Playing big maps, computer performance, how?

[Zero-Sum]

Hey, I've always liked the big maps, but have been limited to standard size, because my computer which is not too (bought it last year), seems to have problems hurrying up in between turns. The biggger the worse, especially in marathon games. Installing the BUG mod seemed to make the game lag a bit more, I was going to uninstall it but realized I just need the mod! Now i'm playing standard size maps, epic speed, just because of the lag later in the game. I know theres more units, calculations etc, but I'm sure people play marathon games on large or huge maps.

Besides a new PC, what can I do to speed things up?

 

[Willem]

Save your game and reboot once in awhile. There's some sort of memory/CPU leak that starts showing up at around the Renaissance era. The game will start to lag and become sluggish. If you reboot the game though, it will clear up and function much better for awhile. I usually need to reboot after 2-3 hours of playing in the later game because of this problem.

 

[Zero-Sum]

I noticed reloading the game helps a bit, but not for long, especially late in the game. And restarting the game is not a fun idea, from loading Civ IV until the saved game actually loads can take a minute or more at times. I wanted to get the 3.19 patch but I am scared it will slow it down more, as some people report.

 

[Hasuike]

Get more RAM and then upgrade your video card if you need to?

 

[Willem]

I wanted to get the 3.19 patch but I am scared it will slow it down more, as some people report.

I haven't noticed any difference in the game using the 3.19 patch. As Hasuike mentioned more RAM might help you out. You don't mention what you have but you pretty much need at least 2 gig in order to play Huge maps on Marathon. More if you're running Vista. A decent video card will help too, though you don't need one that's top of the line. Other than that leak I mentioned, I have no problems playing the game with my AMD X2 6000+ and a 8800GT, and 4 gig of RAM. And I'm playing a slightly larger than Huge map with 12 civs, not the standard 11.

 

[mariogreymist]

Video card isn't an issue for performance, unless you want high quality graphics and anti-aliasing for your huge map. More processing power and RAM is essential. I hardly played the game when I first got it, because playing on any map larger than small created performance issues and potential crashes. My current machine (Pentium duocoreE66 2.66ghz, 3gb RAM) has no considerable problems running a huge map, even when I go postal and build a 400 unit attack force and go nuts on the globe. After extended gameplay, I do see some slowing though. This is a result of heat, and can be remedied by taking a meal break. The difference between running with my 8800GTS video card and my old 7600GT is simply how high I can set the graphics. It doesn't affect gameplay.

also: it would help to know your machine's specs. Maybe you have plenty of processing power, but need RAM or vice versa. It's unlikely you need both if you bought it last year.

 

[Jaybe]

I like huge/marathon games myself (and that's all I play). I spent $750 on my computer & vid card (at a store, not personally slapped together,) in 2005, and am okay with late game speed.

If you have a decent computer, and you restart the game after playing for 4+ hours, the simplest remedy might be ...
your definition of "too much game lag."

If my game lags 5 minutes sometimes in late game, it's not a problem. Of course, it could be if it did it all the time. If a heavy-action turn has a 10+ minute delay I might become concerned that it has frozen up, but in my current game it delayed that long once and it was copacetic.

 

[Willem]

Video card isn't an issue for performance, unless you want high quality graphics and anti-aliasing for your huge map.

That's not true at all. I started out playing Civ 4 on a Radeon 9550 with 256 meg VRAM. I couldn't play anything beyond Standard maps without the game crashing on me in the late game, even with my settings on Low. It was only after upgrading to a X800 that I was able to play Huge maps, and even then there was quite a bit of lag in the late game. All that is gone with my 8800GT though. Civ 4 doesn't need a high end graphics card, but it does require one that's decent.

 

[sabo]

I'm surprised you are having a problem with a year old computer. I'd guess the same thing Hasuike said, some new computers just don't come with enough RAM. It's inexpensive and Windows Loves Memory,

 

[davelisowski]

but with a huge map and tens, maybe hundreds of cities, who needs to spend 20 min. on a turn in the late game?

it's fun to actually complete games, imho. i couldn't stand that. i would have to quit.

 

[Adria]

I have the same problem, but I'm also playing on a 4 year old laptop so it's to be expected. I usually just steal my bf's laptop when I want to play on a large map.

Have you gone into the options menu and lowered all the animation and graphics settings? Turn off animation of workers and battles, switch to lower resolution graphics, etc. That helped some with my computer.

 

[sabo]

but with a huge map and tens, maybe hundreds of cities, who needs to spend 20 min. on a turn in the late game?

it's fun to actually complete games, imho. i couldn't stand that. i would have to quit.

Something is amiss Dave, my laptop is also about a year old and by no means does it have a ton of horse power. (Vista, Duo Core, 2.1 ghz, 3 gigs RAM.) I like large maps and have even tried huge and never has a turn taken 20 min.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

but with a huge map and tens, maybe hundreds of cities, who needs to spend 20 min. on a turn in the late game?

20 minutes? OMG! I'd doze off.

 

[mariogreymist]

That's not true at all. I started out playing Civ 4 on a Radeon 9550 with 256 meg VRAM. I couldn't play anything beyond Standard maps without the game crashing on me in the late game, even with my settings on Low. It was only after upgrading to a X800 that I was able to play Huge maps, and even then there was quite a bit of lag in the late game. All that is gone with my 8800GT though. Civ 4 doesn't need a high end graphics card, but it does require one that's decent.

Civ just recognized the inferior chipset on the first two cards, and was waiting for an NVidia card.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Civ just recognized the inferior chipset on the first two cards, and was waiting for an NVidia card.

Do you mean to say that Willem's computer was deliberately sabotaging itself by asking for an Nvidia card?

Wow. I've never seen a computer make itself incompatible and problem prone on purpose before.

Radeon all the way, baby!

 

[sabo]

THat's why Nvidia's are so pricey, they have all these software companies advertising for them.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

THat's why Nvidia's are so pricey, they have all these software companies advertising for them.

Yup. And spin doctors are pretty expensive, too, these days.

 

[davelisowski]

Something is amiss Dave, my laptop is also about a year old and by no means does it have a ton of horse power. (Vista, Duo Core, 2.1 ghz, 3 gigs RAM.) I like large maps and have even tried huge and never has a turn taken 20 min.

Hmm. I play on my laptop too. I haven't tried anything bigger than a larger map. It was painful to get through the endgame on that map so i quit.

On my PC however, I've played 2 huge maps, and both times my empires grew so large that I got sick of trying to manage that many cities and units.

I didn't mean you click the red button at the end of the turn and sit there for 20 min. I mean everything that I need to do takes that long to plan out... It gets worse with Flight. Once I have fighters and bombers that recon the map, turns get excruciatingly long. I can't figure out how to make them recon the same tile forever. That does take a long time, but it reveals everything and lets me use the Military Advisor more efficiently. It also reveals all the 'enemy' troop movements.

So yeah, 20 min is an exaggeration, but it could happen.

:edit:
Oh and in response to the nVidia stuff... Yeah, my laptop is an AMD Turion64 x2 with an ATI Radeon X1200 and 4GB RAM. My PC tower is an Intel E8500 with an nVidia 285GTX and 3GB RAM. The nVidia runs more smoothly (I don't mean in terms of power b/c of course it's way more powerful).

 

[mariogreymist]

Hmm. I play on my laptop too. I haven't tried anything bigger than a larger map. It was painful to get through the endgame on that map so i quit.

On my PC however, I've played 2 huge maps, and both times my empires grew so large that I got sick of trying to manage that many cities and units.

I didn't mean you click the red button at the end of the turn and sit there for 20 min. I mean everything that I need to do takes that long to plan out... It gets worse with Flight. Once I have fighters and bombers that recon the map, turns get excruciatingly long. I can't figure out how to make them recon the same tile forever. That does take a long time, but it reveals everything and lets me use the Military Advisor more efficiently. It also reveals all the 'enemy' troop movements.

So yeah, 20 min is an exaggeration, but it could happen.

I've been in two theatre wars on huge maps where recon, troop movements, and attacks easily took that long. A way to automate (Just tell a unit to keep doing the same thing, every turn, until further notice...doesn't seem complicated) aerial recon would cut the time in half, in many cases. That's one game upgrade I'd love to see.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

:edit:
Oh and in response to the nVidia stuff... Yeah, my laptop is an AMD Turion64 x2 with an ATI Radeon X1200 and 4GB RAM. My PC tower is an Intel E8500 with an nVidia 285GTX and 3GB RAM. The nVidia runs more smoothly (I don't mean in terms of power b/c of course it's way more powerful).

Don't worry Dave, I'm just funnin' ya. I have no problem with Nvidia, I just use ATI because my motherboard is optimized for those cards. "Dragon" platform and all of that marketing nonsense. My old Nvidia card was an excellent little piece of hardware. I'd still use it if the machine hadn't caught fire.