Misterboy
Modern Major General
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2010
- Messages
- 244
Hi all,
Like many people I've had a consistent crash upon entering Leader Screens since the game's release (as far as I can remember) in which the game's graphics crash to a black screen, while the game runs in the background (sometimes the whole game crashes).
I've worked with 2K support many times over the months and let's just say they are completely incompetent . So, on my own, I've slowly but surely been trying to diagnose the problem.
I have a Gtx 460 (which seems to be a common card with this problem) and I'm running the DX11 client. The crash is intermittent, so it's taken time to diagnose it, and I've been doing it casually. Here are the interesting findings I've discovered:
1. The problem is definitely related to DX11 rendering in the Leader Screen.
After much trial and error, I think I've narrowed the problem down specifically to the DX11 code path. Once this crash crops up, I can reload a savegame and reproduce it 100% of the time. Furthermore, I can fix the problem by editing the GraphicsSettingsDX11.ini file found in Windows 7 at:
Of course, your drive letter and overall path will be different depending on OS.
Within GraphicsSettingsDX11.ini there is a heading called [LeaderheadSettings] right at the top. A few options down are the items:
The SM4.1 codepath tells the game if it can use DX10 if available, while SM5.0 is DX11.
If I set AllowSM50 to 0, I am disabling DX11 within the Leader Screen. This fixes the problem. I can reopen a savegame, click on a Leader and the game will not crash.
Interestingly, if I then go back and re-enable AllowSM50, I seem to be able to reopen my save and the game won't crash. In any case, it appears as though the DX11 codepath within the Leader Screen is what is causing my crash.
2. Disabling Desktop Composition seems to help the drawing of Leader Screens
Another issue, which is much less important, was that when entering Leader Screens, I'd often get a several second delay before the screen would draw in. I thought the two issues were related, as seeing a long black screen delay would often lead to the crash. I have, however, discovered that these issues aren't totally related.
Locate the Civ 5 executable located at:
Again, your path may be different. This is Windows 7 64bit. 32bit Windows would just be "Program Files" for example.
Right click CivilizationV_DX11.exe and select Properties. Click the Compatibility tab, and put a checkmark next to Disable desktop composition.
What this does is disable Aero (or whatever it's called) from the Windows 7 desktop whenever you run the game. This is what seems to cause the delay in drawing the leader screen. Now my leader screens pop right up.
---------------------------------------------------
I hope this information is useful to some of you out there. Obviously, people running the DX9 version of the game don't appear to get this problem. Furthermore, the situation can be fixed by lowering the quality of the Leader Screen in the Civ 5 options. This appears to be because the Min/Low and maybe the Medium setting disabled the DX11 code path.
Also, if anyone has any way to make Firaxis aware of this problem, I'd greatly appreciate it. The only reason I spent any time dealing with 2K was in the hopes they could let Firaxis know about the problem. But I think I always got stuck at Mr. "Make sure the O N selector is not set to the O...F...F postion", and his/her manager. Sigh
Like many people I've had a consistent crash upon entering Leader Screens since the game's release (as far as I can remember) in which the game's graphics crash to a black screen, while the game runs in the background (sometimes the whole game crashes).
I've worked with 2K support many times over the months and let's just say they are completely incompetent . So, on my own, I've slowly but surely been trying to diagnose the problem.
I have a Gtx 460 (which seems to be a common card with this problem) and I'm running the DX11 client. The crash is intermittent, so it's taken time to diagnose it, and I've been doing it casually. Here are the interesting findings I've discovered:
1. The problem is definitely related to DX11 rendering in the Leader Screen.
After much trial and error, I think I've narrowed the problem down specifically to the DX11 code path. Once this crash crops up, I can reload a savegame and reproduce it 100% of the time. Furthermore, I can fix the problem by editing the GraphicsSettingsDX11.ini file found in Windows 7 at:
Code:
C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5
Of course, your drive letter and overall path will be different depending on OS.
Within GraphicsSettingsDX11.ini there is a heading called [LeaderheadSettings] right at the top. A few options down are the items:
Code:
; Allows use of SM4.1 codepath (if supported)
AllowSM41 = 1
; Allows use of SM5.0 codepath (if supported)
AllowSM50 = 1
The SM4.1 codepath tells the game if it can use DX10 if available, while SM5.0 is DX11.
If I set AllowSM50 to 0, I am disabling DX11 within the Leader Screen. This fixes the problem. I can reopen a savegame, click on a Leader and the game will not crash.
Interestingly, if I then go back and re-enable AllowSM50, I seem to be able to reopen my save and the game won't crash. In any case, it appears as though the DX11 codepath within the Leader Screen is what is causing my crash.
2. Disabling Desktop Composition seems to help the drawing of Leader Screens
Another issue, which is much less important, was that when entering Leader Screens, I'd often get a several second delay before the screen would draw in. I thought the two issues were related, as seeing a long black screen delay would often lead to the crash. I have, however, discovered that these issues aren't totally related.
Locate the Civ 5 executable located at:
Code:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v
Again, your path may be different. This is Windows 7 64bit. 32bit Windows would just be "Program Files" for example.
Right click CivilizationV_DX11.exe and select Properties. Click the Compatibility tab, and put a checkmark next to Disable desktop composition.
What this does is disable Aero (or whatever it's called) from the Windows 7 desktop whenever you run the game. This is what seems to cause the delay in drawing the leader screen. Now my leader screens pop right up.
---------------------------------------------------
I hope this information is useful to some of you out there. Obviously, people running the DX9 version of the game don't appear to get this problem. Furthermore, the situation can be fixed by lowering the quality of the Leader Screen in the Civ 5 options. This appears to be because the Min/Low and maybe the Medium setting disabled the DX11 code path.
Also, if anyone has any way to make Firaxis aware of this problem, I'd greatly appreciate it. The only reason I spent any time dealing with 2K was in the hopes they could let Firaxis know about the problem. But I think I always got stuck at Mr. "Make sure the O N selector is not set to the O...F...F postion", and his/her manager. Sigh