Gothic 3 SmartHeap Library: out of memory error

Hi there,

I'm running the machine listed in my signature block. I've installed Ultima IX (oops, I mean Gothic 3) v1.12 and set everything to maximum. No community patches yet, but they're on my to-do list. I start the game, clear the village, venture into the countryside, then within a few minutes the game hangs. If I Alt-Tab or Ctrl-Alt-Del I get a 'SmartHeap Library: out of memory' error message.

Reset and repeat ad nauseum.

I've tried running at stock speeds, but that makes no difference. Any thoughts? I've seen advice elsewhere about taking two of my DIMMs out (leaving 2x1G) - not real keen to do that if I can help it, because I like having a full 2G available for applications without being chewed up by overheads etc.

On (hopefully) a side-note, Vista, 3DMark06 and perhaps a handful of other applications all recognise my pc as having around 3.5G ram - should I be concerned? Is this possibly related (unlikely though that may be)?

Thanks in advance. Despite everything I've heard, I still want to battle through this game (much as I did Ultima IX).

some quick googling brought this thread.. maybe it will help you..
• http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showp…2&postcount=16

Welcome to our forum!

It´s unlikely the amount of RAM is the problem. Many others have run G3 with more than 2 GB installed. The game uses 2 GB, unless it´s hacked, and that´s it.

The problem must be something else.

I do think that the memory might be the problem because of the 2GB/application limit. Here's an old post from HiddenX that he made in this thread:

Even though XP supports up to 4Gb, the virtual address space of processes and applications is still limited to 2 GB unless the /3GB switch is used in the Boot.ini file.
So if you go over 2GB, the performance won't really change unless you know how to pick your system.

The LargeAdressAware (LAA) Bit must be set for the .exe file and .dlls, too.

I made a hack for Gothic 3 over at WoG:
http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum…3&#post2668283

Unzip LAA_(Version2).zip to your Gothic 3 Folder and click on LAA_all_ON.cmd.

With LAA_all_OFF.cmd everything will be changed back to original.

Alternative: you can use NicoDE's tool (LAAHack) for Gothic 3 and other games:
http://www.bendlins.de/nico/gothic/misc/

For Win32 systems the switches /3GB /USERVA=2800 must be added to the boot.ini
- for Win64 no boot.ini changes are needed.

To manipulate boot.ini you can use this tool -> Boot.ini C.U.:
http://www.dx21.com/SOFTWARE/Dx21/Vi…=2&SI=2&OID=14

Hi all, thanks for the quick replies. I've already tried one hack (http://forum.jowood.com/showthread.p…38#post2040338), which a few people had reported as working. Not so for me.

I'll try the above suggestions over the next few days and see what luck I have…

Ok, a quick update (if anyone's still interested). Since I ran ChessMaster136's hack (from the Jowood forum above), I've had one undisclosed crash and a C++ error (which incidentally reset my G3 config).

I've been running with Shiron's G3starter.exe @ 800mb (thanks lanux128) and vegetation set to low - performance has been very choppy, which is disappointing. At the moment it seems stable, but I haven't had too much 'outside' time yet - just out for a jaunt to see Lesker and followed Gorn to the rebel camp. More wilderness time might see more smartheap crashes.

Once I've had a bit more stable time I'll delve into the .ini for more tweaking.

Thanks again everyone - Moriendor, I've got HiddenX's LAA hack on standby!

I've been reading some of the suggestions for dealing with the "out of memory error". I'm a bit worried about making some of the suggested changes. I just don't have the know how. Does anyone have a user friendly, step-by-step method of trying some of these?
BTW, I'm running the game in VISTA, and so far have only had the "smartheap" error, which seems to randomly strike at the most inconvinient times (i.e. some time when I HAVEN'T saved for a while).
My system: 2.6 duo core, 4 gig ram, dual 8800 GTX video cards. (1.5 gig combined video ram).

Have you checked out Hidden X's threads on how to tweak and fix stuff? Most of that is step by step.

@SamIam

For Vista-users Gothic tweaking is easy (Vista knows how to handle the LAA-Flag)

I made a hack for Gothic 3 over at WoG:
Unzip LAA_(Version2).zip to your Gothic 3 Folder and click on LAA_all_ON.cmd.
With LAA_all_OFF.cmd everything will be changed back to original.

btw. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is doing the same - patch 1.0003 fix list:

…
Binary files are now compiled with large address aware flag that supports up to 3GB address space (relevant for Windows VistaT users).
…