Graceful error on inability to allocate cache

[Anthony J. Bentley]

$ ulimit -d
524288
$ 0ad
Cache: 500 (total: 3975) MiB
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
  what():  std::bad_alloc
Abort trap (core dumped)
$

There's nothing wrong with failing here. But the error message plus coredump is a little unfriendly, especially since people who use the .desktop file will not not see the error message.

It would be nice if 0ad were to cleanly error out (via a graphical message box?) and exit if it can't allocate enough memory at the beginning.

Yes, these ulimits are low, but they are the default on some platforms like OpenBSD. A more readable error message would help new users realize the problem sooner.

[Anthony J. Bentley]

OpenTTD is an example of doing the right thing: it informs the user with a visible warning message and continues with a reduced cache size instead of aborting.

[Anthony J. Bentley]

screenshot: OpenTTD in low-memory situation