Memory leak?

I have been seeing this phrase thrown around a lot in world and on forums, that when we use sl we get some form of memory leak in our clients.
I was just wondering if someone could explain to me what it is, and also if its a bad thing, and the consequences of it.

Isabella, I don't have the tech specs for what an actual "memory leak" is, but the upshot of it is: your memory resources on your computer are slowly, inexorably taken up by SL, causing your system to use the hard drive almost exclusively for virtual RAM...thereby slowing everything to a crawl every time something changes in SL for you.

So, you slow down, bog down, lag out, and get really really cranky.

It's not SUPPOSED to do that, but the memory leak problem has been haunting the SL viewer for a long, long time (sometimes better, sometimes worse).

It's to do with recycling.

The x megabytes of your computer's memory is a limited resource.
Computer programs need chunks of memory to use as temporary workspace. When they have finished using the chunk, they are meant to recycle it back into the general memory pool.

Many programs (including SL) are not good at recycling.
Effectively, they use your PC's memory as landfill. Eventually, your PC runs out of land.

It should be called a "Memory Sponge"
or a "Memory Black Hole"

So memory leaks have to do with our pc's and not sl's servers?

No, it's them.

Oh you think the Memory leaks are getting better? I don`t think so infact they are back again. This last client is crashing people more then the past one because of the memory leak.

This is why I haven't left Nicholaz' client.

The Second Life client, the secondlife.exe file on your hard dive to connect to the grid with, has memory leaks.

The problem is occuring on your computer because of flaws in the Second Life program running on your computer.

There could also be memory leaks occuring on the computers that run the grid, but the ones we get error messages from our operating system about, or that cause us to show high memory consumption when we use Task Manager or similar programs to monitor memory usage, are occurring in our computer systems.

The term memory leak is not necessarily the best term ever created. The computer's memory isn't flowing away or going anywhere, it's just not getting properly redefined as being available for use when the next memory request is received. It's not a permanent problem; no damage is done to the computer, although reclaiming the memory may involve rebooting the computer.

They have to do with the software that runs on our PCs (as opposed to out PC's).
The problem is not specific to LL's SL client software. Many programs have 'memory leaks' to a greater or lesser extent.

If you run your PC without rebooting for long enough, it will slow down and maybe crash. If you run LL's SL client software, this will greatly speed up the effect.

Recycling!
LL's client sucks at recycling. It emits carbon like crazy.

What about doing disc clean-up or defrag? I do that every so often on mine cause I was told once it was a good idea and would clean out memory space. My computer has an ass load of memory...and to date only uses about 20% of what it has......Just curious....I don't have many problems at all with SL (I run the RC client because I'm a windlight freak) but I often wonder....since I don't have many issues.... why that is?
I read all kinds of complaints and issues on here about running SL......and most of the time...unless it's a very defined known bug....I don't experience at all....and if I do....it isn't for very long.

Incidentally.... I use windows xp on a dell xps410 with a nvidia gforce7600 video card.
2.00 GB or RAM And this is a dell rebuilt computer that my fiance bought for me for a steal!

"Mormory leak" refers to the memory chips in your PC, and not to your hard disk.
If you have 2G of RAM, the the memory leak will take longer to chew your ram.
People with less memory will get bitten sooner.

I think most of the problems with people crashing have to with the poke of their PCs.
I crash so rarely that it's a memorable event if I do.
But then I've got a high-end graphics card.
I've only got 1G of memory and a 1M DSL conection, but it was the NVIDIA 8800 that made my SL work decently.

I sometimes run two clients simultaneously when I'm testing something with an alt. I always have to reboot the PC to clear memory before I can do that.

................and here we go..................

Yeah, well perhaps I should have been clearer

"I think most of the problems with people crashing have to with the poke of their PCs."

If the memory leak 'feature' of the LL SL client is a given, then people need more poke in their PCs to compensate for that.

If the lack of capability of the LL SL client to deal with a variety of graphics card is a given, then people need to have a high-end NVIDIA card to poke their PCs.


LL SL client + small RAM + John Doe graphics = CRASH

You are speaking sence here.........no doubt (atleast someone is here).


Problem two fold as they say.........LLabs blames the users for their lack of understanding the UI being to complex ( as pointed out by Philip Linden in his last public chat ). Then they users the,selves blame LLABS for problems

I myself has 4 giga ddr2 insulted with a 7900 gtx extreme 512mb 125 watts. As I said earlier I peak my setting high to let Max cashe settings. If i have it any lower it crashes the client.......with a 100 mbps fiber optical connection I am good. But when the client itself is buildt bad i feel it. or if there is network problems ( llabs side ). other then that My playability is in the upper 98% of useabilty on sl.

/me is getting even more confused. So it probably has a little to do with both?

Several topics have been raised here. Maybe I can help with some definitions.


1. What is a memory leak?

The simplest way to put it is not actually to say what it is, but rather what it does. When a program has a memory leak, it can manifest a number of different symptoms, but the most relevant one for this discussion is this: the longer the program runs, the more memory (RAM) it consumes. Let it run long enough, and eventually there's not enough memory left for anything else to run properly. When that happens, you either get an out of memory error pop up on your screen, or the program crashes, or in the worst case, the whole OS crashes.

The term "leak" can be a little misleading, as others have mentioned. It doesn't actually mean anything is physically spilling out of your computer, or even that the "leaky" software is somehow excreting memory or anything else. The best way to think of it, if you really want to justify the word "leak", is that memory is leaking into, not out of, the offending program.

As Sling put it, "memory sponge" would probably be easier to understand. If someone said to you, "that program is a memory sponge," you'd probably get right away that it's absorbing more and more memory over time, just as a sponge soaks up water over time. But when someone says, "that program has a memory leak," it almost makes it sound like it's somehow doing the opposite, spilling more memory into your computer (which is impossible), rather than consuming what's already there. But for whatever reason, "memory leak" is the name that stuck.

For more information on memory leaks, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak


2. Are we talking about the local client or the server?

Generally, when people say, "SL has a memory leak," they're talking about the client. While it's certainly possible that the server software might have leaks, too, we as users wouldn't know it, since we don't have direct access to the servers' systems.

Now, we all know, that SL's servers have various problems all the time. It's conceivable that some of these could be due to memory leaks, but that's just a guess. Usually, when there are serious problems, LL announces that a piece of network hardware has failed, or that a database has malfunctioned, etc. I've never actually heard them say anything about memory leaks in the server software, but that doesn't mean they don't happen. I'd imagine they probably do. But again, that's not what people usually mean when they talk about memory leaks in SL. Almost always, they're talking about the client software (the viewer).


3. What about hard drive maintenance?

It's always a good idea to perform routine hard drive maintenance (cleanup, defrag, error checks, sweep for viruses, spyware, and other malware) at least once a week. Think of it like changing the oil in your car. You have to do it regularly, or your machine won't perform very well.

Regular maintenance will keep hard drive in tip top shape, which generally will mean your computer will run faster and more stably, but it won't plug a memory leak. A leak in a program can only be fixed by patching the program itself.

Think of it like this. You wouldn't try to fix a leak in your car's gas tank by tuning up the engine, right? Obviously, to stop the leak, you need to fix the tank. The engine has nothing to do with that. In theory, it's possible that if the engine is well maintained, the leaky tank might have less of an impact, since the car will use the available gas more efficiently. But that doesn't mean the leak isn't still happening. Until you fix the source of the problem, the tank, the car will always run out of gas faster than it should.

Same deal with your computer. If the machine is running at its best because you take good care of it, then everything will run better on it, including a leaky program. But as long as that leak is present, meaning as long as the leaky program is running, your computer will be "running out of gas", and eventually it won't have enough left to operate properly. It just might take a little longer before you notice the effects on a well maintained machine than on a poorly maintained one is all. To fix the leak, you have to fix the program. Hardware maintenance doesn't change that.



I think that covers everything.

Oh, and just to jump on the memory leak tales of woe band wagon for a second myself here, I get out of memory errors all the time in Windlight. Generally it happens when I'm working in another program, and SL is running in background. If SL is in foreground, I can run it all day long, with tons of other programs open at the same time, and I'll never see the error. But push SL to the background by switching over to one of the other programs, and within 20 minutes or so, the error messages start flying. Clearly there's something wrong with how Windlight manages its memory usage when it's in background.

My theory, Windlight is an attention hog with all it's purty shiny graphics. It delights in shouting, "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!" And when you don't listen, it gets pissed off and decides to bork your whole computer.

This makes a huge amount of sense with some issues I've been having. I DJ in SL, and despite having a pretty good computer which runs SL great when I'm not doing much else, when I DJ I have regular freezes/crashes, and more so with windlight/the latest release candidate, but it does happen with the old viewer as well. Of course while DJing I am switching back and forth between SAM broadcaster and SL often.
I have recently installed the Nicholaz client however this week and have not had a problem while running that. So I am taking it that the memory leak is the problem.

Then again setting your cashe to 500 is still the way to handle sim lag right?

My client is fine with memory.

I just stick my finger in the hole in the ram.

Seriously, compared to a year ago....much better.

laughs.........

What is occuring in the game now crashing, freezing etc.......is all userside ( or simple terms us the users of the UI ). Please...............many are experience sam problems. I don`t know how much your in game. But if you move around sl without it hitting you i doubt it. Oh you might be but conditions very don`t they. One size don`t fix all...........
My computer is not midrange its upper range............ Nice blab but you can`t tell people that are having these problems its use side. Why not just be honest and start blaming the builders insead of suckup like many do these days............

uh oh, /me wonders how the ram feels about that one...

I used to get a lot of client disconnects, I would just freeze and I had to relog to get back in world..

I tried many things to fix this, but what finally did it was replacing my router. Now i get an occasional crash from the memry leak or a gfx card driver crash once in a while. Its soooo much better.

So if you are experiencing a lot of client disconnects.. your avi freezes and you can't move or search... try replacing your modem and/or your router.

.d

Me either!

Guess what? Haviing the best, most powerful (pc) computer money can buy doesn't solve it.

Its SL.