/3gb switch is not a fix or an option

    Firstly, I have been a fan of the Guild 2 series since it first came out.

    However after purchasing the steam version of Renaissance, I find myself dissappointed...

    While I continually try to play the game, because I find all the different aspects so enjoyable. What I don't like is the progress crippling spare time killing memory crashes on saves.

    For one reason or another the /3gb switch isn't an option and imho should not be touted as a fix!
    I've tried multiple different configurations, I have a boot list containing 5 different switch configurations currently, all produce the same result, a wonderful 4bit XP experience.

    I am running the latest version of my bios I can find. I've tried different bios options to extend my memory, I've added physically more memory... all result in either an unstable boot or the 4bit xp stated before.

    Can anyone honestly tell me why I should have to go to such a length to run a game sold as min spec 512mg rec spec 1gb ram ? I get it, there are bugs, but how about fixing the one a number of people have which cripples their respective experiences rather than making sure a guard gets a bandage on time.

    If anyone has any ideas why I get the 4bit windows version I would appreciate hearing, have included callstack logs from two out of the many crashes and a dxdiag report.

    Thanks in advance, sorry for the whinge, love the game, just wish I could play it...:wink2:

    On a side note, I found I can get the game to last longer by reducing some of the textures to a uniform size.. its not much but I've managed to get to patrician and 15 or so businesses...

    1gb graphics card can't be mapped into the system with a /3gb boot switch, hence windows drops back to framebuffer mode.


    Hero, I doubt your using onboard graphics (screen res implys a desktop machine not a laptop) but if you were, changing its ram allocation in the bios to 512mb would solve your problem. Instead the only fix I have for you is upgrading from XP SP3 to Win 7 X64.

    from my boot ini, the lastest set is
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB Enabled" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /3GB /USERVA=2500
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB Enabled no userva" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /3GB

    note have tried 2800, 2990

    Tony ty, pretty much as i thought, can't remap my 1gb video card.. which is what the switch was trying to do.... even after adding 1gb ram onto for a total of 3gb...

    win 7 64, is my new machine basic starting point, when I have the capital which leads me back to

    "tell me why I should have to go to such a length to run a game sold as min spec 512mg rec spec 1gb ram ?"

    Please try also a lower value for USERVA like 2400 or 2500, it may help.
    The problem is simple: 32bit operating systems reserve 2GB for every user process. The Guild 2 hits this limit with Renaissance (also with PotES, but you have to play a lot more to consume that amount of memory) and therefore we activated the Large Address Awareness-Flag for the executable which enables the program to use more than 2GB of memory, up to 4GB. To also enable Windows to provide more than 2GB of memory you have to add the /3GB thing to the boot.ini.


    You can also enable this flag with only 512MB of RAM, because RAM is physical memory. The virtual memory is physical memory and page file combined. We didn't print the recommended specs on the package, but if we did we'd have written about 1.5GB of RAM minimum and >2GB recommended.

    Zitat von hero001

    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB Enabled" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /3GB /USERVA=2500

    note have *also* tried 2800, 2990



    4bit is the result from this switch version...

    haven't tried 2400, but I believe it would result in the same.. can't map it because of the 1gb gfx card..

    Zitat von hero001


    haven't tried 2400, but I believe it would result in the same.. can't map it because of the 1gb gfx card..


    I've also a 32bit system, a 1GB graphics card and I can activate the switch with USERVA=2990 without the 4bit colors problem. So I don't believe that the gfx card really has an influence on this.

    Zitat von nirvana

    I don't understand this part, sorry :/



    Yes, that entry exists in my boot.ini.




    PAE

    Physical Address Extension... which apparently is enabled by default when you have noexecute=optin, which in turn automatically enables Data Execution Prevention...
    But more than that does not alot save slow you down from what I've read...

    Ah, now I understood your sentence, sorry, I completely misread it.
    I don't think that's somehow related to the problem. I read a lot about this issue before writing the FAQ and I didn't find anything about problems with PEA.