Does anybody else experience frequent ram-related crashes while playing stock 32-bit?

[User Unrelated]

I didn't want to post over in the support, because I know exactly what is going on.

I'm running 1.0.4 on a 32 bit system.

I just bought 4Gb of ram, thinking the 32-bit limit was on a per-application basis, which I was disappointed to find out it isn't...

My game runs fine, everything is smooth, but it can only stand 2 or 3 scene changes before my computer runs out of RAM and the game crashes.

it's INCREDIBLY frustrating!

This has been happening more and more as the game gets closer to completion (and larger)

I used to crash it all the time with lots of mods back in the 0.17 days, but now it does it in VANILLA STOCK, too!... (ever since about 0.9)

Does anyone have any tips or tricks so that I can enjoy this game? I've finally reached a point in my life where I have enough time to play this game, and I keep getting pushed away because of this annoying RAM issue.

I've thought about removing stock parts that I don't use often, but the reduction in RAM usage while the game is running is minimal, and it still crashes after a few scene changes.

I've also tried running the active texture management mod, but I don't think it makes a difference with stock parts...

[Motokid600]

Eh... stock you say? Thats a new one. Well every pc is different thats apparent. The stock game should run just fine on a capable pc. Which isnt saying much. Are you running anything in the background? You say a "per application basis." So whats else is going on thats eating up so much memory?

Post basic pc specs if you will please.

[cantab]

The question is rather does anybody running 32-bit KSP not experience such crashes! They've been plaguing KSP for a few versions and patches now, due to an assortment of memory leak bugs.

Setting textures to half-res may help.

[smjjames]

The question is rather does anybody running 32-bit KSP not experience such crashes! They've been plaguing KSP for a few versions and patches now, due to an assortment of memory leak bugs.

Setting textures to half-res may help.

Yeah, that should be the actual question. It's an inevitable thing, the more (and bigger) mods you have, the faster you will hit that and crash. It can also vary depending on your system spec.s

[Guest]

I'm pretty sure that's not a RAM problem. KSP is by default is Large Address Aware and can use up to 3GB of RAM. The stock game usually clocks in at about 1.5GB, and even after hours of gameplay, I usually don't go over 2GB.

Have you checked to make sure your Operating System is utilizing all of your new RAM? Go to your system properties and check the amount of RAM listed.

If you're using Windows XP, have you activated the /3GB switch?

[BudgetHedgehog]

Piping in here - with a 27" 1080p screen, stock KSP crashes upon load with a 32bit Windows OS (+ GTX 970 + 16GB DDR4. Don't ask). Can't find resolution, the log says, then crashes trying to go to a lower one. I can't explain how happy I was when I got the 64bit OS..

[User Unrelated]

Eh... stock you say? Thats a new one. Well every pc is different thats apparent. The stock game should run just fine on a capable pc. Which isnt saying much. Are you running anything in the background? You say a "per application basis." So whats else is going on thats eating up so much memory?

Post basic pc specs if you will please.

Nothing is running in the background besides the system.

And by "per application basis" I meant if I added more RAM, the system would use that to run it's own background stuff, freeing up a decent chunk of space for KSP to guzzle all 4Gb at will.

Dell Optiplex 990

i5-2500 quad-core 3.3Ghz

RADEON HD6350 graphics

8GB installed RAM (3.24Gb useable according to the system. It sees all 8, though)

This box aint' no wimp... well except for 32bit windows.

815Mb system RAM useage at startup

2.23Gb total RAM useabe with KSP running

I just booted the game, entered the SPH, loaded a plane, launched it, crashed it, reverted to SPH, launched it, crashed it, revert to SPH, but it crashes in-between the scene-change.

Mono.dll caused an access violation.

It doesn't look like it's using too much RAM, but this is the exact same behavior that was shown back in the good old days when I used to run heaps of mods.

I'm pretty sure that's not a RAM problem. KSP is by default is Large Address Aware and can use up to 3GB of RAM. The stock game usually clocks in at about 1.5GB, and even after hours of gameplay, I usually don't go over 2GB.

Have you checked to make sure your Operating System is utilizing all of your new RAM? Go to your system properties and check the amount of RAM listed.

If you're using Windows XP, have you activated the /3GB switch?

There's no way that I have found to get Windows 7 32-bit to be able to use more than ~3.5Gb or RAM. It recognizes that 8Gb is there, but it can only use a small portion of it.

[Laie]

This box aint' no wimp... well except for 32bit windows.

Alright, here's your reason. Any 32bit OS can only address 4GB of Memory (1)(2).Actually, a little less as some of the address space is used for other purposes. So your OS can only really use like 3.5-3.8GB and part of that is required for windows itself. That's quite tight even for stock KSP.

(1) I'm pretty certain this includes swap as well. Your OS can only address 32^2=~4 billion bytes of memory, regardless of wether it' real RAM or a virtual RAM (a file on your disk).

(2) there are workarounds. People have been running 8GB servers on 32bit hardware... basically, it's the good olde upper memory thing all over again. If your flavor of Windows has "premium" or "professional" in it's name, you may (may!) even have the choice to active it.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Laie

[User Unrelated]

Alright, here's your reason. Any 32bit OS can only address 4GB of Memory (1)(2).Actually, a little less as some of the address space is used for other purposes. So your OS can only really use like 3.5-3.8GB and part of that is required for windows itself. That's quite tight even for stock KSP.

(1) I'm pretty certain this includes swap as well. Your OS can only address 32^2=~4 billion bytes of memory, regardless of wether it' real RAM or a virtual RAM (a file on your disk).

(2) there are workarounds. People have been running 8GB servers on 32bit hardware... basically, it's the good olde upper memory thing all over again. If your flavor of Windows has "premium" or "professional" in it's name, you may (may!) even have the choice to active it.

I've got professional...

And yeah, I know that now (After I booted it up and saw "RAM: 8Gb (3.24Gb useable))... (I always thought that RAM limit was for each PROCESS, not the whole system, which is why I bought more RAM)

But if this is the case... why isn't everyone else who runs BONE STOCK on 32-bit (I'm sure there are PLENTY) crashing every 3 scene changes?

[Laie]

IIRC there also was a limit of 2GB per process, maybe it's this what bites you.

Maybe you should look into Linux. I've recently done a Debian install that went without any tricky questions and lead to a system that "just works". If you're afraid of slicing up exisiting partitions, find any old hard disk. For playing KSP, you may even install linux to a lowly USB thumbdrive -- load times may be long, but KSP loads everything at start and once it's running it only needs the disk to dump logs. If the game crashes and you need to start over, probably everything will still be cached. As for size, 8GB may be a bit tight, 16GB will be plenty.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Laie

[User Unrelated]

IIRC there also was a limit of 2GB per process, maybe it's this what bites you.

Maybe you should look into Linux. I've recently done a Debian install that went without any tricky questions and lead to a system that "just works". If you're afraid of slicing up exisiting partitions, find any old hard disk. For playing KSP, you may even install linux to a lowly USB thumbdrive -- load times may be long, but KSP loads everything at start and once it's running it only needs the disk to dump logs. If the game crashes and you need to start over, probably everything will still be cached. As for size, 8GB may be a bit tight, 16GB will be plenty.

Why didn't I think of this...

I can't fuss with the operating system on this computer, because it "isn't mine" (from work, technically doesn't exist in the system bla bla bla... Have a backup of when I got it, if anyone ever asks yeah it's right here no I didn't do anything with it uh-hu yup that's right here ya go)

I've got a 125Gb external hard drive not doing much... Heck, I would even be willing to buy a small 80Gb internal drive to slap in the second bay and boot from that!

Ugh I feel dumb now I've run linux before, too, so that's no problem for me.

[*Aqua*]

IIRC there also was a limit of 2GB per process, maybe it's this what bites you.

As said by MailletC before, KSP has the large address flag set. It can use 4 GB minus a couple 100 MBs of RAM (depends on machine).

---

You should dig more to find out why the game crashes. Stock KSP has always been rock stable for me except the 64 bit Windows version. Look into Windows Event Log if there's a more specific crash reason recorded.

[Merinsan]

When KSP 9.0 came out, my son was unable to launch, simply because he was on a 32bit machine, with 4GB of Ram. The settings may have been high, which might have been the issue, but my solution was to buy myself a new computer and he got my old computer (which is still pretty good -64 bit 8GB ram).

Bottom line, 32 bit windows will struggle with KSP because of the memory limits. 64 bit windows does a much better job, since it can give the app more memory, ie up to 4GB for a 32 bit app.

[WOODY01]

When KSP 9.0 came out, my son was unable to launch, simply because he was on a 32bit machine, with 4GB of Ram. The settings may have been high, which might have been the issue, but my solution was to buy myself a new computer and he got my old computer (which is still pretty good -64 bit 8GB ram).

Bottom line, 32 bit windows will struggle with KSP because of the memory limits. 64 bit windows does a much better job, since it can give the app more memory, ie up to 4GB for a 32 bit app.

This. A 32bit OS will more likely run into issues running KSP. Even if a 32 bit can access up to 4 gb, which is really pushing the limitations to the max, it still is more likely to have problems with an app exceeding or nearing 2gb.

Seen several people having issues trying to run vanilla KSP on a 32 bit OS and the solution was using opengl and/or using ATM.

[selfish_meme]

Why didn't I think of this...

I can't fuss with the operating system on this computer, because it "isn't mine" (from work, technically doesn't exist in the system bla bla bla... Have a backup of when I got it, if anyone ever asks yeah it's right here no I didn't do anything with it uh-hu yup that's right here ya go)

I've got a 125Gb external hard drive not doing much... Heck, I would even be willing to buy a small 80Gb internal drive to slap in the second bay and boot from that!

Ugh I feel dumb now I've run linux before, too, so that's no problem for me.

Plus if you run linux you can run ksp 64bit with all the mods, see the linux support thread though, AMD Is not the best choice for linux

Edited August 7, 2015 by selfish_meme

[Bartoszko]

As said by MailletC before, KSP has the large address flag set. It can use 4 GB minus a couple 100 MBs of RAM (depends on machine).

Not in my case and probably not in OP case.

I had old laptop with 2GB of RAM and was disappointed when crashes became more frequent after upgrading to 4GB (completely stock with 1/4 texture quality).

Solution? Increasing virtual memory with bcdedit. Not a single RAM related crash since then.

I`m using Win7.

[Broax]

Piping in here - with a 27" 1080p screen, stock KSP crashes upon load with a 32bit Windows OS (+ GTX 970 + 16GB DDR4. Don't ask). Can't find resolution, the log says, then crashes trying to go to a lower one. I can't explain how happy I was when I got the 64bit OS..

I'm sorry but I have to ask... Why on earth would you buy 16GB DDR4 for a 32bit OS?

[BudgetHedgehog]

I'm sorry but I have to ask... Why on earth would you buy 16GB DDR4 for a 32bit OS?

I did say don't ask...

Well actually, it was a mistake. A friend was picking the parts, chose that OS and was like 'yeah its ok, they usually ask if you want to install the 32bit or 64bit version, it's fine'. It was not fine and as soon as I got home, I ordered the 64bit version which now completes my beast.

[User Unrelated]

Plus if you run linux you can run ksp 64bit with all the mods, see the linux support thread though, AMD Is not the best choice for linux

Well then that may be a problem, because the motherboard doesn't have built-in graphics...

I'll try and figure it out, though...

And I'm actually through my "mod phase" I think... I started playing vanilla quite a while ago, maybe 1 or 2 mods here and there like aviation-lights and some utilities like KAC and Stage-recovery...

I've been VERY happy with the current progression of the game, though! I've found that all of the new features that have come out in the last year or so pretty much encompass my usual suite of mods! (FAR, deadly re-entry, Kethane, etc)

If I can get something running that can use the RAM efficiently, I MIGHT go back to using Interstellar for high-end tech, I've always loved that mod.

[Harry Rhodan]

Well then that may be a problem, because the motherboard doesn't have built-in graphics...

The i5 2500 definitely has a graphics unit. But then again the AMD drivers aren't that bad as some people think they are.

[marach]

I did say don't ask...

Well actually, it was a mistake. A friend was picking the parts, chose that OS and was like 'yeah its ok, they usually ask if you want to install the 32bit or 64bit version, it's fine'. It was not fine and as soon as I got home, I ordered the 64bit version which now completes my beast.

Or you could just grab the media creation tool and get win10 64 bit for free... if you don't mind win10 anyway...

[Guest]

But if this is the case... why isn't everyone else who runs BONE STOCK on 32-bit (I'm sure there are PLENTY) crashing every 3 scene changes?

I used to run KSP on my old machine with Windows XP with the /3GB switch, and everything ran fine. It later suffered an unfortunate CPU melting incident which was totally unrelated to the fact the CPU was effectively at 100% load while playing KSP.

Windows 7 32bit also has a switch for increasing the RAM available for programs. Study carefully before making changes:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/26643-3gb-switch.html

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff542202.aspx

[BudgetHedgehog]

Or you could just grab the media creation tool and get win10 64 bit for free... if you don't mind win10 anyway...

Couldn't - it was an OEM key, not a retail key. Besides, when I started building this rig, Win10 was months away from being released.

[marach]

Couldn't - it was an OEM key, not a retail key. Besides, when I started building this rig, Win10 was months away from being released.

Win10 doesn't care btw you just tell the media creation tool you want 64bit and away it goes doesn't care about 32 or 64 bit starting os (did it yesterday for a family member)

[BudgetHedgehog]

doesn't care about 32 or 64 bit starting os

I didn't have a starting OS when I built it and Win10 was months away. No way would I suffer that 32bit OS for months until it was. Anyway, enough offtopicness