Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks gives our development team a chance to supply performance and gameplay tips directly to you. They can be a pretty vocal crowd, so check back often.

Clean out the cache

Civ keeps a cache directory of files to load at startup, in order to accelerate the initialization process. The only files which are cached are the XML files and the file directory catalog. However, if you are having problems starting the game for any reason, it may help to clear this directory out and get a clean start. You can do this by:

Holding down shift as the app starts (requires the Civ patch or later), or

Deleting the cache directory manually:
C:Documents and SettingsUSERNAMEApplication DataMy Gamescivilization4cache
(Application Data is a hidden folder and you have to have view hidden folders set in your folder options to see it)
Grabber Mode

When playing them game, you can move the map by holding down both mouse buttons to get the gripper cursor and then dragging the map

Additional tech support help from the community:

CivFanatics
Apolyton

Improving performance

If you are experiencing sub-par performance with Civ, try the following suggestions:

Go to www.windowsupdate.com and apply updates

Update graphics and sound drivers

Close other background applications

Stay away from Large and Huge maps since they require additional ram

Turn graphics and texture settings to low quality in the options screen

Try both windowed mode and fullscreen (1024x768)
Improving movie playback

Try setting Bink16Bit = 1 or BinkInterlace = 1 in the Civ4Config ini file (requires the Civ patch or later)

Update graphics drivers

http://www.firaxis.com/games/game_detail.php?gameid=6&tips=1

"requires the Civ patch" ... ah ah ah very funny