Memory Leak?

[fintach]

I don't know what's going on. Got through the postseason and preseason just fine. Started spring training just fine. But suddenly, while playing out a spring training game, my whole computer slows to a crawl. Literally every click anywhere takes a good twenty seconds to resolve. Game play stutters and skips.


First time I had to force close the game. Second, to avoid that, I auto-finished the game and quit. Had to restart the computer.


Only happens with OOTP running. Not World of Warcraft, or Baldur's Gate 3 (which I run on heavy graphics because it's a new machine and can handle it).


Task manager doesn't report high memory usage or CPU usage, and yet, clearly something is wrong. Don't know what to do, so here I am, letting you know this is happening.

[tirin]

I have this too, had it in the previous version too

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=367303

[Lukas Berger]

Anyone who's seeing this, if you can potentially make a video for us of the time between starting the game and the time things get laggy, that might be very helpful in tracking this down.

We really kind of need to know where you're clicking, what screens you're on and for how long, stuff like that, to be able to figure out what might be triggering this.

[BaseballATeam]

Fintach, are you using multiple monitors with different hz? For instance, I have a laptop with a 144 hz monitor and a 60 hz external on which I do all my work. These conflicting hz can trigger a longstanding Windows bug.

For whatever reason, OOTP is the only program that gives me trouble. I experience the symptoms you describe. However, if I unplug the HDMI to the external monitor, this resets something, and everything returns to normal (for a bit). I've tried all the settings and fixes for the Windows bug to no avail.

[Keeks137]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

Anyone who's seeing this, if you can potentially make a video for us of the time between starting the game and the time things get laggy, that might be very helpful in tracking this down.

We really kind of need to know where you're clicking, what screens you're on and for how long, stuff like that, to be able to figure out what might be triggering this.

This happens to me as well. I'll try to capture it via video. Every time this has happened to me, I've been in a 3D simulation of the game. It just flips like a switch and doesn't seem to be tied to clicking on any specific thing. It's happening just about every sim in ootp 27. It happened to me once in ootp 26 very near the release date of ootp 27 (probably a week before). I played 26 quite a bit and only experienced it that one time.

Adding more info:

This does effect everything on my computer, and continues to happen even after I close the game. Oddly, my mouse movements remain smooth while things like clicking take 4-5 seconds to resolve. I did a quick ChatGPT on it and came across this interesting suggestion, which I'll try next time it lags: press Win + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset the graphic driver without restarting. If that fixes it, it's a GPU driver issue. FWIW, I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super.

[fintach]

Okay, I was asked if I'm playing on multiple monitors: nope. I'm playing on a pretty high-end laptop that's not quite two months old.

About when it happens. It always happens while I'm playing out a game in 3D simulation. It affects the whole computer, and I have to reboot to stop it. It only ever happens while playing out a game in OOTP, though, so it's definitely not something else.

I also have no way of knowing when it will happen. Everything could be fine for a game or two, then suddenly it happens. The last time, I exited the game, saving the game in progress. I rebooted, went right into the game and played it out with no problem.

I realize this is maddening. I tend to notice it first because suddenly the screen looks like it's going wild, but a moment later I realize it's stuttering through playing out whatever just happened. From then on, it's glacial. Click something, and any response is delayed at least a slow eight count.

I don't tend to give it time to get worse, because I worry I'll get to the point that I have to hard-reboot, and I don't want to do that if I don't have to. So I tend to get out of the game quickly and reboot ASAP.

[McRamen]

I was also experiencing symptoms that seemed like a memory leak, but perhaps because the version of Norton I was using was a bit too overzealous, I was able to resolve the issue by excluding the OOTP folder and the write folder from Norton’s scan.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by McRamen

I was also experiencing symptoms that seemed like a memory leak, but perhaps because the version of Norton I was using was a bit too overzealous, I was able to resolve the issue by excluding the OOTP folder and the write folder from Norton’s scan.

Yeah, I forgot to mention in this thread, but some other troubleshooting tips for this are as follows:

Turning off/whitelisting OOTP in any anti-virus or firewall software you have.

Also, if you have the OOTP saved games folder in My Documents linked to OneDrive or Dropbox, you definitely should change that, as this will likely cause some problems

Potentially installing the game on a different hard drive, if possible. This has occasionally fixed similar problems for some folks who we've dealt with through support channels.

You also might want to experiment a little with the OpenGL and graphics/audience settings you use, and see if you get better results by changing from the defaults. It's possible the defaults are not a good combo with your system/video card. (Though to be fair, I'm not sure if this will actually affect anything or not. I don't think we have any specific cases where this did fix a similar issue. But it does seem like it at least might be a potential fix in some rare cases, especially if it's happening when playing out a game in 3d like for fintach or Keeks137, so worth spending a couple minutes to try)

[Lukas Berger]

The tough thing with all this is that there are likely multiple different potential causes here, some of which are out of our control (as you can see from the posts above, could be an anti-virus issue, could be a hard drive related issue, could be related to having multiple monitors).

For sure, mentioning all that doesn't mean there may not be something we can fix on our end as well, but this is an incredibly difficult thing to reproduce or track down given all the variables.

One other question I'd have here, is does it seem like repeatedly clicking +/- or opening and closing popups or boxes on the interface on certain screens can trigger this in some cases?

If so, it would be super helpful to know which screens.

[EVCinNYC]

Probably somewhat related...

Was talking with other Mac users and realized that we're seeing a growing memory usage the longer the game opens. Tracking through the Activity Monitor app on the macbook pro

Previous session
After about five hours, was a 8.42 GB of Memory usage

Close and restart
Launching the game is at 1.46 GB of Memory usage
After about five minutes 1.54 GB of Memory usage
After 30 minutes, 2.94 GB of Memory usage
2 hours, 20 minutes: 5.49 GB of Memory usage


It's easiest the biggest memory usage program in the list - not sure why it grows so much...

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by EVCinNYC

It's easiest the biggest memory usage program in the list - not sure why it grows so much...

This is while playing PT, I assume? Same for the base game too or no?

EDIT: It probably is base game too. We were already tracking this, looks like it's potentially facegen related.

[andyg22]

As EVC says, on Mac the memory issues are pretty extreme, worse than previous versions (which had similar issues)


Everything you do nudges up the memory usage.


I always have 2 extra monitors connected to the macbook, out of interest I tried disconnecting and then playing OOTP. No difference.


Launch the game 811MB
Login 871MB
Launch PT 1.36GB
and then it just goes upwards with everything you do in the game

[BaseballATeam]

Originally Posted by Keeks137

This happens to me as well. I'll try to capture it via video. Every time this has happened to me, I've been in a 3D simulation of the game. It just flips like a switch and doesn't seem to be tied to clicking on any specific thing. It's happening just about every sim in ootp 27. It happened to me once in ootp 26 very near the release date of ootp 27 (probably a week before). I played 26 quite a bit and only experienced it that one time.

Adding more info:

This does effect everything on my computer, and continues to happen even after I close the game. Oddly, my mouse movements remain smooth while things like clicking take 4-5 seconds to resolve. I did a quick ChatGPT on it and came across this interesting suggestion, which I'll try next time it lags: press Win + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset the graphic driver without restarting. If that fixes it, it's a GPU driver issue. FWIW, I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super.

That fix won't work. Unplug your second monitor (I'm assuming you're using one because your issue sounds exactly like mine).

[BaseballATeam]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

The tough thing with all this is that there are likely multiple different potential causes here, some of which are out of our control (as you can see from the posts above, could be an anti-virus issue, could be a hard drive related issue, could be related to having multiple monitors).

For sure, mentioning all that doesn't mean there may not be something we can fix on our end as well, but this is an incredibly difficult thing to reproduce or track down given all the variables.

One other question I'd have here, is does it seem like repeatedly clicking +/- or opening and closing popups or boxes on the interface on certain screens can trigger this in some cases? If so, it would be super helpful to know which screens.

I think the hover-over player cards (i.e. on a typical roster management screen) seem to be associated with slow downs. When it's just starting to act up (there's a short build up (ranging from about 3 to 45 seconds) from functional to slow to almost completely locked). The little windows lag briefly to form, then the talent grade bars populate on a delay, then the stats finally show over a span of a second or two. When the system is functioning, all of that still happens, but in the snap of a finger.

Unlike some of the others, I experience more issues in the roster management and pre-game lineup-setting screens than within the simulation itself. I think I've found in-game settings that jibe with my system. I always turn Facegen off.

Unfortunately, I can't compare to 26 because I switched machines over the offseason. It's a similar but not identical build.

[EVCinNYC]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

This is while playing PT, I assume? Same for the base game too or no?

EDIT: It probably is base game too. We were already tracking this, looks like it's potentially facegen related.

Today just building tournament rosters, doing perfect drafts, completing missions. Will keep track as day progresses in that inital thread with edits for more data points. Not sure seeing much facegen in perfect drafts, roster builder, etc.

[fintach]

Okay. I haven't tried recording yet, just because it's sufficiently intermittent that I wasn't sure how much recording this would involve to get it happening.

Naturally, this means that the first time I played today it happened.

I started a game, during spring training.

I started a game, using the play button rather than the green button. (I do that sometimes.) First game went fine, no issues. Started a second game the same way. Top of the second inning, the slowdown happens.

I was playing strictly by using the number pad to the right of my main keyboard. With one out, the opposition doubled (following a standard pitch-to-batter by pushing one on the numpad), and as that was happening, the slowdown hit.

Thing is, nothing about this was different. This is how I always play. Sometimes I use the numbers above the main keyboard, but more often I use the pad to the right. Main thing I click on is adjusting the defense, toggling from one-pitch to per-pitch mode, or making lineup changes by clicking on the bullpen or the team logo.

One possibly related thing: if my mouse cursor is hovering over something clickable -- such as the team logo for substitutions -- even if I've clicked a number (such as pitch to batter or swing away), nothing will happen until I move the mouse.

[EVCinNYC]

I know the "hover" was mentioned before.
Regardless if that is causing issues, the "hover" activity is dramatically different from last year, a lot less smooth, a lot more going on; from a quality of life, it makes hovering over multiple items on the page very kludgy where I have to move the mouse around very carefully to get what I want to do (e.g. move to the next overlay I have to click outside the popped out overlay to get to anything that was under the popped up overlay - that didn't happen in the past). It makes me think there is some new overlay logic or coding in 27 that might be worth reviewing and comparing to past years to see if it's an issue for the memory issue

[BaseballATeam]

Agreed on the hover overs. They're definitely changed from last version. I think they're meant to look prettier, but the split-second delays (and longer once this issue sets in) aren't worth the very marginal change in appearance.

[Keeks137]

Originally Posted by BaseballATeam

That fix won't work. Unplug your second monitor (I'm assuming you're using one because your issue sounds exactly like mine).

I don't have a 2nd monitor on the computer I play OOTP. I do agree that restarting the GPU is unlikely to help after reading up on it.

The slowdown hasn't happened for me in a couple of days, but I've been recording games I've been playing in case it strikes again.

One other thing I thought about. I've played several versions of OOTP and I think a similar issue has persisted in just about every version I've played, it's just more serious now. When I play a season, I generally look at my minors every month to see if people need to get sent up or down, which generally leads to 9-12 organization changes. After making a large number of changes like that, the next 3D sim that I did would be markedly choppier (i.e., only show me every 3rd frame of the animation) than previous sims, and it would not improve until I closed the game and reopened it. It was less of an issue in prior games because that's as serious as it got- the rest of my computer ran fine, whereas now, whatever is happening is affecting the computer at large. Like the commenters above, I wonder if the new method of animated dropdowns (major change in this edition) is taxing the memory in the same way that my many transactions would tax it.

Per my note above, I'll keep trying to capture the bug on video. FWIW, I have 64 GB of RAM because I edit music and videos, so I don't think it's a computer capability issue and I can run much more GPU heavy games without issue.

[BaseballATeam]

Originally Posted by Keeks137

I don't have a 2nd monitor on the computer I play OOTP. I do agree that restarting the GPU is unlikely to help after reading up on it.

The slowdown hasn't happened for me in a couple of days, but I've been recording games I've been playing in case it strikes again.

One other thing I thought about. I've played several versions of OOTP and I think a similar issue has persisted in just about every version I've played, it's just more serious now. When I play a season, I generally look at my minors every month to see if people need to get sent up or down, which generally leads to 9-12 organization changes. After making a large number of changes like that, the next 3D sim that I did would be markedly choppier (i.e., only show me every 3rd frame of the animation) than previous sims, and it would not improve until I closed the game and reopened it. It was less of an issue in prior games because that's as serious as it got- the rest of my computer ran fine, whereas now, whatever is happening is affecting the computer at large. Like the commenters above, I wonder if the new method of animated dropdowns (major change in this edition) is taxing the memory in the same way that my many transactions would tax it.

Per my note above, I'll keep trying to capture the bug on video. FWIW, I have 64 GB of RAM because I edit music and videos, so I don't think it's a computer capability issue and I can run much more GPU heavy games without issue.

Similarly, I don't have a hardware bottleneck. When I'm having issues, CPUs are usually under 10%, more than 20 GB (of 32) RAM is unused, and the GPUs are both untouched. I do still think it's a dual monitor issue for me since unplugging the HDMI solves the problem (though this crashes the game about 10-20% of the time).