Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[Scizor2120]

thanks its entertaining

 

[lukasbradley]

This really, really works. I can finish my GOTM now.

 

[JorenCombs]

thanks its entertaining

lol, timely edit

 

[Kilim]

Kilim
Try setting 'insane_mode = 0'. I saves a lot of memory, but at cost of some performance (not to mention stability). Probably GF imposes less performance penalty than ATi. You have at least 1Gb in both configurations, so 'insane_mode = 0' should work fine for you.

kettyo
You may try some value in-between like 150Mb...

Kalim
This is for you too... Probably my assumption of 180-200Mb for 256Mb video cards was wrong.

I did set the 'insane_mode = 1' to 'insane_mode = 0'
I even tried the vid_mem_useage value from 80, 120, 150, 180, and 200.

So far for my Home PC it works best on default settings.
Any other settings beyond the default would let it CTD the Huge Saved game w/ 18 civs on Post-Industrial Era.
It would load the game and even start games ok with this setting.
But once I load that HUGE game it would CTD once you see the map and not before.

As I said before, everything runs great on default settings and just tought it should be able to handle higher settings.

This is the settings I was able to run things on both PC so far:

Home PC:
P4 2.4ghz
1.7GB PC2700 DDR RAM
ATI xt850xt 256mb

patch_on = 1
vid_mem-useage = 80
insane_mode = 1

Work PC:
P4 3ghz
1gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce FX5600XT 256mb
patch_on = 1
vid_mem-useage = 180
insane_mode = 1​

I know my Work PC has a higher CPU speed BUT I tought the other components of my Home PC would be able to surpass its performance in the Performance fields.
Thats why I am trying to max out the settings for my Home PC when I am able to up the settings on my work PC.

I guesss I should just be happy that the Home PC runs smooth on Default settings of your Fix and that I am NOW able to play Huge Games on my Work PC as well
Maybe I will just put all the settings on HIGH now for my Home PC on Default settings and be Happy

 

[jordanandsteph]

OK....I really want to try this fix.....but it's all too high-techie for me......I need specific step-by-step instructions.........or it'd be great if it were released as a self-executing patch, like one Firaxis should have released (or will after they pay H)......

 

[JorenCombs]

Kilim, that computer you're trying to improve has 1.7 GB RAM, right?

Does CIV IV use that much?

If not then from what I gather from other posts you couldn't really expect much of a performance boost since CIV IV wouldn't be swapping anyway.

 

[Michelangelo]

I regret to say, that on my low-low-end card (intel 852... , 64Mb) none of the settings seem to have any effect.

Tried insane_mode on/off
Tried various memusage settings
Tried various graphic options ingame.

So I restored the Zlib.dll again to return everyting to normal.

If I'm missing something please let me know.

 

[Michelangelo]

lol, timely edit

Got the e-mail though

 

[phalzyr]

There are 2 files in Pirates main dir.
binkw32.dll and mss32.dll

BTW i don't think savegame loadup is that much important.
'Load a game' is just 1 click away.

OOOPS I forgot all about telling him that pirates didn't have a python or zlib...

 

[kettyo]

1/180/1 seems very good to me too

 

[Varyar]

@Harkonnen.
You, dear Sir, are a Godsend. I've downloaded and installed the patch and finally I'm able to do what I've wanted since I bought the game: play the Earth scenario. For the first time ever, I'm able to enjoy a huge map without slowdowns. It's awesome!

A million thanks for your hard work Harkonnen! Firaxis/Take2 should send you a check.

 

[seta_san]

Just asking again since you missed me.
Has firaxis responded to you Harkonnen yet?
Wonder why firaxis wasn't able to do this in their first 1.09 patch.

 

[shikaeshi]

Nice contribution to the community !

 

[jegui]

jegui
That's strange... Please try this 'id_mem_usage=32, insane_mode=0'. This should be stable with every system. Was it crashing when you zoom out before the patch? If not, please mail me 'headden@karelia.ru' with your savegame.

Bingo!!! The number is 56...

Thx Harkonnen I set the vid_mem to 32 and insane_mode to 0 and it all started working fine... I than set insane_mode to 1 and gradually increased vid_mem up to 56... The game is now a blast and it doesn't crash when I zoom in/out ;-)

You are a master!!! good work indeed! I'll report on my huge earth game if anything else happens... thanks a lot!

jegui

 

[LothainTheGreat]

I've loaded the patch w/ the settings recommended in the first post and I must say everything seems to be running much better. My scroll and zoom speeds have increased on the large custom continents game. Also I don't have any issues zooming out to global view. Although I did uncheck the box for "Render buildings in global view" (or something like that) in the video options.
The only problem I had was with trying to load my huge save game that became unplayable. Everytime I tried to load the save it would CTD w/ an error "Civ4.exe was asked to terminate in an unexpected way by the C++ library." or something to that effect. I tried it with insane mode on and off, I didn't change the vidmem from 80 however as I have a 128mb ATI 9800 pro.
It was only that save game so I not worried about it. So great job Harkonnen, this is a much needed fix for a lot of people.

 

[Harkonnen]

JorenCombs
Well, for small processes (below RAM amount) like calculator and such mem_usage usually almost equals vm_size unless they are swapped out due to some other process.

When the process allocates memory above physical limits, VM_size still grows, but mem_size just show amount of physical memory devoted to the process, so up to this point mem_usage <= vm_size.

There is a thing called memory-mapped-files. This doesn't cause vm_size to grow, but it causes memory_usage to grow temporarily while system has some data in-mem which is still not written to the memory-mapped-file disk storage.

I also think that simply reading/writing files might increase per-process memory usage due to caching that data in-mem until they are written to the disk.

So, if we consider disk operations caching as well, mem_usage can be > vm_size.

All in all, I am interested in vm_size on its own

 

[Leto Atreides]

Hi Harkonnen,
basically, I registered for the sole purpose of expressing my gratitude and admiration for your work.
It has made such a huge difference to my gameplay (well, before installing your patch, there wasn't really any gameplay to speak of...).
Since you were especially interested in receiving feedback from users with NVidia graphics cards, here are my system specifications:
- Pentium 4 (3 GHz)
- 512 MB (as of today, 1 GB) RAM
- NVidia FX 5700 graphics card (128 MB); I might add that my Asrock mainboard does not have a "proper" AGP slot, but only a so-called "AGI" slot, which is a rather dubious AGP substitute developed by Asrock...
Anyway, I really do hope that you are going to receive the appropriate amount of recognition and support from Firaxis.
Keep it up!

Oh, as for the harkonnen.ini settings: I have the insane mode turned on and video memory usage set to 80 (haven't tried any other settings yet, though, because it's really running fine now as it is).

 

[Harkonnen]

Kilim
Try running dxdiag.exe to graphics tab and see 'available texture memory' on home PC... That's vid_mem + agp_apperture. I hope you really have ~384Mb there, not 160-180... Otherwise that would mean that half of video memory is unaccessible for some reason.

Also, as I have posted for All, did you try to turn off SMARTGART with ATi earlier? Just that helped some people, and you might have done this step too some time ago at home PC...

kettyo
phalzyr
Ok, I will create a loader.exe for Pirates.

seta_san
No, they didn't contact me yet. Neither I did. I will do so during this weekend when I make final release with installer.

LothainTheGreat
Well, I have exactly same video card. Please mail me with your savegame to 'headden@karelia.ru'. Please also specify your nickname in this forum when you send me a mail, so I can match problems with files. Thanks

 

[Harkonnen]

Leto Atreides
Thank you Arrakis-bro

 

[marshallstack]

Now, if the game ran fine, please look at 'Harkonnen.ini' and set 'vid_mem_size' as

commented there. Basically you may want to set it to 200 if you have 256Mb of video memory.


-------------
Question... can you please explain this number better? I have a 128mb nvidia card (latest drivers) default was set to 80 which i left it.

128mb nvidia
1gig ram

What should i set it to? ( btw i didnt turn any graphics down lol it would make me buy a new pc to have to play that way!) w/ the Bluemarble mode of course!


Man just the default made a DRASTIC difference, i can now play on a huge map ~ before standard was this largest!