SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - How one MIGHT avoid a CTD

Hi there,

this is just an idea, based upon a brainwave i had three month ago, some testing and the fact that i did not see a "Crash to desktop" since, even when restoring games i saved while under water.

Disclaimer: i play SH3 under WINE (Windows emulator) in Linux. Your milage may vary!

Solving an unrelated problem in Linux i ran across some articles about "memory fragmentation". I found out how to evaluate the state of my RAM and suddenly thought about SH3 and the crashes i had (i got SH3 with GWX 3.0 and 4GB of RAM, so there should be enough space left, but still i got these CTDs and they normaly come from problems with the RAM (in good old Windows 3.x they were known as "General Protection Fault", the program trying to access memory that was not there or it had no right to access)). Basically, what you want to do is present SH3 with ONE BIG LUMP of RAM it can use to it's own wishes, not twohundredtwentyfive little bits of RAM, each of them to small to live in and to big to die for :damn:

Since that day of the brainwave i changed the way i start SH3. I ALWAYS start it RIGHT AFTER rebooting. I avoid to start (and, critically important, to END!) any program before SH3. I didn't have A SINGLE crash while doinig so, in three month of testing!

I don't know if this is real, but if you want to try it here is what you do:

1. Check your system for any software that runs automatically and then exits (due to the differences in XP, Vista, 7, i can't tell you how to do this exactly) and remove them from the autostart process. Programs that start and stay in the system are OK as long as enough RAM remains!
2. Always reboot before starting SH3 (maybe there is a way to create a "hardware profile" that will allow you to, like, "boot" SH3, i don't know, been a while since tinkering with Windows)
3. Start every program you really need (like, Outlook) before starting SH3 (as long as the remaining memory is enough for SH3/GWX)
4. Do not exit any program already running. if you are so low on RAM that you would need to do that then GET. MORE. RAM!
5. Start SH3. Play it. Save anytime you like, given the restrictions already known (like 50 km from land, no ships around, not under water and so on). Test that you can reload your savefiles (see below).
6. When you need to reload, go through steps 1-5 before doing so.
7. If you are interrupted in SH3 by (for example) an e-mail you may look at the email (because the client is already loaded) but you may not (for example) follow a hyperlink (because that would cause the loading of a program or the reservation of memory in a program already loaded. I know this statement to be inconsistent, but this is how it works for me...

I believe the "save" mechanism on SH3 is severly broken in that it (partly) copies a memory image to disk. If the (RAM) fragmentation of that image does not match the fragmentation of you system as it is running you will get a CTD upon loading. That is why (i believe) problems in savefiles "migrate" to later savefiles.

This tip is HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL, do no assume it will help you, but i would be very glad if it does :DL

Please let me (and the SH3-scene) know if this works for you. It's just a stupid idea that worked for me, so don't be angry if it doesn't for you, mea culpa...