not sure that power supply exists on this.

[Franciscus]

Glad I could help. Funny thing is, this parameter, Memusage, is probably important to other users as well; in my case, I had to lower it, although I have an ATI x1600 pro (nothing special, nowadays, but "respectable" nonetheless). I tried to convince Pocus to integrate an easy to toggle option to "lower" memusage in the options screen, in order to achieve a greater degree of stability on some systems (such as our own), which could be important as AACW starts to get good sales, and specially to the future Ageod projects (although with the promised change in graphics library this problem probably will go away, to be replaced by others... ). But I got no luck...Maybe you could persuade Pocus...

Now, regarding your system: A low end NVidia graphic card is sub-par for a 22' LCD display. I am not at all surprised that you experience lag (I am surprised that you can see anything ) If you want to upgrade it is really very important to check your system power supply (open your case and see for yourself the wattage of yours). I had a burnt system once due to an inadequate power supply. Another option would be to buy a new PC, of course...

Best regards