Civ IV Warlords on a Macbook Air

[fwaltman]

Just got my Macbook Air today (with the external drive so I can run Civ).

I was able to get Civ IV to play on my old Mac Mini (1.66 Mhz Core Duo, 2 GB memory) by turning off lots of stuff and running in a window. Would always get "below minimum config" message when starting, but would by and large run.

Load Civ and Warlords OK and I don't get warning messages about minimum configuration. But when I get to the first play screen and try to turn on the grid lines it crashes. Every time. Both in a window and full screen.

When I look at the problem details there is a "Divide by Zero" Exception in Thread 0 -- if that means anything to anybody.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[AlanH]

"Divide by Zero" Exception in Thread 0

It's clearly a software bug, but more of the problem details report would be needed to see whereabouts in the system the problem occurs - graphics, sound ... since it happens when you turn the grid on, it may be in the graphics code ... but not necessarily. You could try changing some Options->Graphics settings to see if you can avoid triggering it.

Other than that, send it to Aspyr, including the problem details. No doubt they will tell you it wasn't developed and tested for your hardware, but they need to know about it, and they don't visit us here.

 

[fwaltman]

Just a data point, Civ IV (as apposed to Warlords) crashes the same way.

Will send info of to Aspyr (but I'm not hopeful )

BTW, from reading the error log, Thread 0 is the Intel GMA X3100 driver

 

[AlanH]

Thread 0 is the Intel GMA X3100 driver

It may be worth doing the Send to Apple thing then, as well. Could be their problem.

 

[fwaltman]

It may be worth doing the Send to Apple thing then, as well. Could be their problem.

Good point. Sent to both. Don't some other Macs use the GMA X3100? (MacBook?, newer Minis? -- my old mini has the 950)

 

[AlanH]

I assume you are running 10.5.2 with the latest Leopard graphics drivers on your X3100. We may simply not have heard from anyone with that combination of hardware and software in a MacBook yet (or Mini? - not sure). That stuff's only been out for a few days, and you are very quick off the mark opening your manilla envelope

 

[fwaltman]

I assume you are running 10.5.2 with the latest Leopard graphics drivers on your X3100. We may simply not have heard from anyone with that combination of hardware and software in a MacBook yet (or Mini? - not sure). That stuff's only been out for a few days, and you are very quick off the mark opening your manilla envelope

Yep, loaded 10.5.2 and the graphics update yesterday after unboxing the Air.

I did try Civ4 on my Mini, also with 10.5.2. and graphics update and it works.

So, anybody else here run Civ4 with 10.5.2 and the graphics update with Intel GMA X3100?

 

[gsfgf]

I have a Vanilla Macbook, with the X3100, 10.5.2, and Warlords. It works flawlessly with no minimum config error (in fact, all graphics settings are set to high). I have never used the grid before, but I just started a game in warlords, turned on grids, and ended two turns with no problems.

So hopefully it's not the hardware.

btw, how do you like the Air?

 

[fwaltman]

Thanks, gsfgf. For grins, I'll set everything to high and see what happens.

I've had the Air for only two days, so this is a "first look" -- but I love it. It will be my traveling computer and I have a couple trips coming up starting next week so that will be the real test. Its my first mac notebook, so its taking a bit of getting used to.

It is light, yet solid. The keyboard is fine, the screen great. My only complaint so far is the single USB. When installing a bunch of stuff I needed both the optical drive and the ethernet (had problems getting my creaky old linksys WAP-11 working) and I had to constantly swap the two. The superdrive doesn't work thru a hub (at least not thru the non-powered one I have). I should have just used the "Remote Disk" feature but didn't think of that until too late.

I'll also have to lug the superdrive to play Civ as well.

 

[fwaltman]

BTW, Response from Aspyr....

I apologize, but at this time, we are not able to support this software running on the Macbook Air. This is due to the highly stripped-down nature of it's hardware, and it cannot be guaranteed to work in any way with software requiring the system resources that games typically do.

Have a good day,
Aspyr Technical Support

My Macbook Air has more "oomph" than my mini and more than many past Macbooks -- I guess I'm offended at the "highly stripped down" remark

 

[AlanH]

I guess I'm offended at the "highly stripped down" remark

I can understand that, but then, I also get offended by their "Have a good day" remarks after they've found a way to put you down. For a so-called customer facing team, they do seem to have a unique way of getting under your skin!

I did warn that they would probably wash their hands of the Mac Book Air, but at least you've registered the problem with them, and they *may* pass it back to Apple themselves. I can't see that the MBA's hardware - stripped down, streamlined, skinny-dipped or whatever - can justify a divide by zero crash, but it may well not be in Aspyr's software.

 

[fwaltman]

I guess I have to hope the problem is on Apple's side and it will manifest itself in other software and get fixed in a later update...

 

[imadork]

As I posted in another thread, I'm having the same problem on my MacBook with the X3100. I'm pretty sure it happened after upgrading to 10.5.2 . I'm also pretty sure it's a problem with Apple's driver, although I plan on letting Aspyr know about it.

The official specs for Warlords state that no Intel Integrated Graphics solutions are supported. Those specs are a little old, as they only call out the GMA950, but I guarantee they will say the same thing about the X3100.

 

[AlanH]

For another viewpoint on "highly stripped down", have a look at the Air build quality comments here

 

[aerohoff]

How does it run in windows on the MB air?

 

[cochakm]

I also bought a macbook air 2 weeks ago, I had some problem getting used to it but now it works great Civ 4 and everything. I actually found a solution for some of my mackbook air problme in a tech support site.

Here is the page for it - Macbook air problems

Good luck & enjoy

Cochak

 

[Martino1965]

I bought a MacBook in November 2008, and Civ IV just before Christmas. I had three months of good play, and this grid-line problem emerged mid-game just eight days ago.

I went so far as to take my MacBook to the Apple Store Genius Bar, hoping I'd simply fiddled around with the Mac's set up too much, but they offered no solution.

Im now googling for information ...

 

[XxtraLarGe]

I can understand that, but then, I also get offended by their "Have a good day" remarks after they've found a way to put you down.

In other words "Sorry, you're S.O.L. Have a nice day!"

 

[fwaltman]

f/y/i loading the new patch (2.13) doesn't fix the problem

I've learned to play without the grids, but sometimes I forget and my fingers do cmd-g from force of habit and down goes the game.

Oh, well.

Fred.

 

[fwaltman]

I realized I had never posted an update:

I have played a bunch of Civ IV Warlords games on my Macbook Air and even with the graphic settings set fairly hi, it plays fine -- just so long as I don't turn on grid lines by mistake.

Now if they would just have a version that plays from the hard drive so I don't have to lug the SuperDrive when I go on a trip.