Patch 1.09 released!

[koolaje]

It's probably better for the Moderators to try to compile a How-to guide to uninstalling the patch. This will definitly help everyone that has trouble.

Somewhere along the lines of:
1. Create System Restore Point #1.
2. Patch Your Civ4
3. If it doesn't work, uninstall Civ 4.
4. Load System Restore Point #1.
5. Install Civ4 and Not install the patch.

 

[KingAl]

i'm with radeon mobility 7500
glad that black terrain has gone after patched
but it seems i still can't see pigs horses etc...
any has the same problem as i do?

I realise this will sound condescending but I think one of the changes is to only reveal horses after horse-riding (or whatever the horse related technology is - husbandry?) is discovered, although I doubt this is your problem as you wouldn't complain about not seeing what you can't know is there. Alternatively, I think you can choose an option to have a marker where each of the resources are on the minimap at least. We'll have to bear with invisible livestock for now. But hey- if they can fix black terrain, I'm sure in a future patch they'll fix this problem, and considering some people are having stability issues (assuming that it is the game that is unstable) I wouldn't be suprised if there's another patch sometime soon. We live in hope.

 

[Gorbad Ironclaw]

Hmm, not a happy camper.

I was running Civ before the patch with virtually zero problems, only a little slow down in the end game.

Now after installing the patch it insist I don't have the hardware to run the game and turn all the graphic settings down to the minimum. I turn it back up, but surprise surprise, it requires you to restart the game. And guess what it does on a restart...

The game seems to run just fine even if Civ claims I can't, but it's a bit annoying... I think I'll just kick the patch out.

 

[vinstafresh]

12 pages in a few hours... I won't bother with this patch, I can live with the minor bugs in v1.00, since that works fine for me, fortunately

 

[chunkymonkey]

Well, it solved the yield display problem for me. But my movies are choppier, and i can still see floodplains and the edges of some of the tile grid through the fog.

I think it has worked out well for me though - the yield display problem was the most annoying for me and was preventing me from actually playing the game properly. Although I haven't played a full game yet, I'm not sure if i'm going to experience any late-game lag. [/fingers crossed]

 

[spa]

Made a big difference on my machine. My only complaint is that in the modern eras the game would slow quite substantially. With the patch, the AI's turn doesn't take a whole minute or so anymore. They're back down to a few seconds. Good job by Firaxis.

 

[Azrael Dragon]

So far i have not dl-ed the patch, but i have some recommendations for the thread :

Please, if you give statements alike " didn´t work for me, still slow as hell", give your PCs specs...

If you are trying to run a huge map on a PC with less than 1 gig its no wonder (regardless of the CPU power or graphic card).

I just switched from an 1,8 to a 2,3 gHz processor... for the new one supported 333 hz and the old one was runnig 266, i had to remove one of my old 512 mb rams.. the result was, that although increased CPU power and ram frequency, the total performance of CivIV decreased significantly. Luckyly, my board supported independend CPU/RAM frequencys, so now i am running its at 333 for the CPU und 266 for my 1,5 gig RAM. The game is running smoothly (only in distance, when seeing clouds, it starts to lag).
Ah, and its a GeForce 6600/256mb inside.

So, keep in mind that RAM seems more important than CPU power.

- 4 gHz CPU is nothing when only having 1 gig RAM
- 4 gHz CPU is nothing when having 3 gig RAM, but using an card < GeForce 6xxx or equivalent.

 

[alco75]

Now after installing the patch it insist I don't have the hardware to run the game and turn all the graphic settings down to the minimum. I turn it back up, but surprise surprise, it requires you to restart the game. And guess what it does on a restart...

Try setting ...

; Don't show minimum specification warnings
HideMinSpecWarning = 1

... in the main .ini file.

 

[Aks K]

While I won't say that the leak got faster with the patch, I have to agree that it's no better. I started a brand new huge map to test it out earlier. It was smooth as silk for awhile, but as the world started to fill up, the game started to slow down. Now while I can live with some slowdown, it eventually slowed down to the point where I'd get graphical glitches and a crash (either a CTD or just plain lockup). Alt-tabbing out the instant the glitches start to occur show that the program is taking up nearly 800 megs of RAM and over 1 gig of virtual memory. Add to the fact that these problems only occur on larger maps (which naturally require more resources), I'm inclined to believe that Civ 4 does indeed have a memory leak. Or at the very least, it has a serious problem in the way it caches it's data. Something is causing Civ 4 to suck up more and more system resources until things start to go crazy. That fact can't be denied.

I also have the same feeling. The initial performance is much better after the patch I agree - so they have fixed something. If I start 5 new games in a row the loading times goes from 30 sec to 5 min. The loading times before the patch where on my pc no higher than 3-4 min after continuous loading. This is why I would also claim that the game "leaks faster" now. I am no computer expert though.

I haven't tested long playing without loading so I can't vouch for that.

It still seem bizarre to me that I have to restart my pc to get the initial performance back.

Aks K

 

[Borgholio]

I also have the same feeling. The initial performance is much better after the patch I agree - so they have fixed something. If I start 5 new games in a row the loading times goes from 30 sec to 5 min. The loading times before the patch where on my pc no higher than 3-4 min after continuous loading. This is why I would also claim that the game "leaks faster" now. I am no computer expert though.

I haven't tested long playing without loading so I can't vouch for that.

It still seem bizarre to me that I have to restart my pc to get the initial performance back.

Aks K

I don't need to restart my PC to get the performance back...at least not usually. Simply waiting a few minutes and then re-loading the program works for me.

 

[SPQR300]

Hmmm... I haven't experienced any serious problems with performance. I play 1280*1024 minimum graphics with 3200+ 512MB RAM 6600GT. I think if you go fo gameplay and not graphics it's ok to set everything to minimum. I can satisfy my eyes with Need for Speed: Most Wanted or Far Cry, this game is about the gameplay experience. No problems at late game either, I load my saved games every 2minutes or so, because if I lose a unit at war I rather reload the game Haven't experienced any graphical problems either...

 

[Borgholio]

Hmmm... I haven't experienced any serious problems with performance. I play 1280*1024 minimum graphics with 3200+ 512MB RAM 6600GT. I think if you go fo gameplay and not graphics it's ok to set everything to minimum. I can satisfy my eyes with Need for Speed: Most Wanted or Far Cry, this game is about the gameplay experience. No problems at late game either, I load my saved games every 2minutes or so, because if I lose a unit at war I rather reload the game Haven't experienced any graphical problems either...

Happens no matter what level I set my graphics on. It's a compliment to the art department when you can set graphics to their lowest and the game is still impressive.

 

[Asterothe]

I don't know if I'm the only one but now the game comes to the
point of no return faster than before. I can measure it with time.
I have 512MB of ram. Before patch eveything was better except
I coulnt get to see the resources right.

ANd definetly the movies are gone for good.

Dude, you've got to be making that up. For a start, how are you measuring the speed of the memory leak? And more importantly, why are you the only one experiencing this? I haven't noticed any memory problem with 1.09 on my computer. It runs perfectly, with 1GB of ram, for very long periods of play. It doesn't get slower over time. Closing and reopening the game does not effect how well it runs (a reasonable check again any serious memory leaks).
Describe the problems you are having in more detail, and tell them to Firaxis. But don't just make things up, like "memory leaks faster now". It is highly unlikely that they made the memory leak worse with the patch.

 

[Aks K]

I don't need to restart my PC to get the performance back...at least not usually. Simply waiting a few minutes and then re-loading the program works for me.

Lucky lucky bastard . Now my loading times are 6+ min for a new game (after restarting civ4 without restarting my pc).

Aks K

 

[Firebird]

Well, no luck for me. My games still crash randomly to BSOD, so I have to reboot. No noticeable better performence. I hope this patch help others.

edit:
Oh, and movies are much more "choppier" now. I guess I'll have to hope for the next patch.

I should mention my specs:
AMD 2Ghz
1 Gb ram
FX5700LE 256 Mb Graphics card
Onboard sound
Windows XP SP2

I have updated windows, DX (to 9.0c with civ4) and all drivers. I shoot down every thing not importent and clear the cache before start of civ4

I have tried with different versions of the sound- and videodrivers, but without luck. It isn't a heatproblem either, 'cause I can start the PC, run civ4, load a game and crash after perhaps 30 secs. I reload, run for perhaps 45 minutes, and crash. Reload latest save, run for 30 secs or 30 min. then crash etc. etc, and it doesn't matter if I open the case and blow a hurricane (fans) through it.

And running everything on max graphic-detail, with sound and huge map isn't any worse than a small map without sound, and with all grapics on low. Allways random crashes.

I will try and reinstall everything from the start when I get the time. Sigh. For me civ4 is a frustrating and disapointing waste of time so far.
Game-time: 10% Problem-solving-time: 90%

 

[Fobok]

Haven't tried playing the big, late-game games to check turn lag, but my framerate is nice and smooth now and having no problems seeing the Wonder videos. Also played for hours and not had the memory problems I had before. Patch definitely fixed my problems. I can even play in Windowed mode now without a problem, which was laggy as anything before.

 

[rube203]

Just curious, does ANYONE have smooth playable movies in this patch? (Opening or Wonder)

 

[Raggamuffin]

Great. Now I can't even start the game. The splash comes up... and then nothing happens. ctrl+alt+del no civ.exe running.

The patch installed itself without a hassle btw...

*sigh*

Edit: Two reinstalls fixed it... (??)

 

[Mazruk]

I should mention my specs:
AMD 2Ghz
1 Gb ram
FX5700LE 256 Mb Graphics card
Onboard sound
Windows XP SP2

Onboard soundcards are notorious for causing problems. I've heard people report 10-15FPS improvements when disabling onboard sound (in other games, not CIV).

Might be worth a look?

 

[LeSphinx]

Greats news!
LeSphinx