Gigantic maps are not playable

I've had the same issue. Frequent saves under different names is the only solution currently.

Also, when this happened the last couple of times I have looked at the memory usage. It appears that DA is not using the swap file?

I have 2Gb of physical memory and 4 Gb of swap. I get the message when DA is taking almost exactly 2Gb of physical memory.

Same here. I played a lot on Dread Lords (always gigantic maps) and this never happened once- something new specific to Dark Avatar?

If you Alt+tab out of GalCiv and then end some extra processes that are running you will be able to save when you bring GalCiv back up. Well, most of the time anyway.

I have 3GB of ram, and my wall seems to be at ~2.6GB of memory usage when I get the dreaded out of memory error.

That is the reason I started saving a backup copy of the game - i.e. 'Game1.sav' and 'Copy of Game1.sav' - every time I save the game.

I suggest increasing your page file . Google for directions on how to do that . I have 2 gigs of ram and 4 gigs of page file and I still get massive lag and freeze ups with this game . It's just an issue they need to deal with. This game should not be more of a system hog then Oblivion for gods sakes ..

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if this is only happening on "gigantic" maps. Anyone heard of it happening on less than gigantic playing areas?

Same problem I have, had a great metaverse game going on gigantic and then it starts to crash. The only difference I have is that I can still save but only play around 20 or so turns before it crashes. This problem and the fact that they have not fixed it has serriously ruined my enjoyment of the game and caused me to start playing other games and reading again.

The plain fact is if I was able to I would go back to the original DA version I got when I originaly bought the game cause it worked just fine for me. Now I am stuck with a version that is basically crap with no way to return to a version that worked because stardock no longer has it for download.

I hope they fix the problem soon so I can once again ejoy an expansion I payed to download.

Angelon

After exhaustive attempts on different galaxy sizes I can only say this... something within the game is using RAM like there's no tomorrow and it doesn't free itself up. I've resorted to using FreeRAM while playing, both to 'free the RAM' as well as to track what's going on with my second monitor. For example, I have 1 GB of physical RAM with my virt memory tripled. Upon start up of the game (and this is after I've disabled some un-necessary background services), regardless of map size (at least gigantic to medium, I haven't tried smaller than that)I watch my RAM go from the upper six hundreds to zero! It takes that much RAM just to load? I guess so because I can see it happening. During gameplay, DA hardly ever touches my virtual RAM but it continues to suck the life out of my physical RAM. I set FreeRAM to autofree at anything less than 256mb, so it does this quite often during gameplay, but at this point, it's the only way for me to get a complete game in (still may get a CTD or two but nothing like I do if I don't run FreeRAM).
I know nothing about PC's/programming... but this definitely seems to be an issue with the game itself. I've already prepped myself to spend another 250.00 or so to get more RAM (going with three to four gigs if possible)so hopefully that will allow me to get on with my life and my favored gigantic galaxies. Until then, FreeRAM is my newest bestest buddy!!!!

FYI, no software under windows 32 bits can use more than 2GB. Every software running added together can use more, but ONE software can't get higher than 2GB alone (either swap or physical or a mix of both)

(that's not exactly true, but let's keep it simple)

PS: oh, and there is no point in using your swap file if you still have physical memory available.

Thanks for the tip, but others with more physical memory have observed DA using up to a gig and a half of physical RAM, which to me is quite a lot for one program. Regardless, something within the software itself has to be suspect because NO game I load uses that much RAM... and even those that do use anything near that amount eventually free it up after time, DA doesn't seem to do so.

Those who are getting this issue, what version of the game are you running?

I ran the Stardock Central update on Saturday (which updated my already 1.5x3 version) and have had the issue since then.

The splash screen reports 1.5x3, but I believe that should have given me the new beta?

I'm running the 1.6 beta or whatever it is that Brad posted in the zip file. I don't get the out of memory error, but only because of running FreeRAM I suppose. It just doesn't seem like the memory is 'freeing' itself up, if it's supposed to do so that is. And the opening screen says 1.6 beta so I know it took.

version 1.59.078 here.

The wonders of the "no-DRM" SDC system...    

Memory leaks happen, very annoying, but they always will from time to time. Eventually they get stopped, fair enough, but why do Stardock still delete the old save file before proceding with a save routine. Its insane because if something goes wrong in the save routine (eg no memory left) you lose the game completely. Of course there are ways round it, but why build in such a guaranteed problem ?

At the start of a save, rename the last save to a temp name, if it works, great, delete temp name, if it falls over, rename temp name to old save file, at least you still have the last save file. Even if that last rewrite fails, you still have a temp file to manually rename and get going.

I have been caught with this countless times and its so unnecessary. I still cant figure out why such a basic precaution is not taken in save routines, doesnt make sense.

Regards
Zy

I am using DL 1.4X.

Could this be a MetaVerse-onl issue. I always play on Gigantic maps... I only have 800-odd mb RAM. I do have a 2 gb pagefile, but even when it was 700 mb I didn't have this problem. And my machine is OLD!

I don't play MV games.

I don't play MV games.

How many planets and how busy the map may be the more relevant issue...I had it happen on my MV huge map. ~500 planets.

My game settings:

HabitablePlanets=abundant
GalaxySize=gigantic
StarDensity=loose clusters
NumAnomalies=abundant
TechnologyRate=normal
NumStars=abundant
NumPlanets=common
EnableMinorRaces=yes

Seems Stardock never really fixed this, they tried with GCII but couldent seem to crack it, very frustrating when your machine has loads of memory and others with little memory have no problems, shows there is a real big problem somewhere in the code which I'm very surprised hasent been fixed yet. Anyway it ruined GCII for me even though I loved the game. And yes it is so stupid to delete or write over your old save when saving especially when the devs know this ruins the game for many.

This happens to me all the time, even when I'm playing a non-metaverse large map.

And it's definately not a graphics or memory issue, cause I got around 1.25 gigs of RAM...  

I had this issue in the beta test of 1.5 but it come good in the end production.

I think there is a recommandation by Stardock to increase your page file to 3 or even 4 time the physical ram you have installed.

This did help in my case as I had it set to 3-6 gigs. Changed it to 3-9 gigs and all has been well since. (well so far)

While I was testing it felt to me that the issue is more prone on gigantic maps with abundant stars and abundant habital planets. might be worthwhile to cranck those settings back a notch.

One annoyance that stayed was that the colonial management screen will slow down as you go above 100 planets.