[#5936] 9.0 - VRAM Allocation Over Time Causing Issues

[Parthon]

Started running into an issue after starting a new 9.0 playthrough.

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Symptoms
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After playing for a few hours (2 to 3) I start having graphical issues such as the map not displaying properly, the entire screen re-drawing, stuff like that. Exiting the game to desktop and re-entering fixes the issue.

1) I enabled the Steam overlay and noticed that when the issue occurs the VRAM usage is above max. I have 6GB on my trusty old 1660ti, and as soon as it gets over 6GB things start going wonky. I have seen it go as high as 6.2GB on the overlay.
2) When I first load into my save I am at about 3.7GB, goes up to about 4.4GB pretty quickly and then slowly but surely keeps creeping up over time. It occasionally drops (say 4.4 to 4.2), but eventually maxes out and glitches start occurring.

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Notes
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- This never occurred until 9.0, I had well over 100 hours in with 8.0 and no problems. However before 9.0 I only ever played the base game, with 9.0 I have all the expansions. I do have Hyperion, Envoy and Timelines disabled for this play through.

- I am running the latest game version of the Nvidia driver. I did just recently update it, but I cannot be 100% certain if I updated it before or after I started having issues.
- This occurs running on High, Medium and Low graphical settings.
- It may be related to when an NPC contacts you over comm. Quite often I noticed a spike in VRAM when this happens and it is seems to be right after a comm that the VRAM is above max and the graphics glitches start. Might just be a coincidence though.
- Not doing anything especially intense in the game, the last time it had happened I spent the entire time in the HQ, mainly on the map setting up and monitoring stations, sending ships on exploring sectors, etc. No ship flying/combat at all.

Here is a link to my dxdiag and a screenshot from the Steam overlay when glitches were starting to occur.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... kOXnW6q6E0

Let me know if there is anything to try or more information to provide.

[Alan Phipps]

It might be worth reading through this thread.

You both have AMD Ryzen cpus and Nvidia graphics cards.

[Parthon]

Thanks, I did read through that. Unfortunately the only thing that came out of that was to disable DLSS, which my card doesn't even support.

I did find this post on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/ ... nce_guide/

Seems to indicate the problem is not unusual with this game. I'll try some of the VRAM fixes there.

[Tranxalive]

(Quoting for the notification.)

Hello, could you provide a link to the save you're playing where the issue is occurring, please?
It could potentially be helpful in letting us reproduce the issue on our end.

[Parthon]

I added a save file to the drive folder I linked earlier.

I've been trying to come up with a way to reproduce the issue consistently, but no tried and true method yet. What I have noticed:

1) VRAM usage is over the dedicated VRAM size. I have 6GB of VRAM, looks like when the issue happens all of the dedicated is being used. Steam overlay will show 6.4 GB/5.8GB for example.
2) Most (possibly) all times it has occurred it is when I get an incoming comm message from someone.

It happened twice today. First time I opened the map just as I was getting a message from Dal Busta. The map wouldn't fully draw. Some of the icons for stations, etc. were displayed but the hexagon outlines for the sectors were not drawn. The message from Dal never started, I just had the "static" in the message window that usually only appears briefly before a message starts. No audio from Dal, no graphics of his face. Hung there for several seconds even though the game still sounded like it was running in the background. I tried to get a screenshot of it but the screen re-drew and the message from Dal played normally.

Second time was in the map and got a call from a diplomat that had just arrived at the HQ. Didn't hang up as bad as the previous time, but there was noticeable delay of the graphics being drawn. Immediately after the hiccup the VRAM usage had dropped from 6.4 to 4.7 and things were normal after that.

I tried triggering the issue by issuing comms to various personnel myself when VRAM usage was 6GB or higher but everything worked normally.

Let me know if there is anything else you need or anything you'd like me to try.

[Jar B]

It might be worth reading through this thread.

Thanks, I did read through that. Unfortunately the only thing that came out of that was to disable DLSS, which my card doesn't even support.

About the part "Also, are you running anything else while the game is running?" You are not running Spotify, Epic launcher, "3d sites" in Chrome(ium) or any such app that noticeably taxes your GPU? Spotify in particular used to hog VRAM while running in the background.

[Parthon]

Nope, I don't like running a lot of junk on my gaming PC.

With X4 not running about 7-800MB of dedicated VRAM is used, 100MB shared, across various processes. I run 32GB of regular RAM, don't think I have even seen half of it used with X4 running. Game is installed on a NVMe SSD with over 400GB of free space.

[Parthon]

Had X4 crash to desktop this time. Similar scenario, Been playing for hours, VRAM over max. Was buying a ship and then I saw the start of an incoming comm from someone, then boom.

[Alan Phipps]

After that crash there might be new dumpfiles in your game folder and a new related Windows Error Report in a fresh DxDiag that might help the devs further with this.

Did you get a message after the crash directing you to a specific Egosoft crash code advice page?

[Parthon]

Did not get a message directing me to any Egosoft page. I do have crash report upload turned on in the game, but I have added the mini dump and a fresh dx diag to the folder linked in my first post.

[Alan Phipps]

Thanks, the two new Windows error reports are the same pair of LiveKernelEvents that you were having before that were mixed in with the odd BlueScreen. These strongly suggest that you have a system hardware or driver issue.

[Parthon]

I think the dxdiag WER information is a bit of a red herring. I hunted them down and they were old errors stuck in the ReportQueue folder for Windows Error Reporting. Some from over a year ago the latest from about a week ago, maybe when I was messing with cleaning/installing the graphics driver? Nothing around the game crash I had yesterday or the issues I have had multiple times over the last several days. I definitely would've noticed a bluescreen/reboot happening with the issue.

I have cleaned the entire windows event log system and all windows error reporting information, and dxdiag now shows clean. I also addressed an potential issue where it said my audio driver install wasn't fully complete. There is also a slightly newer Nvidia driver, 610.88 where I am running 610.74 so will update that.

If/when the issue recurs I will upload a new dxdiag now that I am in a known clean state.

[Parthon]

No crash to desktop this time, but an incoming call from Dal Busta started but just hung there. The rest of the game was running normally. I waited about 30 seconds, still nothing. I then alt-tabbed out and back in. Game graphics blank and redrew and the message started playing normally.

I uploaded a screenshot but doesn't show much but the "static" comm image. VRAM usage was at 6.4/5.8 on the steam overlay which is about as high as I see it go. I also uploaded an updated dxdiag, no wer faults.

So I have seen three types of glitches overall. All only happen after a long session, I'd say at least a couple of hours. In order of severity:

a) Weird graphical redraws. For example, I'll be in the embassy in PHQ but on the map screen, then the screen will start to redraw. Black screen, faction reps in background, then the map over the course of two or three seconds. This can happen several times during a playthrough. Not immediately back to back, maybe 1/2 hour to an hour in-between?

b) Comm call freeze as described above. Most times it only lasts for a few seconds, rarely it will just hang there until an alt-tab out and back in causes everything to redraw, then normal.

c) Crash to desktop. Only had this happen the one time, described previously

I'll post again if something new happens, but at this point I'll just restart the game every couple of hours and wait for driver/game updates to see if anything changes. I am going to remove the Google drive folder in a couple of days.