MacBook Pro, 10.5, and Civ IV - is it even possible?

[shfdc]

Ok, I recently got a MacBook Pro 2.5GHz (early 2008), and from reading around noticed there were all sorts of problems running Civ IV. So I downloaded the demo and it worked perfectly - figured the problems must be worked out, right?

I just got my copy of Civ IV, and installed it on my machine (which is running 10.5.5)... Didn't work. Civ IV "unexpectedly crashed before opening" etc. So I downloaded the 1.74 patch, installed that (successfully), and tried again. No luck.

So I installed 10.5.2 on an external drive, booted off that, installed Civ IV - and got the "failed initializing python" error. So I installed the 1.74 patch, and still got the same error. So I created a case-insensitive disk image (from a tip I saw on one of these boards) and copied Civ IV onto that... same python error. I turned the logging on and I'm pasting the log file below, since someone was asked to do that but never did.

Anyway, is there any way to make this work? Do I have to find a copy of Tiger somewhere?

(The following is the PythonErr.log file from trying to boot Civ IV off the 10.5.2 system on the case sensitive drive

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in ?
ImportError
:
No module named CvEventInterface

Failed to load python module CvEventInterface.
ERR: Call function onEvent failed. Can't find module CvEventInterface
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in ?
ImportError
:
No module named CvAppInterface

Failed to load python module CvAppInterface.
ERR: Call function init failed. Can't find module CvAppInterface

 

[AlanH]

Hello, welcome

I see no reason to back off to Tiger, even if it's possible on your Mac.

I don't have access to a MacBook Pro (early 2008). However, I haven't seen any reports that there are problems with your combinations of OS and hardware, with one exception ... your case sensitive file system!

I don't think it's worth trying to get Civ4 working on a case sensitive file system. As far as I know, no one has succeeded. Just moving Civ4 onto a case insensitive system will not solve the problem, as there are quite a few files stored in your Home folder as well, so you probably need to set up a Civ4 user account with its Home folder in a case insensitive file space as well.

Having said that, I'm not sure that your Python error log relates to case sensitivity. Python is, itself, case sensitive on all platforms, so the Civ4 Python code should have everything correctly cased.

Do you have a folder at [Civ4]/Assets/Python/EntryPoints/. Does that folder contain a file called CvAppInterface.py? Is its size 6,237 bytes and its Modified date 21/12/2007? That is the file that contains the CvAppInterface module that Civ4 says it can't find.

 

[shfdc]

Thanks... I do have that file... I also have CvEventInterface in the same folder at 862 bytes and a 10/15/05 creation date, so I'm not sure why Civ can't seem to find those.

Aspyr tech support wrote back regarding my 10.5.5 problems - they say there's no reason why it shouldn't be working, and asked me to submit my system profile so they could check for software conflicts. Fair enough. I don't really care whether I get this running on 10.5.5 or 10.5.2, but I would just like it to run on SOMETHING! (Particularly since the fact that Civ IV not being able to run on my old Mac (legitimately - it was a G4) was one of the reasons I wanted to upgrade.)

If it is the case sensitive file system, what would I need to do to get the appropriate files to a case insensitive disk image? (And how do I make sure that I create a case insensitive disk image? I tried to create one by not picking a case insensitive file system in disk utility, but not sure if that's enough.)

Thanks.

 

[AlanH]

Just choose MacOS Extended (Journaled) - the default on my system. You'll have to research the technique needed to get your Home folder onto the same image, though.

 

[shfdc]

If that's not the likely fix for the python problems, though, is there anything I can try for that?

 

[AlanH]

I've no idea why you get that Python error. I suspect it is just a symptom of a more fundamental issue - possibly caused by the case sensitivity. Aspyr support are in a far better position to diagnose your problem than I am, though.

 

[shfdc]

Thanks. You wouldn't happen to know where there are any instructions on moving a home directory to a case-insensitive file system are, would you? I've been doing a bit of searching and nothing's been helpful.

 

[AlanH]

I have never had a case sensitive disk (why would I?) so I have never needed to try. However, I just Googled "move home directory to another volume" and found over 300K hits. The ten on the first page all seemed to be relevant.

 

[shfdc]

Turns out my file system isn't case sensitive anyway, and Aspyr hasn't gotten back to me in three days, so I have no idea what's going on.

 

[djeimsb]

I also had the same problems as mention here when I reinstalled my new macbook pro with a journaled Case Sensitiv filesystem. I have always used filevault on my homedir so I plain copied it from my old machine but it didnt work at first.

- next I did was to reinstall Civ4 - didnt help
- next I moved it to a seperate sparsedisk image - that didnt help either
- then I deleted everything under Library/Application Support/ in my homefolder related to Civ4 and Civ4 Warlords and reinstalled it and now it worked like a charm!

note is that you dont have to touch anything under Documents/Civilization IV* to get it working.

 

[new.chaos]

Hello fellow fans,

Not a happy camper here. I don't mean to pee on the experience of you Civ4 people who are not having issues and enjoy it. But this game clearly has problems and Aspyr is doing what?

Aspyr reportedly is doing layoffs, ( http://bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewstory&threadid=94289 ) and judging by the poor initial experience I've had getting this game to work, I'd be surprised if we should blame the economy. What does surprise me is that this game still retails for $49, and that I paid that much expecting a forty-nine dollar experience. Meanwhile you can get the Windows version (if you run it; I don't) for less money and hell, that version probably works as advertised. Probably is better to play Civ4 in VMWare than to run something natively in a Mac.

This whole thing feels like a bad Cider port of Windows code even if it's not.

I've had fundamental issues with everything just as I would a broke-ass EA Cider port, including problems with a case-sensitive boot volume. Well, no stranger to those, I sighed and worked around those with symlinks to sparse bundles... and now my lingering issue is I can't save any settings upon exit.

I wonder what gameplay issues / crashes I will experience while operating in 1024x768 and defaults. Looking forward to it!

Seriously? $50 for this? Totally disappointed. Maybe I should stick to playing CivRev, which while having idiotic and cheating AI, fewer options and forced endings is something I don't have to struggle with just to get it running.

I appreciate people trying to make games for the Mac, but if they suck this badly why even bother? Mac games will not pick up unless there is a focus on quality and customer service as Apple users expect. I'd guess they have a poor sense of budgeting game development, and try to foist these lousy wares on an unsuspecting Apple audience for $40-50 each and let them sort out the issues in third-party forums. That's good enough for them, apparently.

Apple in turn does very little to attract and build a community of gaming developers. This is what we get.

Blizzard apparently at least hired smart people who get it, even if their customer support sucks. World of Warcraft's Mac client is a model of how Mac games should be done. Too bad almost nobody else does it that way. Because they're too stupid, too scared to learn how, or else budgeting the Mac clients properly cuts into someone's million dollar xmas bonus.



Warm regards and happy holidays,

 

[shfdc]

Well, Aspyr really hasn't been any help at all (in fact, I spent about 10 days trying to just send my System Profile to them, and their system is having trouble taking attachments - of course, it takes them about two days each time to let me know that they haven't received the file), but the problem has resolved itself! Once Apple came out with 10.5.6, everything was fine. Haven't had a problem with the game yet, although I do notice the game slow down considerably when I play at high resolution in later turns, but going to low resolution speeds things right up.

 

[new.chaos]

You can't even register the game with Aspyr currently. One gets an error page on their website that the SSL certificate expired.

Awesome.

shfdc: Glad it's working for you, man.

 

[Snowbeavers]

I am running Civ IV on my Macbook Pro 10.5.5 with no problems (relative to your issues anyway). No advice why it works though.