BTS under Vista

[lroumen]

Well, I've been keeping silent for a couple of years, but this is well worth breaking the silence over. This is a really simple bug to fix. By default, the installer is putting both Civ4BeyondSword.exe and the pitboss in the C:\Windows directory also. However, the executables in this directory don't have the annoying UAC popup. The problem is that none of the other files are there. So, to fix it, copy these files over the ones in your default install.

Also, this second part might not be necessary, but is nice to do anyways. Open up regedit and find all the Beyond The Sword entries. Replace the C:\Windows\Civ4BeyondSword.exe entries to refer back to its proper location. This'll be in two locations. After that, there's no more issues with this at all. Enjoy!

Well, I don't know what kind of default installation you performed, but there are no additional executables anywhere on my Vista computer (and I did a thorough search at least a dozen times now in the hopes of still finding any). I'm thinking you just got lucky.



The 303 patch did nothing for the UAC, it was just supposed to fix some graphics issues but seeing as I didn't have those, the 303 didn't reveal anything new for me after installing. It certainly didn't fixx the UAC popup.


As mentioned, "Games for Windows" means that it the game shortcut will be placed in the "Games link" in the startup menu rather than the desktop. You're supposed to have parental control and the game is supposed to run without administrator rights, but at the moment it doesn't. What it also does is remove the normal folders under the start-menu -> Firaxis Games, so there is no "Beyond the Sword" shortcut content placed there. Really nonfunctional if vanilla and warlords do have their normal shortcut folders placed there.



Anyway, the "Games link" in the startup menu is not that useful since it opens a new window where you can look up the shortcut to your game. The functionality of this is really poor because why would you want to open a new window and leave it open in the background when you're playing the game?

I was thinking that you could also start up a game by scrolling through the now automated start-menu to Firaxis Games -> Beyond the Sword, but that bit is not placed there since BTS "Games for Windows"... hmmm...
Finally I just created a shortcut and placed it on my desktop and I'm playing from there.

Civ4 shouldn't have bothered with "Games for Windows" for Beyond the Sword since Vanilla and Warlords weren't made for it either. It makes little sense to have your expansion work that way, especially since now everything handy is in a different place (no desktop shortcut that you have to make yourself, no start-menu shortcut folder which might have been helpful for some people).


I guess we all have to wait for the next patch to see whether this gets fixed.

 

[Jaffa_lord]

I actually refuse to install any minor patches. I'm gonna wait until 3.1 or what ever. 3.03 is WAAAAY to insignificant.

 

[Galatian]

Interesting enough that I have several graphic problems that appeared after I installed the patch...
I also experience problems with the crackling sounds. First I thought it had something to do with the Windows driver for my soundcard, so I updated to the driver from the real manufactor, which helped to certain point. But i heard the crackling sound again once and it appeared in a time when the game was running extremely slow. So my guess is that this has something to do with onboard soundcards, since they are using the CPU to work (which also explains why Firaxis is advertising for the soundblaster sound cards)

 

[pirke]

So if you have a dual boot XP (32 bit) and Vista (64 bit ultimate), I think it's safe to say that XP is the first choice?

 

[Galatian]

So if you have a dual boot XP (32 bit) and Vista (64 bit ultimate), I think it's safe to say that XP is the first choice?

Well the game works fine (though fine is a very vague concept considering all the bugs ) under Vista. Only the UAC always pops ups, which is especially enoying if you are just a standart user, because then you always have to enter your admin password (which usually is a very long one, where you easily forget a symbol ) in order to start the game.
If my BF wouldn't have thrown the plastic bag away of my Windows XP copy (which had the CD-Key sticker on it ) it could also run a dual OS system. God, I hate it when clean MY chaos!

Maybe you all have noticed it as well, I just want to say it for the record: The UAC also turns on if you want to start the game over the Media Center.

 

[ori]

So if you have a dual boot XP (32 bit) and Vista (64 bit ultimate), I think it's safe to say that XP is the first choice?

At least until the new patch comes out (which should be in a couple of weeks) since their rating as "Games for Windows" is dependent on compatibility with Vista - so they will make sure it works, they just messed it up in there first attempt to patch it (3.03)

 

[sagji]

For me 3.03 solved the UAC problem, for both admin and non admin users, including launching it from the MediaCenter

 

[pirke]

I installed it under Vista, the auto-update didn't find any patches, but after downloading the 3.03 manually it solved the UAC problem indeed.

The only problem I see in Vista is the splash screen while starting the game up. The progress bar isn't the nice looking version, but the basic windows bar with a grey background...

 

[Galatian]

Can you both sagji and pirke and all the other persons that have their UAC problem resolved with the 3.03 patch tell us which Vista Version they are using (e.g. mine is Vista Ultimate x64)?

The only explanation I can see here, must be related to the OS, because I have installed the 3.03 patch as well and still have the problem with the UAC.

BTW: Yes the status bar is just plain disgusting

 

[pirke]

Galatian, your statusbar is the same as with me, however, I'm also using Vista Ultimate x64, so I don't know what might be causing the UAC problem for you...

 

[WrathRaptor]

I have this same issue with my pc and Vista, my configuration is practically the same just with more RAM and an Nvidia graphics card. I also get corrupted music playing during the intro movie and main menu screens, but music is fine during gameplay. Also when the main menu pops up, I get an error message concerning an improperly configured voice capture device, but I have no such device configured on my pc as yet.

 

[Galatian]

WrathRaptor I can help you with that. I had the same occur to me. Simply install new drivers for your Soundcard. The reason is, that Microsoft introduced this new Sound interface or whatever (just search for Vista in wikipedia and you can figure a lot out) and this is causing the problem.

As for the status bar: It did not occur yesterday as I turned down my resolution to check it out. I usually have my screen resolution on 1920x1200 (yeah, yeah I know you can barely see stuff with this resolution on an 17" screen ) and now I have turned it down to 1280x800, the same resolution to game is using. See this picture:

[IMG=this]http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/123783/BTS_-_Loading_Screen_fixed.jpg[/IMG]

And the crackling sound only occures for me, whenever the game is very laggy anyway, which led me to the conclusion that it must have something to do with the onboard soundcard, since they use the CPU for the sound recreation and so it would only make sense that there is this cracking sound, whenever the game is also laggy (though I do not believe my CPU can't handle the game, since I am using a Core 2 Duo. Only other explanation would be to less RAM, since someone in this forum said, that there are a lot off calculations going on in between turns and that's where you need RAM...).
Right now I ordered a new soundcard from Creative for my Notebook. They sell their X-Fi Soundblaster for the Expresscard slot as well. Unfortunately I did not read many positive reviews on it yet, but I will give it a try.

 

[sagji]

I am using Vista (Home premium 64bit)
I got BTS from Direct2Drive, and Civ is a standard (UK) DVD version.
On startup I get the ugly progress bar.

My Civ3Bts .exe file properties says 3.0.3.1 (77541)
and the file size is 17,909,048 bytes

Screen resolution 2560 * 1600
Game resolution 2560 * 1600
Display 30" LCD (Dell)
Graphics card ASUS EN8500GT (nVidia 8500GT)

 

[Galatian]

On what resolution do you run BTS? I suppose on less. Could you just try something out for me? Adjust your desktop resolution to the same resolution as BTS and then tell me if you still get the messed up status bar.

 

[pirke]

I'm running 1920x1200, same as my desktop resolution. On a 24" widescreen tft where the native resulotion is 1920x1200, so that's nice I don't have that Geforce 8800GTX for nothing, I'll keep it working

And more RAM isn't the solution, I have 2 GB and that *should* be enough. The reason it takes longer in the endgame is because there are not only more calculations to be done, but they get increasingly more difficult as the number of possible actions for each AI unit to take increases exponential. The bad news is that it doesn't matter if you have a 3ghz dual core or a 6 ghz dual core, it's the complexity of the calculations that's the problem. The only way to solve that is to use different algorithms while they are designing and building the game, but that's not an option I guess, since everybody wants a good AI

 

[sagji]

I also have 2 GB of RAM, and while it "should" be enough I am not sure it is - Visat reports 1.5 GB of memory in use before starting BTS.

 

[pirke]

There is a difference between memory "in use" and memory "allocated for useful stuff that's nice to have preloaded but is not necessary and can be deallocated at once"

 

[lroumen]

Hmm.. I've tried everything by now (registry editing, complete reinstallations, installations into standard folders, installation into non-standard folders) but I still have the UAC issue with my BTS3.03 installation and it's really annoying me to no end.

The loading statusbar also has the ugly view rather than the proper one, but I simply refuse to run my desktop and BTS in anything other than they are currently set to. I know that when I synchronise them to the same resolution that problem does indeed go away.

 

[honus]

I just installed BtS on my new vista machine and when I start it I get an error "Please insert the correct DVD-ROM, select OK and restart application"

Problem is, I installed from CD-ROM cos that's how the game came! Anyone have any ideas?

Edit:

I've solved the problem in a less-than-perfect way. After further searching the forum I ran across this thread which offered the suggestion of loading the game from the install CD. After placing a shortcut on my desktop I can pull up the autorun from the CD which gives me the option to play BtS!

It's really not idea, but will work for the time being.

 

[Galatian]

Update:

The new patch obviously solves the problem with the UAC. I haven't had any issues with the new patch so far, at least concerning Vista.
The only thing it hasn't resolved is the missing shortcut, but´I now tend to believe that this is rather a "feature then a bug". It can be easily worked around by going into the games menu and make a shortcut of BTS.