Map Finder JPEG help (BTS & Vista)

Whenever I use Map Finder v1.7 to find a BTS map it does not take the screen shot properly. It works fine for Van and for Warlords. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate and I have even tried elevating the Map Finder .exe file to adminstrator level.

Here is a look at what should be the initial map area. Based on the picture it looks like it is trying to open another session of BTS, but it is already open. It does actually save the games based on the rules I have built, it is just not taking the screen shot properly. Any thoughts?



(@Mods - Please move if this should be in Technical Support area)

DJMGator13 said:

Whenever I use Map Finder v1.7 to find a BTS map it does not take the screen shot properly. It works fine for Van and for Warlords. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate and I have even tried elevating the Map Finder .exe file to adminstrator level.

Here is a look at what should be the initial map area. Based on the picture it looks like it is trying to open another session of BTS, but it is already open. It does actually save the games based on the rules I have built, it is just not taking the screen shot properly. Any thoughts?



(@Mods - Please move if this should be in Technical Support area)

Click to expand...

The Civ4_Map_Finder.exe is not involved in the creation of maps in Civ4. It is there for looking at the results and build rules. The only interaction is python using the path information to read the data files in the Map Finder app folder, the rule file and the save path. All the logic is in python or DLL

From your screenshot, I am guessing that something is causing the save file to opened/executed (like it was double-clicked) when it is created. The screenshot is just not fast enought to get the first instance of Civ4.

A couple of things to try. First of all, reboot your PC so we can make sure nothing is hanging around in the background causing problems. You may have already done this.

You should turn on logging to see what's going on. There might be python errors.

You have to change you CivilizationIV.ini file. There is one for each version (i.e. in your "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4", "My Documents\My Games\Warlords" and "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4/Beyond the Sword" folders.

; Set to 1 for no python exception popups
HidePythonExceptions = 0

; Enable the logging system
LoggingEnabled = 1

; Overwrite old network and message logs
OverwriteLogs = 1

; Enable message logging
MessageLog = 1

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It should create a Logs folder in the same folder as the Civ4 ini file. There will be 3 files that start with "Python". I need to see those.

Note: the OverwriteLogs setting means the log file are cleared each time you start civ4, so be sure to grab them before you start civ4 again.

Once we are done messing around, make sure you set LoggingEnabled back to 0 as logging can slow the game down with some virus checkers.

It should create a Logs folder in the same folder as the Civ4 ini file. There will be 3 files that start with "Python". I need to see those.

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Log files have been emailed to you.

Denniz based on your email response I started looking at the resolution settings and not running BTS in Full Screen Mode so I could see if Map Finder was trying to open another session of the game. It did not appear to be trying to open another session, so I focused on the resolutions.

What I found is that Map Finder will take the screen shot properly if BTS is not running in Full Screen Mode. It didn't matter how I had the resolution set.





Strange that Vista only handles BTS this way, but at least there is an easy way around it. You only need to use the smaller window for MF. You can load up and play the games in full screen mode.

DJMGator13 said:

Denniz based on your email response I started looking at the resolution settings and not running BTS in Full Screen Mode so I could see if Map Finder was trying to open another session of the game. It did not appear to be trying to open another session, so I focused on the resolutions.

What I found is that Map Finder will take the screen shot properly if BTS is not running in Full Screen Mode. It didn't matter how I had the resolution set.





Strange that Vista only handles BTS this way, but at least there is an easy way around it. You only need to use the smaller window for MF. You can load up and play the games in full screen mode.

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If you are happy, then I am happy. I really didn't want to upgrade an old PC to Vista. (No way am I going to put that on my main gaming PC.)

Denniz said:

If you are happy, then I am happy. I really didn't want to upgrade an old PC to Vista. (No way am I going to put that on my main gaming PC.)

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Are you saying that for a new PC it's better to get XP Professional instead of Vista Home Premium?

playshogi said:

Are you saying that for a new PC it's better to get XP Professional instead of Vista Home Premium?

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That was a purely emotional response to Vista and the HOF Mod support issues it has caused.

I would recommend checking out some of the PC and Game magazine sites. They have probably have done evaluations. It is always better to make a informed decision, rather than listening to someone popping off in a forum somewhere.

from everything I've read, in general it is better right now to get 32-bit Vista than XP. Within a year or two though, I would expect it better to get 64-bit Vista, as by then compatible drivers for 64-bit systems will be more prevalent and easier to find.

Denniz said:

That was a purely emotional response to Vista and the HOF Mod support issues it has caused.

I would recommend checking out some of the PC and Game magazine sites. They have probably have done evaluations. It is always better to make a informed decision, rather than listening to someone popping off in a forum somewhere.

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I actually read some of the threads in the "Computer Talk" forum here when I was looking for a new computer. There are some very helpful people here at CFC. I did check out the PC and game sites as well.

I'm also running Vista Ultimate which has some additional security features which may have caused this MF issue.

DJMGator13 said:

Strange that Vista only handles BTS this way, but at least there is an easy way around it. You only need to use the smaller window for MF. You can load up and play the games in full screen mode.

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Hey guys, thanks for the help. I can get map finder to work somewhat with vista now, but I'm having a different problem. If I set just a simple rule, like 1 Commerce tile, or even just 1 Gold. It passes by every start with gold or any commerce. It finally saved one with 2 gold, but skips everything else. I'm sure I have it set for 1 commerce. I even tried 0 - 999 commerce. Still skips gems, silver, etc.

Did you edit the MF values while running the game? I noticed that for MF to properly incorporate changes I make to the MF settings, I need to exit out of BTS and reload the game before it recognizes it. It's annoying but it gets around the problem.

Or do you have a different problem?

shyuhe said:

Did you edit the MF values while running the game? I noticed that for MF to properly incorporate changes I make to the MF settings, I need to exit out of BTS and reload the game before it recognizes it. It's annoying but it gets around the problem.

Or do you have a different problem?

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As you can imagine, I have a lot of experience with MF. I know about restarting to get it to read the new rules. My problem is different. I've tried a dozen times, so I'm quite sure it's not pilot error. I have no problems at all on XP with BTS, just Vista. I haven't tried vanilla on Vista yet.

Thanks for the help though.

WastinTime said:

I have no problems at all on XP with BTS, just Vista.

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There is a sentence out of my worst nightmare. I can only guess that there is either a difference with python or the security it executes under in vista. You might want to turn off the hide python errors setting in the BTS civ4 ini file to see if you are getting errors on vista.

I don't have Vista either at home or work, so I really can't try to reproduce your experience. (I am putting off getting Vista until all you early adopters have worked all the bugs out. )

Denniz said:

You might want to turn off the hide python errors setting in the BTS civ4 ini file to see if you are getting errors on vista.

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Did that. No errors pop up. I tried to make some observations. See if you can make any sense of these examples:

I told it to find 1 gold. It was saving games with either gems or gold, but no silver.

Then I changed it to find 1 commerce. It wouldn't save any games with gold, silver, or gems UNLESS Fur also appeared with it

Odd. I have vista, but haven't used MF since installing it. I'll give it a try tomorrow and see if I come up with the same errors, or can get the errors fixed.

Methos said:

Odd. I have vista, but haven't used MF since installing it. I'll give it a try tomorrow and see if I come up with the same errors, or can get the errors fixed.

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My test was on a Duel Great Plains map

I'll give it a try for a Minor35 tonight.

Looks like MF works okay, silver is just hard to find at the start of a BTS game (only shows on tundra or ice). I watched about 375 maps come up on a variety of settings before I finally got a silver start [125 maps on GMinor35 settings, 100 pangea/temperate, about 50 on pangea/cold, finally went to Ice Age map - took almost 100 maps]. It never passed over a silver, this is the only one I got.




Only rule was: Bonus Group / Commerce Resourse / min 1 max 999
I had the Test Range set to 4 tiles.

Do Great Plains map have tundra/ice? That may be why you're not getting a silver start.

Strange that Vista only handles BTS this way, but at least there is an easy way around it. You only need to use the smaller window for MF. You can load up and play the games in full screen mode.

Click to expand...

In the [CONFIG] section of the .ini file you can set BTS to prompt you about running in Full Screen Mode, makes it much simplier to handle the switching between the 2 modes to run MF in Vista.

; Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask
FullScreen = ask

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DJMGator13 said:

In the [CONFIG] section of the .ini file you can set BTS to prompt you about running in Full Screen Mode, makes it much simplier to handle the switching between the 2 modes to run MF in Vista.

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Thx, yea, I fixed all that "ask" full screen stuff just to get it working somewhat. I think you missed the point though. I wasn't so concerned that it didn't pick up silver. MF is acting very strangely.

When I asked for JUST gold, it saved gold AND gems, but not silver. When I asked for ANY commerce tile, it passed on everything unless it had a Fur tile and a commerce tile. I watched 100 regens and I'm pretty sure of this behavior. It sounds crazy, but I just can't get it to do anything I specificly want.

B