Fsx 4Gb Limit

[Richard Avenido 5]

ok so im so confused right now on this memory limit of FSX. my task manager says im already using 4.5gb and im still not yet departing but someone told me that i should use the process explorer. then i checked on it says fsx uses 2,292,652 k right now. so am i safe since fsx still have 1.7gb of virtual space based on process explorer info or should i close it down cause the task manger says im already beyond 4gb

 

here's the addon that I use:

1. PMDG 777 - 300

2. UK2000 EGLLV3

3. ORBX GLOBAL

4. WOAI

5. REX TEXTURE DIRECT

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

The task manager is only capable of displaying physical memory in use (RAM), so you should watch the Virtual Address Space (VAS) in Process Explorer instead. IIRC, VAS in Process Explorer is called "virtual memory". (Just to confuse you completely! )

[Richard Avenido 5]

The task manager is only capable of displaying physical memory in use (RAM), so you should watch the Virtual Address Space (VAS) in Process Explorer instead. IIRC, VAS in Process Explorer is called "virtual memory". (Just to confuse you completely! )

hahaha......  okay so am  I still safe to depart? cause i dont want to waste a 10 hr flight because of this stupid OOM error  hehe

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

You should be fine. Note that, expressed in KB instead of GB, your VAS limit isn't 4,0..., but actually 4,2...

 

If you still get close to the limit, you can still save your flight, shut down FSX (VAS is being "reset"), and reload from where you saved it (VAS should be lower then).

[Jim Young 2,356]

You might want to monitor the amount of VAS being used. Here's how:

Monitoring VAS in FSX or P3DV2 – The freeware or registered versions of the FSUIPC utility will allow you to monitor the amount of VAS remaining during a flight session. This might be valuable in troubleshooting Out-of-Memory (OOM’s).

Startup FSX/P3D and then enter the Addon Menu and select FSUIPC. Once FSUIPC is open, click on the Logging Tab and enter 024C under Offset and select S32 under Type. Select where you would like to have the usage displayed. The FS Window is for Full Screen sessions. The FS Title Bar is for Windowed Mode. AVSIM recommends you also check the Normal log file as this provides you information on how much VAS you had to start out with and then it logs usage throughout your flight.

The VAS usage is displayed in Kilobytes (KB’s). The value represents the amount of VAS left so, the lower the value, the more VAS being depleted. The max amount of VAS allowed in computers with 64 bit Operating Systems is 4GB’s. This is shared with other applications running in the background on your computer. For 32 bit Operating Systems, the max amount of VAS allowed for FSX/P3D is 2GB’s but this can be expanded to 3GB’s with a switch like the /3GB switch.

To convert the KB’s to the amount of GB’s, you should use one of the Byte converters on the Internet like the following: http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/byteconverter.htm. You will never see 4194304 KB’s displayed as this equals 4GB’s. You might see around 3GB’s (3145728) remaining when you first start up FSX/P3D but that would be unusual. Do not be too concerned with the amount of VAS remaining when you first start up.

 

Best regards,

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

(...) The max amount of VAS allowed in computers with 64 bit Operating Systems is 4GB’s. This is shared with other applications running in the background on your computer. (...)

 

 

Jim, thanks for providing the "how to" for the free VAS display via FSUIPC. Must have been too lazy for that myself ..

 

The statement I quoted is actually misleading: Each 32bit application has its own VAS with the same limit of 4 GB. So, for example, if I start Active Sky Next, and Radar Contact, and some more stuff, FSX can still use the full 4 GB of VAS. (Addons that run inside of FSX, like FS2Crew, for example, or addons that "inject" stuff into FSX like GSX, for example, will enlarge the VAS footprint of FSX, though.)

[Jim Young 2,356]

Each 32bit application has its own VAS with the same limit of 4 GB. So, for example, if I start Active Sky Next, and Radar Contact, and some more stuff, FSX can still use the full 4 GB of VAS. (Addons that run inside of FSX, like FS2Crew, for example, or addons that "inject" stuff into FSX like GSX, for example, will enlarge the VAS footprint of FSX, though.)

Like many others Oliver, I do not think you fully understand VAS utilization. If there was 4GB's of VAS for every process, then I don't think we would be discussing OOM's. Windows has 4GB's of VAS max for everything (if running on a 64 bit system). FSX is a 32 bit application and can use up to 4GB's of VAS on a 64 bit OS but it must share it with any other application running, including Windows services and processes. FSX is the application and the only one utilizing/needing the VAS. FSX as the application will render aircraft, like PMDG's and that will increase the amount of VAS used by FSX (think PMDG said they use 700-800 MB's of VAS when called to perform by FSX). FSX will load scenery and AI and maybe a weather program and that will be more VAS used by FSX as it functions. Meanwhile, Windows needs to run its processes and it will use some of the 4GBs and, if you have a Windows program like Internet Explorer running in the background, that will take up even more VAS while FSX is still running. If you increase the LOD_Radius in FSX, this process will take even more VAS needed by FSX to operate. Same goes if you increase your sliders to the max. It takes more VAS to load and render those processes needed by the one application, FSX. Word Not Allowed has a good explanation on his website that was used by PMDG to explain the process in their Introduction Manual for the 777. If you have photoscenery installed and do not disable the photoscenery you do not want, FSX will load it anyway and take up even more VAS. Here's a quote from Word Not Allowed's website:

 

"What we should be aware of, is how much our addons use. Some use more, some use less, but they always take some VAS space. And most importantly, due to nature of FSX, this space is not freed as you fly along, nor has anyone yet come up with a plan how to free it up or fix this problem. So for example: you start your flight with an addon aircraft and addon airport, and your VAS usage is 2800MB. When you fly along, this usage will slowly grow. If you don’t overfly any other addon airports, it is bound to grow maybe couple of 100 MBs. let’s say for the sake of an example: up to 3200MB. When you come into range of your destination, and let’s assume you have an addon airport, which loads about 300MB into VAS, you will successfully land, as you will end up with 3500MB VAS. But, let’s assume another scenario, in which you overfly two airports on the way to your destination, or you have some photoscenery, or or or, and the VAS usage grows up to 3700MB until descend. Now you can pretty much sure your sim is 99% going to crash on landing with out of memory = OOM error."

 

This is why it is a good idea to load the VAS usage monitor provided by Pete with the FSUIPC utility. You can get a good idea how fast your VAS is being used during a flight and maybe do some serious management in the future to avoid how fast your VAS is being used by FSX. Like, lowering your settings, removing tweaks, lowering your settings in your weather program and AI program, etc. If you want a lot of eye-candy, then you better shorten the flight. For anyone who wants to still run a long overseas flight that might use a lot of VAS, you might be interested in a utility in our AVSIM Library called Quantum Leap which allows you to speed up your trip across the US or any ocean but it requires the payware version of the FSUIPC utility - http://library.avsim...php?DLID=179703. According to the developer (a member of our Staff), “this utility was written to allow an FSX aircraft established at cruise to "leap" to a point further along the flight plan track. It allows the user to select a nav fix or manually enter coordinates for the jump-ahead point, as well as setting a new time in the simulation to be set at the designated leap-ahead point. The primary objective was to leap forward on very long haul flights to eliminate long periods of droning or wrestling with accelerated flight. It was tested with the PMDG® 777 and 737NGX simulations, but will most likely work with most other add-ons.”

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[Richard Avenido 5]

ok now i get it. the whole time i thought every time it reaches 4gb " at task manager " i'll experience  an OOM error. thank you all of you guys. i can now fly without worrying  

 

please lock this topic now thanks

[goates 576]

 

 

Like many others Oliver, I do not think you fully understand VAS utilization. If there was 4GB's of VAS for every process, then I don't think we would be discussing OOM's.

 

Each process does actually get it's own independent virtual address space in Windows. 32 bit programs, such as FSX, on a 64 bit Windows system get a full 4GB of VAS to themselves, while 64 bit programs can access far more. The issue with OOMs is very much due to a specific program using up it's own address space (which in FSX is influenced by add-ons that run in the FSX process itself). If you have FSX and MS Excel, for example, running at the same when FSX runs into an OOM, Excel will be completely oblivious and keep right on running. What can cause problems when running multiple programs is that there isn't always enough physical RAM to hold the entire address space of each program in the RAM itself, especially on a 32 bit OS. This leads to the memory manager having to move inactive or lower priority data out of physical RAM into the page file to make room for the currently active application.

 

There is a great series of blog posts by Mark Russinovich from Microsoft explaining how Windows handles memory.

 

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Each process does actually get it's own independent virtual address space in Windows. 32 bit programs, such as FSX, on a 64 bit Windows system get a full 4GB of VAS to themselves, while 64 bit programs can access far more. (...)

 

 

Correct: I have a SQL server process running which is 64bit, with a VAS footprint of 16 GB on its own (guess that stuff manages my 16 GB physical RAM) - that's four times the 32bit VAS limit of 4 GB! And heaps of processes running alongside of that one. The accumulative VAS of all my active processes combined is ... large, really large.

[Jim Young 2,356]

There is a great series of blog posts by Mark Russinovich from Microsoft explaining how Windows handles memory.

Yes, I was the one who originally posted that link and I own all of his books. I fully disagree with your explanation. I can't explain it any better than I did above.

 

Best regards,

[goates 576]

Yes, I was the one who originally posted that link and I own all of his books. I fully disagree with your explanation. I can't explain it any better than I did above.

 

Best regards,

 

I first came across it elsewhere.

 

Perhaps the first diagram in this link will better illustrate things.

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh439648%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

I still stand by my explanation that each application gets its own address space that is independent of all other running applications.

[mgh 89]

I still stand by my explanation that each application gets its own address space that is independent of all other running applicati

 

Each  application does get its own address space.

 

The User-mode virtual address space for each 32-bit process has the maximum on 64 bit windows is 4GB with IMAGE_FILE_ADDRESS_AWARE set (default)

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#memory_limits

[voodoo101 21]

I agree, each application does get it's own address space. Internet Explorer will not affect the VAS usage of FSX, neither will any other program that works outside of FSX. Using an external programs that communicate with FSX helps with VAS usage, Majestic Q400 is a prime example, although FSX renders the image the FDE is external to FSX so FSX does not have to calculate the flights dynamics, the same with external ATC and weather programs. Yes using Active Sky and having a cloud full of clouds affect VAS with the rendering, but the process of moving clouds, deciding which clouds have rain and so on is done by Active Sky. These programs are run outside of FSX and get there own space.

 

If every program ran went on one 32 bit application then there would be no point in having a 64 bit OS.

 

To the OP, a simple way of thinking of VAS is this, imagine FSX is a bath with a limit to how much water you can put in. Every aircraft, scenery, AI aircraft and anything else you load into FSX is a bucket full of water, some are bigger then others, the PMDG 777-300 being a big bucket and the default 777 is a little bucket. Each add-on you load into FSX is another bucket of water in the bath and the water rises.

 

So you load FSX and some water goes in the bath, then you add a big bucket of REX Textures, another of ORBX, UK2000 EGLL adds another. Then you add all little ones for every WOAI plane in the airport and flying around and then another big bucket with the PMDG 777. Now your water is quite near the top of the bath but not quite overflowing.

 

As you take off some of this water gets taken out, not a lot because FSX is not clever enough to remove all of EGLL.

 

So you are flying along at 30,000ft + thinking of getting to your destination, meanwhile somebody is adding little bits of water for all the airports and scenery you pass over. Now the water is getting closer to the top, but your ok because as you fly, some of the water still get's taken out.

 

Now if your lucky, when you get to your destination airport, the bucket of water waiting fits nicely in the bath. If you are unlucky then the bucket is too much, the water overflows and you have an OOM.

 

But note that Internet explorer, anti virus programs, notepad or anything else that runs outside of FSX has completely separate baths.

[evaamo 549]

I'm with Craig and Gerry on this one. Each process in a Windows  64bit environment gets their own 4GB of address space. If you use FSUIPC to display the used VAS in the Window Title Bar you'd see how it begins consuming around 600-700mb initially and then the number starts to raise as it begins loading add-ons. The same can be witnessed using PE.

 

cheers

-E