GridWidth/Height of 64

[need my speed]

I want to convert this awesome scenario to Civilization IV Beyond the Sword.

It has a map size of 362x362. Thus; 362*362/2=65522, square root = +/- 256, /4= +/- 64.

Thus, a GridWidth and a GridHeight of 64. Alas, this seems to be impossible, as confirmed by various topics. The game just can't handle such a map.

However, these topics were of a few years ago. Has, perhaps, some kind of patch been developed in the meantime? One that I couldn't find?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Oh, I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to go in this subforum. Although... Perhaps it should? I think the normal 'Creation & Customization' forum fits better though...?

Moderator Action: Correct -> moved.

 

[ls612]

There is a hardcoded* limit in the DLL of 65535 tiles in a map. So yours, which by my mental math is about 129600 tiles would not work.

*This limit is entirely in the DLL and so can be changed, but the map would only work in a mod with a DLL which has these limits removed, and at any rate I would expect a map of that size to MAF unless you also incorporated something like Viewports in to the mod DLL.

 

[need my speed]

Mhm, and what is a 'tile' then?

If that's the number you get from manually counting the squares where units can move on, wouldn't my map have 65522 tiles?

The '362*362/2' converts the tile-size from the Civilization III map into the tile-size of a Civilization IV map. And 65535 is BARELY more than 65522...

Should I keep trying to generate the map, even though the game crashes while doing so? Because sometimes, when, for instance, playing the mod in your signature, the game crashes while I attempt to generate the largest world map or somesuch. But other times, it works fine, and once generated, it doesn't crash while loading anymore.

I assume the map size on its own won't really impact performance all that much. I'll probably disable Settlers, and maybe make them autospawn very slowly as well. Or maybe I'll just remove them alltogether. Anyway, the wait for a new turn shouldn't take very long, right?

Thank you for your answer by the way!

 

[ls612]

Mhm, and what is a 'tile' then?

If that's the number you get from manually counting the squares where units can move on, wouldn't my map have 65522 tiles?

The '362*362/2' converts the tile-size from the Civilization III map into the tile-size of a Civilization IV map. And 65535 is BARELY more than 65522...

Should I keep trying to generate the map, even though the game crashes while doing so? Because sometimes, when, for instance, playing the mod in your signature, the game crashes while I attempt to generate the largest world map or somesuch. But other times, it works fine, and once generated, it doesn't crash while loading anymore.

I assume the map size on its own won't really impact performance all that much. I'll probably disable Settlers, and maybe make them autospawn very slowly as well. Or maybe I'll just remove them alltogether. Anyway, the wait for a new turn shouldn't take very long, right?

Thank you for your answer by the way!

One GridHeight is 4 plots, so your map would be 256 by 256, NOT 362 by 362. Unfortunately those dimensions are 65536 tiles when the math is done, which is one tile too many! So if you made the size 64 by 63 gridheights then it would work.

 

[need my speed]

One GridHeight is 4 plots, so your map would be 256 by 256, NOT 362 by 362. Unfortunately those dimensions are 65536 tiles when the math is done, which is one tile too many! So if you made the size 64 by 63 gridheights then it would work.

Heh, really? Awesome! I assume 63x64 would work, too (I remember reading the +/- 1:6 ratio isn't a hardcoded rule)? There's a load of empty sea in the west anyway. And if not, 64x63 is fine too, I'll just remove some useless snow somewhere or such.

I'll see if this works tommorow!

 

[need my speed]

Heh, really? Awesome! I assume 63x64 would work, too (I remember reading the +/- 1:6 ratio isn't a hardcoded rule)? There's a load of empty sea in the west anyway. And if not, 64x63 is fine too, I'll just remove some useless snow somewhere or such.

I'll see if this works tommorow!

I'm afraid both 64x63 and 63x64 crashed the game while it was initialising graphics (as it always did).

 

[ls612]

I'm afraid both 64x63 and 63x64 crashed the game while it was initialising graphics (as it always did).

That may simply be a MAF. Huge maps like that will cause issues like that especially if you don't have a 64 bit OS. Try generating a 75 by 50 grid map. That I know will be within limits and will work so long as you don't get a MAF.

 

[need my speed]

Mhm, a MAF then; I tried both a 75x50 map, and a 54x64 map. But I have Windows 7, with 64 bit.

Any idea on how to solve it? I found this - are there other methods I could try out some day?

 

[isenchine]

You know, a stupid little error in the file can also cause it to crash at the initialisation, without even a Python warning. At this point, I guess you cannot yet rule that out.

Why don't you post your file zipped here (64/63 or 63/64)? I could have a look at it tomorrow (not promising anything of course, just another look on the file).

 

[need my speed]

I have no file yet, I'm trying to generate one.

Or... Am I doing this all wrong?

What I am doing, is changing the 'huge' mapsize, from Civ4WorldInfo.xml, to the aforementioned values, and then generate such a map.

Only, it crashes when it's 'initialising graphics' (or whatever the literal text is; 'init graphics' or such).

My idea is to 'remove' (put ocean everywhere) the whole map in the World Builder, and then rebuild it. I guess I'll put my laptop - displaying the Civilization III Conquest scenario - next to this PC, and just copy it, manually.

Should I do something different?

 

[isenchine]

Wow, sorry, I did not realize you were doing that! I thought you were trying to convert the map from Civ3 to Civ4. I never played Civ3 (came straight from 1 & 2 to 4) so I have no idea if such a conversion is even possible. I guess not.

I remember a thread not so long ago about map sizes. The last poster in it, Kjotleik of Norway, made a mod with a UltraBig size of 64x40 = 40,960 plots. Even if I try this setting on the Earth2 mapscript, my computer fails miserably...

 

[need my speed]

Oh, ok. Mhm, that's an interesting possibility... I did see something about a bitmap converter or something?

Ah yes, this seems promising. So I'll cut up the map in 'whatever the maximum size of Pic2Map is' and merge all of them to convert it in Mapview 2.0. Could work, I'll go try that!

And don't be sorry!

EDIT: A 54x64 map worked just fine, but then I realised it was talking about tiles. So I had to multiply them by four. And 216x256 made the game crash again, upon initialising the graphics...

 

[vincentz]

I tried a 80x50 (x4 x4) so a total of 64.000 tiles (320x200), and while it did work, there was some graphical glitches (*see attached image), though take note that I only have a 512MB 8800GTS GPU.

The map is 4 times as big as my mods biggest size (Giant), which is, in Civ4 standards, very big.

Donno what you need a map that size for. The game cant handle it, and fill it up with AI, the turns is going to be once a month

 

[need my speed]

I doubt the turns will take very long if I disable Settlers. I just like the feeling of a huge map, where logistics matter, and where it's actually important to have local armies, instead of having one stack that you run through your empire.

Besides, I'm aiming to recreate that Civilization III Conquests scenario... And perhaps slowly but surely create a Lord of the Rings mod to go with it, when or if I can be bothered.

But, mhm, I don't have a very good PC myself (see below), and those graphical glitches suck anyway... Well... Ehm, I assume that these crashes are because Civilization IV is in 3D? And I further assume that nobody has made a 2D mod, whatever that would entail. So basically, what I want is impossible?

Dell Inspiron 560
Nvidia Geforce 310
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q8300 2.50 GHz
4 GB RAM