HOF Questions and Answers Thread

[unclethrill]

A few people have had problems with assetschecker that were solved by running Windows update.

That is a scary thought. Windoze update fixing anything!

 

[Niklas]

I'm sure I read a while ago about someone having problems with the MapFinder taking screenshots of the background, but I can't seem to find that thread now. At any rate, I just tried to use MF on my Vista 64-bit machine and have exactly the same problem:

Any known fix?

 

[Ozbenno]

I have the same problem with Map Finder (I have Vista). Only on Beyond the Sword, it works fine with Vanilla and Warlords.

 

[unclethrill]

I had this same problem on one computer (Sony Viao Laptop) but when I gave that one to my wife and switched to a Toshiba Laptop, the problem went away. The sony was much faster than the toshiba so I really can't understand why one would work and the other wouldn't.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

I'm sure I read a while ago about someone having problems with the MapFinder taking screenshots of the background, but I can't seem to find that thread now. At any rate, I just tried to use MF on my Vista 64-bit machine and have exactly the same problem:

Any known fix?

I had the same or similar problem several months ago.

The solution was running BTS on the Vista's screen inside its own window rather than the full custom screen that most players prefer for playing games. Just maximize the BTS window until it fills the whole screen and optionally adjust it up or down a few pixels until it appears almost indistinguishable from full screen mode.

So, for MapFinder, I run BTS in a window and it works fine. MapFinder in Full screen runs like your screenshot showed. I just run full screen when I'm actually playing a game.

In your BTS' CivilizationIV.ini, change your Fullscreen parameter to ask, if you want to use windowed mode for MapFinder and full screen for playing BTS:

FullScreen = ask

Hope this helps.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Niklas]

Thanks a lot Sun Tzu Wu! I'll be sure to try that when I get home tonight.

 

[unclethrill]

I just reinstalled both Vanilla and BTS. In BTS, I can change the resolution of the screen no problem. It just tells me to restart the game. In vanilla, when I choose a different resolution (not just the max but any different one), a popup asks if I want to keep the resolution yes/no but the whole game locks up. I can't click either but the mouse still responds to movement. The only way to get out at this point is the 3 finger microsoft salute. I run vista but never had this problem before on either vista or XP. I have already changed the permissions on the firaxis folder but it didn't help.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[ori]

I had this problem - solved it by setting the resolution in the civilizationIV.ini

 

[unclethrill]

I had this problem - solved it by setting the resolution in the civilizationIV.ini

Worked perfect! Thanks!

 

[cabert]

I can't get my latest game uploaded.
Is there a problem with the HoF server?
The saves are pretty large, but not beyond the limit.

edit : nevermind, it worked on the 4th try.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

On the gauntlet list page of the HOF

(this one: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/gauntlet.php?show=list )

it would be useful to have links to the discussion threads.

 

[Methos]

On the gauntlet list page of the HOF

(this one: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/gauntlet.php?show=list )

it would be useful to have links to the discussion threads.

Thanks. We'll look into it.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

MapFinder AutoSave error description:

I'm occasionally getting an AutoSave error when running MapFinder via HOF-3.17.001 as illustrated by posts #85 and #88 of the Civ4 Map Finder Announced! thread.

I will get 0-5 of these errors in a single MapFinder session. MapFinder continues to run and save files, but will not shutdown until each AutoSave file writing error requester is clicked/acknowledged. There are up to 5 such requesters stacked on an overnight MapFinder run, but I've noticed the files saved count to be as much as 60 or so.

Does anyone know what might be causing this MapFinder AutoSave error?

MapFinder setup:

I'm using MapFinder V1.12909.7720 with the mods/HOF-3.17.001 module.

I have a total of 3GB RAM and hundreds of GBs free on the C drive where BTS resides and the E drive where I'm storing the MapFinder maps.

I'm using the default 2 second pause between MapFinder map regenerations.

Potential memory contention issue with other applications running (idling):

It seems to work better with Firefox either shutdown or with fewer windows/tabs open, so memory contention might be an issue here. Just closing a few Firefox windows/tabs seems to help.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Denniz]

If I remember correctly you are saving every map. You might want to increase the delay. It could be that with everything going on (some idle programs still use cpu cycles) it is trying to write the next save before the OS releases the current one.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

*cough* mutex *cough*

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

If I remember correctly you are saving every map. You might want to increase the delay. It could be that with everything going on (some idle programs still use cpu cycles) it is trying to write the next save before the OS releases the current one.

I'm no longer saving every map, since its hard to use the MapFinder application to sort/filter the previously saved maps into a useful order/subset. It seems that only one sort key can be used at a time. It also doesn't seem possible to select a range of multiple maps to move them into another folder via the Move button.

Thanks for suggesting an increase of the delay time between map generations. No doubt it would allow the Mapfinder HOF module to properly save the AutoSave file while other applications are consuming resources, especially RAM. However, I didn't have a chance to try the delay increase you suggested, since ...

I did a MS Windows Vista update of any updates that might possibly help and rebooted my system. It works fine now after the reboot. It's sad, but true that MS Windows problems can still often be "worked around" (not fixed) by simply rebooting the machine. (I'm absolutely certain that Microsoft software engineers will never create an operating systems that works as simply and reliably as UNIX or Linux.) I'm absolutely certain that it was the reboot and not the updates that helped.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

*cough* mutex *cough*

I agree that a mutex should solve the problem and also make the delay between regenerations unnecessary. However, is it even possible to use a mutex from within the MapFinder HOF framework/programming interface?

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Denniz]

I agree that a mutex should solve the problem and also make the delay between regenerations unnecessary. However, is it even possible to use a mutex from within the MapFinder HOF framework/programming interface?

Sun Tzu Wu

The initial autosave file is created automatically by Civ4. I don't think they really envisioned something like mapfinder. I suppose that you can turn off the autosaves via the Civ4 ini file but it would be easy to forget to turn it back on.

 

[Vox Dei]

The save file you have selected is protected to assure that the assets in your mod folder have not changed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I get this message when trying to load from the HOF a save. (And then BTS closes.)

I read through a bunch of threads. (it seems this error is/was caused by various things.)

BTW, when I load the mod HOF-3.13.001, HOF1, HOF2 & HOF3 tabs are not available on the options page like they are with mod HOF-3.17.001.
(I guess if they are supposed to be there the install is bad?)


The only message that I read that seems to apply was a DaveMcW comment that having the saves locked would make it tough to show others when bragging.

Yet, the HOF pages list old HOF mods stating that they can be used to view old HOF saves?

So am I just not getting it?

 

[Denniz]

The save file you have selected is protected to assure that the assets in your mod folder have not changed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I get this message when trying to load from the HOF a save. (And then BTS closes.)

I read through a bunch of threads. (it seems this error is/was caused by various things.)

BTW, when I load the mod HOF-3.13.001, HOF1, HOF2 & HOF3 tabs are not available on the options page like they are with mod HOF-3.17.001.
(I guess if they are supposed to be there the install is bad?)


The only message that I read that seems to apply was a DaveMcW comment that having the saves locked would make it tough to show others when bragging.

Yet, the HOF pages list old HOF mods stating that they can be used to view old HOF saves?

So am I just not getting it?

The message you get is because the underlying assets don't match those that were used by the saved game. This is a feature of Civ4 when Lock Modified Assets is checked. You can't load a save from 3.13 BTS unless your BTS install is 3.13. Typically you would make a copy of the Civ4 folders before you apply 3.17 to the original. (i.e. Dual install)