CivilizationIV.ini file problems

[Trelane]

I had problems with some BTS game crashes and decided to reload everything. Reloaded Civ4 vanilla and the 1.61 patch. Game plays OK, except I can't go into Worldbuilder. That appears to be symptomatic of a bigger issue - most of the CivilizationIV.ini data isn't there. I had backed up old configuration data for the games. I copied the old CivilizationIV.ini file to C:\Users\Alan\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4, started a new game, quit the game, and most of the ini file data disappeared. This is all that's left (in boldface):

CONFIG

; Enable Trilinear Filtering for the Minimap
MinimapTrilinearFilter = 1

; Enable Tree Region Cutting
CutTrees = 1

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 0

; Enable Quick Slide Show Transitions
PopSlides = 0

; Set to 1 to automatically end slide show
EndSlides = 0


("CONFIG" is bordered by brackets like it should be; can't display brackets in forum posts.)

System info:

OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
M'board: Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/03/13 07:48:04 Ver: 04.06.05
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11

 

[s.bernbaum]

Three things come to mind:

CIV needs DirectX 9. It is okay to also have a later version but you must also have 9 for CIV to work properly. Make sure that you do have DirectX 9 installed, along with 11. If not, you need to download it.

Make sure that you have given the game Admin privileges, which it needs to make changes in itself. That is the game exe itself, not you and not the shortcut. If you have not yet done so, right click the exe and select Admin privileges.

Once you are sure both of the above are okay reload that ini you saved in your old config stuff. Then start CIV, start a game, set everything the way you want it to work. Go to the ingame options screen and choose save a new profile, leaving the profile name set to Default Profile.

I hope that this helps you. BTW, the latest and last version of original or vanilla CIV is 1.74, not 1.61. You can download the patch from the forums. The link is on the CIV drop down menu at the head of each page.

 

[Trelane]

I uninstalled the game and deleted the "My Games" data, installed DirectX 9.0c**, reinstalled Civ4 vanilla, installed the patches, Admin privileges were already assigned after installation. I am still having the same problem.

(**This install requires d/l of directx_Jun2010_redist.exe, to be run in the same directory as the DirectX9 installer, to install ver 9 alongside ver 11 - otherwise one gets a "you already have the latest version" message.)

Something is causing the game to reject most of the .ini file.

 

[Krimzon89]

I know this board is old, but I have a method that worked for me:
Delete the "civilizationIV" ini file
Delete the "civilizationIV.ini.bak" file.
Run the game

It caused my game to generate a new, whole ini file.