[poonasor]

What

The flexible memory budget is a fixed 448 MiB. A title can declare its own in param.json:

"kernel": {"flexibleMemorySize": 587202560}

A commercial title declares 560 MiB. Since the segments of the title's executable count against the budget, it runs out about 20 minutes after its title screen and writes through the null result:

[memory] flexible memory exhausted: request 0x200000 with 0x1be38000 of 0x1c000000 in use

FATAL: unhandled exception 0xc0000005 on thread 32116 'Unknown(Registered)'
  rip 0x00007ff7c410a1ab title.exe+0xd1a1ab
  write of 0x0000000000000000

The title does not reach this point on main alone (it stops earlier on missing functions, #4544 and others); the lines are from c6efe068a with those added on my fork (dev-next).

parseParamJson now reads kernel.flexibleMemorySize (a non-negative integer, bytes; anything else throws), and sceKernelConfiguredFlexibleMemorySize, sceKernelAvailableFlexibleMemorySize and the flexible maps use it. Without the member, or without a param.json, the budget stays 448 MiB.

Not known and recorded in TechnicalDebt: whether the console takes a larger flexible budget out of the direct memory pool, and which values it accepts.

Tested

Windows 11, MinGW-w64 GCC 15.2, AMD RX 6700 XT.

• param_json_parser extended: absent kernel, empty kernel, a valid size, and six rejected forms (non-object, negative, fraction, exponent, string, above uint64). It does not build on main (no flexibleMemorySize field) and passes with this change.
• ctest -R "param_json|guest_memory": 4 of 4 pass.
• The title: with this change the message no longer appears and the title goes on through its main menu into Play Now team select (57 minutes so far, no memory failure).
• python tools/check_conventions.py --base origin/main passes.

Not tested: Linux, macOS.

Checklist

• Based on current main; no other open PR implements the same functions
• One topic per PR; follow-ups go in a new PR
• No comments in code except technical debt
• Unimplemented paths throw (NotImplemented_nid_no_patch); silent stubs are listed in TechnicalDebt
• No notes, investigation .md files or images added to the repository (attach them to this PR)
• New third-party code is a submodule built from source
• Generic behaviour, not specific to one title
• Depends on: none
• AI-assisted: yes

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

Other open pull requests touch the same code. Merging one will break the other, or both implement the same thing. If this one builds on them, list them in Depends on.

Pull request	Conflicting files (lines on main)	Same exports	Same new files
#4508	core/libs/prx/libkernel/AppMetadata/include/ParamJsonParser.hpp L12 core/libs/prx/libkernel/DirectMemory/Export.cpp L39, L100-101, L365, L371 docs/dev/debt/libkernel.md L40

[xXPBSXx]

Windows test: head 55ee567e2 merged onto current main ea2bbefb2 (clean merge, no conflicts). Windows 10, MinGW GCC (WinLibs), Ninja Release, -j2: full build 0 errors; ctest with the filter param_json_parser: param_json_parser passed (1 test(s), 0 failed); python tools/check_conventions.py --base upstream/main passed. I did not run the new tests against main without the change.

AI-assisted (Claude Code).

[adriadam10]

Closing as a duplicate of #4508, which was opened earlier and implements the same thing: kernel.flexibleMemorySize from param.json used by sceKernelConfiguredFlexibleMemorySize, sceKernelAvailableFlexibleMemorySize and the flexible maps, in the same files (ParamJsonParser, DirectMemory/Export.cpp, docs/dev/debt/libkernel.md). It also validates 16 KiB alignment, covers guest-memory accounting in tests and already has review comments.

Your evidence (NHL 27 / PPSA34063 declaring 587202560 and the exhaustion log) is useful there: please add it to #4508 as a comment. Welcome to reopen if #4508 ends up not covering your case.