How I made C2C run on my rig

[icanko]

Hello. I wanted to share my experience with the community and thus, hopefully, help others who might have the same problems as I do and maybe help in the process of making a more stable game.

My specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 clocked at 3.1 Ghz
RAM 3GB at 1033 MHz
GPU Nvidia 9600GTX 512 MB
OS: Windows 7

So I had the issue of not being able to load my save game after a random crash I got during prehistoric era. I tried turning lowering the graphics and it started playing again. After a few hundred turns I saved and quit as I was busy with other stuff. When I wanted to go back to my game I couldn't load my save again. Crashing during loading. I tried it all - caching, viewports, checked if the 3gb switch is on (apparently it was on by default) and still nothing.
In the end I found out that if I change my graphic settings (including increase from low to high) and restarted the game on the next launch I could load my saves.
So I started it as a routine of mine and has been working fine so far ( 2350 / 9645 turns )
I am currently typing this while playing in windowed mode with high graphic settings.

P.S. If you find a good topic to add this to instead of it being a new separate one, please don't hesitate to move it.

 

[sp00n]

I'm still struggling with frequent Memory Allocation Faults, even with 16GB RAM.
Most noticeable on larger maps, but it does frequently happen on standard sized games when I load a game while already within a session (i.e. cheating identifying bugs).

Currently I'm playing a Giant Earth Map game (7MB save games), and it would even MAF on me when the viewport setting was too large and I shifted the viewport around. Or when I tried to save(!) the game.
(Turn times are also about 90 seconds there, but that's another issue.)

Thing is, Civ4 never seems to reach 3GB in memory allocation according to the task manager (Process Explorer), and I'm on a 64bit Win7, and Civ4 seems to be Large Address Aware by default now, so it should be able to.


I haven't actually seen the graphic settings making an impact once I switched to 64bit.

 

[icanko]

Well until now it was all about being able to load a save. But I still get crashes while playing and from the looks of it they will only become more frequent.

What I find weird is that when I launch the game (directly C2C) it loads a lot of time.
When I change the graphic settings, quit and then launch again the game takes time to load but it is probably half of what I waited the first time ???
Then I play for a bit, game crashes and if I start it again I am back where I started.
Doesn't make any sense.

 

[ls612]

Thing is, Civ4 never seems to reach 3GB in memory allocation according to the task manager (Process Explorer), and I'm on a 64bit Win7, and Civ4 seems to be Large Address Aware by default now, so it should be able to.


I haven't actually seen the graphic settings making an impact once I switched to 64bit.

Using a 75 by 50 viewport C2C uses about 2 GB steady for large developed games. This is with integrated graphics (so all graphics memory is getting stolen from system RAM), and all graphics options on the highest. And I've never had MAFs since I got my new machine, so that is good.

@OP, that looks like my old rig, and that is exactly what I did to get C2C to work on it.

 

[sp00n]

My current GEM game uses up to about 2.9 gb, at which point MAFs can occur at any time, even when just moving a unit into unknown terrain. And I'm just around 700 ad; but there are lots of civilizations of course.
I may try to use a smaller viewport, but that is pretty inconvenient playing on such a large map with such a large empire (I've conquered the whole of Europe by now). Or I might try using my integrated GPU as well instead (although that can't be a permanent solution due to lack of multi monitor support).