Maximum Map Size...

[Karam]

What is the MAXIMUM map possible that Civ4 can handle. I do not mean what our computers can handle, but what the game engine would accept.

I know some people are working on some super-gigantic maps...

Somebody once mentioned 500x500 is max, is that true?

all posts appreciated!

 

[The Great Apple]

It'll probably be some factor power of 2. I would expect it to be 512x512 if you thought it was 500x500.

 

[Karam]

TGA, thanks for the reply, so it MUST be a factor of 2?

8,10,12,14,16,18 etc..?
(I mean for smaller maps?)

 

[The Great Apple]

I think it must be a factor of two, but I meant the maximum is likely to be a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32...).

 

[dalek master]

what about rectangle maps?

 

[The Great Apple]

I think I've been generally unclear.

Side lengths have to be a factor of 2 (an even number).

There is (probably) a maximum side length. This will almost certainly be a power of two. I don't know what it is.

 

[dalek master]

I think I've been generally unclear.

Side lengths have to be a factor of 2 (an even number).

There is (probably) a maximum side length. This will almost certainly be a power of two. I don't know what it is.

thought so. I am interested in bigger maps too... . The universe is a big place....

 

[Karam]

So as the bottom line....
We could have maps that are 500x200.

500/2 = 250.
200/2 = 100.

Both sides are factors of 2, am I right here?

 

[surt]

I just generated a 560x24 map in smartmap. Totally fine. Playable (at least for a while) on my 1gig ram computer.

Also, I just loaded Kr's earthmap which is odd in both dimensions: 217x119, so maps don't have to be even in either dimension.

Map scripts can only generate maps with dimensions that are a multiple of 4 in both directions, because the getGridSize function returns the number of 4x4 areas to generate in each direction. I'm unsure why they chose to do that, somewhat annoying for map scripters.

And just for kicks, I generated 1100x20 to see if the limit was 1024, and that worked and the game started, but it was pushing the limit of my available memory (terrain was black). So it looks like the limit may be higher than 1024, but you won't be playing much of that on a 1 gig memory machine.

As a final note, i've done some experimenting that showed that civ4 uses roughly 3k memory for a non-workable tile (deep ocean, mountain), and 16k memory for a workable tile, which on a 2 gig machine means you should be able to start a 350x350 ish map, or as karam desired, a 500x200 map.

 

[Karam]

Thanks alot Surt, quite informative and useful!

So we could virtually have any map size we desire, but maybe we will only be able to play them 5 years when Civ5 comes out, but then what is the use of playing an enourmous Civ4 map 5 years after extinction .

Anyway, thanks everyone for all your efforts.

 

[The Great Apple]

Hmm - I'm sure I read somewhere that they had to be a factor of 2. Clearly I'm wrong.

So for an all sea map you could probably manage about 500*500 (1 gig ram) for a map which was pretty much pure sea - would this be big enough for the universe?

 

[Karam]

..."Where exactly does the universe end???"... No one knows, at least no human, so for those universe mods fanatics, I guess it's

The bigger the better. -even if it would cost 1024x1024...