BUG: /unloadgfx does NOTHING!
By
Arbiter Kim,
Posted on: 2009-10-16 22:15 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
We've seen many people report crashing once we get over the 1.6 GB mark. I've even run into it myself. The memory issue should definitely be addressed before more issues go live and start driving the memory usage up even more!
Besides the market and other things you mentioned, the Chat is another thing that seems to drive the memory up. I've found that using /clearchat after several hours of play does free up a little bit of memory as well, especially because of all the busy global channels I belong to. Some people also report increased performance when Chat Logging is disabled.
On a side note, I was using THREE instances in Pocket D the other day, and each client was only using around 500k. I know that zone is very small.. but still.. that's a HUGE difference between the ~1GB upon logging into RWZ. lol
I've run in to similar issues over the past few weeks. I'll usually stash or sell excess salvage/recipes at WWs before a TF, and this has caused some issues with DCing a number of times.
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Can you guys please give me a specific instance of the memory leak issue? I've followed this for awhile, but I just can't seem to get it to occur. Certain zone? Were there a bunch of events going on in the zone? Nemesis plot?
Thanks again guys! 
-AK
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I don't know about anyone else, but all I have to do to get the memory usage to go up to crash level (generally about 70-75% of total memory) is run missions. This was true on the laptop I recently had melt down; with 2 gigs of RAM, it would slowly ramp up how much memory CoH used until it got to 1.4 gb. I saw performance degradation that could eventually lead to a crash, though crashes on that system were relatively rare. I'm now running on systems with 1gb of RAM, so the break-point tends to be around 700mb, and if I try to open the market interface with that much memory already in-use I will crash in a fairly predictable fashion. |
Originally Posted by Arbiter Kim
Can you guys please give me a specific instance of the memory leak issue? I've followed this for awhile, but I just can't seem to get it to occur.
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I get to that level of memory usage more quickly if I'm doing something graphic-intensive, like a hami raid, but it doesn't have to take any more than running missions, solo, on the lowest graphic settings, with close FX turned off. If I want to go to the market toward the end of a session, I /unloadgfx, /reloadgfx, and say a little prayer before I try to open the window.
This is on two different 1gb RAM systems. I don't have anything better until I buy the replacement for the one Best Buy just lemoned for me, but like I said, the flash-point seems to be in the 70-75% usage range (where Zombie was seeing it) and that was something I saw on my other system as well.
If you think a hijackthis log or anything else might help, I'd be happy to provide it. Unlike Zombie, I've still gotten some use out of /unloadgfx, but that's just a temporary fix for the symptoms of the memory leak, and I'd love to see the underlying leak go away.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
The good news is that zoning has the effect that /unloadgfx used to have in that it does wipe out large chunks of memory and then loads the new zone. But it doesn't clear all the memory... this is the classic 'memory leak.'
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I've noticed this behavior as well, in a different game area. Using the Architect
creator interface, every now and then viewing an animated NPC preview will MIRE
me in GFX lag. /unloadgfx will not fix it, but zoning or restarting the client will.
As far as general usage goes, as Master-Blade said, chat tabs also seem to handling
things rather poorly. This has been a problem since changes came in to allow stuff
like clicking on names and power data.
I actually have this issue too.
During the first 45-60 minutes of play I can do anything I want. After that, hitting the trainer is a 50/50 chance of crash, and WW/BM is 100%. I can also crash opening the SG window. I will also crash if I play for about 2 hours, at a random time, during missions. Relogging to change characters more than once or twice will also do it. The memory usage gets very high until the game just crashes.
It's so consistent and reliable that I've gotten to the point where I just restart the program before doing most of these activities. Doing this will always prevent a crash, since the game will run fine for that first 45-60 minutes.
I've yet to find a remedy outside of just closing and reopening the program. I tried updating drivers, getting a cooling pad, and quite a few other things suggested by friends and forumites. I now just bite the bullet and restart every hour or so.
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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I mentioned in the OP how doing the Sister Psyche TF added .3 GB to memory usage and neither zoning, relogging, nor /unloadgfx could recover that memory. I mentioned in the OP that just zipping about the zones would do it. When you encounter objects and toons, you load the texture of those sprites into RAM. When you zone, all those textures should come out of memory, but not all of it does. It happens everywhere.|
Originally Posted by Arbiter Kim
Can you guys please give me a specific instance of the memory leak issue? I've followed this for awhile, but I just can't seem to get it to occur. Certain zone? Were there a bunch of events going on in the zone? Nemesis plot?
Thanks again guys! -AK |
The problem is twofold:
1. A longstanding memory leak that's either minor or major at times. Always has been a memory leak, it's just a question of how much; and,
2. /unloadgfx is not doing what it used to do; which is what a lot of us would rely on so as to avoid (or put off) memory leak crashes.
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I always /reloadgfx <--This dumps the CoH gfx card mem but not the physical mem
or reload CoH in general
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/reloadgfx and /unloadgfx are the same command. It's supposed to dump the textures, and because the game is not stopping, it will automatically reload only the ones you immediately need. This is supposed to free up some memory, but it seems to have a minimal effect now. |
Originally Posted by Wuigly Squigly
I always /reloadgfx <--This dumps the CoH gfx card mem but not the physical mem
or reload CoH in general |
Also, I think what Zombie is asking is if we could have a command that clears more than just the textures, because it's clear that there are several other things saved in memory while we are using the game. The only other one I know of is the /clearchat to dump the chat buffer as well.
We still have Character info from people we meet up with in game. That stuff seems to last forever. You know when you join a team and people are in different zones, you don't even know what AT they are? But once you are finally in the same zone, you'll see the AT symbol even if you move to different zones again? Well let's say for example you run on a team with somebody and then you drop from the team and do something else for a couple hours and meet up with them again later. That information is usually still in memory, and you'll see the AT symbol when joining the team, instead of the usual "mystery". I'm not sure how much memory it takes to keep this information, but it's probably not something we really need to keep for hours and hours.
That's only one of the really obvious things. I'm fairly certain the market information is also saved for hours, even after relogging, because sometimes when you switch to another character, you'll see that character's items in the window for a moment before the new character's loads. Also, your previous search from the last character is still active in the window.
Your contact list takes a moment to load the first time, but any time you click on the tab after that, it pops right up. There could be any other number of things that also save in memory, but it's seriously adding up.
I believe the command also flushes any textures that are cached in main memory as well. Similar to what happens if you change the texture quality settings.
It's possible that unlike in the past the memory pools are fragmented enough that wholesale compaction of freespace and release back to the OS is no longer possible. It's a SWAG but I've seen fragmentation of memory pools cause havoc on systems I've worked on.
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Now about the market, if it unloaded the memory for accessing the market. I assume that I will have my game locking up for the minute+ it takes to re-load all of that info every time I access the market, 95% of which I don't need.
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I'm not suggesting that the market be removed from memory the moment the window is closed, but maybe after some period of time of not accessing it, or if it's not provided automatically in some way, give us a way to clear our memory other than actually closing the client and reloading the whole thing.
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Originally Posted by Red Valkyrja
Now about the market, if it unloaded the memory for accessing the market. I assume that I will have my game locking up for the minute+ it takes to re-load all of that info, 95% of which I don't need.
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Just chiming in to report my experiences since Issue 16 hit Live.
Log in, do two Hamidon raids in a row (usually 2 or so hours of gameplay). Go to WW after they're over.
When I click the WW representative, my game freezes up for about two whole minutes. Before Issue 16, it didn't happen.
It doesn't crash my game most of the time, probably because of my computer specs, but I've seen it crash under the same circumstances or after I played for longer times.
As for the market, I'm guessing the problem has more to do with filtering and then sorting all the items and the shear number of items is causing the initial sort to go to disk. The sort isn't allowing the main event loop to run so the client stops talking to the server and eventially the server interprets the lack of communications as a disconnect.
Again a SWAG. However I do see a drop to zero of client to server traffic during these long delays in accessing the market as well as an increase in disk access (which could simply be loading all the item data from pigg files).
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Originally Posted by Arbiter Kim
Can you guys please give me a specific instance of the memory leak issue? I've followed this for awhile, but I just can't seem to get it to occur. Certain zone? Were there a bunch of events going on in the zone? Nemesis plot?
Thanks again guys! -AK |
For me it's happened several times, both on heroes and villains. I'll normally dump stuff at WW's before doing a TF or joining a team for some missions, so that may well be adding to it. I've DCed both while in a tf and while in a mission, in different zones. Some times when things are going full tilt combat in a mission, and a few times not - once while clicking a contact, once while just flying.
I haven't found a common link, other than the fact that I usually hit WW's and stores frequently to sell/stash stuff.
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Pull up the Task Manager and see if /reloadgfx is actually doing anything (significantly) for you anymore. I tried /reloadgfx and it's *no longer* reclaiming memory for me, just like /unloadgfx.
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Originally Posted by Wuigly Squigly
I always /reloadgfx <--This dumps the CoH gfx card mem but not the physical mem
or reload CoH in general |
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I'd also like to chime in here with the same results.
I can play for a decent amount of time (Usually anywhere from 1-3 hours) and can almost predict each crash simply by looking at the insane amounts of memory being eaten and not released. I also used /unloadgfx to free up memory before i16 and have found that it's useless since i16 hit live. I also creep up to 1.5gigs of memory usage and crash almost immediately when going to either train or use the market.
I can switch characters after playing one for a period of time only to log onto another character and immediately crash simply because of the memory usage.
This memory "leak" seems to appear with every issue, only to get worse with each passing one. After a few patches/fixes we usually see it calm down quite a bit, but this time it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
We'll see....
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I have a very reliable computer designed for gaming and have not had any problem playing CoX with it over the last 9 months. Only recently has there seemed to be some 'hiccups' (system freeze ups, not lag) now and then during play. I opened up the Reliability and Performance Monitor for Windows Vista to track memory (and CPU/disk/network) usage.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Pull up the Task Manager and see if /reloadgfx is actually doing anything (significantly) for you anymore. I tried /reloadgfx and it's *no longer* reclaiming memory for me, just like /unloadgfx.
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Upon loading CoX and bringing one character into Talos, the memory usage was almost at exactly 1.00Gb. I then did some market searches, and it rose slightly. Then I went to Atlas, the RWZ (and picked up an exploration badge I'd been meaning to get) and then back to Talos via Ouro. During this time, memory use had crept up to 1.33Gb.
Upon returning to Talos through the Ouro portal, the system went wonky as I froze up for a bit on the Talos hilltop. The toggles froze up off and on intermittently several times and then after about 10 seconds, the system settled down and I was able to move. Checking the diagnostics, the memory use had not increased, but there was a memory fault spike right when that had happened.
Trying /unloadgfx (and /reloadgfx) didn't do much, if anything. It dropped from 1.33Gb to 1.32Gb, too small a change to determine if it had any affect, a change which could also be the result of typical system fluctuation.
Then I quit to login (leaving CoX up) and the memory dropped slightly to 1.31Gb. I logged in a different character in a different zone and the memory use went up to and remained at 1.33Gb, even after zoning to Atlas, Ouro and back to Talos. This time there was no hiccup upon the Talos hilltop coming from Ouro. Again, as before, /unloadgfx and /reloadgfx had little or no effect.
I'll run this diagnostics test again later tomorrow and turn the report option on. Perhaps that might be of use to determine what the memory problem might be.
/reloadgfx and /unloadgfx purge textures from dedicated video RAM, or shared memory if your video card uses it. It doesn't affect system RAM unless your video card uses shared memory.
It affects system performance by reloading the textures into video RAM *and* the system swap file, only with less fragmentation than the textures that were there before, making for "cleaner" system memory allocations than before.
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All Arachnos Maps are laggy as heck.
The Stop Sirrocco Ritual map is laggy as heck, Anything with TONS of Mu in it is laggy as heck, Grandville is Laggy as heck.
All these have caused memory leaks for me or friends & recently the i16 Patch seems to be causing it as well.
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I have noticed this and Crashed from a memory leak in the last mish of the Sister Psyche just the other week, the memory hit 1.6 and the client went boom.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
I mentioned in the OP how doing the Sister Psyche TF added .3 GB to memory usage and neither zoning, relogging, nor /unloadgfx could recover that memory. I mentioned in the OP that just zipping about the zones would do it. When you encounter objects and toons, you load the texture of those sprites into RAM. When you zone, all those textures should come out of memory, but not all of it does. It happens everywhere.
The problem is twofold: 1. A longstanding memory leak that's either minor or major at times. Always has been a memory leak, it's just a question of how much; and, 2. /unloadgfx is not doing what it used to do; which is what a lot of us would rely on so as to avoid (or put off) memory leak crashes. |
Well, I don't lag in Grandville or Arachnos or Mu maps. However, I do crash on occasion when accessing the Black Market or Wentworth's. My CoX usage is over 1.7gb when this happens and it's the attempts to sort all the data when the market opens.
This also happens after about an hour of base editing. No matter what, I cannot clear what I have done in the base, even if I exit the editor and the base. I can watch the memory just continue and continue to climb till the game crashes or I restart the client.
/reloadgfx is great for clearing initial zone-in lag if I enter a new zone and find I have a little lag such as Cimerora or something, clears it right up but doesn't free up any actual system RAM.
**My solution to the Market Crash (pun intended) is to have the system not perform any type of search automatically when it opens but wait till the first item in the left column is selected before performing any type of search.
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I totally agree with you there.|
Originally Posted by Master-Blade
I'm not suggesting that the market be removed from memory the moment the window is closed, but maybe after some period of time of not accessing it, or if it's not provided automatically in some way, give us a way to clear our memory other than actually closing the client and reloading the whole thing.
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I really wish they wouldn't load every ******* item in the market. Is there any reason why the cannot have a narrowed search parameter already set, upon accessing the market?
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Originally Posted by Arbiter Kim
Can you guys please give me a specific instance of the memory leak issue? I've followed this for awhile, but I just can't seem to get it to occur. Certain zone? Were there a bunch of events going on in the zone? Nemesis plot?
Thanks again guys! -AK |
Just did some brief testing on a character in PI. Entered a mission, and checked usage, did a /reloadgfx and re-checked. Not much change. After the mission, exited and did the same check/reloadgfx. What had increased from the mission had gone back down to a more normal usage. Entered the base and checked usage - up a bit - then ported to Talos. Usage back down after entering the new zone. Flew towards WW's and checked when you get the sudden lag zone near WW's = up a bit, /reloadgfx had no change. Entered WW's and clicked to open the interface window. Usage went up around 0.2 Gb or so. Closed window, checked and no change, and /reload had little if any effect. Zoned into base, usage went up about another 0.1 Gb, exited, and /reloadgfx had no effect. The increase usage from WWs and the other base load after that had not gone back down. Back to Talos, and the zone reset had no effect - usage still up.
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As I monitor the amount of memory being used while running CoH, it starts off just shy of 1 GB of RAM (this is on a Windows XP machine, with almost nothing else running, and settings on medium-high-ish).
Over the course of several hours, I would see the memory usage creep up to 1.3 GB. From that time on, the possibility of the client crashing would start rising. And once I hit 1.5 GB, I'm practically assured of a crash.
It used to be that executing /unloadgfx (or /reloadgfx) could push that 1.3 GB RAM usage back down to 1 GB. No more. It does *nothing*. Sure, it appears that the textures are reloading, and they probably are, but it is no longer reclaiming any significant memory (it may return maybe 40k).
It was scary to see 1.3 GB being used and then /unloadgfx having no affect on it.
The good news is that zoning has the effect that /unloadgfx used to have in that it does wipe out large chunks of memory and then loads the new zone. But it doesn't clear all the memory... this is the classic 'memory leak.' First time I zone, I get back to under 1 GB. Next time, I'm at 1.05 GB. Next time 1.1 GB and so on. I was at 1.2 GB of usage and then did a Sister Psyche TF and wound up at 1.5 GB. And neither zoning nor /unloadgfx would budge that down any.
Some other info:
The chunk of memory that is used by accessing the Market database is never reclaimed. Neither zoning or using /unloadgfx clears the memory used by the Market.
Exiting to the log-in screen does *not* clear the memory. I relogged and was still at 1.5 GB when I logged back in.
Restarting the client *does* clear the memory and I went back to just under 1 GB of usage.
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