Client Memory Usage Study.

**_______________Lozer** · Apr 19th, 2002, 03:28:15

today i decided to take a look and see how much RAM the client actually uses and when it uses the most.....

i am running winows xp now and used there task manager utility to view the ram usage.....

here is what i found.........

Shops: between 50-70megs
major cities: (tir, omni trade) 150-200 megs
Broken Shores: 300-350 megs.
un populated zones : 100-150 megs
heavly populated areas (tir grid) 260 megs~
missions: 100-150 megs

should this game require so much ram to run?

**_____________Cloudeh** · Apr 19th, 2002, 12:14:14

A game these days should not have to.

Megabio · Apr 19th, 2002, 13:25:24

Keep in mind that with the memory leak (hey guys, still there!) every time you zone about 10% of the previous memory isn't erased, so by the time you've gone to BS (250), mission, (100), BS (250), Mission (100), BS(250) (mission 100), BS (250 megs), grid (50 megs), Tir Grid (250 megs), go back to grid (50 megs), BS (250 megs), you've suddenly got 190 Megs of Stagnent RAM...and then add the regular RAM from the zone and you see why a lot of people get lag (i.e. after playing a bit, 100% of the game is running on Virtual Memory)
~Chris

**_______________Garzu** · Apr 19th, 2002, 17:01:33

Originally posted by Megabio
Keep in mind that with the memory leak (hey guys, still there!) every time you zone about 10% of the previous memory isn't erased, so by the time you've gone to BS (250), mission, (100), BS (250), Mission (100), BS(250) (mission 100), BS (250 megs), grid (50 megs), Tir Grid (250 megs), go back to grid (50 megs), BS (250 megs), you've suddenly got 190 Megs of Stagnent RAM...and then add the regular RAM from the zone and you see why a lot of people get lag (i.e. after playing a bit, 100% of the game is running on Virtual Memory)
~Chris

So after zoning 5 times it all stops? Completely impossible to do anything at all?

Megabio · Apr 19th, 2002, 21:40:34

Originally posted by Garzu

So after zoning 5 times it all stops? Completely impossible to do anything at all?

No you are running off of Virutal Memory, i.e. your hard drive... which is about 10 times slower than RAM.
~Chris

**_______________Lozer** · Apr 19th, 2002, 23:34:40

whell these where mesured by clean logins to the diffrent areas....

after zoning sevral times and about 5 hours of play the ram usige toped out at 410 megs of memory and never used any more.

i dont think that is a memory leek rather than commen textrus that are found in other zones/areas that there is no point in unloading becase there still usfull......

also i have v-ram turned off.... compleatly.... dont need it.

**Ray** · Apr 20th, 2002, 17:56:36

I think they fixed a lot of the memory leaks, the only slowdowns I get are when loading large ammounts of textures from a new zone/populated area.

This however, is not because of a memory leak but simply the way the game is coded (i think

). When a new texture has to be displayed its loaded from the database on your HD. Theres your bottleneck.

Also, AO never uses up enough RAM that forces my system to swap, I know that people with lower ammounts of ram still have the problem, but if u upgrade to 512 MB you should be fine (and even win 98 can handle 512 mb ram without getting vcache problems).

I might try setting a ram drive for the AO databases, maybe that will solve the loading slowdowns.

My rig: xp2000+, 1 gig ddr ram, radeon 8500, Win XP

Rav

**RandaZ** · Apr 21st, 2002, 01:25:52

No memory leaking here either.. hog yes, but not leaking (there IS an upperbound)

Even if we only use a small percentage of the 10,000+ different textures in the resource database, that's bound to take up some space

I'm not even mentioning models, sounds, etc.

Personally, I'm just amazed at how it can swap these textures in and out of main memory without slowing down to a crawl every single frame.

Tap

**engelstein** · Apr 22nd, 2002, 02:27:02

There are 7 races. Each of these has 3 body types. That's 21 different meshes. Each piece of armor has a separate texture for each mesh. Enter a populated area, say BS...it's got to load ALL those textures...and don't feel safe if everyone's in Elite, cause of the different body types.

Graphics cards today don't do HSR (hidden surface removal), which means your card has to render every piece of all the people and buildings in view. It's a pretty big load.

People have been saying "WTF WITH THE LAG YOU SUCK FUNCOM FIX IT" since release. It's funny every time.

**______________Leumas** · Apr 22nd, 2002, 09:29:42

Which is why they are forcing everyone to wear coat.

**Ray** · Apr 22nd, 2002, 11:58:10

lol

**Raik** · Apr 22nd, 2002, 12:38:01

Well... the box however states the 'recommended' Hardware rig as lerss than half of what I built... my puter exceeds those requirements by a fair lenght and I am running on ADSL.

My Game still performs like crap, and there is no noticeable difference in using compressed textures and minor resolutions either.

It may not be lag, but it is lousy code. And no matter how you twist it in their favor.

FunCom better fix that sh!t

**engelstein** · Apr 22nd, 2002, 19:50:37

Want a fix? Maybe they could add a "turn off textures" checkbox. That would bring up your framerates a lot, I think.

**Dauhuai** · Apr 22nd, 2002, 23:09:20

I agree, although lag can bother me as much as others you are dealing with a tremendous amount of data over a relatively small pipe as more and more objects (i.e. people) starting interacting. If lag is the worst problem then, as stated previously, they can turn off textures, or maybe make us all little icons like in grid. I never hit lag there. Of course that would make a seriously bland game, but lag free.

Seriously, thank you for the quick memory check it was interesting. One feedback I would like to see is how the lag in AO compares to other MMORPG. Since this is the first I have ever tried I have no comparison. I have played some of the on-line shooters such as Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament and there the lag can be even more deadly. So how does UO or EQ compare to AO. Is the lag really that bad here or is the same issue faced by all MMORPG's.

Sincerely,
Randalpho 48th Level MP
An MP without pets, is a dead MP

**_______________Lozer** · Apr 25th, 2002, 18:06:25

yea for those who are readign adn DONT KNOW!

if you attack a monster and nothing happens..... that is funcom lag. aka server lag.

if you get low frame rates, run into buildings all the time, and crash alot.. that is client lag.. aka not enough computer recorcers (vga card,memory,prossisor)

**___________LostLogic** · Apr 26th, 2002, 00:27:23

The game does leak memory.

I use:

Win2000 Advanced Server Edition
2 x 1ghz Intel P3 Processors
1 gig RAM
Gefore3 64 Meg video
SB Live!

The game will run for a while but eventually it eats up to 700 megs of memory (can check the process list to see how much it eats.) This is insanely bad.......

Bottom line, they need to fix the leaks. And while they are at it they need to implement back-face culling, view-frustrum culling, dynamic LOD, and some visibility checks would be nice.

It is funny how I can play Dungeon Siege in 1280x1024 with every effect turned on and still get great framerate while AO churns at 6fps.

**Sorzella** · Apr 26th, 2002, 06:27:28

Strange, I dont get much slowdown at all.. In BS I notice a tiny bit of chop somethimes but not enough to really complain about.. I must be lucky I guess, or did something right building my PC..

Most of your guys' systems appear much faster than mine.. Although, I know everyone says that the actual 'speed' of the RAM has no effect, its the only explanation I can think of..

Im running:

Win98SE - P4 1.6 - 512 RDRAM - GeForce 2 32MB - ATA100 7200RPM Quantum HD - SB Live - Cable Modem

Running the game in 1024x768 with just about everything turned all the way up

P.S. How to you activate Anarchys Frame Rate Monitor? I have not seen it..

Sorzella 141 Nano NT -
-Omni-Scummette Pistol Slinger Extraordinare
-Mother and Provider to her little family of Omni scum Alts
-President of the Insomniacs Foundation
- You can pry my pistols from my cold dead hands, wait no you cant I am at reclaim..

Scum Alts include:
Sorzetta 46 Opi Agent
Sorzanna 24 Opi Fixer <---- Evil Clanner, outcast of a sister...
Sorzina 21 Solitus Soldier
Trancefactor 32 Solitus Trader
Tranzmetic 56 Atrox Doctor
Brakkhus 16 Atrox Enforcer
Hollownymph 5 Solitus Meta

- The world is a reflection of the sensory apparatus that registers it - Deepak Chopra

**Melbringi** · Apr 26th, 2002, 06:56:45

yeah its mem leaked forever, used to bring schmirk to my face when they would put "Memory leak fixed!" in patch message after patch message. the graphic changes they made in the last patch made it worse too, im back to restarting the game after zoning 3 times through highly populated areas 1.4ghz processor 384mb ram 32mg NVIDIA GeForce agp card. ive played other games that leak but this one is a record setter.

**______________Leumas** · Apr 26th, 2002, 09:04:40

Yeah, I had have memory leak if I dare to put my graphic setting to high. My system spec :

Code:

AMD 600 MHz
348 MB ram
Nvidia 64mb geforce2 mx400 card

Not the top end machine, still far better then the recommander system list at ao box. My guest, you need atleast 512 mb ram to counteract the memory leak.

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Client Memory Usage Study.

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