My solution: USE FIREFOX!!! Oh and also make sure you got a fast CPU for crunching images for previewing. It can become a huge bottleneck in the long run otherwise.

Hi. I can't seem to find a way to activate the rumble feature in my controller? Any ideas how to pull this off?

Thanks!

It's a simple question. Loosing a lot of time on waiting for load times when I'm iterating on one almost empty level. Is it possible to enter some kind of debug mode that only loads in the assets of the targetet layout, and ignores the rest? It would speed my workflow up immensely. Could probably save a lot of memory as well.

Thanks.

I'm very well aware that one can easily see the expected memory use of the most heavy layout in the project, but I would like a way to see the expected memory use of any layout I choose. It will be easier to optimize that way. Is there any way to pull this off?

Thanks

My game was streamed by HotSammy on twitch some days ago. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile"> Starts at 28:30

http://es-es.twitch.tv/hotsammysliz/b/641201121

jobel The 400 MB (rough estimate, might be other factors weighing in that I can't trace) is all the sfx/sound currently in the game. If I had access to a system that erases unused assets/sound, that amount could easily be reduced to something much, much less. That is beneficial regardless of scope. No game, even AAA would be able to run on underpowered consoles like PS3 or 360 without being able to discard unused material. I'm not worried about my budget over what's loaded in at the same time, it's the fact what's loaded in is permanent that worries me.

I'm sure I can optimize it more, but that's not what I'm reaching out about. My point is that I won't only have to reduce the scope without a way to regulate assets and sound, it will be completely crippled if the entire game has to be loaded into ram by the time the player reaches the end...

I doubt other engines work this way.

Also I hope that the topic won't derail too much. I opened it due to frustration of the memory use growing endlessly when jumping between layouts, not over optimization over individual assets. I get this bad feeling that some art assets are never unloaded, or stay in a cache of sorts that only cleans itself when the memory use reaches ridiculous levels.

jobel Like silverforce is saying. Not having the option to unload assets and sound makes it impossible to make big games. Even if I did compress and reduce the file size somehow, I will still eventually hit a wall. That strategy is only viable if you're making a pea-sized game (that would still use more resources than necessary).

sqiddster Can you elaborate on how to monitor arrays? I don't use the array behaviour, but I've always had a feeling that I haven't fully grasped how the assets are loaded in, and that I might have done something wrong. Any documentation on global arrays that's never unloaded?

It's a lot of sfx. They're not very long. Like between 0.5-2 seconds on avarage. It's just a lot of quantity, and up to almost 5 variations of every sound.

Ashley Sorry for a very late reply. I did some tests to see how much memory my sound effects actually use, and it's close to 400mb of ram when all's loaded in. Of course a lot of this space is sounds that isn't used at any given time. However these sounds represent maybe 1/3 of all the sfx that will be in the final game. I can't accept that 1,2gb will at any given time go to sound effects. I can make systems for making sure the right sounds are loaded in at any given time if I can unload all sounds when I choose. That way I can maybe make sure that the game doesn't use more than maybe 100-300mb of ram for sound at any given time.

Also to address the issue as to what happens when the game use more than 3gb. Well the entire computer freezes until the memory values is sorted out, or it downright crashes (Used Firefox as it's only one process and have a tendency to duplicate memory use after several previews). Finding ways to prevent memory leaks within the game's planned launch of roughly 6 months from now will be crucial.

I guess I should experiment a bit with it. I got the impression that it only really affected the download size, and not necessarily the memory use? Still doesn't solve the issue with the audio never being unloaded though. :/

saiyadjin Can confirm that the downscaling was set to medium.

I will stress though that I'm not outraging over how much ram my scene is taking, I'm trying to figure out why it just keeps growing. So far the sound seems the most plausible, as I have a lot of music and sfx which I often preload as it's about to be used. I also import all sound with max quality.

I've probably made around 5-10 threads total over frustration of not getting to complete grasp over how construct 2's memory works (Don't redirect me to the memory use blog please, I know the basics...). So I've documented how the memory use constantly rise as I'm playing through my game. I'm hoping someone can see what's going on, and give me some insight. I'm running the game in Node Webkit 32-bit.

There's three processes running at once: One that never takes more than 15-30mb, one that keeps rising to infinity, and one last that seems to actually be dynamically discarding the assets it doesn't need. I'm getting more and more frustrated with this process that keeps growing. Why is this happening? I've provided images documenting the playthrough and the memory use.

1. The title screen and first stage of the game. By default the stage takes around just shy of 800mb, and the other process takes 1gb. While excessive. i'm cool with this as long as the memory use doesn't exceed this. It runs really smooth even on older computers.

2.Next stage takes slightly less memory on the third process. Not as many heavy assets here, though process 2 has risen almost 300mb.

3. I make it to the demo's main event. It only takes around 400MB, but the second process has risen again...

4. At the end of the demo. I use some heavy "look at the shiny stuff" kind of assets here, so the memory use is slightly bigger here than the previous level. The second process keeps rising.

5. The end of the demo. This stage is just 1 big image, and the third process reflects this. Only a 100mb, that's nothing. However it's here I started figuring out the second process never clears its memory. It's the same 1.6 gb!

6.I return back to the title screen. The memory use on the third is very close to the first image, but the third still takes 1.6 due to playing through the demo.

7. Just to play around further I load one of the biggest layouts in the game. It adds another almost 200mb to the second process

8. Again I load another layout, by far the most heavy. I've peaked 2gb on the second process...

9. Aaaand the title screen takes 2gb now...

This is gonna become a huge problem down the line. I'm severely limited on how I make my content due to this. The ram usage just keeps growing. Like a garbage collector that doesn't do its job! Any tips on how to clear this memory every once in a while? If this tumor of a process can't reduce its size every once in a while I will eventually hit a wall... I'm already reusing tons of assets between every stage, but I still see myself having issues with memory. The only theory I have as to why this happens, is that I introduce new music and sfx on every stage. I read this is never unloaded?

Any tips is appreciated. I'm becoming somewhat desperate here...

Cheers

Tom