Current Map Limits?

[historix69]

I played for many years Civ4 BTS Giant Earth Map with around 35 civs on my old PC (WinXP, 2 GB). I always had problems that Civ4 GEM games became instable around renaissance era so that it often was impossible to continue the game.

When Civ5 was released, I moved to a new PC (Win7, 8GB) now usually playing Civ5 BNW Giant Earth Map.

It is now 4-5 years since I last played Civ4 BtS. The interesting question is : How much does Civ4 BtS profit from a new system and ressources (Win7, 8GB)? What are the limits for the biggest playable maps? Is it now possible to make a 180 x 360 tiles World Map and complete a game on the map?

Moderator Action: As questions belong in the main forum, moved your thread there.

 

[God-Emperor]

In theory a map that big can work as there is supposedly a limit of 65,536 plots (or possibly 1 less) on a map, which is 256 * 256. A 360 x 180 map would have 64,800 plots which is under that limit.

The only way to be sure is to give it a try...

But in practice such large maps never actually seem to work. At best they have graphical glitches, at worst the game just crashes. You might be able to manage 300 x 150. Maybe. If you are not using it with a mod that adds much memory using content to the game, and you are very lucky. But perhaps not.

The "Giant Earth Map", as you recall, is known to have difficulties on 32 bit Windows even with 4GB of memory and it is "only" 210 x 90. On 64 bit Windows 7 this should be playable (but probably rather slowly) if you have over 4 GB of memory, particularly if not using it with a mod that adds much content.

The "Gigantic Accurate Earth Map" is even bigger with its 232 x 112 size and may have problems even when run on 64 bit Windows. I don't know if much of anybody uses it, and if they do I don't know if they live with periodic crashes or anything like that. You could ask how well it plays over in its topic in the Maps & Scenarios sub-forum.

 

[ThorHammerz]

Just remember that Python is used for its ease of implementation of functions, NOT for its efficiency in its memory usage. Things supported (even partially) with Python are prone to break very easily if you don't have tons of memory to feed it when it trips or coughs.