"Please try reducing your graphics settings."?

[kazapp]

I got this error message crashing BtS (see attached screenshot) when I tried to take a screenshot.

As it worked fine before I got myself a nice new screen I suspect this isn't a bug as much as simply a limitation. It worked at 1152x864 but now now, at 1600x1050.

Anyone care to shed some light on this? Such as
...am my guess correct? Or is it my graphics card running out of free memory (though why the screenshot needs to be allocated in video memory, rather than main memory, is beyond me)?
...can this be worked around?
...any other tips & hints?

Thanks all!

 

[ori]

could you post your dxdiag results?

 

[kazapp]

could you post your dxdiag results?

Sure, but why?

Are you saying that you can make screenshots at any screen resolution? And that the error might lie in my configuration?

My main question is if there's a known limit in the Civ screenshot code (the thing called 'NiDX9Renderer')?

Best Regards,
Kazapp

 

[ori]

I'd just like to know what amount of memory your graphics card has.
dxdiag has nothing to do with screenshots and there is no Civ limit to that. However Civ is very memory intensive and with higher resolutions it puts a higher strain on your graphics card. The video memory allocation failure just tells you that it ran out of memory to perform all calculations.
That this is caused when doing a screenshot is likely coincidence - though the game might try to store some of its screenshot making process in the card memory - you could try setting the screenshot format to jpg - in the civilizationIV.ini, though I doubt that this will make much of a difference.
Sometimes however a different card driver can help - and the age of your card driver is also something dxdiag will tell you.
You can reduce most graphics settings in the ingame options - if that does not work the civilizationIV.ini contains a few more settings to try, but they tend to make the game ugly.

 

[Commander Bello]

This error may as well be related to some problems with VISTA (don't know if you run it) and NVIDIA drivers.

It did occur on my machine some days ago (playing the RoM-mod, which puts some stress to the configuration due to over-sized maps and LOTS of new things). After reloading, everything worked fine again and still does.

I am mentioning this just because every now and then I get a notification that the driver stopped working but was "repaired" by VISTA.

Edit: I am pretty sure that I did receive just the same error message as you did (the line may have been a different one, but anyway...).

 

[kazapp]

I'd just like to know what amount of memory your graphics card has.

Sure! Just a bit surprised that something as small as a 1600x1050x24 bit screenshot (4,8 MB) can crash the whole show, when 1152x864x24 bit screenshots (2,8 MB) never did...

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/11/2008, 12:59:24
       Machine name: (removed)
   Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional (5.0, Build 2195) Service Pack 4
           Language: English
System Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
       System Model: AK37 
               BIOS: Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2400+, ~2.0GHz
             Memory: 1280MB RAM
          Page File: 309MB used, 1844MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINNT
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0904 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce FX 5900XT
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0332&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
   Display Memory: 128.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: SyncMaster 2232BW/2232GW,SyncMaster Magic CX2232GW(Digital)
  Monitor Max Res: 1680,1050
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9371 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 10/22/2006 12:22:00, 4527488 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: n/a
  WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 10/22/2006 12:22:00, 3994624 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4072-11CF-2B47-0A2000C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x10DE
        Device ID: 0x0332
        SubSys ID: 0x00000000
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_B ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D

 

[lyijin]

hey, i've got a similar problem as well - been searching around the forums to no avail (maybe i haven't looked hard enough).

my game crashes about 15-20 minutes in-game, especially since i'm now in the modern age with 15 other civs on a large map. it might be that i'm running out of vram, but i find it kinda hard to stomach cos i've got 256mb of vram and 2 gigs system ram..

this is what dxdiag tells me:

Spoiler :

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/11/2008, 12:27:52
Machine name: ---
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_qfe.070227-2300)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: MM061
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A06
Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 430MB used, 2962MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Omega 3.8.442)
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc. (Omega 3.8.442)
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x7145)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7145&SUBSYS_20031028&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Default Monitor
Monitor Max Res:
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6755 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 12/5/2007 03:04:08, 269312 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: No
WHQL Date Stamp: None
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 12/5/2007 05:26:40, 2782208 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-3205-11CF-FB69-0900A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x7145
SubSys ID: 0x20031028
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_B ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{3C5323C1-6FB7-44F5-9081-056BF2EE449D}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

why does the game crash!?

 

[ori]

Sure! Just a bit surprised that something as small as a 1600x1050x24 bit screenshot (4,8 MB) can crash the whole show, when 1152x864x24 bit screenshots (2,8 MB) never did...

your driver is up to date - and there is really no reason why it should crash on screenshots - did you try setting the screenshots to jpg? Another way would be to disable screenshots for the game and have them handled by windows (which would mean that you'd need to save them manually instead of having them saved for you by the game - but that would be awkward).

hey, i've got a similar problem as well - been searching around the forums to no avail (maybe i haven't looked hard enough).

my game crashes about 15-20 minutes in-game, especially since i'm now in the modern age with 15 other civs on a large map. it might be that i'm running out of vram, but i find it kinda hard to stomach cos i've got 256mb of vram and 2 gigs system ram..

what exactly happens when it crashes? does it give the same or another error message?

Welcome to Civfanatics

 

[lyijin]

yep it crashed with the same message, hence me posting under this thread.

and thanks for the welcome - i've been lurking around this forum for almost a year already, it's just because of these crashes that prompted me to get an account and ask about it. these crashes never happened previously - it started happening when i installed omega drivers AND played maps with 18 civs on it. maybe it's the drivers that's screwing the game up?

 

[ori]

your card should be able to handle the game - I would suspect the drivers, could you try reverting to the newest?

 

[kazapp]

Let's look at this the other way round.

When do the "Please try reducing your graphics settings." message occur?

(I haven't changed anything. I switched screens, upped the resolution, and saw the error for the first time. All screenshot files have been jpg both before and afterwards.)

 

[ori]

there are two of those: the failed to allocate video memory error occurs when it runs out of memory - for whatever reason, there is another one which checks for minimum requirements and you can turn that off, but not the first one. There is no hard trigger for the first one

 

[lyijin]

ok will do, thanks a lot. sorry for the late reply, busy with real life

 

[SabreSolair]

OK I have been trying to fix the "Failed to allocate video memory" error with many of the suggestions that I've found in this forum and around the net with no success. So, I went back to basics and looked at what might be using that VRAM. I eliminated many of the shortcuts that are on my desktop and, more importantly, I set my wallpaper to "None".

This appears to have fixed my problem. I have been playing the game on a huge map with no errors for over 5 hours.

This is an easy fix that might work for you too.

 

[Pikkis]

Sure! Just a bit surprised that something as small as a 1600x1050x24 bit screenshot (4,8 MB) can crash the whole show, when 1152x864x24 bit screenshots (2,8 MB) never did...

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce FX 5900XT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0332&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Isn't 128MB video memory pretty low amount for gaming on 1680x1050 widescreen monitor? And 1680x1050 is, after all, approx. 1,77x larger than the resolution 1152x864, which is a significant difference.

 

[kevinman4404]

Increase your virtual memory as high as you're willing to let it go, and most importantly, turn memory saver on. That will get rid of 90% of your crashes.

Really, there's no other working way; the others are just luck, or temporary, or are very small improvements. For example, at 1280x1048 res., my desktop is completely full of shortcuts, and I've never had any problems with them.