Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[azzaman333]

You only need this if you are playing patch 1.00 or 1.09 of Vanilla IIRC. If you are playing Warlords or the latest Civ4 original patches (1.52 or 1.61) this doesnt make any difference to your game.

 

[BIGDANO]

So, is there anything to help the folks who're at 1.61? I read the very first post and some of the replies on page one, but that was a while ago. I'll be searching this thread, but just wanted to get the question out there.

I have a really old version of Civ 4 that may or may not play off the install DVD Haven't tried it, yet. I have a copy of Warlords that, when I install, automatically updates to 1.61, and if I cancel, it will not continue the install of Warlords. Anywho, I can get the whole thing playing on the No CD crack, but I get the CTD after building up a few cities. I tried this fix and it had no effect, like I'm just now finding out it wouldn't. I did read the disclaimer on the first post, so I shoulda known better.

My specs:

XP Pro
P4 3.2
1Gb RAM
ATI X800XL 256Mb

 

[illu]

Hey guys, i dont know if this has been mentioned before, so forgive me if im repeating someone else, i dont have time to read 50 odd pages!

there is something you can do to help the memory issue, CTD's and general sloweness but will require changing windows settings, and may adversly effect other programs. i take no responsibility for any problems that could occur due to this. if your in doubt, dont do it! play safe.

ok, now all i have done, is change the windows page file to none. thats right, no pagefile. this is only effective if you have 1.5GB (maybe 1GB) upwards of RAM, any less may be detrimental to your system performance.

now, all that needs to be done, is to follow this procedure below, to set the amount of virtual memory the page file is allowed...

click on Start menu > Settings > Control Panel > System

this will bring up the System properties dialog box. follow procedure below to find virtual memory settings box...

click on Advanced tab > Performance section, Settings button > Advanced tab, Virtual Memory section, Change button

from here, we can change the amount of memory assigned to the page file, and what hard drive said file is on. you can have multiple page files, or just one. you can decide to let windows manage the size, set your own size or have no page file (No Paging File).

ok, nearly there. click on which hard drive the paging file is assigned on, and then click on No Paging File button. you must click on Set button slightly to the right, so the change is effected.

now once you have done that, click Ok button at the bottom and your all done! your system will ask you to restart, click on Yes to restart your computer so the change is applied. (saving anything that is open first of course)

to reverse this change, you can take the steps above again and enable the page file on your chosen drive. either select windows managed page file, or set the amount yourself. (if you set the amount yourself, i strongly advise the min. and max. amount to be the same ie 1024 min 1024 max, and 1.5x the amount of RAM you have)

removing the page file can have a positive effect on overall system performance, but only if you have 1.5GB or more of physical RAM. to put it simply, if no page file is present on the system, programs will use your physical RAM to store any information it requires. so if you have little physical RAM, it can cause problems if you do not use a page file.

doing this has mainly increased stability in games that are in the later stages, also, if you use windowed mode and tab to other windows frequently.

i hope the above helps you, but it will not be everyone's solution, as everyone has a different system. like i said before, if it makes no difference or has a negative effect, you can follow the steps again and reverse the change.

again, apologies if this has been previosly covered.

regards, illusion.

 

[Willem]

removing the page file can have a positive effect on overall system performance, but only if you have 1.5GB or more of physical RAM. to put it simply, if no page file is present on the system, programs will use your physical RAM to store any information it requires. so if you have little physical RAM, it can cause problems if you do not use a page file.

That's not necessarily true. Many programs look for the pagefile even when they have sufficient memory. By removing it as you suggest, these programs will either not run or crash on startup. I think this is really bad advice you're giving out here, there's a lot better ways of improving performance than taking this drastic measure. For one thing, it's generally not necessary if you have sufficient RAM. Most programs will use up physical RAM first, and only access virtual RAM if they're running short.

 

[illu]

That's not necessarily true. Many programs look for the pagefile even when they have sufficient memory. By removing it as you suggest, these programs will either not run or crash on startup. I think this is really bad advice you're giving out here, there's a lot better ways of improving performance than taking this drastic measure. For one thing, it's generally not necessary if you have sufficient RAM. Most programs will use up physical RAM first, and only access virtual RAM if they're running short.

--

Civ4 uses 10MB odd of physical ram, and puts the rest in the pagefile. not using a pagefile means civ4 has no choice but to use real memory, not hard disk space which is incredibly slow.

Its not such a drastic measure, if you have enough ram, like most people do nowadays, a pagefile isnt as important as you think. ive not heard of any programs that do not run or crash unless there is a pagefile present.

most popular tweak programs have an option to turn the pagefile off for systems with enough ram, because this means programs use ram rather than hard drive space. hard drives read and write data on a scale of thousands of times slower than ram.

as a pc engineer i have plenty of experience with virtual mem, and so far havent come across any real issues by disabling the PF. it may be an issue if you had many processes running, say a few programs that are ram hungry. although running these at the same time as a game like civ4 sounds over the top.

it seems to me though that doing this has increased stability in later games, where you have many civs and units on the map. using virtual memory in this case appears to worsen the situation, especially if you play windowed and alt tab.

 

[kevinman4404]

I'm having problems with the .ini too. I use warlords, but it should still have some functionality. When it loads it says it can't open it, and I've tried deleting it (like I THINK was what the person above was trying to suggest).

Any ideas?

 

[Willem]

I'm having problems with the .ini too. I use warlords, but it should still have some functionality. When it loads it says it can't open it, and I've tried deleting it (like I THINK was what the person above was trying to suggest).

Any ideas?

Why are you dragging this thread up yet again? Harkonnen's fix only works for vanilla Civ, before there were ever any patches for it. It's not be used for anything else since the very first first patch fixed the things he was working on. This fix is obsolete, redundant, no longer necessary, and if you would have bothered to do some reading on this issue you would have realized that. Now quit wasting everyone's time and let this thread die the way it should have a long time ago.

 

[kevinman4404]

it was a comment revolved around the way the person worded the question, which made it seem like it could potentially have mp functionality. I know its not MEANT for warlords, though its a pity.

Also, I'm sure although the "balance of civilizations as we know it" hasnt gone completely out of balance, I should have checked the date on the posts, especially since I search more than I browse.

RIP thread

 

[joannabailey]

hey i need help...

i just had a new HD put into my comp and now civ5 is giving me a message saying "memory allocation failure" can you send me the link fore a fix???

im running the game on a 2 GB RAM and a 1.73Ghz... is that good?

 

[mechaerik]

Civ5 or Civ4?

Either way, from what I can tell this only works with vanilla, and apparently not even the latest patch.