Increasing memory in the Sun Java Plugin

(This information is from the University of Wisconsin AniS page, with some addenda by me.)

If you are using the Sun Java Plug-in for your browser's Java Runtime, you can see the amount of free memory available after each new field is loaded in the information window below the desplay. If the percentage of free memory goes to zero, you'll have to restart your browser.

However, you can increase the amount of memory available to the display applet by following these steps.

Normally, you should first, shut down (exit) your browser(s). The exception to this is if you already are running a newer version of the Java Plug-in on Windows, and when you right-click the Java icon in the taskbar, you get the option "Open Control Panel". If you do, just click on it, and jump to Step #3.
Then run the "Java(TM) Plugin Control Panel"
- On a Mac: Use "Finder" to get to: Applications -> Utilities -> Java and then, run the Java Plugin 1.4.x Setup or whatever version you have.
- On a Windows machine, Start -> Control Panel -> Java
- On Linux, locate the shell script ControlPanel in the Java install's bin/ directory and run it. (You may be able to do this by typing "locate ControlPanel" on the command line.)
Click on "Advanced" (or, on a Mac, the "General" tab), and in the space provided under "Java Runtime Parameters", please type the following (exactly as shown):
-Xmx256m
Then click "Apply" button (or "Apply Now" on a Mac).

These steps will allow your browser that uses the Plugin to run Java to use up to 256MB of memory. You can change the number 256 to a different value if needed -- this should be less than about 1/3 of the total amount of memory on your machine. Higher values may cause the plugin to not function. You may need to do this every time you update the Java Plugin, as well.

Prepared by Bill Moninger, Bill.Moninger@noaa.gov, 303-497-6435
Last modified: Fri Jun 23 11:12:22 DST 2006