Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[Zibby]

Zibby
What actually you mean about the font? Is it small, hardly readable, blurry or fixed width?

Fixed-width is by design to make digits comparison easier...

I will check it full-screen now. I don't know why it can run better in windowed mode...

The font is definatly readable, just... a little ugly (my opinion only). But the numbers do look fine and easy to read, just the letters. I'll add a screen dump if I can.

Also, my game prob runs better in windowed mode because I can now have insane mode set to 1 (where as full screen I had it set to 0 to enable ALT-TAB).

Also, now that I can see my FPS, Im on around 20 or so for a standard world map with 10 opponents in mid 1500s. Is this alright for a Celaron 3 ghz, 512 Mb RAM, Nvidia GeForce Ti 4800 SE 128 Mb? (Ive never used FPS).

 

[antracer]

I am primarily interested in following three things:
1) Do gray leader-boxes still appear (not after alt-tabbing, just on its own)? If the answer is 'yes', did you have this problem before my fix?

2) Do black terrain/colored trees still appear (not after alt-tabbing, just on its own)? If the answer is 'yes', did you have this problem before my fix?

3) Does globe view perform worse than before the first version of fix? It shouldn't become faster on its own, my aim with this is not to make it slower at least.

4) Any new problems / improvements as compared to previous version of the fix (post #1)?

5) Your old 'vid_mem_usage' (post #1 version) and your new 'vid_mem_usage' (this post #640 version).

1) I do not get grey leader boxes, although they seem to stutter a bit at first. Then they run good, then they stutter a bit, then they run good... ???

2) I never got black terrain in the large map, but the mini map is a mess after ALT/TAB. I found that if I went into the graphics box and changed either the screen size or the anti-aliasing setting, it would fix itself, then I could change it back to what I had again, and it would look fine. I used to run graphics full on high as they can go. I have since turned to medium settings, but I have to have the AA @ 4, or the game just looks terrible. This happens the same in both versions of the patch.

3) Globe view is pulled all the way back, yes? It sucks. But it's better than the 1.00, 1.09 unpatched, and the 1.09 first patch. Personally, I could care less. If I wanted to be a satallite when I grew up...

4) The game is degrading noticably faster with the second patch. As time goes on, the interface drops the pop-up up menus, becomes unwieldly and stutters badly. I have to ALT/TAB, clear my ram, and come back in. Then I have to reset the graphics. I find I can do this 2 or 3 times max, then I have to completely shut down the game and the computer. I have a gig of ram. Usually start with 700+. With the game fully loaded it's down to 350. When I ALT/TAB out, it will be 100 or so. After cleaning it will come back up to the 350 mark.

The biggest pain is the menus... once they drop out, I'm in the dark. In the old patch, it would happen and I'd have to restart or ALT/TAB. Now they seem to come back after the turn is over. ( Next turn I get all of the pop-ups again...) I play with the movies shut off, and have been trying to nail down exactly when it happens. Most times its right after a leader has popped on with one of their crybaby "you won't stop trading with so and so" messages... The more of these I get, the faster it degrades, IMHO, but I haven't played enough to be sure.

Also, The game loads up a little odd with the new patch. Not during startup but when loading a saved game. The first few turns, moving around the screen is choppy and stuttering just like when I have to shut it down. After that though, it's OK until it starts to degrade.

5) Even with a 256 MB card, I had to run with Vid_mem @ 150, insane @ 0 in the first release. I started @200 for 2nd release, then 256. It played the same. I want to try it @ 280, then 180 to see if anything changes dramatically.

I run a 2.8 Ghz dual core, ATI X600 256 meg vid card and a gig of ram...

Hope this helps... Be happy to answer any questions.

 

[DTRemenak]

First off, many thanks for the patch. Before, I could not even start any game larger than Small, and couldn't play more than a couple dozen turns even on Small before it died. Now, I can play for around 300 turns on Standard before it decides to die.

Wohoo! New error! It reads:

!ret && pVB , "c:\languags\projects\civ4memfix\patchbyharkonnen\com_wrapper.h" , 443

and is located in C:\civ4.error.txt

I get the same error. For me, happens at the beginning of some turn, right after it pulls up the first thing that happened that turn (haven't noticed anything other than construction complete, but could just be randomness). Restarting Civ4 lets me get past that turn and I can continue playing, until it happens again.

Athlon 1700+
512MB system ram
GeForce 3 Ti 200
64MB video ram
nVidia 81.95 drivers
All settings lowest

Got the error on vid_mem_usage = 82 (old setting of 32 + 50, as suggested), and again back on 32 since you recommended that Walter Hawkwood set vid_mem_usage to less than his graphics card memory. I would try 100 mb under, as he commented, but that would be some large negative number

 

[Thrallia]

wow, I'm completely in the dark as to why, on an inferior machine to lots of the machines being used, I've had less problems than most people seem to.

Before I installed the patch, the only issues I ever had was late game slowdown...

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

Hm... Nothing about texture memory, as far as I can see.

 

[kettyo]

Hi Harky!
I give my answers about intermediate patch ver too.

1.) No leaderhead problem

2.) No black terrain or colored trees but the ocean texture flaw still present

3.) First transition to globe view seems slower with insane mode.
I've noted this with insane mode and certain vidmem settings with patch ver 1 too.

4.) Screen scrolling is very blocky now with insane mode.

5.) Old vidmem: 220 (with insane)
New vidmem: 190 (with insane)
This way there's no swapping with the test-savefile (though scrolling is blocky with new patch)

I have 1GB RAM and 256MB Video.

Hope this helps.
Best wishes.

 

[kettyo]

Hm... Nothing about texture memory, as far as I can see.

I don't have either.

 

[MrDrizzt]

One for me very noticable improvement which has come with the intermediate release is that the intro movie now is alot faster then before. This has never been an importent thing for me but I couldn't help notice it when I fired it up after patching the program. It now runs smooth as silk. Before this patch it was really jerky and I never bothered to watch it til the end.
...

My specs:
ATI 9600 256Mb
1 Gb
2.8 GHz

Hmm... Now I noticed another thing about jerkieness in the intro movie. It runs very smooth as long as the FPS-meter is on. If I turn the FPS-meter off the intro immediataly starts too get jerky. Does anyone else experience the same thing. Not that it's important with a smooth intro movie but it maybe says something to Harkonnen about what is going on with other problems as well.

In other words: How can the FPS-meter affect the game (or maybe only the intro) in a positive way?

 

[Michelangelo]

On my non TnL capable machine with specs:

64 Mb Intel 82852/82855
Intel pentium 1,4 GHz
512 Mb
No AGP

I get the following results

Standard map all revealed
vidmem = 64
Vid mem saved approx 40 Mb
Movies stutter, but allready did so since release (however if I play them outside the game, they do play great)
FPS = ca 4 on medium zoom
Leaders are OK

Animals are dissapearing sometimes. Start Ok but vanish after a while, only shadows remain.

No CTD, with or without patch.

Also no real improvement with or without patch. Could it be b/c my card don't support TnL.

HTH

 

[Briareos]

I don't see much difference in the patch so far. (radeon mobility x300 128, 1gb ram)

That might easily be caused by that "wanna-be 128MB" (aka "Hype-Memory") graphics chipset that actually only has 32 or 64MB onboard and uses system memory for the rest:

http://www.ati.com/products/mobilityradeonx300/specs.html

Of course, if the patch tries to lower main memory consumption by utilizing memory on the graphics card better it has to fail if the graphics card in turn will use about the same amount of main memory *again*...

np: St. Germain - Street Scene (4 Shazz) (Boulevard)

 

[Harkonnen]

Ok, thanks to everyone! I am going to "reset" my mind today as I've lost the feeling of "how it will work". I mean I can't predict results and feel the situation around tweaks I make.

I will give my brain some break as I_batman has kindly offered

No, I am not going away for a week! Just until this evening (3 pm now) or until tomorrow. Then expect huge reply to everyone on last 3 pages and continued work on 2nd intermediate release. Yes, there is going to be the 2nd one, this wasn't as good as I expected, and another approach has born in my head.

 

[Harkonnen]

All
About globe view. As one form of a "brain break" I tried to play with globe view improvement a little (the following step when I get intermediate release working better).

As many have seen themselves (and I said too) - number of cities affects globe view slowness almost in linear proportion (it's quick as hell with empty map in world builder on hugest map, add some cities in world builder, and it crawls...).

Though, my current internal version counts number of primitives (triangles) per frame... Funny things were discovered about 3D primitives (i.e. everything except interface buttons):

1) Complete zoom-in: ~150-200k triangles (normal for FarCry).
2) Average zoom: ~300-400k triangles (something big for FarCry).
3) Almost at globe view: ~700-800k triangles (binocular mode for FarCry).

That's not good, but our video cards eat it...

Globe view: 50K triangles. Yes, only 50'000. A single city in globe view eats ~5k triangles.

I also tried to turn off cities and their labels in globe view. It didn't help a little... Is this s**t somehow biased towards CPU regardless of graphics in globe view???

Neither clouds layer affects anything - it's quick with those clouds, but without cities...

 

[maxon]

Hi! I'am looking for help with Civilization IV. I've install python24 coz the game wanted the file, now the game wants "hapdbg.dll" and cannot find it


plz write answer in simple english coz mine arent well

 

[Ainvar]

That might easily be caused by that "wanna-be 128MB" (aka "Hype-Memory") graphics chipset that actually only has 32 or 64MB onboard and uses system memory for the rest:

http://www.ati.com/products/mobilityradeonx300/specs.html

Of course, if the patch tries to lower main memory consumption by utilizing memory on the graphics card better it has to fail if the graphics card in turn will use about the same amount of main memory *again*...

np: St. Germain - Street Scene (4 Shazz) (Boulevard)

Not all ATI x300 128meg vid cards use Hyper-Memory. If you have a Dell i6000d laptop then the ATI x300 has the mem onboard that equals 128megs.


I have a Dell i6000D and I can confirm this.

 

[maxon]

ok if anybody have problem like me - its after "installing" all dll-s and python.dll too u should re-install the game

 

[godzilla_hiper]

I´ve got this system specs...:
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
Athlon XP 3000+ 2.0Ghz
GeForce FX 5600 128Mb
Kingston Hyper-X 1Gb (Dual 512mb)

And nothing have happened! I´ve tried your second patch and nothing happened either!

It seems the game patch doesn´t have any effect, It stays in 8-9 FPS!

Any Ideas?

 

[Harkonnen]

godzilla_hiper
Try reducing 'vid_mem_usage' down to 60-80. 8-9 FPS is not normal. I get at least 20-30 (9800 pro), and with map start at least.

maxon
1. Current version of the fix involves 'zlib1.dll' replacement, so I think you have downloaded it from some mirror I'm not aware about (another forum for instance). Well, it doesn't matter.

2. My version of civ4. has hapdbg.dll, and my patch does not affect it. If your version does not have it (D2D or German versions might be different), you may download mine (the one which is installed by Firaxis' installer, not changed by me in any form) at:
http://www.sampo.ru/~headden/hapdbg.dll

 

[godzilla_hiper]

godzilla_hiper
Try reducing 'vid_mem_usage' down to 60-80. 8-9 FPS is not normal. I get at least 20-30 (9800 pro), and with map start at least.

Tried it, but nothing as well... the same 8-9 FPS!
I tried everything number, even 700 in everything to check if it´s really working but it seems the patch DOESN´T WORK!
I unpacked everything in the main folder "D:\Games\Civiliation 4" and cleared manually the cache. Then I cleared using the "shift"... but nothing have worked!

Even when modifying the values the mem saved is allways 22,960,390!

I´ve even uninstalled and reinstalled twice... but nothing as well!

 

[Steve2000]

I am primarily interested in following three things:
1) Do gray leader-boxes still appear (not after alt-tabbing, just on its own)? If the answer is 'yes', did you have this problem before my fix?

They did before, but (so far) seem to have not reappeared. But it was always sporadic, so I will update if they come back.

2) Do black terrain/colored trees still appear (not after alt-tabbing, just on its own)? If the answer is 'yes', did you have this problem before my fix?

Not before, not after

3) Does globe view perform worse than before the first version of fix? It shouldn't become faster on its own, my aim with this is not to make it slower at least.

seems the same - but it is a hard thing to quantify.

4) Any new problems / improvements as compared to previous version of the fix (post #1)?

Movies are worse. More stuttering video (but not audio) than before.

5) Your old 'vid_mem_usage' (post #1 version) and your new 'vid_mem_usage' (this post #640 version).

old vid_mem_usage=32, new vid_mem_usage=82

(SYSTEM SPECS)
Intel P4 2.8 GHz
RAM=1 GB
Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440 (64MB)

 

[Woody]

I am primarily interested in following three things:
1) Do gray leader-boxes still appear (not after alt-tabbing, just on its own)? If the answer is 'yes', did you have this problem before my fix?

2) Do black terrain/colored trees still appear (not after alt-tabbing, just on its own)? If the answer is 'yes', did you have this problem before my fix?

3) Does globe view perform worse than before the first version of fix? It shouldn't become faster on its own, my aim with this is not to make it slower at least.

4) Any new problems / improvements as compared to previous version of the fix (post #1)?

5) Your old 'vid_mem_usage' (post #1 version) and your new 'vid_mem_usage' (this post #640 version).

1. I have never seen the gray leader box. Leaders have always showed ok out of the box, with 1.09 patch, and with both of your patch versions.

2. I have played one full game since your intermediate patch and had exactly one hill that had black textures. I had never seen this before.

3. About the same, I didnt go out of my way to check this and I rarely use globe view anyway.

4. No new problems but I have always had stuttering wonder movies, no patch or ini changes have fixed this for me. The game does not crash and I can click ok and skip the rest of the movie.

5. old 'vid_mem_usage' 180
new 'vid_mem_usage' 256