Couple of questions

[Karsten75]

Hi all, I'm a recovering Civ fanatic that's about to fall off the wagon again.

I used to play the first two versions of Civ till my fingers bled, then I got help for my addiction and I managed to stay away for a number of years. A few months ago I was walking past the shelves in Target and there was a copy of Civ IV, just sitting there... I bought it and a few other things, but still I didn't install it.

Then I was going to install it on my Vista laptop, but I heard that it might not run and also that my version of Civ IV installs some uninstallable DRM software. So I managed to hold off for a little while longer.

This afternoon I couldn't help myself and went to my XP desktop to install the game. This is where my questions start.

The first thing it wants to do is to install DirectX 9, but I ran DXDiag and I do have a current and up-to-date version of DirectX 9.0c on my XP machine. What's the deal here? Am I going to overwrite it with something older?

Then, while trying to investigate the above, I came across a game called Civ IV Ultimate that actually says it is "DRM free?" Is this really so?

How bad is the DRm software in the original Civ IV?

I might fork out some money and buy Civ IV Ultimate instead since I detest DRM software. I don't steal, but I also hate being treated like a thief.

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC

1) DirectX 9c has many, many, many versions each of them called DirectX 9c (Microsoft does not do version numbers) - hence some confusion - you likely need a newer version if you did not install some other games recently since Microsoft also does not do auto-update of its own programs well. You can get the newest version directly from them though: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en

2) Civ 4 does not use nasty DRM software - it does install a safedisc windows driver that is fairly well known but that is all - they use safedisc to verify that you have the original disk in the drive - which does not actually require irreversible installation of additional files. It does suck though since some cd/dvd drives don't work properly and setups with multiple drives often don't work at all.

3) Civ 4 Ultimate is a EU market only product - in the US it is called Civilization 4 Complete edition and that does away with the safedisk check. The newest patch for the Beyond the Sword expansion pack does the same for that expansion only. Complete includes Civ4 plus the 2 expansion packs plus Civ4 Colonization - it lacks the most recent patches (3.19 for Beyond the sword and 1.06 for Colonization).

 

[Karsten75]

Thanks for the informative reply! I am still not sure about the Directx thingie, my files are dated in 2008, which I think is more recent than the files on the Civ 4 CD that it is trying to install. I might just do it and then follow the link you provide and get the latest from there.

What would happen if I install DirectX 10? My Vista laptop has that.

 

[ori]

microsoft unfortunately removed some code from DirectX 10 that is necessary for DirectX 9c games - so you'd still likely need directx 9c (it does not conflict with directx 10 though).
the most recent civ4 patch (1.74) requires directX 9c from June 2008 or newer - and unfortunately does not provide that update itself.

 

[Karsten75]

microsoft unfortunately removed some code from DirectX 10 that is necessary for DirectX 9c games - so you'd still likely need directx 9c (it does not conflict with directx 10 though).
the most recent civ4 patch (1.74) requires directX 9c from June 2008 or newer - and unfortunately does not provide that update itself.

Well, that is the date on my DirectX files - June 2008. So it seems I need to install Civ IV, then reinstall DirectX.

Thanks.