Memory Leak After ~1.5 Hours

[Zachopotamus]

There seems to be a memory leak or some other issue causing lag with the engine after about 1.5 hours of play. The only solution I can find so far is to restart the game. Anyone else having this issue or have a fix?

[PlyrStar93]

Also had lag but it could kick in as early as < 1 hour or could be after 2 hours. I also applied 4GB patch to SC3U.exe (per the guide on Simtropolis) and applied "compatibility fixes" (per PCGamingWiki re 16BitColor and 8And16BitAggregateBits) and still did not resolve the lag problem.

I then went to compatibility mode settings for SC3U.exe (properties - compatibility), change settings for all users and chose the following settings:
* Compatibility mode: Windows XP Service Pack 2
* Reduced color mode: 16-bit (65536 color)
* Run as administrator - ENABLED
(Please pay attention to the underlined parts above)

Saved settings and I haven't noticed lags yet. I can't tell which part seemingly fixed the problem, however, and it could be a combination of the above patching and compatibility settings. Anyone who tried to apply these fixes are welcome to report the outcome.

I also had a SimCity 3000 CD image mounted in my system and had to unmount that too, since it does mess with the game soundtrack somehow.

Game is still subject to random crashes to desktop but the same happens with the CD version of SC3K Unlimited in Windows 2000 running in a virtual machine.

[fredreed2000]

I would think that the devs would see this and address the problem ASAP. Maybe you should try to contact the devs and tell them about this.

[Zachopotamus]

Originally posted by fredreed2000:

I would think that the devs would see this and address the problem ASAP. Maybe you should try to contact the devs and tell them about this.

Bro, it's a Steam port of a 20-year-old game. The devs have long since moved on.

[The Grimm Reefer]

Originally posted by fredreed2000:

I would think that the devs would see this and address the problem ASAP. Maybe you should try to contact the devs and tell them about this.

*Facepalm*

[Bump]

Originally posted by PlyrStar93:

Also had lag but it could kick in as early as < 1 hour or could be after 2 hours. I also applied 4GB patch to SC3U.exe (per the guide on Simtropolis) and applied "compatibility fixes" (per PCGamingWiki re 16BitColor and 8And16BitAggregateBits) and still did not resolve the lag problem.

I then went to compatibility mode settings for SC3U.exe (properties - compatibility), change settings for all users and chose the following settings:
* Compatibility mode: Windows XP Service Pack 2
* Reduced color mode: 16-bit (65536 color)
* Run as administrator - ENABLED
(Please pay attention to the underlined parts above)

Saved settings and I haven't noticed lags yet. I can't tell which part seemingly fixed the problem, however, and it could be a combination of the above patching and compatibility settings. Anyone who tried to apply these fixes are welcome to report the outcome.

I also had a SimCity 3000 CD image mounted in my system and had to unmount that too, since it does mess with the game soundtrack somehow.

Game is still subject to random crashes to desktop but the same happens with the CD version of SC3K Unlimited in Windows 2000 running in a virtual machine.

you're not talking about the Steam version of the game then.

what I can tell you is the Steam version crashes, maybe it's modern PCs or it lacks an update. I seem to remember the original doing this, 'back in the day'. But then nobody in their right mind would play it that much back then whilst expecting much out of it, games used to crash all the time... it was hard to take them seriously, but then the industry wasn't so serious back then. Now it's very customer-focused and they usually have crash logs.

[Bump]

Originally posted by PlyrStar93:

Also had lag but it could kick in as early as < 1 hour or could be after 2 hours. I also applied 4GB patch to SC3U.exe (per the guide on Simtropolis) and applied "compatibility fixes" (per PCGamingWiki re 16BitColor and 8And16BitAggregateBits) and still did not resolve the lag problem.

I then went to compatibility mode settings for SC3U.exe (properties - compatibility), change settings for all users and chose the following settings:
* Compatibility mode: Windows XP Service Pack 2
* Reduced color mode: 16-bit (65536 color)
* Run as administrator - ENABLED
(Please pay attention to the underlined parts above)

Saved settings and I haven't noticed lags yet. I can't tell which part seemingly fixed the problem, however, and it could be a combination of the above patching and compatibility settings. Anyone who tried to apply these fixes are welcome to report the outcome.

I also had a SimCity 3000 CD image mounted in my system and had to unmount that too, since it does mess with the game soundtrack somehow.

Game is still subject to random crashes to desktop but the same happens with the CD version of SC3K Unlimited in Windows 2000 running in a virtual machine.

you're not talking about the Steam version of the game then.

what I can tell you is the Steam version crashes, maybe it's modern PCs or it lacks an update. I seem to remember the original doing this, 'back in the day'. But then nobody in their right mind would play it that much back then whilst expecting much out of it, games used to crash all the time... it was hard to take them seriously, but then the industry wasn't so serious back then. Now it's very customer-focused and they usually have crash logs.

[PlyrStar93]

It is indeed the Steam version in Windows 10 that I applied the patch and compatibility settings. Before that, it would lag crazy after 30 minutes until it suddenly crashed. After the fix+compatibility settings, the crashes are noticeably less and I don't have lag (I now think it's the compatibility settings and admin privilege making the difference). But saving often is always the best practice, I now save every 10-20 minutes of simulation.

"Back in the day", I played the non-expansion SC3K in Windows XP on a Pentium 4 machine. I didn't have to apply any fix and only got the ??? Unknown Exception crash occasionally. Later on I would only play on old hardware or legacy OS+virtual machine, until SC3U got re-released on Steam where I have to dig into the compatibility settings and patching.