Memory vs Scenery Issue or Not?

[Guest bwob]

Recently I've been getting memory errors on FS9 startup after adding scenery.I've got a lot of add-on scenery and a ton of planes. My PC's got two gig of hard RAM and plenty of space for virtual on multiple hard discs and I'm running Windows XP. So I'm wondering what can be done - short of removing the scenery add-ons - to help cure this problem.I was curious if unclicking the 'enable' radio checkbox in the scenery setting section of FS9 would reduse the memory demands with uninstalling some of the scenery. Will that do the trick? I know I could remove all the scenery, but then reinstalling becomes a royal pain. If unclicking the 'enable' checkbox works and reduces the drain on memory, I'll be fine. Can anyone offer some guidance on this?It was suggested that I use an add-on called Flightsim Manager from a friend who used it to address memory leak and other issues he'd encounter after adding new scenery, so I downloaded the most recent version I could find (2.8.5). However when it starts I am told it's an old version and I should go to the developer's website to upgrade. That's great but for the fact the developer's website (http://www.ranainside.com/) is closed and I've been told the software's no longer supported.I'm open to any suggestions, as the "out of memory" warnings at attempted startup are getting real stale.Thanks in advance for any help that might be offered.bwob

[mgh 89]

>Recently I've been getting memory errors on FS9 startup after>adding scenery.>Have you tried removing that scenery? If removing it eliminates the mommory errors then I'd ditch it.

[Guest bwob]

That was the first thing I tried, however the result was inconclusive. I removed the scenery causing the initial problem (a VERY big one - more than 60Mb), then tried to install a small one (less than 1MB) and it happened all over again. Out of memory.As an experiment, I removed a small one (about 2MB) from the exsiting working set of scenery, and then installed the 60+Mb airport that caused the choke and it ran fine. It's almost as though it's unhappy with anything over a certain number of add-on sceneries.So I'm still trying to find a solution.bwob

[Guest TomOOO]

Good question...Normally FS will take a position of the plane, and view directionand determine all the textures that are visible. The number oftextures visible depends on a number of parameters within theFS9.cfg, the MIPS setting and the AF. There are memory issues if youhave multiple "objects" that superpose, that is, if you have downloadedmultiple addon, then the object highest within the scenery list isthe last one rendered - the lower objects are still loaded andvirtually rendered (though not seen). MIPS and AF conspire to use memory by using multiple texture setsfor the distant view objects and is there to improve the qualityof the render and the speed of render at the expense of using morememory.FS9.cfg has settings that define the view radii for scenery, ifyou set this higher then you load more textures and use morememory. Also, view distance and other texture quality/size valueseffect the amount of memory taken by the scenery. Also the LODeffects the scenery memory requirements.FS9 is supposed to skip completely a scenery set if it is notchecked within the scenery list, so this is not loaded or rendered.I have tried stuff that indicates that this is true, but if anyonefinds otherwise then I am happy to admit to an error here.Memory problems with scenery, as noted in many posts, is mostlydown to the empty texture folders - this results in a real memory leak. Memory problems where you just have too many addon is a problem ofjust too many addon - this is not a memory leak. In this case youhave hit the 2Gbyte upper limit for windows 32bit OS. Nothing todo with the amount of physical memory you have. Tom