Mac memory management: what are the memory hogs?

Robuzon · Dec 28, 2011

I was just wondering if there was a clear hierarchy of memory usage for BTS/HR so that I could be more efficient in streamlining my usage. I play on a Mac Powerbook with more than the max 2 Gigs available for allocation and suffer from the game crashes when the game gets towards the later stages with much of the map revealed and a lot of units moving around.

My issue is that one of my favorite features of HR are the two new map sizes, I've always felt slightly crammed in Civ4 when playing with 7-8 opponents as I usually do. What would anyone suggest cutting out before reducing the map size? How much memory does reducing the game by one AI civ save?

I really want to figure this out because some of the maps that the World script has generated on the Massive size have been beyond gorgeous and have included really significant geographical barriers such as deserts and glacial mountain ranges that are a dozen or more tiles across, presenting a significant challenge even into the Modern era. The problem is that on these maps I rarely can play beyond the late Industrial era before crashes begin to occur every other turn.

Lirvan · Dec 29, 2011

I've been wondering about this as well, as I'm one of the people who enjoy playing the largest possible maps sizes, with the largest number of civilizations. It would also be nice to see a list of what graphical enhancements require high amounts of memory, so I know what to turn off.

I was thinking that it would be nice to have an option to switch all of the 3d leader portraits to 2d non moving ones, which might save some memory.

Xyth · Dec 30, 2011

Leader graphics are actually loaded on demand for the most part, so while they can trigger a MAF (Memory Allocation Failure) when a leader contacts you, it's because too much memory is used elsewhere already.

The first thing I would recommend you both try is unpacking the unit and building art. In the Assets folder of the mod you'll see the files HR_Units.fpk and HR_Structures.fpk. These can be unpacked into all their separate files and folders with Macapaka (Mac) or Pakbuild (Windows).

I'm typing this on my phone in a tent so I can't give any detailed instructions on how to do this but you should be able to find the links and steps you need by searching this forum or the Civ4 Mac forum. Once unpacked the resulting Effects, Units, Structures and Shared folders should be placed in HR's Art folder.

Note that this will significantly increase the loading time of the mod but, as things are being loaded in many little chunks rather than 2 huge chunks, this will give BTS a lot more room to shift things around in memory. I've found that this can noticeably reduce the occurrence of MAFs, though it won't eliminate them completely.

Robuzon · Dec 30, 2011

Thanks Xyth! I had seen that option in the Troubleshooting thread, I was just trying to avoid that increased loading time. I'm in the process of unpacking the files now, hopefully this will let me fulfill my desire for vast worlds with awesome aesthetics.

Also: Playing as the Iroquois is unbelievably fun; their UU, UB, and UW are all great. I actually haven't been able to bring myself to play as any other civ over the past dozen games because I'm addicted to swooping down on my enemies with armies of Mohawks and Cuirassiers.

Lirvan · Dec 30, 2011

You weren't kidding about loading times,. It was stuck loading for roughly 7 minutes when I opened the game.

For those who didn't know where to extract to and whatnot:
1) open file you wish to extract with Macpaka/Windows version
2) set the destination of extraction to the assets directory in the history rewritten mod directory.
3) Press the extract button, wait for it to finish extracting
4) move the .fpk files you extracted to a backup folder for later use/storage/etc

The extracted files should be place in the art directory, if you wish to look at them.
And thank you for this suggestion Xyth, it seems to be helping. (or I could be imagining things, due to the placebo effect)

Robuzon · Dec 31, 2011

I'm still suffering crashes at about the same tech and militarization level. I don't think they're MAF as I don't receive the in-game message and I get this error report:

Spoiler :

...and have no idea what it means. Any ideas?

Xyth · Dec 31, 2011

The spoiler text isn't displaying on my phone. I'll be home in a day or two and I'll see if I can figure out what's happening there. Sorry about the wait.

Lirvan · Jan 1, 2012

Here's an error I got as well under this setup, not sure what it is, or if it's important.

In the attached file.

Xyth · Jan 2, 2012

Sorry for the wait guys, I am now back home.

Robuzon said:
I'm still suffering crashes at about the same tech and militarization level. I don't think they're MAF as I don't receive the in-game message and I get this error report:

...and have no idea what it means. Any ideas?

That is one of the infamous audio-related crashes that happens under unmodded BTS as well. I've reported it to Aspyr several times and they have refused to fix it. I'm no expert but there seems to be a memory leak in BTS' audio system that can lead to crashes over time. Unfortunately It's probably exacerbated by playing on the very large maps, there being less memory available overall. It affects different systems in differing amounts - on some models of iMac it renders the game near unplayable. The only solution I've found so far is to completely disable audio in the .ini file.

However if you get that crash with a certain leader in play and not at other times then that could potentially be something wrong at my end. See if you can spot any such pattern.

Lirvan said:
Here's an error I got as well under this setup, not sure what it is, or if it's important.

In the attached file.

I've had that crash before and it looks like you have the same system as me. I have no idea what causes it or what it's related to, though I've had with other mods too. Fortunately it's relatively uncommon, in my experience at least.

Also, according to that crash report you are still using BTS 3.17. Though I don't know exactly what was added in 3.19 I'd recommend upgrading regardless. I'm pretty sure Aspyr did add a few important Mac fixes in it.

Robuzon · Jan 3, 2012

No worries on the wait, its admirable you were still contributing while in the wilderness. I have seen the notes about the audio-related crash but had no idea this was my problem. I guess there's no specific aspect of the audio that can be modified to fix it? Everything just has to be turned off?

On a weird side note: I think that I avoided this problem for the first year I was playing Civ 4 by using a torrented copy. I've since purchased the Complete Edition and this is when crashes of this sort began to occur.

Xyth · Jan 4, 2012

Robuzon said:
No worries on the wait, its admirable you were still contributing while in the wilderness. I have seen the notes about the audio-related crash but had no idea this was my problem. I guess there's no specific aspect of the audio that can be modified to fix it? Everything just has to be turned off?

I usually play with the music switched off and that alone doesn't prevent them. It's been a long time since I experimented with solutions for this crash but I seem to recall that was the only effective way we found. Worth experimenting though, every system is different.

On a weird side note: I think that I avoided this problem for the first year I was playing Civ 4 by using a torrented copy. I've since purchased the Complete Edition and this is when crashes of this sort began to occur.

I can't imagine that would make any difference. I expect it's just that these crashes are made more common when playing large maps in a mod like HR, as there's simply less memory 'available to be leaked'.

Robuzon · Feb 2, 2012

Thanks for the audio suggestion on this count, I tried it for my most recent game and everything seemed to be going well... in fact the game ran faster. However I have encountered this error, attached below.

It occurred again when I re-loaded the most recent auto-save and played up to the same point. I've unpacked the art files and am playing with the sound switched off in the .ini file. Any ideas anyone?

Xyth · Feb 3, 2012

Robuzon said:
Thanks for the audio suggestion on this count, I tried it for my most recent game and everything seemed to be going well... in fact the game ran faster. However I have encountered this error, attached below.

It occurred again when I re-loaded the most recent auto-save and played up to the same point. I've unpacked the art files and am playing with the sound switched off in the .ini file. Any ideas anyone?

The attachment seems to be missing.

lvdz · Jun 15, 2012

Xyth said:
The first thing I would recommend you both try is unpacking the unit and building art. In the Assets folder of the mod you'll see the files HR_Units.fpk and HR_Structures.fpk. These can be unpacked into all their separate files and folders with Macapaka (Mac) or Pakbuild (Windows).

Unpacking definitely helps, thanks for the tip.

Mac memory management: what are the memory hogs?

Robuzon

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Lirvan

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Xyth

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Robuzon

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Lirvan

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Robuzon

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Xyth

History Rewritten

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Xyth

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Robuzon

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Robuzon

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Xyth

History Rewritten

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