Very jerky gameplay

[Vitro]

Hi.
I use a Geforce 5600 FX Go and had similar problems as described above, but did'nt try anything from the forums yet. Since i often had problems with newer Games, using Shader 2.0+ I searched for a tool to force the game, running with another (hopefully faster) shaderversion. I found a tool called "nVHardPage".

Selecting the "compatibility" shader within nVhardPage from "DirectX->Shader Settings" and starting the Game, gave me an Error by Civ, that my System wouldnt meet the requirements and the game would be reconfigured. Besides a much improved performance, I only experienced graphic glitches. I dont know what the game changed exactly, but I got rid of the glitches only by deleting the folder under MyGames\Civilization IV (I suppose the .ini file would have been enough to delete, but well I was frustrated . The game just wouldn't recognize if I re-enabled the Shader 1.4+ by itself, or I did miss something . Maybe an analysis of the changes made by the game during reconfiguration process could help pinpointing an easier solution.

What worked:
I gave it another try and selected Shader 1.4 under "DirectX->Shader Settings" (don't forget to apply your new settings!), crossed my fingers and started the game again. Even on the huge Earth map, it didnt lag anymore as before and was playable, without any glitches, even with all details set to high.
(If this doesnt help on the first run, try deleting the "CivilizationIV.ini", or make a copy of the folder "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" within "My Documents\...\My Games\", delete the original - savegames may be moved afterwards - and start the game again )

I didnt test the worldbuilder, or wonder movies, its getting late over here.

A copy of the mentioned tool may be found here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=362

I hope this helps at least some of you. Give it a try and post your experiences.

Have Fun.

P.S.: For reference...my System Specs: Pentium IV 3,06 Ghz with 512 MB Ram, Geforce 5600 Go (128MB), Driver Version 77.77 (Laptop2Go)

 

[xNitex]

If you try running the Tutorial, i believe you will find framerates fairly good until you found your first city. Then something goes terribly wrong. I have a hunch it has something to do with the illustration of the civilization boarders or possibly the city animations (even when frozen).


Hopefully someone from Firaxis will read this thread and at least acknowledge that they are aware of the problem and trying to fix it...

someone pointed out a possible memory leak in the game codes
tutorial map has the smallest of the smallest map of all known maps in civ4 , should be working fine for anyone who [ is ] able to play civ4

but when u try other maps things will start to go wrong , esp true for huge maps
alt-tab to find it out yrself , civ4 is eating a size of like 500mb of system memory which is very very wrong

 

[jkmartin]

Been having problems with lag...1/2 second delay between pressing an arrow key and having a unit respond, unit takes too long to respond, camera very jerky.

I have an Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 with 128mb. For some reason I am not able to update to the 81.85 drivers (error saying I don't have the hardware) but I tried the previous drivers (78.01) and that sped the game up by at least 50%. The game is at least playable though now I have to deal with the horrid UI and what overall seems to be a bad AoE or RoN clone.

 

[Tyrole]

I thought I should let all of you know, my problems are largely solved. It isn't perfect (my fps is still very low ~10), but the keyboard and mouse lag is pretty much gone. Even on high graphics settings, it's working much better than it did.

Someone posted this in another thread:

Enable Trilinear Filtering for the Minimap
MinimapTrilinearFilter = 0

; Allow Screenshots. May affect performance on some video cards
AllowScreenShots = 0

Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask
FullScreen = ask (preferance)

; Set to 1 for dynamic animation paging
DynamicAnimPaging = 1

Set to 1 for no in-game movies
NoMovies = 0 (after one run through i dont need to see them)

pecify the number of turns between autoSaves. 0 means no autosave.
AutoSaveInterval = 0 (cuts the CTD down alot)

; Sync input to smooth interface (may run slower)
SyncInput = 1



It worked for me. Not sure how I missed it, but I think the Dynamic paging is the key. I was able to keep wonder movies on and run at full screen without lag. However, if you are one of the people who have been having these troubles from the start (as I was....starting Wednesday morning), make sure you give the above settings a try. I doubt it will fix everyone, and we obviously still need a patch, but I hope it helps some of you out.

Good luck and happy gaming.

 

[Nothingman]

Just remember to save your games often if you disable auto save. Along with the severe lag, one of the many nice features of Civ 4 is random crashes to the desktop.

 

[snepp]

What worked:
I gave it another try and selected Shader 1.4 under "DirectX->Shader Settings" (don't forget to apply your new settings!), crossed my fingers and started the game again. Even on the huge Earth map, it didnt lag anymore as before and was playable, without any glitches, even with all details set to high.
(If this doesnt help on the first run, try deleting the "CivilizationIV.ini", or make a copy of the folder "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" within "My Documents\...\My Games\", delete the original - savegames may be moved afterwards - and start the game again )

P.S.: For reference...my System Specs: Pentium IV 3,06 Ghz with 512 MB Ram, Geforce 5600 Go (128MB), Driver Version 77.77 (Laptop2Go)

Initial impression....

You may have just saved the game for me, seriously. I loaded up my end-game small map which had gotten so painfully slow I had to quit playing it, and I was able to zip around the map, open cities, move units, even *gasp* go through diplomancy without things dragging. Just to be sure I wasn't imagining things I powered through 40-some turns as fast as I could, building as many units as I could, diplomacy every turn, opening menus, etc. At the end of those turns things were going as well when I loaded the save.

Reference: 2.4 Ghz w/512 RAM, Geforce4 Ti4600 (128), Driver 71.84

I seriously hope more people run across this, it appears to be a game saver for me. Off to start a new game now, time for a large map test!

 

[xNitex]

Initial impression....

You may have just saved the game for me, seriously. I loaded up my end-game small map which had gotten so painfully slow I had to quit playing it, and I was able to zip around the map, open cities, move units, even *gasp* go through diplomancy without things dragging. Just to be sure I wasn't imagining things I powered through 40-some turns as fast as I could, building as many units as I could, diplomacy every turn, opening menus, etc. At the end of those turns things were going as well when I loaded the save.

Reference: 2.4 Ghz w/512 RAM, Geforce4 Ti4600 (128), Driver 71.84

I seriously hope more people run across this, it appears to be a game saver for me. Off to start a new game now, time for a large map test!

yeah
it sure works
forcing the game to run under pixel shader 1.3 was smooth as hell
tried turning on the zoom in combat no lag , even the ingame movies played nicely

tested it out on small map .. works great 100% lag free

 

[Mosaic]

Initial impression....

You may have just saved the game for me, seriously. I loaded up my end-game small map which had gotten so painfully slow I had to quit playing it, and I was able to zip around the map, open cities, move units, even *gasp* go through diplomancy without things dragging. Just to be sure I wasn't imagining things I powered through 40-some turns as fast as I could, building as many units as I could, diplomacy every turn, opening menus, etc. At the end of those turns things were going as well when I loaded the save.

Reference: 2.4 Ghz w/512 RAM, Geforce4 Ti4600 (128), Driver 71.84

I seriously hope more people run across this, it appears to be a game saver for me. Off to start a new game now, time for a large map test!

Okay, it sounds like this method has got some good results. But what about us ATI people? Is there any way to change this for us? Anyone with a Radeon card (mine is 9600 Pro) has any luck getting Civ4 to run at all smooth? Mine is still laggy as hell and is nigh impoissble to play.

 

[Zertez]

I updated my MB drivers with the newer nforce drivers and it made significant difference in the choppiness and lag of the game. The sound still cuts out on wonder movies but I can live with that for now. Memory leak still adds up after 90minutes of playing but hopefully a patch will fix that.

 

[Giano]

What worked:
I gave it another try and selected Shader 1.4 under "DirectX->Shader Settings" (don't forget to apply your new settings!), crossed my fingers and started the game again. Even on the huge Earth map, it didnt lag anymore as before and was playable, without any glitches, even with all details set to high.
(If this doesnt help on the first run, try deleting the "CivilizationIV.ini", or make a copy of the folder "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" within "My Documents\...\My Games\", delete the original - savegames may be moved afterwards - and start the game again )

I didnt test the worldbuilder, or wonder movies, its getting late over here.

A copy of the mentioned tool may be found here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=362

Vitro suggestion worked for me too.

I have 2 systems where can perform comparisons:

1) P4 2.06Ghz - 768 MB Ram - NVIDIA GeForce MX460 (64mb)

Here the game started by default at LOW graphical details, but always worked smooth.

2) P4 3.06Ghz - 2 GB Ram - Embedded GeForce FX Go5200 (64mb)

Here the game started by default at HIGH graphical details and was as slow as hell.
Then I forced Shader 1.4 and obtain a smother environment.


First advice: it's evident Shader 1.4 doesn't provide same smoothness as one obtained on system 1 (I tested both machines at LOW and HIGH settings).

Second advice: it's evident too that setting graphical details to LOW or HIGH don't impact my systems performances. The only things doing so is the Shader setting.


HTH

 

[Giano]

What worked:
I gave it another try and selected Shader 1.4 under "DirectX->Shader Settings" (don't forget to apply your new settings!), crossed my fingers and started the game again. Even on the huge Earth map, it didnt lag anymore as before and was playable, without any glitches, even with all details set to high.
(If this doesnt help on the first run, try deleting the "CivilizationIV.ini", or make a copy of the folder "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" within "My Documents\...\My Games\", delete the original - savegames may be moved afterwards - and start the game again )

I didnt test the worldbuilder, or wonder movies, its getting late over here.

A copy of the mentioned tool may be found here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=362

Vitro suggestion worked for me too.

I have 2 systems where can perform comparisons:

1) P4 2.06Ghz - 768 MB Ram - NVIDIA GeForce MX460 (64mb)

Here the game started by default at LOW graphical details, but always worked smooth.

2) P4 3.06Ghz - 2 GB Ram - Embedded GeForce FX Go5200 (64mb)

Here the game started by default at HIGH graphical details and was as slow as hell.
Then I forced Shader 1.4 and obtain a smother environment.


First advice: it's evident Shader 1.4 doesn't provide same smoothness as one obtained on system 1 (I tested both machines at LOW and HIGH settings).

Second advice: it's evident too that setting graphical details to LOW or HIGH don't impact my systems performances. The only things doing so is the Shader setting.


HTH

 

[Hellbound]

Hi.
I use a Geforce 5600 FX Go and had similar problems as described above, but did'nt try anything from the forums yet. Since i often had problems with newer Games, using Shader 2.0+ I searched for a tool to force the game, running with another (hopefully faster) shaderversion. I found a tool called "nVHardPage".

Selecting the "compatibility" shader within nVhardPage from "DirectX->Shader Settings" and starting the Game, gave me an Error by Civ, that my System wouldnt meet the requirements and the game would be reconfigured. Besides a much improved performance, I only experienced graphic glitches. I dont know what the game changed exactly, but I got rid of the glitches only by deleting the folder under MyGames\Civilization IV (I suppose the .ini file would have been enough to delete, but well I was frustrated . The game just wouldn't recognize if I re-enabled the Shader 1.4+ by itself, or I did miss something . Maybe an analysis of the changes made by the game during reconfiguration process could help pinpointing an easier solution.

What worked:
I gave it another try and selected Shader 1.4 under "DirectX->Shader Settings" (don't forget to apply your new settings!), crossed my fingers and started the game again. Even on the huge Earth map, it didnt lag anymore as before and was playable, without any glitches, even with all details set to high.
(If this doesnt help on the first run, try deleting the "CivilizationIV.ini", or make a copy of the folder "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" within "My Documents\...\My Games\", delete the original - savegames may be moved afterwards - and start the game again )

I didnt test the worldbuilder, or wonder movies, its getting late over here.

A copy of the mentioned tool may be found here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=362

I hope this helps at least some of you. Give it a try and post your experiences.

Have Fun.

P.S.: For reference...my System Specs: Pentium IV 3,06 Ghz with 512 MB Ram, Geforce 5600 Go (128MB), Driver Version 77.77 (Laptop2Go)

Yes i got smooth game also BUT..... now i see white terrain and black water! What am i doing wrong? I need help plz ! Thanks

Oh and i have Nvidia Fx 5700 256mb

 

[Zevus]

Oddly enough I have similar issues (game is good at first, then gets choppy, and large maps are always bad) and I have a FX 5900XT. My wife also has problems, even worse than mine, and she has a FX 5600. Now my one buddy has a GeForce 6600 I believe and it runs fine. My other friend has one of the older GeForce4 Ti cards and he too runs it fine.

I really believe something is up with the GeForce 5*** cards.

Uh, there have been tons of posts on this thread from ppl other than GeForce 5*** cards that are having problems as well, so I don't see why you'd think it would be specific.

I have a GEForce 6800GT, and I have the same problems that many others are having. The sound cuts in and out during the wonder movies (it doesn't for other movies, such as when founding religions), and the game slows down to a crawl after an hour or so of play (memory leak).

I've updated my motherboard (D865PERL) to the latest BIOS (and also updated chipset drivers), updated video card drivers to 81.85, updated sound card to the latest Audigy 2 drivers and it didn't help.

 

[snepp]

Okay, it sounds like this method has got some good results. But what about us ATI people? Is there any way to change this for us? Anyone with a Radeon card (mine is 9600 Pro) has any luck getting Civ4 to run at all smooth? Mine is still laggy as hell and is nigh impoissble to play.

I'm sure there's a utility available somewhere that will allow you to make this modification.

 

[Eleri]

Vitro, you are my new best freind. Yeah, some of the colours may not be as crisp, but BFD! I can play the game without a turn taking 5 minutes!

 

[prscormier]

anyone know exactly what DynamicAnimPaging does?

 

[OGGleep]

I have a FX-55 2 6800 GT's in SLI and 2 GB of Ram. I have the same problem. On smaller maps with less AI opponents, I was running it at 1600x1200 everything High and it worked perfectly. On Larger maps with more AI opponents, the game lagged like a mofo starting on turn 2 or 3. Setting it down to 1024x768 helped, until turn 15-20 then I was right back where I started.

Updating my graphics drivers to 81.x helped a little. I tried the shader thing, but I just had my first hardlock, so I don't think that will work. I also tried the ini tweaks, no help there.

I should be able to run this thing cranked all the way up. Hopefully someone will come up with a solution soon.

EDIT: Can you post what Nforce drivers you used and where you got them?

 

[Tyrole]

anyone know exactly what DynamicAnimPaging does?

I believe it is some sort of method to reduce the memory and processing requirements for recurring animations within the game. (e.g. it will set aside the animation for a warrior to move, and be able to avoid having to reload/reprocess the entire thing each time you move a warrior.)

 

[vertigofm]

Hi.
I use a Geforce 5600 FX Go and had similar problems as described above, but did'nt try anything from the forums yet. Since i often had problems with newer Games, using Shader 2.0+ I searched for a tool to force the game, running with another (hopefully faster) shaderversion. I found a tool called "nVHardPage".

Selecting the "compatibility" shader within nVhardPage from "DirectX->Shader Settings" and starting the Game, gave me an Error by Civ, that my System wouldnt meet the requirements and the game would be reconfigured. Besides a much improved performance, I only experienced graphic glitches. I dont know what the game changed exactly, but I got rid of the glitches only by deleting the folder under MyGames\Civilization IV (I suppose the .ini file would have been enough to delete, but well I was frustrated . The game just wouldn't recognize if I re-enabled the Shader 1.4+ by itself, or I did miss something . Maybe an analysis of the changes made by the game during reconfiguration process could help pinpointing an easier solution.

What worked:
I gave it another try and selected Shader 1.4 under "DirectX->Shader Settings" (don't forget to apply your new settings!), crossed my fingers and started the game again. Even on the huge Earth map, it didnt lag anymore as before and was playable, without any glitches, even with all details set to high.
(If this doesnt help on the first run, try deleting the "CivilizationIV.ini", or make a copy of the folder "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" within "My Documents\...\My Games\", delete the original - savegames may be moved afterwards - and start the game again )

I didnt test the worldbuilder, or wonder movies, its getting late over here.

A copy of the mentioned tool may be found here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=362

I hope this helps at least some of you. Give it a try and post your experiences.

Have Fun.

P.S.: For reference...my System Specs: Pentium IV 3,06 Ghz with 512 MB Ram, Geforce 5600 Go (128MB), Driver Version 77.77 (Laptop2Go)

I'm having the same problems but using a 9800 pro

 

[smellymummy]

i got myself a geforce 6200 256mb, and managed to load up some of the most laggy games fine. diplo wasnt even jerky. i was also able to adjust the resolution so the game plays on both monitors: something my 5200 couldn't do at all.

hopefully i'll be able to play some more and see if this card will fall to the lag eventually. so far the good news could just be because i have 2x the video memory now.