Firaxis: FFS, support the game. Bad Memory Allocation error when SAVING games

[taketounwanted]

I'm seriously thinking of installing windows 2000 to play this game without the freaking MAF.

um... anyone got a copy of win2000 i could borrow?¿

it only works with visa because of the savegame routine they included(something from NEV)...without it win2000 goes also MAF on huge games with 30civs...he just bypasses the 640MB MAF that is discussed here in the forum(wondering why inventing the wheel twice actually)

but anyway, even if you pass that point, there is still a MAF, even on loading a savegame..for that you need win2000 + 4gigs of ram

Kaiser Franz reported on winXP Media Edition he plays with 4gigs and got MAF with huge maps..then the visa guys included the MAF fix, and it was gone..now he playes Epic games, 2500turns, 30civs, without maf...but after he installed Vista, even his 4Gigs errors then...so i guess windows Vista is a game killer anyway...

so, either use 4Gigs+winXP(any version i guess), or if you have less RAM, use win2000...and include the NCSaver Method from NEV from the ViSa SDK

btw, i just bought me a 80GB SATA II Seagate barracude for 40eur to install win2000..simple cheap solution without harming my actual windows enviroment/settings just 1 HDD special to play civ MAF-Free


ADD:
I figured you don't need 4gigs...just need to load a previous savegame when you hit a MAF! it releases alot of memory from windows and you can continue playing

Does firaxis support this game at all? 1 patch for Civ 4, 1 patch for the expansion, and this game breaking bug still isn't fixed?!!!!¿

Firaxis gave good support on older civ versions, so my best guess is, firaxis does support this game...but when you write the civ support, you are writing take2!!!!! you can't get into contact with firaxis..hence my name! I want take2 to stop giving support and go away from civ completely and give back the money they earned from civ to firaxis and firaxis can employ someone to fix this nasty bug...

 

[davidmarshburn]

i've been playing a non-modded game, huge map, 18 civs. i've played through 2010 and haven't run into a MAF yet. i'm going to try pumping up the number of units hugely to see if that has anythign to do with it. the save game files are already 1.5 MB and larger, and the largest save game i got with the MAF scenario was like 900 KB.

one thing that occurs to me: in these various mods and scenarios, the number of unit types is much larger than the number is vanilla civ4. i wonder if this fact is somehow what's breaking the game-saving?

 

[knigh+]

one thing that occurs to me: in these various mods and scenarios, the number of unit types is much larger than the number is vanilla civ4. i wonder if this fact is somehow what's breaking the game-saving?

Not necessarily. A map even larger than the official huge map, with no other modification to the rules or civs or units, consistently gets MAF.

 

[knigh+]

While the code i wrote worked just fine for saving.. I ran into some problems when writing code for loading the saves again...

Will see if I can get it fixed (not much point in avoiding MAF on save f you cant load the save again )

Any progress?

 

[taketounwanted]

i've been playing a non-modded game, huge map, 18 civs. i've played through 2010 and haven't run into a MAF yet. i'm going to try pumping up the number of units hugely to see if that has anythign to do with it. the save game files are already 1.5 MB and larger, and the largest save game i got with the MAF scenario was like 900 KB.

one thing that occurs to me: in these various mods and scenarios, the number of unit types is much larger than the number is vanilla civ4. i wonder if this fact is somehow what's breaking the game-saving?

No, it's all a memory MIS management..depending on your System, OS version, Physical RAM, Video Card, Graphic settings in game, background programs running and prolly around 10.000other factors you WILL run into this!!! sooner or later..
Your Huge MAP, 18civs, i can play it on my slower machine 2100turns without MAF also(depending on my ini settings and graphic settings) but if i keep playing even after 2100turns, i went one game on vanilla civ up to 2450 and got the MAF there as well(even with all graphics down to "low" on a geforce 7950 GS 512MB graphics card) it doesn't matter that you didnt test this extensively and therefore never got to the point of MAF..it's there..you just spreading rumors as if it didnt exist just because you never tested it thouroughly and letting take2 think it's just a mod problem..please if you don't test things yourself properly, don't post such things here!
People buying a car "mercedes" which can drive up to 240kmh, and over 160kmh it makes a strange noise...and then im telling around:"no, this mercedes type has no problem, i only drive 90kmh and i never hear any problems"
please, don't do that..problem is there..if it doesn't happen on your machine because you never tested it extensively, please don't post it then...it will only let take2 think they can continue lying to their customers and don't adress this issue...it's a MEMORY issue once again!!! MEMORY ISSUES are WELL KNOWN for happing sometimes, sometimes not, on some machines, on some machines not, on some system settings, on other system settings not...it's 100% a BUG! and i wish everyone telling me in private messages and emails they have it also on vanilla civ would just POST IT..instead everyone doesn't post it ebcause everyone already thinks:"firaxis won't fix it anyway" i hate it when people do that..i believe myself also that take2 will always dictate firaxis not to fix it..but people, just post what you know!!!

 

[Gyathaar]

Any progress?

Well... I have the required code.. but it has to go in the exe file to create a single savefile (the 2-file approach has already been coded by the visa mod people, so I see no reason to redo their work)

So to properly fix it, Firaxis will have to patch the game (I have supplied them with my code, so we will have to see if they have time to atleast get it into BtS before it is released)

 

[solops]

Snip -

Firaxis DOES know about this error. However, Firaxis says it occurs only in modded games,

This is not true. I get MAFs regularly in large, stock games in the late stages. The frequency of the crashes decreases after wars, hinting that a decrease in the number of units relieves the "pressure" on the saves.

My system:
2.8 Mhz Intel Pentium D 820
3 gigs RAM
256 meg Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX
Win XP

 

[dingo75]

if this "error" is only on modded games then why are people still modding?
I love the civ 4 mods especally amras and visas mods.
How do you turn the auto save off. I have looked in the options no luck there.
I just want a full game with amras or visas mods without the game crashing.
i have 1 gig ram and it runs fine.
I have the aussie verison.
i prefer having a large game (map huge)
someone said that visa had a work aroun but i couldnt find it.
so can someone tell me how to turn autos save off at least so I can enjoy a full game? Thank you
BTW if game studios didnt want people to "mod" the game then don't give people the tools
In my opinion mods make the game better.

 

[knigh+]

Well... I have the required code.. but it has to go in the exe file to create a single savefile (the 2-file approach has already been coded by the visa mod people, so I see no reason to redo their work)

So to properly fix it, Firaxis will have to patch the game (I have supplied them with my code, so we will have to see if they have time to atleast get it into BtS before it is released)

Thank you very much. See the last line of my signature.

 

[dingo75]

well could you pass the patch so i could have a full large game of civ.

Visa has done a great job. BTS sounds like visa and amras mod mixed

 

[VaultDweller]

... the 2-file approach has already been coded by the visa mod people, so I see no reason to redo their work

But they aren't releasing their MAF fix standalone, which I think is a good reason to re-do their work.

 

[warp_kez]

I am so glad I am not the only one experiencing this.

Under both Civ4 and Warloads I have experienced the Bad Mem Allocation error.

Under Civ4, on Earth_18. Whilst the world is rather young, things appear to be fine, but just before the crash, two thirds of the world declared war on each other, then from I could tell and auto-save was performed hello error message.

I have been able to repeat this two more times, however it seems to occur when there are a significant number of models on the map.

Warlords was playing Rhyes'(?) 24Civ Earth map.

 

[Lone Wolf]

so can someone tell me how to turn autos save off at least so I can enjoy a full game? Thank you

In the Civ4Config.ini file (the shortcut can be found in your Warlords folder), look for this self-explanatory thing:

; Specify the number of turns between autoSaves. 0 means no autosave.
AutoSaveInterval = 0

 

[dingo75]

i have tried in turning autosave off and it still auto saves
whenever i play a game it automatically goes to mastery win and i have turned it off

all i want to do is have a good game of warlords without it crashing.
I have turned all the graphics to low and no videos and it still crashes what should i do?

 

[warp_kez]

Is this a Vista thing, or is it across the board?

 

[taketounwanted]

1) turning off autosave you do that in the civ4 ini file (set autosave intervall to 0)
2) visa isnt releasing the stand alone code because they suppley a pack, not single mods..the credits for it go to nev, if you wish to have a single fix, ask nev
3) this only helps on the savegame MAF, there is later in the game another point where you hit the maf (a different one) related to memory usage
4) it's not a Vista thing, just because vista eats a hell of a lot more memory then windows XP or windows 2000 you'll hit the maf pretty soon, alot sooner then with winXP!!! and with ALOT I mean ALOT sooner!!!

what you all should do, especially those people getting the MAF on both civ4 and warlords, mail those people at firaxis!! don't mail take2, they are widthholding firaxis information about the MAF, mail to firaxis directly! take2 support is by far the worst support i ever seen in my life, and i dealt alot with support, but i never had a support telling me:"it's your problem, we don't care about your problems, read the FAQ" and such BS..so contact firaxis directly if you know how to contact them..that's the only way to get them know about this issue

 

[davidmarshburn]

Is this a Vista thing, or is it across the board?

not a vista thing at all. it happens to me all the time w/ xp.

what you all should do, especially those people getting the MAF on both civ4 and warlords, mail those people at firaxis!! don't mail take2, they are widthholding firaxis information about the MAF, mail to firaxis directly! take2 support is by far the worst support i ever seen in my life, and i dealt alot with support, but i never had a support telling me:"it's your problem, we don't care about your problems, read the FAQ" and such BS..so contact firaxis directly if you know how to contact them..that's the only way to get them know about this issue

i'd be glad to contact them, especially to provide them save-game examples (e.g., it crashes _right_ after this point when i try to save). can you tell us how to contact them?

by the way, i am SO pissed about this bug right about now. it has ruined the end-game of every single mod i've played. bleargh!

-david

 

[MusX]

try the link to maf fix from my signature

 

[davidmarshburn]

well, on the news that Fall from Heaven is to be included in the new expansion, i'm inclined to think that that there MUST be a patch fixing this (or that, at least, the expansion .exe will not have this problem). the MAF error happened frequently in FfH; i can't imagine they'd include the mod in which the error is so prevalent without fixing the cause of the problem in the game.

edit: MAF error: anger rising... rising... Rising.... RISING....

 

[davidmarshburn]

try the link to maf fix from my signature

it still blew up with me after taking the steps you describe. i have 2 GB of physical memory, on win xp.