Civilization III Fixes (PLEASE READ)

First, thank you so much sk0tie and Dan for helping us out. You have no idea how grateful I am!!

Now, for my problems:
A minor one is that there is some stuttering of sound and some lagging, but strangely enough, that's only a minor irritation for me. Also, for some strange reason, when I set my preferences at the first screen (I believe it's the main screen), it doesn't "take", and I have to go back to the main screen once the game has begun to set my preferences, which then, work fine. Also, how do I turn on the grid without entering tutorial mode? Is there an icon I can click on, and where is it? Forgive me for sounding stupid, but I am severly visually impaired, and I might have missed the icon. Again, these are only minor irritations that I can live with if there isn't a fix.

Now, the real problem...

When I arrive at the main screen, there is no button for loading maps. I have been trying to work with the editor in order to create maps, and the directions say to save the maps in the directory that the game is installed in, then, when you want to use the maps, to click on "load map" in the main menu of the game. I can assure you that I have no such entry on my main menu. I clicked on the scenario button to see if I could load a map from there, but there was no entry there, either. I also don't have a "maps" folder in my Civ3 files. I created one, but what good does that do, when there is no way to access the maps from the game, anyway?

The editor is my main frustration here. I am not ready to create mods or scenarios yet, but I do want to edit some rules. There is no way possible that I can do this, as all of my options are greyed out, which means that I can't access anything! Actually, the only thing that I can do with the editor right now, is to try to create maps. Speaking of which, what files are used to create maps within the editor? I thought that the scenario files were .bic files, but when I went to create my map, it saved with a .bic extension. I don't want to create a map for a scenario, I only want to create a regular map that I can use in the game. Will I be able to use maps with that extension once I have fixed my problem, or shall I create maps using another extension? Or, is it that I can only use the maps with a scenario? Also, when creating regular maps, I want to place starting locations for various civs. It will allow me to do that, but not to specify which civ I want at that starting location. How can I fix this?

Ok, sk0tie and Dan, what do I do to fix these problems that I have? Is there a patch or fix that will be out for the editor? Maybe I should uninstall, then reinstall the game? Sometimes, this approach does work for me. Thank you in advance for all your help. I love civ3, and want to enjoy this game to the fullest!

P.S.--I don't know if I should have posted this to this thread or not, but I thought I'd do it here, as you guys post here, and I thought I'd get some help from the horse's mouths, but, heck, if anyone can help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it.
 
-- Maps are stored in BIC files, just like rules. If you only want to create a map, fire up the editor, whip up your map, make sure "Default Rules" is checked, then save the map out. To load the map use "Load Scenario" and select the BIC file.

-- To edit rules, you need to uncheck "Use default rules" in the editor, then all the options will be available.

With the editor, you can choose to create any of the following:

-- Just a map, with default rules
-- A custom map with custom rules
-- Just rule changes with no map

In each case you need to use "Load Scenario" to get this content into the game.

Also I strongly recommend reading the Civ3Edit.hlp file. It's got help on pretty much every function in the editor.

Setting which civ you want to start where isn't yet supported in the editor. We're quite aware of the need for this function, and hopefully it will become available in a future patch.


Dan
 
Originally posted by Zoroaster

do you hear your CD drive whir after the splash screen, as if it's trying to do something but not reading? That was my first hint that the disc accessing might be problem.


That´s EXACTLY my problem. I tried to download the exe. files from www.gamecopyworld.com but they didn´t open (or do I need a special program to open them?). Is there anywhere else I can find an "opener"? I paid big bucks for the original game but can only run the Civ Edit/Mod (no problems) - I though it was my monitor that couldn´t handle the resolution, which would suck - it would suck even more if I can´t play the game because of some copy protection. HELP!
 
Just in case my problem might be something else and sk0tie can help out:

Windows ME
Pentium III 728 MHz
64 MB Ram
DirectX 8.0

Monitor IMB G41 (15")

NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64
Driver: nvdisp.drv (4.13.01.2182)

Creative Sound Blaster PCI
Driver: es1371mp.sys (4.90.2490.0000)
 
Odd... I did get to see the intro (once - since then it´s been the same as described above) - perfect graphics, perfect sound. Then afterwards the screen went blck, but the music/sounds were still playing.
Maybe one should just stick to CivII...
 
I reckon there are a load of people out there playing with Nvidia cards who thing the scroll problem is how the game should be

Is this gonna be fixed or either by Nvidia or Firaxis??? :confused:

Is there anyone with an Nvidia setup who doesn't have this problem, if so tell me what drivers your using?

Thx
 
Just in case anyone else is having the same issues and this fix might help them:

I have fixed my CIV3 problems by updating the VIA BIOS for my ABit KT7A motherboard. I was getting through all of the menus but when the game was actually about to start I would get dumped back to Windows. Updating to BIOS version 64 (I have revision 1.0 of the KT7A motherboard) fixed the problem. My system is as follows:

KT7A MoBo
Athlon 1.2GHz
Gigabyte Geforce 2 GTS
SB PCI128

YMMV
 
Originally posted by Mad Russian
i naver seen a game with so many serious problems in the first week

I have.

Diablo II
Ultima Online
Fallout 2

There have been much worse cases than what Civ 3 is going through. Of course, it could just be a case by case basis cause I don't have any problems whatsoever with my game.
 
I don't have any problem running Civ3 on my computer. The game never crashes, even if I have several other resource intensive programs running in the background. :)
 
Lucky you.:p ;)

My problem seems to be the 17" monitor, and the video card stretching to accomodate it.

I dont know much about it or what type it is. I bought my computer from a pretty shady guy that builds them from Chinese made components!:lol:

When I start up, the desktop shrinks to the upper-left to 14" or so. Then eventualy expands to to whole screen by the intro video.

I seem to have RAM problems as well. Supposedly I have 128MB, but its slow and sluggish, even after I exit the game.

*sigh* I found a nice HP at Sam's Club for $900. :rolleyes:
 
Hello again everybody, I havent posted for ages.

Anyway apart from that I finally got Civ3 yesterday

:D

BUT WAS IT SMILEY FACE _ NO IT WASNT!!!!!

What I did was play a game and as I did it keep a record (so I could post an interesting and imaginative story of me as leader of the insane aztecs)
BUT NO - WHEN I TRY TO LOAD UP THAT GAME TODAY I GET THIS MESSAGE:
DATAIO operation system error: TILE

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

My save is GONE!! and whats even more bizarre is that I loaded it up last night (wanted to see if I could conquer iroquis capital with one jafg (I couldn't) and it worked fine then :mad:)

3 hours of playing: GONE
Im sorry to have such a negative post but please firaxis HELP and fast
 
Originally posted by CoolLizy


That's what you get for playing against 16 other Civ's! Seriously, though, play with 8 and the game will work much better. Play with 16 at your own risk!


Yeah, CoolLizy, you ARE right -- fortunately or unfortunately... I tried 8 civs on a normal map and its bearable, although definitely not as fast as the similarly sized civ1 game on a humble 10-year old 16 MHz PC/AT-286. What a shame.

Sure thing, I do understand my PII-450 / 256 MB computer is a bit outdated, but it's times BETTER than the officially req'd system of PII-300 / 32 MB. It's interesting what kind of benchmarks do people with top class systems get in large games (16 civs, Huge map). A primitive calculation suggests that a 2 GHz class computer would make it 3-4 times better than mine, so make those 25 minutes per turn just about 8. Is 8 minutes per turn (in 1500 a.d.) okay for the fastest piece of hardware on the market??? I think it's plain nonsense.

Anyways it's not a subject to be explored in this thread anymore, since it's not a glitch... It's just "normal" behavior... Uhmmm...:mad:
 
Here's how you fix the slow scrolling problem:

1. Go to http://www.guru3d.com/files and click on Videocard Drivers, then NVIDIA detonator drivers. You'll be presented with a list of drivers.

2. Grab the Detonator 12.41 WHQL drivers that are appropriate for your platform. The drivers are in the form of an executable, but at least for Win2K you can open it up in your zip file handler program (I use Powerarchiver myself, but most people use Winzip).

3. Extract the nvoglnt.dll file into the directory that Civ3 is installed (i.e., the directory that the game executable resides in). This works under Win2K, as executables seem to pick up DLLs first in the home directory of the executable, then the system directories. This might not work everywhere. If it doesn't have an effect, then you'll have to place it in your system32 directory or system directory (wherever your current nvoglnt.dll file resides).

This procedure worked for me and appears to work for others.


Now, on to the refresh rate problem. I'm running a GeForce 2 Pro card with the "plug and play" monitor and don't have a refresh rate problem. And I think I know why: I've used the NVidia refresh rate fix.

To pick this utility up, go here: http://www.planetquake.com/ztn/nvreffix/

What I did for my setup is use the "Set every resolution to monitor's maximum supported rate" option in the "set" dropdown at the bottom of the window.

Anyway, I noticed that the movie plays at exactly the refresh rate it should (my monitor can tell me what the refresh rate and resolution are).

Hope this helps....
 
This doesn't work for me although it does slightly improve the scrolling. The best way to play I find, is with 3d acceleration turned off. Although like above, this is no fix. Hope Firaxis hurry up and fix this.
 
I am having similar probelms as King Rude and Zoroaster. The Game installs properly but just doesn't run after the splash screen. This is the Error message...

CIVILIZATION3 caused an invalid page fault in
module ~DF394B.TMP at 0187:10044598.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0187 EIP=10044598 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00004c26 SS=018f ESP=00abf9c8 EBP=00abf9d4
ECX=00000cb0 DS=018f ESI=00d991d2 FS=c99f
EDX=0000d50c ES=018f EDI=0087f3e2 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
66 8b 44 1f fc d1 e8 83 c0 07 99 83 e2 07 03 c2
Stack dump:
011047f8 1005afd8 000000c8 00abfa00 10017bc0 00400000 011047f8 1005afd8 000000c8 000000c8 00000000 00f86e74 00400001 00f9c94c 00abfa74 00f54948


My system is adequate and I have the latest driver from my manufacturer and Direct X 8.01.

Gateway Solo 2150 (laptop)
Pentium III 600mhz
160 MB RAM
10-24x Speed CD ROM
Running WIN 98
Rage Mobility-M AGP (video card)
Soundblaster AudioPCI 64V (sound card)

The developer confirmed it is a "safedisc" problem. The question is is it safedisc or is my driver? Infrogrames over the phone that ther were "ways" of getting arround the problem but they could not tell me. I want a better solution than the Unwapper!
 
I've had an interesting evening, working on getting Civilization III to work properly, but thanks to the posts in this thread (and notably Trash's post on the first page), it is now working.
System : Pentium III/933MHz, 1Gig RAM
NVidia GeForce2 Ti 200 (64MB) Graphics Card
Windows 2000 Professional
Symptom : The into "movie" would play fine, and then the screen would go black. Still had music, though. Could not CTRL-ALT-DEL out.
Stuff I tried :
Installed new NVidia driver
Installed old NVidia driver
Installed Service Pack 2 for Windows 2000
Messed with DirectX and OpenGL settings for Video card
Installed DirectX 8.1
Uninstalled and reinstalled many times
What worked :
Running regedt32 (editor was easier for me than regedit)
HKLM\Current Control Set\Services\NV4\Device1
Edited all keys which had "modes" in their name, but I think the one that worked for me was NV20_1_Modes... I just went ahead and edited them all, as it was getting late...
They had values like:
32 1024 768 60 70 72 75 85 100 120 0
Changed to:
32 1024 768 60 70 72 75 0
removing the higher refresh rates. Also removed the higher resolutions (the whole lines...) like
32 1600 1200 60 70 72 75 85 100 120 0
lines like that, I deleted...
Just like in the other posts...
[Let me echo, what others have said. Don't edit the registry unless you are comfortable doing so, and have a backup of the registry and know how to use it!]
Double checked that the higher refresh rates were no longer available in the Monitor properties, and checked that the higher resolution settings were no longer available, then voila...
Well, I had to undo a DirectX setting that I had tweaked somewhere in there, but that was easy enough.
Hopefully the Civ tech folks will post a patch to fix this problem, so people don't have to hack their registries... but I couldn't wait that long.
So, thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your help.

Howard
 
Interesting problem I've been having. first, here are my specs:

Pentium II, MMX, ~447 MHZ
128 MB RAM
DirectX 8.0 (4.08.00.0400)

NVIDIA RIVA TNT (v.4.13.01.2183)
NVIDIA
15.5 MB

Turtle Beach Montego A3D 64 Voice PCI Sound Card (v.4.05.00.1130)
Turtle Beach

Monitor: Dell D1025TM
Windows 98

(I know, my computer is a little low-tech, but it meets the min. requirements.)

I got Civ3, installed, it worked fine. 2 weeks after first using it, I loaded it and some odd things appeared. The intro movie worked fine, but once I got the initial setup screen, the display was shifted about 2 inches from the left (it was all black). In the lower-left hand corner, there was a speaker with an X through it in green (in the black space).
I figured...mmm... something wrong witht he orientation. So I tried changing the geometry, but when I pressed the buttons, the green speaker changed to a key - as though it was locked. I exited the game, and my entire display was screwed up. now, not only did i have the display 2 inches off to the left, it was majorly tilted from righ to left on the top. After rebooting several times, I got it so the tilt was almost unnoticeable. Now the 2-inch gap only appears when I load Civ3. (the gap is NOT there during the intro movie).
This is now a universal problem, occurs with all my games. Any ideas?
I updated my NVIDIA drivers (v21.83), and changed the startup to "selective startup" and unchecked LOAD STARTUP GROUP ITEMS. Didn't work.
I figure it could be the .INF thing, but I don't know how to check/fix it. How do I do that?
Has anyone else encountered similar problems? I have NEVER encountered problems like this, on any computer. I am in the process of purchasing a new monitor.

Anyhow, thanks a lot to Sk0tie for all the help.
 
For what it's worth, Realplayer and associated programs seem to cause some errors in CIV3. I removed EVERY program associated with Realxxx, and now I get far less crashes. In one game I made it all the way to 1930 before I got a fatal lockup, where I cannot go any further.
 
Graeme, you are not the only one experiencing DataIO Tile errors. I am getting them by the bucketl load too. As well as all kinds of different other crashes. Any word on a fix for the TILE errors?
 
I have Windows 98 Second Edition. Pentium III 550MHZ. GeForce2 MX 100/200. Memory: 256MB.
Whenever I run the game it works just fine till the main menu but when I try to load a game or start a new one I get an error saying that the game will be closed and when I click "details" it says something about a divide error.
Also, the text in the main menu is strange, like it's alot of setences one over the other so you can't understand a word.
I read the solutions to the problem in the infogrames site but it didn't help me because I only have 136 fonts and I don't have any "OCRAware" appearing in the Control-Alt-Delete list.
 
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