Cant run factorio?

[zoranjoza]

I downloaded demo, and i have instaled it, and now i try to run it and i get this error "Content Title- Couldn't create atlas bitmap(size 4096X4090). Probably not enough of video memory."
I must note that i didnt see anywere systeam requiments of game.

This is my comp specs:
Windows XP professional SP3
AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.01 GHz
1.96 GB of RAM
HDD 160GB (100GB free)
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 128MB
Screen Resolution 1280x1024

[SilverWarior]

I'm afraid your system won't be able to run Factorio. As the error suggests you don't have enought Video Memory available.
True there are no official minimum specs posted anywhere but after a quick test I can see that on my computer Factorio (Alpha version) uses about 250 MB of Video Memory.
So unles you have acces to some other computer with more Video Memory you probbably won't be able to play this game.
Infact if you are thinking of buying Alpha I would in your place make sure that your computer has athlest 512 MB of Video Memory. Why? With instalation of every mod there is a chance that graphical requirements of this game would only increase.

[kovarex]

I can see that on my computer Factorio (Alpha version) uses about 250 MB of Video Memory.

I'm just lowering the video memory requirements by using the atlas space better, but the requirements will not be under 200Mb anymore probably.
And we plan to add lot of stuff, so in the final version 512 will be probably minimum ..... for using maximum resolution of sprites.

If we introduced some low-graphics settings, the game could half the resolution of bigger bitmaps, it might help (half the resolution 4 times the save of space), it would look ugly, but it would work.

[zoranjoza]

okay.
Its good that graphic will need more then 256MB. Make it good.
I just was at my grilfriends house, and i had some time to play game. I dowloaded demo to try it but...Nvm its bad computer.
I have good computer at home dont worry, i will play game.

[SilverWarior]

@kovarex
Is it just my imagination or does Factorio loads all the textures at the verry start of the game.
If it is so I would recomend that you postpone the loading of all but menu graphics till actually loading or starting the map.
This would especially come usefull when the number of available mods would increase since more mods musualy means more textures which results in bigger Video Memory requirements. You could probably even calculate how much Video Memory does each mod require. This would alow users with low end computer to more easily chose which mods they would use when their systems are not capable of running with all the mods enabled.

[kovarex]

@kovarex
Is it just my imagination or does Factorio loads all the textures at the verry start of the game.

Yes, we do it th is way.

If it is so I would recomend that you postpone the loading of all but menu graphics till actually loading or starting the map.

What would it be for? You would still have to load all the bitmaps, and you would have to load these one very load, not just once during the start.

This would especially come usefull when the number of available mods would increase since more mods musualy means more textures which results in bigger Video Memory requirements. You could probably even calculate how much Video Memory does each mod require. This would alow users with low end computer to more easily chose which mods they would use when their systems are not capable of running with all the mods enabled.

Some rough estimation could be done and shown, but these numbers can be hardly precise (it depends how hard is it to fit the image in the atlas), it depends also how fragmented is the video memory ... many factors.

[SilverWarior]

What would it be for? You would still have to load all the bitmaps, and you would have to load these one very load, not just once during the start.

That is true but you would alow player to chose texture quality of the loaded graphics. This can come quite in handy for users with low end specs computers as they won't need to edit settings files manually.
For every game you will only have loaded graphics of enabled mods for that particular gameplay, but now you load all the graphics of all enabled mods at game start no mather if they are needed on certain map or not.

[Jetro]

Hi,

I have the same problem "Content Title- Couldn't create atlas bitmap(size 16384X1984). Probably not enough of video memory."

Laptop configuration:
Dell E6420

Windows XP SP3
Intel i5-2520M 2.5GHz
3.23 GB RAM
GPU NVIDIA NVS 4200M 512MB

Is it possible to run the game on such hardware?

[SilverWarior]

I think the game should run on your laptop as you hav two graphics cards.
1. Intel® HD Graphics 3000
2. NVIDIA® NVS™ 4200M (DDR3 512MB) Discrete Graphics with Optimus
Now it is posible that when you start Factorio your Intel® HD Graphics 3000 is chosen instead of NVIDIA® NVS™ 4200M and since Intel® HD Graphics 3000 is weaker and intendet mainly for rendering normal Windows GUI programs whilist reducing energy usage.

I recomend you try to find out how you can manually force the usage of NVIDIA® NVS™ 4200M for normal Windows GUI programs (usually there is specific option in graphical drivers settings for this). This might force Factorio to use NVIDIA® NVS™ 4200M instead of Intel® HD Graphics 3000 and therefore solve your problem.

@Developers
You should definitly add ability for players to chose Which Graphic card is used for rendering Factorio. This could solve lots of problems for Laptop owners and probably even for users which use Multi-Monitor setups

[kovarex]

Hi,

I have the same problem "Content Title- Couldn't create atlas bitmap(size 16384X1984). Probably not enough of video memory."

Laptop configuration:
Dell E6420

Windows XP SP3
Intel i5-2520M 2.5GHz
3.23 GB RAM
GPU NVIDIA NVS 4200M 512MB

Is it possible to run the game on such hardware?

512 Mb is enough, strange, it that it states, that the size of the bitmap can be up to 16384 (never seen card that can have so bit bitmaps).
There might be problem with the sprites size, or the thing said above my post (that it is using wrong card for factorio).

We will try to research the problem a bit. (We will add configurable limit of the size of the atlas bitmap, to be able to test, if it isn't the problem)

[kovarex]

Hi,

I have the same problem "Content Title- Couldn't create atlas bitmap(size 16384X1984). Probably not enough of video memory."

Laptop configuration:
Dell E6420

Windows XP SP3
Intel i5-2520M 2.5GHz
3.23 GB RAM
GPU NVIDIA NVS 4200M 512MB

Is it possible to run the game on such hardware?

512 Mb is enough, strange is that it states, that the size of the bitmap can be up to 16384 (never seen card that can have so big bitmaps).
There might be problem with the sprites size, or the thing said above my post (that it is using wrong card for factorio).

We will try to research the problem a bit. (We will add configurable limit of the size of the atlas bitmap, to be able to test, if it isn't the problem)

[Jetro]

I just install latest dirvers for the graphic card, and problem were gone.

[slpwnd]

I just install latest dirvers for the graphic card, and problem were gone.

Great. One less mystery =)

[x0m9k]

Interesting fact:
I have netbook (Samsung N308) with dual-boot - Ubuntu (Primary system) and Win7 (secondary system).
On Ubuntu 0.6.0 works fine. On Windows i have the same problem: "Couldn't create atlas bitmap (size 2048X2047).Probably not enough of video memory."

So, i think the root of evil in video driver for Windows, not video memory.

UPD: Oh, have not seen the second page of this topic.