what causes memory leak

Leaks are caused whenever a program requests memory but never frees it again. Usually, that same memory is requested, but since it wasn't freed earlier it takes up the same amount of space again. A 1 Byte variable that does this every time the scene is drawn could take up MBs in a few hours.

The problem with leaks is that they are usually difficult to find if you weren't tracking memory usage in the first place. It could be that a list isn't getting cleaned up, or a per-frame call leaks a single variable. I'm sure if MM knew what the cause was it would've been fixed by now.

In other news, the temp folder doesn't get deleted until you close the game. So while your ram is being flooded, your hard drive is being flooded too. Have fun

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Watch for my mod - codename: Dimensions - coming by Summer, 2007!

I use real player to play BBC radio programs whilst and I don’t seem to have such a problem I don’t think it helps that most MS apps are not exactly memory friendly themselves. It is does do to save and shut down SEV every so often (daily) as it speeds proceedings up, If there is a memory leak its a subtle one and there may be other contributing factors to it. It may also be that I have 3gig of RAM on this machine.

It doesnt matter how much memory you put in a computer, a single windows program can not exceed 2GB, its related to the 32 bit operating system. The new 64 bit windows should make it possible to run programs that use more than 2GB but the programs themselvs have to be programmed for the 64bit processors/OS. Unless you are using several programs at the same time there is no need fro more than 2 GB memory in a computer.

There is a program called DevPartner Studio that helps you find memory leaks if you are using visual studio, but im not sure what they are programming SE5 in...

Trust me I am and this is will be the back up server (spare) when I have got the domain stuff sorted out.

I sure hope it was programmed in C++. The same program written in both VB and C++ will run about twice as fast in C++...

Are you sure that 32bit XP can't support more than 2GBs of RAM? It effectively has more than that most of the time, but it's stored in the page file. If you keep requesting more RAM, once the RAM is full, it starts going into the page file. It should be able to support more than 2GB.

Though it is still a waste. Nothing I've ever done on my current computer has ever managed to max the RAM out, and I only have 1 GB, with only ~512 MB free at any time. Programs take up a surprisingly small amount of space when you think about it.

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Watch for my mod - codename: Dimensions - coming by Summer, 2007!

Most applications don't use a lot of RAM, but Windows....ugh. I have my WinXP down to a little over 300MB at idle, though admittedly I do let a few "fluff" services run (DAEMON, a Logitech service for my nice mouse, etc.)

Of course, I can quickly grab all 2GB when I turn on Oracle, Informatica, and other big enterprise-grade apps.

And if anyone still has any doubt, go and check it out instead of just talking nonsense, please.

The upcoming Windows allows more onboard memory but that depends on which release you buy. details can be found at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

That's good information! And that's the kind of thing I like to see people pointing too - solid stuff.

As long as they're discussing the game, fine. But when many here start wandering off into operating systems, etc., all they're doing is repeating something that their "best bud" (who doesn't know anything, either) has told them.

So just stick to the game and everyone will be OK.