Solution to 1.52 and Intel Extreme Graphics

[protista]

Yesterday we called Take2 tech support for CivIV and talked to a very knowledgeable person about our problems with getting a video memory error after patching to 1.52. Apparently they have been having a number of people with problems using the Intel Extreme Graphics Chipset. After a very lengthy discussion and provision of much data about our particular PC and its Video Memory/Intel Extreme Chipset, progress was obtained!

The following changes resulted in 1.52 running perfectly on our PC (Vaio with 2.0G Ram, 224 MB video ram:

Double check your "updated" CivIV ini file to make sure it was updated to the version with the memsaver option. Ours was not. If not, delete this file, reboot, and the program will then install the new CivIV.ini file. The file is located in "Your"documents/My games/Civ IV folder. (The file is named CivilizationIV Configuration Settings) Open it and look to see that it contains the memsaver option.

Set memsaver to on in CivIV ini file, using the memsaver = 1 setting
Turn off Autosave in the same ini file, using Autosave interval = 0
Save the file, and exit the MyGames folder.
Reboot
Launch CivIV

In the CivIV program advanced/options menu, set the graphic quality to Medium, from the default High setting.

Close out CivIV
Reboot computer
Relaunch Civ IV

The program now works flawlessly!!

The key, and final step which got everything working was the removal of the autosave feature. Not sure why, but it works! Just remember to manually save often, if you follow this procedure.

 

[Zydor]

A thoughtful post - thank You for taking the time & trouble to post it and help others - notmany extreme graphics issues crop up here as yet, so good to get any feedback on them



Regards
Zy

 

[Majestico]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to this forum and found it due to having probs with CIV4, i originally posted about large/huge map issues i was having, this was solved, after i had explored a bit , i am a huge CIV fan and have bought and played each and every version that has been released, from the Original Civ upto the latest version 4, this is the only version i have ever had any problems with at all, anyway my problem is this, i bought the game, installed, and the first time i tried to play it, it failed to initialise??? so i had bought a game that wouldnt work??, anyway i had a look around and found the civfanatic forums and found lots of other Civ fans having the same kind of problems, i found the 1.09 patch and with fingers crossed downloaded and installed the patch, this fixed the initialisation problem and enabled me to see the game Wooooohoooooooooooo!! or so i thought, i started playing the game and got seriously into it and played it for a few days and then suddenly i would have a crash to desktop (after 20 seconds of serious hanging!) Nooooooooooooooooo!! i was gutted, each and everytime i played the game it would crash after 20-30 mins, it got so annoying and hopeless that i ended up giving up on the game damn annoying as i was really getting into the game!! anyway that was just before Xmas, then last tuesday, sitting at home thinking about CIV4 again, i decided to have a look around again and see if i could find a solution, i saw the posts for 1.52 patch and its apparent solution for the problems i was having, Wooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooo happy days!!! i downloaded and installed the patch, again with fingers crossed, and the first time i played v1.52 it worked perfectly for 3 hours or so, i was in heaven and getting damn excited about the game again, then yesterday night i loaded it again, looking forward to another good session, and after 20 minutes or so i got this message onscreen.

Your system has run out of video memory. Please trying reducing your video settings.
File:\main\civilization4.bak\SDKs\Gamebryo2_0\CoreLibs\NiDX9Renderer\NiDX9SourceTextureData.cpp, Line:310

It does this all the time now, and after i ok this message it comes up with another one saying it has caused an unexpected error or something and thats it??? will these solutions you have posted here work for me??? i'm not a computer whizz by any means, i just know the basics, so any help would be hugely appreciated as i love the look and feel of the game, until it dumps me back to desktop that is

And it isnt a problem for my graphics card for other games, i play BF2, COD2, Need for speed most wanted and so on, all on high settings with no problems at all, and its a 256MB Graphics card, how has it run out of memory??

I think this is my correct system spec, i copied some of the information it shows on dxdiag.

Processor - AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Memory - 1024MB Ram (running as Dual DDR400)
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon 9600 series 256MB
Motherboard - Chaintech Zenith 7NJS
Hard Disks - 2 x 160GB
Cd Drives - 1 x CD, 1 x DVD

Hopefully someone can help, as i would finally love to be able to sit down and play this game for more than 20 minutes .

Many thanks in advance.

Majestico

 

[Zydor]

My guess is that initially you fell foul of the memory management issue. That was largely resolved with Patch V1.52. The changes in 1.52 gave an option to "save memory" - main system RAM. Basicly they did this - amongst many other changes to memory management - by placing more workload onto the graphics card. They did this to help those with minimum spec machines, it significantly increased available main system RAM, at a cost of more work in the Video card.

They included a "memsaver" switch in the ini file so this aspect (switching some additional processing to the video card) could be switched "on" (set as 1 in the ini file) or "off" (set as 0 - figure 0 not letter O - in the ini file).

I think what maybe happening to you is that this memory switch has hit your card. The ini file is at:

C:\Documents and Settings\New User\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CivilizationIV.ini

Look for "memsaver" and try the 2 settings (1 or 0). I suspect that memsaver=0 is probably the one for you. ie it will look like this:
; Allows some memory savings *** ALT-TAB WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION ***
MemSaver = 0

While in the ini file set the folowing as shown
; Show movies using hi-color, not true-color (may be faster)
Bink16Bit = 1

As you get further into the game - which you have been doing over time - more and more resources are displayed and manipulated, these all add work to the Video card. It has increasing work to do in the later game than at the start

Decreasing the Video Card load is therefore going to help greatly. Try these:
- Set to min res in game options
- turn off/reduce textures
- set your desktop video to the same res as in the game
- set your desktop refresh rate to 60Hz (the same as inside the game)
- Turn off any background application or services running that you dont really need (via MSconfig). That includes going off line to play Civ, and turning off Anti-V & Firewall if you are off line playing single player
- Try playing in a window, not fullscreen
- Set your pagefile to 2000mb, min=max

Give those a go, meanwhile post your Dxdiag file using the 'go advanced ' button below so that other aspects can be checked

Regards
Zy

 

[Majestico]

Hi Zydor, and thanks for the suggestions, after reading other posts and other forums i tried 2 new options, i went into the .ini file and changed the memsave from 0 to 1, then after reading another post i took off the autosave feature, and since then it worked perfectly, that is until just now, i am in the modern era on my game and was getting right back into it and then i built Broadway, the movie went fine as all have before, however after i clicked on OK to quit the movie screen, most of the terrain went black and mixed in with occasional bits of normal land???? and its gone extremely slow too, it took me 2 minutes to be able to quit the game! what the hell is wrong with this game!!!! did the creators actually spend anytime at all testing before they happily took our money from us???? i really dont think so, my PC exceeds all the Minimum requirements and even the recommended requirements, yet its problem after problem with this game.

Pulling my hair out!!!!! (Whats now left of it anyway!)

Majestico

 

[PDXJoe]

Double check your "updated" CivIV ini file to make sure it was updated to the version with the memsaver option. Ours was not. If not, delete this file, reboot, and the program will then install the new CivIV.ini file. The file is located in "Your"documents/My games/Civ IV folder. (The file is named CivilizationIV Configuration Settings) Open it and look to see that it contains the memsaver option.

Set memsaver to on in CivIV ini file, using the memsaver = 1 setting
Turn off Autosave in the same ini file, using Autosave interval = 0
Save the file, and exit the MyGames folder.
Reboot
Launch CivIV

One slight little problem. I discovered that my .ini file didn't have the memsaver option, so I followed the instructions as listed (deleted file, rebooted, even started the game) and it failed to re-install the new ini file. I'm guessing that I should recover the ini I threw in the trash, or maybe download the 1.52 patch again.

Is it possible for me to manually enter the 'memsaver' option myself? Are there other changes to the ini file too?

I'm having the same memory 'insufficient' memory problem that seem to be getting worse the farther I get into the game. I have a gig of RAM and a 256 meg video card.

 

[protista]

You may have to reinstall the patch, reboot, and check the ini file. We had to delete it twice until we got the latest version in the right place. You will not get any more video memory errors after you follow the steps listed above.

 

[DMO]

Hello!

Do you think these modifications will work for a PC with minimum requirements configuration?