Show memory usage frame?

[prensa]

Hello!

 

I don't normally have to ask questions but I've come across something I've never seen before. :smile:

 

Thought I'd post this in the mod authors section as I figured it would more likely be known here if at all.

 

I recently built a cell a fairly large but not, or so I thought, too large a cell.

 

I've had a few issues in there, not entirely certain it's specific to this cell but it seems likely.

 

I've recently noticed something in GECK that I never spotted before.

 

On this cell in the Render window is a thin red border framing the inside of the Render Window.

 

Very subtle & easily overlooked.

 

Well I checked in the Render Window options & found:

 

Show memory usage frame

 

Unticking that makes the red frame go away so obviously it's that.

 

The red frame seems to be a warning that the memory usage of the cell is high.

 

Reducing the cell by removing chunks changed the red frame to another color & further reductions retuned to no framing as normal.

 

There seems to be no documentation for this GECK function on http://geck.bethsoft.com.

 

They do have the function listed by wording but no information:

 

http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php/Preferences

 

I'm curious if anyone else has seen this?

 

If so, how dire is the warning?

 

Is it merely a caution or an urgent "turn back!". :smile:

 

How can you tell if your cell is too large or at least too memory intensive?

 

Is it the quantity of items?

 

I know all about room portals & occlusion to alleviate large cells but room portals have issues with havok objects & I like to use them sparingly.

 

I normally cut up cells into bite size chuncks but sometimes certain builds require unbroken rooms.

 

Now oddly enough, cutting the cell brutaly in two to test & that seemed to make things worse in game.

 

Travelling to the outside world from the cell was fine but travelling between the two sections seemed sluggish & unstable (worth noting that cut in two the two seperate sections still had red warning frames & thus must be large).

 

It was better when it was a whole, large cell that you travelled only out of & into the outside worldspace.

 

I have seen mention before of there being a difference between travelling from a large cell to an established worldspace & travelling from a large cell to another large cell. The large cell to another large cell being problematic.

 

I'd appreciate information on this "Show memory usage frame" feature, anyone's experience of it, information on maximum cell size. Or even just thoughts on the issues mentioned.

 

Thank-You for taking the time to read this, if you did. :smile:

If you didn't, what are you doing loitering around down here?

 

Prensa

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~Additional Discoveries~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

EDIT: Okay, seems to have drawn a blank with people so far. :smile:

 

I've been playing around since spotting this memory usage frame & have discovered a few things of interest.

 

Before the Red frame comes a Green frame.

 

Frequent modders will probably know about the bug that .esp added cells have with navmesh, namely that the navmesh in certain cells will be fine untill you leave it. Coming back into the cell though, the navmesh will be messed up & any NPC's or creatures will be scrambled due to the messed up navmesh.

 

Now the work around for this has always been to convert a mod with new cells into an .esm.

 

The odd thing with the bug has always been that it does not affect all mod added cells.

 

Well I had another cell that displayed the red border I mention above & it, along with the other cell with the frame had that very same navmesh bug.

 

I split this cell into two parts thus reducing each cell's memory usage & removing the warning red frame.

 

Now the cell's navmesh is no longer afflicted with the navmesh bug.

 

It seems, not yet confirmed, that the navmesh scramble issue in .esp's is connected to the cell triggering that Memory Usage Frame warning.

 

 

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

 

EDIT: 4 March 2013

 

Frames around the Render window are:

 

Green - Grey - Red

 

They seem to mean:

 

No frame around the Render window is ideal, all is well.

 

Green - seems to be okay but warning you to expand no further.

 

Grey - is the begining of tipping over the edge in size, remove some clutter objects etc. to get back down.

 

Red - DANGER, the cell is too big memory wise. Can result in freezing or CTD's in game as well as other oddities, break it up into smaller parts.

 

It's not the "physical" size of the cell that trigger the warning, you can have a single room trigger the warning frames if you pack it with high detail clutter. Conversely you can have a large collection of rooms in your cell, with little clutter, not trigger the warning frames.

 

Prensa

Edited March 4, 2013 by prensa

[Belthan]

One more tidbit: definitely seems to be related to the number of polys in the cell.

Added a new item to a green border cell and it turned red. Deleted a few dozen items of interesting but unnecessary clutter. Still red. New item was a first take blender export, just wanted to see it in game. Back to blender, reduced polys on the new item by about 75%. Reloaded geck, cell is green again.

 

EDIT: Hi-res textures also chew up memory. Previously mentioned NIF was apparently just under the memory limit after I reduced polys because when I started to put back some of the clutter the memory warning came back. Reduced size of the texture used by the NIF and it went away for good. (NIF is a ground object for clothing, wanted it to be something other than a neat square stack; the clothing needs the higher res texture but the g.o. doesn't).

Edited March 24, 2013 by Belthan

[prensa]

Belthan - Hello!

 

Definitely avoid that red frame, can lead to a very unstable cell otherwise. :)

 

Cutting down on clutter helps to get out of the red.

 

I've yet to see any issues with the green frame, seems to just be an early warning.

 

Prensa