What is a memory leak?

Skoomah · February 2018

Talked about a lot but never explained.

Gythral · February 2018

Use Memory - dont release it - rinse repeat - crash

GandTheImpaler · February 2018

It's when a program doesn't manage its memory allocation properly and continues to hold back memory that is no longer needed/used and thus can't be used by another program.

radiostar · February 2018

When an application (such as ESO) keeps sucking more and more of your computer's memory, till it crashes/freezes bc there's no free memory left to use. You have to close the app down and restart the app with fresh available memory. Apps are supposed to use memory, and then release memory back to your computer. In a leak, they just suck it up and don't give memory back for reuse, and the app ends up crashing/freezing bc they kept using your computer's memory till the computer has trouble functioning (lack of available memory).

Cpt_Teemo · February 2018

Also if it gets real bad you need to restart the computer most of the time

Wolfenbelle · February 2018

From Wikipedia: In computer science, a memory leak is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations in such a way that memory which is no longer needed is not released. In object-oriented programming, a memory leak may happen when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code.

Don't mean to be snarky, but Google searches are your friend.

Skoomah · February 2018

Pretty snarky my friend

gootdude · February 2018

Memory leaks are a sign of poorly written software, and the ESO client is the poster child for terrible code.

zaria · February 2018

Cpt_Teemo wrote: »

Also if it gets real bad you need to restart the computer most of the time

Not for games but some windows services tend to leak too, or rather drivers who uses that windows service.
For that the only solution is to restart computer.
More memory migrates the leak issue, with 16GB you play session will be shorter than the time to run out of memory unless you also run programs who use lots of memory. Note that web browsers can use a lot if you have them running for a week and have lots of tabs.

rickard_karstarck · February 2018

LOL, memory leaks are not the reason game client is such a mess, incompetent developers is the reason.

DoctorESO · February 2018

It is a result of sub-par programming.

jedtb16_ESO · February 2018

um... sry, what was the question again?

Ratzkifal · February 2018

It's what made my PC very slow, my taskmanager say that my CPU was using 15.9/16GB all the time, despite the open tasks not adding up to that amount. That is how you know you have a memory leak.

drkfrontiers · February 2018

Middle age.

starkerealm · February 2018

drkfrontiers wrote: »

Middle age.

Juju_beans · February 2018

gootdude wrote: »

Memory leaks are a sign of poorly written software, and the ESO client is the poster child for terrible code.

Where have you found memory leaks in ESO ? What tools did you use to analyze the code ?

Ohtimbar · February 2018

While it has an actual definition, it's most often used by ignorant forum warriors to show off their l33t debugging skills.

Ermiq · February 2018

class MemoryLeakClass {
private: int a;
public:
CreateMemoryLeak() {
a = new int;
}
int StartMemoryLeak() {
a = 5;
return a;
}
void main() {
MemoryLeakClass mL = new MemoryLeakClass;
mL.CreateMemoryLeak()
a = new int;
a = mL.StartMemoryLeak();
}

Amadis001 · February 2018

gootdude wrote: »

Memory leaks are a sign of poorly written software, and the ESO client is the poster child for terrible code.

Memory leaks are a sign of software.

Amadis001 · February 2018

Amadis001 wrote: »

gootdude wrote: »

Memory leaks are a sign of poorly written software, and the ESO client is the poster child for terrible code.

Memory leaks are a sign of software.

Large memory leaks that eventually exhaust available memory and crash your program, and maybe the OS it is running on, are a sign of poorly written software.

zaria · February 2018

Amadis001 wrote: »

Amadis001 wrote: »

gootdude wrote: »

Memory leaks are a sign of poorly written software, and the ESO client is the poster child for terrible code.

Memory leaks are a sign of software.

Large memory leaks that eventually exhaust available memory and crash your program, and maybe the OS it is running on, are a sign of poorly written software.

Chrome and IE are the major memory thieves I know about. They are designed by microsoft and google. Both has brigades with developers. Both programs are internet browsers
now moving past 16GB solves lots of problems, 32Gb solves lots of problems and its not the limit

No moon dancer and IA will not double your dps over julianos and mother sorrow i7, 32GB, and 10680 might double your fps over an craptop. nd yes its the final pay to win

On the other hand some has has more problems in cyrodil than this one with an +$10K rig.

Yolokin_Swagonborn · February 2018

Soleya · February 2018

Eremith wrote: »

class MemoryLeakClass {
private: int a;
public:
CreateMemoryLeak() {
a = new int;
}
int StartMemoryLeak() {
a = 5;
return a;
}
void main() {
MemoryLeakClass mL = new MemoryLeakClass;
mL.CreateMemoryLeak()
a = new int;
a = mL.StartMemoryLeak();
}

A much simpler memory leak would be

void main()
{
int *a;
a = new int; // pointer lost to this variable so it's never freed
a = new int;
delete a;
}

On a side note, the above wouldn't be a memory leak because after main finishes, the app exits and Windows would free up the rest of the RAM that was used by the program. So the leak would only be an issue while the app is running.

vamp_emily · February 2018

Eremith wrote: »

class MemoryLeakClass {
private: int a;
public:
CreateMemoryLeak() {
a = new int;
}
int StartMemoryLeak() {
a = 5;
return a;
}
void main() {
MemoryLeakClass mL = new MemoryLeakClass;
mL.CreateMemoryLeak()
a = new int;
a = mL.StartMemoryLeak();
}

Looks like someone knows a little c++. My father started teaching me c++ when I was 7, in return I would make him have barbie tea parties.

Invincible · February 2018

A memory leak is when you allocate resources to designing new crown items and not server stability.

jssriot · February 2018

I have not seen any signs that there is a memory leak with the ESO client. I am running ESO on a $800 budget build and while it could be better, if there were memory leaks, I'd probably have to restart the game every hour or so, and that is definitely not the case. Most crashes I encounter seem due to either 1) latency or specific bugs that are obviously not memory leaks, and on occasion 1) WIn10 being *** and not playing nice with ESO's clunky client.

Does the ESO client have issues? Yes but if you are having issues where you're getting hard crashes and have to reboot, that is most likely something on your end with your hardware or software.

DoctorESO · February 2018

vamp_emily wrote: »

Eremith wrote: »

class MemoryLeakClass {
private: int a;
public:
CreateMemoryLeak() {
a = new int;
}
int StartMemoryLeak() {
a = 5;
return a;
}
void main() {
MemoryLeakClass mL = new MemoryLeakClass;
mL.CreateMemoryLeak()
a = new int;
a = mL.StartMemoryLeak();
}

Looks like someone knows a little c++. My father started teaching me c++ when I was 7, in return I would make him have barbie tea parties.

hahahahah!