Bratch Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 Hello, Recently I discovered a rather peculiar set of three files in my C:/Windows/Temp directory. They were extremely large (in excess of 800 meg) and all had the name "CM scratch file" followed by a set of numbers/letters. Has anyone else found this and determined why they are created. I have deleted them on two occasions and while the CM beta demo seems to continue to work correctly the files reappear after a few days of play. Thanks for any insight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hnh3_cm Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 I have one such file at 21.9KB. Looking at it in Notepad, I found that it contains the scenario briefings and other unreadable data. Perhaps your extra ones are due to PBEM games, which I haven't tried yet. As long as CM works, I'm not overly curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MantaRay Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 I have to ask how a 14MB game can create an 800MB file??????? Maybe your mistaken a bit in the size??? Ray ------------------ MantaRays 5 Pages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bratch Posted April 20, 2000 Author Share Posted April 20, 2000 No, definately not mistaken on the size, combined all three files = 800 meg. I was wondering the same thing, how can that much space be taken up and why are they created in he first place? Luckily I have a 27 gig hard drive but this could cause a problem for smaller hard drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 Interesting. I don't have one. I have a Mac. Ah well. ------------------ Visit my webpage! http://cm4mac.tripod.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dschugaschwili Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 I've had these files before. I got them when I was trying to load a corrupted PBEM file. It seems that the game then allocates more and more memory until it runs out of space (that happened to me) or you kill the program. However, the files stay there and waste space. If CM isn't running and there are CM scratch files in your temp directory, simply delete them. Dschugaschwili Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolColJ Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 Its just windows virtual memory the best thing is to limit windows virtual memory by setting the minmum and maximum value in the control settings/system/performance applet to the same value - I use a value of 128 mb. so min =128mb, max=128mb, that way windows won't resize it, then you can defrag your HD, and the sweap file will be nicely defragged and won't change size even better change its location so its not in the same partition as Windows. ------------------ CCJ aka BLITZ_Force My Hompage ----> http://www.geocities.com/coolcolj Double your immersion with my Tweaked Textures and Saving Private Ryan sound set mods for CM!! Check out my new Textures V2.0 photo Gallery and my music while your there, or grab a CM Wallpaper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dschugaschwili Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 It has nothing to do with Windows' virtual memory. I have the VM settings exactly the way you suggest (except that I use 256MB). It doesn't effect the CM scratch files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Madmatt Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 For the record the Windows Swap file that CCJ mentioned is called Win386.swp and is not related to the CM Scratch file mentioned. Swap files are always located at the root of a drive and these CM files were created in the Temp directory. I did send Charles an email to check it out but at present I can not tell if these files are created still in the Beta. I too had several in my temp directory but they were all very small (under 20k total) and I have not noticed them coming back since deleting them even though I loaded scenarios in CM constantly to check it out. I will check this more tonight by running the Demo and see if they come back. Either way Charles knows about it and hopefully it will be looked into or more than likely already has! On other point Windows will not defrag the swap file if it already exists (Nortons defrager does but windows does a poor job of it) In order to defrag your swap file you must first deactivate it through the Systems control panel. Then degrag the drive you want to place it on then re-enable the swap file with a fixed minimum and maximum size. That will write the swap file at the 'front' of the drive and since its the first file created on the freshly defragged drive it will be located in continous blocks on the harddrive. The OLD rule of thumb was 2.5 times your installed memory for the swap file size but this has been (and will be) debated for some time although its generally accepted that you will gain nothing by having a swap file larger than about 300mb anyway. 200-250 seems to be a good balance of performance and overhead... Madmatt... ------------------ If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ! combathq.thegamers.net [This message has been edited by Madmatt (edited 04-20-2000).] [This message has been edited by Madmatt (edited 04-20-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bratch Posted April 20, 2000 Author Share Posted April 20, 2000 I think what Dschugaschwili said is the closest to the cause. I have had some trouble loading pbem files and can now notice a correlation between attempting to load these files and the creation of the scratch files. The longer I let the file attempt to load the larger the file. It makes sense now. BTW Madmatt, thanks for searching for an answer for me. I have enjoyed your updates for some time now. Eben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Madmatt Posted April 20, 2000 Share Posted April 20, 2000 No search neccesary, Swap file definition and usage were on my MCSE test! And you guys thought I was just a loud mouther self absorbed ex-bouncer! Being a loud-mouthed self absorbed ex-bouncer is just the tip of the iceberg... Madmatt ------------------ If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ! combathq.thegamers.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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