Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[Harkonnen]

As for system optimization - all those so-called "RAM boosters" simply evict physical memory into swap file, so RAM is ready for something new, but should you switch to some open application (even explorer) - it starts loading itself back

 

[kettyo]

Harky and other video/memory gurus!

How can i tell how much agp aperture size i have in a laptop (i suppose the default 64MB but not sure).
Laptops don't have this setting in BIOS.
Also can i change it some other way and have a point to do so?

Thanx!

 

[Harkonnen]

I_batman
Yes, nice idea. I didn't do that if the first place to avoid possible case when the first effort with my patch would fail, and that poll would reduce number of people trying it for the second time. Mass media has massive effects

I will add it right away. Also I will create secondary thread to post about new releases, so that subscribers don't read all of that simply waiting for next version to come.

 

[kettyo]

As for system optimization - all those so-called "RAM boosters" simply evict physical memory into swap file, so RAM is ready for something new, but should you switch to some open application (even explorer) - it starts loading itself back

Yes, that's why i turn off auto-ram-recovery.
But system optimization is different.
It alters cache management of windows, menu delay times and the such, quite useful.

 

[pbgrhino]

hi. i have civ IV i have a video card which is a nvideo, 256 mb. i have windows xp, 3.1 processor, 1024 memory. i am having a problem with the game crashing. i have made many changes to my setting. i have also down loaded the patch, 1.09. i have two main problems. the game will crash in the middle of the turn. and the game will freeze for a few seconds, as it is loading information, i think. please help

 

[kettyo]

A quote from the prog:

-CachemanXP controlled cache
CachemanXP will detect a low memory situation and try to prevent Paging File swapping by trimming the File Cache faster than Windows usually does.

 

[rcoutme]

Ok, try to treat me like a small child please! I do not see the ini file of which you speak... I thought it might be the Civ IV icon file, but when I try to open that, the game starts...

Next: about where in the file will I find the places to change the values?

 

[Three_Crowns]

But like I said soemhow my AGP Texture Accelration is grayed out and states 'Not Available" and I have no idea why this is so and how I can fix that.

It is possible that you need to install either chipset or agp drivers. If in doubt, you should consult your motherboard manual.

 

[kettyo]

If it's not and you are in the mid-age, anti-aliasing might be the problem. There's just too much geometry, especially if you fly high over the land or enter globe view - all of that affects anti-aliasing performance, I had to turn it off even with 9800 Pro, regardless of map size.

It's strange 2×AA and no AA seems identical in speed to me (scrolling way up is sluggish without AA too ).
4×AA is slower for sure.

 

[obe]

nice work... tried it last night and theres a massive improvement.. i was playing with lower gfx in a bid to get it to work better, and it didnt make much difference (10ai standard map - 1850-1900ad slowdown, even saving, restarting pc etc).

After using this plays right the way thru no slowdown

spec:

(CPU) 1-AMD Athlon™ 2600+, 2083MHz, 256KB (0% Load) .:. (RAM) usage: 206/511MB (40.31%) .:.
(GFX) ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 SERIES
(OS) Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 (5.1 - 2600)

 

[polyphemus]

please tell me if i can use this patch:
i have:
256MB RAM
128mb DDR NVidia GeForce Fx 5200 graphics card

i think i can use it but i want to check with you to confirm it

 

[polyphemus]

someone needs to sticky this thread

 

[DeyofAlgiers]

I dont know if it is just me... but I installed the patch... and my performance seemed to go down... the game was even slower... I'm not sure if this is because I placed it in the wrong spot... also when I installed it it asked me if I wanted to overwrite zlib1.dll... I said yes. Does it matter where you place the Harkonnen.ini file??? My specs are this...
GeForce FX5200, 128Mb,
HT Pentium 4's, 3.06 Ghz
512Mb Ram
Will this patch work?? What settings should I use with it???
Pardon my ignorance... I'm not exactly a computer whiz.

 

[kettyo]

With vidmem=170 and insane=on i have absolutely no swapping and no scroll jerkyness with Harky's huge test-save.
Even the globe view is quite ok. No annoying transition pauses.
Seems optimal settings to me now.
And all this on highest detail, 1680×1050 res, and 2×AA

Specs: 2Gig Pentium-M, 1Gig RAM, 256Meg Ati Radeon Mobility X800XT
Peak system RAM use with test save is around 910MB.
Allocated virtual memory is around 870MB but only about 80MB used.

 

[Harkonnen]

Please choose the answer with closest meaning to effects of memory-fix on your system.

I am interested only in technical aspects like memory usage, scrolling speed, CTD, crashes, BSODs and so on. Diplomacy issues and other gameplay things are not affected by this fix, and should not be reflected in this poll.

If you are new with this fix and have something to say, please use original thread, not this one. I track support and gather general picture over there, so let's keep it in a single place...

The only thing that should be written in this thread is some pool item which you'd like to add.

I don't want to be very strict with fans, just this thing has become too popular, and a bit hard to manage...

Thank you!

 

[Harkonnen]

I made the voting public, so that cheated biasing is harder. Just I think there might be parties interested in that... Or maybe I'm just a bit too paranoid.

If you think that voting should not be made public for some other reason, please say it here.

 

[Harkonnen]

All
I have created a side-thread where I will place info about new releases. This thread receives a lot of messages per hour, so a lot of people might unsubscribe it... Just subscribe this thread if you want to get email notification about new releases only. Thank you.

All
With the help of filterban I have spotted that xFire causes crash with my patch during initial startup of civ4. As for now, just quit xFire. I will fix that in coming release.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Raggamuffin
Well, settings quite match your system. Do you experience any sluggishness right now? Does HDD blink a lot when you scroll the map?

If it's not and you are in the mid-age, anti-aliasing might be the problem. There's just too much geometry, especially if you fly high over the land or enter globe view - all of that affects anti-aliasing performance, I had to turn it off even with 9800 Pro, regardless of map size.

Alright. Well I've never had AA on and the HDD has never been busy in this game at all for me. It's just it's very very sluggish entering the mid-game with unit moving, animations and scrolling on a standard map. Let me add that I've never had these instability issues and crashes like some others, apart for some late-game crashes.

Thanks for taking time and respond.

 

[polyphemus]

iam confused. all i got when i downloaded the zip file was 2 dll's, harkonnen.ini and a readme. AM i supposed to instasll anything??

3) Set it to windowed mode (not must-do, but preferable to get stable first launch)

4) Set anti-aliasing to 0 (also not 100% required)

5) Set all low/high settings on the left to 'low' (same as above)

6) Check 'Low resolution textures' (same as above)

7) Then you may check anything on the right, i.e. effects and animations.

ALso, on what screen am i supposed to do the above. PLease put it in Newbie terms..this stuff is all new to me.

One more question: WHat settings for VM would you recomend? (Initial Setting? ; Maximum Setting?)

Here are my specs:
Pentium 4
256 MB DDR at 400MHZ
128MB DDR NVidia GeForce FX 5200 graphics card

 

[Solver]

You forgot one - "I didn't try the fix because I don't have memory/CTD issues with Civ4" .