Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[jansip]

Hi,
Everything seems to be working great with your patch, but I still have problems... well actually aproblem... the game get stuck often when a world wonder pop-up appears...
I was wondering could this be because the *.ini setting is wrong?

I have
amd athlon xp 2800+
nvidia geforce 4ti 4800 SE 128mb

what settings I should make for harkonen.ini -file?

 

[Harkonnen]

Gaias
Good idea! I will also check for AGP enablement since disabling it has spread too widely... I think other games' forums are going to be "spammed" in time to come by civ-fanatics who had AGP off with pre-fix version of civ4... It's actually like seriously downlocking your CPU to make a single game running.

Artagel
This will be addressed by installer version and by intermediate release. Yes, there will be intermediate release before the installer to test eyes/teeth/leaders problem since I don't have this but a lot of you guys have. I think I see what's the problem here, but this will be a blind fix until I get some replies.

druade
First of all, try subscribing this thread - do you get notifications? Secondly, click "User CP" on top. In the list to the right you will see all threads you participated in and there will be "none/instant/daily/weekly" type of subscription for those threads. Just make sure that 'releases info only' thread has 'instant' by its title. There are also plenty of options, this is the best bulletin board engine I faced so far...

smarpoe
Driver version shouldn't affect AGP settings enablement... Unless ATi changed registry key name responsible for that and you had it off in newer drivers. So far my patch does solve movies problems only when background rendering of units behind the movie becomes faster. So, movies improvement is just nice side-effect, but it does not happen for everyone. My next intermediate release will address textures as well as geometry, so this might solve movies problem as well.

Flasch186
Installer version will do that for you... Just look for 'releases info' thread in this sub-forum and subscribe to it.

DrewBledsoe
I saw "3d engine creator" in their job opportunities today. Dunno when it appeared, but at least it assumes that they refused from using 3rd party engines in their next games. Should I take part in it or not - they are on the right track! My thoughts about civ5/smac2 have become a little brighter.

NonAvail
Wow, now I am calm that it works with Win98!!! THANKS! Just all that hooking could refuse to work under non-NT/2K/XP. About Karjala... yeah, I guess we're ~500km from each other, not more, but met at USA server

kettyo
Maybe those ocean textures don't like to be in video memory or what? Close to that I think... and same should be causing gray leader-box and other problems like that. Please stay tuned for intermediate release to check it out...

Everyone not mentioned
Thank you for good words and waiting for 'installer' release. I would like to ask those who has 'black terrain' and cheshire cat problem with leaders to stay tuned with this thread (i.e. keep subscribed) since I am going to need a little help with testing my intermediate release. I will tell IN BOLD BIG LETTERS when it is ready to test.

 

[Harkonnen]

About future of final 'installer' release.

There were some things added to my 'TODO' as I read feedback, especially feedback on last pages. Like checking for AGP presence, solving ATI Tray Tools vs. xFire problems and such. All of that is not essential, but I want 'installer' release to be the last instance and as the time goes, more potential tester will unsubscribe this thread, so I am going to fire intermediate test as soon as possible.

This test will be like current set of DLLs and (simpler) .ini file, but it will test if the new fix core makes a difference.

 

[Harkonnen]

I am afraid to give expected deadline on that. Whatever deadline I name usually gets x2 once I shout it out loudly, that's sort of a curse with "guess-if-it'll-work" code. So I'll name 2 days, but expect 3-4.

The weekend is over and alas I have not yet managed to bring 'installer' version. I know you will say "you don't have to give excuses", but anyway - Harkonnen feels sorry

 

[Lary33]

Harkonnen your patch is great but I have a small problem. I am not able to load auatosave. Maybe I should change something in *.ini file?

Edit.......

Today afernoon I had first reboot after your patch. I played in Large map in hotseat 2 humans and 7 Al. I have AMD2000+ 768 RAM, Ati 9200. Ati drivers 4.12.

 

[Harkonnen]

Lary33
1) What are symtoms? Crash after almost-loaded or CTD or what?

2) Do you load it from the game or by double-clicking? (double-clicking has a minor bug which is fixed, but the fix isn't yet released)

3) Did you try to load autosave from game main menu (i.e. when civ4 just starts)?

4) How much time has passed since you had a reboot? Is it worth continuing game after reboot or it reboots again almost instantly?

Reducing 'vid_mem_usage' in Harkonnen.ini by 20-30 might help, well at least make it happening later. Also setting your swap file to some fixed 2048-2048 or more also should fix rebooting problems.

P.S: I tested it with 4.12 and 5.11 - no difference on my P3-1.3Ghz, 512Mb, 9800 Pro 128Mb

 

[FranklinNoble]

Just wondering what settings you would recommend. My current system:

IBM ThinkPad T42
1.7 Ghz Intel Centrino
1GB RAM
ATI Mobility 7500 - 32MB (my achilles heel... I know... can't upgrade)

The game actually runs after 1.09 patch, I'm just looking for opportunities to increase performance.

Thanks for your hard work! You should set up a paypal account or something... I'd bet people will be willing to send donations for your efforts.

 

[microbe]

Just wondering what settings you would recommend. My current system:

IBM ThinkPad T42
1.7 Ghz Intel Centrino
1GB RAM
ATI Mobility 7500 - 32MB (my achilles heel... I know... can't upgrade)

That's why I got a T42p. 128MB Fire GL 2.

 

[FranklinNoble]

That's why I got a T42p. 128MB Fire GL 2.

Wish I had a choice... company machine.

 

[hanskamp]

I have a Paradigit TV2005 (a Media Center PC with the functionality of 2 TVs, 2 VCRs, a radio, a computer and a General MIDI compatible keyboard). It is a 3.2 GHz machine with 1.5 GB RAM. It has 2 Pentium processors. It has 2 ATI Gygabite RADEON X300 128 MB cards. It was shipped with a driver of 2 February 2005.

- I have changed the CivilizationIV.ini file, but there are crashes after several turns (the bigger the map, the earlier the crash comes);
- I have installed a new driver of 22 November 2005 but the performance goes down to terrible...
- Following the advices in the first message of this thread the performance went back to high.

Unfortunately there are still crashes to the desktop despite several advises. Perhaps you have suggestions, otherwise I have to wait until Firaxes come with a patch themselves which finally solves this problems.

See also

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=145981

 

[sumoworm]

http://www.firaxis.com/jobs/openings.php

Hey Harkonnen, Firaxis needs a Senior Software Engineer, how bout it?

 

[Talamane]

@Harkonnen

Kudos

128 MB FX5900XT MSI video card
1 GB ram
Barton 3200
Driver 81.94 WHQL
Windows 2000

insane is 0, vid_mem is set to 60. Works great. A magnitude of difference in Civ4's ability to handle large maps. Wonder movies stutter and zoom out to globe view is slower, but NO CRASHES.

My earlier crashes were BSOD's with the 71.89 WHQL driver (page faults). Upgrading to 81.94 stopped that, but then i started getting random CTD's on unhandled exceptions (null pointers). I couldnt believe they werent doing exception handling on memory allocations or checking the pointer before accessing memory with it.

With your wedge, Civ4 is like a rock. On a huge map, it uses around 700-750 MB of memory, and deallocates it under 20 seconds after the app closes.

Might I suggest that if your negotiations with Firaxis/T2K dont go as planned, you go straight to the horse's mouth and contact Microsoft. Personally, i would like to see this code in DirectX. I know of another game that could sorely use this optimization (AoE3).

 

[Harkonnen]

hanskamp
There seems to be some threading issue with civ4. Try 'SyncInput = 1' in civilization.ini file. Your dual CPU confguration might affect this.

sumoworm
That what I was talking about in post #482 to DrewBledsoe. Anyway, I lack some requirements which can't be looked at with closed eyes. I'd rather apply to a job of engine architect and coder, but not entire team leader or disgn tools architect. These things are entirely different in approaches and in ways to manage.

Talamane
I am going to try it with AoE3 Actually installer I am talking about will contain a loader for any game... let's shame all the lazy release-coders we can find!

 

[polyphemus]

polyphemus
Yes. Since you have only 256Mb of physical RAM, setting everything to low is a must here if you want to play large/huge worlds. Then set 'vid_mem_usage = 80', 'insane_mode = 1' (insane mode is also a must in this config if you want noticeable improvements, but you shouldn't alt-tab frequently from full-screen mode with it being set).

I already have these settings. If i changed my virtual memory settings then would that help? They are:

C:\ initial=1500mb
max=1500mb
E:\ same as above. however i have the civ4 game loaded in this drive.

 

[ravarse]

I'm having trouble finding the vid_mem sweet spot i've tried it around 100 and have gotten jittery animations and crashes i've tried a few in between and have seemed to allways crash, though allowing me to play longer then before.
my system specs are
nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (64 mb)
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 1.80 ghz
1.00 gb of ram

 

[Ottoman79]

I am one of those people who registered this site just to thank you for your efforts. I'm currently playing a huge custom continents map with 18 civs.My sytem specs are amd2500xp, 1 gig ram and Radeon9800XT 256 MB. The settings that i use are insane mode 1 and for vid_mem_usage 180. The in game settings were no AA, all settings high and low resolution textures was checked. The game started so well. It was smooth and responsive but then later in the modern era while so many things were happening it started to CTD every turn or so. So I changed all graphics settings to low and kept other things same ( for ex. vid_mem 180, insane mod 1). Anyways it stopped crashing to desktop and now i can play my huge game and finish it hurray for this patch and harky

Btw Harkonnens was my favorite family in Dune

 

[lord_graywolfe]

well then ill be glad to see that installer program cause i dont know where to find my AGP. i know its listed under my graphics card info for the bus but that it. i have no idea how to turn it on or off.

oh and just to let you know, if it makes a difference, my graphics card is a Geforce 5200fx pci

 

[Loopy]

Thanks for the fix. It's definately sped things up a fair deal. Advisor windows pop up instantly now. I've got a problem with a CTD with alt-tabbing when I load files. It doesn't happen without your dll's. So I've got a problem of playing faster with your patch, or slower but stable without. Given how slow late game loads can be, doing something else while they're loading is pretty important to me.

My rig:
A64 3200+
2 GB of RAM (256 MB allocated to the IGP).
MSI RS482M4-ILD (Radeon XPress 200 chipset)
Cats 5.11
All settings on high, 0 AA
Full screen at 1920 x 1200

The windows error log says:
AppName: civilization4.exe AppVer: 1.0.9.1722 ModName: patchbyharkonnen.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000023b2

I've tried vid_mem_usage from 180 down to 32. insane_mode both 1 and 0. Same problem. Any idea?

 

[John L]

You have to put the patch files in the same folder as the civilization4.exe file. Before you do this though, make sure you rename the original zlib1.dll file, this is a standard practice when dealing with an unofficial patch or upgrade to an application. Then follow the instuctions for the settings in the .ini file. It worked for me for a while but I still got a CTD. Looks like Take2 and Firaxis has a monster bug on their hands here. I really hope they get it figured out.

BTW Harkonnen, thanks for making the effort, it did make a difference, just didn't fix all of the problems in the app. But hey, that's not really your job, its Firaxis and Take2's. Like I said, they need to do something soon.

Can't you just move the old "zlib1.dll" file somewhere else out of the way, and save it in case it needs to be returned? I have done this before on other cases, and things have worked out, rather than renaming them.

 

[lolmeup]

Congratulations on your patch, Harkonnen. It seems to be helping a lot of people. You must be overwhelmed with replies and questions.

Harkonnen and all,

AMD 3200 2.2GHz processor
Sapphire Radeon 9800 pro 256 Mb video card
1Gb RAM
SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS sound card
1.09 Civ 4

I have tried insane mode on/off and various settings for vid_mem_usage, and Civ 4 crashes to desktop consistently when zooming out. Any ideas for a fix?