I'm trying to determine if there is a memory leak or other issue with the base engine which increases in frequency the more the game has to deal with... i.e., the modern era where all civs have more units running around, more buildings, more everything.

Clarification: The question is not how often does it crash for you, the question is: when it does crash, what are the circumstances?

Wodan

I have had very few crashes and only when playing a 3rd party mod

[...] the more the game has to deal with... i.e., the modern era where all civs have more units running around, more buildings, more everything.

That's pretty much it. All those additional items translates into additional information that needs to be processed and retained in memory. My last game on a huge map went deep into the modern era, and by the time it ended, my savegames were over 1,600 megabytes in size.

Depending on your rig specs, your computer may or may not be able to handle the demands of big maps and/or the modern era.

No crashes that aren't mod related yet. At least none that I can recall now. I does get more sluggish in late game on a huge map with 15 AI's but that's to be expected.

I have a lot fewer crashes (virtually none) since I added 2 G of RAM.

I have a lot fewer crashes (virtually none) since I added 2 G of RAM.
That's like saying by adding a bigger gas tank you have to fill up at the gas station less often. Totally moot.

The question is, when you get crashes, is it more frequent in certain situations. i.e., when do you get the best fuel economy.

If you like, you could respond with the situation as it stood before you added memory.

(After all, good programming will handle a low memory situation better than a surplus memory situation.)

Wodan

That's like saying by adding a bigger gas tank you have to fill up at the gas station less often. Totally moot.

The question is, when you get crashes, is it more frequent in certain situations. i.e., when do you get the best fuel economy.

If you like, you could respond with the situation as it stood before you added memory.

(After all, good programming will handle a low memory situation better than a surplus memory situation.)

Wodan

Fair enough. I have changed my answer to "I don't get crashes".

:thumbsup:

Wodan

I have issues with playing for a prolonged length of time, three hours for me is a limitation; also with more happening on the board it seems to get slower and less stable, though patching it helped.

I experience (almost) no crashes but I never use mods and only play on standard or smaller maps. But before I installed the latest video driver and edited the init file (for less memory use) civ crashed often.

I tend to have several crashes or graphical glitches as the modern era approaches. It can get very irritating when it sometimes corrupts saved games

I haven't had it crash since I got an acceptable video card, but it still goes really slow in the modern era. I thought it was map size, but I'm not sure it goes much faster on standard than it did on huge.

Civ doesn't crash for me although if I'm playing a mod with a huge+ map and 18+ civs the game gets pretty slow eventually.

i like bananas too!
anyway civ hasnt crashed once for me.

I haven't had the game crash since the 3.13/Bhruic's patches showed up. Prior to that virtually every crash (or more usually freeze) was in the industrial or modern era, and on large maps.

I like bananas.

CivIV doesn't crash for me.
On the other hand, I don't normally play on huge maps, nor with 18 civs, as I would never finish a game - I don't have that much time to play every day. Mostly I play standard size with 4 or 5 civs, with no problems at all.
I also tend to win (culture) in the late 1900's... time to move up in difficulty I guess.

Almost never crashes.

I clarified the OP.

Wodan

That's pretty much it. All those additional items translates into additional information that needs to be processed and retained in memory. My last game on a huge map went deep into the modern era, and by the time it ended, my savegames were over 1,600 megabytes in size.

Depending on your rig specs, your computer may or may not be able to handle the demands of big maps and/or the modern era.
Right on.
Worst is a Rise n Rule/ Total Realism addition using a larger then normal huge with high amounts of civs.

Here simplly adding an extra resource means more trading is possable at the same time, now add the new calculations from add-on improvements, its gets bad.. IT wouldn't if these new extras wern't being compounded by expanded tile counts (more citys then designers defination of "Huge") and extra civs.

Ya right now Its just to much for mass majority. Civ3 took many years for the majorty to be able to handle 'expanded in every way' type epics .
AFter ram toped at 512mb only new model Pentium 4s made a differnce from those who reported deley on the common but very poor L2 cache levels, of the Pentium 4 Northwood. (Dell supplied the world this model in vast amounts :( )

The Prescott offered upgraded gameply atleast 10 steps up ladder as each model improved the game better then the last on 512ram rigs. Megahuge epic perfection was assured at the Cedarmill level before that, you had basicly the same only change came in greater archetucture and most important, a beefed up L2 supply
ITs a myth Ghz and ram + top G-card is all that will make the game fly. You can Do up a Pent4 with 3.4ghz, 2gigs memory, and best graphics card but If you run it on Northwood P4 engine your still going to watch your time die.

L2 cache is a big turntime buster, The ceder and late Prescott are so high in this supply it means pipe lenth was irrevelent. During even the most built up turn the rig never needed to seek out memory from Virtual cache (negating any AMD advantages) This is key in superb CIv interturn processing .

Civ4 is higher demanding so High clock speed is essential for late game when the CPU does need to call in more memory. With 3.2-4.0 ghz The relief pours in fast otherwise its a long journey down Intels long ass pipes. So Yes the clock speed does counts with Civ4. If you have dual I suggest you go back throught the monocore door and start overclocking. DOn't be thinking your utilizing more then one core. (turn off you backround programs before you start a game with Control+alt+del and you negate any dualcore advantage)

I havn't see any screenshots of globes filled up around midgame on one of these 3rd Xpak type mods to say CIv4 has reached a 'civ3 played on Cedermill' level of deley free superiority.

When I play worlds bigger then smal :( and more then 6 civs :( .
AND I LOVE TO PLAY WITH BIG WORLDS :cry: and that's why I :love: Civ3.

When I play worlds bigger then smal :( and more then 6 civs :( .
AND I LOVE TO PLAY WITH BIG WORLDS :cry: and that's why I :love: Civ3.

Me to good sir :)

All I need is to add 60 bucks of ram to my Pent4 Cedarmill 3.4ghz, 256mb g-card and I could enjoy civ4 on the same levels as 1400 doller quad core.
I haven't even found the time.

I like having 31 civs that have all unique units (in apearence) on top of more filled in unit lines and improvements spurred by double the techs, and more turns to properly allocate the time to enjoy the toys like you savour the taste of a fine wine. That what you do when deley is non existant. Heck with now long wait to dread Micomanagent is never a issue your to envolved. Its that inter-turn deley that takes you away from your game

Best is all the while Custum soundtracks with added variey plays in the backround. Corruption and Polution reducing improvements, more resources to have trading at one, yadda yadda.. and oh plus an better format pedia for all the new entires I need to read up on keep in intwined in the fabric of my gameplan thoughts
Thats what its all about. No imcomplete crap/ I want 3rd Xpak feel with everything added for a reason as in curing gameplay ailments and adding variey and historical depth. It had all be explained pedia wise n full context historically and gamewise or it ain't getting a second of my time.

Thats Proper..and very rare(1 in 200 mods id say) luckily time as made atleast 5 of these to choose from. None in Civ4 yet. Civ mods needs time like fine wine to refine.

I bet the largest complete mods are bigger on civ3 just cuz of the 1000 or so unit animations and matching sound files that are stored. Its graphics that call up the extra memory in CIv4 plain and simple. The bigger the map the more to process. Even on lowest settling you got more trees swayin in the breeze,more water rippling, etc. Thats got to be comparable to a million civ3 unit fidget animations! lol

I get quite a few crashes when the Barbarian Uprising event is triggered since i switched to Bhurics. His patch is supirior in so many ways, but I've been turnign preserve random seed off so I can get by this. The barbarians dont appear, and the game crashes when it tries to find them.

I dont have a big size\crash corrilation.

Although I do have a question, Isnt there a BIG difference between people who dont get crashes and people who get crashes and dont see a corrilation between size and crash? How will you get accurate survey results with those things pinned together?

Although I do have a question, Isnt there a BIG difference between people who dont get crashes and people who get crashes and dont see a corrilation between size and crash? How will you get accurate survey results with those things pinned together?
Either way, they are null votes. They aren't proof that those people aren't susceptible to the programming problem (which I suspect is buried in the engine)... simply that they aren't affected by it. Could be any of a number of reasons for that.

The reason to count them at all is to get some idea of the # of people responding to the survey. Of course, I corrupted that by allowing it to be multiple choice. Anyway, it still helps.

Wodan

I see you're point, you're trying to figure out how many people expirience a certin problem, it doesent really matter what % of crases are caused by large, complex games, but it does matter to you that it happens.

I would tend to think that it does, if only because I had a few games of Wolfshanze with those glitched units.

With or without crashes due to complexity, I would like to voice that Civ is the upper crust of stability as far as modren games go. Even console games are suffering fatal crashes nowdays. Too much push to get to market probably. Good luck with you're survey!

Another way to get an idea is to just scan for a month how many tech complaints surface in regards to crashes lategame using the Tech froum readouts. After that do a couple more monthes and work out an average for the rest of the time BtS has ben out.

Adding the other 2 games lategame crash or lag complaints just clouds things as thats all water under the bridge don't you think?.


the casual player you find in the tech complaint forum who got these crashes wouldn't stick around and talk in the general foums nesssarily. This is for people who the game does work for. I suspect an expensive compter saturation here as opposed to the tech forum where the average above spec civ4 player can be found.

You might even see if a sticky can be added there but that might be a bit controversal and not deemed related material

I've had this a LOT less lately, since I downloaded an update to my video driver, but it has happened once or twice since then. I did not note the exact conditions when it happened recently.

Formerly, there were two conditions that I noticed it. Both were late in the game. The message was usually blank - as if there was some memory problem that prevented it from displaying the message.

(1) When I was bargening for something and the AI offered "world map"... It would wait as it processed the data and either immediately or very shortly after that, it would crash.

(2) Scanning around the map FAST - especially using the small world map to change what I wanted to view.

Me to good sir :)

All I need is to add 60 bucks of ram to my Pent4 Cedarmill 3.4ghz, 256mb g-card and I could enjoy civ4 on the same levels as 1400 doller quad core.
I haven't even found the time.

I like having 31 civs that have all unique units (in apearence) on top of more filled in unit lines and improvements spurred by double the techs, and more turns to properly allocate the time to enjoy the toys like you savour the taste of a fine wine. That what you do when deley is non existant. Heck with now long wait to dread Micomanagent is never a issue your to envolved. Its that inter-turn deley that takes you away from your game

Best is all the while Custum soundtracks with added variey plays in the backround. Corruption and Polution reducing improvements, more resources to have trading at one, yadda yadda.. and oh plus an better format pedia for all the new entires I need to read up on keep in intwined in the fabric of my gameplan thoughts
Thats what its all about. No imcomplete crap/ I want 3rd Xpak feel with everything added for a reason as in curing gameplay ailments and adding variey and historical depth. It had all be explained pedia wise n full context historically and gamewise or it ain't getting a second of my time.

Thats Proper..and very rare(1 in 200 mods id say) luckily time as made atleast 5 of these to choose from. None in Civ4 yet. Civ mods needs time like fine wine to refine.

I bet the largest complete mods are bigger on civ3 just cuz of the 1000 or so unit animations and matching sound files that are stored. Its graphics that call up the extra memory in CIv4 plain and simple. The bigger the map the more to process. Even on lowest settling you got more trees swayin in the breeze,more water rippling, etc. Thats got to be comparable to a million civ3 unit fidget animations! lol

(Y)A-Men!

Cause of animations and others staff that ocupate the RAM, I have to many crash... And I can't play a second game after the first. Plus can't built Space Program caz crash to... I'm soo :( :( :(
For the future add an option off NONE ANIMATION!!!

I never had a crash, only slowness when I have more than 10 civs, but it gets after couple turns

I don't recall Civ crashing for me, but there is a major slowdown in the Modern Era. It's still somewhat playable at Standard map size, but unplayable over that. :(

My laptop experiences frequent ctd, but only in either large empires or late game, so I'm 90% certain its related to the o so crappy video card that came with the laptop. I've managed to complete a few games, but generally just make sure I'm going to win via some method and start over, because saving every turn just gets annoying. Sometimes it'll play for ten minutes, sometimes twenty, sometimes 5. But it only happens late game, never had a crash before the industrial or modern era.:sad:

I crash around the 1800AD mark - so no time victories for me :(