How to get Civ4:BTS working on OS X Yosemite

Warrencp · Dec 26, 2014

I really appreciate your help. I have another question though. Found the folder but when I try to copy the 2.3 and 2.5 folders into the python folder they do not show up. I get the sound and have to enter my passoword, but they don't show. I have tried both dragging the files and edit copy/paste, and neither have worked. Thanks again.

Yaiyan · Dec 27, 2014

Warrencp said:
I really appreciate your help. I have another question though. Found the folder but when I try to copy the 2.3 and 2.5 folders into the python folder they do not show up. I get the sound and have to enter my passoword, but they don't show. I have tried both dragging the files and edit copy/paste, and neither have worked. Thanks again.

If you type the commands I put in my first post, do they give any errors? (To copy those files you just need to do the first command starting with "mv").

nohandsnick · Jan 1, 2015

Xyth said:
None that I've seen. Any sort of 3D gaming, even an older game like BTS, really needs a dedicated graphics chipset and dedicated graphics memory. Those integrated chips just aren't designed for anything but rudimentary 3D rendering.

Xyth,

I'm a long-time Civ Fanatics lurker and was relieved when I found your guide on how to switchout frameworks to play on Yosemite.
I followed your instructions and it's all working and running Civ 4 BTS on Yosemite... BUT... I'm having the same weird graphics issue described by another user. Sucks! The perimeter of the screen (info bars, trees at the bottom, etc) are wire-frames, not illustrated and rendered graphics.

I've tried all graphic and resolution settings to no avail.

My old machine (late 2008 iMac) ran BTS no problem... why would this new one not handle it?
Here's my new graphics card: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB. I just bought this new iMac (late 2013).

Civ 5 runs great on the new iMac... but the game itself is beyond awful and I really regret buying it. I'm trying to go back to Civ 4 BTS and now that you showed me how to tell Yosemite to run it, my graphics card can't keep up with a game from 2009???? WTF? Any ideas?

Xyth · Jan 2, 2015

nohandsnick said:
Xyth,

I'm a long-time Civ Fanatics lurker and was relieved when I found your guide on how to switchout frameworks to play on Yosemite.
I followed your instructions and it's all working and running Civ 4 BTS on Yosemite... BUT... I'm having the same weird graphics issue described by another user. Sucks! The perimeter of the screen (info bars, trees at the bottom, etc) are wire-frames, not illustrated and rendered graphics.

I've tried all graphic and resolution settings to no avail.

My old machine (late 2008 iMac) ran BTS no problem... why would this new one not handle it?
Here's my new graphics card: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB. I just bought this new iMac (late 2013).

Civ 5 runs great on the new iMac... but the game itself is beyond awful and I really regret buying it. I'm trying to go back to Civ 4 BTS and now that you showed me how to tell Yosemite to run it, my graphics card can't keep up with a game from 2009???? WTF? Any ideas?

It would have worked on your old iMac because it probably had a dedicated ATI/AMD or Nvidia graphics card, while your new iMac doesn't. Intel graphics are part of the CPU and use system memory rather than having their own dedicated video memory (though the Iris Pro does have a bit for caching). The Iris Pro is a massive improvement over previous Intel efforts but they still lack some capabilities that ATI/AMD and Nvidia chipsets have - notably in terms of backwards compatibility. Mac BTS has always had problems displaying on Intel graphics and it seems like neither Aspyr or Intel are going to bother fixing the issue.

Personally, I think it's pretty terrible that Apple are no longer including a dedicated graphics card in many Mac lines now, especially with the extra video demands of the Retina display. A real setback to Mac gaming.

Sorry I can't be any more help.

lennybernstein · Jan 5, 2015

Xyth said:
Step 1:

Download the necessary files from here. Unzip them. You should have a folder called 'BTS Yosemite Python Fix'.

These are taken direct from my installation of 10.9.4 and you may copy them from Mavericks yourself if you prefer. Locations are described below.

I've tried to download the files, but they come up as .7z files and I am unable to unzip or open them. Can you help?

lennybernstein · Jan 5, 2015

Apologies, please ignore the post above. I just noticed I needed to install The Unarchiver first.

lennybernstein · Jan 5, 2015

Thanks! This works like a dream!

Hooli · Jan 10, 2015

Thanks Xyth,

This worked for me too.
I recommend users just rename the Yosemite folders 2.3_Yosemite & 2.5_Yosemite before loading the Maverick folders. This way if they need to switch back for any reason they can rename the Maverick folders 2.3_Mavercik & 2.5_Maverick and remove the _Yosemite from the Yosemite folders.

Hope that makes sense to all.

Cheers

z0wb13 · Jan 12, 2015

i made a wrapper using wine 1.7 to run the windows version on yosemite. vanilla played really normal/stable, but i didn't test mods very much. i ran fall from heaven 2 and rise of mankind for a few (10, maybe) turns.

is there any interest in using a wrappered version of the windows game? the steam version should work if anyone wants to test it.... check here for my post about how to do it.

dguichar · Jan 25, 2015

First of all, i'd like to thank to Xyth, because it worked for me.

I was able to play Civ4: BTS on OS X Yosemite... until yesterday. While i was playing History Rewritten, suddenly i got a crash to desktop. I tried tor restart, but it didn't work. I keep doing this some times more, then again after rebooting... and nothing happened.

Today i delete all Civ 4 files and folders and reinstalled it, but it keeps crashing to desktop.

This is the error report i get...

Spoiler :

Continues in next post...

dguichar · Jan 25, 2015

Spoiler :

Thank you...

Xyth · Jan 26, 2015

dguichar said:
First of all, i'd like to thank to Xyth, because it worked for me.

I was able to play Civ4: BTS on OS X Yosemite... until yesterday. While i was playing History Rewritten, suddenly i got a crash to desktop. I tried tor restart, but it didn't work. I keep doing this some times more, then again after rebooting... and nothing happened.

Today i delete all Civ 4 files and folders and reinstalled it, but it keeps crashing to desktop.

This is the error report i get...

Not sure what could be causing that crash. I presume it's happening when trying to launch without any mods? Only thing I can suggest is to remove all Civ4 files in ~/Documents/ and ~/Library/Application Support/.

dguichar · Jan 28, 2015

Xyth said:
Not sure what could be causing that crash. I presume it's happening when trying to launch without any mods? Only thing I can suggest is to remove all Civ4 files in ~/Documents/ and ~/Library/Application Support/.

I removed all the Civ4 files in ~/Documents/, but there was none in ~/Library/Application Support/.

Anyway, i was able to run BTS again.

Thank you very much for your help. :goodjob:

Blondel58 · Feb 13, 2015

Worked great! Many thanks! :love:

Ecahall · Mar 28, 2015

Hi, first poset! Im trying to play civ iv on my 27 in late 2009 iMac and have followed the instruction provided by Xyth and docbadwolf but it still says it will not work with this version on OS X (10.10)

this part i don't understand:

So I opened the application package, navigated to Contents/MacOS and made an alias of the Civilisation IV script. Double clicking this then bypasses the incompatible application list and launches it fine.

I made the alias but not sure where to put it. can someone plz run me through this?

thank you

Noob

s.bernbaum · Mar 29, 2015

If you meant the message that displays after launching the game but before the main screen appears, it is meaningless. The game consults a list of compatible configurations at the time that it was published. All newer systems result in that message, since they did not exist at the time that the list was created. To disable this test, load the CivilizationIV.ini into a text processor like TextWrangler or Textedit. Find these lines:

; Don't show minimum specification warnings
HideMinSpecWarning = 0

Change the "0" to "1".

If this is not what you mean and you want to use the alias that you have created, you can put it anywhere that is convenient for you… Desktop, Documents, anywhere. When you click on it, the file for which it is the alias will be launched.

s.bernbaum · Mar 29, 2015

double post

Jrabbit · May 1, 2015

I just got a new MacBook Pro, Yosemite OS 10.10.3. Solid state Flash HD, incredibly fast boot time. Lovely. This replaces my previous MBP, a 2012 model purchased specifically for the optimal drive so I could play CIV.

For the new comp, I figured I could just switch from DVDs to a direct download via Steam or whatever. I see the complete Civ4 collection (vanilla, Warlords, BTS, Colonization for $30). Fair enough. But then I see all these nasty notices about Yosemite crashes, withdrawn company support, Python issues, etc.

So here's the question: If I buy this collection, will I be able to play them on my new, solid state MBP? What hoops do I need to jump through?

It's my business machine, so I'm hoping this is straightforward. Should I buy?

Thanks in advance...

Xyth · May 2, 2015

Jrabbit said:
I just got a new MacBook Pro, Yosemite OS 10.10.3. Solid state Flash HD, incredibly fast boot time. Lovely. This replaces my previous MBP, a 2012 model purchased specifically for the optimal drive so I could play CIV.

For the new comp, I figured I could just switch from DVDs to a direct download via Steam or whatever. I see the complete Civ4 collection (vanilla, Warlords, BTS, Colonization for $30). Fair enough. But then I see all these nasty notices about Yosemite crashes, withdrawn company support, Python issues, etc.

So here's the question: If I buy this collection, will I be able to play them on my new, solid state MBP? What hoops do I need to jump through?

It's my business machine, so I'm hoping this is straightforward. Should I buy?

Thanks in advance...

You'll need to follow the instructions in the first post to re-install the versions of Python that Civ4 uses but were removed in Yosemite. Should be all that's needed. Civ4 won't launch, but Warlords, BTS, and Colonization should.

EDIT: Is your MBP a 13" or 15". If it's a 13" it may be a model that lacks a dedicated graphic card, which means you may get some ugly distortion of trees in game.

Jrabbit · May 4, 2015

Hm, interesting. But it sounds like I should at least be able to play. I'll check out the posts.

New comp has a 15-inch screen.

How to get Civ4:BTS working on OS X Yosemite

Chieftain

Chieftain

Chieftain

History Rewritten

Chieftain

Chieftain

Chieftain

Chieftain

undead

Warlord

Warlord

History Rewritten

Warlord

Chieftain

Chieftain

Mostly lurking

Mostly lurking

Chieftain

History Rewritten

Chieftain

Similar threads