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View Full Version : Video memory a possible cause for some SCS crashes?


Elle
11-22-2007, 06:17 PM
I came up with a theory in the wee hours of the night and posted it to the EA forums, but I thought I'd post it here too.

I applied the Vista virtual address space patch (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105) to my 64-bit Vista machine. It seems to have cleared up my freezing problems in SCS.

That KB article talks about how Windows handles video memory resources. Windows allocates 2GB of virtual address space to the game for all of its processes. Some of that space can be taken up by a copy of what's in video memory. If the game doesn't manage this properly, and fills up the space, the game can become unstable.

What's interesting about this is that the copy of the video memory resources depends on the video memory on the video card. That is, the bigger the video card, the bigger the copy, the more space it takes up in that limited virutal address space. My theory: those of us with 512 and 768 MB video cards may be more prone to this particular problem than those with less video memory.

Naturally, this doesn't explain all of the problems people are having (nothing ever does), and the fix doesn't apply to XP, but it at least might explain why some of us with higher-end video cards are having issues. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there.

bloodystump
11-22-2007, 06:47 PM
Hmm, interesting. I have a 7600GS 512meg video card with 1 gig of ram and the display freezes (game is still running in the background) within 2-20mins.

I can also seemingly run the game indefinately if i don't actually touch any controls (including the camera) and just let the city play itself.

Keith
11-22-2007, 08:52 PM
There were some problems with another new game called "World in Conflict" and Vista recently. The Vista hotfixes seemed to have cured some of them.

KB940105 - Virtual address space usage, install if you have problems with memory loss.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105)

KB938194 - Improved compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194)

KB938979 - Improved performance and reliability of Windows Vista.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979)

KB936710 - Fix for use of multiple graphics cards in DirectX 10.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936710 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936710)

If you have Windows automatic updates turned on you probably have these installed already.

Morpheus121073
11-22-2007, 10:35 PM
It doesn't fix all the problems such as the Runtime Error crash and also does not fix the momory leak that the game has, those things need to be fixed in the game, detailed reports have already been given on this forum and on the EA forum so they should be able to come up with a fix soon

Lilbluesmurf
11-24-2007, 10:54 PM
Yeah, I have a feeling a lot of people are simply running out of memory when they get the freeze that still has the cursor move. I have been messing with things and I consistently get that particular freeze/crash when my memory for the game reaches about 500,000-600,000k. I have other things that are always on, so I am guessing that takes up just about everything that's left over. If you having that problem, as opposed to the runtime errors, turning everything to low will let you go a bit longer. Memory leaking is definitely an issue.

One thing I did notice is that there is never any pop in (at least for me). In my experience when things get like they are with a huge amount of textures and models, it is pretty amazing to not have this happen at least occasionally. I am no programmer, but that suggests to me that there is very little memory swapping going on, and almost everything is just being stuck there and left. If that does happen to be the case, it might look outstanding to have no in game loading... but if it's a difference between freezing even on lowest settings, or running on higher settings and getting occasional pops or not yet loaded textures when you jump around, I would much rather just have the pops.

On another note, has anyone messed with building spacing and roads and whatnot to see what affect it has on memory usage due to pathing/sim ai?