requirements for huge terra

[Marshall Thomas]

What are the minimum requirements to play an 18 civilizations, huge terra map?

 

[Zydor]

Its not really clear yet, there are so many variables - not least the patience of the player as it grinds through the increased information it has to process. It seems to be 1Gb being the hassle free zone, but many are happy on 512Mb. The variables are too huge to quantify definitively. However if you play the huge map a lot, it is highly likely you will benefit from the Harkonnen patch, particularly if you have 1Gb + of RAM. It has been v successfull in that area, running to thousands of happy players due to it

Regrads
Zy

 

[friskymike]

What is the Harkonnen patch??

 

[Zydor]

There is a verified and acknowledged Major memory issue in Civ IV resulting in some horrendous memory missuse and bad allocation of memory space. Its not technically a memory leak, but many have described it loosely as such. The harkonnen patch is a User developed patch which addresses the issue by taking the output from the game code in memory, sifting through it and making the memory useage far far more efficient. It has particular effect on large & Huge maps. It has been extremely successful.

Because it operates only on the memory management side side of life - it does NOT touch game code, therefor benign - , many users have reported consequential benefits as other game functions dependent on memory management fail, producing wierd effects. The better memory management has resolved some of those issues, meaning a lot of other things that did not work - and were assumed by many to be Driver / hardware related - no longer are a problem.

It is by no means a fix-it-all thats crazy, does not work for some, nor is it claimed to be so. However the initial classic symptoms of those who have benefited are those with lagging, slow game, slow game turns, lots of CTDs, play large / huge maps. Some have reported it helped them with the dreaded black terrain problem. In general those with 512mb + RAM have been helped, particularly the higher levels of RAM circa 1-2Gb.

Some users reported some success with RAM at 256, but not so many of those. A couple of Win 98 users even reported success (win 98 is not officialy supported by the game)

The thread is below

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

No game files are altered, and its easy to uninstall if you wish - takes seconds

Regards
Zy

 

[Bast]

I have 1 GB RAM and I can play 18 civ + huge map game up to Modern Era till the finish game (late 20th Century).

I think a good video card + at least 1 GB RAM is the requirement.

 

[Bast]

I haven't needed to use Harkonnen's patch so far to play huge map games therefore I will wait for a more updated version of his patch. There is also something wrong with the globe view which he is aware of so I won't be using the current version.

 

[Ninja2]

Well, I have 1 GB of RAM, 3 GB pagefile and a 6800GT. My system is generally very well maintained, and will run BF2 with almost all GFX settings at high.

And guess what... I can only play standard maps. Anything higher, and I get random crashes. I would love to try Harkonnens patch, but my gaming computer is offline until tonight (broken DSL modem)! Though I don't want to get my hopes up...

 

[Zydor]

Very wise, keep expectations on an even level

There is no guarantee it will work for you. Bare in mind there are two settings in the patch that are user configured, the settings have a significant effect on how the patch operates. An explanation is at the start of the thread, flick through and scan read the posts, you will get the idea (and see the many many "thank you's" from civ fans for his work). Its easy to apply, and easy to deinstall if you want to. If you get problems still after trying it, post on that thread, often a tweek of the patch settings post install has helped others.

Regards
Zy

 

[Woody]

Well, I have 1 GB of RAM, 3 GB pagefile and a 6800GT. My system is generally very well maintained, and will run BF2 with almost all GFX settings at high.

And guess what... I can only play standard maps. Anything higher, and I get random crashes. I would love to try Harkonnens patch, but my gaming computer is offline until tonight (broken DSL modem)! Though I don't want to get my hopes up...

I have a nearly identical speced system and the Harkonnen patch did wonders for me. I could not play late in the game on huge maps without getting CTDs before using his patch. His patch did add a bit of performance speedwise but more importantly it eliminated the CTDs I was getting.

Athlon 3200+
1 gig ram
6800GT 256mb

 

[Marshall Thomas]

If I have 1gb of RAM and a decent video card, is there a chance that my 18 civ, huge, terra map campaign will be able to run well without a patch?

I already have an alright video card, but I need to make a large upgrade for my desktop's RAM. Would anyone please offer some thoughts? Thanks

 

[Zydor]

My personal opinion - probably not. It depends on the definition of ".... being able to run ok". There is the acknowledged Major memory issue in Civ IV. The effect is to slow down the game by a very large margin, cause what seem to be random CTDs etc. There are a number who have been happy since it was released declaring "running ok". At times I have my doubts as to the speed and efficiency they are running at. Many who thought they were ok, applied the Harkonnen patch, and then discovered what it really should be running like .... that patch is an eye opener.

My personal belief is that 1Gb would be ample. Of course, the more you have the better many games can run - clearly not always true,but in general it is. With the way things are going on the games market, I believe if you are biting the bullett and upgrading memory, 1Gb is min, and much preferably 2Gb. With the latter at least you have a "safety margin" as new releases come out, and can better weather the storm of badly coded first releases until the usual patch 1 ( the version they should have released a few months back ....) - the latter being endemic now in the Industry.

RAM prices are relatively cheap now, although its still a financial hit of course - would not throw it on the fire - but all in all I would say bite the bullett and go for 2gb, dropping to 1gb if finance is an issue.

Regards
Zyt

 

[patweb]

What are the minimum requirements to play an 18 civilizations, huge terra map?

The requirements aren't posted. One reason is a lot of people can't even get the game to run acceptably and long enough to worry about playing on a HUGE map with that many opponents.