Crash or black screen on opening large file/maps

[smithy]

Hi,
since upgrading to Beta4 i can no longer open maps of 3.5Mb + size, the programme either crashes or just gives all black screen. This was happening previously on B2 I think? and was resolved with B3? I have 4Gb of RAM in my PC.

Cheers,
Smithy

[Kanchou]

Hi,
since upgrading to Beta4 i can no longer open maps of 3.5Mb + size, the programme either crashes or just gives all black screen. This was happening previously on B2 I think? and was resolved with B3? I have 4Gb of RAM in my PC.

Cheers,
Smithy

Smithy,

Looking into it. What pixel size is the map? Also remind me, are you running 32 bits or 64 bits Windows.

Thanks!

- Alejandro

[Kanchou]

Hi,
since upgrading to Beta4 i can no longer open maps of 3.5Mb + size, the programme either crashes or just gives all black screen. This was happening previously on B2 I think? and was resolved with B3? I have 4Gb of RAM in my PC.

Cheers,
Smithy

Smithy,

Looking into it. What pixel size is the map? Also remind me, are you running 32 bits or 64 bits Windows.

Thanks!

- Alejandro

Just looked back through your emails, and I think it's 32. Working on reproducing.

Let me know the pixel map size when you get a moment.

Thanks!

- Alejandro

[Kanchou]

Smithy,

Doing a quick check. I think the problem is all the new artwork. We didn't think about it at the time, but it increased the memory usage (and loading time) - it was a ton of artwork. We're planning to add an option to unload art modules that you aren't using with the next release.

Meanwhile, you can try moving artwork folders you aren't using elsewhere (i.e. if you are not using the sci fi set)

Features are here
C:\Program Files\Three Minds Software\Other World Mapper\Features

i.e. cut "Expansion Sci Fi" and paste it somewhere else in your PC so that OWM won't parse it.

Textures are Here
C:\Program Files\Three Minds Software\Other World Mapper\Textures

Thank you for the feedback! And sorry for the lame temp workaround!

- Alejandro

[smithy]

OK thanks, I will give it a go. Im not using the Sci-Fi stuff just now.

Smithy

[Kanchou]

OK thanks, I will give it a go. Im not using the Sci-Fi stuff just now.

Smithy

Did the math. All the expansion artwork together accounts for 300 MB of RAM being used up. So that's taking from your baseline RAM for using OWM.

Regardless, we need to a) have options to not load art sets and b) fail more gracefully when we are out of RAM.

One thing. Can you look at task manager and tells us how much free RAM you have with the maps that "fail"? I want to be sure that's the problem.

Thank you for your help and patience!

- Alejandro

[smithy]

RAM on failure is very low - around 20 Mb max. It is around 110Mb when i use a smaller map (1Mb vs 4Mb). I did manage to open the large one after removing some of the Features / Textures from the folders, but it is very slow.

[smithy]

It has gone back to crashing every time i open big map. FYI they are 7000 x 5000 pixels.

[Kanchou]

It has gone back to crashing every time i open big map. FYI they are 7000 x 5000 pixels.

You'll basically need enough free RAM for the loaded art resources, and then the RAM for 7000 x 5000 "bitmap", plus RAM for effects, grids, etc.
How much is OWM taking of your 4GB of RAM (from task mananger - OWM.exe)?

Thanks!

- Alejandro

[smithy]

Its using between 860Mb and 1.04Gb.