Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!
- Thread starter Harkonnen
- Start date
I for one, am impressed with the way Harkonnen has handled what could have been a messy situation, the way the patch came out with that note in the readme file.
As for Firaxis, I'm also impressed with the statements made since the readme file. I understand why the statements were put in the readme file(after all, Take 2 is the company that had all the issues with the hot coffee mess), but it did seem rather pointed at the time I read it.
Regardless, I'm waiting to install the v1.52 patch until I know for sure if it will increase my performance with hark's patch or until Hark has updated his patch to work with 1.52.
Oh, and Harkonnen, did you ever get a chance to get out those disappearing gunships? they didn't disappear from play, the graphic just went away, but I could still click on them and use them if I knew where they were...and after an attack or two the graphic would come back lol
As for Firaxis, I'm also impressed with the statements made since the readme file. I understand why the statements were put in the readme file(after all, Take 2 is the company that had all the issues with the hot coffee mess), but it did seem rather pointed at the time I read it.
Regardless, I'm waiting to install the v1.52 patch until I know for sure if it will increase my performance with hark's patch or until Hark has updated his patch to work with 1.52.
Oh, and Harkonnen, did you ever get a chance to get out those disappearing gunships? they didn't disappear from play, the graphic just went away, but I could still click on them and use them if I knew where they were...and after an attack or two the graphic would come back lol
Atenji
Try vid_mem_usage = 120, insane_mode = 1. Make sure you did not turn AGP off, its aperture is highest possible in BIOS and you are running civ4 1.00 or 1.09. Hope this helps...
Use version from post #842. This way you'll have FPS meter, will be able to adjust 'vid_mem_usage' in-game and will be sure that my fix is running by seeing this FPS meter.
Try vid_mem_usage = 120, insane_mode = 1. Make sure you did not turn AGP off, its aperture is highest possible in BIOS and you are running civ4 1.00 or 1.09. Hope this helps...
Use version from post #842. This way you'll have FPS meter, will be able to adjust 'vid_mem_usage' in-game and will be sure that my fix is running by seeing this FPS meter.
I'm very thankful for the (unpaid, unlike Dell Support) help I get, but unfortunatly I'm not programmer enough to use it quite. I've gotten as far as having this little "memory window", but most of the numbers there means nothing to me. And I found no place there to insert commands. Any further help...?
Atenji
You are not supposed to understand what's drawn there... All you might want to do is to play with 'ctrl+alt+left', 'ctrl+alt+right' to try most values for VB_CACHE_SIZE between 32'000'000 and 150'000'000. The 'truth' is somewhere in this range, but probably nowhere...
You are not supposed to understand what's drawn there... All you might want to do is to play with 'ctrl+alt+left', 'ctrl+alt+right' to try most values for VB_CACHE_SIZE between 32'000'000 and 150'000'000. The 'truth' is somewhere in this range, but probably nowhere...
I just want to thank in public for useless email I got due to BlakesHeaven in the Harkonnen update thread. I find it very annoying that someone would make a post in a thread knowing that people have subscribed to it for updates. Now cause of that post people are thinking there has been a legit update to that thread.
Anyways Mr. Harkonnen thanks for the awesome work you have done and I hope you have a good evening when eveing comes in your kneck of the woods.
Anyways Mr. Harkonnen thanks for the awesome work you have done and I hope you have a good evening when eveing comes in your kneck of the woods.
Atenji
'vid_mem_usage' in Harkonnen.ini has primary effect on how good/bad my fix is. With 1.52 it affects nothing...
This value is shown as 2nd number by 'VB_CACHE' in my info panel.
The pattern for this value and game speed is about that:
slow-slow-slow-slow-avg-avg-best-avg-avg-slow-slow-slow-crash
For GF FX 5200 'best' is somewhere by '120' (120'000'000 in info panel), but in certain cases it might be around 60 or 80 or 150. By pressing ctrl+alt+left or ctrl+alt+right you decrease/increase this value by 10 (by 10'000'000).
This won't show up immediately, just try to scroll over your continent and check if game is still slow when you scroll over it for the second time. Initially it loads places you didn't yet see on the main screen. I mean that open map isn't enogh to preload everything with civ4, only when you scroll there, those tiles are being actually loaded. My fix reduces amount of that load, so you see real effect when you play for some 2-5 turns.
'vid_mem_usage' in Harkonnen.ini has primary effect on how good/bad my fix is. With 1.52 it affects nothing...
This value is shown as 2nd number by 'VB_CACHE' in my info panel.
The pattern for this value and game speed is about that:
slow-slow-slow-slow-avg-avg-best-avg-avg-slow-slow-slow-crash
For GF FX 5200 'best' is somewhere by '120' (120'000'000 in info panel), but in certain cases it might be around 60 or 80 or 150. By pressing ctrl+alt+left or ctrl+alt+right you decrease/increase this value by 10 (by 10'000'000).
This won't show up immediately, just try to scroll over your continent and check if game is still slow when you scroll over it for the second time. Initially it loads places you didn't yet see on the main screen. I mean that open map isn't enogh to preload everything with civ4, only when you scroll there, those tiles are being actually loaded. My fix reduces amount of that load, so you see real effect when you play for some 2-5 turns.
I have a weird issue. I can't see Food, Commerce and Shield icons. The problem was the same with 1.00, 1.09 and now with 1.52. However, many other bugs have got fixed along those updates. I haven't tried Harkonnen Patch yet, is there a chance that it will make FPC icons visible on my game? Even in city view FPC icons aren't visible.
Hi Harkonnen,
I've read this entire thread from page 1 to page 52 (yeah, I'm that bored). I guess I am one of the lucky few, who after installing the 1.52 patch by Firaxis, experienced very little CTD.
Prior to the 1.52 patch, I've realised that I could only play on small maps without game crashes and after the 1.09 patch, I could notch it up to playing Standard sized maps. I do try to run Large maps with 1.52 but as usual, when I get to Modern Era, especially towards the part where you're nearing to building spaceships, the game would crash. Typically, the game wouldn't crash at all and I can play hours on end until I finish (if on standard maps). Like I said, I'm one of the few luckier ones who can play.
It's been a long dream to play on a Huge map with 18 civs! I've yet to try your patch yet. However, I do have a few questions and I hope you will answer fast. That new job on Monday is waiting for me and I won't have as much time to play after I start the job
Is there any issues, compatibility or otherwise, if I use your patch with the current Firaxis 1.52 patch?
Another question, pirate user here, any other issues that I should note?
EDIT: UGH!!! Ok, I've obviously read too many posts in this thread that my mind has stopped absorbing so much. Sorry Hark. I'll wait for future updates from you in this thread. But you know, despite not using your patch, you've done, by far, a very impressive job for people who had given up hope of ever playing the game. Salutation to you my man. As technical as I can be with hardware, with programming, I'm dumb.
I've read this entire thread from page 1 to page 52 (yeah, I'm that bored). I guess I am one of the lucky few, who after installing the 1.52 patch by Firaxis, experienced very little CTD.
Prior to the 1.52 patch, I've realised that I could only play on small maps without game crashes and after the 1.09 patch, I could notch it up to playing Standard sized maps. I do try to run Large maps with 1.52 but as usual, when I get to Modern Era, especially towards the part where you're nearing to building spaceships, the game would crash. Typically, the game wouldn't crash at all and I can play hours on end until I finish (if on standard maps). Like I said, I'm one of the few luckier ones who can play.
It's been a long dream to play on a Huge map with 18 civs! I've yet to try your patch yet. However, I do have a few questions and I hope you will answer fast. That new job on Monday is waiting for me and I won't have as much time to play after I start the job
Is there any issues, compatibility or otherwise, if I use your patch with the current Firaxis 1.52 patch?
Another question, pirate user here, any other issues that I should note?
EDIT: UGH!!! Ok, I've obviously read too many posts in this thread that my mind has stopped absorbing so much. Sorry Hark. I'll wait for future updates from you in this thread. But you know, despite not using your patch, you've done, by far, a very impressive job for people who had given up hope of ever playing the game. Salutation to you my man. As technical as I can be with hardware, with programming, I'm dumb.
pzico
Well, there is about 60% probability that it will solve that... Just make sure that you are running 1.09 when trying my fix.
Kardyn
Wow, you're a "ram" like I am
Well, I am also the lucky one who had no crashes. Just I am on Pentium3 system, so I am bounded with 512Mb of physical memory by chipset, that's why I wrote this thing. I couldn't suffer sluggishness anymore with that level of graphics.
As for 1.52. I will answer in a manner of few notes:
1) With my system and 'MemSaver = 1' my fix allows the game to start but does not improve anything.
2) With my system and 'MemSaver = 0' my fix does not allow the game to start (something crashes in civ4.exe after intro movie).
3) Some people managed to run my fix with 1.52, but I don't know if it improved anything.
4) 1.52 has some issues causing it not to be installed completely. So I am not sure that people from (3) were actually using1.52, and not 1.09. Yeah.... that's it.
All in all, you might try 1.09 with my fix. Provided you managed to read entire threadgoodjob, this is not that much to do... If you do not have 1.09 as an executable, and it is hard to find, please PM me, I will release it at one of mirrors I possess.
Though, my fix does not provide gameplay fixes which 1.52 contains, and the problem with my fix and 1.52 is still a mistery to me...
Well, there is about 60% probability that it will solve that... Just make sure that you are running 1.09 when trying my fix.
Kardyn
Wow, you're a "ram" like I am
Well, I am also the lucky one who had no crashes. Just I am on Pentium3 system, so I am bounded with 512Mb of physical memory by chipset, that's why I wrote this thing. I couldn't suffer sluggishness anymore with that level of graphics.
As for 1.52. I will answer in a manner of few notes:
1) With my system and 'MemSaver = 1' my fix allows the game to start but does not improve anything.
2) With my system and 'MemSaver = 0' my fix does not allow the game to start (something crashes in civ4.exe after intro movie).
3) Some people managed to run my fix with 1.52, but I don't know if it improved anything.
4) 1.52 has some issues causing it not to be installed completely. So I am not sure that people from (3) were actually using1.52, and not 1.09. Yeah.... that's it.
All in all, you might try 1.09 with my fix. Provided you managed to read entire thread
goodjob, this is not that much to do... If you do not have 1.09 as an executable, and it is hard to find, please PM me, I will release it at one of mirrors I possess.Though, my fix does not provide gameplay fixes which 1.52 contains, and the problem with my fix and 1.52 is still a mistery to me...
Hey, thanks for the prompt reply. I'm aware that they have made some changes to memory utilisation of the game and the data size of the maps. Perhaps they have made some changes to how the game should utilise memory for graphic rendering.
I dare not even suggest to you what to do. It's not my area of expertise here. I swear there was a readme file for the 1.52 update but I forgot where it is and I am so not going to download that again just to read the readme file. I'm sure you know what they have fixed.
Ah well, I'll download both patches. It won't take more than 3 minutes anyway.
EDIT:
P.S. What "ram" like you are? o.O I'm not a sheep
I dare not even suggest to you what to do. It's not my area of expertise here. I swear there was a readme file for the 1.52 update but I forgot where it is and I am so not going to download that again just to read the readme file. I'm sure you know what they have fixed.
Ah well, I'll download both patches. It won't take more than 3 minutes anyway.
EDIT:
P.S. What "ram" like you are? o.O I'm not a sheep
Harkonen:
Sorry I've taken so long in replying to you. No, I didn't re-install your patch, so as you say - it would not have been working on either the laptop or my work pc.
Since then - I've got a new home PC:
A8N-SLI
Athlon 64 4000+
1gb ram
sata-300 drive
GeForce 7800GT (Only one, though)
Using that system, I installed the 1.53 patch straight away, and nothing else.
Using an old small game that had been running slowly on my laptop it worked fine.
I turned graphics up to 1280x everything to high, (though 0 anti-aliasing), and didn't turn off any effects.
Now I started a game on a huge map and it quickly started to pause for about half a second at the end of turns, and sometimes for a fraction of a section during turns, which surprised me.
The graphics card seems fine, and ram isn't being used much ( I use dual dvi monitors, so the second one can have nvidia statsand mem and cpu diagnostics showing while playing the game ), but the cpu is at 100%.
It seems silly - but if possible I'd like to cut out the small pauses.
Has anyone else tried to address this?
G
Sorry I've taken so long in replying to you. No, I didn't re-install your patch, so as you say - it would not have been working on either the laptop or my work pc.
Since then - I've got a new home PC:
A8N-SLI
Athlon 64 4000+
1gb ram
sata-300 drive
GeForce 7800GT (Only one, though)
Using that system, I installed the 1.53 patch straight away, and nothing else.
Using an old small game that had been running slowly on my laptop it worked fine.
I turned graphics up to 1280x everything to high, (though 0 anti-aliasing), and didn't turn off any effects.
Now I started a game on a huge map and it quickly started to pause for about half a second at the end of turns, and sometimes for a fraction of a section during turns, which surprised me.
The graphics card seems fine, and ram isn't being used much ( I use dual dvi monitors, so the second one can have nvidia statsand mem and cpu diagnostics showing while playing the game ), but the cpu is at 100%.
It seems silly - but if possible I'd like to cut out the small pauses.
Has anyone else tried to address this?
G
Kardyn
"Ram" is usually referred in Russia about tenacity of a person. It is sometimes referred as of "pit bull" in English. Though, I'm Aries, so my "Ramminess" is doubled By "ram" I meant your tenacity to read the whole thread... I usually get bored at ~12th page when I read something 
"Ram" is usually referred in Russia about tenacity of a person. It is sometimes referred as of "pit bull" in English. Though, I'm Aries, so my "Ramminess" is doubled
By "ram" I meant your tenacity to read the whole thread... I usually get bored at ~12th page when I read something Oh...haha... yeah, ram is sheep in english. Pit bull often refer to the breed of dogs known as the pit bull. I think the only factor that doesn't allow me to play on huge maps would be the graphics card though I'm quite sure this whole graphics card issue should not matter much because higher end games don't demand as much as Civ 4. I still think its about memory utilisation here.
Again, its not my area but from the error reports of the crashes, it seems that it's due to my graphics card being unable to support the game in its later stages. More to do with graphics RAM rather than CPU RAM. (Correct me if I'm wrong).
Again, its not my area but from the error reports of the crashes, it seems that it's due to my graphics card being unable to support the game in its later stages. More to do with graphics RAM rather than CPU RAM. (Correct me if I'm wrong).
Kardyn
If your video card handles small maps well, then it will experience same geometry/texture load in huge map, so it should be ok.
Normally games do not depend too much on amount of video memory, and the value that counts is 'VideoRAM + SystemRAM'.
With civ4 'VideoRAM' affects a lot on its own. I mean, that if you would have some very-very-old GeForce4 MX 440 with 256Mb, it would be almost as good as my 9800 Pro with that amount of video memry.
Though, VideoRAM amount is usually ballanced towards video chip, so most GF4 MX440 cards are limited to 64Mb, and there are rare models with 128Mb instaled. That's why though weak video chip power is mostly enough for civ4, it's matching amount of video memory isn't.
(only after writing all of that I looked again at your configuration... huge maps should be almost ok with your system, except 768Mb of system RAM might cause trouble in post-industrial age)
If your video card handles small maps well, then it will experience same geometry/texture load in huge map, so it should be ok.
Normally games do not depend too much on amount of video memory, and the value that counts is 'VideoRAM + SystemRAM'.
With civ4 'VideoRAM' affects a lot on its own. I mean, that if you would have some very-very-old GeForce4 MX 440 with 256Mb, it would be almost as good as my 9800 Pro with that amount of video memry.
Though, VideoRAM amount is usually ballanced towards video chip, so most GF4 MX440 cards are limited to 64Mb, and there are rare models with 128Mb instaled. That's why though weak video chip power is mostly enough for civ4, it's matching amount of video memory isn't.
(only after writing all of that I looked again at your configuration... huge maps should be almost ok with your system, except 768Mb of system RAM might cause trouble in post-industrial age)
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