VS compiling Error 1256 ( integer overflow in internal computation ... ) during inheritance

Question

Hi there, my problem occurs during compiling Irrlicht3D Engine in VS 2008.

1>Error 1256: integer overflow in internal computation due to size or complexity of "irr::IReferenceCounted"

I'm currently merging a very old Softwaredriver I have written with the rest of the engine which is much newer. The main Problme is that I have tried to resolve abstract inherince problems. But now I get this error and it is the only one. "irr::IReferenceCounted" is one of the base classes used by other classes which have been inherinced from. What does that mean? I know that an integer overflow can be a normal overflow, but why is this shown during compilation?

Any help appreciated!

-db

Answer 1

The compiler itself has to execute some integer math. For instance, the calculation of sizeof(irr::IReferenceCounted) is likely needed when irr::IReferenceCounted is used as a base class. This could overflow if the type is larger than 4 GB.