question on compter options?

[Bigv32]

I have heard that changing the multisampling option helps the game.

Is this true and if it is how should I change it? Should I lower the number or increase it?

Also, does changing my computers virtual memory help speed up my computer?

If so how large should I make the initial and maximum sizes?

 

[Charonicus]

Virtual memory should ideally be about 1.5 times the size of your computer's physical memory. Changing it either way likely won't make much difference. It's just a folder on your hard drive that your computer will use as additional memory. Obviously if your hard drives are slow and ancient then it won't be much use in terms of speed, with newer SATA drives it can be better, so that all depends.

I'm not much of a graphics expert (or even slightly). All I know about multisampling is... it's intensive. My desktop can't handle it at all. My laptop is slightly better and automatically set itself to use some multisampling on Assassin's Creed (it chose 1 where the options were 0 which is off, 1 and 2). But for Civ it didn't... Still the graphics look fine, far better than my desktop and it handles high detail terrain and everything. What you want to ask yourself is:

Is my computer badass? If so then yeah, go multisampling. If not, then don't. If you raise the number and it gets choppy then switch it back off.

 

[largedarryl]

Well to make the game easier on your gfx card turn down the multisampling (I don't remember what it's called on the ingame options, AA or Anti-aliasing should be there). This should only be done if you have a low frame-rate or noticeable frame-rate drops when zooming/scrolling the camera. Also, the use of AA will only make the game look better if you are running at a quite low resolution (and I find better improvements with a higher resolution). Basically AA is only an option that should be turned on when you are at the maximum resolution of your monitor, but still have gfx overhead. Also AA basically requires the the gfx card to render each frame twice for x2 AA.

For your page file, I would suggest not changing it, ever. Making any changes to the page file can cause issues with Windows memory management, and almost any changes to the page file will result in a decrease in performance. To go along with Charonicus, the hard drive is so slow that if a video game is even using the page file like RAM, you will find most games unplayable.

 

[Willem]

The game will only use virtual memory if it runs out of regular RAM. So just be sure you have enough of that and you don't even have to worry about virtual memory. 3 gig with XP, 4 with Vista will give you more than enough for both Civ and your OS, since it's a 32 bit program.