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Possible solution to memory leaks & crashes in V2 & V3 viewer found.

Tenaar Feiri

By Tenaar Feiri,
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Tenaar Feiri

Tenaar Feiri

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EDIT:

I've an update on this issue now.

 

Since disabling Adobe Flash Player's hardware acceleration, I've had ZERO crashes and memory leaks from SL V1, 2 AND 3 in 3 days.

 

I've tested it for 12hrs straight, every day, for 3 days and have had no issues. I'd suggest everyone gives it a try.

 

 

To disable hardware acceleration, simply right-click on any Adobe-based flash application or video player, go to "Settings" and you should see it ticked on by default the moment the settings window opens. Untick it & close.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've had an issue with ALL V2 Viewers I've tried (Firestorm & Second Life Beta Viewer) that either causes my computer to shut down, or the application to close on itself without giving me any kind of error messages.

 

I've tried everything from updating my drivers to reinstalling my system, clearing caches, etc. etc. but nothing has fixed the issue. So I sat down today with my Task Manager open while playing SL Beta Viewer (V2, that is) after making another change to the computer that I hoped would fix it and I noticed that unlike V1 viewers, V2 doesn't appear to ditch the data it loads in the RAM.

No, it keeps the data even if it is not being used, and it continues to store data in the RAM indefinitely. With SL being a 32-bit software, I see that it can in some cases quickly hit the 3.5gb RAM limit for 32-bit architecture.

When I started SL viewer, it began at a staggering 500mb RAM usage, which rose to 968mb in just a matter of minutes, and since then continued to increase as I walked around SL, TPed to places & did my stuff, until it hit 3.5gb where the application either shuts down my computer or closes on itself.

 

I recall this being an issue with the V1 viewer before, but I run SL on V1 just fine (at the best settings too) and I never crash and the memory usage on V1 has never gone above 1gb in my experience, so clearly the problem was fixed at some point in time.

If SL2 doesn't get rid of data that's no longer in use from the RAM, then that's imo a pretty basic mistake.

 

Could anyone who knows the technical workings of V2 (maybe even a V2 developer) give me some information about this? Is this intended, or is it a problem that will be fixed?

If it can't be fixed, how can I work around the issue?

 

 

*edit* I am also unable to provide error logs because the client doesn't produce any when it crashes in this way, oddly.

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Tenaar Feiri

Tenaar Feiri

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No, I've never had this problem with any other application, not even with web browsing.

 

Only V2 viewers seem to have this issue for me, V1 runs fine. Can run V1 for 24 hours straight without as much as a hiccup (tested).

That's what I find to be the weirdest part, really. Everything else works fine, OpenGL applications, DX applications, & other applications unrelated to gaming, music sequencing software-- none of that crashes, shuts down my PC or closes itself. Only V2 viewers seem to do that.

 

I'm running Win7 x64 with 6gb RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4600-series GFX card, if it'll help.

 

 

Also, I used to run Linux Kubuntu on this very same computer some months back with V2, and I had no problems then. No crashes at all, it worked perfectly fine, but then I was forced to swap to Windows for my music software and since then I had to downgrade to V1 in order to safely play SL.

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Tristizia Demonista

Tristizia Demonista

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Hitomi Tiponi wrote:

I am wondering if your computer isn't freeing up RAM as it should do - are you experiencing any similar problems with other apps or web browsing?

As i do have a similar issue, no all other software works fine. It definatly seems to be a problem of V2 code, as it happens on ALL official LL V2's, Firestorm and Dolphin Viewer 2.

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Tristizia Demonista

Tristizia Demonista

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Maybe a bit more info on this.

RAM allocation doesn't increase when, for example, i just login and "park" my Avi, doing nothing.

Normally, at least for me, it increases the longer i stay "active" in world, TP around or visit places and it then levels at around 900k RAM usage, even with a LOT of TP's. 

BUT, when i start to cam around, then the memory just rises rapidly, up to a point where either the viewer gets too laggy or, in rare cases crashes, without a trace as the OP allready pointed out.

Allways thought this was because of my rather old & crappy Comp, but apparently this isn't the case :( 

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Miranda Tretiak

Miranda Tretiak

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I have the exact same problem. Have had this problem since the introduction of V2 viewer. Thought it was my pc and have gone through all hardware/software checks and upgrades/updates to no avail.

As much as it doesn't help the problem, it actually makes me feel happy to see others are having it because I seriously thought it was a problem on my end.

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Tenaar Feiri

Tenaar Feiri

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I think this is a memory leak that needs to be taken a serious look at, a few people I know & play with also experience the same issue. One of them's got a beast of a computer that's ready for DX11 and runs extremely computer-intensive games like Crysis 2 & Homefront pretty damn well, but when it comes to Second Life V2, the RAM just fills up until the software or the computer dies on itself.

The viewer shouldn't pass 2gb in memory usage, not as a 32-bit application. It NEEDS to clear the RAM of data that is no longer in use.

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Sirix Finesmith

Sirix Finesmith

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I've got to agree that this needs attending to, it seems like the code was designed with future hardware in mind and no respect to current. AAA shooters don't get the awards they do, or look as good as they do, by saying that the hardware of tomorrow will make up for the sloppy coding of today.

 

I'm running 4 gigs of ram, a quad core 2.88, a AMD HD 6850, and a X-fi titanium. This is more than generous for second life, yet it still has stuttering and choking moments from memory issues. That is SILLY.

 

This happens when people like Qarl get left go.

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Tristizia Demonista

Tristizia Demonista

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Tried out the newest development viewer today ( 2.8.4 (237514) ) and it seems that, while not completly gone, the memory usage has changed. At least for me, it more or less keeps stable in the 800-900k regions. Camming doesn't add to it either :)

Maybe you should try it out and see if it works for you too.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Alternate_Viewers 

ETA: And it's FAST too :)
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Tenaar Feiri

Tenaar Feiri

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That is seriously great news!

 

I'll be sure to check it out myself soon-ish!

 

 

 

EDIT: After 30-45 minutes of testing, I've found myself at a stable 1.5gb RAM usage, nothing more. Let's see what happens when the peak hours of my favourite Sim kick in, but so far it seems good.

Also, the development viewer appears to be dropping data from the RAM when it's no longer needed which is excellent! My jaw literally dropped seeing a decrease in RAM as I played as opposed to a steady increase.

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Tenaar Feiri

Tenaar Feiri

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RAM is still increasing for me with the development viewer, BUT it's not increasing as rapidly as it does with the current release of V2. Which is quite an improvement; I'm actually able to play with a V2 viewer on Windows for the first time since late January.

 

 

EDIT: I could play for 2.5 hours without crashing due to memory overload now, as opposed to my previous 45 minutes. Improvement, but not quite there yet.

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Tristizia Demonista

Tristizia Demonista

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Tenaar Feiri wrote:

RAM is still increasing for me with the development viewer, BUT it's not increasing as rapidly as it does with the current release of V2. Which is quite an improvement; I'm actually able to play with a V2 viewer on Windows for the first time since late January.

 

 

EDIT: I could play for 2.5 hours without crashing due to memory overload now, as opposed to my previous 45 minutes. Improvement, but not quite there yet.

Yep, definatly an improvement, but not quite there yet. But it seems there is actually someone working on it. ;)

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Tenaar Feiri

Tenaar Feiri

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I've an update on this issue now.

 

Since disabling Adobe Flash Player's hardware acceleration, I've had ZERO crashes and memory leaks from SL V1, 2 AND 3 in 3 days.

 

I've tested it for 12hrs straight, every day, for 3 days and have had no issues. I'd suggest everyone gives it a try.

 

 

To disable hardware acceleration, simply right-click on any Adobe-based flash application or video player, go to "Settings" and you should see it ticked on by default the moment the settings window opens. Untick it & close.

 

Please let me know if this works for you guys.

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