Memory-fix by Harkonnen is out!

[CombatWombat]

1.52 did absolutely nothing for my frame rate issues.

I even got a new video card (not for civ... i'll be damned if I upgrade because of some shoddy game), and I gained all of 4 fps in my test scenario.

I went from 10 fps on a GF4 TI4200 to 14 fps on a GF6600 GT OC. Yeah... something seems fishy there.

 

[Harkonnen]

Sisonpyh
If you deleted 'Harkonnen.ini' and the game didn't complain about that, then everything is ok - my fix is not loaded. You can even delete 'PatchByHarkonnen.DLL' itself to ensure that it is not loaded.

Seris
What has changed? Some hardware or maybe you installed 1.52 yesterday's evening/night?

 

[Seris]

Well, I've got a new GeForce 6600 GT that I use an adapter on my monitor for. This morning it wasn't sending a message to my monitor so I had to unplug/replug it for it to work. Other than that nothing. And yeah I did get the update last night, but that was before I got your patch.


***EDIT***

I just tried again, and the game is working now... Not sure what the bug is, it's probably with my computer and not the patch, though.

 

[antiwesley]

Just thought I'd post my results here on this rather useful patch.

Version 1.09
CPU: 1.8Ghz Celeron D
Video: GeForce 4 TI 4200 64MB
RAM: 1 GB

My most recent save file was around 436k and the patch makes it a touch more playable.. though my card's starting to show it's age.

Currently, I'm set at 0/0.
I had video set to 25, though that didn't help, so I turned it off, and left insane mode on, and that helped, and another try with it turned off made it a lot more playable.

Not smooth, but it's not as chuggy as it was when I didn't have the patch at all.

Any suggestion on how to improve it more?

(I'm getting a new video card in the near future, but it's interesting that it works with the older TI card. *grin*)

Thanks for the patch, Harkonnen!

 

[thamer]

I'm having some strange issues with a certain mod. I seem to CTD while loading a saved game sometimes and no one but me is having this problem. Could you give me some specific instructions on to uninstall your patch? I originally deleted your .ini before I installed 1.52. Is there anything else I need to do?

Has the mod been upgraded to 152, it might need some adjusting to work with 152? When upgrading to 152, you may also need to delete (or remove) any custom assets you had before, since they might not be compatible with V152.

If you can get the save file to load sometimes in V152, save it back out again and try that.

 

[Harkonnen]

antiwesley
First of all, my fix is useful only if you are running 1.00 or 1.09 version of civ4. I'd suggest trying 'vid_mem_usage = 100', 'insane_mode = 1' (or 'insane_mode = 0' in case it gets worse). Make sure you didn't turn AGP off some time ago, and didn't decrease AGP aperture size either.

Make sure 'patch_on = 1' as well, otherwise it'll only greet you with xmas and change window title

All
P.S: Tomorrow is the last day of xmas greetings from my fix for those who got annoyed...

 

[Diemort]

In the introduction of the game I can see in the firaxis games logo growth a problematic lag during the animation and also during the game - probably this two problems are connected. Perhaps this occur due to the shadow used by animation and probably causes slow run due to a certain incompatibility with my FX5500 256MB video card. I know that this is the last video cards I can use to play Civ4 but some people were can play decently it without lag during the game. XP Pro SP2, 768MB DDRRAM and Civ4 v1.09 should runs with no problem but isn't happening. Harkonnen patch (1..80-120..1) and NvHardPage (reduction of pixel and vertex shader) doesn't fixed the problem. If somebody have any idea what I could make to play correctly please tell me... Thanks.

 

[GqSkrub]

happy new years =]


I am running 152 with hark's patch. But you're telling me there's no real difference or that your patch is not useful on 152? It works well for me. but who knows?

 

[Harkonnen]

GqSkrub
Probably it's not even loaded... If you are playing post #1 version in full-screen mode, there is no way to know explicitly if it is loaded. I am sure that it does not improve anything with MemSaver=1 and 1.52, MemSaver=0 isn't usable at my system yet.

All
Ok, today is last "drunk" day in Russia - we're celebrating New Year (like USA celebrates Christamas). Then there will be ~10 days away from main work (bad for country, but good for fixing ). Fix must go on (c) and will go on...

 

[kettyo]

Ok, today is last "drunk" day in Russia - we're celebrating New Year (like USA celebrates Christamas). Then there will be ~10 days away from main work (bad for country, but good for fixing ). Fix must go on (c) and will go on...

We were pretty sure about that

Here in Hungary we celebrate both Christmas and New Year

 

[GqSkrub]

Well I play windowed mode and it says "patched by Harkonnen" and at the time i was still getting the "merry Christmas" message so I know it was being loaded and I know i'm on 1.52 because I play Marathon mode.


edit: i just realized that you probably mean your memory saving code being loaded as opposed to the little eggs that i noticed. So n/m on my post.

 

[barsidius]

Harkonnen or thamer,

I'm having a weird issue. I haven't seen this in this thread, but it's a long thread and I'm a latecomer, so maybe I missed it.

When I try to play the game, I see only my units and resources on black tiles. Occasionally I can see a river or trees, but never the actual terrain.

BUT, if I go into world builder mode and select "Reveal all Tiles," I can go back to the game and see all of the tiles (even the ones on which I have units) grayed out, as though I had explored them but they're currently under fog of war.

This seems very strange to me. I know I'm below min specs (2.66 GHz proc, 704 MB RAM, 64 MB ATI Radeon IGP 345M (no T&L)), but I can't understand why I can't see things in world builder mode, but not in game mode. It seems simply that the game is not recognizing what tiles my units can see.

I've tried 1.52, and I've tried Harkonnen's patch with both 1.00 and 1.09, to no avail. Any other ideas, or does the lack of hardware T&L support mean I need to sit on the game until I get a new computer (which won't be anytime soon)?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Harkonnen]

GqSkrub
No, you are right - that's what I actually wanted to know. So, my fix is loaded. Good... There is a way to disable memory saver code by setting 'patch_on = 0' in Harkonnen.ini, but AFAIK in this case window title won't be affected as well.

barsidius
I don't think this is something about video. Terrain in civ4 can be in 3 states in increasing order of darkness:

1) Visible (culture borders, some space around your units)
2) Revealed (not visible what's there, but terrain is known)
3) Unrevealed (you don't know what type of terrain is there)

By revealing entire map you do not change the state of tiles within your cultural borders, but for some reason this helps... I think it's rather game logics issue, rather than graphics issue. Did you install some mods over it, adjusted XMLs, etc...? Did you try game reinstall? I am sorry for general recommendations, but this problem is very strange...

P.S: This also can be a problem with overusing graphics memory. You may try post #842 version of my fix, and try resetting video memory by pressing ctrl+alt+up when it is loaded. Instructions are given in that post.

 

[barsidius]

barsidius
I don't think this is something about video. Terrain in civ4 can be in 3 states in increasing order of darkness:

1) Visible (culture borders, some space around your units)
2) Revealed (not visible what's there, but terrain is known)
3) Unrevealed (you don't know what type of terrain is there)

By revealing entire map you do not change the state of tiles within your cultural borders, but for some reason this helps... I think it's rather game logics issue, rather than graphics issue. Did you install some mods over it, adjusted XMLs, etc...? Did you try game reinstall? I am sorry for general recommendations, but this problem is very strange...

I haven't done anything other than try to play the game. I've tried in 1.52, 1.0 with your patch (v.842), and 1.09 with your patch (also v.842).

In 1.0 with your patch, the intro movie runs well, but the leader faces don't show up (eyeballs only). In 1.09 with your patch and 1.52, I get the leader faces just fine, but the movies run haltingly. In all versions, I have the terrain problem, which you've described very well. All terrain is in state 3, unless I turn "Reveal All" on in World Builder mode, then all terrain is in state 2.

P.S: This also can be a problem with overusing graphics memory. You may try post #842 version of my fix, and try resetting video memory by pressing ctrl+alt+up when it is loaded. Instructions are given in that post.

Have tried this. No luck. Thanks for the suggestions. Not sure what's left to try.

Happy New Year!

P.S. [added 1/1 at 20:40 GMT] One more bit of info that worries me. When I go up to globe view while playing the game (where I can see the terrain and cities, but not any units), the game seems to get the terrain states (1, 2, & 3, as Harkonnen listed above) correct. I can set my warriors and scouts to explore and watch them go from orbit, but I can't see anything they're on when I can see them. So maybe it is a video memory problem. Are there any mods that replace the units with ones that don't eat up so much memory, or am I completely screwed by the fact that I don't have hardware T&L support?

Thanks again!

 

[thamer]

...am I completely screwed by the fact that I don't have hardware T&L support?

Any other ideas, or does the lack of hardware T&L support mean I need to sit on the game until I get a new computer (which won't be anytime soon)?

Thanks again!

If you don't have HW T&L the fog is probably not going to work right. The exception to this are new machines with Intel Extreme (integrated) graphics which can perform it in software. I think the Extreme 945 series works.

Instead of a new computer, you could just get a better video card.

 

[barsidius]

If you don't have HW T&L the fog is probably not going to work right. The exception to this are new machines with Intel Extreme (integrated) graphics which can perform it in software. I think the Extreme 945 series works.

Instead of a new computer, you could just get a better video card.

Except that my computer is a notebook, with an integrated video card. I guess this gives me something to look forward to. Should I bother looking for a future version (or mod) that will allow this to work on my machine, or should I just put the game into cold storage?

Thanks again.

 

[Briareos]

If you don't have HW T&L the fog is probably not going to work right. The exception to this are new machines with Intel Extreme (integrated) graphics which can perform it in software. I think the Extreme 945 series works.

Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't something like the fog of war be doable without pixel and vertex shaders, like slapping 50% translucent black triangles over the fogged areas in another pass, or something like that?

np: Solvent - My Radio (Legowelt Remake) (Elevators & Oscillators)

 

[Harkonnen]

Briareos
As far as I know, vertex shaders of version 1.1 are supported in software mode as well. Just civ4 creates device in hardware vertex processing mode. I will try to release a fix just for you in a few hours which will enforce software vertex processing - probably it'll help.

 

[thamer]

Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't something like the fog of war be doable without pixel and vertex shaders, like slapping 50% translucent black triangles over the fogged areas in another pass, or something like that?

np: Solvent - My Radio (Legowelt Remake) (Elevators & Oscillators)

Civ doesn't require shaders. If your machine has them we will take advantage of them, but if not we fallback to fixed function (non-shader) code. That's why the minspec cards are GF2 or Radeon 7500 (neither has shader support). However, we aren't planning to support non T&L graphics (it's probably too slow to use anyway). Maybe Harkonnen can hook you up with a workaround.
Good luck

 

[afail]

hey everyone
was playing on 1.09 with hark on my laptop and had great luck with it.

upgraded to 1.52 and disabled the hark patch... with memsaver = 0 on I crash to desktop with the out of video memory error. with memsaver = 1 on, in a large game anytime i go into an advisor window, the terrain turns black and the game becomes too slow to play.

i am using a radeon mobility card, i believe its the 9600. the laptop is pretty new. any ideas?