Turned out that it was the sound from Oblivion XP...I removed that mod and it has not happened again.....So that mod dont like my game...lol

Im re-installing everything, ONE mod at a time and as it stands i get 80 FPS with FCOM and Quarl's . I only have about 10 mods left to install. I check in game after each install and I found a REAL FPS hog in the mod...Diverse grass, thought that was spose to help not hinder...lol IF i look at the ground 120 FPS , Look at the Sky 160 FPS, Looking out over the landscape 80 FPS. Lowest i see now is when Looking out over the Water i get 60 FPS.

Cant wait till i finish installing the rest of my mods and add in OSR and cap it at 30 FPS and 85 (Vsyn) in Menus. Right now it ramps up to 950 - 1100 FPS in the menus...lol

@camaro-69_327 - Nice man! Glad you found that needle in the haystack. I'm trying hard to develop a habit of testing a new loaded mod out for an hour or two before moving on to loading the next mod. Based on your FPS, it sounds like you aren't using RAEVWD? Unless you are and I am sorely needing to update my hardware. :brokencomputer:

EDIT - WOW, way to reply to my own quote. That's what I get for multitasking at work... :facepalm:

hahah No I really Want (and will have) RAEVWD Back in the load order I am saving that for last.....because What ever i have for a frame rate at that time i will install parts of RAEVWD till i get down to 30 FPS and stick with it.

Like you I cant seam to live without this mod... well OK and FCOM, Darn UI, and about 160 other ones....lol

Oh K then!! Now that I've managed to get my self a locked topic about how disappointed I am with the changes on the new forum, I thought of a good discussion starter that could use some opinions of others.... (BTW, what happened to free speech? Down with censorship!)

LAA - Virtual Memory and how Oblivion uses it...

Before you all whoop out your theories and facts from the wiki sites... Lets think of ways to measure virtual memory usage real time while Oblivion is being played

Here is one theory on how Oblivion handles the LAA patch...



From my findings, I have only watched the Oblivion.exe memory process for my tests with the LAA patch. I can't confirm if virtual memory is even utilized, but apparently this MCSA engineer thinks LAA only effects virtual memory. Anyone care to chime in... ?

Okay people, here's the lowdown on LAA. It is NOT what you think it is.

LAA is "LargeAddressAware".

What's a large address? Why do I need to be aware of it?

In Windows (Win32), the User/Kernel split is at 2GB. Apps get to use 2GB of virtual memory, the rest is for use of the OS. This means that if an app ever hits 2GB, bad things will happen as it will fill its address space.

Win32 limits at 2GB because Windows itself and things like the file cache need address space mappable into each process. In Win32, a "LargeAddress" is one above the 2GB boundary.

For experimental and/or very specific use, Microsoft allowed a /3GB switch on 2k and XP's boot loader, which instructed Windows to place the boundary at 3GB, allowing user mode apps to use more memory. It's for specific use (mostly dedicated SQL Server machines) because using /3GB causes the file cache to halve in potential size: This massacres disk performance - Only 1GB is available to cache a 500GB+ disk.

As far as processes know, ALL their memory is virtual - The app can see 4GB of address space, of which it can use 2GB. The OS decides which needs to be in physical memory and which does not. If some app allocates a huge amount of memory but never uses it, the app's allocation will not be in physical memory. The confusion of how virtual memory is handled is probably what's tripping most people here.

Hattix - Microsoft MCP

I apologise for the 'noobness' of this post, but how do I add the LAA download to the Oblivion.exe file?

I suspect I'm a prime candidate to use this fix. I'm on a Windows 7 64 system, home premium. I have 4GB of RAM. Task manager shows my random crashes typically showing 1.7GB of RAM. Trouble is I don't know how to get the LAA download into the exe file. I've extracted it from the zipped archive, but can't open the exe to insert the fle. I'm sure the answer is simple and obvious, but can someone tell me how to do it.

Just navigate to the Oblivion.exe...

To add to my previous post, if an app is set as "LargeAddressAware" in 64 bit Windows, Windows allows the app to use the entire 4GB that a 32 bit app can possibly use: WOW64 means that the file cache is well out of the way in 64 bit address space.

However, apps must be specifically compiled to know they can use addresses between 3GB and 4GB. It's not at all clear that Oblivion can do this. Patching the exe with the LAA flag is rather like awarding a prize to a driver who can go faster than 150 mph, but not giving him a car that can do it. Maybe the car will fall apart when he hits 150 mph since it was never designed to do that to begin with.

S'lider, feel free to PM me if you still have troubles.

@Hattix - Thanks for your input. I always thought that virtual memory wasn't used from physical memory at all. I thought it was used from allocated harddrive space. And was only needed as a backup when physical memory ran low or out.

@Hattix - Thanks for your input. I always thought that virtual memory wasn't used from physical memory at all. I thought it was used from allocated harddrive space. And was only needed as a backup when physical memory ran low or out.
[/quote]
That's the pagefile you are thinking of. And, yes, it occassionally does get referred to as "virtual memory," which is unfortunate, since it causes exactly this confusion.

gothemasticator

Ah yes, that'll trip you up, far327.

Virtual memory on Windows (and OS X and Linux and BSD and...) is a demand-paged system. Memory is paged into physical memory on a demand basis, though with quite a lot of speculation.

This is why it's such a catastrophically bad idea to run without a page file, you're forcing things into physical memory that really don't need to be there and so reducing the amount available for things that do need to be there (e.g. Oblivion) and actually increasing hard disk pageing, since the pagefile isn't the only backing store available.

Finally got my new rig (6GB RAM).
In your first post you say: Add the LAA 4gb patch to your Oblivion.exe and not obseloader.exe (I made this mistake at first)
In my Oblivion folder I have 2 original applications: Oblivion which is 7,373 kB and Oblivion Launcher which is 1,624 kB

To which application I apply the 4 GB patch?
Thanks

Hey Blade,

That would be Oblivion...not the launcher. the 7 meg file.

IF you don't see a change(I did not) I needed to also add the flag to obseloader But it does work as i can make Oblivion go way past 2 gig...Highest I have seen is 3.8

Interesting that you say you needed to apply to OBSE Loader before it starting working - I wonder why this was necessary and whether it is a common experience.

Thats why I put that as an IF statement Could have still been crashing out for a different reason and not cause the flag didn't work.

I still Use the Original Oblivion Icon that the Game made (edited so it launches OBSE) and yes I understand that OBSE closes as it launches Oblivion.

AMD Dual Core 5200+, 3 GB RAM, NVidia 9500 w/512 MB VRAM. I typically get mid-to-low-teens FPS outdoors; I haven't checked interiors lately.

Sorry, I should of ask for this specifically... What operating system are you running? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I don't know why you would have to add the patch to OBSELoader. I just tried doing that (for grins) and it caused an insta-CTD. OBSELoader does not even run once Oblivion.exe starts. Are you sure you applied it to the correct file in the first place?

If you read the 1st thread you would see why I was confused about where to apply the patch. My game is fine after having enabled the patch to Oblivion .exe I only added a warning to others just in case they mis-interpret how to apply the patch from instructions on another forum like I did.

I was referring to a few posts up where the person indicated applying it to OBSELoader 'IF' it did not work initially on Oblivion.exe, essentially flagging both files.

I see, wasn't sure who you were referring to. Thanks for clearing that up.

Oops. Win XP, 32 bit.

Hi, far327

I read the entire topic you started back in February about LAA and oblivion memory usage, with great interest. It was quite educational. I haven't had time to go through all of this current topic, but I recall someone, perhaps you, wondering why Oblivion crashes at 1.7 GB of memory in the original thread. Well, though I am not very technically minded, I did find this http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3034 on anandtech that may answer that question (kindasorta).

It's kinda old, uses Supreme Commander as the example program but provides a fairly clear discussion of the same memory problem modded Oblivion has. If you scroll down to "Page 4", you will see the discussion of how an app or game uses virtual and physical memory. I think it should be pretty clear that a program addresses more virtual memory than physical memory, which may be why we perceive Oblivion crashing at a physical memory cap of 1.7 GB rather than the expected 2 GB.

As I said, I'm not of a technical bent, so I'm not sure if this is really relevant to how Oblivion works - but it seems plausible. If this was already known, already answered, or small potatoes, I apologize. I was just eager to contribute to one of the better internet discussions I've seen recently.

That article is wonderful. Clear, detailed, and provides a downloadable tool (Process Explorer). Thanks for posting this!

I would suggest adding a link to this article near the top of the OP. It's a more consolidated and thorough explanation of the phenomenon this thread is about. Helps clear up some of the guessing and misconceptions about memory use and terminology.

gothemasticator