Patch News!

[Siggy19]

... I have notice huge jump in memory usage and severe slow down after you do a certain things. This is not normal, because in a normal situation, slow downs are gradual. ...

Not necessarily... slowdowns can happen suddenly if there is a big change to the data being used... for example when a map is exchanged providing substantially more information.

I still suspect that there may be a minor memory leak (since people could often play an extra few turns after reloading a save), but it does sound likely that the main issue was simply that the system was using the memory inefficiently.

Personally, I am totally bummed because my wife said about an hour ago that she is not getting me the laptop I was hoping for and so I suspect that it will be a few years before I can actually play the game... I knew the patch info would be out as a result !

Yes, I am thoroughly whipped. <sigh>

 

[Dida]

The game just crashed on me again. It has been doing this at least once a day. Come Firax, release the patch, fix the problem.

 

[KingSponge]

I really don't think it's a memory leak as they tend to increase exponentially with time. I've analyzed memory usage and I feel that the increases we see are due to more objects (units, cities, buildings, etc) being introduced to the game over time.

I've come to the same conclusion. I have FreeRam Pro running and it reports (roughly) the same memory usage no matter what length of time Civ4 has been running (I leave it running all day on Sundays while I'm watching football!). The slow-downs I'm noticing definitely seem to be related to the late stages of the game when the map starts getting filled with more little details.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Funnily enough, it's not exactly unknown for 'Polytubbies to complain about CFC getting all of the developers attention because of all the whiners over at 'Poly ...


The game seems to run without glitches for me. Nothing suggestive of a memory leak.

 

[Dida]

The game just crashed on me again, for the 2nd time in 1 hour. This game, in terms of stability is a total piece of sh*t. I hope they fix it in the patch.

 

[Venger]

HALLE-FREAKING-LUJAH!!!!

Fingers are crossed...

Venger

 

[Leuf]

But if you don't know that a horse is useful, then you don't know to pay attention for it, so hiding the horses effectively mimics the fact that early men didn't know they were useful and therefore didn't know to build their cities near them.

By that logic then wheat, corn, etc shouldn't be shown until you get agriculture and stone and marble until masonry, and on and on until the map is empty. We'd better not be able to see the forests until we get bronze working because we don't know we can cut them down yet. Whoever complained to Firaxis and got this changed I suggest you research "Ducking" so you can see the rock I'm about to throw at you.

It's not terribly surprising they have the patch ready just about the same time they were originally supposed to have the game out...

 

[Alphawolf]

I hope the Open/Closed Border problem will be fixed.

-the Wolf

 

[Brain]

But if you don't know that a horse is useful, then you don't know to pay attention for it, so hiding the horses effectively mimics the fact that early men didn't know they were useful and therefore didn't know to build their cities near them.

Exactly. Oil was also known in the ancient near east but nobody though it to be very useful (except marginal use in oil lamps) until combustion engines were invented.

I hope this patch fixes the crashes. Today I got kicked out five times in three hours and got two blue screens! But I can't help it, I reload and continue...just...one...more...turn. What's this site called again?

 

[Brain]

By that logic then wheat, corn, etc shouldn't be shown until you get agriculture and stone and marble until masonry, and on and on until the map is empty. We'd better not be able to see the forests until we get bronze working because we don't know we can cut them down yet. Whoever complained to Firaxis and got this changed I suggest you research "Ducking" so you can see the rock I'm about to throw at you.

That's not quite the same. Wild crops were used for food before agriculture. They just didn't know that they can saw the seeds to produce more crops. Stones were used even by homo habilis so that point is also moot. Those technologies just allow old resources to gain new uses. That said, I think making "hunting" a technology is just silly. Even wild animals know how to hunt. And BTW, why don't the wolves eat the sheep?

 

[MeteorPunch]

I hope this patch addressess the need for games to be played without cheating, but this was not addressed in the letter. It could be one of the MANY fixes, but not mentioned.

 

[amirsan]

Ahh... I really hope they are fixing the Black Terrain issue for most of the people that have them.

I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope...

I wonder if thats what they mean by specific video card fixes... any idea? Or will we just have to wait.

 

[kattana]

>Whoever complained to Firaxis and got this changed I suggest you research "Ducking" so you can see the rock I'm about to throw at you

OMG!! that was great...man did i need that laugh

thanks!

 

[Tephra]

thankgod, horses from animal husbandry...

i dont know how many times that has caused me serious problems..

</sarcasm>

yeah go the patch!

 

[Tephra]

Come Firax, release the patch, fix the problem.

are you blind? did u even read the note? Firaxis have already released the patch to T2 for QA...`

 

[Schlomoe99]

They posted this at Poly first?!

If they wanted to reach the widest audience, they should have posted it here!
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140863

 

[Dida]

a]are you blind? did u even read the note? Firaxis have already released the patch to T2 for QA...`

By Firaxis, I referred to all parties that took part in releasing this game. As far as I am concerned, the patch has not been released yet. Please, do not assume you have high IQ than others, before actually performing an IQ test. Do not assume you have the authority or capability to tutor others in how to read.

 

[MagnumPI]

I've noticed temporary slowdown. The key word is temporary. That's not a memory leak, sorry.

A memory leak, folks, is when objects/garbage are not cleaned up (usually due to malloc/alloc misuse), causing the amount of memory used on the heap to grow. Since the amount of memory used for a saved game is consistent after reboot it is not a memory leak.

I've written (and fixed) memory leaks by the way. This is my professional opinion.

You are almost right. The save game has nothing to do with the memory use of the program. The save game is just a set of values that the game will use to load back a specific game with specific values. The memory used in the game DURING opperation has nothing to do with this. The leak could be within the AI moves (which is recalculated each round) or with the 3D engine, or with the sound etc etc etc etc... All of these will have no bearing on the save game file.

 

[jayeffaar]

Last year, as soon as it came out, I bought Far Cry, a first-person shooter. I had a pretty good system that had run everything I had thrown at it thus far and expected no problems. To my dismay, the game kept crashing at random points in the first half-hour or so of playing it.

I started navigating the forums, finding tons of users like me who were frustrated that CryTek has released such a buggy game, and was doing nothing about it. Lots of people were having no problems whatsoever with the game, but lots of other were having problems very similar to mine.

Then, I started finding posts suggesting that some of the problems may have been due to faulty memory. BS! My system worked fine with every other game, so it had to be the game's fault.

One of those posts mentioned a processor and memory torture test program that I could run on my system to make sure that my memory was fine. I ran it, believing it wouldn't find anything and... lo and behold, it repeatedly found faulty memory accesses within the first 20 minutes of running. I went into the BIOS and slowed down my memory access speed somewhat (which I shouldn't have had to do according to my system and memory specs) and the problem went away.

Bottom line: even though I, along with thousands of others, was convinced that I was stuck with a buggy game, in the end it turned out that the problem really was with my system, because the game was pushing some of its components beyond anything they had had to endure before. Something like that has to be happening to at least some of the people having trouble with the game...

 

[NanoPug]

But if you don't know that a horse is useful, then you don't know to pay attention for it, so hiding the horses effectively mimics the fact that early men didn't know they were useful and therefore didn't know to build their cities near them.

True, hiding the resources prevents players from making decisions as if they are leaders from the future. The whole concept is to force players to think like the leaders at that period of time. It is not logical for leaders to order their workers to build a road toward resources that they find no use for.