More on Civ4's problems

[Zukov45]

Brad, could you please comment on the Geforce 5200 and it being able to run Civ IV (64mb, standard iMac G5 card) well, even if a patch is put in place?? Thanks for all your info so far

 

[Brad Oliver]

And finally, general stability seems ok, doesn't seem that slow. Then again it shouldn't be, since I have a fast mac. 17" 2.16 mbp. I've tried with options generally set to the default, which is low. Which begs the question, if a $2800 computer can only run this game at low settings, WTH kind of computer is needed to run it at high???

I think the Intel MacBook Pros (and Intel iMacs) should be able to run it with the settings turned fairly high (with the current exception of multisampling - since that causes kernel panics). Have you tried this?

 

[Brad Oliver]

Brad, could you please comment on the Geforce 5200 and it being able to run Civ IV (64mb, standard iMac G5 card) well, even if a patch is put in place?? Thanks for all your info so far

Our QA guys are running a build with the performance fixes today, so I don't yet have info on this. However, my expectation is that it should be playable, albeit somewhat pokey. The 5200 is a pretty bad card for what Civ4 needs, so it's hard to tell if you're currently seeing what I would term as "normal" performance for that card or if you were affected by the performance bug that we're fixing.

 

[Macintosh]

I have now done a little game just for testing.
Therfor I have pushed all options to the max. limit as I wanted to provoke the system.
What shall I say: No problems !!!! (Beside the missing sound effects)

I have played till 2800 bc. and the units run smooth and limble over the map. Speed was Okay and I love this little effect when the warrior comes to the coast and a little crab beckon to him. So all I need now is sound. It is a little bit like acting in a grave without it

Edit: Okay - thats a impression after the first 30 minutes ...

Edit 2: My Mac http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2728726&postcount=22

 

[cheesewhiz]

I think the Intel MacBook Pros (and Intel iMacs) should be able to run it with the settings turned fairly high (with the current exception of multisampling - since that causes kernel panics). Have you tried this?

lol, I'm afraid to. I have tried turning on animations and unit details. I like playing large/huge maps and I'm worried about slowdowns late in the game. Also, coming from civ3 and civ2, I think the graphics aren't all that bad at low. But I'll try it cranked up

Other than the glitches, my biggest problem is getting used to the new interface. Personally, I'd rather have text instead of icons for build options (especially when my rollovers conk out). Oh, and the AI seems a bit tougher. At least the barbarians do. I'm losing cities and units all the time to them. Big change from civ3.

And Brad, thanks for all the work. Considering that the Windows release of Civ4 wasn't problem-free, it can't be easy. I'm just thrilled to have a current, native game that shows off the power of my new comp. When Heroes5 comes out I'll be one happy camper. Civ4 and Heroes5 native on my mac... my pc-gamer envy will be gone for at least a year

 

[Outlandish Josh]

The 5200 is a pretty bad card for what Civ4 needs, so it's hard to tell if you're currently seeing what I would term as "normal" performance for that card or if you were affected by the performance bug that we're fixing.

Is there any chance that an "even lower" graphics setting might emerge? I'm a fan of eye candy, and the game is clearly quite beautiful, but I'd give it all up for more playability.

FWIW I'm on a 1.33mhz PB g4 with 1.25gb ram and the 5200 card. I downgraded to 10.4.6 but sound remains very and scrolling is ultra-choppy.

 

[ejday]

Is there any chance that an "even lower" graphics setting might emerge? I'm a fan of eye candy, and the game is clearly quite beautiful, but I'd give it all up for more playability.

It would be useful. It seems strange, after all, that they have frozen unit option but everything else on the map (mines, etc.) are still moving.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Is there any chance that an "even lower" graphics setting might emerge? I'm a fan of eye candy, and the game is clearly quite beautiful, but I'd give it all up for more playability.

Try the beta patch we just released - it may help with performance.

 

[essentialsaltes]

I was very worried about what I was reading here as I lurked, so I waited for the patch before buying the game. I installed the game and then the patch, so I never attempted to play without the patch. My system is a 20" iMac G5 2.1GHz 1.5Gb running X.4.7.

I ran one game through to about 2000 on a small world, full screen. It slowed in the more modern era, but not too badly. I had a few game crash problems, but in my second game, I finally figured out how to make the game run in a window, and I don't think I've had a crash since (though I'm not that far into my second game). OTOH, running in a window, I find it harder (impossible?) to scroll the map when, say, telling a unit to goto someplace off the current screen. In fullscreen, mousing to the edge made the map scroll, but now the mouse just goes off the window.

I'm not sure what the game's *supposed* to sound like, but I seem to have continuous music (the only exception I can think of is when a game is loading, the music will cut out for a second when the load bar is about 75% done) and it plays a reasonable amount of ambient sound effects (cheers, etc.). No combat sound, and combat animation is jerky.

The only other weird thing I've noticed that I haven't seen mentioned was that at one point all the cities and improvements on the world map turned black. After saving and restarting, it was okay again.

I'm still learning the ropes of the game, so I'm not yet too concerned about the occasional crash and glitch. With the patch, I find the game playable and enjoyable, but I hope and trust more fixes will come in the future. Thanks to Aspyr for addressing problems quickly.

 

[ejday]

I was very worried about what I was reading here as I lurked...

Glad to hear the report, essential! And welcome to the boards!

 

[floppymoose]

Brad, could you please comment on the Geforce 5200 and it being able to run Civ IV (64mb, standard iMac G5 card) well, even if a patch is put in place?? Thanks for all your info so far

I'm running with that card in a dual G5 tower (1.8GHz, 1.5gig ram) and the game runs pretty well (modulo the various bugs reported here), especially post-patch. I do use the low graphics settings, though.

 

[gfeier]

The only other weird thing I've noticed that I haven't seen mentioned was that at one point all the cities and improvements on the world map turned black. After saving and restarting, it was okay again.

I reported the same thing. My daughter and I have both seen this problem on MacBooks and I was wondering if it was MacBook-specific. You've proved that it isn't (and isn't Intel-only, either), so I hope it will be fixed in a future patch.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Hmm. OK, in order to eliminate the problem of top part of the game screen being cut off by the menu bar when playing in windows mode, you have to have the game's resolution the *same* as the computer's resolution, correct?

Gatekeeper

 

[Brad Oliver]

Hmm. OK, in order to eliminate the problem of top part of the game screen being cut off by the menu bar when playing in windows mode, you have to have the game's resolution the *same* as the computer's resolution, correct?

I'd say smaller. If you're playing at 1024x768, and your maximum screen resolution is 1024x768, you'll never see the top of the window. You have to allow for some vertical space for both the menu bar and the window bar if you want to avoid this.

 

[AlanH]

When I do open it up on the main screen at 1280x1024 screen I use 1280x960. This resolution seems tailor-made for that situation.

 

[macwhiz]

So here's an odd one...

After installing the beta patch, my G5 2x2.7GHz was still having the corrupted VRAM when you zoom out to the globe.

So I decided, since the rest of the game was much faster without the CPU bogged down with unwanted threads... how would it play with higher graphics turned on?

I turned off "Globe View Buildings Disabled" and "Low Resolution Textures," and turned on "High Detail Terrain." I set all three graphics levels to Medium, and MultiSamples to 2. I'm playing in a 1440x900 window.

I did that... and globe view now works just fine. Not quite as smooth as Google Earth, but usable.

I'm wondering if there's some bug involving the lower-performance graphics options?

 

[Gatekeeper]

Brad, et al.:

Thanks for the reply. I'm curious, is there an easy way to change the resolution from w/i the game? And as I like to multi-task, would a lower Civ IV resolution affect any of my other running programs?

My apologies if the questions seem silly, but I'm about to embark on experiencing OS X for the first time on a new Intel iMac, my first Apple CPU purchase since May 1999. I almost feel like a neophyte when I begin reading into OS X stuff.

Gatekeeper

 

[Brad Oliver]

Thanks for the reply. I'm curious, is there an easy way to change the resolution from w/i the game? And as I like to multi-task, would a lower Civ IV resolution affect any of my other running programs?

You can change the resolution in-game, and the resolution shouldn't have a measurable impact on other apps, unless those apps are 3D games.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Heh. Not likely! BTW, are you an insomniac? I have an excuse for posting so late (or early): It's called working the night shift!