Alternative for the 3gb switch?

  • Would the example in the 'Technical Fax" section of the forum apply to
    32-bit users that use the XP Home Edition.


    I ask because I noticed that the example posted stated Proffesional Edition. Was wondering if there would be a difference. I can't remember exactly but I think Proffesional Edition does in fact use the entire 4gigs of RAM while Home Edition only uses around 3.5.
    (I myself have the Home Edition version)


    I myself tried out the 3gb switch in an attempt to stop game crashes when saving/loading games and found that after a while when eyeing the task manager performance tab while playing (Dual monitors yay ^.^)That once PF usage reached 999mb my computer would just freeze and I would have to hard restart.


    SO my conclusion so far is that the 3gb switch wasn't designated for XP Home Edition users. Though I've also read in other posts and forums that maybe adjusting the userva =xxxx that a good balance could be found. Though I just wanted to know if something else could be done instead or would that be just a waste of time XD


    SO what would be an alternative to the 3gb switch? Other than just upgrading to Windows Vista or 7 :P

  • Try /USERVA=2700, maybe that's a better value for you.
    In fact also WinXP 32 Professional can't address the whole 4GB, it's only about 3.3GB.
    So there's no difference between Home and Professional in this case.

  • Yah tried that out and tried stress testing.
    After panning around, there was many graphical glitches that I could see
    very clearly. Like reallly really bad ones lol. (This HAS been reported in another thread I read earlier today, with the same problems lol)
    Then after going at it a bit more, the game screen froze up yet I could still
    hear the game progressing as I could not do a thing. Not just sounds but things like me getting paid and events going on etc..


    Ended up having to hard restart my computer.
    I guess I will just revert back to default in boot.ini
    Considering there hasn't been one solution or even suggestion other than tweaking with USERVA=XXXX :(


    Btw if anyone does ask. Yes I have my drivers updated, did it the other day in fact.


    Specs: Windows XP 32-bit Home Edition
    CPU - AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core 3.1GHz
    4 gigs of ram but XP reads only 3.5
    Two Nvidia 9800gt SLI


    I guess I will eventually have to just use Windows Vista or 7 sooner or later.
    *Starts browsing

  • Don't bother messing with these kernel/user memory distribution settings, it's a waste of time. I've supported XP workstations and Windows NT/2000/2003 servers for 20 years, and not once did it do any good, quite the opposite really.

    32-bit Windows systems will handle 4Gb, but about ½-1Gb is often blocked from use by device drivers resources. You can sometimes reclaim a tiny bit by disabling unused devices in BIOS, but again the payback is minimal and not really worth the time. You want full support for 4Gb and up, go with Win7 64-bit.

  • Don't bother messing with these kernel/user memory distribution settings, it's a waste of time. I've supported XP workstations and Windows NT/2000/2003 servers for 20 years, and not once did it do any good, quite the opposite really.

    32-bit Windows systems will handle 4Gb, but about ½-1Gb is often blocked from use by device drivers resources. You can sometimes reclaim a tiny bit by disabling unused devices in BIOS, but again the payback is minimal and not really worth the time. You want full support for 4Gb and up, go with Win7 64-bit.


    It's the video memory that steals that much system memory :/
    So the /3GB switch will definitely work if the system leaves enough memory for drivers (especially display drivers).
    All he can do is trying a lower USERVA-value, like 2400 or 2500.

  • It's the video memory that steals that much system memory :/

    It's not just video memory, other device reservations block access too.

    Zitat

    So the /3GB switch will definitely work if the system leaves enough memory for drivers (especially display drivers)

    The switch will increase memory for applications but decrease memory for the OS. While this might work in theory, the systems on which I've tried this simply became slightly unstable and the gains were immeasurable.

  • It's not just video memory, other device reservations block access too.


    32bit Windows XP can handle about 3,25GB of memory. This memory includes all kinds of memory, which means page file, RAM and RAM of the graphics card. A 1GB graphics card will most likely collide with this /3GB-switch which leads to the problem that there's not enough kernel space for system drivers like graphics driver. That's why on many systems the OS can only start in 16 colors mode after the switch is applied.
    The influence of other devices on memory is nearly neglectible.



    The switch will increase memory for applications but decrease memory for the OS. While this might work in theory, the systems on which I've tried this simply became slightly unstable and the gains were immeasurable.


    There's only one gain: The application gets more than 2GB of memory. On 32bit systems this gain is viable for The Guild 2 - Renaissance to run at all :/

  • Well after having tweaked with the switch a bit. A stable solution is still not found. I do NOT believe that the 3gb switch could OR more importantly should honestly be an end all solution for a game that has had 4 different releases.


    Though it's to be expected from a smaller company with fewer resources staff wise, which is why we work as a community after all to help the product :P


    After testing it out etc.. Once CPU usage reaches over 40% steadily
    and PF Usage is over 2gbs, WITH the 3gb switch at USERVA=2400, 2500, 2600; the game does not crash when saving but loading the saves that were saved with the memory usage at that point will crash the application.


    However when using USERVA=2700 and 2800 settings, the game not only crashes while saving but I receive graphical glitches and PC freezes at which I need to hard restart the PC along with not being able to load the saves.


    Though my last say on it is this. Telling the customers and members of the game's community that use Win XP 32-bit OS's that they should rely on something as temperamental as editing boot.ini to supposedly increase the stability/reallocate memory to fix problems/etc.. of their game should honestly be something the devs should think about when releasing the next official patch.


    Btw Not trying to diss RuneForge or any affiliates. The game is great and addicting. I just think a better solution should at least try to be found/introduced into the game itself through means of a patch.


    As for me personally, upgrading to Win 7 64-bit in two weeks when I get paid XD


    Though Thanks Nirvana and Innocence for the help! It is greatly appreciated.


  • Btw Not trying to diss RuneForge or any affiliates. The game is great and addicting. I just think a better solution should at least try to be found/introduced into the game itself through means of a patch.


    I tried to decrease memory consumption for over 2 months before release - with no luck :/ All of my attempts ended in a very unstable build. Unfortunately the game caches everything like indoors, building models, textures. Bigger indoor scenes can use up to 30MB of memory while a bigger building model can also use about 10 or 20MB. We optimized the new models but unfortunately we realized that problem exists far too late. There were 2 alternatives: Setting the LAA-flag (large address awareness) which solves the problem on 64bit systems and 32bit systems with the /3GB-switch (successfully) enabled or remove the new assets. The last option was not a real option since the addon is based on new assets :(


    The last thing you can do to play the game without crashes is avoiding indoors and restarting the game every 5 or 10 rounds if necessary. As soon as the game reaches about 1.8GB of memory it will crash and since the saving progress needs about 20MB of extra memory it will most likely crash during saving the game.