Memory Allocation Failures

[graywarden]

If you do not get any MAFs, there is no point in testing.

Sometimes stating the obvious doesnt seem as stupid until you read it repeated to yourself....... and I think I just went crosseyed with that one...... haha.......

I reloded (In-Game) a lot yesterday evening where the earliest MAFs previously would occur, no MAF and no crash, and that was with version 8.11 (straight). I think its time I reset my graphic settings to high to see what happens, though I may wait till I cross the 1000kb save barrier first.

 

[aimlessgun]

I reloded (In-Game) a lot yesterday evening where the earliest MAFs previously would occur, no MAF and no crash, and that was with version 8.11 (straight). I think its time I reset my graphic settings to high to see what happens, though I may wait till I cross the 1000kb save barrier first.

So far in my 3 games MAFs would only start to occur on reloads past 1000kb, gameplay MAFs around 1100-1200kb.

Anyways time to try the test version.

 

[aimlessgun]

Test Version

just replace the fpk file in FFH WildMana/Assets with this file.

Testing w/ a game at 2.15 MB save size, turn 907, which was getting MAFed every 3 turns or so.

-Popped a MAF during my 3rd turn red sphere art notwithstanding.
-Loading out of already open game still causes MAF also (not sure if you were intending to fix this)

Does it have to be an art issue? I have no idea what behind the scenes process differences there are from base FFH, but other than new art another difference is the BUG interface.

small recap: lowest graphics settings possible, all other fixes attempted (maxmem, deleting flavor art), 2.2 ghz, 2GB RAM, Geforce 8600, winXP home.

EDIT: Also tested with a 1.15 MB save size game that was just starting to get occasional MAFs, went a fairly long time without one but finally one popped up.

 

[SillyGoat]

Tried the test version from a previous save. Played a turn and a half before Winderz restarted.

I think the problem may well be with my horsehockey system.

Dammit. That means I might have to spend some money on more memory.

 

[julko]

I am almost sure that atleast my MAFs are related to revealed map size. Anytime I trade whole world map, and try to look around the world, I got CTD. If I do not trade the map, I can continue play to late stages of the game.

 

[Calavente]

I've got MAF with saves at 298Ko (71turn and some)....(latest version of WM)
first time it ever happened.

 

[aimlessgun]

Just a little bump wondering if anyone had any new ideas or information on MAFs. I don't see anything in the 8.30 notes about 'em so I'm guessing trying deep oceans is just going to end in tears

 

[Sephi]

If you get MAF's related to huge savegame size you could try to reduce map size

 

[gruven]

I was getting MAF late in my games with 8.20 and I just got my first one with 8.30. Seems to happen only between turns or when I try to enter the civpedia.

I'm not sure what information is relevant:
Turn 240/690
large map
445 KB save file size
Win XP
2 GB RAM in my PC

When I reload the last auto save, it will run fine for another 20 turns or so, then I get a MAF and have to restart CIV IV.

 

[graywarden]

Just finished a long test, Cultural Loss to Jurla/Ljosalfar with 120 turns to go

Finished file size 1891K

NO MAFs (except for ingame reloads after 1600k)

 

[Jenaelha]

Testing w/ a game at 2.15 MB save size, turn 907, which was getting MAFed every 3 turns or so.

-Popped a MAF during my 3rd turn red sphere art notwithstanding.

Does it have to be an art issue? I have no idea what behind the scenes process differences there are from base FFH, but other than new art another difference is the BUG interface.

small recap: lowest graphics settings possible, all other fixes attempted (maxmem, deleting flavor art), 2.2 ghz, 2GB RAM, Geforce 8600, winXP home.

EDIT: Also tested with a 1.15 MB save size game that was just starting to get occasional MAFs, went a fairly long time without one but finally one popped up.

I noticed your comment about red sphere art(?). Did you verify your Asset FPK file is Wildmana80.FPK?
I had to redownload the main file 500Mb as the one I was using had Wildmana70.FPK. This cured my art problems and I've not seen a red blob since. (note: I've also never seen a MAF problem (both with Vista and Win 7 pro).

 

[Folket]

I tried the workaround posted in the download thread and it works for me.

The MAFs are related to how much of the map is explored not the size of the save game. Before I tried to work around the game crashed when I clicked end turn after trading maps with the AI. If I did not do that I had no problems.

I had traded maps with the AI before when the AI did not have everything explored and it worked.

 

[Folket]

I was playing large map btw.

 

[Neomega]

I am at about turn 380, standard map, (but tectonics, with only 30% water), and I am getting killed now.
I have turned off most graphics options, but I have a few suggestions:
1. for drakes, just make it one small dragon, instead of 3. Those dragon models I can tell are memory eaters... esp when they do the idle breathing animation... my whole computer slows down every time they do it. Also, I think the constant growling loop is not only loud and annoying, but running a sound file over and over again.
2. I turned off particle effects, but that doesn't turn off the blue glow for unpromoted units. I have always figured that was a bit of a graphics killer, and never understood why it is so deep in the engine. I know those promotion clouds are killer, because I can feel the lag when going over a screen full of them... plus they are ugly.

I have an athlon 3500 win XP, 2.2GHZ with 2 GB ram. I only have 21 processes running besides Civ 3.

I am hesitant to try the MAF thing, since I get the bootcfg is not a valid command thing, which means I have to make a bootcfg.ini

 

[tesb]

@Neomega
you can manually disable certain effects from your game. go to the CIV4EffectsInfos.xml and comment out* or delete the effects that you don't want.



*to comment out open the *.xml and write "<!--" before and "-->" after the section that you don't want.

Edit: i don't know if this will cause problems. when i first implemented my dracolich rider i forgot to add the breath to this file so he could not use it although it is used in his animation so i guess you should not run into any problems.

 

[Neomega]

I wonder if it's my playstyle, since my units are all mixed up because I focus on dominating live units and capturing animals.... and also because I tend to spread all my units out, (I dont do SOD's) but now I am really getting beat up with MAFs... and getting them sometimes while I am trying to save, which hosed a save and set me back 30 minutes of play (and lost the great adventurer I just popped from Bradelines well).

Also, I can feel them happening. I save, save, crash, reload. Upon reload, the game is running smooth at first, but then, it starts to chunk up, so I start saving knowing it's coming.

It is certainly well above the point of being able to even open worldbuilder. That is automatic MAF or CtD

 

[Neomega]

Also...

I am not a big fan of the gamebryo engine, or at least the way Civ IV implemented it. If you ever go into free camera mode and try to look on the horizon, you will see the world actually repeats itself ad infinitum, then everything gets choppy. There is no mist or distance cut off. I never really understood this. In fact, I am pretty sure the models are actually displayed, and then culled with a black layer if not explored.

I guess the reasoning for this is faster call up for units that explore, but I am pretty sure that going into fly mode once actually fried one of my video cards.

It seems to me that the game just keeps everything in a floating memory once called up, instead of putting it back away, maybe because calling up and putting away takes resources. More than likely out of all these modded units and terrains, many of the textures and models are a little less than optimized, and eventually, everything small adds up.

I also get quite a few crashes when I scroll near my biggest cities, esp. if they have a lot of units in them. My playstyle means a lot of different types of units, so I suspect they get pre-cached just in case when they come in screen or something.

 

[Markwalless]

I have received game freezes that no amount of reloading will fix, for the last 5 games (Usually around 1200K). I finally gave up on this mod, and no longer believe the updates will ever be sufficiently streamlined. I just tried the rise of mankind mod and it is fun. That mod has an option that kills the buidling graphics to reduce the rapid growth in system memory required as the game progresses. Sephi, is there any way you could incorporate that into Wildmana? That would be awesome. Might speed the game up too.

 

[russelcoight]

Well ive had a few crashes which is a little surprising.

Basically ive switched to standard maps because turn times were getting out of hand. But ive recently hit a wall of maf's. I have 8 gig of ram and a a quad core i7 blah blah cpu. I have a fairly high end vid card as well. So im pretty certain its not a hardware problem.

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).

 

[Neomega]

I think it's a memory leak.
I wish I could play wild mana, but I simply can't knowing I either have to play a small map, or turn down the graphics... which I am not sure ever helped when I did anyway. So I'm playing Mask of the Betrayer right now instead... it's much better than the original NWN2.