Gday folks,

As the title says, way back in Bryce 4 days I seem to remember something about being able to use hard drive disk space as a swap file to help with a shortage of RAM when needed.

The reason I ask is that the current model I'm working on is causing considerable angst due to not being able to render the whole thing at one, let alone save the damn thing as a complete model.

The other thing I'd like to ask is can the pre-set folders in bryce become too big because I'm finding myself getting crash after crash, maybe just a shortage of RAM.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts,

Ross.

Ross - I don't know anything specific about using hard drive space as a swap file. I would think that could slow things down tremendously, but if you're truly crashing due to a shortage of real memory, I suppose being slow is better than crashing. Though if a memory upgrade is an option for you, that would probably work a lot better.

I know there was a problem with either the size or number of preset folders in earlier releases of Bryce (I was a victim), but I think that was fixed & though my preset folders have gotten much, much bigger than they used to be, I haven't experienced that problem in years. Maybe somebody here can confirm whether or not that's a dead issue.

Not much help, I guess, but I wish you good luck getting your memory problems resolved...Claude

Thanks Claude for your reply.

This has been a continual problem with bryce over the years, me not having enough memory to do what I want and right at the moment more memory is just a wish.

I've been away from bryce for a number of years and only got back into it because bryce 7 was free.

I did a model of the Valley Forge spaceship from the movie Silent Running a few years ago and thought I'd revisit it with a new version trouble is one geodome saved at about 150meg, with 6 domes you can see where this is heading.

Anyways, thanks again for your reply, will see if anyone else has any ideas,

Ross.

You shouldnt ad to many items in any preset folder in Bryce. I think to many items  actually destroys the folder and you have to manualy delete it.

I too have serious memory issues with my present computer. Until the end of last year, I was using 4GB ram until, for reasons I won't go into, the mother board died. ATM I use an older mother board but it only has 1GB ram. Many of my older projects won't even load on the present computer.

You already have memory paging set up in the computer System Properties assuming you use Windows. When ram get low, the computer uses part of the hard drive. You can try increasing the setting which may help. On Windows XP, click on [Start] [Settings] [Control Panel] [System]

Select [Advanced] from drop down window.

On Performance panel, select [Settings] [Advanced]

Virtual Memory page setting will be shown and can be adjusted by clicking [Change].

I have virtual memory set up on a dedicated 2GB USB key drive which is a little faster than a hard drive. Hope this helps.

Rob...

Gday Rob, thats exactly what I was after.

I finally found out where what you said is hiding in windows 7, turned off all the pretty graphics rubbish the MS brain trust thinks we need, changed the VM file size from 1 gig to 2.5 gig and as i'm typing this have firefox with 20+ tabs open AND bryce with a 500meg file open :)

May not look as pretty as before but it now works!!!!!!!

Thanks again,

Ross.

great solution...well played out folks....

Another, smaller tip for the Virtual Memory setting is to set it as a static range meaning when you are looking at the "Virtual Memory" window set the "Initial Size" and the "Maximum Size" to the same Max size, which means both boxes would have (for example) 4096 and 4096. (which would be a Virtual Memory/Swap file size of 4Gb.)

All this does is keep that single swap file on your hard drive from resizing up and down constantly, which means less fragmentation on your hard drive and less fragmentation means better performance overall.

It's actually small tip but easy to do.

AS

Thanks for a great tip AS. I didn't realize that. I guess, even as I use a solid-state USB2 Key drive for VM, it will still get fragmented with resizing. 

ROB.

[quote]

Another, smaller tip for the Virtual Memory setting is to set it as a static range meaning when you are looking at the "Virtual Memory" window set the "Initial Size" and the "Maximum Size" to the same Max size, which means both boxes would have (for example) 4096 and 4096. (which would be a Virtual Memory/Swap file size of 4Gb.)

All this does is keep that single swap file on your hard drive from resizing up and down constantly, which means less fragmentation on your hard drive and less fragmentation means better performance overall.

It's actually small tip but easy to do.

AS

[/quote]

And...other than the original tip of just increasing the size of one's Swap file, is the next best tip which is something you (Mysteral) are already doing.

Placing one's Swap file on a second, physical hard drive, (one that is not the same hard drive in which your Operating System is installed) will also help out with your performance a good deal as then the CPU could handle both any actions going on with the OS and the Swap/Virtual Memory at the same exact time.

One thing to look out for though! if you bought your computer "off the shelf", manufacturers LOVE (for some reason) to install ONE physical hard drive and then partition it to appear as TWO drives in the operating system (i.e.; inside of Windows explorer). In this case, it would not matter to place your swap drive on your "D" drive as it would be the same physical hard drive anyway.

Additionally, if using are considering using a USB thumb drive, you just want to make sure it just isn't a super slow one is all. :o)

Bryce on.

Thanks for bringing this up Ross and the the others for the solutions. The memory issue with bryce is one that should have been addressed way back. I also have a problem with preset folders in B6.3 freezing yet the same folder in 5.5 is fine. Just to clarify that a little, I use B5.5, 6.3, and 7pro with the same preset folder copied into each version.

Cheers

GG