What does it MEAN?
- Thread starter frogpipe
- Start date
When creating software (any software) developers have to work within a set of constraints. These constraints vary from which Operating System (Windows XP, 7, 8, Mac OS, Android, etc) the software can be installed on ... to things like how much hard drive space and memory is needed or even how fast the CPU needs to be in order to run the software in a way that is reasonable. Typically there are minimum requirements and recommended requirements which the software creators will provide to indicate what these constraints are.
One of the aforementioned constraints mentioned is memory (or sometimes referred to as RAM [Random Access Memory]) ... even though software, in this case TRAINZ, has recommended requirements, depending on the software and how it is written ... well ... it can exceed those requirements ... and this isn't to say the software is poorly written, it's just a reality; especially with something such as TRAINZ that allows 3rd Parties (including you) to create assets (Locomotives, scenery, routes, sessions, etc). Keep in mind that whenever an asset is loaded it uses up a little more of the limited memory that is available. As I hope you can also imagine; handling all of those assets within memory (including determining what needs to actually be in memory at any point in time) requires some management. All operating systems supply some default memory management ... but typically software with any type of complexity (and TRAINZ is a complex piece of software) will help with memory management, so it can run as efficiently as possible. What this probably (hopefully) means is that TRAINZ is allocating memory as-needed and releasing memory when it is no longer needed (so it can be re-used for another asset that needs to loaded later, for example). Unfortunately, what happens, it seems, is that parts (or all) of an asset can be left in memory even though it is no longer needed and are never being removed from memory... this type of occurrence is typically called a memory leak ... when all or part of something allocated in memory isn't (ever) removed from memory when it's no longer needed ... and I'm trying to keep it relatively simple (there is more to it, for example reusing a memory location without first clearing what was already there, etc ... but that's beyond the scope of trying to answer your question) ... but finding the cause of memory leaks can be a difficult thing to do ... and in the case of TRAINZ ... it might just be that a 3rd Party Asset Creator didn't quite get something right when their asset needed to be removed from memory and all or parts of the asset were inadvertently left in memory. As I hope you can also imagine ... software can also keep track of memory allocations / de-allocations so it can monitor and/or intervene if something seems to go wrong ... so, if I were to guess, I would say that a) The Leak specs: messages are indicating that a memory leak has occurred, and b) which asset (kuid) they occured in [or because of] and c) it may be that the TRAINZ software is even trying to clear previously allocated memory (hard to say on that one ... but at the very least it's logging that there is a problem for tracking and future reference, by not only the TRAINZ developers, but also the asset creators). Again, keep in mind that there is a limit to how much memory a computer has ... once memory is full you will start having some serious problems ... typically requiring a reboot (and I'm not going to go into what Windows does to try remedy that by creating virtual memory on your hard drive ... typically slowing everything down ... and is often the reason that simply installing additional memory in your computer can often improve performance significantly).
I hope this didn't just confuse you more ... and possibly answered your question.
--- Jeff
One of the aforementioned constraints mentioned is memory (or sometimes referred to as RAM [Random Access Memory]) ... even though software, in this case TRAINZ, has recommended requirements, depending on the software and how it is written ... well ... it can exceed those requirements ... and this isn't to say the software is poorly written, it's just a reality; especially with something such as TRAINZ that allows 3rd Parties (including you) to create assets (Locomotives, scenery, routes, sessions, etc). Keep in mind that whenever an asset is loaded it uses up a little more of the limited memory that is available. As I hope you can also imagine; handling all of those assets within memory (including determining what needs to actually be in memory at any point in time) requires some management. All operating systems supply some default memory management ... but typically software with any type of complexity (and TRAINZ is a complex piece of software) will help with memory management, so it can run as efficiently as possible. What this probably (hopefully) means is that TRAINZ is allocating memory as-needed and releasing memory when it is no longer needed (so it can be re-used for another asset that needs to loaded later, for example). Unfortunately, what happens, it seems, is that parts (or all) of an asset can be left in memory even though it is no longer needed and are never being removed from memory... this type of occurrence is typically called a memory leak ... when all or part of something allocated in memory isn't (ever) removed from memory when it's no longer needed ... and I'm trying to keep it relatively simple (there is more to it, for example reusing a memory location without first clearing what was already there, etc ... but that's beyond the scope of trying to answer your question) ... but finding the cause of memory leaks can be a difficult thing to do ... and in the case of TRAINZ ... it might just be that a 3rd Party Asset Creator didn't quite get something right when their asset needed to be removed from memory and all or parts of the asset were inadvertently left in memory. As I hope you can also imagine ... software can also keep track of memory allocations / de-allocations so it can monitor and/or intervene if something seems to go wrong ... so, if I were to guess, I would say that a) The Leak specs: messages are indicating that a memory leak has occurred, and b) which asset (kuid) they occured in [or because of] and c) it may be that the TRAINZ software is even trying to clear previously allocated memory (hard to say on that one ... but at the very least it's logging that there is a problem for tracking and future reference, by not only the TRAINZ developers, but also the asset creators). Again, keep in mind that there is a limit to how much memory a computer has ... once memory is full you will start having some serious problems ... typically requiring a reboot (and I'm not going to go into what Windows does to try remedy that by creating virtual memory on your hard drive ... typically slowing everything down ... and is often the reason that simply installing additional memory in your computer can often improve performance significantly).
I hope this didn't just confuse you more ... and possibly answered your question.
--- Jeff
Last edited:
That is a VERY thorough answer. I am familiar with "memory leaks" and what havoc they can cause, but I've never heard of them being logged by any software.
That being said, you may be right, but I was hoping for a definitive answer. (not expecting it mind you...)
That being said, you may be right, but I was hoping for a definitive answer. (not expecting it mind you...)
Similar threads
- Locked