User Info: ravaggle ravaggle 9 years ago #11 kingofjamaica posted...

From: d_damjan | Posted: 8/27/2011 12:45:46 AM | #001

The memory utilized managed to increase by 2GB when Origin was started up which is pretty ridiculous.

How much does it use while running BF3 I wonder. If it uses 2GB then too, those people saying 8GB of RAM is overkill will stop being correct come September. I mean, Windows 7 uses around 600MB of RAM(I think), and then 2GB for Origin on top of that would mean you'd realistically only have 2GB left for the game.



I also wonder if rumors are true and that the full version of BF3 supports hyper threading on a quad core. That would mean the i7 2600k might actually be worth the extra $95. I do believe I read that Deus Ex: Human Revolution supports it also.



Origin is using about 70k of memory while open for me. No where near 2 gig. It's roughly about 2% of my 6gig of RAM. Origin is using about 70k of memory while open for me. No where near 2 gig. It's roughly about 2% of my 6gig of RAM.

User Info: d_damjan d_damjan (Topic Creator) 9 years ago #12 Memory Usage Correction - Memory Usage spike caused by ProcessMonitor:

It looks like the memory usage was incorrectly attributed to Origin, my apologies. While testing origin I did find that memory usage in general rose by 2GB but Origin itself used about 70MB. I couldn't find any processes that were using such massive amounts of memory so I assumed that Origin indirectly increased the amount of memory used.



I have now tested Origin without diagnostic tools such as ProcessMonitor and have found no such leap in overall memory usage.



After closing Origin I opened ProcessMonitor on its own and noticed no major memory usage spike. However when I then peformed a second test with Origin and ProcessMonitor open at the same time the memory usage creeped up to 2GB over normal. The overall memory usage crept up while windows task manager somehow reported ProcessMonitor of using only 38MB memory.



The overall memory utilized went back down to normal once I closed ProcessMonitor. I didn't think it was even possible for so much memory to be used without Task Manager correctly reporting what process was actually using it but that somewhat happened here.



I still have Origin installed however I won't use it outside of tests unless I can block its access to the ProgramData folder (apart from scanning every file and folder in ProgramData it also takes forever to load as a result). The best way to do this without resorting to Virtual Machines seems to be to use a sandbox program, however I haven't found one that properly works for Vista 64bit.



I've reposted this info along with the correction on the EA forums, the topic is here:

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7492824.page

User Info: illuminatirexx illuminatirexx 9 years ago #13 hearing more and more about origin...and the junk that bf3 is associated with , and ea/dice's past history with adds in game, and spyware in bf2142..makes me want bf3 less and less...the more bs devs are creating to screw their customers - us the less I will support them!

User Info: L0rdSeth L0rdSeth 9 years ago #14 illuminatirexx posted...

hearing more and more about origin...and the junk that bf3 is associated with , and ea/dice's past history with adds in game, and spyware in bf2142..makes me want bf3 less and less...the more bs devs are creating to screw their customers - us the less I will support them!



yeah the "spyware" in BF2142. that tanked because the audience was too small for it to be of any use; that consisted in... absolutely nothing, and it was easily disabled by editing the hosts file.



the worse ad ever put in those billboards was the Ghost Rider DVD one, the few times it was actually used it went mostly unnoticed, it took people taking screenshots and noticing after the fact; it was a complete failure of a concept and never lived up to its dreaded fame.



In the end it screwed only the publicity company that came up with it, EA lost nothing, DICE lost nothing, we lost nothing. Lord of Almarak. http://l0rdseth.deviantart.com

Caballero Dorado de la casa de Libra. yeah the "spyware" in BF2142. that tanked because the audience was too small for it to be of any use; that consisted in... absolutely nothing, and it was easily disabled by editing the hosts file.the worse ad ever put in those billboards was the Ghost Rider DVD one, the few times it was actually used it went mostly unnoticed, it took people taking screenshots and noticing after the fact; it was a complete failure of a concept and never lived up to its dreaded fame.In the end it screwed only the publicity company that came up with it, EA lost nothing, DICE lost nothing, we lost nothing.

User Info: Greyfoxeh Greyfoxeh 9 years ago #15 OBJECTION! - http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=4144189 Very nice post tc. Just to clarify does it scan prog. Data on every startup of Origin? Does it kick in on windows boot ?

User Info: L0rdSeth L0rdSeth 9 years ago #16 Greyfoxeh posted...

Very nice post tc. Just to clarify does it scan prog. Data on every startup of Origin? Does it kick in on windows boot ?



yes, but you can turn it off. Lord of Almarak. http://l0rdseth.deviantart.com

Caballero Dorado de la casa de Libra. yes, but you can turn it off.

User Info: Greyfoxeh Greyfoxeh 9 years ago #17 OBJECTION! - http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=4144189 Does it just load an origin service or open the full program on boot? In which case my q changes to is it the service that runs the data scan or opening origin fully?

User Info: d_damjan d_damjan (Topic Creator) 9 years ago #18 I have run Origin several times now, and it checks about every file and folder in ProgramData each time. It doesn't seem to create any new services and there aren't any EA or Origin related services running at other times (save for punkbuster when playing BF2).



Avast looks interesting but they charge quite a bit and I don't feel like paying that much extra since I already have an antivirus program and would only need its sandbox features for a couple of programs.



Another person mentioned on the EA forums that although not much data is sent to the servers initially the client could send more info later on. This could be the case as I only left Origin running for a few minutes after it loaded, however that still raises the previous questions of why would they scan miscellanous files such as icons and json files and if they were looking for info about other software why would they only look in ProgramData (instead of the common registry keys & other common folders) as many programs don't save information there.



I still wouldn't want to use Origin due to its suspicious and rather baffling activity in ProgramData and the fact that it literally takes minutes to load every time as a result.

User Info: d_damjan d_damjan (Topic Creator) 9 years ago #19 Limit Origin and other programs from accessing various things:



It turns out that there's a free version of Sandboxie that supports both 64bit and 32bit Windows. My biggest gripe was with Origin scanning the ProgramData folder however after more testing, its access can indeed be blocked by Sandboxie.



Here are the basic steps to limit Origin's access:



-Download and install the free version of Sandboxie and then run it

-Create a new sandbox called Origin



-Open command prompt and type "cd C:\ProgramData"

-Then type "dir /d"

-Copy the list of directories to an empty Notepad document and remove the Origin entry in the pasted text



-Use Edit / Replace to get rid of all "]" characters

-Use Edit / Replace to replace all "[" characters with "ClosedFilePath=C:\ProgramData\"

-Add "OpenPipePath=C:\" at the top of the document for however many normal hard drives/partitions you have on the PC (D,E,F,etc). You shouldn't need to worry as the only major thing Origin appears to access outside of EA/Origin/System related stuff is the ProgramData folder



-Copy all the text in notepad and get back to Sandboxie

-Go to Configure / Edit configuration

-While editing the opened ini file go to the very bottom of the Origin entry and paste the text underneath

-Save and close the file, Sandboxie should automatically put up a message about updating its settings



-If need be you can check the Sandbox settings in Sandboxie itself to make sure everything has been set correctly

-Run Origin through the sandbox that you created. Provided that you removed the Origin folder entry before it should execute and login just fine



There you have it; testing showed that Origin's behaviour remained the same in such an environment with the exception that it couldn't access the folders in ProgramData except its own folder.



Sandboxie can also be used for things like Punkbuster, though you should check the following page to avoid conflicts:

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?KnownConflicts#punkbuster



I can't 100% garuantee this, but it does appear that after taking these steps that Origin will not access much outside system/origin/ea stuff and so your other stuff should be private. You might need to tweak the sandbox settings a bit however if you install additional programs that use ProgramData to stop Origin from accessing them.



Remember that Origin isn't the only suspect software you may have; you can use Sandbox and ProcessMonitor for other suspect programs as well.



Unless Origin gets an update that makes it more invasive I'll be willing to use Origin outside of tests at the moment, now we just have to hope that BF3 and other Origin games don't suck ;)