Pondering this issue, I'm wondering if FSX DX9 is holding autogen and hand placed scenery objects in separate pools.  It cleans up autogen when it isn't needed but doesn't clean up the hand-placed stuff, leaving it to hold onto memory until shutdown. 

In vector I needed to turn off secondary and tertiary roads.  It really made very little difference visually but added lots of frames and probably some VAS.

Does it actually free up VAS though?

 

I'm not sure it works directly on VAS, it cleans the memory of unused items and frees up quite a bit of memory and I think this indirectly affects VAS as well.

Anyhow, since I've been using it, I havent even come close to any OOMs, even when I start a flight with 3.7GB used RAM in memory heavy areas. Used memory only drops from there instead of going up and after, say 20mins flight I'm well below 3GB.

 

I tried apps like this before and they all made problems in the sim and when I found CleanMem I didnt think it would be any better, but gave it a try anyways. It seemed to work so I left it on my system, but at the time I hadnt much time to dive into it and I actually mostly forget it's on my system, so I still have to get into the details of it.

I'm not sure it works directly on VAS, it cleans the memory of unused items and frees up quite a bit of memory and I think this indirectly affects VAS as well.

After reading this: http://www.pcwintech.com/about-cleanmem I do believe you've captured the salient point. While CleanMem does not address the VAS table directly, by freeing up portions of memory no longer being used (instead of sending it to the page file), it also frees up the relevant portions of the VAS table, since those addresses are no longer required.

 

What surprised me though is that CleanMem only calls on a standard Windows API to do the actual work. Hence there's no risk of damage caused by crappy kludge programming (unless it's Microsoft's crappy kludge programming of course)...

So Bill are you saying its worth a try ?

From the article and description I gave a link to, it is clear that it cannot hurt anything, so it's safe enough to test out. Also, being totally free it is definitely a "no risk" affair.

Hmmm...when I try to download it, Chrome flags it as malware and blocks it.

Hmmm...when I try to download it, Chrome flags it as malware and blocks it.

Well, Firefox let it through...if that's a good thing .  Seems okay.  I told it to clean up memory...VAS usage stayed the same...but we'll see.

The one thing I'll say about Cleanmem is that I get an stutter in my sound when it runs. 

Thanks for the explination, Bill.

The one thing I'll say about Cleanmem is that I get an stutter in my sound when it runs. 

 

Weird, I havent noticed anything at all, no stutters in the sim, like every other memory cleaner I tried so far did and also no sound issues.

Did you check if the task it creates in Task Scheduler is setup right? I had to turn on the Win7 mode manually and adjusted some items to my personal likings.

Has anyone done the obvious thing and used VMMAP to actually check what CleanMem does?

 

EDIT

 

i've seen it said that CleanMem uses  "Windows API to compact processes in memory.". Which API(s)?

 

 

I had to turn on the Win7 mode manually and adjusted some items to my personal likings.

 

It did create the task.  I'll take a look at Win7 mode.  I was just running it default.  Could be my system. 

I have Global, Vector and OpenLC and have never had an OOM. All scenery except for photoscenery gets loaded into FSX no matter where you are located.

But I disable all airport scenery except departure and arrival. And still I get OOM warnings. Do you have the PMDG 777?

 

 

Do you have the PMDG 777?

 

No.

No.

That is what pushes me over vas. I can use any other addon airplane but the 777

That is what pushes me over vas. I can use any other addon airplane but the 777

 

It has to be your settings.  I can fly the 777 between two heavy payware airports and land with 1000 to 1300 MB of VAS remaining.  I just did a flight yesterday between Singapore and Shanghai and this was the case.  I was flying with LOD of 5.5.   All I can suggest is start to turn down some of your scenery settings and also turn down AI cars and planes until you don't run out of memory.