Memory Allocation Failures

It's not memory leak, it's memory fragmentation.

russelcoight said:

I also tried to so called "maf" fix. Not sure what it does because the guide was VERY vague , especially for windows 7 users. But i wouldn't mind knowing tbh because the value it asks for , 3072 sounds like manual memory allocation or something (not good with these things lol).

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It tries to increases the Maximum amount of RAM a Programm can use. Probably only has an effect on a 32-bit OS. Definetly works for some people.

Anyway, I found something else on the microsoft page. Guide how you can reduce memory fragmentation on your system that hopefully reduces MAFs for those who still experience them.

Sephi said:

Anyway, I found something else on the microsoft page. Guide how you can reduce memory fragmentation on your system that hopefully reduces MAFs for those who still experience them.

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I'm afraid that hasn't made a noticeable difference on my system (Windows 7 32-bit, 2 GB RAM), I'm still getting MAFs at the same level of frequency.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it's possible, if you're experiencing "memory allocation failures" that your RAM memory is actually faulty. This is more common than most people realize. Might be worth to run something like memtest86 to check.

seizer said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it's possible, if you're experiencing "memory allocation failures" that your RAM memory is actually faulty. This is more common than most people realize. Might be worth to run something like memtest86 to check.

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Its possible but i have not managed to play a single game all the way through yet. And i can play like wow + battle field bc 2 + napoleon total war at the same time on my comp AND with no drop in performance. ITs crazy to think civ 4 could push it over its limits =/.

.But then i hear other people rarely get them so it makes me wonder .

you can run a ram test online they are free afaik

seizer said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it's possible, if you're experiencing "memory allocation failures" that your RAM memory is actually faulty.

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Possible, but not probable.

tesb said:

you can run a ram test online they are free afaik

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You're better off conducting memory tests outside of the Windows environment, eg, Memtest86+. Windows 7 has its own Memory Diagnostic utility: type memory in the Search box.

Hello,

I've recently installed this rather excellent looking mod on the advice of some friends, but I am having trouble getting it to work. I was hoping to get some advice on how to fix things and get it to run.

The game and mod load absolutely fine, but after a dozen or so turns, the game exits with the message "Memory Allocation Failure: Bad Allocation." Not being technically savvy, I have no idea what this means. The one here on the CivFan forum which involves running the command prompt with 'BCEDIT.EXE' as admin did not work - it wasn't recognised as valid. I also went through the system/settings/advanced/ paging file thingy to manual set my virtual memory, but still experienced crashes.

I set all my detail etc. settings to low, and while I can play normal BTS on huge maps with no problem, I've reduced to medium maps on Wildmana and still get the crashes. Has anyone any advice?

My computer specs are (copied off the computer because, again, don't really understand these things!):
2gb RAM
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core processor, 1.8Ghz
NVIDIA Geforce 7000M
Running Windows 7 Pro (32-bit)

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

Hi,
I'm still new to wildmana, but to me the MAF's seem to be connected to the bitmap-like part of the landscape.

@Loup_du_noir:
There seems to be a specific problem with wildmana and MAF's. As far as I know there is no way of completely evading MAF's in wildmana. You should only run BCEDIT.EXE (to modify your BOOT.ini) if you know what you're doing. If anything gets corrupted by running this command you should better know how to fix it.

@All
I experienced the first MAF's around turn 170.
And most of the time the bitmap-like part of the landscape disappears just before I'm encountering a MAF.
Instead of greenland, hills or dessert I just see a black environment.
Objects like improvements, units, mountains or forest are still displayed (They are also still colored).
If this happens I'm usually close to a MAF.

After some MAF's I checked the "event report" (included in vista, but I don't know its correct english name) and it told me, my videocard was lacking memory to handle the active applications.

Technical information:
WIndows Vista
WildMana 8.33
3 GB Ram, but till now I did not run BCEDIT.EXE to increase the available memory.
NVidia 128MB shared memory (it's a laptop)

Hope this may help you guys to handle MAF problem

I suspect it is something on the map too. Because I used to be able to regenerate large maps over and over and over again.

Now, I'm lucky if I can regenerate a standard map. this is all before any development etc... so I am quite sure it has something to do with the maps.
(although, If i understand the gamebryo engine correctly, it's all part of a central map node... )

Darn, I was hoping that after checking back in a couple months a magical MAF solution would have appeared

The idea that my memory is actually faulty is a new one, but wouldn't that manifest itself in other games (games that probably take more resources than Civ4 like MW2)? Or even in some of my absurdly large base FFH games?

aimlessgun said:

Darn, I was hoping that after checking back in a couple months a magical MAF solution would have appeared

The idea that my memory is actually faulty is a new one, but wouldn't that manifest itself in other games (games that probably take more resources than Civ4 like MW2)? Or even in some of my absurdly large base FFH games?

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I believe the difference is that some games stick to using the same segment of memory, while others go over the entire RAM memory, even if they're only using a small % of it at one time. I know I had lots of crashes running Guildwars a few years back, while everything else worked fine; buying new memory sticks solved the problem for me.

For what it's worth, I get far less crashes in Wildmana than I used to get in FFH, and I don't think I've ever experienced a MAF in Civ IV.

I never ever had a MAF during the 3 years I played FFH2 and the modmods, this one included, under Vista. (Or at least I don't remember having them..)

But they started coming right after upgrading to Win7 a couple of weeks ago.

Usually in the late game, once only a couple of dozen turns into a game, and once during map generation.

Downgrading the graphic settings helped noticeably.

The only difference remaining now that I see is that the game screen resolution is 1200x800 instead of something inferior back when playing in Vista. I think I had it lower to try to make between turns time shorter, and then just forgot it was so..

While waiting for WM 9.0 I've recently necroed a thread where I found solution for my MAFs.
Here it is: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=225205&page=1

I used to experience MAF when savegame file size was around 0.8 MB. None of my savegames reached more than 0.8 MB. After applying /3GB switch i can play large maps and savegame size goes to 1.5 MB without any MAF at all! So for those of you who run WinXP/32 and have enough RAM (4GB in my case) should definitelly try this /3GB switch.

So, just follow the instructions in the necroed thread. You don't need to do "step 1.", just edit your boot.ini. (Quoted part in thread by simkodavid). After reboot choose "...3GB" boot menu option. After that, you should get no MAFs. BTW, this old thread says that this 3GB switch is not an option for XP home edition, but I've got XP home edition and it works perfectly. I hope this will help somebody.

Sephi,

this is the first INGAME MAF I have had in a very very long time. Attached is the last turn before, hopefully this will help in the continuing advance in defeating this evil bug....

I have two save files uploaded to the internet which were saved during two different crashes of two different games. The crash is identical even though the two games have little to nothing in common. It's during the "Waiting for other Civilizations..." that this occurs.

Save File 1: http://www.2shared.com/file/5nq_V_W7...ken_maybe.html

Save File 2: http://www.2shared.com/file/BOEBw_N1...57_lone_b.html

I'm really hoping someone could fix these and then re-upload them to the internet. I'd much appreciate it.

Also, I really hope that this helps in improving the game to prevent such crashes after a future patch.



...........


Oh. I'm an idiot. I didn't have ANY patch installed. .............

I looked briefly for one when I first downloaded it... but...



PS: Look forward to me making my own thread with reports on tweaks/fixes that need to be made as well as suggestions for additions complete with my own digital paintings. (...Assuming the game doesn't continue to crash to the point where I get really sick of it... But then, this is the most awesome game since... since... Was there ever a more awesome game...?)


..................

August 18th 2010

After installing the latest patch, the game doesn't crash nearly so often, and when it does, it's a lock-up-the-computer crash which doesn't repeat when you load the most recent save.

I've gotten this problem fixed. I forget the where I found the thread that had the solution, but long story short, here's what I did.

1. Download and install CFF Explorer Suite from here. NTCores Homepage

2. Go into your Civ folder that contains your BtS.exe, make a copy of it. (this is a back-up.)

3. Run the CFF Explorer and open the original BtS.exe.

4. On the left side of the Explorer there will be a directory tree, select File Header.

5. when you select File Header the right side of the screen will change, the bottom row is "Characteristics" the far right box says "click here", click it.

6. That'll open a pop-up, check "App can handle >2gb address space", hit ok.

7. Close and save changes, run the .exe you did this to.

With that, everything should be fine, I've been able to play huge maps without getting the memory allocation failure since I've done this.

Kemystul said:

I've gotten this problem fixed. I forget the where I found the thread that had the solution, but long story short, here's what I did.

1. Download and install CFF Explorer Suite from here. NTCores Homepage

2. Go into your Civ folder that contains your BtS.exe, make a copy of it. (this is a back-up.)

3. Run the CFF Explorer and open the original BtS.exe.

4. On the left side of the Explorer there will be a directory tree, select File Header.

5. when you select File Header the right side of the screen will change, the bottom row is "Characteristics" the far right box says "click here", click it.

6. That'll open a pop-up, check "App can handle >2gb address space", hit ok.

7. Close and save changes, run the .exe you did this to.

With that, everything should be fine, I've been able to play huge maps without getting the memory allocation failure since I've done this.

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tried this. But the "app can handle >2gb" is already checked. Probably some other thing did that already, but i wouldnt know which one. I'm not experiencing maf atm, but only because i play smaller maps. Guess i'm all set then for an 18player huge map

Lord Katana said:

tried this. But the "app can handle >2gb" is already checked. Probably some other thing did that already, but i wouldnt know which one. I'm not experiencing maf atm, but only because i play smaller maps. Guess i'm all set then for an 18player huge map

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Same here. But I keep getting maf's on a 12 player huge map. Oh well, I guess me and Wild Mana just aren't meant to be.

I invariably get an unrecoverable (can’t reboot and continue) lockup at "waiting for other civs". I currently use blue marble terrain set to lowest settings, although I have tried the std. set w/ same results. I have also tried this on several computers, even a new one just for this purpose.

Given Sephi's statement that it is a memory frag issue that is beyond our immediate control, we should focus on our efforts on optional use of graphics. OS adjustments appear to be a band aid (have tried them all on xp and w7).

I have of course tried all the std options setup graphics limitations. Mods to Civ.ini have been tried, although I am not an expert on all of the options there.

Can we please implement the "no city graphics" option? As far as I ‘m concerned, in choosing between a locked up game vs. generic city graphics images, I would eagerly take the latter. Obviously no one would want to give up the unit graphics. I've tried to port the code from another mod that uses it but have not been successful. If someone could instruct me or Sephi could add it, that would be very nice.

Any other ideas would be helpful.

"waiting for other civs".

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is not necessarily a maf
most probably it is a fixable bug, you should post your savegame

if sephi is on he can usually fix it with in minutes