Get available video memory?

[AlainSE]

Hi,

I am looking for a function to retrieve the available video memory (it is useful to know if I can load all textures at the beginning of the application or if I have to wait until I really need them).

I noticed Irrlicht display this information on the debug log when starting the application (I am using OpenGL):

...
OpenGL driver version is 1.2 or better.
Dedicated video memory (kB): 2097152
Total video memory (kB): 2097152
Available video memory (kB): 1621140
...

Is there a way to retrieve this information through irrlicht API?

thanks.

[zerochen]

hi,

the api is your friend^^

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/docu/cl ... ee0b9e8270

regards
zerochen

[hendu]

No, and it isn't portable either - you can't get it everywhere, and what AMD and Nvidia expose is different.

@zerochen, the API exposes RAM, not VRAM.

[zerochen]

ups yes you are right. hm but i think i saw something related in the irrlicht code.

[AlainSE]

Ok thanks for the answer...

but it is really annoying - I was using DirectX (on a different engine) and I was able to know exactly the amount of available ram. I am switching to OpenGL because I want to create a cross platform product and this limitation is .. well.. a real limitation.

[Nadro]

You can use eg. http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/ATI/meminfo.txt for AMD cards. I think that in future we should add support for available VRAM to Irrlicht API.

[hybrid]

We actually print out this value when starting Irrlicht. Instead, we could introduce some attribute we could query so more easy access - and especially access at any time - would be possible. Driver attributes structure is not easily possible, though, as it does not update dynamically.

[hendu]

Then we get apps that only work on AMD cards, or Nvidia, or only AMD+Nvidia...

[Nadro]

Then we get apps that only work on AMD cards, or Nvidia, or only AMD+Nvidia...

As I know Intel doesn't provide any extension (source: http://www.opengl.org/registry/) for VRAM statictics, so if application really require VRAM available informations etc for properly working, Intel GPU's can't be fully supported.

BTW. VRAM data handling in OpenGL is problematic because not a programmer, but a gfx driver decide when leave a data in VRAM or move it back to RAM.