Civilization 4 on Acer aspire one ?

[ulki13]

Is it possible to run civ4 on the acer aspire one. I installed directx9c, but it seems that civ4 does not work in 1024x600. What to do ?

Thanxs
Uli

 

[S.ilver]

The one is the 9" portable right? I seriously doubt that system can even hope to run Civ 4. The thing completely lacks a dedicated video card, and is running the "Atom" processor, which is built for power saving, not performance. It also has a chronic lack of RAM, which Civ 4 eats for lunch.

It MAY run under minimum settings (I managed to get a Pentium 3 Laptop to run under minimum settings, but that at least had a GeForce Go), but the resolution may be a problem. It might be possible to get the game to play in windowed mode, since your screen is not tall enough.

 

[ori]

the graphics card of the acer aspire one (intel gma 950 if I am correct) does not support hardware transform and lightning - which is a semi-hard requirement for civ. You *might* get lucky with software TnL which it is supposed to enable with some of the more recent drivers but it is not very likely

 

[ulki13]

Thanks for your replys,
Yes it works on the acer one if i connect an extern monitor with at least 1024x768. It is not really fast, but my settings for trying wher all details high and so on. But the real problem is that i want to run civ4 on the notebook monitor which has only 1024x600 pixels. Is there any possibility to set civ on that resolution. i tried changing the civilization4.ini but this didnt help.

thanxs

uli

 

[ori]

what did you change in the .ini?

 

[ulki13]

custom screen height, ex:600
instead of
custom screen height, ex:768

but this didnt help

 

[ori]

just checking: does it look like this:

; Custom Screen Height, minimum: 768 - Normal resolutions can be set in-game and will be used when set to 0
ScreenHeight = 600

; Custom Screen Width, minimum: 1024 - Normal resolutions can be set in-game and will be used when set to 0
ScreenWidth = 1024

if not - put it that way

 

[ulki13]

>; Custom Screen Height, ex: 768 - Normal resolutions can be set in-game >and will be used when both values are set to 0
>ScreenHeight = 600

>; Custom Screen Width, ex: 1024 - Normal resolutions can be set in-game >and will be used when both values are set to 0
>ScreenWidth = 1024

I think it is not possible to make lower Resolution than 1024x768.

The Error Message box reads:

>Initialize Renderer failed. Check Directx Installation, latest Graphics driver >and graphics settings parameters:

>-width = 1024
>- height =768

>....

>Error: Creation failed: Could not match desired fullscreen mode

Did anyone ever manage to run civ 4 in resolutions < 1024x768 ?

thanxs

 

[ulki13]

I Did It

I connected another monitor, and set civilization4 to run in window, not fullscreen. After that it starts in wondow mode and it can be maximized to 1024x600.
thanxs for your support

uli

 

[elricbk]

ulki13
Have you managed to run it unstretched? Because you can easily run it in windowed mode by specifying FullScreen = 0 in .ini file. But when you maximize it, you are stuck with two problems:
1) there is standard Windows bar on top of the window, so it looks ugly and eat precious pixels (you know, when you are at 1024x600, 22 pixels do matter)
2) image is squeezed, because natively it runs in windowed mode at 1024x768 and i have found no way to change it

So if there is any solution to solve this two issues i'd be very grateful to hear it. (BTW, i have MSI Wind copy)

 

[ulki13]

hello again
no, i have the same two "problems", but the main problem is taht i cant move the units with the mouse. i dont exactly understand why. when i run the window in not maximized mode then i can move units with the mouse, but then the downer part of the windows is missing
only way to move he units is by keyboard

anybody with a solution for this problem

ulki

 

[BCF0B]

I believe I have a decent solution for this.

Edit the .ini so that 1310x768 is your custom resolution, and windowed mode is on. This will launch the game in an over-sized window which can then be maximized to fit the screen with almost zero distortion. If you don't want to see the Windows bar on top then you can use shiftwindow to make the game appear fullscreen in windowed mode.

 

[cassembler]

Yeah, the only thing one really has to do is edit the .ini to force windowed mode before running Civ 4. After that, right click on the Civ4 Program bar and "Maximize."

The above recommendation of setting the default screen size to 1310x768 is brilliant.
After setting the graphics and textures to low, and minimal animations, I get a respectable FPS with FfH2 and/ or BTS.

Excellent...

 

[SrTapir]

It is working perfectly on a Samsung Q1U and Steam, thank you for the solution, I have been becoming crazy looking for it..

 

[lambrosgeo]

You don't need to enter weird resolutions in the ini file, if previously you have set a 1024x768 resolution by going to display properties > advanced > monitor > check "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display". Then you can set any resolution you want and you wil have an extended desktop beyond 1024x600. The tradeoff will be you won't be able to see all of it but you can scroll around when the pointer reaches the screen border. Unfortunately this works only with XP (I have an MSI Wind U100). With overclock to 25% and settings to minimum the game runs fine, but i slows down dramatically in huge maps when the settlements multiply.

 

[GarretSidzaka]

I believe I have a decent solution for this.

Edit the .ini so that 1310x768 is your custom resolution, and windowed mode is on. This will launch the game in an over-sized window which can then be maximized to fit the screen with almost zero distortion. If you don't want to see the Windows bar on top then you can use shiftwindow to make the game appear fullscreen in windowed mode.

this solution worked great and looks beautiful

 

[absolutFANatic]

How do i get into this "ini" file to edit it? I searched for civilization4.ini, but the computer can't find it

 

[cassembler]

Try My Documents > My Games > Civ 4... It's been a while, but that should be the one. Back it up first!

 

[absolutFANatic]

That was it. ty

 

[jts9828]

Thanks for your replys,
Yes it works on the acer one if i connect an extern monitor with at least 1024x768. It is not really fast, but my settings for trying wher all details high and so on. But the real problem is that i want to run civ4 on the notebook monitor which has only 1024x600 pixels. Is there any possibility to set civ on that resolution. i tried changing the civilization4.ini but this didnt help.

thanxs

uli

how do u run civilization4.iniconfused: