Increase BC RAM support

[cnotsch]

Since I started modding, BC keeps crashing from time to time.
If there are errors, fine i can fix them most of the time.
But what I hate most is when BC crashes because it seems to run out of memory. When som high quality ships (somewhere around 20 depending on the ships) or many low Q ships (somewhere around 100-200) BC crashes as soon as it reaches about 2 gigs of RAM. Is there any possibility to increase the maximum allowed memory.

My SYS:
Q6600 @ 3 - 3,5 GHZ
6Gig DDR3 RAM @ 1800 MHZ
nvidia 790i Ultra Sli chipset
GTX280 SC
Monitor in BC @ 1600x1200

[MLeo]

BC is locked into 32bits memory address space (meaning a max of 4GB). And windows never allocates more than 2GB (might also be 1.5GB) unless you really start changing core settings (boot settings). I'm afraid I don't know the settings, except that they exist, last time I heard of them was in combination with solving an out of memory issue with VRay (something from 3DS Max), so searching on Google in that direction might yield some more information.


Also, 220 ships is a _lot_.

[JimmyB76]

or many low Q ships (somewhere around 100-200)

:shock: goodness!  my computer would explode if i tried that lol

[cnotsch]

or many low Q ships (somewhere around 100-200)

:shock: goodness!  my computer would explode if i tried that lol

I've payed enough to have that kind of power XD

BC is locked into 32bits memory address space (meaning a max of 4GB). And windows never allocates more than 2GB (might also be 1.5GB) unless you really start changing core settings (boot settings). I'm afraid I don't know the settings, except that they exist, last time I heard of them was in combination with solving an out of memory issue with VRay (something from 3DS Max), so searching on Google in that direction might yield some more information.


Also, 220 ships is a _lot_.

Other games/programs use more than 4GB ram without problems...
And 200 ships are not nearly as many as there were in ds9, but it's quite a fight...

[MLeo]

BC is 7 years old. Yeah, Homeworld routinely had 700 ships on screen, but the models were 10 times smaller. If a model had more than 200 polygons, it would be considered much, in BC, a model of a 1000 polygons would be considerd small.

Based on the limitations of 32bit memory address space, BC is physically unable to address more than 4GB. Assuming Windows even allows it.
Normally, Windows only allows up to 1.5GB of space to be used by a single program.

[cnotsch]

OK, would have been nice to fix, but seems impossible 
Thanks anyway

[ChronowerX_GT]

Based on the limitations of 32bit memory address space, BC is physically unable to address more than 4GB. Assuming Windows even allows it.
Normally, Windows only allows up to 1.5GB of space to be used by a single program.

So is that why a lot of high end gaming rigs only have 2gb ram?

[MLeo]

Based on the limitations of 32bit memory address space, BC is physically unable to address more than 4GB. Assuming Windows even allows it.
Normally, Windows only allows up to 1.5GB of space to be used by a single program.

So is that why a lot of high end gaming rigs only have 2gb ram?

Not sure, if it's a 64bit CPU, with a 64bit OS, then they could address way more, but not a lot of motherboards support more than 8 or 16GB.

But Windows also takes it's memory, of course.

[Aeries]

Based on the limitations of 32bit memory address space, BC is physically unable to address more than 4GB. Assuming Windows even allows it.
Normally, Windows only allows up to 1.5GB of space to be used by a single program.

So is that why a lot of high end gaming rigs only have 2gb ram?

Not sure, if it's a 64bit CPU, with a 64bit OS, then they could address way more, but not a lot of motherboards support more than 8 or 16GB.

But Windows also takes it's memory, of course.

My motherboard is supposedly able to support 4gigs of ram, but for whatever reason it's only recognizing 3.37gb of that... at first i thought it was the video card being a 1gb DDR-2 card, but then i got wondering, why the hell wouldn't the system just read a flat 3gb, then? has me much confuzzled, it does. Looks like i be a needin' another motherboard, aye? [before anyone asks, yes, i'm on a 64-bit OS. XP Pro x64 to be exact... one microsoft has greatly failed to acknowledge. i mean, come on, i have to manually alter code in wlm's installer in order for it to install on this bloody thing. WLM! one of the most common Microsoft products! and they didn't even care enough to make it compatible with XP x64! wtf mate!?] anyways, sorry. rant done.

[ChronowerX_GT]

I just got the Asus p5q pro. Pretty cheap but looks good to me. 16gb ram, Core 2 Quad, 6x Sata, That really quick built in linux that boots up in 5 seconds lol. 2x pci-e (the smaller one, forgot what's called lol), Big PCI-E for GFX and 3 PCI. Seemed decent for ?70.

[Aeries]

I just got the Asus p5q pro. Pretty cheap but looks good to me. 16gb ram, Core 2 Quad, 6x Sata, That really quick built in linux that boots up in 5 seconds lol. 2x pci-e (the smaller one, forgot what's called lol), Big PCI-E for GFX and 3 PCI. Seemed decent for ?70.

GIMME GIMME!
I'm stuck with some Asus P5GC-MX/1333. lowest of the low end, methinks.

i remember vaguely something being mentioned in my system BIOS about the ram... I'll reboot and edit this post with what it was, exactly... i don't remember off the top of my head...

[MLeo]

Sometimes those kind of numbers lie, for example, on a HDD (and memory as well) they say it's 1 TB, but what they mean is 1000000000000 bytes, and not 1024x1024x1024x1024 bytes, 1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes, 1 megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, 1 gigabyte is 1024 megabyte and 1 terabyte is 1024 gigabytes.
Or 1099511627776 bytes.

[ChronowerX_GT]

Sometimes those kind of numbers lie, for example, on a HDD (and memory as well) they say it's 1 TB, but what they mean is 1000000000000 bytes, and not 1024x1024x1024x1024 bytes, 1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes, 1 megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, 1 gigabyte is 1024 megabyte and 1 terabyte is 1024 gigabytes.
Or 1099511627776 bytes.

So you mean that you lose out on 24gb with some 1tb hdd's? Although it's not much in the long run lol.

[MLeo]

It doesn't have to be, but it has happend.

In the worst case, you lose out of 99511627776 bytes, or 92 and then some, gigabyte.

[PJCham]

Probably the easiest way to check if your OS is using all the RAM is by running the default Sound Recorder. Record a sound and then attempt to edit it ... if the program crashes (telling you it's out of memory), you possibly have more RAM than the OS can support.

[Aeries]

Ah, turns out my bios has "appropriated" over 600Mb of my ram... no idea what that means, though. :/ *grumble grumble* This whole issue gives me a headache and somehow, i think it's simply a motherboard issue...

...and the cat just purred at me despite my yelling at it to eff off a moment ago...
o.o; anyways, sorry for the off-topic................ *shuffles slowly away from the feline*