Graphics Lag

[Soryn Arkayn]

I've been having a problem where sometimes when I click on an Advisor or adjust the map view, the game will hang for a minute or longer. If it goes too long I usually try to CTRL+ALT+DLT back to the desktop and check if Civ4 is not responding, but it usually is running alright. But when I ALT+TAB back to the game I only see a black screen except for the Civ4 cursor icon. So I go back and forth from the game to the desktop and back to the game, trying to fix it, and usually after 10 minutes or more, I'll ALT+TAB from the desktop to the game and miraculously I'll see the game world and everything will be fine.

Has anyone else had a problem like this? I'd wager that most people would just CTRL+ALT+DLT and terminate the game rather than wait. The only reason why I bothered was that I hadn't saved in a while and I was desperately trying to recover.

As I mentioned, this only happens when I adjust the game view, like opening an Advisor menu or altering the map view. The worst instance was when I had it show the gridlines on the map -- that instigated the 20 minute long recovery period, at the end of which the game recovered and the gridlines were displayed. I saved the game and deactivated them, and after a few minutes lag they disappeared and the game worked fine.

Just so you know, here's my system specs:
Athlon XP 2100+ cpu
1.5 GB DDR333 PC2700 memory
ATI AIW 9800 Pro 128 MB video card

I know my system isn't high-end, but I can run the game adequately. At the beginning it ran fine, but now that I explored the entire map and I control half the territory it is a bit slow, but I haven't had any serious problems.

Also, this might be related or not, but I also experience the audio/video stutter in the Wonder movies.

 

[BlueBomberDude]

I've had the exact same problem. After switching back and forth a few times it just sticks at the black screen with the CIV cursor and I have to hard boot the machine. Sucks.

 

[tegilbor]

I think you're having the same problem I described in the "512meg ram not enough?" thread. I also get the stuttering on map adjustment and on opening advisor menus. I also get the messed up wonder movies.

I guess it's not surprising, because we have fairly similar setups (I also have an AMD Athlon XP and an ATI card).

And before someone gives me the pre-recorded message: All my drivers are state-of-the-art. I recently had to update everything to get Black&White 2 to run.

 

[Soryn Arkayn]

Well I have 1.5 gigs of memory, so I doubt that's the problem. It could be my ATI card I suppose.

I also bought Black&White 2 and updated all my drivers, so Civ4 should be running more stable than if I had older drivers.

 

[tegilbor]

That is really the most freakish thing about Civ4... I can play Black&White 2 - a fairly graphics-intensive game with no problems, no stuttering, no major harddrive accesses, but Civ4 (a round-based strategy game!) is pretty much unplayable when I play larger maps.

It seems that the developers at Firaxis placed the priorities wrong. The graphics are nice, but ultimately, did we buy the game for the graphics? Sure, the globe view looks cool, but in my opinion it's 100% useless, and so are the combat animations. I'd gladly sacrifice all of that for a bug-free, responsive, playable Sid Meier game. Perhaps Mr. Meier and his team have forgotten what made Civ great in the first place... it sure as heck wasn't nice graphics.