Poll-- Does the patch work for you?

[Wodan]

Just finished my first post-patch game. Everything worked great, except the final culture-win movie froze the frame (while still playing). No crash, I just didn't get to see the movie.

I've noticed, both pre-patch and post-patch, that as the cache fills up the game slows down. Voluntarily closing after 3-4 hours of play and restarting the machine seems to fix this. For example, for the above movie problem, I quit out and restarted the last save, and saw the movie fine.

Heck, with ANY cache-using software (e.g., Photoshop or Windows itself) quitting out and restarting every now and then is probably a good idea. I know people that leave their computer on 24/7 and then complain that their Windows is slow. Well duh. Your memory is fragged and has tons of crap floating around.

Anyway I'm going to try the manual-clear of the cache (with the shift key) next time I start up and see what happens.

Wodan

 

[Zertez]

Improved performance here to, especially in the late game, using huge maps and a lot of civs. The video does stutter a tad but the sound works. The game engine seems to handle system resources a lot better now than prepatch, but it could still use a couple of tweaks. Good to see they know what is causing the problems, so Im sure it will not be to much longer before they got it under control.

 

[Rexflex]

Before the patch the only problem I had was the audio stuttering during wonder movies, after the patch its the audio and video stuttering. I haven't really noticed any performance improvements but it was fairly good on large maps and below anyway.

Strangely the effect is opposite for me - before the patch audio stuttured with the video. Now the audio doesn't stutter at all.

Edit
I just fixed it by turning anti-anilising off, and I did try that before installing the patch so the patch must have fixed the problem with the audio and created another with the video(with AA on). If you lower the resolution and keep AA on that works too but I'd rather have a higher resolution.

AA off also worked for me both before and after the patch. AA doesn't offer that much to the visual candy so I'm happy with leaving it off.

 

[Wodan]

I manually cleared the cache and that definitely sped things up. Probably a good idea to do this each time before you start a new game.

Wodan

 

[OregonJag]

I really should have voted twice as I have different results on my desktop and laptop.

The desktop is a total disaster. I installed the patch after installing the lates nVidia drivers. Civ freezes the computer have 2-3 minutes of play. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game and the drivers in various combinations. Now whatever combo I have the game freezes after 2-3 minutes.

On the other hand the laptop was fine. I have an Intel 915 chip so prior to the patch I could play but had no wonder movies or intro movie. Now I can play fine with all the new features and wonders movies. The only minor issue is that when I start the game it tells me I don't have the specs to run the game. Click past that and all is well.

 

[josephstalin]

Well graphics are much better now and big bugs are fixed now.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I was in the middle of downloading it through Multiplayer, when I decided to cancel. *Everyone* was complaining, not a single person was saying anything positive, or that the patch worked as advertised. I'm holding out until another patch is released.

 

[jdurg]

On the other hand the laptop was fine. I have an Intel 915 chip so prior to the patch I could play but had no wonder movies or intro movie. Now I can play fine with all the new features and wonders movies. The only minor issue is that when I start the game it tells me I don't have the specs to run the game. Click past that and all is well.

If you go into the Civilization4.ini file, find this line and change the 0 to a 1:

; Don't show minimum specification warnings
HideMinSpecWarning = 0

It should be the first line in the CONFIG section. That will get rid of that warning message for you.

 

[lord_graywolfe]

well my intro movie and wonder movies were very jerky before the patch and now they all work perfectly but i still have to same map problems as before with it turning black

 

[Wodan]

Well it's been long enough that the numbers have stablilized. About 16% had a poor experience with the patch. Everybody else has a better product than the game out of the box.

I wonder how many of the 16% attempted to combine the patch with some of the other many tech tips (tweaking .ini files, etc.)?

Wodan

 

[Avance]

Before the patch 1.09, I had CTD (Civ freezes the computer, black screen), after, same thing !

P4 3GHz, XP SP2 1024 Ram, PNY nVidia 6600 GT 128, 81.95 Forceware.

 

[enchanter100]

Mine ran better, was able to play a large map with 8+ players no problem. Until I decided to save and come back later to play. Takes FOREVER to load (this is on a RAID striped array) and runs very slow now. It even crashes after I try to enable grid. Gives me a video card error and a blue screen of death after that. I thought it was that save so I tried some autosaves with no luck. FUnny thing is, I can start a new game and it plays very well. Just afraid to save and load.

 

[Max_x_fire]

I've actually had a drop in performance from the new patch.

Normal sized maps are still running ok, its the huge maps that have gotten worse
I'll list the differences:

• Before the patch a Huge map would take about 10 minutes to create a world, this is now only taking a few minutes, no bad thing!
• When gameplay starts my mouse takes about 3-4 seconds to respond to the input, going in and out of the menu seems to sort this but it returns after every turn. This didnt happen before the patch.
• Scrolling/zoom is no longer laggy after the patch, this used to cause serious 5-10 minutes lags before the patch.
• Figurehead animations now lag but take less time to initially load where previously they took ages to load but didnt lag

This is as far as I could tell as the game was pretty unplayable.
I did have the graphic settings on high but as I have the recommended specs I thought it shouldnt be a problem. I'll try and put it down to medium then low and see what the difference is.

All in all its looking worse for me and I may be stuck with a standard sized map for some time.

 

[elderotter]

answered yes no change got new stuff - in protest - wanted to vote no -no change in performance - only got new stuff - so what . The patch really screwed me up and I had to use my limited knowledge of computers and find new ways around the issues that I already solved before the patch - so since I had to work to make the patch work - dont they owe me money?(LOL- hourly wage?)

 

[bru]

My computer is faster that min. required but no speed demon and I did notice performance improvement with the patch!!

 

[glen55]

Late-game performance slowdown has been my issue with the game. I find that the patch made a dent in the problem, but the job is not yet done.

 

[Avance]

..... after my precedent post (#51) :

I played in 1280*1024*32, (antialias*4) all video settings at the top ! This afternoon, I tried with video settings "normal". I've been playing for 4 hours without problems, I was very happy but just before quitting, CTD !
Just to keep you informed !

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Actually, I hold my head in shame, as I am one of those who are in the 16% who-after changing a couple of lines in my .ini file-now have no problems at all.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Flak]

My option really isn't on there. I couldn't get the game to run before and after a seemingly successful install, I can't get it to run now.

edit: I just read through this thread and realized that this poll can't possibly be accurate. There were a lot of people who couldn't run the game before the patch. And I bet a lot of them have installed the patch and still can't run the game. I bet this poll would look a lot different if that option were in it.

 

[Smidlee]

I haven't notice any performance change on 2 of my pc's except the movies run a little better.