Buffer error when reaching 2GB (2.147.869.560) byteLength about gltf-sdk

[jimver04]

Hi,
I have created this simple example that replicates the issue. When I run it in x86 mode the limit is 512Mb, whereas in x64 mode the limit is 2 GB. LargeAddressAware option does not affect any mode. The result is the same.

I am using stringstream because GLB is using stringstream as found here:

Here is my example

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>

int main() {

    // Create a chunk of data that is 128 Mbs
    int szDataChunk = pow(2, 27);  
    char* data = new char[szDataChunk]; 

    //The number of times to add this chunk to a stream.
    // So, 128 Mbs * 32 = 2^(27+5) = 2^32 = 4 GBs 
    int ntimes = pow(2, 5); 

    std::stringstream* m_stream = new std::stringstream();
    
    for (int i = 0; i < ntimes; i++)
    {
        // Write the data to stream
        m_stream->write(data, szDataChunk); 

        // See the size onscreen
        std::cout << m_stream->tellp() << " bytes | "
                 << m_stream->tellp()/ (1024*1024) << " Mb \n"; 
    }

    return 0;
}

[jimver04]

It seems that it is OS / Compiler related.

• Windows 10 with MSVC 142, can go up to 2GB.

• CentOS 6.5 with gcc 4.9.4, can go up to 8GBs:
  https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/limited-maximum-length-of-stdstringstream-on-x64/102668

• Ubunt 22.04 with gcc 11.3.0 can go up to 4GBs. Live example (https://onlinegdb.com/N0znB-g-x)
  

[bghgary]

See here: KhronosGroup/glTF#2114

[jimver04]

I don't think it is related to #2114.

It is related to the limit of std::ostream to 2GB because we are flushing data in the end of all processes:

I think we should flush more frequently to the file in order to avoid the 2GB limit of std::ostream.

It has also to do that we have only
1 Buffer
and
1 BufferView

[bghgary]

I don't think it is related to #2114.

The code issue is not related, but the GLB file format itself cannot be bigger than 2GB because the header uses a uint32 for the length. Even if we fix the code issue, it still won't work.

EDIT: Or are you writing to a glTF and not a GLB?

[jimver04]

Hi,

I am trying to export a 2.8GB CAE model in a single GLB file. So far, I have managed to export models of maximum size of int32, namely 2GB.

The total file length limit and the chunck1 (binary part) length limit are both uint32. See below :

The uint32 maximum is 4GB: 0xFFFFFFFF (or 4294967295 in decimal)

So I assume that writing a 3.8 GB binary buffer with a 0.2 GB json is possible as regards GLB standards.

The crash in GLTF-SDK happens during addAccessor - more specifically in StreamUtils::WriteBinary(std::ostream& stream, const T* data, size_t size). It has the following callstack:

I have made a function that calculates the number of bytes (N) needed for my model a priori - without any bufferBuilder - by iterating all my models parts and summing up the nbytes for indices, nbytes for vertices, nbytes for morphing, and nbytes for vertex color for the last simulation frame.

Somehow, I should find a way to pre-allocate N bytes in ostream, so that StreamUtils::WriteBinary(std::ostream& stream, const T* data, size_t size) does not crash when the size of stream exceeds 2GBs.

Best,
Dimitrios

[jimver04]

In my PC the streamsize does not seem to suffer the 2GB limit

[bghgary]

Ahh, sorry, I'm dumb and I'm not thinking about unsigned. Well, that seems like a bug then. Do you have an easy repro I can use to test the code?

[jimver04]

Unfortunately, I can not share the CAE models, and it is difficult to reproduce without a very big model. I am copying some screenshots with information below. It is seen that if the limit of 2GB is reached while adding accessors through bufferBuilder, then the size of the ostream (in this case it is stream in ram) becomes -1, and failbit and badbit become true.
See information for failbit and badbit in here: https://cplusplus.com/reference/ios/ios/rdstate/

[jimver04]

Hi, I have found this below but not tested yet as my project is compiled with make and I do not know how to insert this option.

In order in C++ to use objects more than 2GB you should set /LARGEADDRESSAWARE in Linker properties in
Configuration Properties > Linker > System property page. See these resource for more details:
[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37413998/why-my-program-does-not-take-more-than-2-gb-ram-on-64-gb-ram-system
[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/largeaddressaware-handle-large-addresses?view=msvc-170
[3] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3109543/what-to-do-to-make-application-large-address-aware

[jimver04]

On the other side, there is no strict limit if we use std::string instead of std:stringstream. The example below in Windows demonstrates that std::string can easily reach 16GBs. Moreover std::string seems faster and we can also preallocate the memory needed by calculating a priori the number of bytes per indice and vertex (Stringstream does not allow preallocation). However, many things should change in the GLTF-SDK code ...

[bghgary]

It looks like Microsoft's STL implementation limits string buffers to INT_MAX.

https://github.com/microsoft/STL/blob/cf1313c39169dc376761eddee23c5e408e01aaa9/stl/inc/sstream#L252-L261

[bghgary]

Looks like there were similar issues before:
microsoft/STL#578
microsoft/STL#388

@jimver04 Do you mind filing an issue on Microsoft's STL for your test case?

[bghgary]

@jimver04 I don't know what your code looks like, but GLBResourceWriter has a constructor with a second argument std::unique_ptr<std::iostream> tempBufferStream. If you pass in your own for this (maybe using a local file instead), it will avoid the usage of std::stringstream. Hopefully this is good enough until the STL is fixed.

[jimver04]

@bghgary It seems that it is an old issue that never got priority in MSVC. In Gcc the limits seem to be based on __string_type::size_type
https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/blob/master/libstdc%2B%2B-v3/include/std/sstream which is not so explicitly provided. So I guess it goes up to memory available. I have started modifying GLTF-SDK to replace std:stringstream with std::string wherever necessary. Thanks for the information. My changes are send to branch: https://github.com/jimver04/glTF-SDK

[jimver04]

I have also mentioned the issue of 4GB limitation of GLTF to Khronos group:
KhronosGroup/glTF#1051 (comment)

[bghgary]

@bghgary It seems that it is an old issue that never got priority in MSVC. In Gcc the limits seem to be based on __string_type::size_type https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/blob/master/libstdc%2B%2B-v3/include/std/sstream which is not so explicitly provided. So I guess it goes up to memory available. I have started modifying GLTF-SDK to replace std:stringstream with std::string wherever necessary. Thanks for the information. My changes are send to branch: https://github.com/jimver04/glTF-SDK

I don't see this as an old issue. As I pointed to earlier, the code is checking against INT_MAX and fails to allocate bigger. The two old issues I pointed to are fixed as far as I can tell. I don't see a reason why std::stringstream should be limited to INT_MAX.

[jimver04]

I am trying to use std::string instead of std::stringstream. Why do you have caches ? StreamCache, IStreamCache, StreamCacheLRU ? What do you cache ? The Buffer stream or the File output path ? and why ?