Yeah your right, I'm sorry I never pursued it properly until it became a bigger problem.

But I would like to find it now. I also remember that it happened in A7 too, it's just I didn't really come to notice it as back then I thought my game just consumed to much memory. But then I published the game and realized that was not the case. And of course as time went on the game grew, and this problem became more of an issue but I could still test. Now that I am moving to windows7 it is a huge issue as I cant develop properly.

Test #1:

Here is a process I tried on my 32bit Windows XP machine with 3GB of installed ram. The numbers with stars by them is what the taskbar shows.

First when I hit the black run arrow in SED during compilation the memory goes to 1.1GB* and then hits 1.5GB*
when game starts(and loads main menu):

nx-21854
m - 462835
geo - 0
shd - 192
ent - 3969
v - 699392

uu1 - 0
uu2 - 0

count of
ent 10
vis 9
par 0
lit 0
snd 0
fnc 11
bdy 0
con 0

I load up the first level and memory goes to 1.6GB*

I Load a second level, and it goes up to 1.5GB* and then quickly it go down to 799MB* after the level is loaded.

nx - 149676
m 462675
geo - 0
shd - 0
ent - 103410
v - 532480

ent 293
vis 156
tri 36k
par 8
lit 0
snd 0
fnc 227
bdy 0
con 0

I then go back to main menu and memory stays at about 900MB*.

I then load the first level again and the memory goes up to 985MB*.

I then load 4 more levels before hitting out of memory error or a directx error. The taskbar shows about 1GB* at this time.

Test#2:

Windows XP 32bit.

I do the same procedure as above, except this time, I load up different levels. The memory in taskbar shows 1.4GB-1.6GB throughout 5 different level loads before crash. All stats are the same as above.

Test #3:

This one I tried on my 64bit Windows 7 machine with 12GB of ram.

The stats all read the same except the v in the memory column equals -88000. Which is odd because the graphics card has 1GB.

I load up the first level and the game crashes because of directx memory errors(cannot create bmap, ect.).

For some odd reason, windows7 based machines with way more ram crash instantly once the game hits about 1.6GB in the taskbar. Whereas on windows Xp you can sit around 1.6GB for about 5-6 level loads before it finally crashes.

Test#4

I compile the game down and run it with same code and assets. Main menu memory shows at 400MB* in taskbar. Once I load a level it goes up to 700MB* and I can load 30 levels in a row fine...

Maybe some file reacts differently in the development versus the published version and chews memory. It's worth noting that in all the development tests, before any major level loads(menu level is empty for most part), the memory has already hit 1.5GB*. Whereas it is 400MB in published version.

This makes me assume it's either engine related or something in the script that only triggers in the dev version.

Silas has huge scripts, with 100'000's of lines of code. Many variables, ect. But I am willing to look hard if you have an idea on some leads. I have different plugins like fmod, ect. too.

I really appreciate your help with this JCL.