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- Zyxpsilon.

I have Vista 64 bit with 8 GB of ram.
The out of memory crashes make the game unplayable.
I could only play one round and then had to go back and play it again from the auto save. Very annoying and pointless.

Gave up on it sometime ago.

That does seem like either a very old version of DA, or some deeper problem with your hardware. I have 32-bit vista on 2 gig of RAM and have yet to see a single OOM error...

I can get an OOM error.
Consistantly.

But, it is only under a very unique circumstance.
That being, I go to war and in a single turn do far too much.
And I have to be cheating in some way to accomplish it.

If I give myself God-like powers - very superior techs and speed and range so I can eliminate the enemies entire fleet in that single turn, as well as conquer at least around 25 planets in that same turn.

Then at some point in the invasions, the ground textures will turn to solid black and I know I went too far. From that point on, I will get an OOM error if I try to save the game or if the game tries to autosave.


That is virtually the only time GalCiv will crash on me.

I only play DL, granted. But DL has a history of being more memory intensive than any other version. DL does not have many of the memory tweaks that DA or TA has, and I always play gigantic galaxies with 8-9 opponents plus minors.

A lot of the errors, I think, are not the direct fault of GalCiv2* programming - but of the particular system (as in MB, BIOS, OS and other running software - as well as updates to any of these things).

I have very little running in the background at any given time. And I have excluded all the GalCiv2 folders from real-time virus scanning, which can make a huge difference in how the game plays and interacts with the system.
And my system is (rather) very average, and an HP to boot!
2.8 Pentium D.
3GB ram
Nvidia 6800GS
2GB swapfile

"Rather", because the video card is a factory overclocked version with a copper heatsink, and I have taken steps to ensure that system cooling is up to par. All case fans installed, a Zalman CPU cooler and a better (both in cooling and output) Thermaltake power supply.


This game stresses the system like no other game I have played.
Why?
Probably because of the superior AI coding.

It is not just video intensive - it is even more CPU intensive.
The memory problem is more with DL than with later versions, but it is still there.

But if you have a BIOS that needs updating, or a video driver, or a monitor driver, or a chipset driver, or a whatever driver (or software update - virus scanner, etc (anything that runs as a background process), that use memory locations that can conflict), those changes can make the difference between a playable game and an unplayable game.


In many ways, GalCiv2 is the most intense game on the market.
Yet, the devs are among the absolute best when it comes to trying to make the consumer happy, and to making the product as bulletproof as possible.

They work WITH us.

I have not seen this with the likes of EA or DreamCatcher.


Instead of immediately blaming the the game (and the devs), make sure you are doing your own part by keeping everything up to date and clean in your own computer.

Because like I initially said - I only have a single problem, which is both understandable and avoidable if I work things correctly.

You know what's fun?

Run MS Editbin on the game executable with the /largeaddressaware flag. It's a subtle modification but if you already use /3GB or have a 64-bit OS (latter preferred) it mitigates this. Particular to 64-bit, it practically doubles the amount of virtual memory the program can use (the full 4 gigs).

A couple of caveats: this is really only useful if you're running a 64-bit OS (all you 32-bit lusers out there that think PAE fixes your problem, oh man, sucks to be y'all, cuz MS intentionally deactivated PAE in client versions of Windows). It's also only useful on executables that aren't already large address aware, and from what I understand, GalCiv2 already is.

DL isn't. Perhaps other versions are, but that is for the devs to respond to.
I had to enable it myself for DL.

This post https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=164&aid=161720 should offer some insights about memory problems.

BTW, I don't see how the devs might correct the problem you are experiencing when saving game if you are unable to reproduce it and send them a savegame before the problem, your debug.err, the way to reproduce the error on your system from the savegame and probably a screenshot about the OOM error.

I find it much simpler.
Just play a gigantic map. Abundant everything.
After about three months play, the game just stops responding.
Very annoying. Something I will not do again.

This is with Vista 64 bit. 8 GB RAM. Virus checker off. All drivers p to date.

Its funny, but you know what game crashes on me a lot? On the computer I gave my mom for Christmas (I got a new one), XP 1G of RAM...couldn't play SimCity 3000 for the life of me. I'm not joking. Not exactly a memory-intensive game and by all accounts should have worked fine for me, but never could get it to work more than 20 or so minutes. Wasn't really that the game was flawed, or that my system was bad; just couldn't get them to mesh.

A computer is more than just an OS or a game or sound card. It is multiple processes and programs programmed to work in tandem to achieve a particular outcome. Sometimes, the slightest change in any one thing can cause a cascade effect that affects the achievement of those goals. Sometimes it is a combination of normally benign factors combining to form a very malignant issue.

Are there memory issues with GCII? yes

Is it solely the fault of the game and the developers? no

Are there fanboys/trolls out there? very much so

In any case, honey will catch more flies.

The OMM can be very frustrating. My issue seems to be similiar but different then some listed here.

I was runnung the game on 2 year old HP 7248 with 1 GB RAM and Windows XP. The error never occurred on this system but ran very slow once the game became larger.

I just migrated the game to a Toshiba Sat. X205 with Vista (OS-32 bit), 4GB RAM, and virtual memory set accordingly. I was continuing to play my current game that was on the gig map and I hold around 55 colonies and many shps.

The system crashes with the OMM and any save type including auto save. On the crash the game cannot be continued to play, Vista requires the game to be closed.

All drivers are up to date as well as all Vista patches. I've downloaded all GalCiv 2 updates.

It looks like I'll gave to upgrade Vista or go back on the slower desktop.

Unless anyone else has any advice?

My problem is the same as yours, except I no longer have the old computer and my Vista is the 64 bit. DA 1.8.
I would be interested in any solutions.

Rhamiel,

You are not alone in your frustrations. It is frustrating in the extreme to invest hours and hours into a good game and...just as it is building toward a climax, you get hit with this error.

I do run vista, 2 gig of ram, machine built by a friend of mine (its about a year old, and was state of the art when it was built), so...I cant really speak to the technical aspects of this problem. Even under vista, and even with TA, I still run into this problem on larger games, though it occurs a lot less frequently than in DA. When I play the gigantic(ish) map-sizes, I play with abundant planets and habitable planets, but RARE stars, which cuts down on the memory problems considerably (and total number of planets).

As for the frustration, I completely empathize, and like you, I have, in the past posted rants about this problem, and yes, I have attracted counter-rants from Stardock culties rushing to attack everything from my character to my computer, inability to "zip a debugger file" etc. I share their love for the game, but the point you make questioning stardocks zeal for proliferating expansions when many of us are still experiencing this chronic and game-crippling problem is a valid point and a good question.

More than an hour or two a week wrestling with issues like tweaking our machines, researching problems in the forums, and trying various fixes in the hopes that they MIGHT solve this chronic problem is a shame, and as a consumer AND die-hard galciv junkie, I feel it is a justifiable complaint that these memory issues persist in version after version...expansion after expansion. As I play a myriad of other state-of-the-art-games without such glitches or hitches, I am resolute in my opinion that this issue, or rather, straightening out this issue, is squarely the responsibility of the developer.

Its interesting that there are so many persons advising against using Vista. Well I have been using it for over a year now and I have had no issues with playing games (and I play a lot of the demanding ones - latest being Crysis and Witcher). And I have had no issues with GCII-DA. I have 2Gb RAM and for programs that can handle it its easy to run BCDEDIT and have 3Gb virtual RAM available for these games.

Games have saturated 32bit OS memory limits - that is the problem. And with graphic cards with large VRAMs its worse. The real solution is to move to 64bit OSes. And try running Crysis or Witcher on 64bit Vista - they actually seem to run faster than under 32 bit. Have just built a new rig and have started experimenting with that.

I suspect games will drive the world to an early adoption of 64bit OS .

well, I did finally hit my first OOM last night. Though, being smart and having autosave on every turn made sure I didn't really lose any progress. That being said, I did have a LOT of background programs running and I had had the game running non-stop for somewhere in the range of 24-36 hours. I have Vista 64-bit, dual-core, 4GB of RAM, and a NVidia graphics card (i could tell ya which one but then I'd have to look it up )

So, obviously OOMs do happen even on "good" systems that should be able to handle it. But, now if I go back and limit my overall memory take elsewhere and I still get OOMs, I suppose that is a different matter.

Not to sound like a sycophant but well, generally, Stardock has been very good at attempting to address problems as they arise. Yes, I know, I know, that some out there have been complaining about OOMs for a while; but overall these OOMs do seem to be happening less frequently and are much less "fatal" now then at various points in the past.

When you do get an OOM, keep that save and your debug. Maybe at some point the Devs may find it helpful to help prevent these things in the future.

There is no debug with Vista. Not that I can find anyway.

The debug is under the My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar folder in the latest version.

Thanks Kryo.