Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: How to minimize memory use

Garden with Insight usually uses at least 1.5 megabytes of memory above the amount used by the Windows system, and can use much more depending on the number of colors you are using (16 colors, 256 colors, or millions of colors).

If you have problems with out-of-memory errors, or if your computer seems to be using virtual memory (memory from the hard disk) a lot, you probably need to reduce the amount of memory Garden with Insight uses. You can reduce the amount of memory used by taking these steps, listed in order of the amount of memory you might save by doing them.

Reduce backdrop memory use

Use a small bitmap for the backdrop, or use no backdrop with a small garden size. Using no backdrop bitmap does not automatically mean your memory usage will decline, since the garden size still determines how much memory is used. This is probably the biggest single thing you can do to reduce memory use, since changing a bitmap size from 400x400 to 200x200 causes a four-fold reduction in the memory needed to store the bitmap. Note that hiding the backdrop by changing the option on the Options menu does not reduce the memory needed to store the backdrop.

Reduce tool memory use

Reduce the number of tools in your tool file by removing some tools in the tool editor. (You can remove all the tools but the glove tool.) Or you can use a tool file with smaller bitmaps for the tools (see How to make the tool pictures smaller). Note that hiding the tools by changing the option on the Options menu does not reduce the memory used to store the tools.

Reduce templates memory use

Trim down your main template library by removing some templates using the template window. You can always load templates back into your main template library as you need them using the template mover. (To change which library is loaded as your main template library, see How to change startup file preferences.)

Reduce plants memory use

Don't get carried away with planting seeds. Soil patches only use about 1000 bytes of memory, but plants get bigger as they grow, since they use separate objects to simulate their leaves, stems, inflorescences and fruits. A large tomato plant may take 5000 or more bytes of memory, so if you plant 100 plants you could use up half a megabyte of memory when the plants are full grown.

Reduce undo memory use

Keep the undo levels in the display options window at a low number, say five or fewer. Some actions you save may use up to 10,000 bytes of memory or more, particularly the actions that involve changing the soil patch layers by digging, aerating or carrying soil.

Note: These estimates of memory use by different objects are approximate.