I am trying to regenerate many starting positions, so I can choose later. Regenerating a single Huge Terra start takes like 30 sec on my PC, so I would rather do something else on Windows while this task runs in the background. Is there any way to run Mapfinder in the background?

It not too much different than running Civ4 in the background. While it's running just press the windows button which jumps you back to your desktop. I've had times where I forgot I jumped out of civ only to remember much later when I notice it on the taskbar.

Whenever I've done that while running mapfinder, it doesn't seem to run (which I assume is the real question). I could be doing other things for an hour or so and alt-tab back to Civ IV and mapfinder hasn't progressed in the time it was minimised.

My experience is same as that of Ozbenno.

Same here.

On small map sizes, it does matter, since to renegarate until you get a 2 gold or 2 gem start takes like 5, at most 10 min. But on Huge, it could take quite a while.

Since it takes screenshots it needs to run in the foreground. The recommended way to use it is run it while you are away sleeping or something.

It not too much different than running Civ4 in the background. While it's running just press the windows button which jumps you back to your desktop. I've had times where I forgot I jumped out of civ only to remember much later when I notice it on the taskbar.

Note: I've never tried this with MapFinder and I rarely ever use the program. I assumed (incorrectly it seems) that it would work. I jump out of civ games a lot!

is it possible to get it to stop taking the screenshots so it can run in the background?

also i don't have any screenshots when i use it with bts, i do for vanilla and warlords though

also i don't have any screenshots when i use it with bts, i do for vanilla and warlords though

I get screenshots with BTS if I turn off my screen saver. Another way to make it work is to run in Windowed mode instead of full screen.

How can I make civV run in windowed mode instead of full screen? I guess it could work then, maybe not, but i want to give it a try.

How can I make civV run in windowed mode instead of full screen? I guess it could work then, maybe not, but i want to give it a try.

It's either an option in the HoF Mod or you can change the FullScreen (or something like that) value in the ini? file from 1 to 0 (or 0 to 1). I remember reading it in a thread somewhere but don't remember exactly what you did or what thread it was.

You can set it to "ask" in the .ini file so you get a prompt when it starts. Or 0 or 1 like FiveAces wrote.

I run civ in windowed mode (XP not Vista) but it doesn't help with map finder. If CIV is minimized in windowed mode , map finder doesn't progress it just sits on the same map until it is in the foreground. It doesn't work when unminimized but a different window is active either.

I'm in the same boat. I often have a lot of spare cpu and memory while working on my PC but I can't run mapfinder in the background.

The windowed mode is a fix for the problem with Vista and BTS screenshots. MapFinder is designed to run in the foreground so it can take screenshots.

While it might be possible to skip the screenshot part, I am not sure that Civ4 wouldn't suspend while minimized or backgrounded anyway.

If I have time I will experiment with it for the next release. Of course, not having screenshots would cause a problem with the viewer utility. I would have to create a dummy JPG file as a placeholder so it doesn't bomb out.

Denniz, no need to work on this issue :-) Mapfinder works great as it is. It is just for a few people trying to regenerate huge maps. Without screenshots, I would have to reload all the maps I regenerated, which would again take extra time.

I just went to sleep and kept the Mapfinder open. Now, I have plent of Huge Terra maps that I could start a game with, all with 2 gem or gold resources.

I get screenshots with BTS if I turn off my screen saver.

I just tried MapFinder with BTS on Vista, but instead of getting screenshots of the starting location, I get a screenshots of my desktop. BTS is the full screen, foreground task when running MapFinder inside it. The screen saver is on by default; could that be the cause of this problem.

Sun Tzu Wu

I'm moving this issue to the "HOF Questions and Anmswers" thread.

I tried switching the screen saver to "(None)", but that didn't help.

Elevating MapFinder to Administrator privileges, didn't help either. BTS already runs elevated to Administrator privileges.

EDIT: A work-around is found at the end of http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6721758&postcount=325 End EDIT.

Sun Tzu Wu