I'm having a pretty strange problem that I didn't think I'd run into. I was able to store a 50x50 grid in one vertex buffer finally, in hopes of better performance. Before I had each cube have an individual vertex buffer and with 4 50x50 grids, this slowed down my game tremendously. But it still ran. With 4 50x50 grids with my new code, that's only 4 vertex buffers. With the 4 vertex buffers, I get a memory error. When I load the game with 1 grid, it takes forever to load and with my previous version, it started up right away. So I don't know if I'm storing chunks wrong or what but it stumped me -.-

for (int x = 0; x < 50; x++)
            {
                for (int z = 0; z < 50; z++)
                {
                    for (int y = 0; y <= map[x, z]; y++)
                    {
                        SetUpVertices();
                        SetUpIndices();
                        cubes.Add(new Cube(device, new Vector3(x, map[x, z] - y, z), grass));
                    }
                }
            }

            vertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(device, typeof(VertexPositionTexture), vertices.Count(), BufferUsage.WriteOnly);
            vertexBuffer.SetData<VertexPositionTexture>(vertices.ToArray());

            indexBuffer = new IndexBuffer(device, typeof(short), indices.Count(), BufferUsage.WriteOnly);
            indexBuffer.SetData(indices.ToArray());

Thats how theyre stored. The array I'm reading from is a byte array which defines the coordinates of my map. Now with my old version, I used the same loading from an array so that hasn't changed. The only difference is the one vertex buffer instead of 2500 for a 50x50 grid. cubes is just a normal list that holds all my cubes for the vertex buffer

Do you ever release the cubes that you are creating at the inside of the loop? Also, it appears that your vertex buffer must allow storage of 50 x 50 x H cubes, where H is the height of each element in your array.

Have you calculated how much memory is being allocated for your vertex buffers?

I have not released the cubes, or calculated how much memory is in my vertex buffers because I don't know how to do either. I'm still a noob lol

Anything that you create with 'new' is allocated on the heap, and has to be released with the 'delete' keyword when you are finished with it. If you don't release the objects, then the objects continue to stack up until all of the memory is consumed.

So you should delete the array of objects after the data is copied into the vertex buffer.

Ah. I was under the impression that any kind of "garbage collection" was done automatically with c#. Or maybe that was Java...anywho I'll give it a shot

I figured out the error. I had put effect = new BasicEffect(); in my cube constructor. Stupid mistake. I don't really need 100,000 effects for each cube. But anyway now that I have the 4 grids loaded my fps is down again, this time 7~9. I have a feeling it has something to do with my draw method, as each grid has its own buffer and I should not be getting as many draw calls as I have.

public void DrawMap(GameTime gameTime)
        {

            foreach (Cube block in cube.cubes)
            {

                effect.VertexColorEnabled = false;
                effect.TextureEnabled = true;
                effect.Texture = grass;

                Matrix center = Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(-0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f));
                Matrix scale = Matrix.CreateScale(1f);
                Matrix translate = Matrix.CreateTranslation(block.cubePosition);

                effect.World = center * scale * translate;
                effect.View = cam.view;
                effect.Projection = cam.proj;

                effect.FogEnabled = false;
                effect.FogColor = Color.CornflowerBlue.ToVector3();
                effect.FogStart = 1.0f;
                effect.FogEnd = 50.0f;

                cube.Draw(effect);
                noc++;
            }
        } 

Is there any way around this? I kinda need to the for loop to set the position of each cube, but I think its part of my fps drop issue.

My SetUp methods are:

        private void SetUpIndices()
        {
            /*
            //Front face
            //bottom right triangle
            indices.Add(0);
            indices.Add(2);
            indices.Add(3);

            indices.Add(0);
            indices.Add(1);
            indices.Add(2);

            indices.Add(1);
            indices.Add(5);
            indices.Add(6);

            indices.Add(1);
            indices.Add(6);
            indices.Add(2);

            indices.Add(2);
            indices.Add(6);
            indices.Add(7);

            indices.Add(2);
            indices.Add(7);
            indices.Add(3);

            indices.Add(4);
            indices.Add(7);
            indices.Add(6);

            indices.Add(4);
            indices.Add(6);
            indices.Add(5);

            indices.Add(1);
            indices.Add(4);
            indices.Add(5);

            indices.Add(1);
            indices.Add(0);
            indices.Add(4);

            indices.Add(0);
            indices.Add(7);
            indices.Add(4);

            indices.Add(0);
            indices.Add(3);
            indices.Add(7);*/
            #region IndicesArray
            indices = new short[36];

            indices[0] = 0;
            indices[1] = 2;
            indices[2] = 3;
            //top left triangle
            indices[3] = 0;
            indices[4] = 1;
            indices[5] = 2;
            //back face
            //bottom right triangle
            indices[6] = 1;
            indices[7] = 5;
            indices[8] = 6;
            //top left triangle
            indices[9] = 1;
            indices[10] = 6;
            indices[11] = 2;
            //Top face
            //bottom right triangle
            indices[12] = 2;
            indices[13] = 6;
            indices[14] = 7;
            //top left triangle
            indices[15] = 2;
            indices[16] = 7;
            indices[17] = 3;
            //bottom face
            //bottom right triangle
            indices[18] = 4;
            indices[19] = 7;
            indices[20] = 6;
            //top left triangle
            indices[21] = 4;
            indices[22] = 6;
            indices[23] = 5;
            //left face
            //bottom right triangle
            indices[24] = 1;
            indices[25] = 4;
            indices[26] = 5;
            //top left triangle
            indices[27] = 1;
            indices[28] = 0;
            indices[29] = 4;
            //right face
            //bottom right triangle
            indices[30] = 0;
            indices[31] = 7;
            indices[32] = 4;
            //top left triangle
            indices[33] = 0;
            indices[34] = 3;
            indices[35] = 7;
            
            #endregion IndicesArray

        }

       

        private void SetUpVertices()
        {
            #region VPNormalTexture
            /*
            //front left bottom corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector2(1, 0)));
            //front left upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(0, 1, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 0), new Vector2(0, 0)));
            //front right upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(1, 1, 0), new Vector3(1, 1, 0), new Vector2(0, 1)));
            //front lower right corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector2(1, 1)));
            //back left lower corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(0, 0, -1), new Vector3(0, 0, -1), new Vector2(1, 0)));
            //back left upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(0, 1, -1), new Vector3(0, 1, -1), new Vector2(0, 0)));
            //back right upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(1, 1, -1), new Vector3(1, 1, -1), new Vector2(0, 1)));
            //back right lower corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(new Vector3(1, 0, -1), new Vector3(1, 0, -1), new Vector2(1, 1)));
            */
            #endregion VPNormalTexture
            vertices = new VertexPositionTexture[8];
            //front left bottom corner ok
            vertices[0] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector2(1, 0)));
            //front left upper corner
            vertices[1] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 1, 0), new Vector2(1, 1)));
            //front right upper corner ok
            vertices[2] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 1, 0), new Vector2(0, 1)));
            //front lower right corner
            vertices[3] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector2(0, 0)));
            //back left lower corner ok
            vertices[4] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 0, -1), new Vector2(0, 1)));
            //back left upper corner
            vertices[5] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 1, -1), new Vector2(1, 1)));
            //back right upper corner ok
            vertices[6] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 1, -1), new Vector2(1, 0)));
            //back right lower corner
            vertices[7] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 0, -1), new Vector2(0, 0)));
            #region VPColor
            /*
            //front left bottom corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(0, 0, 0), color));
            //front left upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(0, 1, 0), color));
            //front right upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(1, 1, 0), color));
            //front lower right corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(1, 0, 0), color));
            //back left lower corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(0, 0, -1), color));
            //back left upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(0, 1, -1), color));
            //back right upper corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(1, 1, -1), color));
            //back right lower corner
            vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(1, 0, -1), color)); 
            * */
            #endregion VPColor
        } 

The commented out code are just things I've tried that I might need to go back to later. I don't know if its better to store my vertices and indices in a list or array, but both seem to work. Oh and if anybody can help me out with the U and V values of my vertices that'd be awesome. My texture is drawing horribly wrong, but it's not that big of an issue right now

burnt_casadilla maybe this example on the MSDN Create website might help you, http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/mesh_instancing

With instancing you can create the cube once, then use an array of structures to represent the voxels in your world (which are then copied into a dynamic vertex buffer). This could effectively reduce the number of draw calls you make to just 1 (as long as you use a texture atlas). The example although complex should give you some insight into what is needed to draw the number of primitives you are looking to draw at a real-time friendly speed.

Aimee