Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[Harkonnen]

Smidlee
BTW, about running civ4/doom3 simultaneously. Can you please check it for globe view in civ4? Will it get waay slower? I mean globe view with a couple of cities.

Ad Hominem
Thanks for the info. Two releases (post #1 and post #640) have different problems... I am going to put a 3rd one which will benefit from both. I hope it'll work.

Pheoni
I have noticed white eye lashes even without the fix... Might be caching problem though. Same stands for green/golden ships. Sometimes this problem occures, sometimes not...

But I always get white eyes with some leaders. Mongolia leader has always one eye white, another eye normal. Probably these are side-effecst of memory-savings.

 

[Harkonnen]

ALL
Does anyone experience same FPS fonts problem as Zibby has? (see screenshot at the top of 36th page).

 

[Pheoni]

Sometimes, but it was not constant.

 

[Gen]

I have it all the time, thought that is how the font should look like, silly me

 

[firebead]

Thanks for OP this wonderful utility.

I am using my Toshiba laptop to play Civ4. Spec: Intel 1.7G, 1.5G RAM, nVidia Go5200FX with 64MB. The utility works great, no crash to desktop so far - played 2 complete games.

The only problems I have are the interface is still very blocky, and CG wonder movies very jerky or only play a few frames, but sometime it plays very smoothly - couldn't figure out why.

Setting:
patch_on = 1
vid_mem_usage = 50
insane_mode = 1

Anything else I could do to improve the performace?

 

[atomant]

ALL
Does anyone experience same FPS fonts problem as Zibby has? (see screenshot at the top of 36th page).

Like GEN, I thought it was normal too.

 

[Smidlee]

Dp......................

 

[Smidlee]

Smidlee
BTW, about running civ4/doom3 simultaneously. Can you please check it for globe view in civ4? Will it get waay slower? I mean globe view with a couple of cities.

I check it with your saved game and there was no difference in framerate in globel view. At most I lost a frame or two when zoomed in just below the clouds.
I also let your saved map run for a few minutes in both zoomed in just below the clouds then zoomed out in globel view and then checked my graphic card core temperature. Here is average temp with everything maxed out:
Idle temperature (desktop) reads around 50 c (sometimes reads a little cooler)
Civ 4 globel mode= +3 c .................. Age of wonders :SW =+6 c
Civ 4 zoomed in = +10 c ................. Rome TW = +15 c
Doom3 = +20 c .......................... FEAR= +30 c
playing Civ4 with doom3 running idle= +20 c

Even though globel view is only getting 3 fps compared to zoomed in (25-60 fps) it seems to work my graphic card even less. (FEAR with everything maxed really hurts the performance on my pc especially with shader 3.0 as my framerate can drop below 20fps in some places)
I wonder if solving the bad framerate of the globel view is key of having the whole game run smoother especially on older PC.

P.S Here's something interesting. When I check my GPU temp on an empty huge map (running civ4 only), in globel view it averages +15 c while zoomed in it's +18 c. So an empty map seems to work my graphic cards harder than fully loaded one especially in globel view. Hope this helps.

 

[Harkonnen]

All having coarase fonts with FPS
I will try to fix that. So far I can suggest checking settings like "Texel Alignment" or "Alternate texel alignment" or something like that. They are usually located in control panel for video card.

Smidlee
Thanks for the info... This again proves my words above that glove view is slow not due to graphics. In fact, globe view consumes much less geometry than start menu! This is something with CPU cycles within globe view. Though, these cycles still might be devoted towards something with graphics, this is not visible at D3D calls point of view, and thus not sensible for my fix

I still have a hope this is some problem with specific vertex shader in globe view, but I don't bid much on that.

 

[FullyCompletely]

Do you know if catalyst 5.12 is good with your fix? I'm using omega drivers based on omega 4.12 (only way for me to avoid CTDs with my ati) and I'm too scared to try catalyst with Civ4 again without confirmation

 

[Bast]

Again I'm having trouble with this.

I downloaded and put the files in the folder and started a saved game.

With your patch: The first thing I tried was globe view. It basically froze on me. It was taking so long that I Alt+Tabbed out and looked at how much memory Civ IV was using. It was over 600MB.

So I deleted your patch and loaded the same saved game.

Without your patch: I immediately tried the globe view as well and I got into full globe view mode in about 10 seconds. Which is not bad considering I was almost up to Industrial Age and almost the whole world has been revealed on a huge map with many many cities. The next thing I tried was I Alt+Tabbed out to see how much memory Civ IV was using. It was using only over 300 MB!!

So what is going on!!??!? Why is this working for everyone else but me???

I really don't have any complaints with the way my game is running but there are a few stutters (sound and graphics) here and there that I want to eliminate especially on huge maps and late in the game.

Harkonnen, please help me. It doesn't make sense that this can help others but not me.

 

[antracer]

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.

Running @280 made a difference... The game responded pretty well, and it took over an hour to begin to stutter.

Only one menu has has the dropout problem... the info popups for the "You've just built an Edsel, what do you want to build in Thistown now..." drop out, usually when I really need them. I have to just pick something, then go back through to verify timing and costs etc. The popups in the city screen seem to be OK, Until the game really starts stuttering badly. After that, popups have a mind of their own.

I think there's a conflict somewhere related to the inflight movies, which may be because I have them turned off. ( I have the ini file set to no movies, so I don't even see the intro. )

Globe view is 100% better. It stutters a bit on the way out, but once there it's smooth. I can rotate around the "earth" without stuttering much at all.

All in all, I feel the 2nd patch faired much better for me, but only because I don't have the movies on. Some people need them like I need the graphics all pretty, but it must have helped the performance to not have them on

Current game is a standard map, end game with everything visable, and I have show enemy moves on. I wasn't able to have a small map 1/2 visable without problems before all of the patches...

Thanks again for all the work. I wonder if you're like alot of us out here... It's more fun to play WITH the game than to play the game... I have a tremendous time tinkering with the turns and tech tree...

Tim ( aka....antracer )

 

[arioch99]

Hi Harkonnen

I've noted that I've no problem with gray box or face missing in diplomacy at the beginning of a game the graphic problem in diplomacy is later in the game.

But the problem with the score graph in info screen is there at the beginning. SOMEONE ELSE HAVE BUG WITH IS GRAPHIC, Someone was able to regulate it on his system???

Like I've said before, I've some graphic problem with your new patch, but the performance is better even on my low spec.

Thanks for your work and I wish that your break, help you to rest. Continue you are near of victorie.

 

[EdCase]

Do you know if catalyst 5.12 is good with your fix? I'm using omega drivers based on omega 4.12 (only way for me to avoid CTDs with my ati) and I'm too scared to try catalyst with Civ4 again without confirmation

I use the omegas based on 5.12 and it works perfectly.

 

[Three_Crowns]

I have tried both patche 1 and 640 on my desktop now - P4 1.6 GHz (socket 423 ), 512 Mb ram, GF4 Ti4800 128 Mb, AGPx4 - and as I noted earlier, I do not get any significant performance increase. Both patches does save > 100 Mb of memory, but it does not seem to have an effect. But I do not get any graphical problems either, so that is good.
When going to globe view the game freezes for a half to one minute - with and without the patch.
With patch 1, I had vid_mem_usage at 64. With patch 640: 128.

I decided also to try it out on my laptop. An IBM R40, P4-M 2.0 GHz, 512 Mb ram, Radeon Mobility 7500 32 Mb. It could not run the game with v1.00 but worked with v1.09 - with A LOT of graphical errors. I tried patch 640 with vid_mem_usage equal to 32 and insane_mode on, and I am very pleased to report that the game runs better! Far from great - but atleast it is playable. I get the same graphical errors as before (no visible livestock, very white leader eyes) - but no new ones. This mean I now have something to do on my five hour long trip going home for christmas. Again, thank you very much, Harkonnen.

 

[cintorix]

Hi Harkonnen, here is some infor for the data banks.

w/ 1.3GHz
128MB Asus
512MB

No major performance issues on std map size.
(Edit: Of course this is relative to 1.09, relative to any other game 3-5 seconds per turn would seem kind of slow)

Left vid_mem_usage at 100 so will bump up to 128.
Question: Patch 640 popup says I'm saving around 75MB. when i checked manually before installing usages were Patch#1=330MB, Pathc#640=350MB at the exact same game point. Does this mean w/ patch #1 i'd be saving 95MB?

Never had grey leader boxes before or after
Never had black terrain before or after
Globe view is no better or worse than before.
though as an aside i've noticed it performs more
smoothly when i roll out with the mouse instead of f11
(Though could be a time dilation illusion and it takes same amount of time to get there...)

2 minor thigns i never noticed before patch #1 (which i only used for 1 day)
Occasionally a single click shows no troops in the city and I have to double click to see/select them.

Occasional freeze after talking to leaders, usually after trading world maps. Lasts 5-8 seconds and then game continues as normal.

So that's it, except to say I had thought Kubai's freaky eye was put there deliberately as a twitch to remind me that he will rape my cities and pillage my women first chance he gets.

 

[karmina]

Athlon 2500, 1GB RAM, Geforce 6800 Ultra (w/iirc 256MB).

No problems with your fix, but unfortunately no noticable improvements either.
I tested it with different vid-mem settings, as well as insane mode (when alt-tabbing in insane mode and back, I get a black map, but everything's fine again once I reload a game).

Still horrible performance on fully occupied (late game) standard maps, not to speak of large and huge maps...takes a minute or more for ctrl-w or globe view, several minutes when reloading a savegame (followed by 1fps the next couple of minutes), awful end-turn performance, and switching though the advisor screens still takes several seconds all the time, even worse (5-15s) on late large/huge games.

All this is ridiculous, considering the comparably ugly and outdated graphics of Civ4.

During the last 20 years, the only games I know of that didn't run well on high-end machines at the time of their release, were Civ3 and Civ4.

And don't anyone tell me that's due to sophisticated AI. It simply isn't. It's bad programming. Reminds me of Linux TCL.

 

[arioch99]

ALL
Does anyone experience same FPS fonts problem as Zibby has? (see screenshot at the top of 36th page).

Yes I've it, but it's not a problem for me, I can easily see what is my FPS and memory Saving.

 

[RX2000]

Wow Harkonnen, VERY nice job with this.

I was having a lot of late game memory probs on my machine during the industrial/modern age, on a standard map. I have a p4 1.5 ghz with 256 mb of ram. I installed this patch and WOOOOOOOOOW did it help. I have almost no choppiness or anything now, even in the modern age with lots of stuff going on.

I know it probably doesnt mean much, but seriously, THANKS a lot man.

 

[CombatWombat]

I wonder if solving the bad framerate of the globel view is key of having the whole game run smoother especially on older PC.

I'll throw some odd-ness on the fire. My CivIV works alot better in globe view than it does in the normal screen. To the tune of 25+fps in globe compared with single digits zoomed in.

Chalk it up to the oddball Ti4200 that so far seems to defy logic maybe?