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[justicarab]

is it my computer or the game, cause it seems like i can't embark on a square larger than 5x5

[bluephoenix]

It is probably your computer, I can embark just fine on larger embarks.
How much ram and processing power do you have?

[ptb_ptb]

And have you used Large Address Aware on your DF exe? (assuming you use Windows)

[Miuramir]

On Windows, DF by default can need up to 2 GB of memory (RAM), depending on the size of your embark horizontally (e.g. 5x5), the vertical size (layers of sky, of dirt and stone, the stranger stuff beneath, etc. can vary quite a lot depending on randomness and what you set for your world gen parameters), and things like the length of your history (which adds more records of battles, more historical people and locations to keep track of, etc.).  Unfortunately if it for whatever reason tries to exceed either the 2 GB limit or the actual remaining available memory on your PC, it is highly likely to crash. 

If your computer has more than 2 GB of memory (RAM) that is working properly, you should be able to go larger than 5x5 under at least some conditions.  Note that DF uses memory much more aggressively, and is somewhat less fault tolerant, than many other ordinary user programs; if you think you have plenty of memory you might want to check it with something like Memtest86+ to make sure you don't have a bad chip.  Note also that some overclocking is not long-term stable enough for DF, even if other programs can manage to run. 

If you have at least 4 GB of tested, stable RAM you may want to look at patches for making DF "Large Address Aware".  This is a somewhat peculiar Windows thing that should allow DF to use up to 3 GB instead of 2 GB, at the possible cost of some stability and/or compatibility. 

There are a variety of other posts about how to tune the world generator to have flatter, or more boring, or otherwise lower-memory embarks; it's all about tradeoffs.  Unless and until Toady takes the (possibly enormous) amount of time to make DF 64-bit aware (which, to be clear, is not even on the horizon in any official way), players will need to make choices about what their limited memory gets "spent" on; horizontal size, vertical size, civilization complexity, etc. 

[justicarab]

i am currently checking the test mem thing

[draeath]

I'd run at least 2 passes. Definitely at least 2.

If you get failures, note the addresses. RAM is addressed backwards, so 0x0 is the "end" of your memory where the highest offset is the start. This USUALLY maps directly to the order of them on your motherboard, but when in doubt start pulling single sticks out until you get a clean test.

(of course the real madness is when the problem is because of dust or whatever, and just by moving them around the problem goes away on you)

[justicarab]

Well I have 12 gigs

i5 3570k 3.40ghz

nvidia 680gtx

2x  2048mb ddr3 1333 kingston 9905403 115
2x  4096mb ddr3 1333 kingston 9905403 181

In this order

2048mb
4096mb
2048mb
4096mb

the 2 2gbs are ooooold and I think they are not the same speed as the 4 gigs, I installed the new ones a while back.
 I am ok with just tossing the 2 gigs cause I have  an i5 and nvidia 2gb 680 gtx, I know 8 gigs is more than enough. Should I just toss the old ones? The testisstill running btw, and still on the first pass . Any advice would be great, cause im far from an expert unlike alot of you guys.

[draeath]

Well, don't do anything until you get two passes done (OR you get errors. You can stop if you do.)

Report back with results, I'd say, and we can take it from there.

[justicarab]

it was clean. i didn't honestly think it was my ram cause i never had issues even with much more powerful games whil running this in the backgroud... and internet/youtube.

[Caldfir]

The 2GB limit is based on DF being compiled as a 32-bit program.  You can patch the executable to use up to 4GB (though that isn't foolproof).  It doesn't mater how much memory your computer has - DF can only use that much. 

Large embarks use a lot of memory because each individual tile in the embark is loaded into memory.  Volumes increase very quickly so even though the tiles don't take up very much room, they quickly fill your memory.  If you really want a large embark, then you want to generate a world that contains minimal underground z-levels. 

Realistically, those huge-embark sites sound cool, but aren't much fun.  They tend to have very low FPS, and all your migrants/caravans die trying to make it from the map-edge to your fort.  It is more fun to play on a 3x3. 

[justicarab]

o, ok, well i', glad to atleast know that it's not my computer