Quintillus updated
Cross-Platform Civ3 Editor with a new update entry:
Version 1.48 focuses on defeating pesky editor-launching issues, which have re-emerged in recent years.
To this point, version 1.48:
- Adds back the venerable launcher.jar program that launches the editor with a set amount of memory
- Adds a batch script, Editor_Launcher.bat, that launches the launcher for Windows users whose Java installation isn't set as the default .jar file handled
- Adds a warning if you try to open a file with insufficient memory and graphics enabled, suggesting you launch via the launcher instead
- Adds a Startup Widget that informs you of the low memory situation and advises you to use the launch when applicable
- Attempts to notify you if the editor has become unresponsive due to running out of memory. This is challenging, due to the lack of memory, and usually the best it can manage is updating its titlebar to inform you of the unfortunate situation.
Some modest improvements to the graphics-loading process have also been made; please post here if you notice any graphical oddities as a result. In theory, these should slightly reduce both running time and memory use when the program is loading the graphics, but most of the savings are ephemeral enough that they are difficult to measure.
I should note that using the launcher is
not recommended unless you are having issues without the launcher. The recommended
Liberica Java version gives the editor 14 GB of maximum memory on my system, versus 889 MB that is provided when the launcher is used. I cannot fathom a way that the editor could use 10+ GB, but if you zoom out enough on a large enough map, it may go over a gigabyte.
Some Java distributions, however, have in recent years returned to the stingy 128 MB to 256 MB maximums that were common circa 2009, and that is what this update is intended to address. The graphics themselves have a hard minimum of 110 MB just to store the uncompressed versions of the PCX texture files, so running within a 128 MB maximum is not plausible.
The official editor requirements remain the same as always - 256 MB required for map graphics (which will now trigger the warnings), and 384 MB recommended (which will not). Sadly, we are unlikely to ever meet the 128 MB that Conquests requires for the game itself, nor the 32 MB (!) that my Civ3 Vanilla box tells me is sufficient for the smallest map size.
Screenshots!
Since most of you won't be seeing the new alerts, I thought I should share them here.
The new startup widget appears on the right side, and looks like this:
The color is provided thanks to beautiful HTML3 formatting, and are hopefully enough to indicate this startup widget should be given attention. But if you ignore it and open a file anyway:
In testing, I found that 186 MB appears to be the minimum for the Rise of Rome conquest in version 1.47, and at least twice even succeeded with 176 MB in 1.48 thanks to those small-scale optimizations (at least 1.2 MB was saved, but beyond that it depends on the competition between various PCX files that are being imported). 192 MB is the "safe" minimum for that file, with "safe" in quotes since I was only testing loading, not editing. Hence the "possible but no guarantee" guideline at 200 MB. But for larger BIQs, the limits may be somewhat higher. Having 50,000 tiles instead of 5000 on a map does increase requirements somewhat, despite the graphics still taking up the lion's share.
I am mildly curious how many if any people use the option to disable the map and thus graphics. My main use of it has been when I want to edit a BIQ's rules on a system that for whatever reason doesn't have Civ3 installed, usually because it's a brand new system, but it can also come in handy for reference on a shared system. Does anyone else make use of that setting?
We don't get as many new members in the Civ3 area as we did back when I joined it in 2007, I don't get to use that 
) and have never needed to use the launcher, but hopefully it will help others!
