How can I allocate all the availble memory in visual studio for my application?

Question

I want to render 4 millions triangles in my windows based software which is written in Visual Studio C++ 2010 (Build in Release Mode). When I render 3.9 millions triangles, the total RAM memory consumed by the software is 400MB. But when I try to render 4 millions triangles (just 100K more), the system gives me an error.

For Example:
Point *P = new (std::nothrow) Point[nb_triangles]; //==> "(std::nothrow)" is for catching the run time memory allocation error. (Point is X, Y, Z floats)
If(P == NULL)
   message("System can't allocate this much memory.");  // System gives me this error. It means the system can't reserve huge memory for this operation.

I have to allocate memory for vertices, face normals, vertex normals, etc.

Actually what I am not getting is, I have 8 GB RAM memory, (but in 32 bit XP windows = 3.2GB memory), and the software is just reserved 400MB, the free memory is more than 1 GB, but when I try to render just 100K triangles more, it gives me an error. Why it is giving me an error? because it still has more than 1 GB free RAM memory?

Is there anyway to fix this issue, how can I allocate all the available memory for my application ? Because of this issue, I have to make a limit in the software just for rendering 3.9 millions triangles and it is not good.

And one more question in my mind is, c++ "new" operator for memory allocation giving me error, how about c "malloc" operator ? can "malloc" fix this issue, is there any diffirence between these two?

Please guide me. Thanks.

Update # 1:

I have tried a lot, modify the code, remove memory leaks, etc, but I can not allocate memory more than 4 millions. Its not possible to change my whole code into "vector". I can't change into "vector", I have to stuck on my own data structure now with "new". Following are the pointers that I want to allocate in order to render 1 object.

P = new points[10000000]; // points is the class with 3 floats X, Y, Z;
N = new Norm[10000000]; // Norm is the class with 3 floats X, Y, Z;
V = new vNorm[10000000]; // vNorm is the class with 3 floats X, Y, Z;
T = new Tri[10000000]; // Tri is the class with 3 integers v1, v2, v3;

Solution 1

It is one of the Great Myths of Windows programming, a process can never run out of RAM. Windows is a demand-paged virtual memory operating system, if a process needs more RAM then the operating system makes room by paging out other memory pages, owned by other processes. Or the process itself, swapping pages out that haven't been used for a while.

That myth is encouraged by the way Task Manager reports memory usage for a process with its default settings. It shows working set, the actual number of bytes of the process that are in RAM. A value that's usually much smaller than the amount of virtual memory allocated by the process. A process dies on OOM when it can't allocate virtual memory anymore. Another statistic in Taskmgr, the VM size value. And it usually dies not because all VM was used but because there isn't a hole left that's big enough. The SysInternals' VMMap utility is a good way to see how a process uses its address space.

Getting a larger virtual memory address space requires a pretty fundamental overhaul. Albeit that it is easy today, just target x64 as the platform target. A 64-bit process has massive amounts of address space available, limited only by the maximum size of the paging file. You could limp along in 32-bit mode, as long as you can count on actually running on a 64-bit operating system, by using the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE linker option. Which increases the VM size from 2 GB to 4 GB on a 64-bit operating system.

Solution 2

For one of the questions:

is there any diffirence between these two?

the different between new and malloc is as follows:

1. malloc is used in C, malloc allocates uninitialized memory. The allocated memory has to be released with free.

2. new initializes the allocated memory by calling the corresponding constructor. Memory allocated with new should be released with delete (which calls the destructor). You don't need to give the size of memory block in order to release the allocated memory.

It is not clear whether new and malloc are related according to the standard (it depends on whether a specific compiler implements new using malloc or not), so the issue may or may not be resolved by simply replacing new with malloc.

From the code you showed, it is difficult to spot the cause of error. You may try to replace the dynamic array with vector to see if it solves your problem. Meanwhile, you may use valgrind to check whether you have memory leak in your code (if you can somehow port your code to Linux with makefiles since unfortunately valgrind is not available on Windows.).

Solution 3

And one more question in my mind is, c++ "new" operator for memory allocation giving me >error, how about c "malloc" operator ? can "malloc" fix this issue, is there any diffirence >between these two?

There are differences between malloc and new, for example, new will initialize your memory and call the constructor of the class automatically. Or initialize if they are primitive types(such as float, int, char etc). Also the memory allocated by new should be deleted with the delete keyword which calls the destructor.

C's malloc() as well as new operator in Visual Studio internally call HeapAlloc(). HeapAlloc() calls VirtualAlloc() if the memory required is too large, or is shared between processes. So, it will not necessarily fix your issue. Infact if you are using C++ stick to using new.

Comments

[Aniket Inge]

Valgrind does not exist on Windows. I so miss it :-(

[WhozCraig]

Hans, isn't the very nature of your last statement, the limitation of the 32bit address space, wood behind the array that you can run out of memory simply by exhausting the manageable VM size to its limit (given in 64bit land thats a tall order, but anyone running a remotely-taxed Tomcat server in a 32bit Java VM has seen it up-close and personal, one of the reasons we ended up requiring a 64bit Java VM for our project at work). Looking back at the first claim, I see it is specifically tagged "a process can never run out of RAM", and I concur to that, but you can run out of memory.

[maxpayne]

yup.. it is not supported windows. Thanks.

[user1703401]

Let's not go there, the term "memory" is entirely too vague. I specifically addressed the OP's assumption that he ran out of RAM.

[WhozCraig]

It doesn't, indeed, which is a true-bummer. WinDbg will give you everything (nearly) Valgrind will, but you really gotta want it, and work for it.

[WhozCraig]

I agree. I was so happy when 64bit was adopted at work I practically danced a jig (not kidding).

[Shoe]

"call the constructor of the class automatically" - well new can be also used with primitive types. You might as well include what happens when you use it on them.

[Aniket Inge]

@Jueecy yes.. And i have, it initializes the newly allocated memory. For example in primitive types it initializes to 0 for integers and characters, 0.00000 for floats and doubles.

[Shoe]

Ok, but it doesn't call any constructor or destructor for them, because they are not classes. Do you see what I mean?

[Aniket Inge]

Ah you wanted it in the answer - I thought it was clear enough @Jueecy cool, fixed it

[Shoe]

Yup, something like that, I was hoping for something along the lines of "new will initialize your memory and, if it's a class, call the constructor automatically" but that fine anyway. +1.

[maxpayne]

the important question is, how can I allocate a huge heap of memory, approximate 10 millions for each pointer. Please check my updated question part. when I allocate 5 millions memory for each pointer, total memory consumed by my software in 400 MB, still more than 1 GB free in the system. I can't allocate more than this number. How can I fix it?

[Kyle Sweet]

@furqan one option is to break up the allocation into multiple, smaller allocations. Even another option is to use the concept of "memory pools". You can even overload operator new and have the allocation go to your own custom-managed memory pools. Memory pools can increase performance in graphics applications that require a lot of allocation and deallocation. But I'm guessing you already solved your problem sometime in the last 44 months :@)