Memory Leaks - I17
By
alienuterus,
Posted on: 2010-04-29 14:52 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Quote:
Can you be somewhat more specific? There are known problems with several voice chat programs that have nothing to do with memory leaks, but with keyboard-trapping programs (ie, the "push to talk" features). |
Originally Posted by venombeyond82
Yesterday, Issue 17 came out, and I was quite happy. While my video card isn't top of the line, I can run Ultramode Low to Medium range, and everything runs smoothly with out any FPS issues. I'm on ATI 10.1 Drivers as a few of my other friends who have ATI are as well. The problem isn't my video, its the memory.
Before Yesterday, and before I17, While playing CoH and talking on Ventrillo, I never experienced any major Memory Leaks. But now it seems to be happening quite a lot. It has caused sound to skip on me, both in game and in Ventrillo talking to my friends. It has caused major lag issues left and right, and none of this happened before yesterday. My roommate who also plays City of Heroes, and who has a PC 98% close to what mines is, is having the exact same problem. I've spoken early to 20-30 people I know on my global friends list, or in Pocket D or in Atlas, and I've had a lot of people telling me they have the same problem, that now, CoH is sucking up far more memory than it ever has, causing horrible memory leaks, and causing these issues. I hope something can be done about this soon, as if it is not fixed in the future, it will keep me from playing properly, and I may have to leave. |
A memory leak implies that the program takes more memory as it is run in an uncontrollable fashion, and does not clean it out. If you suspect this is happening, record the memory usage shortly after logging into a character, and then have them do nothing for a while (stare at a wall someplace to avoid taking up additional space for passing characters, etc.), and record the memory increase with time.
You can see if things go back down after using /unloadgfx, in which case it may be related to graphics driver problems. Make sure you're using the current one for your card, and let us know what it is.
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[QUOTE=Before Yesterday, and before I17, While playing CoH and talking on Ventrillo, I never experienced any major Memory Leaks. [/QUOTE]
As I said, before today, It has never happened, and I've been playing City Of Heroes since launch. It has ONLY Been happening since yesterday. And I've done what you've said last night. It was going up to about a GIG of memory, in any of the major zones. In Missions it would go down to about 800 Megs or so, In Pocket D, it would topple around 950 megs. And still have some issues. However Memory Leaks is a long known issue in City of Heroes, if you've ever looked around at other parts of the forums.
Its just now effect higher end PC's, including mine, my Roommates and several of my friends who have what you might consider Monster PC's. The fact that its having these issues ONLY after I17 was released, and not before, proves it is the Issue, or patch that has begun causing it. If this was an on going issue, it would have happened before now, many times.
Quote:
Using a lot of memory is not a sufficient condition for qualifying as a memory leak. Adding new features can increase memory usage. That's not a memory leak. Sometimes you can see memory usage increase over time *without* there being a memory leak (e.g. caching). It only becomes a memory leak if the program fails to release the memory once it is done using it. This can result in ever growing memory usage when memory keeps being allocated and fails to be deallocated (again, keep in mind that not all increases in memory usage is due to memory leaks).|
Originally Posted by venombeyond82
As I said, before today, It has never happened, and I've been playing City Of Heroes since launch. It has ONLY Been happening since yesterday. And I've done what you've said last night. It was going up to about a GIG of memory, in any of the major zones. In Missions it would go down to about 800 Megs or so, In Pocket D, it would topple around 950 megs. And still have some issues. However Memory Leaks is a long known issue in City of Heroes, if you've ever looked around at other parts of the forums.
Its just now effect higher end PC's, including mine, my Roommates and several of my friends who have what you might consider Monster PC's. The fact that its having these issues ONLY after I17 was released, and not before, proves it is the Issue, or patch that has begun causing it. If this was an on going issue, it would have happened before now, many times. |
Yes, the game has had a history of memory leaks, but even more common are the false claims of memory leaks. People often seem to believe that anything that results in increased memory usage is a memory leak. That is false.
It is very possible that there is a memory leak in play here, but I don't see anything in what you're saying that would show this. In fact, you mention that the memory usage drops when you enter a mission.
You mention that this only started happening with i17, but that too is not necessarily due to memory leaks. You say that you're using some Ultra Mode features, and some of them come with increased memory usage. When using these features, increased memory usage is *expected*.
In addition to that, many Ultra Mode features can have a significant performance impact, and that too seems like a possible explanation for some of the symptoms you describe.
Again, it's very possible that i17 comes with its very own memory leaks, and if it does, they should be found and plugged. However, just saying "It uses more memory - there's a memory leak" doesn't help (more often than not, it's wrong). Now, if you could determine that it actually fails to deallocate memory, and maybe even tell under what circumstances this happens, now *that* would be helpful.
It might also help if you say what CPU/GPU/RAM you have, and what graphics settings you're using.
Have you checked if lowering your graphics settings helps at all?
....Ok... what are you not understanding exactly? I've tested the /unloadgfx... doesn't help. The memory IS going up uncontrollably even standing still, AND THIS, HAS, NEVER HAPPENED, BEFORE ISSUE 17!
I've been using Vent AND City of Heroes for 2 years now ,and Have not EVER had this issue! Everything I have looked up on Tech sites, and my own vast knowledge of computer systems, leads me to believe THIS IS A MEMORY LEAK! It is also effect people who never HAD this issue Prier to Issue 17. THIS MAKES ME BELIEVE, AND MANY OTHERS, THERE IS A MEMORY LEAK ISSUE, IN ISSUE 17!!!!!
It is not my Video Drivers, It is not MY Computer, It is not Ventrillo, is it only happening AFTER Issue 17 went live, and onto the main servers. I am not sure HOW MUCH clearer I can be!
I have tried even turning down my Video settings, turning off ALL Ultra Mode Settings, Heck , even turning it down lower than what I originally had it prier to issue 17. It is STILL happening.
My video Card, is an ATI HD 4870 1 Gig GDDR5 Memory. My Processor is a 3.2 Ghz Athlon. I have 4 Gigs of Memory, and I use 3.25 of it. By the time I am in Atlas park for more than 5 minutes, my memory usage goes up from 504 Megs, to 1.58 Megs. CoH should not be using nearly that much. If you mean to tell me only people with 64 Bit Operating systems, and more than 4 gigs of memory, can ONLY run City of Heroes now? City will lose a lot of people. As I said, I've tried the LOWEST Graphic Settings, and the memory still went haywire.
I have been having similar issues. It's not just when working with other programs; when running City of Heroes the memory it uses continually builds up, even when not doing anything. Going into an indoor mission seems to lessen this, and rezoning helps; for a few seconds. Any time I'm outdoors, even if not much is happening, the memory continues to build up. It's like the software has forgotten how to clear out memory it's not using.
For those of you that are seeing this memory leak, what kind of video card are you running and with what driver version and how fast is the game leaking memory? How many KB or MB per minute?
And also, does turning all of the graphics options down clear up the memory leak? If you are so inclined, is there a specific graphics option or options which, when turned on, the memory leak is evident (or more evident)?
Quote:
As I've said, I've turned the graphics down to near the lowest you possibly can, and its still happening. I'm running a ATI HD 4870 GDDR5 1gig (As said above) and The current KNOWN working drivers 10.1. Its near MB's a minute, not KB's. And turning up or down the graphics, of any option, did not change how much memory was leaking, it just kept going up no matter what.
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Originally Posted by Tex
For those of you that are seeing this memory leak, what kind of video card are you running and with what driver version and how fast is the game leaking memory? How many KB or MB per minute?
And also, does turning all of the graphics options down clear up the memory leak? If you are so inclined, is there a specific graphics option or options which, when turned on, the memory leak is evident (or more evident)? |
Quote:
I have basically the same set-up. Also it's an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ processor, with 4 gigs of ram, on XP service pack 3. The exact rate of increase varies and none of the settings I adjusted seemed to affect it; it honestly seems as if the game is hoarding memory. The rate seems to increase the worst in wide open areas with heavier population of both PC's and NPC's; smaller, indoor areas seem to have less of an effect on it.
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Originally Posted by venombeyond82
As I've said, I've turned the graphics down to near the lowest you possibly can, and its still happening. I'm running a ATI HD 4870 GDDR5 1gig (As said above) and The current KNOWN working drivers 10.1. Its near MB's a minute, not KB's. And turning up or down the graphics, of any option, did not change how much memory was leaking, it just kept going up no matter what.
|
How are you determining the memory leak rate? Are you looking at the task manager "Mem Usage" column? If so, can you go to View->Select Columns and enable "Virtual Memory Size" and see if that also grows?
Also, have you tried the 10.4 drivers?
Several of the Ultra mods seen to turn themselves on by default try first hitting set to defaults. Then Setting graphics quality to minimum. That's the most drastic thing to do. You can re-enable what you want from there.
Though the problem is most likely from something called Ambient Occlusion set it to off.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by venombeyond82
....Ok... what are you not understanding exactly? I've tested the /unloadgfx... doesn't help. The memory IS going up uncontrollably even standing still, AND THIS, HAS, NEVER HAPPENED, BEFORE ISSUE 17!
I've been using Vent AND City of Heroes for 2 years now ,and Have not EVER had this issue! Everything I have looked up on Tech sites, and my own vast knowledge of computer systems, leads me to believe THIS IS A MEMORY LEAK! It is also effect people who never HAD this issue Prier to Issue 17. THIS MAKES ME BELIEVE, AND MANY OTHERS, THERE IS A MEMORY LEAK ISSUE, IN ISSUE 17!!!!! It is not my Video Drivers, It is not MY Computer, It is not Ventrillo, is it only happening AFTER Issue 17 went live, and onto the main servers. I am not sure HOW MUCH clearer I can be! I have tried even turning down my Video settings, turning off ALL Ultra Mode Settings, Heck , even turning it down lower than what I originally had it prier to issue 17. It is STILL happening. My video Card, is an ATI HD 4870 1 Gig GDDR5 Memory. My Processor is a 3.2 Ghz Athlon. I have 4 Gigs of Memory, and I use 3.25 of it. By the time I am in Atlas park for more than 5 minutes, my memory usage goes up from 504 Megs, to 1.58 Megs. CoH should not be using nearly that much. If you mean to tell me only people with 64 Bit Operating systems, and more than 4 gigs of memory, can ONLY run City of Heroes now? City will lose a lot of people. As I said, I've tried the LOWEST Graphic Settings, and the memory still went haywire. |
i17 came with significant changes to the graphics system. Things have changed. Just because the problems started with i17, that doesn't mean that the cause couldn't be the *interaction* of i17 and something else (like drivers, something with your computer, or Ventrillo).
When more memory is available, many programs will end up using more memory (taking advantage of what is there). CoH is one of those programs. Since you have a lot of memory, you can expect a high memory usage. With your memory, a 1.6 gig memory usage doesn't necessarily seem too excessive (hey, I'm getting 600 megs just by going to the login screen). Even if it's using more memory than before, that's not necessarily because of a memory leak, it could just be using more memory (remember, graphics system changes).
At any rate, even if CoH is using 1.6 gigs of memory, you should have plenty of memory left for other programs. Doesn't it seem a tad odd that memory leaks would be causing your Ventrillo issues when by all rights there should still be plenty of memory left for Ventrillo (I haven't used Ventrillo in a while, but I'm sort of assuming that they haven't upped its memory requirements far above 1GB)?
On the other hand, there have been reports that CPU usage has gone up in some cases with i17. There have also been claims that the increased CPU usage is interfering with voice chat programs such as Ventrillo.
Have you tried monitoring your CPU usage while CoH + Ventrillo are running?
3rd party applications have been shown to cause issues with i17. Have you tried turning off all 3rd party applications (including Ventrillo) and check if your CoH issues (lag, sound skipping) persist? Yes, I know that this is not an acceptable long-term solution, but at the moment it is known that some 3rd party programs cause issues, and they are trying to determine which ones (presumably so that they can prevent these issues from happening).
Have you disabled the ATI HotKey Poller?
Is your Vsync on or off? Turning Vsync on can in many cases reduce CPU usage.
Again, it's very possible that i17 introduces a new memory leak, but it seems to me that you're focusing too much on "high memory usage, must be memory leak", and thus potentially overlooking any other possible causes. It definitely couldn't hurt to try to rule any other causes out.
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Given that this is a forum for other players to try and provide assistance, it would be appreciated if you didn't shout at the people who are volunteering their time to try and help you and troubleshoot the game. |
Originally Posted by venombeyond82
It is not my Video Drivers, It is not MY Computer, It is not Ventrillo, is it only happening AFTER Issue 17 went live, and onto the main servers. I am not sure HOW MUCH clearer I can be!
I have tried even turning down my Video settings, turning off ALL Ultra Mode Settings, Heck , even turning it down lower than what I originally had it prier to issue 17. It is STILL happening. My video Card, is an ATI HD 4870 1 Gig GDDR5 Memory. My Processor is a 3.2 Ghz Athlon. I have 4 Gigs of Memory, and I use 3.25 of it. By the time I am in Atlas park for more than 5 minutes, my memory usage goes up from 504 Megs, to 1.58 Megs. CoH should not be using nearly that much. |
You're using old drivers, which may or may not be related. The 10.4 drivers are currently recommended for City of Heroes, and I'm not aware of any reports of problems with them that aren't still problems with older drivers as well.
It's still not clear why you think there's a problem; in a 32-bit OS, it's allowed for a single program to use up to just under 2 GB of memory to improve performance. Using up to a gig wasn't terribly unusual in previous issues, so a gig and a half under I17 doesn't seem particularly problematic. Plenty of programs use more memory than that under routine circumstances. Heck, I play an ASCII game that slams right up against the 2 GB limit (admittedly, Dwarf Fortress is a bit more complex than, say, Nethack
On the system I can check most conveniently, CoH uses about 638 meg real, 743 peak working set just sitting at the login screen, but that seems to be a stable figure. By experimenting with the character select screen, real memory usage goes up by about 3 MB for every character it loads. Letting it sit for tens of minutes (edit: now nearly an hour), it remains stable as long as I don't bring up another new character to render; but it doesn't seem to be dropping back either, as the characters are still cached (clicking on one I've already clicked on is noticeably faster than clicking on one I've not yet clicked on).
This seems to indicate it's not a memory leak in any of the normal senses of the word, but that the program is aggressively caching ultra-mode costumes to improve performance. Even if some of this gets forced out into virtual memory, it may well be faster to pull the costume info out of the virtual store rather than re-assemble it out of the component pieces from the piggs.
The catch here is that this is happening in system memory, not graphics memory, so commands like /unloadgfx don't apply here. It would be handy to have a new command that tells CoH to manually flush the main memory costume cache; but as long as it starts recycling / cycling them out in a sane fashion before it hits the 2 GB limit, there shouldn't be any serious problems.
Testing procedure you can try if you still think your system in particular is having problems (not out of the question, some other program could be interfering with CoH):
* Reboot the system as you would normally
* Start the Task Manager; tab Processes; set Refresh to Low; and make sure at least the following columns are visible: Under XP: Image Name, Mem Usage, Peak Mem Usage, VM Size; Under W7: Image Name, Memory (Private Working Set), Working Set (Memory), Peak Working Set (Memory). (You may need to use View / Select Columns to see some of these.)
* Minimize the Task Manager, and start CoH. Once it's gotten to the login screen, give it a moment to stabilize, ALT-TAB to the Task Manager, and record the above listed columns. Give it about 5 minutes, record again, and another 5 minutes, record again. On a stable system, this should not be increasing any significant amount.
* Log in, and pick a server that has several characters (hopefully at least 5). Give it a moment to finish loading your top / default character, ALT-TAB to the Task Manager, and record the numbers. It's normal for these to be a bit higher now. Give it 5 minutes, record again, and another 5, record again. These numbers shouldn't be increasing significantly.
* Click on another character in the selection screen, let it finish rendering, and record memory. In my case, it looked like the real memory went up by between 2 and 4 MB; this may well vary with character costume complexity. Wait and record to make sure it doesn't continue to increase.
* Repeat the above steps with another character, and yet another. Based on my results, it looks like there will probably be either a flat, or varying around a central value, increase each time you tell it to render a new character on the loading screen; but once you've done so, there are no continuing increases or leaks.
* Go back to one of the earlier characters, and record again; based on my results, it looks like memory should NOT go up again, as it's already loaded and cached it. (It should probably also load faster, although on a fast system it may not be easy to tell.)
* Pick a character that has access to a SG / VG base that is not heavily used (preferably a fairly simple one without thousands of decor objects, etc.) and ideally has at least one costume that doesn't have animated bits, such as a moving tail, cape, aura, etc.; and hopefully at least one more complex costume. Log onto that character, switch to the plain costume if relevant, zoom in close, look down, and get them to a base portal and into the base. Wait for the base to finish loading, and go stand someplace boring staring at a chunk of wall or floor that's not animating, glowing, etc. Give things a moment to stabilize, and record memory. It's likely that it's significantly higher, depending on how much stuff you've encountered on your way here. Do the wait 5, record, wait 5, record again; it shouldn't be increasing.
* Assuming memory is stable above, try some controlled tests with more complex stuff. Switch to a costume with a cape, tail, or aura; and see if there's some sort of problem with that. Stare at the entrance pillar or an animated base object, do the memory check dance. Again, while there may be small increases when you first kick into something different, the memory usage should stabilize and not keep increasing.
* Testing at this point gets a bit less controlled, unless you've got multiple accounts and a second computer to run them, or cooperative friends. Ideally, you'd have someone else zone into your test base, and see how the memory increase compares to what you figured out earlier at the character select screen, and repeat with a few different characters and costumes. Lacking that, you could zone out of the base, record about how many people are in your field of view, and zone back in, and compare then.
* Finally, head out to someplace popular; AFK near Atlas, at the Cap black market, or some such. Every 5 minutes, ALT-TAB and record the memory. My hypothesis based on what I've seen is that as new people come into your view and/or vicinity, memory usage will grow up to some point, at which point the character cache will have filled and CoH will start recycling slots, and memory usage will stabilize. If this isn't the case, you'll have solid documentation of exactly where and how this fails to happen, which should be exactly what they need to find and fix the problem.
Obviously, if you find one of the earlier steps where the memory increases without bound and crashes your system, the problem's been localized at an earlier point. Don't stop the process as long as the memory usage remains under 2 GB, however.
Report the numbers here in detail, along with other info on your system; a CoH Helper report would be particularly useful. If you do have memory growth until crash, a Hijack This log in a following post would be useful (don't worry about it unless you have serious problems).
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Ok, Honestly having this same problem. As well as a friend of mine.
What we have.
Me.
Operating System: XP
User Client: PC
Server: Any
Zone: Mostly while in load screens
Character name: Any
Time: Any
Location: Any
Archetype: Any
Video Driver: Nivida GeForce 8500 GT
Driver Date: 4/3/2010
Driver Version: 6.14.11.9745
RAM: 2G
Processor: AMD Sempron Processor 3200+
CPU with Vent and City running: fluxes between 65% and 100%
PFU: 1.5
Vent PING: Jumps from a normal 62 to 3000 or higher.
Bug Description: High CPU which is intefering with vent, but only when Clicked on game and mostly durning load screens.
StrifeFox
Operating System: ProXP
User Client: PC
Server: Any
Zone: Loading screens mostly, but just about anywhere
Character name: Any
Time: Any
Location: Any
Archetype: Any
Mission: Any
Video Driver: Nivida GeForce 9600 GSO
Driver Date: 4/3/2010
Driver Verison 6.14.11.9745
RAM: 3G
Processor: AMD Sempron Processor 3000+
CPU usage with City and Vent running: 100%
PFU: 1.25
Vent PING: Jumps from a study 47 to a sudden 3000 or HIGHER
Bug Description: High CP usage not allowing Venterillo OR Skype, Which was never a problem before i17
Things we have tried. (none have worked)
Unloading our Antispyware (Avira) We were told it has problems with the game.
Turning off all start up programs and all MS related programs.
Updating ALL drivers. And yes we went to the drivers acctuall sites to do so.
Uninstalled spyware dectors
Updated Windows it's self
Verfied City files
Ran Game Advisor Test
Ran Ping Plotter
Turning OFF Ultra Mode.
Safe Mode. (While it really fixed the Lag problem I was having which I'm very use to by now. it did not fix Vent Problem)
Any other ideas, suggestions? Any more information we can give to be more helpful with this? Honestly we had no promblems before the update. And Vent becomes nessacity when running in big things like Rikti Raids and such.
To Note, like many this problem was not there before i17. Now it is. I'm not blaming the patch, I just want to know what I can do to fix it. Also to save space I'm just updating this post as we try ideas and gather info. Some of this information has been gathered by StrifeFox solely, some by myself, some we've BOTH tried.
Ruthia Dascht >Co-Founder of Garden of Thorns VG on Guardian. Lvl 50 Energy/Cold Corr
Another type of memory bug is memory corruption. A memory leak is memory that was allocated but not freed. Memory corruption is when memory that is being used is unintentionally modified. For example, when I was the training server, on the Burke mission of "Plant Bugs on Flyers", my demon MM showed up in several instances on my map, ie, 5 green arrows of 'me' were displayed, but not moving, and 1 green arrow of me moving. The enemies that I defeated showed up as red arrows, but when I hi-lite the red arrow, the text displays '????'.
To me, this indicates that the data that tracks whether an object is an ally or not was modified because the enemies appeared in my map as if they were a dead teammate.
I thought that this was a training server related thing, so I didn't log the bug, but I will log it now, since I saw it on my lv 40 mission with a demon MM teammate. It seems to be related to having a demon MM on the team, because lots of static green arrows showed up where the demon MM walked to. No green arrows appeared after me, or my brother.
Interestingly enough, my brother who was in the same mission did not see the extra green arrows. His map was clean. He was running in safe mode on his laptop. I was not running in ultra mode, but set my graphics to Quality.
Not that this helps your issue, but I thought I'd mention it. You might try running in safe mode to see if that helps.
Well, I've been doing more testing. I tried a suggestion that someone put up in the forums, about turning Ventrillos Priority to "High" In the task manager. It seemed to work for a bit it, there were no skips, or anything. but my memory usage with City of heroes, Even Virtual memory, went up to near 1.2 Gigs in Atlas Park, the game began to lag, Vent went totally insane, and I disconnected from -both-. Yet my internet connection, the Modem itself, stayed connected, I couldn't even access my e-mail through Outlook Express UNTIL I closed City of Heroes.
It has gone beyond simply Vent, now its draining and working over SO much Memory, its causing my entire system to slow down, and my entire connection to falter. There has to be something wrong with City of Heroes. A lot of people I speak to, are having the SAME issues, some can't run ANYTHING with out CoH now, and some even get lagged out before getting DCed, all of this happening after I17. I've tried all your suggestions, none of them have changed anything, and the memory/Virtual memory is building up so fast, by the Megs.
A Side note, people trying 10.4 drivers have outright told me, they crash every 10-15 seconds, and have had OTHER issues outside CoH. 10.4 drivers are not good. 10.1 are the last known working drivers to keep CoH actually running. but -nothing- points to Driver issues in this case, it wouldn't be causing the types of connective issues that I'm experiencing now. And my internet connect is -perfect- right now. I checked download rate, ping, and even called them to make sure.
You still have not provided us with hard numbers on the leak rate. After 5 minutes of playing, what is the memory/Virtual Memory size. What about after 10 minutes? After 15 minutes? etc.
Also, how much memory is in your system?
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I have told you how much memory i have, in another post, I said how much I had, I'll say it again, my total memory is 4 gigs. 3.25 seen and used by Windows XP SP3. After 5 minutes, Nearly a gig, after 10 minutes, 1.1 Gigs, after 15 minutes nearing 1.5, and that is when it either crashes, shuts my Internet down, or I'm forced to close it.|
Originally Posted by Tex
You still have not provided us with hard numbers on the leak rate. After 5 minutes of playing, what is the memory/Virtual Memory size. What about after 10 minutes? After 15 minutes? etc.
Also, how much memory is in your system? |
I'd like to add, Once more, I've -reset- graphics, and turned them down to the lowest possible, (where as prier to I17, I could pump EVERYTHING up to the highest.) And its still happening..
So, you are still running the 10.1 Catalyst drivers, right? And what video card are you using (apologies if you've posted it and I've missed it)?
EDIT: found your video card info in another message: ATI HD 4870 1 Gig GDDR5
Video drivers can be the cause of memory leaks. We have seen memory leaks with ATI drivers in the past. I understand that you are hesitant to upgrade to the 10.4 drivers, but understand that we can't make the game work around all of the problems in each driver version and mainly try to support the latest drivers. We do occasionally find work arounds for problems in drivers, but not always.
There are only a few issues that I know of with the 10.4 drivers and those issues are also present in the 10.1 drivers. Have the people reporting problems with the 10.4 drivers /bugged them or reported them here in the forums?
Quote:
On the reporting/bugged thing, maybe, I'm not sure. I'm going to install 10.4 later today. I'll try it out, see how it goes, if this still happens... I'll install the Older drivers I had, which had been working -peeerfectly- up until I changed. which was 8.12... A lot of people ran 8.9 or 8.12 because of how solid these were and how WELL they worked with City of Heroes.|
Originally Posted by Tex
So, you are still running the 10.1 Catalyst drivers, right? And what video card are you using (apologies if you've posted it and I've missed it)?
EDIT: found your video card info in another message: ATI HD 4870 1 Gig GDDR5 Video drivers can be the cause of memory leaks. We have seen memory leaks with ATI drivers in the past. I understand that you are hesitant to upgrade to the 10.4 drivers, but understand that we can't make the game work around all of the problems in each driver version and mainly try to support the latest drivers. We do occasionally find work arounds for problems in drivers, but not always. There are only a few issues that I know of with the 10.4 drivers and those issues are also present in the 10.1 drivers. Have the people reporting problems with the 10.4 drivers /bugged them or reported them here in the forums? |
The Latest drivers arent always the best, and ATI has proven this fact, by bringing out later, but horribly faulty drivers in the past. However, Over the weekend, I'll try the 10.4... and then the 8.12 if the 10.4 don't work to well. We'll see how it goes from there.
You may be right on the Driver issue, but we'll have to see what happens.
Quote:
If high CPU usage is the problem, there are some ways you can reduce it.|
Originally Posted by Ruthia
Bug Description: High CPU which is intefering with vent, but only when Clicked on game and mostly durning load screens.
Bug Description: High CP usage not allowing Venterillo OR Skype, Which was never a problem before i17 |
First, make sure that Vsync is on. Simply put, with Vsync off, the game renders things as fast as it can, regardless of if the monitor can keep up or not. With Vsync on, the game waits for the monitor, which leads to tiny pauses, effectively reducing CPU (and GPU) usage. You could also try to enable Triple Buffering in your graphics drivers (this often helps when Vsync is on). It might be a good idea to try with it both on and off though.
You can artificially limit the frame rate even further to reduce CPU usage even more. By typing "/maxfps <number>", the game will not render more than <number> frames per second. A lower value should result in lower CPU usage, which *might* help (if nothing else, it might help rule out CPU usage as being the issue).
("/maxfps 0" will remove the limit on maximum fps)
You could also try increasing Ventrillo's priority (locate it in Task Manager, right-click, select priority), and see if this helps. Note that some programs can become greedy when their priority increases, which might render other programs unresponsive.
edit: Apparently there's an option for "Process priority class" in Ventrillo under Options/Misc
Note also that it is possible that there are issues with the interaction of CoH and Ventrillo (similar to the reported issue with the ATI HotKey Poller), and that it might not be this easy to work around it.
Have you checked if disabling push-to-talk in Ventrillo makes any difference (that would also require keyboard polling)?
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Again, 1.2 GB memory usage doesn't seem excessive on a system with 3+ GB RAM (frankly, I'd be more concerned if it never grew beyond 1GB). Also, with 3+GB of RAM, you'd have plenty of memory left even with a program using 1.2GB. So, while maybe there could be a common root cause for the instability and "high" memory usage (and again, I'm not convinced that 1.2GB is excessive), it doesn't seem likely that high memory usage alone is causing your performance issues.|
Originally Posted by venombeyond82
Well, I've been doing more testing. I tried a suggestion that someone put up in the forums, about turning Ventrillos Priority to "High" In the task manager. It seemed to work for a bit it, there were no skips, or anything. but my memory usage with City of heroes, Even Virtual memory, went up to near 1.2 Gigs in Atlas Park, the game began to lag, Vent went totally insane, and I disconnected from -both-. Yet my internet connection, the Modem itself, stayed connected, I couldn't even access my e-mail through Outlook Express UNTIL I closed City of Heroes.
It has gone beyond simply Vent, now its draining and working over SO much Memory, its causing my entire system to slow down, and my entire connection to falter. There has to be something wrong with City of Heroes. A lot of people I speak to, are having the SAME issues, some can't run ANYTHING with out CoH now, and some even get lagged out before getting DCed, all of this happening after I17. I've tried all your suggestions, none of them have changed anything, and the memory/Virtual memory is building up so fast, by the Megs. |
Did you check your CPU usage with CoH + Ventrillo running?
Have you tried shutting down other 3rd party programs/services (most notably the ATI HotKey Poller)?
Do the CoH lag issues persist when you have NO other programs (including Ventrillo) running?
Does Ventrillo continue to exhibit sound skipping if you set CoH's processor affinity so that it only uses one of your processor cores?
Have you tried limiting your FPS?
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1.2 GB of ram? In later posts I stated, both Physical and Virtual ram shot up past 1.6 on its own with in 15 minutes only, not counting all other programs I was running, and according to a tech i called today at NC, CoH shouldn't be using, at any given time, more than 1, at all. Odd that you are saying you are saying otherwise.|
Originally Posted by Stargazer
Again, 1.2 GB memory usage doesn't seem excessive on a system with 3+ GB RAM (frankly, I'd be more concerned if it never grew beyond 1GB). Also, with 3+GB of RAM, you'd have plenty of memory left even with a program using 1.2GB. So, while maybe there could be a common root cause for the instability and "high" memory usage (and again, I'm not convinced that 1.2GB is excessive), it doesn't seem likely that high memory usage alone is causing your performance issues.
Did you check your CPU usage with CoH + Ventrillo running? Have you tried shutting down other 3rd party programs/services (most notably the ATI HotKey Poller)? Do the CoH lag issues persist when you have NO other programs (including Ventrillo) running? Does Ventrillo continue to exhibit sound skipping if you set CoH's processor affinity so that it only uses one of your processor cores? Have you tried limiting your FPS? |
It is not the CPU... I am extremely experienced with computers. Its not, the CPU, if the CPU was having issues, there would be corruption all over the place, not just the game, not just vent. Obviously you didn't read what I said I did WITH vent, you just skimmed it, or you would have read, that I've gotten vent TO work, but there are now BIGGER issues, like my entire connection dieing out, due to the slow down of my entire system.
The CPU usage for Vent and CoH is as its always been, no more. That part did not change from Issue 16 to Issue 17. As stated earlier, tomorrow when I have more time I will try other drivers as Tex suggested. First the 10.4 drivers (which I am unsure will work, other people with them are having constant crash problems) and then my older 8.12 drivers, which up until I17 and my switch to 10.1, worked, just fine. If I try the other drivers, and it continues its not my system, sorry to say.
By the by? I have a 3.2 Ghz Dual core Processor. Its a monster processor that has had MANY other games, programs and what have you running, with zero problem. I HIGHLY, doubt, it could POSSIBLY be my monster-processor.
I've also talked to a few of my professional tech friends? They also agree, it is not the processor. As its using the same amount it had been Prier to I17.
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CoH has not been shy about using more than 1GB of RAM in the past, even on systems with less memory than yours. I mentioned 1.2GB because that was the number you mentioned in the post I replied to. If you had not only been skimming my posts, you might have noticed that I have previously mentioned that other memory usage numbers you have quoted are not necessarily excessive either.|
Originally Posted by venombeyond82
1.2 GB of ram? In later posts I stated, both Physical and Virtual ram shot up past 1.6 on its own with in 15 minutes only, not counting all other programs I was running, and according to a tech i called today at NC, CoH shouldn't be using, at any given time, more than 1, at all. Odd that you are saying you are saying otherwise.
It is not the CPU... I am extremely experienced with computers. Its not, the CPU, if the CPU was having issues, there would be corruption all over the place, not just the game, not just vent. Obviously you didn't read what I said I did WITH vent, you just skimmed it, or you would have read, that I've gotten vent TO work, but there are now BIGGER issues, like my entire connection dieing out, due to the slow down of my entire system. The CPU usage for Vent and CoH is as its always been, no more. That part did not change from Issue 16 to Issue 17. As stated earlier, tomorrow when I have more time I will try other drivers as Tex suggested. First the 10.4 drivers (which I am unsure will work, other people with them are having constant crash problems) and then my older 8.12 drivers, which up until I17 and my switch to 10.1, worked, just fine. If I try the other drivers, and it continues its not my system, sorry to say. By the by? I have a 3.2 Ghz Dual core Processor. Its a monster processor that has had MANY other games, programs and what have you running, with zero problem. I HIGHLY, doubt, it could POSSIBLY be my monster-processor. I've also talked to a few of my professional tech friends? They also agree, it is not the processor. As its using the same amount it had been Prier to I17. |
If high CPU usage was the issue, you would not necessarily get "corruption all over the place", you would get slow performance for other applications. Slow performance for Ventrillo (specifically due to high CPU usage by other programs) is one known cause for sound issues with said program.
Yes, your processor *should* be able to handle the load, but, as you may have noticed, *there appears to be something wrong*. The interesting thing is then to determine *what* is wrong, and being able to rule out things that are *not* wrong is very helpful in that process. Note: Rule out, not dismiss.
Also, it seems somewhat unlikely that high memory usage *on its own* would cause the system issues you are describing. In your extremely experienced opinion, does it seem likely that a program using less than half of your (rather significant) available memory would cause the severe reactions you are seeing? You may want to run that by your professional tech friends too.
As I've said from the start, it's very possible that i17 comes with a memory leak, but a high memory usage is not in itself proof of a memory leak. Ruling out other possibilities helps. Figuring out why it's happening to you but not everyone else helps. Narrowing down the exact circumstances in which the problem occurs helps.
Now, this forum is a place where players can get help from other players. You should ask yourself what your purpose here is; do you want to vent, or do you want people to try and help you?
If it's the latter, I would suggest that you drop the attitude, stop insulting and neg-repping the people who try to help you, and *start answering questions*, regardless of how silly they may seem to you.
Posting the CoH Helper/Hijack This reports that were previously suggested could also be helpful.
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I would not recommend going back to any of the drivers from before 9.7. We found a problem last year in the ATI drivers which they fixed in the 9.7 drivers. Remember that we've reworked a lot of the plumbing of graphics engine of the game to try and take advantage of newer features to improve performance on many recent (within the last 5 years or so) video cards and older drivers which may have worked fine before I17 will not be acceptable with I17.
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Originally Posted by venombeyond82
On the reporting/bugged thing, maybe, I'm not sure. I'm going to install 10.4 later today. I'll try it out, see how it goes, if this still happens... I'll install the Older drivers I had, which had been working -peeerfectly- up until I changed. which was 8.12... A lot of people ran 8.9 or 8.12 because of how solid these were and how WELL they worked with City of Heroes.
The Latest drivers arent always the best, and ATI has proven this fact, by bringing out later, but horribly faulty drivers in the past. However, Over the weekend, I'll try the 10.4... and then the 8.12 if the 10.4 don't work to well. We'll see how it goes from there. You may be right on the Driver issue, but we'll have to see what happens. |
Yesterday, Issue 17 came out, and I was quite happy. While my video card isn't top of the line, I can run Ultramode Low to Medium range, and everything runs smoothly with out any FPS issues. I'm on ATI 10.1 Drivers as a few of my other friends who have ATI are as well. The problem isn't my video, its the memory.
Before Yesterday, and before I17, While playing CoH and talking on Ventrillo, I never experienced any major Memory Leaks. But now it seems to be happening quite a lot. It has caused sound to skip on me, both in game and in Ventrillo talking to my friends. It has caused major lag issues left and right, and none of this happened before yesterday. My roommate who also plays City of Heroes, and who has a PC 98% close to what mines is, is having the exact same problem.
I've spoken early to 20-30 people I know on my global friends list, or in Pocket D or in Atlas, and I've had a lot of people telling me they have the same problem, that now, CoH is sucking up far more memory than it ever has, causing horrible memory leaks, and causing these issues.
I hope something can be done about this soon, as if it is not fixed in the future, it will keep me from playing properly, and I may have to leave.