Problems with Civ 4 Videos

[Czar Adrian]

Howdy,.........Gosh! Long time no post. LOL

Anyhow, I am having a problem with the videos in Civ 4.

I installed it, with about 10 gb on my computer, now down to about 6 or 7.

But when I start it up, the start up video is Laggy!!!!

It will play like 1 or 2 seconds, and then bam it pauses for 1 or 2 seconds.

I just got the patch and I haven't tried it again, although I don't think the patch would make any difference.

My specs are:

Pentium 4
1.80 GHz
384 mb of ram

How can I fix this problem?

 

[CCRunner]

I used to have that problem too until I got a new computer. Just disable the videos.

 

[Czar Adrian]

How do I do that?

 

[CCRunner]

When the game loads, from the main menu go down to advanced. Go to options next. At the top of options you can see a bunch of tabs. Second tab says graphics. Click it. At the right you can see a bunch of graphics options. Near the bottom you can see one that says disable movies. That is the one you want.

 

[Willem]

My specs are:

Pentium 4
1.80 GHz
384 mb of ram

How can I fix this problem?

You really should have more RAM, that alone probably has alot to do with your problem. 384 is not nearly enough for anything other than your Windows OS, and Civ is a bit of a hog to begin with. You should have at least 1 gig to play the game properly, preferably 2. And that processor sounds pretty lacking as well. 1.80 ghz is pretty slow these days. You also don't mention what video card you're using, that will have an impact as well.

 

[Czar Adrian]

I know!

I bought a Nvidia GForce Graphics card, so im updated their.

Im only 14 and my mom and dad won't get a new computer.

Sucks, I KNOW!!!!

Thats alright, when I go off to college, Ill be (hopefully ) running a high powered Alienware gaming computer.

Then Itll run like lightning!

But until then,...........

BTW, this computer is older than the hills.

 

[Willem]

I know!

I bought a Nvidia GForce Graphics card, so im updated their.

Im only 14 and my mom and dad won't get a new computer.

Sucks, I KNOW!!!!

Thats alright, when I go off to college, Ill be (hopefully ) running a high powered Alienware gaming computer.

Then Itll run like lightning!

But until then,...........

BTW, this computer is older than the hills.

Well try to convince your folks to at least get you some more RAM. What you have now is not nearly enough. It's barely enough just for your operating system, with very little left over for anything else. RAM is pretty cheap these days so if you get them some prices they may agree. And if you're 14, you're old enough for a part-time job somewhere to make your own cash.

 

[Ambidexter]

BTW, this computer is older than the hills.

Ah yes, the computer the cavemen used to debug fire.

Seriously, RAM is not expensive. A 1 GB stick will be less than $40. 4GB is less than $75.

 

[Balderstrom]

Ram compatible with that Mobo wont be so cheap.
DDR2 is cheap as dirt. DDR 3500 is double or triple the price of DDR2.
And I don't recall what the old P4's used, maybe DDR (2100?)

For another 150-200$ I could have upgraded my whole box last year
when I bought an AGP Nvidia 7600GT and an extra stick of 1GB 3500 Ram.

Also apparently you can't even get 2GB sticks of ole DDR

As for the question at Hand, go into your CivilizationIV .ini (My Games)

; Dont show the game background during movies - may speed up movie playing
HideMovieBackground = 1

; Allows some memory savings *** ALT-TAB WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION ***
MemSaver = 1

; Don't skip frames if falling behind
BinkNoSkip = 0

; Copy entire image each frame, not just dirty pixels
BinkCopyAll = 0

; Show movies using hi-color, not true-color (may be faster)
Bink16Bit = 1

; Copy ever other scanline during movie playback (faster)
BinkInterlace = 1

; Set max frame rate clamp (0 means none)
; Try changing this to 20 or 30.
SetMaxFrameRate = 0

; Set to 1 to page units out when non-visible
DynamicUnitPaging = 1

; Set to 1 to page unit anims out when the unit is non visible
DynamicAnimPaging = 1

; Sync input to smooth interface (may run slower)
SyncInput = 0

in Game Options, Ctrl-O, Graphics/Video
You can also change Use Low-Res Textures (after the game has started)
If you don't add the "HideMovieBackground = 1" to your .ini file.

IF I recall, changing textures in-game - the game will claim it needs a restart
but whenever any of the mainscreen Displays are up (advisors/movies etc)
The background map should be low-res and less memory to handle.
Which wont affect the textures otherwise used in-game.
Though if you start a new game without first ticking that box off, you will start a new game all low-textures.
(I might have Low-Textures and Hi-res boxes mixed up, its been a while for this part...)
(IE it might be checkbox the "Don't Use HiDef" instead of use low-textures)
Or a combination of the two. Either way it WILL change the appearance when other Panels are on screen, and otherwise not.

Also you can use CivScale.exe to turn off the clouds, when zoomed out to worldview the clouds in BTS are 3-4 times more resource intensive than they were in Vanilla CIV IV & Warlords.
(Though that might be Blue Marble, but I had BlueMarble 1.1 on Warlords and had no ill effect to clouding)

 

[CivLuvah]

I have an equal problem too. every time i comeplete a wonder, the wonder movie gets all wonky and sometimes it makes my screen go black.

 

[Balderstrom]

If you have a Nvidia card:
1) Go to the GeForce "Performance & Quality Settings"
(I'm not running WinXP so figure out how to get to "Advanced" Video Settings from ControlPanel ;-)
2) If the slider for AntiAliasing is on 2xQ, put it to something else.
I've found the game doesn't quite like that setting.
3) Clean your computer. Take the case off and clean out the damned dust
Suck it out, Blow it out. Gently vacuum it out. Either way. Out.
4) Issue Persists. Replace Drivers. When doing so, always completely uninstall them.
Uninstall from Remove Programs, Reboot. Install New Drivers. Reboot.
Install current DirectX SDK that includes the optional D3D DLLs, AND yes - Reboot.

You have an ATI card, honestly I don't remember - its been over a year now since I got rid of my 9800 Pro. That had significant issues. Blacking and Display corruption during CIV was certainly one of them. Overheating was some of the issue (ie clean the dust, make sure fans are working etc). Personally I don't think ATI has done anything halfway decent for the price, compared to Nvidia, since the 9xxx series.

These settings from above, I always recommend, I run a 7600GT and use these:

; Dont show the game background during movies - may speed up movie playing
HideMovieBackground = 1
; Set to 1 to page units out when non-visible
DynamicUnitPaging = 1
; Set to 1 to page unit anims out when the unit is non visible
DynamicAnimPaging = 1

Generally turning down AntiAliasing should help.
Turning off Antistropic filtering - if yer card supports that.

Play another game. Do similiar issues happen? Then its not CIV specific and could be a bad VidCard.

 

[CivLuvah]

Howdy,.........Gosh! Long time no post. LOL

Anyhow, I am having a problem with the videos in Civ 4.

I installed it, with about 10 gb on my computer, now down to about 6 or 7.

But when I start it up, the start up video is Laggy!!!!

It will play like 1 or 2 seconds, and then bam it pauses for 1 or 2 seconds.

I just got the patch and I haven't tried it again, although I don't think the patch would make any difference.

My specs are:

Pentium 4
1.80 GHz
384 mb of ram

How can I fix this problem?

I can feel your pain, Adrian. Instead, my proiblem is different. when I have a wonder video, the system suddenly crashes. and probably when your in college, Civ4 wouldn't be around & Civ5 may have no interesting videos or graphics.