[Update: 24 January 2007] Rev B patch is now released, plus a Warlords Rev A patch to bring Warlords up to version 2.08. See this thread for details and discussion of these patches.

[UPDATE: July 29 2006] The full release of this patch is now released. To update your Civ4 to version 1.61 rev A go to the link below, download the file, mount the disk image and run the installer. The file size is 40 MB.

Download Mirrors: MacGameFiles (http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19218) | 3D Downloads (http://www.3ddownloads.com/Strategy/Civilization%204/Patches/Civilization_IV_1.61.dmg)

Civilization IV 1.61 Rev A

This is an official update for Civilization 4. It will fully update any previous version of Civilization 4 to version 1.61 Rev A. It is recommended for all users.

This update contains the following fixes:

- Better performance on certain Macs (particularly G5's) that exhibited excessive CPU use in the original release. The game should no longer run dual CPU's to 100% capacity.

- Fixed numerous sounds issues including missing sounds, stuttering, 3D sound positioning, and movie soundtracks.

- Fixed globe graphical corruption at Low quality setting.

- Fixed bugs exposed by having the "Big Blue Marble" mod installed in CustomAssets.

Known Issues

- If you experience kernel panics on Intel Macs, make sure you have installed the latest version of the OS X 10.4.7 Combo update. If problems persist, turn off FSAA options and/or run the game in a window.


Requirements

• Civilization IV

Squuuueee so much faster now!!!! Still No Combat Sounds but I have ambient sounds now, as well as some new building completion sounds!!!

Oh my gosh the difference is amazing on my PowerBook!!! :eek: Intro movies and wonders play without lag!! Animations are fluid!! I hear the sounds of birds and judaism!!

If only I didn't have an inorganic chem test monday...

Haven't even played yet... Just starting up was noticeably faster!

WOW! Gotta say, this is a huge improvement. My processors don't max out at 200% on the MBP as soon as the game loads, and I'm noticing ambient sounds everywhere. Still not much from the units, but definitely better. And scrolling seems to be much improved as well. I quickly loaded a very late game (~1980s) with 5 CPUs and was able to scroll smoothly - not the case before the patch.

Brad & team - I am guessing it took some extra work to get this out by the end of the day on Friday, but thank you! It'll be great to mess with the beta patch over the weekend.

Oh my!

On my MacBook Pro it means that it only runs at around 100% rather than maxing both cores out. The performance is also significantly improved. I thought it was good before, but now its better.

Haven't paid too much attention to sounds yet.

But, if you have a MacBook Pro, it means that your computer is less likely to melt down to the core of the earth than it was previously. A definite improvement.

Played my first session last night (that's European Release dates for you) and thought the game was perfectly playable though jerky. Have just downloaded the patch and tried a couple of turns - and can confirm that it's quicker, smoother and noisier. I'd say well done Aspyr for getting a partial solution out so quickly.

:)


2.1 GHz PPC G5, 1.5 GB RAM, ATI X600 128MB.

Hurra, the patch is out! Everything works smoother, faster and much more enjoyable on my iMac G5 now. Thanks Aspyr for the quick reaction, but moreover I'd like to thank you for visiting the board and keeping in touch with the community. That is what good costumer support should be like... :)

What a difference, the game is actually enjoyable now...

Glad to hear the beta patch is helping! We did push really hard to get it out for the weekend, even though we knew we had some more sound stuff to work on. It's always nerve-racking when you release a patch, because no matter how much testing you do you won't know how well it works in the real world until its out :)

Glenda
Aspyr

Runs better than before on the MacBook, at least in single-player mode. Glenda, Brad, you might want to try it on a MacBook with at least 1GB RAM - you may be able to move the MacBook over to the "supported" column which should have a very beneficial impact on sales. :goodjob:

"Tastes great! Less filling!" This is a HUGE improvement ! I have sounds and MUCH faster movement (units and land panning) movies are playable. Thanks!! Mac specs: iMac G5 1.8 GHz/512MG/GeForce 5200 64MB

The patch has dramatically improved the game's speed on my Powerbook G4 1.67, 1.5G, 10.4.6. However, when playing full screen and using CMD-h to switch to another app briefly and then coming back to CIV 4, Civ 4 is just a black screen with a normal OS cursor. It doesn't crash or anything, but you can't do anything with the app except quit it from the dock.

Hiding and returning to CIV 4 worked fine (albeit slowly) for me pre-patch.

Great job, Aspyr, in responding so quickly with a patch!:goodjob:

Wow what a difference a patch makes. Everything works optimally now. Sound ambient, music and everything else works great on the G5. No pegging the CPU any more. Thanks to Brad and Aspyr for getting us a quick nice beta patch.

Please can someone with a compliant system spec download and run the current GOTM start save (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/download.php?file=civ4gotm08contender.Civ4SavedGam e)? I'd like to know whether GOTM can support Mac players. Of course it would be even better if someone can try completing and submit a game :p

I tried and it crashed, but I'm not anywhere near to having a compliant system. I can start up a new game OK, but I don't think I can load a previously saved game at all.

Alan,
It crashed on start up for me right after the first page. Heres the crash log..

Alan,
It crashed on start up for me right after the first page. Heres the crash log..
Ha! That's the same error I had. I'll raise it with Brad. Are you able to save one of your own games normally and reload it?

Some problems i am getting are there are buzzing sounds when you zoom in to some terrain as well as no combat sounds. Anyone else having a problem like this?

I Downloaded the patch on my underspec 1.25ghz with Radeon 9000 64mb. Although I only had a couple of minutes to check it out, The improvements are incredible. I loaded a standard map at about 1800AD and it was closer to perfect than i could have ever imagined. No time to check the sound. I will post after I get home and have a chance to play a while.

I Downloaded the patch on my underspec 1.25ghz with Radeon 9000 64mb. Although I only had a couple of minutes to check it out, The improvements are incredible. I loaded a standard map at about 1800AD and it was closer to perfect than i could have ever imagined. No time to check the sound. I will post after I get home and have a chance to play a while.

I have a 1.8ghz G5. It runs great now until later in the game when the standard map is full of all of the civilizations. Then it really taxes your system. :nuke:

that's so much better . . . . now it's fun to play.

Some problems i am getting are there are buzzing sounds when you zoom in to some terrain as well as no combat sounds. Anyone else having a problem like this?

Yeah, there are still some sound bugs, and we should have fixes for those in the "non-beta" patch, which we're still working on. Glad to hear the feedback so far is positive!

Ha! That's the same error I had. I'll raise it with Brad. Are you able to save one of your own games normally and reload it?

Thanks for the info. I'll look into this. If luck is on our side, we may be able to roll a fix for this into the non-beta version of the patch.

Good work, Brad :thumbsup:

Brad & Glenda:

Thanks for the quick work from Aspyr!

It's getting better! CPU usage on my MacBook Pro is down and there are more ambient sounds.

On the down side:
- Still no unit combat sounds
- Additional new sound bugs (screeching right speaker, sound cuts in and out and must be reset by turning sound off / on in OS)
-Still seeing graphic glitches on the ATI Radeon x1600. No kernel panics at medium detail, but textures are regularly becoming corrupted after a few hours of play (civ banners, left & right info windows). Also the map buildings going black issue noted by others.

Thanks, Diego

I've got the "min spec" system (iMac G5 1.8 GHz/1GB /GeForce 5200 64MB), and have been looking forward to the CivIV release for months. I was quite disappointed to see the negative performance reviews - but it looks like you've got most of the really bad issues covered (or nearly so) with this patch. I'll be ordering my copy today.

Holy heck! I can't believe how much improved the performance is. I'm on a 1.5ghz Powerbook g4, 1gb ram and ATI Radeon 9700 64mb.

Just got the game yesterday- pre-patch, the intro videos had low frame rate, tutorial was pretty slow (almost seemed like it was hung up when a new builiding was created) with slow scrolling.

With the patch, the intro videos are not perfectly smooth but are pretty close, and actually feel like a video instead of a series of screens. Game is much faster (just a few turns on small map, low graphics...). Ambient sounds there- birds and sea-shore. I did have some of the buzzing that someone reported, but it went away. Also, still have red map when you pull out to globe view.

Given the improvements, I wonder if Aspyr will consider supporting some additional hardware configurations?? I haven't tried bigger maps or higher graphics yet, but given what I've seen so far, seems pretty great.

Great job guys!

Are you able to save one of your own games normally and reload it?
I was able to load my game and then I tried loading the GOTM, almost the same type of crash. I figured everyone else would be playing. I had to stop myself just so I could find out if there was a patch. Then I ran into this part of the thread. Sounds like from Brad GOTM might work after all. Hope this helps.

Please can someone with a compliant system spec download and run the current GOTM start save (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/download.php?file=civ4gotm08contender.Civ4SavedGam e)? I'd like to know whether GOTM can support Mac players.

I've been playing the GOTM 8 game for a few days off and on. I'm at like 1500 AD...

So definitely playable over here... iMac coreduo 2ghz.

I've been playing the GOTM 8 game for a few days off and on. I'm at like 1500 AD...

So definitely playable over here... iMac coreduo 2ghz.
That's interesting. Is this a diference between G4/5 and Intel? Maybe an Endian issue on asset protection CRCs?

I've noticed that the end bit of combat animations seem to go missing more often now. It could be the patch or the map I'm playing now (Earth from the scenarios folder) but I've had a number of confusing combats where I don't know who won until I check the colour of the message.

The game is so much smoother and with the ambient sounds, Civ IV-post patch is a completely different game. It is fun and beautiful.

I'm chugging along nicely on my iMac G5 1.8 GHz/2Gig/GeForce 5200 64MB, even at EOG. In fact, my last turns (standard map) are faster and smoother than my first turns before the patch.

A big thank you for rolling out this patch before the weekend.

Kudos!

On the down side:
- Still no unit combat sounds
- Additional new sound bugs (screeching right speaker, sound cuts in and out and must be reset by turning sound off / on in OS)
-Still seeing graphic glitches on the ATI Radeon x1600. No kernel panics at medium detail, but textures are regularly becoming corrupted after a few hours of play (civ banners, left & right info windows). Also the map buildings going black issue noted by others.


I'm seeing similar improvements and bugs. The CPU usage on my dual 2.7 is more reasonable now. However, I do have the screeching right speaker bug (which can be reset by turning ambient sounds off, then on), and I'm still seeing texture garbage when I zoom out to a globe view. I've got a Radeon 9650 with 256MB VRAM, driving a Cinema HD Display at 1920x1200. I'm playing the game in a 1440x900 window. I'm using 10.4.6, I've held off on updating largely because of Civ IV...

Definitely far more playable, though.

I can't believe I'm so late coming into this patch! I finished a game today... I'm hoping that this patch improves late game play, because I've quit three games late because it just get sooooo slow.

Who won the pool?

I was only off by 6 days :)

"This update cannot be installed because an existing installation of Civilization I-V cannot be found"

huh? I have tried everything, copying it into the Civ4 folder and so on, but no joy... any ideas folks?

"This update cannot be installed because an existing installation of Civilization I-V cannot be found"

huh? I have tried everything, copying it into the Civ4 folder and so on, but no joy... any ideas folks?

Is that Civ4 folder in your Applications folder?

Copying the installer into the Civ4 folder will have no effect. The installer will probably be looking for Civ4 by reference to the Receipt in your /Library/Receipts/ folder. Have you moved the folder since you installed it and ran it first time?

[PS] If you just copied the Civ4 folder from the DVD and didn't run it before trying to install the patch then the Receipt would never have been written, so the patch installer wouldn't know where it is. I suspect you have to run Civ4 first before you can patch it.

That's interesting. Is this a diference between G4/5 and Intel? Maybe an Endian issue on asset protection CRCs?
Wouldn't the asset protection be a handled error?

Perhaps someone who can load the GOTM save could try loading a game with modified assets (different crcs?) to see if this causes the error, or whether its handled correctly.

The same error is thrown if I simply try to start a new game with protected assets. It's not just a protection error, it's a program error. Something's overflowing during CRC calculation, or ....

I'll try copying it to my applications folder - thats prolly the ticket
I copied it into my copious "games" folder (stuffed w aspyr goodness)
can't wait for my system to be fixed!
and those intel towers!

yes - that fixed it
had to copy it to the Apps folder, run a game (to 'bless'/locate it?)
then run the installer

initial testing on my sub-par system shows much improved performance!!!
rock on!

is it 3AM yet?

I too have noticed a heap of performance improvement on my 1.67 Ghz G4 PowerBook and want to give a special thanks out to Brad and his team for busting their butts to get this patch out before the weekend!

Patch works fine for me, too.

Sound issue as said from others above: Some are there, some still missing.

Patch works fine for me (iMac G5 1.8 1.5GB ram), on my saved game (huge map, 8 civs) I would say that it was around 20% faster and a lot of background sounds as well as music (a little intermittent though), the intro movie was also a lot less jerky too.

I'll try copying it to my applications folder - thats prolly the ticket
I copied it into my copious "games" folder (stuffed w aspyr goodness)

I don't think it matters where it is. You just have to run it before trying to patch it, as you found. That produces the receipt record that the patch can use to locate it.

hmmm, I ran CIV (from my boot disk's "games" folder) many times before the patch. I DLed the patch and it just wouldn't upgrade the Civ4 app/etc. I tried reinstalling (and running prior to patch attempt), w no luck

Someone kindly suggested that CIV needed to be installed in the Applications folder... I moved it, ran it from that folder... then tried the update... and it worked

ymmv

ps - me specs be G4 1.4/1.2G RAM/R8500/OSX10.3.9
I might try a 10.4.7 install on the other drive just to compare performance

pps - the game quit to desktop this AM, uptime for game was about 8 hours (my son and I take turns playing, heh) patch be much faster, arg!

hmmm, I ran CIV (from my boot disk's "games" folder) many times before the patch. I DLed the patch and it just wouldn't upgrade the Civ4 app/etc. I tried reinstalling (and running prior to patch attempt), w no luck

Someone kindly suggested that CIV needed to be installed in the Applications folder... I moved it, ran it from that folder... then tried the update... and it worked
Interesting. I based my comment on the fact that I'm sure I've seen others who have it installed in a Games folder somewhere, and who patched it successully.

Indeed. I have mine in ~/Games, and it patched there without any difficulty whatsoever.

Thought it was you :p

Me too, actually. In a ~/Games folder... and it patched flawlessly.

Thanks for the hard work guys! Works much better on my non supported machine.

G4 Digital Audio (powerlogix dual 1.33 Ghz)
ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 MB VRAM
1.12 GB RAM

just a quick update on patch performance from way(?)-under-spec land (1.5ghz powerbook 1gb/Radeon 9700 64mb).

I decided to up the game specs a bit. Large map, animations/effects on, and medium quality, everything else set low. Playing full-screen mode. Game started out pretty smooth, but has gotten slower. I only had some of the tutorial to judge speed pre-patch, but I'd guess at 1200AD on a large map is maybe still a smidge faster than pre-patch tutorial. It is still quite slow though, so that it takes a few seconds to scroll to the next unit. If you want speed and large maps and animation on a powerbook, I'm guessing you will be disappointed, but it plays well enough for my tastes (kept me up until 3am last night!)

Sounds (except for some unit/battle sounds?) still working reasonably well, although it seems like some are getting cut off, and maybe unrelated, but there may be a broken sound either when I scroll past a city or foriegn territory when the ambient music is playing. There's a quick, loud "bomp" sound in these instances. Wonder movies still playing well late into the game. I'm not sure what the battle animations are supposed to look like, but they always end with the loser getting thrown backwards so I guess they are working...

I had the game open from about 1pm to 3am without any crashes or major graphics problems...

I had the game open from about 1pm to 3am without any crashes or major graphics problems...
Glad to see you're keeping this under control ... Not having any fun ... or addicted in any way then? :p

Yep patch works for me, there's a definate improvement. Though I have a problem with all the non-aspyr videos (ie startup screens and wonder movies) where I just don't get any sound despite all my settings being on default (except 1280x800 res). Also the soundtrack seems to be a bit too dependent on the CPU usage as whilst waiting for the next turn the soundtrack keeps on cutting in and out though I'm sur ethat's just because my computer's not fast enough (iMac G5 2GHz, 2GB RAM, ATI 9600 128mb, OS 10.4.7). Thanks for the support so far Aspyr, I hope the latest patch is out soon!

Glad to see you're keeping this under control ... Not having any fun ... or addicted in any way then? :p


:lol: There was a several hour pause in there somewhere when the game was open but I was away from the computer. Just figured it would be good to point out that my computer didn't crash or overheat or anything like that...

:lol: There was a several hour pause in there somewhere when the game was open but I was away from the computer. Just figured it would be good to point out that my computer didn't crash or overheat or anything like that...
Sure, sure... and you bought a second copy and have it stashed in the garage, right...?

I purchased the German version of Civ4 for Mac 2 days ago, when it was released at all. I use a Mac Mini 1.67 with 2 GB Ram. The game is playable before the patch, but with a lot of interruptions in sound and, in addition, with some color changes from time to time in the landscape of the map. With the patch there was no solution. It became worse, as it crashes especially during an early stadium of Scenario (Earth).
I wonder if it is a question of the processor (2.0 better than 1.67?), the poor graphic of MacMini with using the RAM, or the problem of the Mac OS 10.4.7. I'm ready to buy a new Apple MacBook with 2.0 Ghz processor, but I want to be sure, that the processor helps to make playing the game more enjoyable than now. The step to buy a MacBook Pro is too high.
Any recommendation? Is it also a question of patience, because the Civ4 for Mac is something like a Beta????
I'm a Civ 2, 3 and 4 player for years, and somehow a Fanatic, I have to say.

Works much better for me as well! I'm on a 17" iMac (iSight, 1.9GHz, 1.5GB ram). Since I'm still running windowed, I can see MenuMeters report that CPU is still at 100% as before -- but now, the kernel % is a much more reasonable ~5%, instead of the 40% it was before. This makes total sense, given Brad's description of what the problem.

(For a timed metric: when double-clicking on a city to open it up for examination, then hitting esc to close it again, the full loop takes around 5 seconds, instead of the 10-12 seconds it took before.)

I also hear more ambient sounds, although I'm guessing this is more because the CPU has time to play them, not because of particular sound fixes. I was very surprised to hear New York neighing at me!

P.S. I should mention that the weirdness when you zoom out to view the world and see the image of the last guy you talked to is still there, as you might expect. That's the only obvious bug I can see.

Runs better than before on the MacBook, at least in single-player mode. Glenda, Brad, you might want to try it on a MacBook with at least 1GB RAM - you may be able to move the MacBook over to the "supported" column which should have a very beneficial impact on sales. :goodjob:

Hey gfeier, I'm ordering a MacBook with 1Gb today. What size maps are you able to play and have you played through to the late game?

Sure, sure... and you bought a second copy and have it stashed in the garage, right...?

Doesn't everyone? :mischief: Actually, I do still have my pre-order edition of the PC version- waiting in the event I end up with a new PC for some reason.

I'm up to around 1600AD now on the large map. The game seems a little faster this afternoon than it did last night (faster between turns, leaderheads not as jerky, etc)- not sure if its some kind of cache-clearing effect following the reload or just that *I* was a little foggier last night at 2am...

Hey gfeier, I'm ordering a MacBook with 1Gb today. What size maps are you able to play and have you played through to the late game?

Right now I'm still playing my first game (been REAL busy lately). I'm up to 1882 AD as the Greeks on a huge world at Chieftan level with seven other civs (well, six now - a moment of silence, please, for the Arabs, my former neighbors). The game plays OK - for a strategy game. The graphics are jerky, especially the combats, but there are a lot more sounds since the patch and processor use seems to have dropped from over 190% to around 100%. For a strategy gamer who cares more about finding the right combnation of Civics for a particular empire than about eye candy, the game is eminently playable and great fun. My daughter also has a MacBook and a copy and agrees.
There is one bug we have both seen - the screen gets darker, sort of like night falling and the game slows way down, usually after looking at an advisor screen or opening up a city. At that point you just save and reload and you're back up and running. I don't know if this problem is MacBook-specific, though. If not, I expect it''ll be patched.
The MacBook is a temporary solution for me. It's my wife's and I'm only using it to tide me over until the Mac Pros ship because my old dual 800 Quicksilver crapped out and I don't want to spend the money to fix it with a new machine a month or two off. I probably would not be as pleased with the game if I knew I would have to run it on the MacBook for the next five years, but I would be playing it during that time.

P.S. even with the patch, it's still a good way to make sure the fan on the MacBook works. Playing Civ is about the only time I ever hear the fan.

You can use this link to skip the 4 minute wait before the download starts on 3ddownloads.com.

http://www.3ddownloads.com/Strategy/Civilization%204/Patches/Civilization%20IV%20Installer.dmg;jsessionid=D8554 C91C52269375ACDAFA8C62FB0C1?key=D8554C91C52269375A CDAFA8C62FB0C1

There is one bug we have both seen - the screen gets darker, sort of like night falling and the game slows way down, usually after looking at an advisor screen or opening up a city. At that point you just save and reload and you're back up and running. I don't know if this problem is MacBook-specific, though. If not, I expect it''ll be patched.

P.S. even with the patch, it's still a good way to make sure the fan on the MacBook works. Playing Civ is about the only time I ever hear the fan.

I have noticed this bug as well. My ships will go black. And ice will turn black. Last night just about everything turned black, and I had to restart.

I'm not sure what the cause is. It just seems to happen after playing for awhile. Maybe it's a sign that it's time to go to bed?

I have noticed this bug as well. My ships will go black. And ice will turn black. Last night just about everything turned black, and I had to restart.

I'm not sure what the cause is. It just seems to happen after playing for awhile. Maybe it's a sign that it's time to go to bed?
Could be... nothing wrong with the graphics, it's the eyes that are going!

I see the black graphics bug, both pre and post patch, on both intel and G5 macs (all running latest 10.4.7).

Yay! Civ 4 runs very well on my MacBook 2 GHZ with 2 GB of RAM. Still notice some graphic / sound issues but nothing drastic that causes crashes.

When will a final version of this patch be available?

can't believe I missed this all weekend!!!

downloaded and tried installing with no go. even though I've tried like 10 times, and it acts like it's writing files every time, civ is still the same old regular 1.61 not 1.61a.

tried upgrading where it usually is (external drive)
tried upgrading in the apps folder (after running it from there once).

both no go. I'm deleting and reinstalling from the DVD now, into the apps folder to if that will work.

BTW. anyone know how to trow away the receipt?

In order for the patch to install correctly, it's necessary to have launched the Civ IV program first?

My new Intel iMac arrived this morning, so I'm going to have a jolly good time figuring out the ins and outs of it *and* getting Civ IV installed and properly patched.

But first things first: a trip to the store to get a good surge protector.

Gatekeeper

downloaded and tried installing with no go. even though I've tried like 10 times, and it acts like it's writing files every time, civ is still the same old regular 1.61 not 1.61a.Who says it should be 1.61a? Mine is still 1.61. You have to look at the build number, which changes from v8012 to v9221 in GetInfo for the Civilization IV application file.

BTW. anyone know how to trow away the receipt?
If you really feel you need to, it's at /Library/Receipts/Civ4.pkg

In order for the patch to install correctly, it's necessary to have launched the Civ IV program first?
Well, it's all circumstantial evidence, but it does seem as if the patch installer is expecting to find the Civ4.pkg receipt in /Library/Receipts/ in order to track down your installed copy. Since that can't be created just by dragging the software from the DVD, I'm assuming it is created during first run.

can't believe I missed this all weekend!!!

downloaded and tried installing with no go. even though I've tried like 10 times, and it acts like it's writing files every time, civ is still the same old regular 1.61 not 1.61a.



I think it did update. My copy still says version 1.61 in the finder, but it's obvious the patch was applied because the game is way faster.

so should it still be saying "FINAL RELEASE" in the "about this build" window in the app? I assumed it would say something like "beta fix" or something.

let me put it this way. I HOPE it didn't work because the game did not get any better AT ALL.

here's hoping this "try again" works "this time"

"I" "like" "quotes"

yeah no matter what I do it stays at 8012.

gotta go back to work now, I'll try again tonight.

Mine says 9220... not 9221?

Alan,
It crashed on start up for me right after the first page. Heres the crash log..

I've been playing the GOTM 8 game for a few days off and on. I'm at like 1500 AD...

So definitely playable over here... iMac coreduo 2ghz.

Hi waltham845 and monaco27:

Can you tell me if you have any mod in place - eg Blue Marble?

Reason I ask is it looks as though I can load the GOTM start file if I don't have Blue Marble installed, so I'd really like someone else to confirm this. It may simply be that it fails if you have a CustomAssets mod installed. If so then we have a workround for supporting Mac players in Civ4 GOTM, and a clue for Brad for fixing it in the full patch.

Thanks

First kudoes to Brad and the team for getting this patch out so quickly. I'm really impressed.

The game feels faster and smoother overall for me(running BlueMarbleMod) though I get a screech coming from the right speaker every now and then. Pretty much the only complain I have is about the sound, combat sounds are sporadic and the ambient sounds are as well. Still, I'm very impressed with the patch (considering the speed of its deployment). Looking forward to the final version. :goodjob:

Hi waltham845 and monaco27:

Can you tell me if you have any mod in place - eg Blue Marble?
Nope, no mods at all.

Brad: One question, do you all plan on adding MacBooks to the list of supported computers? Reason being is a) people like me are running Civ4 on our MacBooks without much problem (I do have 2 GB of memory) b) people are having EXCELLENT experiences with Civ 4 in Boot Camp with MacBooks. Do you think we'll ever get to the PC level of Civ4 on the MacBook in actual OS X?

Do you think we'll ever get to the PC level of Civ4 on the MacBook in actual OS X?

A lot of that is going to depend on Apple. The iMacs are seeing roughly equivalent performance in Boot Camp vs. Mac native. I have no idea how the MacBooks compare in Boot camp vs. Mac native in Civ4, so for all I know they're already there.

Nope, no mods at all.
OK. That might be the reason you're able to run the GOTM save. Thanks :D

so I got the patch working last night. no real noticeable speed jump but I attribute that to the epic speed warmonger game I used as a guinea pig. around 1800 and I have MANY MANY tanks/marines/infantry rolling around. (and dammit, if saladin gets that spaceship before I wipe him off the map I'm gonna be salty, but I digress)

sounds are WAY better. no cutting off anymore and I do hear some of the "battle just finished" sounds, but not anything during fighting.

also, when issabella was bombarding my fortifications, I don't usually hear it during the turn but rather, once it's my turn I get a long scroll, each accompanied by the bombard sound, while I'm doing all my stuff. I assume it's related to the speed issue or possibly having "don't animate enemy moves" turned on.

keep up the good work!

I bought Civ4 OS X version last week to play it on my brother's MacBook (plays great after the patch), but also thought I should give it a try on my iBook G4 (1.2GHz, Radeon Mobility 9200).

The game is somehow playable, with fps ranging from around 10 (around 500AD, large map, graphics to low) to over 30 when there is lots of fog of war around...

Tried a few different graphics settings and noticed that when turning on animations, enabling high-quality textures etc, the game would run slower, but not noticeably. That said, seems line it's the objects' complexity that's the culprit.

This seems like a designer bug in the 3D engine of the game, one that I don't think will ever be addressed, but I can always hope: There seem to be no low-complexity 3D models for the far away views. That's a feature I can't understand why it hasn't been implemented, since this is a common tactic in 3D programming (did some OGRE programming a while ago).

I would also like to propose a mod that modifies just the 3D objects with simpler ones. That way, I believe the game would scream even on G4s.

I know I am underspec on one machine and at min cpu/vid card for another, but I think it plays pretty darn well considering!

some suggestions for speding things up:

- delete perspective!
man the calculations the vid card must go thru to just angle all the lines for a 3 point perspective... make it just two for folks who wanted this turn based classic to play on their olde machines (otoh, ya gotta buy new iron some time)

- make a super fast 'snap to' setting
the camera doesn't accelerate out from the last viewpoint/unit, it immediately snaps to the new location, with (perhaps even a toggle to switch this off?) a minimal deceleration or glide into the new viewpoint

- low res texture set?

- low res polygon set? or on the fly (game launch?) simplification of models by a user selectable preset # (1/2, 1/4 etc)

- turn off edge scrolling? with a snap to minimap rt click, the arrow keys could be used for fine adjustments

- some sort of miracle pre-processing? mb for folks who have a low vid card, but enough juice elsewhere?

- $25 off your next mac video card upgrade! =)

fun game so far, just won my first space race victory

This seems like a designer bug in the 3D engine of the game, one that I don't think will ever be addressed, but I can always hope: There seem to be no low-complexity 3D models for the far away views. That's a feature I can't understand why it hasn't been implemented, since this is a common tactic in 3D programming (did some OGRE programming a while ago).

Civ4 does not push out a huge number of polygons in normal gameplay (the leader heads are a different story), so lowering the vertex count is not going to have a huge impact.

enkidu,
deleting perspective wouldn't do much, since the 3D-engine would remain the same (unless you are talking about a re-wright and not just a few tweaks).
low textures as implemented right now seem to work just fine.

Brad,
could you let us know of the mean number of polygons and meshes in a land unit? I believe there are way over 50, from what I can see when zooming in. This kind of detail isn't needed for far-away viewing, since when almost every viewable world tile has an object on it, things easily get quite frustrating...
Anyway, you could make a test and lower the vertex cound quite a bit to clear this one out, if it's easily feasible, that is.

[edit]
Brad,
I did some more testing and it looks like my iBook handles leader heads polygons real-time when the map is centered into an area with lots of FoW. Also, I get over 20fps in full zoom in map areas with lots of detail. Also tried to count the polygons on a tree, I believe there are around 10 of them (times the number of trees in a regular forest tile... and voila!), but do corrent me if I'm wrong...

Also, I get over 20fps in full zoom in map areas with lots of detail.
How are you measuring fps? I haven't seen anything that would allow me to work it out.

My question exactly!!!

How are you measuring fps?
You can measure fps just by experience. "over 20 fps" usually is when no irritating frame skipping occurs. "under 10 fps" is still playable, while "under 5 fps" is when you start having second thoughts about whether you should continue playing or not.

Just as a sidenote, I moved over to 1000something AD and things have begun to render somehow slower. "under 5 fps" was the situation almost 50% of the time... :sad:

Just as a second sidenote, Brad, I noticed extreme VM activity when exiting the game (along with the current VM size growing by 1Gb); could there something be leaking? Been playing for 2 hours with no problems though (apart from the slowness, sound issues and globe view)...

Keep up the good work!

If you can get the Blue marble terrain mod to work (I think it is now mac-compatible) then you could probably use the low-resolution version of that terrain set.

IMO that mod improves the terrain appearance greatly, and for some it also improves performance a bit.

You can measure fps just by experience. "over 20 fps" usually is when no irritating frame skipping occurs. "under 10 fps" is still playable, while "under 5 fps" is when you start having second thoughts about whether you should continue playing or not.

There is a tedious option that would allow you to benchmark that.

In the .ini file there is an option for a framerate cap. If you play around with that you could see what it looks like at various framerates. I tried a cap of 30 and 5. At 30 I couldn't tell any difference from uncapped. At 5 I could see a sort of flicker during scrolls of the map but wouldn't say the game was substantially different in character. But I suspect that if you are performance constrained to <5 fps it would look different to putting a cap on screen redraws. YMMV.

The max fps clamp doesn't seem to work for me. Tried setting it to 5, but I could still see over 20 over simple terrain.

EVer since I applied the patch, my dual 1.8GHz G5 (geForce 5200, 1.5 gig ram, 10.4.7) has played better except... After some amount of tme the game will suddenly get very choppy. When this happens I don't see both cpu's being pegged like it used to, but it as even more choppy than it was pre-patch. Quiting the game, relaunching and reloading will fix the problem.... for a while. Then it comes back. Anyone else seeing this? You know it's happenend when suddenly the scrolling becomes choppy when it hadn't been before.

I've now applied the patch. I have:

20" iMac
2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo
X1600 w/ 256mb VRAM
2gb RAM

i.e. the top-spec iMac at the mo.

Running:

Huge Map (Earth)
18 Civs
windowed at 1400 x 900 (?)
AAMP = 4
All settings maxed

My observations:

- it runs NEGLIGIBLY quicker but doesn't really run at an adequate (i.e. smooth) level when zoomed or in globe mode (Yes, huge map with 18 civs but still...my machine should be able to do better given that there aren't many more powerful Macs out there, are there? I truly pity others now :( !)
- music and ambient sounds galore; issues with battle-sounds still; some clipping of sound effects; one loud, loud pop when exiting a negotiation
- turning 3d graphics settings down doesn't seem to make any difference to smoothness of unit movement or scrolling

What are the experiences of other 20" core duo people?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/1184003/wo/G06gFjo9kyZm2xkyG3T1ttNNVQv/2.?p=0

That's a more powerful mac.

The max fps clamp doesn't seem to work for me. Tried setting it to 5, but I could still see over 20 over simple terrain.

You can get a rough estimate of the framerate by installing the Apple developer tools and running the OpenGL profiler. It provides a framerate counter for apps it sublaunches.

Yes, huge map with 18 civs but still...my machine should be able to do better given that there aren't many more powerful Macs out there, are there? I truly pity others now :( !)

MacBook Pro here, basically the same machine as yours. I've run the Earth Scenario with 8 Civs - the same map as you but with fewer civs and notice the severe slowdown towards the end. Not unplayable, but really pretty clunky.

Thinking about it, the number of civs shouldn't matter - just the number of things that are on the map. The AI only comes into it moving to the next turn. They aren't active when you are moving. Or are they?

It also surprises me that the larger the map, the slower it is. I mean, you can only see so much of the world at any given time. I guess they are keeping it busy animating all the mines and trees on the opposite side of the globe. But is that really necessary? Is performance better by keeping all that stuff going in a buffer rather than generating it on the fly when you actually move your view to see it? I would have thought the slowdown would be negligible between a standard and a huge world because you see the same amount of terrain on either.

I've been holding out for a patch to pick up Civ4. For the sake of experimentation, I tried a quick game before installing the patch. Didn't bother with the audio, but it was pretty choppy. I'm not sure I gave it enough time pre-patch(i was pretty excited).

Post patch I guess it's better, but it's still pretty choppy at low settings. I'm not sure if I'm dropping frames or not. Even at the beginning of the game, I find myself waiting to see red to end turn. The interface seems snappy enough, but scrolling is hard to watch. it's a little better zoomed out.

G5 2x2.5
one gig ram
ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128

Perhaps I was expecting too much?

My fans are usualy pretty quick to spin up running CPU intensive stuff, but I'm not even hearing them running Civ4. Figure that one out. Haven't checked the usage yet...

Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: houston
Posts: 1
Wow, that's weird. I can't believe I remembered my password.
(I'm normally pretty chatty I swear):crazyeye:

Holy Cow!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: houston
Posts: 1
Wow, that's weird. I can't believe I remembered my password.
(I'm normally pretty chatty I swear):crazyeye:
Man, that's a serious case of "lurk"!

Well, you saved your first post for a great place.
Welcome! (I guess?) Yes, definitely "Welcome!" (even if you have been for four years!)

@Alan
per your question I do have blue marble installed, but I think monaco27 has already given you the answer you seek....
Nope, no mods at all.
It would be really cool to run GOTM with the bluemarble mod installed. I was able to run the American Revolution mod and bluemarble with no problems at all. hmmmm...

I fired up my new iMac today for the first time and, after getting Safari set up with my bookmarks and whatnot, performed an update via the "Software Update" under the Apple menu.

My machine shipped with 10.4.4, and the updater brought it up to 10.4.7, updated QT to 7.1.2 and also loaded updates for 10 other programs. Last, but not least, it upgraded my firmware to 1.0.

Here's my question: Did I get the right 10.4.7? According to the System Profiler, my version is 10.4.7 (8J2135). I don't want to do anything with Civ IV until I'm sure the OS is the proper version. FWIW, the OS updater was 215MB; I say this because I noticed on Apple's update site that there's another 10.4.7 update that's roughly 133MB. Both were posted June 27. I'm assuming the latter is just a standalone update for the OS, where the one I got updated not only the OS, but other programs as well.

Any insights are, as always, most appreciated!

Gatekeeper

I fired up my new iMac today for the first time and, after getting Safari set up with my bookmarks and whatnot, performed an update via the "Software Update" under the Apple menu.

My machine shipped with 10.4.4, and the updater brought it up to 10.4.7, updated QT to 7.1.2 and also loaded updates for 10 other programs. Last, but not least, it upgraded my firmware to 1.0.

Here's my question: Did I get the right 10.4.7? According to the System Profiler, my version is 10.4.7 (8J2135). I don't want to do anything with Civ IV until I'm sure the OS is the proper version. FWIW, the OS updater was 215MB; I say this because I noticed on Apple's update site that there's another 10.4.7 update that's roughly 133MB. Both were posted June 27. I'm assuming the latter is just a standalone update for the OS, where the one I got updated not only the OS, but other programs as well.

Any insights are, as always, most appreciated!

Gatekeeper

You should have got the right 10.4.7 because the broken one is no longer available.

As you had 10.4.4 it probably gave you the combo updater to get to 10.4.7, and that was never affected by the problem.

Here's my question: Did I get the right 10.4.7? According to the System Profiler, my version is 10.4.7 (8J2135).
Hmmm, you think they would have fixed the version on the Software Update by now. But, IIRC, the good version for intel computers is (8J2135a). That's what I have and downloaded the updater from their website (133mb) when I first heard about the mixup or whatnot.

There's a thread back somewhere where Brad and other people were talking about the version #s.

Hmmm, you think they would have fixed the version on the Software Update by now. But, IIRC, the good version for intel computers is (8J2135a). That's what I have and downloaded the updater from their website (133mb) when I first heard about the mixup or whatnot.

There's a thread back somewhere where Brad and other people were talking about the version #s.
It was only given the 'a' if you used the delta updater from 10.4.6 to 10.4.7. The combo updater was always just 8j2135.

Holy Cow!

Man, that's a serious case of "lurk"!

Well, you saved your first post for a great place.
Welcome! (I guess?) Yes, definitely "Welcome!" (even if you have been for four years!)
Thanks for the welcome.
It's been awhile since I've been here. I used to just come around for the GOTM.

When I registered I was not the proud Mac owner that I am now.
That said, the G5 I'm so proud of is humbled by Civ4.:confused:

Anyone with a similiar setup getting decent performance? Even with everything dumbed down it's hard to get into it.

@Alan
per your question I do have blue marble installed, but I think monaco27 has already given you the answer you seek....

It would be really cool to run GOTM with the bluemarble mod installed. I was able to run the American Revolution mod and bluemarble with no problems at all. hmmmm...
monaco27 gave me one half. You've given me the other half, confirming my experience. I can't trust my results alone, being on such a low end system.

Brad is on the case, and has identified what's causing this, so assuming he can fix it for the official patch we should then all be able to play GOTM with Blue Marble.

It's good to know that I appear to have the "unbroken" version of 10.4.7 installed.

Now all I have to do is get StuffIt so I can expand the beta patch from Aspyr for Civ IV. Oh, and also figure out the proper place to install Civ IV. I assume it's the Applications Folder on the actual HD, rather than my home folder. I'm the only one using this computer, which greatly simplifies things.

Gatekeeper

P.S. I *love* the super mouse (or whatever the heck it's called by Apple). The scroll wheel really is nice.

Brad: I've seen three responses, one on CivFanatics, and two on MacRumors, about playing Civ4 in Bootcamp. All of them were extremely positive and said it ran much smoother than the Mac version, even compared to the Mac version on lower settings and the PC on higher settings. However, these were prepatch so I'm not positive.

My experience with playing on my MacBook in OS X itself has been WONDERFUL. I'm very happy and am even thinking of jacking up the settings!

It's good to know that I appear to have the "unbroken" version of 10.4.7 installed.

Now all I have to do is get StuffIt so I can expand the beta patch from Aspyr for Civ IV. Oh, and also figure out the proper place to install Civ IV. I assume it's the Applications Folder on the actual HD, rather than my home folder. I'm the only one using this computer, which greatly simplifies things.

For some reason Aspyr support claimed that you shouldn't install it in your Applications folder because of possible 'permissions conflicts'. They claimed that it's better to install it in a Games folder at the root level or in your home directory. In my case I think they were fishing around for a bit of voodoo to solve a problem they had no idea about. I think their advice was about as useful as the standard 'repair permissions' voodoo (which they also offered). I ignored them and have all my games in a subfolder of Applications called 'Games'.

(My problem is with the popup information you get in the lower left getting stuck and not updating properly - which seems to create some problems for your currently selected unit. I've seem some hints that it is a problem that exists in the Windows version as well - but it's an internal logic problem for the game that should have nothing to do with file permissions.)

P.S. I *love* the super mouse (or whatever the heck it's called by Apple). The scroll wheel really is nice.
Yeah, the Mighty Mouse is pretty nice. Too bad the wireless version is still single-button with no scroll wheel, and therefore sucks quite horribly.

Mine is in /Applications/. No Games folder, not in ~/. It works as well as can be expected on my hardware, and the patch installer found it with no problem.

Brad,

I believe I have some information regarding the Globe View bugs...

I noticed it by accident, but here's how to make Globe View look like it's supposed to look (apart from some latitude/longtitude dashed lines that appear here and there over sea squares):
Fire up the Civ, load your game and just toggle "Show Tiles" on and back off. Globe View works as expected from then on... At least for me (iBook G4 1.2)...

We all hope you and you team will soon be able to squash them bugs and focus on optimizations (low-vertex objects, remember?), and later on, on... gameplay! Needless to say though, the game is quite enjoyable!

...and later on, on... gameplay! Needless to say though, the game is quite enjoyable!
I have been incredibly frustrated with the key combination to open a file being cmd-L. It is so wrong. I still haven't managed to stop opening the options screen every time I want to load a save game. AAArgh! And, for empahsis, aaargh!

I reckon that's a bug worthy of patching. Either that or putting a patch in to give players some way to change the key bindings themselves.

Is there a memory leak problem with Civ IV?

The reason I ask is that I have noticed my memory usage, swapfile usage and pageouts climbing significantly the longer I play. I have 2GB of RAM and would think that was enough. It used to be rare that I would have even one swapfile at 64MB in size. But I currently have over 1GB in swapfiles. The change in my memory behaviour is noticeable.

Anyone else seen signs of this?

Yes, I have also seen extensive VM activity while playing Civ 4. I'm on 640MB, so you could easily understand why after a few hours of play I ended up with more than 5G of a swapfile.

About my previous post regarding the Globe View bug; yes, the view breaks later on (when doing extensive negotioations with other leaders), but toggling tiles on and off does the trick all the time! Seems like something has gone a bit wrong with caching of certain textures, and looks like toggling tiles forces the problematic cache to refresh...

Mine is in /Applications/. No Games folder, not in ~/. It works as well as can be expected on my hardware, and the patch installer found it with no problem.

That's where I plan on putting my copy of Civ IV: The applications folder found on the hard drive. Every other program I buy or download will likely go there as well.

One question: Where does the custom assets folder end up if the Civ IV app is in the app folder on the HD? Does it end up in my home folder somehow? Heh. Mac OS X newbie talking here!

Gatekeeper

P.S. And, boy oh boy, does this iMac start up fast! Five seconds at most!

I Brad,

Finally, I had my own Civ IV copy last night...

Let me tell you my experience. So first of all, here is my Config :

iMac G5 1.8GHz, 1GB, GeForcefx5200, 20" screen

I started the "Out Of Box" Civ IV Version and run the tutorial game juste to see how slow it was, and it was...

Quickly, I applied the BETA patch to see changes :

Start videos where faster, and my very first game seems to be playable (14~16 fps) using all low graphics prefs, inside a middle screen res of 1280x800.

And things goes right, while the player (me) stays close to units and cities. But since I'm building an empire, I must see things from the top.

I finaly found the "zoom out" command that allows me to see more than 1 city at a time (Remember, the normal view in civ 3, 2 ... 1)

And here, I see how poor Civ IV 3D engine is ! My frame rate drop to... I don't now, but so low.

I think that being able to see and interact with our empire from a far top position is one of the most important functionality we must have in Civilization game play.

So please, do something to simplify graphics rendering while we zoom out.

That's where I plan on putting my copy of Civ IV: The applications folder found on the hard drive. Every other program I buy or download will likely go there as well.Except for special things I'm playing with all my apps go in /Applications/. I don't have a subfolder for Word Processing, or Graphics, so why have one for Games? Utilities so go in /Applications/Utilties/

One question: Where does the custom assets folder end up if the Civ IV app is in the app folder on the HD? Does it end up in my home folder somehow? Heh. Mac OS X newbie talking here!

There's a Civilization IV folder created in ~/Documents/. That's where CustomAssets and all your saves are placed. ~/ is your home folder, which is a special place that any application can find via the OS.

Ok, applied the patch... sounds work pretty well now.

BUT I'm still having issues with the rollover popup info. As in, when you roll over an object (technology, build icon, foreign ruler, etc.) the popup info does not appear. Also, when this happens the scroll stops working (as in wehen looking at a city build list). The scroll works fine for zooming.

Additionally, this is intermittent. It will work fine, then stop for awhile, then start working again. However, it is a sure thing that at some point it will stop working.

Obviously, this is kind of a PITA. The game is still playable, but often the lack of info causes problems. This game is incredibly dependent on those rollovers. Scrolling through lists is less of a problem, I can just manually scroll.

Anyone else seeing this?
Otherwise, no crashes, speed is ok.

Yes, the rollover info gets stuck on something and won't update when you rollover a new object... a lot. I find that clicking on a unit will get the rollover info to update again.

Yes, the rollover info gets stuck on something and won't update when you rollover a new object... a lot. I find that clicking on a unit will get the rollover info to update again.
Let Aspyr know. When I reported this issue they said they had never heard of it. For something that seems to be a regular feature of Civ IV I think they should know about it. And even better if they can fix it.

Originally Posted by monaco27
Yes, the rollover info gets stuck on something and won't update when you rollover a new object... a lot. I find that clicking on a unit will get the rollover info to update again.

Let Aspyr know. When I reported this issue they said they had never heard of it. For something that seems to be a regular feature of Civ IV I think they should know about it. And even better if they can fix it.

I see a similar problem on the PC version. If you are in the city screen and roll over the Great People bar then go to a different city, it first shows you the GPP info for the first city until you roll over something else.

i haven't even installed civ 4 yet because of the horror stories. i have a powermac dualcore 2 GHz G5 with 1.5 MB RAM. with this patch how playable do you think the game will be? will i be able to do large and huge maps with max AI? thanks in advance. pretty cool of aspyr to rush this out.

what video card do you have? I'm playing ona a dual G5 2.0 and it runs pretty well. Gets slow at the end, but it's more than playable.

The size of the map and the number of AIs should have none or minimal effect on performance. Civ 4 is much more graphics-subsystem-dependent than any previous Civ. At the same time, it seems that the Python-subsystem (the one that does the actual "thinking") has been greatly optimized, thus the effect of calculations (AI movement/decisions) should be nuisance.

However, as epochs go by, the game does get a bit slower, but I believe this is due to more units on the map (which means more polygons as well) and more complex graphics (buildings and units), which leads to the need of much more horsepower from the CPU and GPU for the 3D-subsystem, and thus the graphics (not the gameplay itself) gets a bit choppy. However, it is more than playable on the minimum recommended hardware.

Implementing an option to use fewer vertices/polygons in a later release would be much appreciated, for those with lower-than-the-minimum hardware, since it would speed up the graphics significanltly (am I a stuck mind, or what ;))!

i haven't even installed civ 4 yet because of the horror stories. i have a powermac dualcore 2 GHz G5 with 1.5 MB RAM. with this patch how playable do you think the game will be?

Without knowing what video card you are using, I'd guess very playable, IMO. You definitely need to grab our beta patch for Civ4 though.

Beware: that config is the one I'm having trouble with. It works nicely for a while, and then suddenly gets very slow. Quitting, restarting, reloading hte game fixes it.... for a while.

I don't have this problem on the intel imac, just the dual G5.

I'm curious if anyone else is seeing this?

I am playing my first game of CIV - everything seems to work ok except the things not fixed by the patch + the roll-over info bug mentioned in the posts above. But I am getting what seems to me like weird cultural borders from my neighbouring states, like the single spanish cultural "square" in this screenshot (http://www.werket.com/~james/CivIV_screen.jpg). I have tried to RTFM, but I can't see how this can happen on top of a single impassable peak. Is there someting obvious I have missed or is this a bug?

I am running a G5 quad 2.5 Mhz with 6.5 Gigs of RAM.

floppymoose: I am on a G5 and I have not experienced the slowdown you describe - yet.

I am playing my first game of CIV - everything seems to work ok except the things not fixed by the patch + the roll-over info bug mentioned in the posts above. But I am getting what seems to me like weird cultural borders from my neighbouring states, like the single spanish cultural "square" in this screenshot (http://www.werket.com/~james/CivIV_screen.jpg). I have tried to RTFM, but I can't see how this can happen on top of a single impassable peak. Is there someting obvious I have missed or is this a bug?

It's likely that you only have vision for the mountain. The borders have expanded elsewhere but you can't see it. Try moving a unit closer. I've been playing the Mac version for a while and haven't seen any bugs like this. Another possibility: sometimes when a city gets conquered it takes a turn or two for all the cultural borders to adjust, that happens in the PC version also. I think that's a feature not a bug.

The Mac performance on my MBP is at least as good as the PC performance under Boot Camp. The fans are on alot (constantly?). No crashes with the patch, highest graphic settings, 0 antialias, full screen (external 19" display). No unit sounds. I also have the rollover bug, but there is a similar bug in the PC version. It does seem to affect more rollovers on the Mac side.

The single square with culture is just a fog of war effect. Once you see a square it still shows you the square grayed out, but it doesn't show you any changes since the last time you saw it. Then when you see it again it updates to its new status. If you move a unit where it can see the square directly to the south of the mountain that will also have culture.

When I have had problem with the rollover bug I have hit escape to bring up the options, and then when I exit from that the rollover is back.

NoMan and Welnic: Thanks - you were quite right - the display was a consequence of fog of war and my viewing position. More spanish territory came into view as I moved a unit around. I was confused by the fact that the cultural border on the mountain was displayed as a closed form. I'm used to Civ III where cultural borders are just a line and if you see a second line beyond the first one, that's the end of the territory on the other side. The way its done in CIV makes it harder to judge the expanse of enemy territory - and I guess thats actually not a bad thing. :)

Please check out

http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19218

it was added today, is it the old beta-patch or the official one we're waiting for?

Well spotted :goodjob:

That looks like the official patch to supercede the beta patch we've been using.

Downloading now ... So is everyone else by the look of it. I'm only getting 30 kB/s instead of my usual 220 :(

Alan, you may want to tweak the first post in the thread. The link to the MacGameFiles download apears to point to the correct spot (ie, the new official patch) but the verbage above the links needs updated.

JoAT

Sound, glorious sound! :D

Alan, you may want to tweak the first post in the thread. The link to the MacGameFiles download apears to point to the correct spot (ie, the new official patch) but the verbage above the links needs updated.

JoAT
It's your post, so you could update it!!!!

Anyway, I've done something. Feel free to fix it if you feel it isn't the way you'd like it.

Will there be a "Read Me" with the patch that contains a more-detailed list of what the patch repairs?

Gatekeeper

There is not.

Heh. Yeah, I just realized that upon completing the download ...

More Problems... Sound is worse than before, there is occasional sound of music and units, but it goes in and out with a clicking sound whenever you move the camera or zoom out. It sort of sounds like the sound that the needle of a record player makes when you put it on the record.

That's odd. I now have all sounds, with no problems at all.

So I applied the patch and got an alert message that it wouldn't run on my unsupported MacBook, then it ran just fine in single player mode. I realize I won't get the full Civ IV experience until I get a Mac Pro, but maybe, just maybe, "multiplayer" should be added to the alert. Why is Aspyr so determined to reduce their sales? :confused:

There's a popping sound everytime a sound is supposed to play... except for that noise, the game is silent....

The sound just cut out on me with a loud "BZZ!" Prior to that, it had been playing pretty good. The game I have under way is one I started *prior* to applying the "A" patch, if that has any bearing on the issue.

Also, there's still graphical corruption in the "flag" window and the "unit details" window. The "unit details" corruption seems to come and go, and sometimes appears when you move a unit in a certain direction. The "flag" window is empty now ... the Egyptian flag no longer appears there.

I have a top-of-the-line Intel iMac with 2G RAM, 256MB VRAM, 250GB HD, the latest 10.4.7 OS and so on.

Furthermore, I have anti-aliasing OFF, am playing in WINDOWED mode and the graphic quality is set to MEDIUM for everything.

This game certainly has promise. Too bad it has yet to fully show it.

Gatekeeper

I'm going back to the beta patch, at least I had music in that one:sad:

@jdevo: Even my paltry system manages to play unit sounds, plus (intermittent) music. It seems like you have a specific problem, and you ought to contact Aspyr support to try to resolve it.

I have sounds on the MacBook, but I'm not playing with any mods.

It's your post, so you could update it!!!!

Anyway, I've done something. Feel free to fix it if you feel it isn't the way you'd like it.

LOL! That is true! Sorry. :)

Actually Thunderfall wrote that little blub and added the nice linking. My real original post was just a ink to the InsideMacGames.com story about the beta patch. Just kinda forgot that the post bore my name... :lol:

JoAT

Heh. Well, music is now back ... in fact, came back not long after I exited to the main menu. So the issue is an intermittent one at most. Personally, I've had the music cut out like that only twice since I first started playing last week.

One thing that does annoy me is the fact that you have to move your cursor to get tile information, even if you have an active unit on said tile. I suppose I could toggle the "see tile resources" option on, but that clutters up and already fairly busy-looking screen.

Gatekeeper

I have a top-of-the-line Intel iMac with 2G RAM, 256MB VRAM, 250GB HD, the latest 10.4.7 OS and so on.

Furthermore, I have anti-aliasing OFF, am playing in WINDOWED mode and the graphic quality is set to MEDIUM for everything.
Whereas I have perfect sound and graphics, with the same setup but AA and graphics at max. Very odd.

Hmm. Well, I haven't even tried to turn anti-aliasing ON or turn up the graphics to MAXIMUM since installing the final patch. What does AA do, and is there a big difference between MEDIUM and MAXIMUM graphics? Regarding windows mode, I play that just because I like to multitask.

Gatekeeper

Whereas I have perfect sound and graphics, with the same setup but AA and graphics at max. Very odd.
Have you had problems with Kernel panics? I turned AA and full screen off because of the panic issue. Has the full patch fixed those issues? Or did you not have them in the first place?

I had the popping issue with the patch and then updated from 10.4.6 to 10.4.7 and it seems I don't have any problems...

can someone post the build #? I'm not sure it's updating properly, my reads out as 45604 but I'm not noticing any real speed increase.

can someone post the build #? I'm not sure it's updating properly, my reads out as 45604 but I'm not noticing any real speed increase.
Mine says 9565. Check your CPU usage on the speed increase front. If you have a dual CPU setup and it is at about 100% rather than 180% you have at least part of the patch working properly.

The Get Info on mine says Version: 1.61 (v9565). I'm not sure where you're getting that number from, but I think the one I'm looking at is the relevant one for the Mac version.

ok, I got it working now. had to move it to my applications folder on the main drive for the update to happen

I've been using the beta patch since it came out without problems. No unit sounds of course. Applied the latest patch and started playing. Full sounds as far as I can tell, although I haven't had any battles yet. BUT after about an hour of play everything completely locked up. I had to press the power button to force a restart. I was viewing a city screen when it happened. I have a 2.16 GHz MBP with 2 GB RAM, playing at highest graphics setting with 0 antialias and full screen mode. I'm using clamshell mode with an external 19" display. I have 10.4.7 (correct update).

I'm getting the popping sound as well. Its really quite annoying. I have a dual 1.8 G5. 1mb ram. OS 10.3.9. I'll try messing around a bit and see what I can find out.

Edit: from what I can figure out each pop is the sound cutting in and out. Turning off various sound options stops it for a bit, but no more than about 10 seconds.

well i've played for the last 3ish hours and all I have to say is:

so THAT'S what a battle sounds like ;)

CPU usage is down a bit but the sounds are wonderful, like playing a whole new game!

More Problems... Sound is worse than before, there is occasional sound of music and units, but it goes in and out with a clicking sound whenever you move the camera or zoom out. It sort of sounds like the sound that the needle of a record player makes when you put it on the record.

I experience exactly the same! It seems to me that the Beta Patch worked much better. :(

At the time I am writing this, there is nothing but the beta patch on Aspyr's web site. So either you guys went for a hoax or the new patch got pulled.

For the first time, I noticed the "black ice" that others have commented on. And, like with the others, a game reset got rid of the effect. It's actually kind of neat-looking ... but it really should be fixed nonetheless.

Gatekeeper

OK, I think it's safe to say that the alpha patch isn't quite up to snuff: For the second time tonight, the music/sound cut out with a loud "BZZT!"

I will hold Aspyr responsible if the computer's speaker system is damaged in any fashion by this bug. Not to mention the fact that it almost makes me jump when I'm playing along and, out of the blue, a loud "BZZT!" comes from out of the computer.

Gatekeeper

At the time I am writing this, there is nothing but the beta patch on Aspyr's web site. So either you guys went for a hoax or the new patch got pulled.
For some bizarre reason the files show up on macgamefiles first. No idea what's up with that, but the same thing happened with the beta patch as well. It was a while before they posted it to the Aspyr website.

Have you had problems with Kernel panics? I turned AA and full screen off because of the panic issue. Has the full patch fixed those issues? Or did you not have them in the first place?
Windowed mode fixes them. You don't have to turn AA off and run in a window - just one or the other.

Windowed mode fixes them. You don't have to turn AA off and run in a window - just one or the other.

That's my experience too - no problems yet running in windowed mode.

OK, I think it's safe to say that the alpha patch isn't quite up to snuff: For the second time tonight, the music/sound cut out with a loud "BZZT!"

I will hold Aspyr responsible if the computer's speaker system is damaged in any fashion by this bug. Not to mention the fact that it almost makes me jump when I'm playing along and, out of the blue, a loud "BZZT!" comes from out of the computer.

Gatekeeper

You may be interested in this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4338150) - by a Windows player (I think).

You may be interested in this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4338150) - by a Windows player (I think).

Undoubtedly by a Windows player since the subject matter is Warlords which is not available for Mac. :)

Another crash with the new patch. I won't play in windowed mode since it is too hard to scroll. So the choices are reinstall and reapply beta patch or boot camp. I'll choose boot camp and hope Aspyr comes up with a real patch. If this is it, I'll be asking for my money back. :mad:

AlanH:

The sound issue I'm experiencing with the alpha patch is the same that others have experienced on and off as well, except in my case it's popped up since the alpha patch was applied.

Interesting, though, that a similar issue seems to be affecting Windows players using the Warlord XP.

Gatekeeper

Odd bug I notice.

Although the sound now works and the version listed in the Info box in finder is "1.61 (v9565)" when loading the game and selecting "Advanced -> About this Build" it still lists itself as "1.6.1.1841 (45604)".

Not a major bug, obviously, but strange nonetheless.

Sounds are much improved... who knew how much I was missing... but... I still get the persistent buzzing sound for no particular reason...

-----------

Seems it has something to do with the 'Ambience' sound... I clicked it off and the annoying (almost persistently on) goes away

"... when loading the game and selecting Advanced -> About this Build" it still lists itself as "1.6.1.1841 (45604)".
My guess is that this is the build state that comes with the Firaxis code that Aspyr work with. That will not change until Firaxis issue a new version to Aspyr.

The latest patch (build v9565) still has some issues...

On a Dual 2.3 PowerMac running 10.4.6: Performance is better than unpatched, sounds are a bit flaky. Initially there are lots of sounds (interface, effects, ambient, music), but then most of them go away and I hear "pops" instead. Occasionally I get sound, but mostly it is just pops.

On a MacBook Pro running 10.4.5: same experience as the PowerMac.

After updating the MBP to 10.4.7: no more pops. Lots of sounds, but I think there are still a few missing (such as battle sounds). I had a complete lock-up on the Mac after about an hour of play. I was running windowed.

So, based on my experience so far, the patch is incompatible with 10.4.5 and 10.4.6. Performance is good, sounds are better (but not complete), and there is still some nasty bug that locked up my machine.

Dave

The latest patch (build v9565) still has some issues...


That's pretty much my experience:

I've had a kernel panic even though running windowed with AA turned off.

Early on I've had an annoying sound that sounds like the drone from a bagpipe only worse.

Later I've had nasty clicking or popping sounds from my right speaker.

But I did hear distinctly Japanese sounds from my settlers when they built a city, and the battle between my tank and some riflemen had some appropriate sounds too.

Current grade is 50% - passing, but only barely. A big "needs improvement" on this report card.

For some reason I completely missed the second patch until tonight. I just played a bit... only a short game. Seems faster. Had ambient sounds right off which was nice. Had one of the buzzing incidents... I'm not sure what sound it was trying to make, but it lasted for about ten seconds, then cut off.

I started a service tag with Aspyr regarding the new patching causing my MBP to freeze. They responded with:
Try uninstalling the game again, move ALL files related to Civilization 4 to the trash and empty it. Do a search in your hard drive in Everywhere to make sure that you got everything. Disconnect any peripherals from your computer except for the keyboard and mouse, create a New User account, reboot the computer and log into the new user account, and then reinstall the game. When the installer asks you where you'd like to install Civilization 4, choose your Mac hard drive as the folder to install to. Do not use your external monitor, because this might be causing the problem.

This seems like nonsense to me. I'm not at home so I can't be sure but I don't remember an Installer for the game and the game is installed in /Applications not at the root level. And if I can't use the external monitor (in clamshell mode) I'd rather use the beta patch or use Boot Camp and ask for a refund.

However it did make me think the problems could be:
1. Installing the MacGames patch on top of the beta patch. Maybe I should replace the beta patch .app file with the one from the DVD and apply the MacGames patch to that.
OR (less likely)
2. Games started with the unpatched or beta-patched app have problems with the full patch app.

I installed the new Patch yesterday and started a new game.
Lage Map with 8 civs
So far so good, No problems
Sound appears to be working fine and speed is much better on my machine

I had the Buzzing problem with the Beta Patch and the game would lock up my computer to the point of hard reboot. These problems appear to be gone for me. More time will tell for sure

I
However it did make me think the problems could be:
1. Installing the MacGames patch on top of the beta patch. Maybe I should replace the beta patch .app file with the one from the DVD and apply the MacGames patch to that.
OR (less likely)
2. Games started with the unpatched or beta-patched app have problems with the full patch app.

As far as I can tell the "patch" actualy just replaces "Civilization IV.app" with a new copy.

I'm not at home so I can't be sure but I don't remember an Installer for the game and the game is installed in /Applications not at the root level.
That's correct. I think that destroys the credibility of the rest of the advice.
However, some of it is simply an overkill way of asking you to do a clean install, making sure there are no cached files or preferences anywhere. The "new account" stuff is just a sledgehammer to crack the possibility that you have stuff left in your ~/Library/Applications Support or ~/Library/Preferences or whatever.
And if I can't use the external monitor (in clamshell mode) I'd rather use the beta patch or use Boot Camp and ask for a refund.Nah! They just want to get you back to a pristine machine so that they can eliminate any complications that make your system config different from their test rigs. Then if it still doesn't work they can go from there.

However it did make me think the problems could be:
1. Installing the MacGames patch on top of the beta patch. Maybe I should replace the beta patch .app file with the one from the DVD and apply the MacGames patch to that.Nope! The patch installer drops a new executable into your application folder. As far as I can tell that's all it does. It shouldn't be affected by your previous version, as long as there are no cached files or mods lying around that could display old errors.
OR (less likely)
2. Games started with the unpatched or beta-patched app have problems with the full patch app.Nah! The file formats are identical.

AlanH and Bazzalisk, thanks for the comments. So it looks like it IS worth trying a virgin user account before doing the full reinstall and completely changing the way I use the computer. If it is just preferences or caches that is simple enough to fix. Would there be any cache or preference files not in the User directories? Would it be a fair test to continue with one of my games in progress or should I start a new one?

So, based on my experience so far, the patch is incompatible with 10.4.5 and 10.4.6. Performance is good, sounds are better (but not complete), and there is still some nasty bug that locked up my machine.

Yeah, as far as the sounds go, upgrading to 10.4.7 is definitely the way to go. You should not be missing any sounds - even unit battles - with this patch and 10.4.7. You'll still have some missing sounds with 10.4.6 and lower, but Civ4 is now optimized for 10.4.7 and should work best there.

Can you double-check that you are still missing sounds under 10.4.7?

I started a service tag with Aspyr regarding the new patching causing my MBP to freeze.

If you are seeing freezing on an Intel Mac with a Radeon x1600 (which the MacBook Pro has), then that's a known kernel-panic issue.

Notes on how to get around this are included with the patch, but to recap: you can greatly reduce the incidences by making sure that anti-aliasing is set to 0 (in the Advanced Options->Graphics settings) and by running in a window. We're working with Apple and ATI on a fix for this particular issue.

If you are seeing freezing on an Intel Mac with a Radeon x1600 (which the MacBook Pro has), then that's a known kernel-panic issue.

Notes on how to get around this are included with the patch, but to recap: you can greatly reduce the incidences by making sure that anti-aliasing is set to 0 (in the Advanced Options->Graphics settings) and by running in a window. We're working with Apple and ATI on a fix for this particular issue.
Good to see there's hope for a fix. Strange I never had any problems with the beta patch, or maybe I was just lucky. I do have anti-alias set = 0. Frankly, I'd rather stick with the beta patch, and miss the sounds, than play in windowed mode and not be able to (easily) scroll the map.

Tremendous sound probs on my g5 2x2 after installing the most recent patch.

Wasnt it supposed to fix the soundprobs ?

while scrolling the sounds simply stop and crackle nastily.
Perhaps I´ll better get back to the beta patch ?

oLO

Tremendous sound probs on my g5 2x2 after installing the most recent patch.

Wasnt it supposed to fix the soundprobs ?

Update to 10.4.7.

using a 1.8 ghz dual g5 powermac with os 10.3.9:

The first beta patch made things go a lot better, (not perfect though) but this new patch gave me even more sound problems than I had in the first place: Lots of buzzing that hurts in the ear, and sounds only playing for the first half a second and then sudddenly stopping, making a very iritating "pok" sound.

So for me this patch his a step back.

Update to 10.4.7.
thanks for the quick reply
Sorry to tell, but I´m on 10.3.9 and read it was approved as compatible OS , Brad ?



oLO

thanks for the quick reply
Sorry to tell, but I´m on 10.3.9 and read it was approved as compatible OS , Brad ?

It is, but the fixed sounds require the version of OpenAL that Apple ships with 10.4.7.

so I`m ought to buy me a new os to play it ?

that would s..k big big time

I know you guys are taking advantage of the new OS features asap, but this reply just crushed my joy big time.

Any chance for a 10.3 adaption ?

10.4 was the most unstabile X so far btw and I knew many who regretted switching so early.

Pls tell me I´m not stuck with the beta patch.....

I know you guys are taking advantage of the new OS features asap, but this reply just crushed my joy big time.

In this case, it's more like we're taking advantage of OS bug fixes. ;)

Apple hasn't (yet) released the source for the OpenAL they're using in 10.4.7, but one of the things I hope to investigate is if we can retrofit those fixes (o the entire OpenAL in 10.4.7) back to the version we're using under 10.3.9.

Brad,

Any comments on the annoying buzzing/popping or whatever sounds that seem to persist in the patched version? (For example, when I started a new game I had a droning sound like a bagpipe for at least a minute - loud, annoying, and definitely not musical. There are also the popping sounds that come and go.) Are these just aborted attempts to play sounds or is there some deeper malaise infecting the program?

Are these just aborted attempts to play sounds or is there some deeper malaise infecting the program?

What appears to be happening is that it's playing sounds whose buffers have been released. I haven't gotten much further with it; I spent a few hours trying to reproduce it week before last and of course couldn't get it to happen. It seems allergic to the debugger, because I had it happen again this morning when I was just playing normally.

What appears to be happening is that it's playing sounds whose buffers have been released. I haven't gotten much further with it; I spent a few hours trying to reproduce it week before last and of course couldn't get it to happen. It seems allergic to the debugger, because I had it happen again this morning when I was just playing normally.

Ah well, that's halfway there. If it's happening on your computer that's good (in a roundabout kind of way). Next step - happening reproducably.

I hope to investigate is if we can retrofit those fixes (o the entire OpenAL in 10.4.7) back to the version we're using under 10.3.9.


If I could bring you a coffee or anything to speed things up..... ;)



Withdrawel is a terrible thing and now reinstalling the whole thing because I cant remove the patch is ugly aswell


PS: Pls put up the beta patch somewhere again ,thanks


:cry: :sad: :sad:

oLO

Yeah, as far as the sounds go, upgrading to 10.4.7 is definitely the way to go. You should not be missing any sounds - even unit battles - with this patch and 10.4.7. You'll still have some missing sounds with 10.4.6 and lower, but Civ4 is now optimized for 10.4.7 and should work best there.

Can you double-check that you are still missing sounds under 10.4.7?

Ambient sounds were flaky at one point (lots of buzzing), so I turned them off. This may have been before my 10.4.7 upgrade. After turning them back on they seem to be ok - at least for the 15 minutes or so that I tested it.

I get some battle sounds, but I don't think they are complete (although I don't really know exactly what to expect).

For example, I attack a lion and I get a battle sound for my attack, or a grunt if I get hit, but don't hear any corresponding "lion" sound. Nor is there any sort of "victory" sound when I win the battle.

Then later I'm near an enemy city, and the enemy attacks me (and I lose) ... no battle sound at all, but then a clipped sound at the end that I think is the national sound for the enemy - perhaps signifying that he won the battle.

Barbarian attacks me - complete silence during battle, but then a sound at the end after I won.

These were just a few quick tests, but it still feels a bit inconsistient to me on what sounds I can hear.

I can send you more details on my machine if you want, but it shouldn't be that unusual...pretty much a brand new MBP from Apple with 10.4.5, that I upgraded last night with the Combo update to 10.4.7. I don't think I've added anything else at the system level - just a few apps. I haven't updated to QuickTime 7.1.2 yet, so that may be a difference. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Dave

It would have been nice to have a warning that the patch only works with 10.4.7... I have 10.3.9 and don't have the money to upgrade since I upgraded my video card to the radeon x800 (which didn't make much of a difference over the geforce 5200, which I'm guessing means there is still huge performance problems with this game on g5's). Now I have the choice of playing the game on mute or uninstalling the game, reinstalling, and then going back to the beta patch, if it's still around.

uninstalling the game, reinstalling, and then going back to the beta patch, if it's still around.

my pick, thats why I was asking for the reupload of the beta.


oLO

PS: Found it at our neighbours Apolyton side
Go Here for the beta patch-DL page (http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id=5164&t=reviews&toprate=5.0000&tophits=4391&cat=350)

I have 10.4.7 and a dual G5 2 gig. Ambient sounds work better with this patch, but no battle sounds yet. I got the blackening problem... zoomed out and zoomed in, but the problem persisted..> I had to restart.

It's better, but not there yet.

Thanks for working with us!

Brad, care to comment the status of this new patch? Howcome Aspyr hasn't posted it on their web site?

Hi Brad,

I still have no battle sounds. I am definitely up to date to 10.4.7 but still i have no battle sounds (2.0ghz Intel iMac, 2gb RAM, 256mb VRAM)...any suggested steps?

It would have been nice to have a warning that the patch only works with 10.4.7... I have 10.3.9 and don't have the money to upgrade since I upgraded my video card to the radeon x800 (which didn't make much of a difference over the geforce 5200, which I'm guessing means there is still huge performance problems with this game on g5's). Now I have the choice of playing the game on mute or uninstalling the game, reinstalling, and then going back to the beta patch, if it's still around.


FYI - you don't need to to uninstall and reinstall. I went back to the Beta patch by just running it again, it switch me back to the Beta version.

Brad, care to comment the status of this new patch? Howcome Aspyr hasn't posted it on their web site?

It looks like it is posted on our site:

http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/civ4/

Click on the grey "SUPPORT" tab, and there it is.

Edit: I'm blind. You're right - we're still mentioning the beta patch. I've mentioned it to our support guys.

I still have no battle sounds. I am definitely up to date to 10.4.7 but still i have no battle sounds (2.0ghz Intel iMac, 2gb RAM, 256mb VRAM)...any suggested steps?

Can you be more specific about what battle sounds you are missing, for example warrior fighting an archer or something.

Certainly modern units - I experimented with a tank vs. infantry, nada; tank vs. SAM infantry, nada.

Will try older units at some point! All other sounds seem fine (except for the 'pops of death'!) - music, ambient music, landscape based sound effects...

One more note on soundissues Brad.
I´ve got an Mbox2 hooked to my g5 (10.3.9, 2x2ghz 1 gbram)
and each time I either "Tab over" to the desktop or end the prog ,the sound is getting kind of gated (chopped) and a replug of its USB wire is required to get things back to normal.
Why is there a direct-x option in the soundmenu? no harm done , in fact it was incredibly funny to see:crazyeye:

All samples (Wavs) are perfectly in order btw and I`m having fun embedding grunts and bombs in tracks . ( Which I will certainly have cleared before release , now worries ! ! !).

Finally another pretty odd thing about my Civ4-version is the nature of language mixture.
All textual content was propperly translated, but the tech-vocalsamples are plain Anglaise ( I noticed it only, since a special actors voice was advertised on the box for the german folks- actually our voice of Alf btw)
No real objection, but it appears someone had forgotten to deliver his audiofiles.
/ I´ve had a similar experience on Alien Crossfire(Alpha C.) btw ,same culprit ? ;)

Thanks again for the lovely customer support !

oLO(rd)

Can you be more specific about what battle sounds you are missing, for example warrior fighting an archer or something.

E.g. I noticed early in the game that fights involving my settlers and scouts produced no sounds where as my swordmen kept proper noise. I was playing Greeks.

Brad,

I just had a crash and I saved the log -- where should I send it to?

Thanks,
Alec

Just a quick sound update. The bombardment sounds work, but I think those are the only battle sounds that work.

E.g. I noticed early in the game that fights involving my settlers and scouts produced no sounds where as my swordmen kept proper noise. I was playing Greeks.

To add to the sound problems, it seems that the fight sounds are likely (if not certain) not appear if it is anyone but the player (in single player mode) who initiates the attack.

And this is with Mac OS 10.4.7, iMac G5.

Hi Everyone.. I've been dipping into this forum since I purchased Civ III a couple of years ago. It's been a great rescource.

I finally bothered to register so I can post a little feedback on the sound issue, in the vain hope that it will speed the next patch along.

so much for altruism.

Anyhow, I am getting some battle sounds now, but by no means all. For instance Warrior Vs Lion, I get warrior sounds, and a victory sound, but only half a second of lion.

Warrior Vs barbarian, so sound at all.

Rifleman Vs Rifleman, sometimes I get battle sounds fine, other times I get no sound at all, and my rifleman is not visible during combat. Only pops back into existance if I win.

Air combat and naval combat sounds seem to work fine, so long as I initiate the combat. If the AI attacks, I see the combat but hear nothing.

Archers and Marines have always been fine too. That's all the units I have used in combat since the new patch (I'm something of a pacifist)

I also notice that the music during the save game loading screen is still flakey.. starts and stops, fades in and out a bit. Seems only to happen the first time I start the game. If I re-load a file, sound seems fine.

Uhg. long post.

Using G5 iMac, 10.4.7 1.5GB RAM

Cheers!

I'm experiencing generally better (acceptable, actually!) performance, but the stability has gone way downhill. I'm getting a crash every half hour or so, generally just as a turn is beginning.

fyi another data point: I just played an epic game up though 1850AD with the new patch. This is on 10.4.7 on a dual G5 1.8 with 1.5G of ram and the GeForce 5200 vid card (which is the minimum supported card i think).

For me things seem somewhat improved. I get most sounds and I haven't suffered the decreased stability others have mentioned. The game feels a little snappier until late game, when it is still fairly clunky.

I'm running in window mode with the minimum graphics settings.

I'm barely getting any sounds at all, I'm wondering if which sound output you are using is an issue. Since I use my optical out, I have it set to Dolby Digital sound. Has anyone seen differences between settings?

I'm using the built-in speakers, and get, AFAICT, all the sounds.

Hi, I'm using the German Civ IV on an Intel MacBook Pro with a German MacOS X 10.4.7.

Running the patch installer took only about 3 or 4 seconds (which is a bit fast IMHO). The About screen showed the same as before: Version 1.6.1.1841.

How do I know whether the patch has been applied successfully?

(Currently, the game still is extremely crashy for me, and I'd like to know whether this problem still occurs with the patch.)

Thanks in advance,


Oliver

Hello, welcome :wavey:

It should show v9565, so yours hasn't been patched.

It should show v9565, so yours hasn't been patched.

Thanks for the information, that's good to know ... how can I find out why the patch has not been applied, although the installation process showed no errors?

Thanks in advance,


Oliver (who is still learning Mac after years of Windows and mainly Linux)

Hello, welcome :wavey:

It should show v9565, so yours hasn't been patched.

The about screen will read the same as before so that's not a good indicator. Civ4 uses these values to check that that the version numbers match in online play, so they must stay the same.

The Finder's "Get Info" box, when applied to the Civ4 app, should read v9565.

The about screen will read the same as before so that's not a good indicator. Civ4 uses these values to check that that the version numbers match in online play, so they must stay the same.

The Finder's "Get Info" box, when applied to the Civ4 app, should read v9565.

Ah, now that's better. :-)

It looks like the crashiness of my installation is related to the selected language: With German, I crash extremely often, while with English, I haven't had a single crash yet. I've just e-mailed you the crash log.

Ah! Sorry :blush:. I thought you meant the info in "About Civilization IV ..." in the Mac Civilization IV menu. I should have realised you meant the in-game screen.

Ah! Sorry :blush:. I thought you meant the info in "About Civilization IV ..." in the Mac Civilization IV menu. I should have realised you meant the in-game screen.

i am very, very new to Mac. how do I know if the patch is installed? i tried the advice from two posts ago, but still am unclear, my finder doesn't show the version.

running an Intel core 2 duo, 2.16, 1 GB and still having crash problems.

nevermind, i figured it out. patch is installed correctly.

I've just acquired Civ4 for Mac. Playing it for the first time, I notice some of the problems others have been reporting - no combat sound, the music seems to come and go when I zoom in and out. No kernel panics or crashing to desktop yet, but reading this thread has made me worried.

Should I download the patch?

(BTW, I'm running it on a brand new 3GHz dual Mac Pro with 4GB RAM and a Radeon X1900 card, using OS 10.4.8)

Should I download the patch?

(BTW, I'm running it on a brand new 3GHz dual Mac Pro with 4GB RAM and a Radeon X1900 card, using OS 10.4.8)

The short answer: Yes.
I'm running the patched CIV IV on a 2.66ghz Mac Pro with 2gb RAM and a Radeon x1900 card, using 10.4.8. It runs just fine.

Absolutely, yes.

I'm on a Mac Pro, as well, but a shadow of your spec - 2.66GHz, 2 GBytes, Geforce 7300GT. It's hard to keep four CPU cores busy :)

OK, have successfully installed the patch. Will report back when I have tried it out.

Thank goodness I saw this thread (I think - I hope I'll still be saying that in a few hours!).

So far so good... although I'm not sure I'm hearing all the combat noises. I'm certainly hearing more than I did before, though.

Why did I choose to try this out on Friday 13th?

I notice that I get most sounds... one of the best sounds that never plays is the great artists sacrificial guitar riff. First time I played on a PC that was the joy of the game for me

This may sound stupid, but I have noticed this terminoly used in mac forums only. May have missed it on pc forums. What is a download mirror (specifically why mirror) and which one do I click on to load, the mirror, the 3D download? Are they the same? I have an intel core 2 Duo. I do have the latest version of OS which is 10.4.8 now, not 7

a download mirror is just a place where you can download an identical copy incase the main download server goes down or is slow

I see, what does it mean when it says choose your mirror and has several cities listed thoughout the US or world?

It means that all of those different places have the same file, you should choose one that is physically closest to you. It just helps spread out the load on the servers. You could just choose any of the mirrors, but using one from Mongolia might not be the fastest if you are in the US.

After several hours of gaming (and remember that I'm new to Civ4) a couple of strange problems occurring. First, I'm not hearing any sounds when opposition players take on me (when I take on them I hear everything - I think). I don't know if this is supposed to happen (it doesn't zoom in either).

Also, once I got to 1850 or thereabouts, all the units turned black. They went back to their normal colours when they moved, but turned black again once they'd come to rest. I seem to remember someone mentioning a similar problem elsewhere.

I haven't played since the black problem occurred, so maybe a reboot would solve it.

On another note - does anyone know how to skip the intro when the game first starts up? It's all very nicely done, but it does go on a bit long.

escape works

On another note - does anyone know how to skip the intro when the game first starts up? It's all very nicely done, but it does go on a bit long.

There's an option in the CivilizationIV.ini file to not show them at all.


; Set to 1 for no intro movie
NoIntroMovie = 1

There's an option in the CivilizationIV.ini file to not show them at all.

Thanks, Sam, will try it. I'll let you all know whether the blacking-out recurs after shut down.

Update: I played again this morning, and the blacking-out problem did not recur. Oh, and hitting ESC worked for skipping the intro. :)

I have read this thread and the others here but am now puzzled as to whether or not to update with the 1.61a patch and/or my OSX.

I am running on a G4 MacMini (yes, I know it is below minimum specs but it works okay, although a bit slow). I have a 1.66 Mhz cpu and 1 GB of memory. I have version 1.61 of Civ IV which I purchsed in July. My OSX is currently version 10.4.6.

Until I read these threads, I did not know that there were sounds other than the music and Leonard Nimoy's voice. When I zoom out to see the whole world, usually part of it is red or black, although occassionally it looks fine. When I tried the Fantasy world, it stayed black, although trees, rivers, etc showed on the black as I explored, but only in the area that was beyond the normal map top and bottom. Otherwise I have been playing on the "Random", "archipelago", and "shuffle" maps, all of which work and look fine.

After reading the various discussions of the 1.61a patch and references to problems with OSX 10.4.7, I am wondering if I should update. I haven't found any recent comments regarding the patch and OSX 10.4.8. So, my question is should I be happy as I am, update to OSX 10.4.8, update with the patch to 1.61a, or do both updates?

Thanks.

After reading the various discussions of the 1.61a patch and references to problems with OSX 10.4.7, I am wondering if I should update. I haven't found any recent comments regarding the patch and OSX 10.4.8. So, my question is should I be happy as I am, update to OSX 10.4.8, update with the patch to 1.61a, or do both updates?

Thanks.

Well you can always roll back the Civ update if it doesn't work out. So I would give that a try and reinstall from the DVD if it doesn't work out.

Rolling back system updates are rather trickier - but why haven't you updated to 10.4.8 for independent reasons?

Well you can always roll back the Civ update if it doesn't work out. So I would give that a try and reinstall from the DVD if it doesn't work out.

Rolling back system updates are rather trickier - but why haven't you updated to 10.4.8 for independent reasons?


Thanks for the advice. I haven't updated OSX because I have a dial up account, which won't stay connected for the several hours needed to download the update. A friend with a high speed connection has downloaded it for me but I have been ill and haven't gotten over to his house to get a copy of it yet. I was planning on doing so, once I am well, but after reading the threads here, I wondered if it would ruin my Civ IV's operation.