WitPTracker AE Release 1.11 Available!

[Nomad]

Food for thought, mostly for Floyd and Damien.

Using the memory switches: -Xms256m -Xmx756m

While the database is loading, before the GUI comes up the memory
committed starts about 256MB and then climbs to a little over 300MB
The working memory starts about 132MB and climbs to about 200MB
When the GUI pops up the committed memory jumps to about 620MB and
the working to about 530MB.

The most important item is that these numbers are the same whether
I am loading a tracker with 4 turns or one with 356 turns.

These were with loading the map.

with the nomap switch the loading memory stays the same, but the
memory used with the GUI active is cut in half. I am waiting for
turn to see what the memory looks like when loading a turn.

What started this was I started to wonder if increasing the -Xms to 768m
would shorted the load times, but it didn't. It committed over 800MB of
memory and the working started at about 260MB and climbed, but the database
load time stayed the same.

Loading a turn takes about 170MB or so of committed memory, which if you are
loading the turn with the map active will cause a hard page fault( this only
means the the system has to page some of the used memory to either a paged memory
area or to disk ). Without the map loaded the committed memory never comes close to
the 768MB maximum I have specified. This is with a tracker database that has
about 360 turns loaded and the database is 1.314GB in size, over twice the size
of the maximum allowed memory.

[floydg]

I'm not that good with memory management.
When a turn is read in, there are two databases: the old turn and the current turn. Then I run through to see what's different to make alerts, then toss the old turn.
Other than a total overhaul, there isn't much I can think of to reduce memory usage.

[Nomad]

Can you tell me what you store in the file trackerdb.data? I thought that it might be connected to alerts, but when I trimmed my alerts
to only the last 10 days, the file size did not change.

I think the important thing is that there is no need to increase -Xmx to 1024m, it does not seem to be needed. To me an -Xmx of 768m seems to be optimal
and is large enough to load the map. I do think that the Windows memory manager has problems, and it might be more advantages to use an -Xms of 768m
to allot all of the necessary memory up front. I think that tracker needs to have contiguous memory and when some other process asks for some memory
while tracker is working Windows fragments the memory. And I think that is why people are getting the error for not enough memory resources. I have
32GB of memory on my computer so I am never short of actual memory, but on occasion I get that error. But mostly if I close everything and reboot the
problem goes away. On rare occasions I have to do the power down, pull power plug, hold power button down for 10 seconds and the restart all to get
the error to clear. I just do not think it is a tracker problem, but a Windows or possibly a Java problem.

Of further note, the error only happens when you try and load a new turn. So there is some problem obtaining the 170Mb or so that is needed to load
a new turn. Anyway, I have provided some information and I hope others can use it to solve their problems.

[FeurerKrieg]

I periodically post this, and it seems timely. I keep two tracker folders going. One daily and one that is semi-monthly. I reset the database on the daily one every 4 game months or so since that stuff isn't as important after some time goes by. But I can still look at long term trends using the semi-monthly folder. Works great for me - maybe helpful to someone.

[floydg]

Nomad: the trackerdb.data file contains the SQL database, including the static information (ship classes, aircraft info, LCU TOE, scenario info) and the per-turn changes as a "delta" record (one record per change). The delta record stuff is why the DB explodes and startup is a factor of turns loaded. Sub-optimal initial design; I probably should do something different, but that's a lot of coding work now.

[NiclasCage]

What does the number in parentheses mean behind ship damage?

I've got a line looking like this;

BB Arizona - Pearl Harbor - 5(speed) - 61(sys) - 58(39)(flt) - 40(24)(eng) - 0(fire) - 1(weapon)....

[Nomad]

That is the major float and/ or engine damage.

[NiclasCage]

Thank you! I had another issue though. I ended up deleting and reinstalling witptracker and that fixed it, but after loading a certain savegame in tracker and then later overwriting that save in the game, witptracker still loaded up the database from my first savegame. I tried editing the properties-file and moving my save to another number etc, but it still just loaded up the same old database. Might very well be an error on my part, but it seemed strange.

[Hanzberger]

Ok there appears to be a java update which killed tracker. I tried dl the old version, which is 6? but the site is having issues ATM. Has anyone experienced issues with tracker? Checking my PC it looks like my current java version is jre1.8.0_241
Tracker will not load any more turns. Maybe it is another issue?

[floydg]

ORIGINAL: Hanzberger

Ok there appears to be a java update which killed tracker. I tried dl the old version, which is 6? but the site is having issues ATM. Has anyone experienced issues with tracker? Checking my PC it looks like my current java version is jre1.8.0_241
Tracker will not load any more turns. Maybe it is another issue?

I just tried with 1.8.0.261 and it worked.

Floyd

[Nomad]

I am using version 1.8.0.271 of the 32 bit Java and it works fine. Are you sure you are using the 32 bit version? the 64 bit version will not load a turn.

[Hanzberger]

Not sure what version it is. I believe it updated this morning. Not sure why your versions seem to be newer. I only have 50+ turns and cannot load anymore. Java was the only thing I could think of.

[Hanzberger]

Ok so it is trying to run a a 64 bit. Now to figure out how to fix this.....

Ok back working! Thanks guys. Lost a turn, but no biggie.

BTW do you guys have both 64 and 32 bit versions installed?
and do they have to be on the same HD as the game, I ask because I am almost out of room on my main HD.

[floydg]

I have only the 32-bit version installed. If you have both, you can force the JRE to be 32-bit by using the full path to the JRE in the witptracker.bat file.

[Nomad]

Here is what I did. I put the 32 bit version in a non standard location and use the complete path to it in my tracker.bat file.

If you don't put the 32 bit version in a non standard location the Java updater will uninstall it. Or at least it did.

My batch file:

"c:\32 bit java\installation\bin\java.exe" -Xms768m -Xmx768m -jar "WitPTracker.jar"
pause

[Eambar]

ORIGINAL: Hanzberger

Ok there appears to be a java update which killed tracker. I tried dl the old version, which is 6? but the site is having issues ATM. Has anyone experienced issues with tracker? Checking my PC it looks like my current java version is jre1.8.0_241
Tracker will not load any more turns. Maybe it is another issue?

Thanks for posting this and the follow on fixes. I had the same problem, would not have thought to check Java. Uninstalled and reinstalled Java got my turns loading again.

Cheers

[Chris21wen]

What do the colour coded ID numbers mean on the LCU production tab?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: FeurerKrieg

I periodically post this, and it seems timely. I keep two tracker folders going. One daily and one that is semi-monthly. I reset the database on the daily one every 4 game months or so since that stuff isn't as important after some time goes by. But I can still look at long term trends using the semi-monthly folder. Works great for me - maybe helpful to someone.

Thanks. Do you ever (during the course of a whole campaign game) find it necessary to start over with the semi-monthly Tracker?

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: FeurerKrieg

I periodically post this, and it seems timely. I keep two tracker folders going. One daily and one that is semi-monthly. I reset the database on the daily one every 4 game months or so since that stuff isn't as important after some time goes by. But I can still look at long term trends using the semi-monthly folder. Works great for me - maybe helpful to someone.

Thanks. Do you ever (during the course of a whole campaign game) find it necessary to start over with the semi-monthly Tracker?

I really like this idea and can't imagine ever needing to clear or reset the semi-monthly Tracker db. It would only be holding around 24 turns per year, or 96 turns for the entire war.

[floydg]

ORIGINAL: Chris21wen

What do the colour coded ID numbers mean on the LCU production tab?

For LCUs active and at bases, if the supply is more than 20,000, show in green, otherwise if greater than 10,000 show in orange, otherwise if greater than zero show in red and if zero, show in black.
For LCUs not at a base, it's always black.

At least that's how it looks in the code...