Just spoke with Civ4 tech support

[Comraddict]

What are the rest of the specs where you get 8-15 fps?

rest of specs is far better:
768MB of RAM (game plus OS use 500MB of it)
Athlon 64 3000+

 

[TheBarnacle]

And it's all bad news. Basically, if you are getting the black terrain, it means that your video chipset is too old to run the game, and there is no solution planned for that. If you are seeing some of the terrain, while the rest is black, it means the same thing--your video chipset is too old, and you will not be able to play the game properly on that machine.

So, in conclusion, if you are having video problems with Civ4, they are there to stay because Firaxis made the game that way. There is no solution right now, and there is not one planned in the future. I am returning my own copy to the store tomorrow. Apparently, my one-and-a-half-year-old P4 2.4 laptop, which runs Doom 3 and HL2 flawlessly is not good enough to run the incredibly technologically advanced Civ4.

i'm with you. i'm amazed (and pissed!) that my new dell (bought it in may!) can't run this game. i'm amazed b/c apparently there is such a HUGE market for this game that they don't need or want my business. for $50, i should be able to pop the cd, eat a snack while it installs, then PLAY PLAY PLAY!!!

it's boggling that they couldn't even get the cd1/install vs. cd2/play instructions correct. WTH?? i'm severly disappointed in firaxis and sid. i actually went out an bought a new vid card that i hope will fix the problem. of course, i feel like a sucker for doing so and should rightfully bill 2kgame, et al for half the cost.

so far, i have to give this game a 'suck it' grade.

 

[Stuporstar]

I think that tech support guy is wrong. From all I've read on the boards it's not just an older video chipset problem, but a laptop video problem. I'm experiencing the same problem on my laptop (after it failed to load entirely on my desktop wt ATI card). Unfortunately, as ridiculous as it is for them to turn their backs on the entire laptop market, they did exactly that with their release of Pirates!. They never did bother to make that game laptop compatible.

One thing I did notice is the black terrain has nothing to do with its inability to render the terrain itself, it seems to be the fog-of-war. I loaded a game on my laptop where the terrain was only partially visible in one corner of the screen, and as I explored and the FoW cleared the problem started to clear up. It still had problems rendering sea squares unless a ship was travelling over it though. The whole terrain rendered fine when opening the game in the editor too. It's got to be a transparency problem with the FoW. You would think something like this would be easy enough for them to correct. I agree with fresca, we don't need pretty graphics to play the game. We just want to be able to play it on our damn laptops!

 

[Rustwork]

same problems. running with GF4-420go. exceed all other recommended requirements. also had problems with lock-up at beginning of the tutorial. my game ran with Disk1/Install??? i've returned it already. too bad. it looked like a promising game. give me low-tech graphics with new game play and i'd be content. not interested enough to invest in new hardware for one game. i'll continue my progress on the Civ3 HoF instead.

Edit - also have a laptop.

 

[picklion]

this is quite possibly the most disappointing game experience I've ever had. No one responded to my email for support at 2k, and the game store has a no return policy. Basically, a large number of people just stole my 50 dollars. Have they no intention of fixing this problem? What a shameful company.

 

[stevenskistg]

I have an update to my black terrain problem. Like Stuporstar, I beagan to be able to see the terrain a little bit in the upper right corner. The further out i was zoomed, the more i could see. Then mysteriously, after coming out of dealing with Chesire FDR, all the terrain suddenly appeared. Leaders are still invisible and water is still black most of the time (I have to be proficiently zoomed in and have enough of it in the right places. i don't know). Upon closer examination, it turns out the terrain isn't all there because its fixed. it seems the corner of goodness has just extended. when i'm zoomed out enough is start to get some black in the lower left. Fortunately, I play zoomed in anyway. I hope it stays fixed the next time fire up the game. Cross your fingers for me.

 

[Titus Pullo]

This all seems like alot of work to me, and I'll probably end up back at Civ 3 in short order. We'll see.

 

[Olive]

try this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134020
Worked for me. Dell Inspiron Laptop, P4 2.4, 512 RAM, 21 meg radeon 7500. You have to change ALL.

 

[lukas4]

I agree with fresca. My computer is a little more than a month old and can't run this game. Kinda sick.

I think the problem is that we all bought "thin+light" office laptops, thinking they could also run a few games.

I guess thin+light laptops and gaming laptops are just completely different machines, even if CPU and RAM are similar.

I'm not annoyed at Firaxis, they made a good game that'll be enjoyable for many years to come; but I'm annoyed at Dell and Intel for not making it abundantly clear that new games just won't work on some of their machines!! .... Or maybe I should have done some more research before I bought my computer.

Dell Inspiron 500m, P-M 1.6GHz, 512Mb RAM, with integrated Intel 8xx video which is about as useful as a stick for running newer games. Had a good game of Colonization last week though.

 

[Old Dood]

Hmmm..this is truly amazing to me that this turn base game is causing so many problems. I wish people would go back and edit their posts with thier system specs so we all can get a handle on this problem a bit more.

To hear about people buying a computer with in the last year and THEY can not play this game is rediculous.

I can not remember the name of the DEV on the Video Review movie that said People do not need to go out and buy a new computer to play CIV4...simply LIED to us all. Why they could not develope this game with a Graphic slider is beyon me. I have had no problem so far with this game. My Son is having problems though with his 3 year old laptop. Still a 3 year old Toshiba Satellite 2435-S255 is (P4 2.4 Ghz, 512 DDR Ram, GeForce To Go 440 32meg dedicated video) not a slow computer in this day and age. I bought it at the time for him when he was going into college. I made sure it had a Dedicated Video on it. Granted it is a GeForce To Go 440 32meg. But that was way better then most of the laptops at that time. Most were shared video. ( I am a darn cool DAD)

I am running a Dell Dim 5100
P4 3.4Ghz 650 chipset HT
2Gb Crucial 533Mhz Ram
X800XL 256meg PCIe vid card

I have found this ATI card to be the best bang for the buck. I got it for a $100.00 cheaper then the Nvidia 6800GT and it is in the same class. If the Nvidia was a $100.00 cheaper then I would have got that.

When my Son comes home for Thanksgiving I will try to tweak out his Toshiba with newer drivers...even a BIOs update. I will cough up some cash for new ram too. Bring him up to the max at 1GB. That can't hurt.

I should load this game on my older box. A Dell Dim 4600. P4 2.8Ghz HT 400FSB, 1.5GB 400Mhz Ram, ATI 9800Pro AGP 128 meg Vid Card. I am wondering IF that computer would show any problems. That is a still a nice box for todays games. My Daughter has that in her room and was shocked when I let her have that one.

I truly feel for these youngens that are off to college and they are stuck with their laptops that can not play this game correctly. School is hard enough. You need some time to get away from it all and Civilization is a nice way of doing that. Same goes for people on the road with office laptops. They are stuck with whatever is available from their companies.

Silly Sid should have thought of this before he put HIS name on the box. I for one have played this game since 1991. Sid should remember that it was us back in the day that made HIS name popular!

 

[Xeos]

My laptop:

Compaq Presario R3000

1.6ghz AMD Athlon 3000+
Ge Force 4 440 Go 32mb
512mb ram

Runs pretty good at minimum options on small map or lower. I have no desire to run larger maps at the moment, so I have no experience with those. Only 2 problems seen are the wonder sound stutter and the 2 food yeild display bug, which I made a post about elsewhere in the tech forum. I too had the black screen/partial reveal with revealed being fixed in relation to camera. Updating graphics drivers killed that one though.

My desktop (whose exact specs I do not remember right off the top of my head, I am not near it atm)

1 ghz intel processor
128mb geforce 4
512mb ram

Runs it pretty fast and smoothe, small pause after units move which is a bit annoying, but live-withable. No other problems.