Memory Usage: A test and some questions

[HamsterVolant]

Today, after a few more times not being able to play my saved games -the biggest one is 15 MB approximately- as I was sent back to desktop every tie during the Saved Game load, I have decided to do some tests to check memory usage of the game.

My configuration:

• i7-4770 @ 3.40Ghz
  
• GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2
  
• Ubuntu 15.10
  
• 8 GigaBytes of RAM (7.7 GB available)
  
• 19.5 GB of Swap
  
• about 1.4GB of assets and mods (about 30 of the latter)
  
• I used the Ubuntu "System Monitor" to get the results hereunder.

Tests:

Note:

• In all cases; after a fresh start, with only the main menu on screen, RAM usage is 1.9 GB, swap negligible.
  
• All tests have been done New Game / choosing "Les îles" map (Is it called "Islands" on the english version?)

1. Vanilla Game
   

           Loading Time: # 1 mn
           RAM usage:    4.9 GB
           Swap Usage:   negligible
   

2. Only Assets enabled
   

           Loading Time: # 5 mn
           RAM usage:    7.6 GB
           Swap Usage:   2.3 GB
   

3. Only Mods enabled
   

           Loading Time: # 4 mn
           RAM usage:    7.6 GB
           Swap Usage:   3.1 GB
   

4. All Assets & Mods enabled
   

           Loading Time: # 5 mn
           RAM usage:    7.6 GB
           Swap Usage:   4.6 GB
   

5. I did one last test, starting w/ the previous configuration, disabling all assets. Memory usage stayed exactly the same.

I'm not too surprised when people w/ 16 GB of RAM say the game fills it - here RAM+swap is close to 13 GB already!

It also explains why I'm dumped to the desktop when loading a saved game: With 98.1% of available RAM used, anything more just overloads the system...

However, I don't really understand the results:

• What could explain the jump from 1.9 GB (menu) to 4.9 GB (vanilla, ready to play)?
  
• 4.9 GB (Vanilla game) + 1.4 GB (assets) = 6,3 GB. Why 7.6 + 2.3 GB???
  
• Mods are barely a few megabytes. How can the RAM usage jump from 4.9 GB to 7.6 GB when they are enabled??? Especially when the difference between Assets only / Assets + Mods is limited to a larger swap usage???

My (temporary) conclusion is that the developers have a serious effort to do to optimise memory usage...

I'm interested to have the results of similar tests done by other Skyliners, those having issues with the game but also those for whom everything's just running fine...

[Useless Noodle]

the game itself has like 100+ models in total, both international theme and europe theme. When loading into menu, the game only runs the core files, no asset has been loaded, yet. Until you loading a save game, that is when things being loaded. If you have the "Europe Building Unlock" enable, or something similiar, that means it will load BOTH the international and europe assets, takes up quite considerable amount of RAM. And if you have extra assets, it's more.

Also, setting plays a big role here. With texture size + level of detail at Low, the game uses less RAM then when they are at High.

[Tri]

jpspilski

Wished you got 2x8GB of RAM to compare it with your 8GB RAM results, if the additional memory would ease anything. Will post my tests in awhile.

[Mansen]

Your data (or rather conclusions) are flawed. The game (most games) pre-reserve RAM in case they need to grow. That's what you see when the RAM fills up and swap file is used.

I haven't had a single crash due to RAM or Swap issues since the game came out - On a "mere" 8GB of RAM.

[Tri]

My configuration:

• CPU:AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
  
• GPU: HIS HD 5870
  
• RAM: G. Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB
  
• OS: Windows 7 Professional - 64-bit
  
• Used Tasked Manager - Performance tab to look into the numbers
  
• C:SL Mods: 51 of 57 subscribed mods are active
  
• C:SL Assets: 539 of 539 subscribed assets are active

Tests:

Note:

• In all cases - 5mins waiting time before continuing to next step (ie: 5mins at Windows Desktop, 5mins to C:SL Main Menu, 5mins to Vanilla Game, restart computer)
  
• All tests have been done in New Game, choosing "Lagoon Shore" as the map)
  
• High Settings

Initial Setup (consistent to all tests / negligible differences)
1. Windows Desktop
   

           Loading Time: -
           CPU usage: 0%
           RAM usage: 1.54GB
           Paged: 246MB
           Nonpaged: 35MB
   

2. C:SL Main Menu
   

           Loading Time: 2.5mins
           CPU usage: 13%
           RAM usage: 2.95GB
           Paged: 325MB
           Nonpaged: 46MB
   

Tests
1. Vanilla Game
   

           Loading Time: 1min
           CPU usage: 28%
           RAM usage: 5.55GB
           Paged: 373MB
           Nonpaged: 60MB
   

2. Only Assets enabled
   

           Loading Time: 3mins
           CPU usage: 28%
           RAM usage: 6.66GB
           Paged: 368MB
           Nonpaged: 58MB
   

3. Only Mods enabled
   

           Loading Time: 2mins
           CPU usage: 30%
           RAM usage: 6.30GB
           Paged: 363MB
           Nonpaged: 58MB
   

4. Assets & Mods enabled
   

           Loading Time: 6mins
           CPU usage: 30%
           RAM usage: 7.44GB
           Paged:   385MB
           Nonpaged: 62MB
   

[Big Bad Nonja]

Not sure you guys are doing anything in this thread but musing. :)
There are many of us out here who have much longer load-in times than anyone that's posted.

I run 1720 assets/mods on 8gigs of RAM on a 9 year old AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 810 Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.6GHz board. I wait 7 mins to load inot the main menu, and approximately 20-32 minutes to load a map. Then mu game needs about 3-5 minutes to "stabilize" befor I get smooth mao scrolling.

The largest pop figures I can achieve and still get back into my saves are around 150k. I also have my main pagefile setup at 1.5xRAM for the minimum, and 3xRAM for the max, as I was getting "page file too small" messages on some load-ins.

I can initially run on medium textures, high detail, full shadows/AA and post processing (dynamic resolution mod at 300% for screenshots and video. I do have to scale down once my city pop gets around 70k or I crash like crazy.

It's beyond obvious that C's:S's needs memory optimization, but even more importantly are mod quality control problems. Too many (the majority) of the assets made are too large in file size, incorrectly textured/mapped and or have problems like flashing textures, mod conflicts etc etc due mainly to the lack of over-sight by Colossal Order. Until something is done to assure well designed and built assets are what are allowed for upload, then these memory problems will NOT go away regardless of any optimization CO implements.

[romannets]

8GB RAM is so 2011. Its 2016 the new norm is going to be 32GB of RAM surely.

[HamsterVolant]

Tri: Thanks for posting your test results.
As I have a double boot w/ W7Pro, I ran the same test and got the same results, give or take a few hundred MB.

The thing though is that:

1. I'm totally unable to go back to the main menu after having played a bit - the game crashes-.
   
2. The computer reboots while playing - randomly, I could have played 5mn as well as 1h...-

SantaMan, Big Bad Nonja: Looks like you're lucky ; Are you playing under Windows or Linux?

Grumpy Nita, Big Bad Nonja: I will try with lower specs and see what happens (btw, my biggest city is around 56k people). I will also try a save without the biggest workshop assets I've used.

romannets: May be... 32GB is the maximum my mainboard allows... I'm not sure my personal Finance Director allows the expense soon though so better I find a way to make it work with the current 8GB...

[Tri]

jpspilski
Glad to know we have almost the same result

It's also my common experience that whenever I exit the game, it will inevitably crash, especially when I'm playing my saved game. However, I was surprised when I was about to end my 2nd test, as I exited the game and chose "To Main Menu", and it went to the Main Menu! I continued the test and I got a bit higher results (not posted) compared when I run the game starting from the desktop.

Regarding computer reboots, are you sure it's not due to pagefile (Windows 7)? If it restarts, you may want to check your computer regarding heating problems. If it went blue screen, it's another case...

I had another observation - while doing the 4th test, I was quite hooked by the music played. I then switched the music and found the physical RAM increased by 0.40GB. I have the "Music Mods" installed. The memory usage increases particularly whenever the classical music is being played. 80's music, I think it decreases a bit. Not sure why. Didn't bother to check thoroughly.

Big Bad Nonja
Care to do the same test as we did? :) I could add another test for my 22k population city :) (haha yeah, just 22k... I'm taking things slowly and enjoying everything :P)

Great layout re CrabShell Island Not the typical "grid" city

romannets
Discussing about "norms" heavily depends on where the indivual lives in, and what the person does to one's computer :)
To be on-topic, recommended system requirement for C:SL is only 6GB.

[Useless Noodle]

hmm, the only time I had crash while playing was the time my HDD was on its death throes. It's definitely related to page file setting, because as soon as I move my page file location to a new SSD, the game stop crashing and has been running smoothly since then.

[Tri]

Grumpy Nita
The same case I had... And still having argh... No one can directly answer if getting a SSD and putting the pagefile on that hardware would alleviate my lag spike issue (link)...

[HamsterVolant]

pagefile.... yeah, I did not think about checking this one under W7...

btw, I tried C:SL under Linux w/o the largest assets (mostly high-rise unique buildings) - my saved game loaded fine, I was able to play for about 1 hour before being thrown out to desktop :-)

Think I will definitely have a look on the memory increase...

[Tri]

Why not try playing in a new game? I think you have a buggy asset or two. Or play your saved game without any asset. If that didn't help, try it with the mods.

[barrygreybeard]

I had a similar experience as Nita, the only time C:S crashed for me in game was when I had 8Gb RAM and my page file was set to 8Gb max. Changed the page file to system controlled and no crash. Added 8Gb RAM since then and game is a lot smoother and loads quicker as it doesn't have to use the HDD any more..

[Tri]

Цитата допису barrygreybeard:

I had a similar experience as Nita, the only time C:S crashed for me in game was when I had 8Gb RAM and my page file was set to 8Gb max. Changed the page file to system controlled and no crash. Added 8Gb RAM since then and game is a lot smoother and loads quicker as it doesn't have to use the HDD any more..

I guess I have to consider getting a 8GB RAM (again) How's your pagefile usage after upgrading to 16GB RAM? The pagefile is what causes my lag spikes, as per link I included in my previous post/s.

[HamsterVolant]

I was able to borrow 16 GB from a friend bringing the total to 24 GB...
It's clearly another world!

Results, under W7 w/ my 60K people (now :-) ) city, about 14 GB RAM used, 0 swap, and barely 1mn to load.

On the other hand, under Linux it starts to load the saved game, and just before reaching the end of the loading bar, dumps me back to the desktop...

Unfortunately I had to return the memory to my friend...
Oh well, expenses to schedule...