Cleoptra, Frederick and Peter have weird skin disease

Hi,

The game is working fine and the graphics seem to work perfectly, except for one strange thing.

Some of the leaders (Frederick, Peter the great and Hetsu.. Hetsi...Egyptian gal) have some kind of psoriasis or something. I can see their entire portraits, but their skin (face and hands) look really weird and fuzzy.

I realise that most people have worse problems here, but if anyone by any chance knew hoe to fix this problem, it would be very much appreciated.

It's bad for diplomatic reputation having a leader who looks like he has third degree burning wounds.

Have you loaded Patch V1.52? If not do so its a must have patch it fixed many memory related issues.

Also check your graphics drivers are up to date

If loaded and still issues, please post your Dxdiag file

Regards
Zy

Hi,

Yes, the patch is installed,as is the newest driver for my Radeon card.

I attached my dxdiag. I hope you can help.

Thanks so far.

Attachment didnt take - could you try again please ?

Regards
Zy

O, silly me!

I suspect its the 9250 - its within spec, just, but its a low end card for 3D games. I would think about getting a mid range card in the longer term.
Whatever you decide, change Pagefile to 2000Mb min=max

However, some things you can try meanwhile ...

Its the card reducing its output for one of many possible reasons. Reduce Video/Main RAM load
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3584260#post3584260

If still issues, post again with symptoms - we can then go for some ini file changes if still an issue

Regards
Zy

Reducing RAM load didn't work, nor did changing the memsaver switch.

I don't know what you mean with changing pagefile to 2000 Mb min=max. Could you be a little more specific?

As to symtoms, today I found someone with the same problem on this forum, with exactly the same three leaders

I'll attach his or her pictures. My leader heads look more severe though.

Page File - this one is buried reeeeaaal deep

- My Computer icon (top left of desktop) - right click
- select properties
- Click advanced tab
- Find "performance top of that mini screen - look right click settings
- click advanced tab
- look bottom right - click change
- click custom size button
- enter 2000 in both the "Initial " & "Maximum Size" boxes
- click set
- click ok at the bottomof each screen as they appear until you are back to the desktop

The Pagefile is a temporary area that the windows operating system uses to dump temporary data (eg in a huge map game or late game main & video ram maybe too small to cope, so the system & (some)graphics are chopped into chunks and temporarily stored in this pagefile, and the game swaps them in and out as its needs it. Downside is that its slows things as disc access is far far slower than memory access. However it is essential in large games like Civ or memory corruption can start (maybe your problem) or it can crash. Longshot in your case, but worth doing anyway - everyone playing Civ should set this to 2000mb min=max at least (min=max to stop it fragmenting)

Getting near the end of the "hit list". Ini file changes:
(The ini file is in C:\Documents and Settings\New User\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CivilizationIV.ini (ini file name can change Country to Country - as long as its in that directory, fine open it in Notepad (not wordpad)

Scroll down and set the settings below to read the same in the ini file
; Sync input to smooth interface (may run slower)
SyncInput = 0
; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 0
; Allows some memory savings *** ALT-TAB WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION ***
MemSaver = 0 (ESSENTIAL do NOT set to 1, you need it off, so it does not place more work on the graphics card
; Use managed interface textures (may be safer but shouldn't be needed, uses more memory)
GUIManagedTextures = 0
; Allow Screenshots. May affect performance on some video cards
AllowScreenShots = 0 (will disable ability to take screen shots in game)
; Show movies using hi-color, not true-color (may be faster)
Bink16Bit = 1
; Copy ever other scanline during movie playback (faster)
BinkInterlace = 1
; Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask
FullScreen = 0 (try set to 1, has been a winner for some, 0 is windowed mode)

Press save in Notepad

If the above dont work - out of options, and you will likely only see improvement post next patch(maybe) or with an upgraded card. Whats happening is the card is just a little low for the game, and cant quite sort out parts of the game - its only just over the edge, a small change will crack it - hence the small tweeks.

After this, if it really annoys you, your only option is to get a mid range card. GeForce 6600gx/gt (with a fan not passive cooling) would be a good choice. Check with manufacturer that the card will not cause heating issues / will work on that motherboard before buying

Regards
Zy

I have to disagree. I have an ATI with 128MB of memory and I have the same problem. It only started after I patched to 1.52.

Correct - thats the point - the changes implimented in V 1.52 placed more load on the graphics card by design to freeup additional Main System RAM. The 9250 is a low end card that has to work hard with Civ. The additional load pushed it over the edge where it cannot display to screen the quality it did before.

Thats a small video problem, and freeing up even a small amount of memory or reducing the graphics load by a small amount can make the difference

Regards
Zy

Right, I understand that. My issue is I have a 128MB ATI graphics card. More than enough to run these graphics, even going by the underestimated "recommended" specs. I run Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, World Of Warcraft, Age Of Empires III, F.E.A.R., and a host of other arguably more graphically intense games with no issues at all. So what's going on?

Hey Niknak,

The screenshot you posted is the same as mine, because I copied it from your thread. I don't know how to make screenshots myself, so I decided to steal yours. Hopefully you won't sue me

Anyway, my Ati Card is 128 MB too, so it could well be that Zydor was right and the problems lies there.

I posted the same thing about 3 weeks..right after the 1.52 patch..
I have a PCI ATI 9250 (256mb) card and its the exact same thing with those leaders...
This is pretty ridiculous... Its not so much that I can't go back to the 1.09 patch and everything is fine.. Its that because of design structure changes with the 1.52 patch all the MODS being updated to 1.52 will NOT work with 1.09 !!!!

What we need is those new structure files and NOT the video/memory updates !!!

ooops forgot,,And why does everything else work but those exact same leaders !!! Whats different with them ???

Yeah, I've exchanged posts with a few people that have this same problem. The common threads seem to be the following:

1. Only happened after patch 1.52.
2. ATI video cards.
3. No other problems apparent.

That's it. Speed of processor, physical RAM, virtual RAM, video RAM, none of these things made any difference. It has to be something in the shaders or the application of the draw order in the layers. Really weird and really annoying. Especially since it seems like I can run the game problem-free otherwise. No CTD's, no lagging, no other video issues.

I'd sure love an explanation.

I had the same problem. I uninstalled the game, reinstalled it, and then just patched the new install (no previous patches). Seems to work for me. I have the 9250 also.


edit - The game does seem a bit slower to me too with 1.52. Looks like I may be looking for a new card, 1.52 might be close to pushing it too far.

Clean unistall. Re-install. Patched to 1.52. Still have the same issue. Blah.

Have any of you tried the latest Omega drivers for your graphics card...?

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php

...if you do try them make sure that you remove your original drivers first and reboot before installing them.

Whilst it is NOT essential (I don't bother about doing it) there is a utility...

http://www.drivercleaner.net/

called 'Driver Cleaner' that you can run once you have removed your original drivers through the 'add and remove' function then this utility will ensure that every trace of those drivers are cleaned from your system.

If you do use Driver Cleaner then follow the instructions carefully, even though there are many people that swear by it there are others that swear at it, by not following the instructions..!!!

Yes,, I have tried several Omega drivers,, the latest and even some earlier ones.. Still the same results..
While a variety of graphics models have had some problems,,it seems the ATI line,, especially the 9200 series seems to be the most affected, but only since patch 1.52...
Since the game ran fine before 1.52,, it would be nice if wecould just have the new design,gameplay,and interface changes and leave the video drivers and files out !!!

Omega drivers didn't help at all. This issue definately has something to do with 1.52. When I reinstalled, I tested it out with both the latest Omega and ATI drivers under Civ IV 1.0, 1.09, and 1.52. The anomaly only appeared after the 1.52 patch was applied in both cases. This sucks.