Ok I've been running Elemental now (over 7 hours) with the "IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE" header and it works just fine and I got about 10-15 more FPS out of it.
Basically this command tells a 32-bit program it can use up to 3gb of memory instead of just 2gb.
This all originated from a fix with supremecommander and was later done for Empire total war.
I use the old program that was meant for Empire (I didn't make it- look at the readme that comes with it for those details).
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O0J0FL8Q
alternative site - http://rapidshare.com/files/415500390/3GB_enabler_for_Empire.rar
Now here's how you can use this program to give Elemental.exe the new header.
1- Unrar the files anywhere you like (doesn't have to be in elemental folder).
2- Take your elemental.exe (make a backup just in case) and put that in folder you unzipped the files to
3- Rename elemental.exe to Empire.exe (just rename it empire if you don't see the exe), the program is checking for empire.exe to patch
4- Run the startme. Now press A for add and it will add the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE to the Eemental.exe
5- Rename empire.exe back to Elemental and place elemental back into the elemental folder
6-Run the game as normal except now it can use up to 3gb instead of 2gb
I use this program and trick on a ton of other exes including Galciv2 and sword of the stars exes so it's pretty compatible with lots of exes. It doesn't change any code, it's basically telling windows to allow the program to use more memory. This won't get rid of the memory leak though but it does increase performance.
NOTE: You will only see a performance increase if you have more then 3gbs of ram obviously
