Virtual memory -> need technical tips

[maatissi]

SPWAW tends to crash on my friend's computer, with the following error message:
"Out of virtual memory" <-- guess it goes over some 5 meg limit or something. Usually this happens when playing a huge battle in the hotseat mode. Really annoying as you can guess. Previously the game has worked perfectly.

What to do? Any tips to maximise performance in this category? Thanks.

[chief]

Maatissi: First thing that comes to mind is ....How much RAM does he have? Next, how much HD space available ? Now when the last time he emptied his trash can, temp files etc. ? Has he/she let Windows manage virtual memory ? His he/she playing game with everything that runs in the background shut down ? ALL THESE Things can affect virtual memory. Hope something in here helps you.

[john g]

Originally posted by maatissi
SPWAW tends to crash on my friend's computer, with the following error message:
"Out of virtual memory" <-- guess it goes over some 5 meg limit or something. Usually this happens when playing a huge battle in the hotseat mode. Really annoying as you can guess. Previously the game has worked perfectly.

What to do? Any tips to maximise performance in this category? Thanks.

The only time I had memory issues with SPWAW was when I was testing the 7.0beta versions, I was doing mutiple save/loads of the mcna. After about 3-4 save/load routines between reboots I would get a low memory warning from freemem (the only time it ever gave me this warning). A manual memory flush from freemem didn't do any good, I reported it to Paul V as a memory leak with the MC code since it never affected me when playing normally.

My system is 192 meg of ram 512 meg fixed size swap file (512 min, 512 max). The only other program I run that has memory issues is Outlook Express, but a memory flush will fix the problem it has of not displaying messages if memory drops to 0.

If your friend has what is currently normal for a modern system, 128 meg of ram and at least 256 meg of disk space for the swap file, he might try doing a reboot before playing, killing all other processes running in the background. Be aware if you are pushing the limits of the unit roster by playing near a total of 400 units, strange things will happen.
thanks, John.