Fix-It List

[AUSkynyrdFan]

Does anybody else's game just not load up?

The game has worked fine for me before,and worked once or twice after the I downloaded the patch.

For some reason though,the game just will not load.I can setup the game how I want it,but it always gets stuck on the screen that says "Finishing" after it loads and before the actual game can be played.

Sometimes it says I need more virtual memory,so I deleted crap and defragged my computer,and now it just doesn't even say what I need or don't need.

 

[richistricky]

Alright, I have seen a lot of posts offering solutions to the black map issue. Would someone be nice enough to post step by step instructions as to how you solved this issue? I am not a tech guy so half of the stuff people are posting here makes no sense to me...I have been to the nvidia.com site and tried to download something, but I am not sure if I am downloading the right thing. If someone could post a reply with the instructions as easy and specific as possible, it would be much appreciated. Thanks and I look forward to playing Civ4!! Please Help!!

 

[Panthermo]

I just got Civ 4 for my birthday and I installed it with no trouble. I started the game up I got as far as the done loading then it nothing happens the music plays in the background. I enabled logging and there's a file network-2056_12-20-2005_19-20-3 and it say "WRN: Disconnecting from entire Peer Network!" The End. Help me please!

 

[AUSkynyrdFan]

Does anybody else's game just not load up?

The game has worked fine for me before,and worked once or twice after the I downloaded the patch.

For some reason though,the game just will not load.I can setup the game how I want it,but it always gets stuck on the screen that says "Finishing" after it loads and before the actual game can be played.

Sometimes it says I need more virtual memory,so I deleted crap and defragged my computer,and now it just doesn't even say what I need or don't need.

This was in the themeparselog if it helps anything.

rror : File - ('Civ4Theme_Custom.thm', Ln:4910, Col:47) Could not load bitmap 'Civ4/HUD/city_titlearrows.tga'
Error : File - ('Civ4Theme_Custom.thm', Ln:4918, Col:47) Could not load bitmap 'Civ4/HUD/city_titlearrows.tga'
Error : File - ('Civ4Theme_Custom.thm', Ln:4926, Col:47) Could not load bitmap 'Civ4/HUD/city_titlearrows.tga'
Error : File - ('Civ4Theme_Custom.thm', Ln:4983, Col:47) Could not load bitmap 'Civ4/HUD/city_titlearrows.tga'
Error : File - ('Civ4Theme_Custom.thm', Ln:4991, Col:47) Could not load bitmap 'Civ4/HUD/city_titlearrows.tga'
Error : File - ('Civ4Theme_Custom.thm', Ln:4999, Col:47) Could not load bitmap 'Civ4/HUD/city_titlearrows.tga'

 

[Harkonnen]

AUSkynyrdFan
I have the same every time, but the game works fine for me.

 

[Verviticus]

Does anybody else's game just not load up?

The game has worked fine for me before,and worked once or twice after the I downloaded the patch.

For some reason though,the game just will not load.I can setup the game how I want it,but it always gets stuck on the screen that says "Finishing" after it loads and before the actual game can be played.

Sometimes it says I need more virtual memory,so I deleted crap and defragged my computer,and now it just doesn't even say what I need or don't need.

My game does not run either. It gets past loading, opens a black screen, makes a few in-game noises (seem to be completely random), and then locks up.

The game WAS working up until a week ago, and now this happens 100% of the time.

 

[Lewigi]

hi there,
i have progressed through the game and have discovered and researched everything possible, i am against about seven other AI's and i have started to make nukes to try to win the war i am in against china... i have many nukes now and i am still trying to fire them. when i press the 'red button' i cant fire anywhere but into random sea where the highlighted square goes green... <HELP!> i would like somebody to awnser the question...
"how do i use nukes against AI?"
thanks
lewis {LEWIGI}

 

[x-szeryf]

Hello everyone,
I was just wondering is there any possibility to improve performance with my video card. What do you think about using 3dAnalyzer to emulate T&L stuff.
When i start epic game on a huge map it's ok untill about 1700ad, than the game is hardly playable and sometimes it crashes. BTW sorry if it was already said but there is looooots of info and i read as much as i could and i'm not to good with computers. Please help.
here are my specifications:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/22/2005, 22:42:13
Machine name: ADAMZ
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Dodatek Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: Polish (Regional Setting: Polish)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
System Model: A7N8X-E
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Sempron(tm)   2200+,  MMX,  3DNow, ~1.5GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 380MB used, 1637MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

Thanks.

 

[Zydor]

X-szeryf

Your description indicates you are getting the memory management issue in Civ IV. Have a look here, give it ago, I strongly suspect it will help your late game problem. Hasnt for all - but has for a great many

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3482633#post3482633

Regards
Zy

 

[x-szeryf]

Performance improved . Can you help me with setting up vid_mem_usage? i have no idea what agp_apperture_size - never mind already got it. Thanks a lot Zydor.

 

[Theleb-K'aarna]

Everytime I try to run Civ IV, an error message comes up saying:

This application has failed to start because MSVCR71.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

I have tried to reinstall and also found the file and put it on my desktop, but it still doesn't work. Sorry if this is a repeat question, but I want to start playing and am dying here. Thanks.

If i recall correctly MSVCR71.dll means that whatever is using it was written in C++ .NET (2003) SOOO, trying updating your system, and install the .NET 1.1 framework runtime.

 

[Theleb-K'aarna]

eh, sorry guys, i quoted the wrong post.

 

[Theleb-K'aarna]

Ok, first let me start by saying my Civ IV install does not crash. what I think MAY be going on, is that some of you, or possibly all ? are using old nVidia force-ware audio drivers. This has caused nurmerous problems with many other games (including GTA San Andreas etc), and if it is in fact the case here, is not the game devlopers fault.

If you are in fact running an nVidia chipset on your motherboard, with onboard audio, I can walk your through how to test this very easily.

Steps:

1) Start -> Run -> Type in 'dxdiag' (without the quotes), and press enter, or click on the ok button.

2) Click on the 'Sound' tab located near the top center.

3) near the middle, in the 'DirectX Features group, you will (or should) see a slider labeled 'Hardware sound Acceleration level:' Slide it all the way to the left until the text above the slider reads 'No Acceleration'

4) located near the bottom is a button named 'Save All Information' Click it.

5) When the Save as dialog pops up, the default 'Save as Type' listing is *.txt, change it to *.xml, and click the save button.

6) Exit out of the DxDiag tool, and run the game.

Now of course, if you're not using atleast an nVidia2 chipset, this wont work for you ( that im aware of ). If this did in fact work for you, then you using the buggy nVidia audio drivers, and you can fix this by downloading, and installing the latest nVidia force-ware audio drivers, and reversing the above mentioned changes.

 

[Theleb-K'aarna]

Now it's gripe time. Like many others here, I have also played Civs for years, and love all the 'Civ' games ( including Alpha Centri ). Its not the changes I dislike, change is good. What bothers me, is the seemingly shoddy implementation of the game.

Now, I myself also am a programmer, however, I do not program professionaly ( just as a hobbyist ), but I do know how hard it is to maintain a large code base, especially when moving into new tech areas such as DirectX, and .NET.
.NET isnt really 'new' per se, but perhaps this is this first game in this series using this tech.

That being said, here is the two things that piss me off about this game, which can make playing it unbearable.

1) There seems to be a rather nasty memory leak in the code, or possibly just sloppy memory management. After playing the game for a while, the game gets very laggy, this is due to the fact, that in my case its using more than the availible physical memory my system has.

2) The 'App' doesnt take losing focus well, if you alt+tab out, or lose focus of the game window for any other reason, you might as well hang up trying to regain focus, because from my experiences, you wont beable to.

My second gripe here is fairly trivial compared to the first, and I could possible learn to live with it. As for the first, well, any game advertising minimum memory needed 256 megs, recomended 512 megs, and you're using 512 megs, while having this problem is pure false advertisement, I dont care what size map you play on. Period.

My system specs you ask ? System is as follows:

AMD 3200+ XP CPU
ABIT NF7-S2G nVidia2 chipset motherboard.
Leadtek Winfast A6600 GT 128 MB Video card | AGP Aperture Size= 128 MB
Crucial Ballistix DDR 400 Memory (2-2-2-6 timings) 512 MB
40 GB seagate Baracuda 7200 RPM HDD ATA-100 (OS, and game)
250 GB seagate baracuda 7200 RPM HDD SATA (swap disk, 768 MB for min and maximum)

Reason I use my SATA drive here for my swap disk, should be fairly obvious to some. My motherboard uses seperate IO for the PCI bus, while the SATA, and GbE controller uses another. This should theoreticly increase performance atleast slightly.

Also, take note, that other current games be they FPS type, or whatever run flawlesly on this system. Some require me to turn the resolution down a tad, but atleast they give the option to go below 1024x768.

Now to Sid, and the other guys at Firaxis. If you guys pay attention here, I personally feel, that you guys should feel obligated to fix these problems. You took my money when I bought the game, now deliver the goods. Also know today is a very sad day for me, as I had higher expectations from you. Guess I should have known based on how quickly this game was released after Civ III, when previous games took considerable more time for you to release. Seriously, I bought this game BECAUSE its the type of game I enjoy, AND because Firaxis made it. Now, in the Future, I am going to be wondering if any games released from Firaxis is going to be worth my money. Truely sad for you, and gamers all around the world.

EDIT: Just to make a point, how would you guys at firaxis feel about this: Instead of me going to the store, and buying the game, if i chose to use <insert P2P AppName here> to download your game for free ? I know how I would feel. I would feel ripped off. That 'sword' is two sided . . .

 

[Zydor]

New Patch came out last night - appears to have resolved the major issues. See Civ IV Forum home page

Regards
Zy

 

[Arrogant]

Now to Sid, and the other guys at Firaxis. If you guys pay attention here, I personally feel, that you guys should feel obligated to fix these problems. You took my money when I bought the game, now deliver the goods.

All the gripe of the world won't make any difference. That's why I haven't even asked a single question about how to make the game run. It used to run, but for the life of me I can't remember what I changed in my system and it won't run anymore. I tried everything suggested in this and other forums, to no avail. Patches, no patches, hacks, DirectX tweaks, re-installs, even other graphic cards and soundcards. Nada. I've seen that other people have the same problems as me and nobody seems to know what's going on. And you know why ? Because not even at Firaxis they know what's wrong. They probably have a chaotic code with countless bugs and they can't even address a small fraction of them.

Yet, they won't care. You know why ? Because Civ4 got raving reviews from magazines and games sites, which probably means it will be a commercial success. If it is a commercial success, they couldn't care less about the problems. I have deja vu here: the same complaints were heard when Civ3 was released, yet this hasn't stopped Civ4 from becoming a hit. So, whatever you or me or anyone else says about Firaxis, the truth is that they have every reason to continue releasing some of the most buggy games in the market. Apparently these buggy games get them money.

The only language software companies understand and respond to, is the language of money. If Civ4 was a failure then perhaps Civ5 would be great. As things are, they already have the proverbial cow of a large gamer base which they will keep milking for as long as they can.

 

[sc1]

Have just installed CIV 4 (all system requirements met), ATI card and when trying to start the game the screen flashes up 'checking XML' then just reverts back to windows. Can anyone help

 

[Fist Fulla Scar]

ok my problem is when im about to enter into the game screen it looads up and says done then pops up with this window here


WINDOWS-DISPLAY DRIVER STOPPED RESPONDING

the nv4-disp display driver has stopped working normally .save your work and reboot the system to restore full display funtionality. the next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to upload data about this failure to microsoft

so everytime i have to reboot my comp and it comes up with the error report so i send it to microsoft and they havent been able to suss out what the problem is with the driver

they came up with a few things that could be the problem so i followed all of those steps but are still encountering the same problems

ive downloaded and updated drivers from nvidia but still doesnt seem to do the trick lol ive spent many hours of frustration trying to sort this problem out and though ild give you guys a shot

im pretty confident its a problem with the driver as the pop up window says but i just dont know how to solve the problem

comp specs

amd athlon 64 processor 3000+
512mb ddr
160 gb hard drive
nVidia GeForce fx5200xt 3d agp 128mb ddr
intergrated realtek digi audio 5.1 surround

 

[Theleb-K'aarna]

ok my problem is when im about to enter into the game screen it looads up and says done then pops up with this window here


WINDOWS-DISPLAY DRIVER STOPPED RESPONDING

the nv4-disp display driver has stopped working normally .save your work and reboot the system to restore full display funtionality. the next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to upload data about this failure to microsoft

so everytime i have to reboot my comp and it comes up with the error report so i send it to microsoft and they havent been able to suss out what the problem is with the driver

they came up with a few things that could be the problem so i followed all of those steps but are still encountering the same problems

ive downloaded and updated drivers from nvidia but still doesnt seem to do the trick lol ive spent many hours of frustration trying to sort this problem out and though ild give you guys a shot

im pretty confident its a problem with the driver as the pop up window says but i just dont know how to solve the problem

comp specs

amd athlon 64 processor 3000+
512mb ddr
160 gb hard drive
nVidia GeForce fx5200xt 3d agp 128mb ddr
intergrated realtek digi audio 5.1 surround

Well, there is a couple of possibilities here. Let me say that sometimes nVIdias drivers are flaky at times, or implement stuff that the Manufactuer didnt on the hardware its self. There is a couple of things I can think off the top of my head you can try to help resolve this:

1) if you're using Windows XP, try rolling back to an earlier driver. You can do this by MyComputer -> right click -> select 'Properties' -> select the 'Hardware' Tab -> Click on 'Device Manager -> Expand the 'Display Adapters' TreeNode (double click) -> Double click on the appropriate display device that you wish to revert -> Select the 'Driver' tab -> Click on the 'Roll back Driver' button.

2) Since nVidia drivers sometimes work incorrectly for one reason or another, you may need to download the drivers directly from the Video card manufactuer, and you may need to take extras steps (such as say boot to safe mode to remove your current driver before installing the new one) to make the driver stay persistant, or work at all. This may or may not require some research on your behalf to find out what will work.

If I had to guess, I would say #2 would be your best bet, unless, you know for a fact, that you had a previous driver that worked fine with the game. In which case #1 may work just fine.

Also keep in mind that sometimes third party software can interfere with somethings on your system, so it could possibly be some codec, Legacy device driver, or maybe even be something as simple as a setting in your Video adapter control applet, or the applet its self causing havoc. So, if you installed the patch that was posted here in these forums (harkfix) you may want to start there first.

If you wish to try one of all of these suggestions, and none work, keep in mind that I am not at_your_computer, so obviously I cant know everything. This is where google comes in handy -> http://www.google.com Have fun

 

[Theleb-K'aarna]

Ok, now for some good news. I downloaded the 1.52 patch, installed it, ran the game, and 'lo and behold the game now uses half the memory it did previously, and seems to run smoothly now. Awesome.

Now for some bad (but note quite so bad) news. When loading a previous saved game, the ALT+Tab'n out while the game IS loading, when the game regains focus, all seems to work fine up to where you would normally start playing. In my case I loaded the game back to 'The dawn of man'. When I get a game dialog which has nothing but 'showDawnOfMan', just before the game freezes

I think its fairly obvious to another programmer that 'showDawnOfMan' is a function, and probably is used to Show the Dawn of man 'dialog', 'window', 'widget', whatever. This IS however progress ! atleast we know where abouts the game is failing Now while in the middle of a game, if the game loses focus, everything seems fine, but if i find any other problems I will post them here.

By the way, good job guys on fixing memory issues, makes the game so much more enjoyable, when you can play without waiting long periods of time to do one little thing in game, or bogging the entire system down, so as the user cant even alt tab out to kill it.