Adobe AIR 30 - 64bit : Still limited GPU memory.

[JaimeDominguez82]

Hello,

I have a game that is going strong in Steam but there seems to be an issue with powerful / modern machines.
The game has a lot of graphics that are in screen and they can use up to 400MB in VRAM in HD resolutions.

The game has some graphics done for 720p and some others 1080p so they can look nice (in HD) when played 1080p or more. Anyway I have lowered the specs to its minimum by reducing some of the backgrounds to use less pixels,  but I'm still quite close to the edge of maximum memory for GPU, which is 0.5GB, and that' is pretty low to be honest, specially if we consider that resolution uses that memory.

I Have :
- Upgraded to AIR 30.
- Upgraded Steam ANE to 64bits compatible. (and it works)
- Added: <architecture>64</architecture>
- Compiled for 64bits using:  set AIR_WIN_ARCH=64

- Added 64bit version of steam libs, the app was asking for those. (After I added them it worked)

Results:

- Game is executed in 64 bits: Windows doesn't show the *32 in the task manager!
- Capabilities.supports64BitProcesses equals to 'true';
- Capabilities.cpuArchitecture equals to "x86";

Unfortunalelly, GPU Memory still limited to 512MB:

The still game grashes with very high resolutions (4K). Some people is complaining that they have a super powerful machine and they can't run the game. They don't know it's because of this.

Please help, I only can lower GPU usage by decreasing quality, and I already did in all areas that allowed it but I can't do any more.

How can I avoid the GPU memory limit with my current setup?

Is this a bug? Should that limit be there, do I need to enable something I don't know??

Kind regards,

Jaime from KaleidoGames.

[zwetan_uk]

what 3D profile are you using ?

from the release note

Release Notes Flash Player 29 AIR 29

see

AIR Desktop-Increase GPU memory Limits

Until AIR 28, maximum GPU memory provided for uploading the Normal and Rectangular textures was 512 MB. With AIR 29 beta, we have enhanced the GPU memory limits to 2048MB. These new limits will be available with the Stage3D profile “Standard_Extended” and "Enhanced". For other profiles, maximum GPU limit will be 512MB.

This feature is AIR 64 bit only and will be available for Normal and Rectangular textures. For Cube texture, memory limits will be same as before i.e. 256 MB.

eg. Context3DProfile

by publishing to 64-bit and using a profile of either STANDARD_EXTENDED or ENHANCED
you should be able to increase the GPU limit from 512MB to 2048MB

[JaimeDominguez82]

Hello

I'm using "standardExtended".

[zwetan_uk]

how are you testing?

eg. if you use ADL the app is 32-bit, not 64-bit
you need to actually test the final app

the other thing could be you think you're publishing a 64-bit but it is still a 32-bit

but if it is not that maybe post a bug in Adobe issue tracker

other thing: have you tested with the setting
<gpuPreference>(discrete|integrated)</gpuPreference>

?

see

GPU Preference Selection in AIR

note: I'm assuming you're using the latest AIR SDK
but here another thing you can try test with different AIR SDK versions

in the release note it says it should work for the normal AIR SDK
but before that the option was only allowed for the beta AIR SDK

downloading a beta AIR SDK from and publishing with it

Download Adobe AIR 30 Beta - Adobe Labs

may allow to enable that GPU limit feature

(if that work then this would be definitively a bug to report)
​

[JaimeDominguez82]

Hello Zwetan,

Yeah I have discrete gpu preference enabled.

I have it all. I think this might be a bug?

And yeah I'm testing in release mode using an actual released app in Steam.

The issue here is that it is not fully running 64bit. Air is but the SWF isn't!

If your are really really curious you can get it (it's a fun game anyway, and then enable BETA - 64bit.

That should get you straight to the app.

Here is the descriptor file. Take a look it has it all.

Dropbox - no_64bits_application.xml

I have also tried "enhanced" adding profile to Starling 1.8 "auto" mode, but it's not doing anything .

I hope we can fix this eventually..

There is a chance that there was Minimum flash version:

I added: -swf-version=41 and looks like it's working now..

[zwetan_uk]

There is a chance that there was Minimum flash version:

I added: -swf-version=41 and looks like it's working now..

yeah this one is very important as the SWF version define which API is available

you can self detect from AIR if the exe is 32-bit or 64-bit
see How do you detect if AIR is 32-bit or 64-bit?

you can detect on the same principle the SWF version

use "loaderInfo.swfVersion"
or see this github gist