Memory Leak?

Bunnysays · Powder Monkey Posts: 10 **397 Gold** -

I noticed that after about 4 to 5 hours of playing (that's the time for me, it could be less or more on other people's computers) the game just starts to run slower and slower. It doesn't get to the point that it's unplayable but it gets really sluggish. It's particularly noticeable in sea battles. Sword fighting and dancing are pretty OK. To stop it, I can simply exit the game and restart. This is usually what I attribute to a memory leak or something like it. I have a gig of RAM and like 20GB hard drive space so it's not that I don't have memory or swap space. And it's a consistent, constant thing.

I'm just wondering if anyone else noticed it.

Amnesiac · Powder Monkey Posts: 8 **197 Gold** -

I also see a significant performance drop after a few hours of play. It's running on a P4 3.2 HT / 1GB RAM / 128mb FX Go 5600, so specs are not an issue. Restarting the game does seem to help, so perhaps it is a memory leak of some kind. I have no idea how else to work around this, or if this type of issue is patchable or not. Sorry I couldn't help more...
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Ieolus · Swabbie Posts: 68 **889 Gold** -

Strange I haven't noticed a slow down, and I've definately played over 5 hours at a time. hehehe
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ARGH!

Amnesiac · Powder Monkey Posts: 8 **197 Gold** -

I don't know if this makes a difference or not but I'm running it on a notebook. Pirates!Fan stated on another thread something about a lack of t&l support regarding on-board GPU's. I don't know if Bunnysays is running on a notebook as well, but it might be a clue. BTW, is one month a reasonable time to expect a patch, and can this t&l support be part of the patch?
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Gackbeard · Firaxian Posts: 19 **314 Gold** -

Can you all post your sound card specs?

Thanks,

Dan
FIRAXIS Games, Inc.

Roger the Shrubber · Powder Monkey Posts: 19 **43 Gold** -

I have also noted a slowdown after a few hours play. I have an audigy 2 soundcard with fully updated drivers. Hope info helps. The rest of my system spec is Nvidia Geforce FX 5900 ultra and pentium 4 2.53 Ghz.
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Bunnysays · Powder Monkey Posts: 10 **397 Gold** -

I'm not on a notebook but a 2.4 with a GeForce 5700 Ultra. I'm also using a SB Audigy (not Audigy2).

The slowdown hits a certain point then just stays at that level though I wouldn't knwo if it gets worse. I've never gone beyond 5-7 hours or so without just restarting. It feels as though it's just filling up with too much to keep track of and justs begins to bog down. It's very gradual. As I said, about the 4th hour I begin to see it noticeably. It feels as though any type of memory or swap memory just fills up/has hit max and stays at that level. Like a pile of pennies that you're putting 5 on and taking off 4 until it hits the max of 100, then you can only put one on and take one off at a time. Degrades to a certain point then stays that way.

Bunnysays · Powder Monkey Posts: 10 **397 Gold** -

It the slowdown problem I was having was a T&L issue, it probably wouldn't happen gradually. A problem with that would probably be apparent as soon as you played. As far as T&L being alterable, I have no idea.

As far as a patch, maybe 6-8 weeks or so is reasonable, although most people, of course, want it as soon as possible. If it's before then, it's a bonus. A memory leak (if there is one) is usually fixable though how long it might take to fix is is a different story. Also, remember that lot of the programmers and whatnot take some deserved time off just after a game comes out. It's pretty understandable if you've been working on it for a couple years straight. Some testers will stick around usually, but it's not going to help much without new builds. Beyond that time, it's probably reasonable to wonder what's going on and start expecting something (if they're going to do it at all--a company doesn't necessarily HAVE to, though you would expect them to want to if they want the game to sell well and/or have repeat customers). It's usually contractually written for so and so amount of money and time to be put towards the working of a patch ("a" patch--not necessarily multiple patches). I'm sure Firaxis probably works on something like this principle. It's becoming standard practice, it it hasn't already. After that, it comes out of the company's own pockets/time. (It's partly incentive to get it as right as possible the first time out.) So if you see a lot of continuous tweaking (patches/extras, etc.) going on for a game, it usually means the company really cares about it and is trying to be helpful and is listening to feedback. Of course, a game could just not need fixing in the first place or just be really broken. I don't see that here though. I have yet to hard crash/crash or see any really weird glitches. For the most part, it's been (pardon the pun) pretty smooth sailing.

Bunnysays · Powder Monkey Posts: 10 **397 Gold** -

I tried some experimenting. If it makes any difference, the slowdown doesn't change if I reduce options. For example, I put everything on low/not on and also tried changing to 800x600 resolution. Same thing keeps happening.

Woodreb · Powder Monkey Posts: 10 **354 Gold** -

Hi,

I've been running the game with Memturbo on in the background (a memory manager program). I routinely see the free RAM down to 17 MB of RAM after 3-5 hours of gaming. My system has 512MB of RAM with about 350 MB free before starting up the game. I haven't really seen slowdowns per se but I do occasionally see a "stutter" in the action which may very well be due to MemTurbo bringing the free RAm back up to my minimum free setting.