Is there a memory limit in GZDoom?

[Black Devil]

I am using the latest GZDoom and playing a mixture of mods which amount to 2.45 GB (2,638,448,040 bytes) and I noticed 50% of the actors turn into randomized sprites from the GZDoom.pk3 archive. For example, projectiles will turn into the helper dog and monsters will turn into ZDoom's red speaker icon. If I move some stuff around in the one of the files and launch again, then the sprites will be changed to a another completely different set of sprites from the pk3 archive. For example the ones that were displaying as the helper dog will now display as a crouching marine.

None of their decorate points to those sprites (for example VRU2 will be displaying DOGS sprites). There is also no additional code such as Model Defs, ZScript or ACS in any of the loaded pk3s. It is strictly Decorate and Sndinfo. Also none of the sprites from the GZDoom file are anywhere in the mods files, nor do any of the sprites share the same name as anything pre-existing. If I am to remove a bunch of sounds and sprites to knock the file size down, then it resolves the issue. It is only when I put that stuff back in that it continues.

This issue also continues on to any mods with custom actors that I add into the mix. For example if I add in a level pack that has custom trees and decorations, then those will all turn into randomized helper dog corpses, crouching marines and speaker icons. If I move them in a different order in the load order, then the things that were dog corpses are now crouching marines and vice versa. It is really making me think that it is a memory limit, it is confirmed when I remove the mp3 music from those custom level packs, then the sprites will go back to normal.

I am beginning to think that GZDoom has a memory limit, and when that is exceeded then it will stop displaying some sprites and auto replace them with existing ones. Is this a known occurrence?
Thank you and I apologize about any language issues, English is my second language.

[Rachael]

The answer to your question: Yes and no. (aka "It's complicated")

GZDoom itself does not impose any memory limits - it will allocate data as much as it needs for as long as it can, and it will release such data when it no longer needs it. The operating system, however, might impose limits. You put on your profile that you are using a 32-bit OS - if that's true, that will make you unable to use more than 2 gigs of RAM for a single application, anyhow. If you are using a 64-bit OS but a 32-bit copy of GZDoom, then it will suffer the same limitation. There's a reason why 32-bit is on its way out the door permanently.

The limiting factor here may actually be your GPU. Your GPU has a limited amount of RAM as well, and when that gets full, you can no longer load texture data into it and that can cause weird things to happen like textures flashing to something else.

Other than that though - the other things that can cause the problems you are experiencing are a corrupted RAM stick, bad drivers, or a corrupted copy of GZDoom, or the mods you are using.

[Phoebe Niggleforth]

Thank you for the response. I just tried it on a different machine (64-bit x64 based processor, 8.00 GB Ram, AMD A6-9220 Radeon R4 5 Compute Cores 2c+3g 2.00 GH, HP Pavilion) and having the exact same issues.

About the corruption, is there anyway I can detect a corruption? Or would I have to slowly move things out of the old pk3s and into a new one and test it until I narrow down the culprit? Everything seems fine, all the sprites are png and loaded correctly and all the sounds play accordingly. There doesn't seem to be any visual signs of a corruption.

[SanyaWaffles]

A thing to consider is the mods themselves. What mods are you running.

[Black Devil]

A thing to consider is the mods themselves. What mods are you running.

my personal custom monster pack, which is a compiled monster pack of various authors, which is why I am sadly unable to upload it here for testing. The only things in the pk3s and ogg sounds, sprites, and two lumps (Decorate & SNDINFO). None of the sprites are using pre-existing names, either. I have checked them all. It also doesn't make sense that when playing it with a map pack that all the custom objects will turn into crouching marines. I can't imagine a bug in the Decorate which will leak onto additional mods and change the stuff in them. It just doesn't make sense to me that TRE7 (tree sprite) turns to DOGS (helper dog) and then when I move the map up the list, the TRE7 is now the crouching marine. It seems so random and bizarre.

[Rachael]

This sounds like it may need a bug report. If you cannot upload it here please at least DM it to the developer group to take a look at it.

Somehow or other the order of the sprite table is getting messed up and that is not supposed to be happening.

[Gez]

I remember getting this kind of mess a long time ago when I tried shoe-horning all the resources from all the games in a pk3. In fact this was because doing so had clobbered the flat/texture animation tables (which depend on their order because vanilla animations have a start and a stop and tacitly includes everything in-between) so all the animations cycled through every single graphics. It was pretty funky.