scrambled textures after 3-5 mins of play

[Shanara Red]

Hi guys.

I've been trolling this and many other forums for the past two days. I've read many more articles on how to make civ 4 stable than is generally healthy for ones' sanity. Still the same issues. If anyone has ANY ideas ... please help!

ISSUE: After 10-15 of playing, the textures in the game get completely screwed up as well as the UI. Alt tabbing (in fullscreen mode only) fixes the textures again for a minute or two ... and then the same thing happens.

I have recently upgraded the rig and now I cannot get civ 4 to work for the life of me. I literally have tried pretty much anythig I found anywhere on the net to try and make this go away.

Pic1:
All fine, running in window mode for temp checks

By shanarared at 2009-09-04



Pic2:
This is what happens ...

By shanarared at 2009-09-04

I currently have nVidia 186.18 drivers (they seem to be the most stable! ... and yes, I've tried with 185.85 and the newest 190.62-same happens only faster) and the updated DirectX. The computer is freshly formatted, and has NOTHING on except updated os/drivers/Civ4 (with 1.74 patch). The same as on those pics happens in full screen mode ... you will also notice, that when the game messes up the textures, the temperatures are well below high (cpu +/-55, GPU +/-56 degrees C).

Any ideas are welcome ... PLEASE HELP!

dxdiag:

View attachment DxDiag.txt

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC

is this game patched to date?
ordinarily seeing something like this I would point to a failing graphics card - but I would expect those artifacts to also be outside the play window in that case

 

[Shanara Red]

Thank you for the welcome and the reply!

Yes, the game is patched. 1.74. I have also found various solutions over the net, detailing some obscure settings with drivers and directx. For instance ... set all gfx preferences in the gfx pannel to 'let the application decide' and 'disable hardware sound acceleration' .... etc ... nothing so far has worked.

Any further ideas?

 

[ori]

did you try disabling anti-aliasing?
did you update directx?

 

[Shanara Red]

Yes ... and Yes.

I have tried all antialiasing settings. I've even tried to tinker around with various resolutions, gfx settings and details withing the game. As I said, it's been two days of tinkering and still nothing.

... The funny thing is, that when the textures get garbled, as soon as I change any gfx settings, the game reverts to normal for a few minutes. Soon after however, the textures get messed up again. One other thing. When in fullscreen mode, if I alt tab, the same thing happens; garbled textures revert to normal for a minute or two.

... the os is fresh and fully updated, so are pretty much all the gfx components. I have no idea what to do. If anyone has ANY ideas, I'd be willing to try pretty much anything ... I must get my GREEKS take over a huge pangea or two !!!

 

[ori]

I doubt anything will show up - but maybe it will:
open civilizationIV.ini and set all items with log in their name from 0 to 1 then play until the error occurs and close the game and then post all items in my games\sid meier's civilizationIV\logs as a zip file.

 

[Shanara Red]

Ok. I have done so.

View attachment Logs.zip

I have actually managed to achieve a longer stability by installing python. The game will now run for 5-7 minutes without crashing, but I can alt-tab without crash and to fix the bugs for about an hour. I've actually managed to get to 1790. But apparently now there's far too many textures to handle, and the game crashes within 1 min.

I have noticed something interesting while checking the logs (the LSystem log file).

...
building:Art/Structures/Buildings/Grocer/Grocer.nif does not contain a node called SHADOW. Its shadow, if present, will be corrupt!
Failed to place goal building ART_DEF_BUILDING_GREAT_LIGHTHOUSE.
building:Art/Structures/Buildings/Grocer/Grocer.nif does not contain a node called SHADOW. Its shadow, if present, will be corrupt!
...

this is just an excerpt. Also worth mentioning would be the fact, that I have all the gfx settings on lowest (incl. textures for terrain and buildings boxed ticked).

Also this is a quad core 2.66 GHz /nVidia 275 gtx /4gb ram computer.

I've actually also got reports that the nVidia driver stopped functioning a few times. But the driver is updated ... so it must be a game vs driver issue ... bah ...

thank you for your comments so far though ...

 

[ori]

I don't have time today to look through the logs - I'll do so tomorrow, if I don't reply by then please bump this thread by posting a reminder - sometimes I do lose track of threads

 

[Shanara Red]

hehe ... thank you ... but really ... you don't have to waste time just so some random stranger can get to play his game ... it's very appreciated, but almost too kind ... so if you don't manage it, I won't start a digital crusade against you ... but will instead be left with an already excellent aftertaste of a dedicated few individuals from a devoted fansite who provide support for their fav game. Good work indeed. And well done for your patience ... you must have what ... 10-15 threads on this forum where it all goes silent right after you say ''install directX' ... ... hehe.

Well done!!! And as I said, don't worry about it too much. If you have 5 min to spare excellent, otherwise nvm. Thank you again for your time thus far.

 

[ori]

the lines complaining about the missing shadow are of no concern (Firaxis forgot those in some graphics ) - the ones where it cannot place certain buildings are - but I have no idea what causes them
you could try using OmegaDrivers (http://www.omegadrivers.net) instead of the official ones - in some cases it helps - but there are no guarantees.
also:
try changing the following line in civilizationIV.ini:

; Use managed interface textures (may be safer but shouldn't be needed, uses more memory)
GUIManagedTextures = 0

from 0 to 1

 

[Shanara Red]

Unfortunately I cannot use the Omega drivers, as the latest ones are forceware 162.xx (2008) does not support my gfx card. The 200 series are only supported from the 169.xx drivers onwards.

As for the setting you describe, I turned it from 0 to 1 with no improvement whatsoever.

I'm actually starting to give up, as it's taking up way too much time to try and figure out all of this to play this game.

Thank you very much again for all your efforts.

 

[ori]

sorry to hear that - but sadly I am out of ideas right now...

 

[Shanara Red]

ok. sorted.

Since ori tried so hard, I feel the least I can do is share the resolution of the problem.

Increase NB voltage.

It would appear, that newer gfx cards require just a little more oomph to juggle with textures properly ... maybe even moreso with not quite efficiently coded ones. A SINGLE STEP increase of NB voltage made all the garbled textures dissapear. I don't know how, and I don't know why but it worked, and I can now play CIV 4 without ANY issues whatsoever!