Firaxis: Patch coming next week

[T100]

The thing is, there are about 5000000 reasons why a game will not run, if you haven't defragged lately, windows will have serious problems with speed, if you installed you drivers incorrectly or you have a bios confliction issue, all of which are impossible to account for, As for the ATI issues, ever sense they came out with the X800 games have had errors with compatiblity with older cards. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have caught it but it is mainly an ATI issue because they have a system which requires a full delete and a full reinstall of drivers everytime they update (the different verisons don't work well together.) I had no problems with my X800 in terms of civ4 but just about every game that has come out in the past year, Q4, COD2, FEAR, I have all had driver issues, I don't blame the developers, I'm just lazy and don't wipe out *drivercleaner* everytime I update.

 

[Moose_Jedi]

Don't foget civ4 was moved up and rushed to completion. There's no doubt the games' got issues. I expect there will be a bunch of patches come out to fix the problems generated from a last minute timeline rush.

2K took a hit with their GrandTheft Auto series when they were forced to change their ratings, so they had to move back the GTA game coming up and Moved up The Civ IV to fill the void. Firaxis was expecting several more months of development then what they got. I have faith in Firaxis they will get things together soon.

 

[j45kilo10]

I bet you're going to be one pissed off customer if they've gone ahead and fixed the T&L stuff in this patch. You probably won't ever let that go. People will be posting in happiness here and you'll hunt down every merry thread and say "Well, they shouldn't have had to patch anything! It's your fault!". That would actually be entertaining I suppose. You're probably going to be furious if they've fixed their memory leaks and the game actually runs respectably well on anybody's machine with 256 Mb of RAM.

Anyway, my personal hopes for the patch:

1. Memory leaks
2. Graphics Card fixes
3. The Diplomacy bug
4. And most the minor grahpics bugs seemingly related to specific configurations.

The only problem I have is the Memory leak, if that truely is the problem.

 

[Willem]

But part of my confusion might have come from early posts along the lines of "Everything was black or super-bright? Your card doesn't support T&L, the patch won't ever fix that, go buy a new card." - directed at people whose cards DID support T&L, but lacked shaders.

Of course I'm just paraphrasing from memory, so maybe I got the wrong impression and that wasn't what people were trying to say at all.

Maybe you should also paraphrase those people who have stated that the cards currently listed as minimum should not have been included on the list in the first place. The game should have required cards that did support shaders since it seems rather obvious it needs that as well.

 

[Willem]

I disagree. I never played the original, but Civilization II required 16MB of RAM just to display those animated advisors. Civ III didn't run on my computer at the time without chopping up the 2D unit movement animations. I think Civilization has always pushed the computers of its time like most other games.

Before I upgraded my computer I was running Civ 3 with a little over 400 meg of memory, and I would max out everytime I played. So it was definitely not a lightweight when it came to system resources. I also had a 400 mhz processor and the animations ran very slowly compared to the AMD 1700+ I have now.

 

[KingAl]

When all is said and done, we're missing the point here: a patch is coming out.
Yay, woo hoo, etc. ad infinitum
It may well fix all these problems, so rather than complaining about the fact that the game should work on your computer already, just be thankful that soon all your issues may be fixed (well, maybe thats a little optimistic)
Here's one waiting eagerly.

 

[Willem]

NP!

I guess I should have said my test did not rule out a memory leak ....just that it did not show evidence of one. One test is not a good sample; I was just making some initial observations.

And that's just on your system, that doesn't mean it's not leaking on others. It seems rather strange that people with 1 gig of RAM are still using up 2 gigs of VM as well. It sounds to me like a memory leak, but then I'm not a techie so I could very well be wrong.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

I hope this patch fixes the cheshire cat leaderhead/black terrain bug.

 

[H4ck3rPr0j3c7]

well when i had seen the warning i went back into the game and it was running HELLA slow.. i went n saved n quit and went to check on everything and the ram was back to normal and it even took me up to 800 n sum mbs.. hell it was even taking ram from the services and processes that were running even tho i still had a few 100mbs of ram left.. but yea all in all i hope it gets fixed also regardless of what the problem is.

 

[Willem]

The issue isn't quite so clear as you might think. Last time I checked in the forums, every person who has complained about this issue has either an Intel Graphics controller (not T&L capable) or a Mobility Radeon 7500 (T&L capable, with the desktop equivalent specifically listed as compatible in the System Requirements), so your observation doesn't seem to be based on much.
Just making a point- I'm not trying to provoke anyone.

EDIT: 5900XT is another T&L capable card with black terrain/cheshire cat leader problem.

And it has been shown that the 7500 can be be made to work properly if the AGP speed is turned off. Of course that slows down the game and introduces strange colour into the terrain, so it's a debate as to whether it is actually working. But at least the black terrain and cheshire cat leaders can be eliminated. That's simply impossible with non-T&L cards, no matter what you adjust. As for the 5900XT, there's probably some setting on that one as well since I haven't seen very many people, in fact none personally, that have been experiencing that problem. And I've never claimed that there wasn't some other issue that might cause these symptoms.

The simple fact remains: All non T&L cards have these problems, only a few of the T&L capable cards do. Ergo, the condition is primarily a result of not having a card that is T&L compatible. Simple logic there, it's not a brain twister by any means.

 

[Willem]

I hope this patch fixes the cheshire cat leaderhead/black terrain bug.

The only way that's bound to happen is if they include a sub-routine especially for non T&L users that allows those calculations to be performed on the CPU instead of the graphics card. As I understand it, that's how the Intel 9xxx cards are able to make the game run. But that's going to mean a substantial extra load on the CPU so that even with a fast processor, you'd have to turn the detail levels to low. Which I suppose would be better than nothing.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

The issue isn't quite so clear as you might think. Last time I checked in the forums, every person who has complained about this issue has either an Intel Graphics controller (not T&L capable) or a Mobility Radeon 7500 (T&L capable, with the desktop equivalent specifically listed as compatible in the System Requirements), so your observation doesn't seem to be based on much.
Just making a point- I'm not trying to provoke anyone.

EDIT: 5900XT is another T&L capable card with black terrain/cheshire cat leader problem.

Not true. I have a Radeon 9600 Pro that had black/cream colored textures this evening.

 

[doggiedaddy]

is someone played a game on a huge map, epic speed and did no suffer any slowdown at all?

My computer is way better then the setting they recommend and still i'm getting 15 fps late in the game on a huge map...

Ah..you hit the weak spot. I started playing huge maps that became unplayable. I have since switched to standard maps that play fine. Early on things are VERY smooth, except for the wonder movies, and then later the game slows down a bit but is still certainly playable.

I DO like my huge maps, though. Plenty of room to expand, and it challenges you to know your limits..

 

[Noseybonk]

The only way that's bound to happen is if they include a sub-routine especially for non T&L users that allows those calculations to be performed on the CPU instead of the graphics card. As I understand it, that's how the Intel 9xxx cards are able to make the game run. But that's going to mean a substantial extra load on the CPU so that even with a fast processor, you'd have to turn the detail levels to low. Which I suppose would be better than nothing.

Software emulation is possible on the 8xxx series as well as the 9xxx series.

 

[doggiedaddy]

The issue that many people are having is that CivIV runs well on most machines, but is flat out unplayable on the rest. Most of the time when games are released with significant bugs, they are still playable. In this case (even after the failed to initialize... fix), myself and many other people can not play the game we just spent $50 on.

I think the other issue is that top end systems are having huge problems, while people like me with borderline systems are running the game fine if we set limits like medium resolution and standard map. It's certainly playable, and within the specs listed by the developers.

Maybe I'm just lucky...
I also defragged and cleared up a messy registry...

 

[Bast]

When will we get this? I'd love to time this with my new computer which I'm getting next week.

Imagine. I get a brand new computer, I install Civ IV and I download the patch all within a few minutes.

 

[Willem]

Software emulation is possible on the 8xxx series as well as the 9xxx series.

But with the 9xxx it's built in, it isn't with the 8xxx. That's why it works on one but not the other.

 

[neriana]

The fact that you actually got an individualized response to an e-mail about support issues has me floored. That simply doesn't happen in the game industry nowadays until you've kicked, screamed, threatened to sue, called them 20 times...

That customer servie is WAY above average for the industry. I wish it were normal, but Firaxis should get a lot of credit for stepping up like that, and TakeTwo should actually get some credit for letting them.

 

[BleckLord]

The Civ (and overall, TBS community) is more likely to run older hardware than say, the FPS community where you need to upgrade often.

Civilization has always ran on low-end hardware. With the move to 3D, the minimum specs have gone up dramatically from Civ III. A lot of players are unlikely to know what they have, what they need, how to install it properly, or even the importance of caring for your computer with regular system maintenence. This all has a huge effect on graphically higher-end games.

I urge all people that are having problems and looking to upgrade to take the time, do some research and educate yourselves on what makes hardware good. You'll find yourself saving a lot of time, money and headache when getting Civ 4 to run properly.

So true! Not everyone can be a power computer user, and Firaxis should take that into consideration before developing. However, what's done is done, and people with machines too underpowered to run Civ 4 will have to upgrade. I hope that they do as you suggest and study before buying.

A user in the help section was charged over $150 for purchase and install of a $30 graphics card. If you have a 'tech' friend, use them. Don't let yourself be ripped off by snake oils sales people.


Can't wait for the patch.

 

[Justin13099]

The simple fact remains: All non T&L cards have these problems, only a few of the T&L capable cards do. Ergo, the condition is primarily a result of not having a card that is T&L compatible. Simple logic there, it's not a brain twister by any means.

Willem, I've been reading your posts for a few days now and would like to ask you what exactly is your problem? Why do you see the need to be absolutely rude to everyone, and project the image that you are in some way better than everyone else. Why ........because you choose to spend your money on high dollar video cards......gimme a break. The purpose of this thread,forum, blog or whatever you want to call it, is that people that are having issues can come together and pool their thoughts with others to try to find solutions. Help out or move on because its kinda sad.

Moving on i have a question for you reguarding those cards which are not T&L compatable, such as my intel 8xx series. If it is in fact a T&L issue and these cards are not "capable" of running the game, then why can I play certain scenarios such as the Revolution, and Desert War, and the Greek one, without a single piece of black terrain? In these scenarios the only problem that remains is the cheshire leader issue, aside from that the gameplay is flawless. Explain oh high and mighty one .