Is the new version of 1.3 being worked on right now going to manage RAM better?

[General_Hoohah]

I think a lot of problems with BZ2 are related to its ability to use RAM effectively. I don't think it gets rid of redundant information, which clogs up the RAM causing it to run slower, and eventually fills it with crap the program doesn't need anymore that it has to sift through to find what it does, until the program crashes or hangs when the RAM fills up. A good program doesn't fill up your memory either. Programs run smoother when the RAM has unused space available in it. It's the same problems you run into with a badly fragmented drive. It runs slow, can misplace data, takes longer to find things, hangs, causes errors, etc.

Am I right about this and if so, is the new patch going to help with this at all?

[Angelwing]

1.3 seems to be wayyyy less crash-happy for me than 1.2, I can actually be running several programs in the background (winamp, MSN) and have all my USB devices plugged in without fear of a freeze within 5 minutes, in 1.2 all of those would seem to increse the chances of a crash considerably (ESPECIALLY winamp)

[General BlackDragon]

i dont think ram is the problem, could be, i dont know my 1.2 never crashes...unless i do something wrong...

[BZZERKER]

The biggest problem with 1.2 when not online is AI overbuild. When online, it's tabbers and laggers looking to either give themselves an unfair advantage or just plain ruin the game for everyone else.

[General_Hoohah]

Well, I've noticed that BZ2 fills my RAM of 1GIG to max... which is unacceptable.

[deadscion]

1.3 seems to be wayyyy less crash-happy for me than 1.2, I can actually be running several programs in the background (winamp, MSN) and have all my USB devices plugged in without fear of a freeze within 5 minutes, in 1.2 all of those would seem to increse the chances of a crash considerably (ESPECIALLY winamp)

BZ2 has always had a reputation as a computer resource hog for many reasons and even though the 1.3 patch will help reduce this, there are still limitations and it makes no sense to run stuff in the background if you are hoping for a clean running BZ2 game.

If you are running extra stuff as a form of bench test, then this is a different story.

However,even when the 1.3 patch is finished, the best recommendation for any game, not just BZ2, is to keep any and all background programs to a minimum.

[General_Hoohah]

Well, my point is that it takes a gig of ram to run, but the Game only takes around 600 megs on my hard drive or more to install.... LOL.... wtf?

If anyone here has 2 gigs of RAM, how much of your RAM does it use on your machine? Same question for anyone who has more than 2 Gigs of RAM as well.

[deadscion]

I know for sure in the 1.2 patch MPI and instant action games tend to over populate the maps with excess units which are going to require comp resources to maintain. This is where the ram is getting ate up.

In 1.2 patch Strat games, however this should drop considerably since most teams do not make many AI piloted units.

If the 1.3 patch has fixed most of the bugs which cause excess overpopulation as well as a number of other bugs, which tend to cause lag then, yes the 1.3 patch will actually use less computer resources and less ram to run.

[Avatar]

Actually, why wouldn't you want a game to use every resource available to it?  What did you get all that RAM for, anyway? 

Windows?  lol...

Seriously, when UT2K4 is done running on my poor little 1.6AMD with 512megs of RAM it takes well over three minutes before I get my system back.  The resources that game uses overloads my system causing massive HD cache activity.

BZ2 is a well-behaved puppy compared with UT2K4 as far as system resources are concerned.

AI activity and pathing is a major issue with BZ2, a real hog.  After that it's probably texturing the terrain and handling mesh transform and lighting.  All of this is done via the CPU so they'll load down your system fast.

-Av-

[deadscion]

Actually, why wouldn't you want a game to use every resource available to it?  What did you get all that RAM for, anyway? 

You are right, of course.

However,I am talking about extra programs not relevent to the game, leaving as many computer resources available as possible for the game.

For example,winamp and MSN are not necessary to be running while the game is.
I am saying why waste resources on programs you don't need, since BZ2 does use a lot?

We can all appreciate multitasking, but sometimes depending on your computer, you may want to save as many of them as possible for the game.

[Angelwing]

Unneccessary, perhaps, but I happen to like listening to music whilst playing games - it's not neccessary, but then, playing the game on the highest graphics settings isn't neccessary either, it just makes the game look nicer...

And using Avatars example, We all got the superfast CPU and huge quantities of RAM for a reason didn't we?... Why not use them, by multi-tasking

Yes it has a hit on performance... but if it isn't noticeable, where's the problem?

(I'll usually close MSN however, since that tends to harm the latency of games - not to mention annoy the hell out of me)

[deadscion]

Ah I see,,, and yes music while you play is a good thing.

[General_Hoohah]

My point, is that when you fill the RAM completely, thats a BAD thing. Over populating the ram is not necessary, slows down the games ability to function, and can cause problems with the computer. A lot of people don't understand this... and I can understand why.

[Avatar]

Actually with WindowsXP you should be always filling your RAM.  Unless your system is very well endowed you'll almost always use every spec of RAM and then start in on the HD's swap file.

Any memory manager worth a damn will try to keep everything possible in system RAM, moving things to HD only if absolutely necessary.  The minute you start 'hitting' the HD you'll see things start to slow down, as no HD made can keep up with a hefty chunk of SDRAM.

We have P4 1.8's at work with 256M of SDRAM.  Once Windows XP Pro finishes loading all 256M is in use, with a hefty comit charge on the HD backing it up.  With the piddly slow 20G HD's we have (5000 rpm and I swear they must have no cache at all) it's a lesson in pain trying to run anything.

Again, that's what it's for.  You'll see a certain percentage kept reserved for system operations but the rest should be in use for maximum performance.

-Av-

[Ungodly]

Actually, in 1.3 i've had the program take up all my memory(1GB DDR), then cause my virtual memory to fill to it's max(1GB also).  How many times has it done this ... ONCE.  All other times i've played on 1.3, there have been no problems with memory.  Sure, an occasional AV or network timeout.  But for the record, there sure are alot of other programs out there that can suck the juice right out of your puter ... ever have Outlook running all the work day? LOL