Steam Q&A and FAQ

I saw nothing in the new patch notes about this either. :(
 
I saw nothing in the new patch notes about this either. :(

And you never will, adding mods to the MAC version is Aspyr's job, not Firaxis's. So if/when mods are added to the MAC game it would be in the MAC patch notes from Aspyr.

CS
 
I bought Civ IV a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale. It installed on my computer just fine. My Steam Library shows Civ IV, and all of the expansions, as separate games. It also has each listed a 2nd time. Since it says that it's not available on my current platform, I assume these are the Apple versions. How can I get Steam to stop showing the Apple versions on my PC? And is there a way to group the games together in folders (like put all of the Civ IV together)?
 
I bought Civ IV a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale. It installed on my computer just fine. My Steam Library shows Civ IV, and all of the expansions, as separate games. It also has each listed a 2nd time. Since it says that it's not available on my current platform, I assume these are the Apple versions. How can I get Steam to stop showing the Apple versions on my PC? And is there a way to group the games together in folders (like put all of the Civ IV together)?

Not sure why Steam is showing a second version, it certainly is not the Mac version (that doesn't show up as a separate listing). Try opening up Steam's folder (when Steam is not running) and deleting Clientregistry.blob (Program Files -> Steam). The icons for the expansions are separate from the main game as they launch different versions of the game (its the same with the DVD version of Civ4 Complete). No idea if they install into different folders, but they will all be in your Steam directory and there's no reason to worry about it.
 
Not sure why Steam is showing a second version, it certainly is not the Mac version (that doesn't show up as a separate listing). Try opening up Steam's folder (when Steam is not running) and deleting Clientregistry.blob (Program Files -> Steam). The icons for the expansions are separate from the main game as they launch different versions of the game (its the same with the DVD version of Civ4 Complete). No idea if they install into different folders, but they will all be in your Steam directory and there's no reason to worry about it.


I dont have two listings for Civ 5, but for Civ 4 and all of it's expansions, I have a listing for both the PC and Mac versions of the game, although the Mac ones just say that the game is not available on the current platform.

As for grouping things: Unfortunately the best you can do in Steam is add things to favorites, which leaves little ability to organize. You could just create desktop shortcuts and sort those, launching from the desktop, but its not currently possible to do 'folders' in Steam.
 
Its not exactly a civ5 question, but is it possible to add my Civ4 games to my Steam account? I own Civ4 and Civ4BTS retail, but I would like to enjoy the convenience of being able to download them in the future with the latest patch part of that download. When I try to activate a game on Steam, it asks for a code, and as far as I know I never got one for Civ4.
 
Its not exactly a civ5 question, but is it possible to add my Civ4 games to my Steam account? I own Civ4 and Civ4BTS retail, but I would like to enjoy the convenience of being able to download them in the future with the latest patch part of that download. When I try to activate a game on Steam, it asks for a code, and as far as I know I never got one for Civ4.

You can add the shortcuts into Steam and still use the in-game browser and stuff but Steam does not accept non-Steam Civ4 keys.

List of games Steam will accept:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601
 
Weird, not a single one of my games that has a Mac version is doubled.

Just favourite the games you actually play/have installed.

It's a known bug for the steam version of civ4... one that I can verify myself. From what I've heard, it's up to the devs to fix it, but they just haven't. It is indeed weird, but on the whole a very small issue, so understandably not high on Firaxis' or 2K's list of priorities.
 
And is there a way to group the games together in folders (like put all of the Civ IV together)?
You can't use folders but you can set categories so that the library will list all games with the same category together.
To set a category right click on the game name in the library and choose Set Category... or select the game and choose Set Category from the option on the right hand side of the window below Links and then Category. You can name your own categories or choose one you have already created.
Once you have set Categories you can expand and minimise them so that your Library is much more compact, so put all your Civ games in the Civ category and they will all be together under Civ.
 
This is not a question, just a remark.
The bloody Steam doesn't work anymore (or just civ5?): You click on direct X 10 & 11 (recommended) and then a window opens but disappears quickly or the window stays put but is black. Above it is written: Sid Meyers Civ5 (DX 11) . After a while it adds: doesn't react.
If you use ctrl alt del and open the taskmanager you see that Steam is activated and so is Steam refresh login and Steam hardware and software enquete and Steam Q&A and FAQ and your e-mail, but Sid Meier's Civilization V (DX11) doesn't react.
So I'm playing Civ 4 again and Rise of Nations and Call to PowerII but NOT!! Civ V, bloody hell! And i bet it has to do with the Steam set up. I bought Civ 5 the day it was released, since that time i have been able to play it for about two months and now i've got to consider to replace my 3 year old computer for since months now i can't play the bloody game!
I play to relax a bit after work, so i don't want to have to solve all kinds of bloody Steam problems before playing a game! With ealier Civ releases you could play the game without trouble. Now, with Steam involved i have spent €45 on a game i would like to play but can't.

It makes me MAD!!
 
This is not a question, just a remark.
The bloody Steam doesn't work anymore (or just civ5?): You click on direct X 10 & 11 (recommended) and then a window opens but disappears quickly or the window stays put but is black. Above it is written: Sid Meyers Civ5 (DX 11) . After a while it adds: doesn't react.
If you use ctrl alt del and open the taskmanager you see that Steam is activated and so is Steam refresh login and Steam hardware and software enquete and Steam Q&A and FAQ and your e-mail, but Sid Meier's Civilization V (DX11) doesn't react.
So I'm playing Civ 4 again and Rise of Nations and Call to PowerII but NOT!! Civ V, bloody hell! And i bet it has to do with the Steam set up. I bought Civ 5 the day it was released, since that time i have been able to play it for about two months and now i've got to consider to replace my 3 year old computer for since months now i can't play the bloody game!

There have been numerous threads about that not working in the tech support forum here, I suggest you go take a look. Though I don't know if anyone has found a solution, so I suggest you take the issue up with Firaxis.
 
Just a comment of a new plus for Steam on my computer. I just converted my PC to run Mac OS X and when I load Steam, it lets me install all of my games that are Mac compatible.

I just installed Civ V and it works great! and I didn't have to buy another copy. It's great that it works for half of all my other games as well.

I think the graphics are a little worse thought for Civ V. Does it support Direct X11? Or does OpenGL or whatever Mac uses support most/all DX11 features? Right now it looks like DX9 at best, if not worse.

To above with questions about this working on their Mac. All I did was boot into Mac OS X and download and install Steam and each game you've bought will either have a Play/Install button or nothing at all. Of course if no buttons exist then it doesn't work for Mac otherwise, just click and install worked for me.

@GeorgeOP

Do you have more than one copy of Civ installed. If you're like me and have vanilla, warlord, BtS,Gold, Complete, etc versions maybe they are showing up twice because you have paid for them twice or more?
 
Civ 4 is strange in that unlike every other game it lists the pc version and mac version seperately so it looks like you have 2 copies of vanilla, warlords and BTS. This is a known issue that the developers need to fix, whether they ever will is another matter.
 
Mar 12, 2011, 11:09 PM #233
PrinceScamp
Thanks for your reaction. Most likely I'll leave it the way it is, because I play to relax after work, not to solve software riddles. I might try your suggestion in a weekend, but mostly I have more urgent things to do. Formerly I would spend another €45 to get another disc because I like the Civ franchise but that won't help me because the problem is with the Steam setup I bet. My son to whose Steam account my game is still attached has no trouble playing Counter Strike on Steam so it should be some trouble between Civ5 and Steam, but as I said I'd rather invest money than time to solve this. But there would even be a good chance that if I bought a new computer and a new game I would eventually run into the same trouble again. I'm just hoping the Civ people read this forum and see that it is bloody annoying, their setup.
 
I should apologise, because it seems that a replaced videocard was to blame. We had to take out a defective videocard from two computers that were bought simultaneously. We could run on an onboard reserve card, but apparently that hadn't the power to run Civ5. Now that in one of the two computers there is a new card we can run civ5 apparently on that computer. Unfortunately that is the computer of my youngest son, so no civ5 for me yet, but we now know what the problem is, and it was a problem on our side, not a problem caused by Steam. So sorry, we were to blame, not Steam.
 
So how come every time I start up Civ V Steam flashes above my systray about downloading the DLCs I downloaded a long time ago. Every time. It's kind of annoying.

Edit: Steam downloaded a new version of itself and that fixed it. Interesting how that happend so soon after I posted this. :think:
 
Update 27-3-2011 (referring to my earlier comment 20-3-2011): On the computer of my youngest son you get to the moment when you give your first settler the order to build a town and there it gets stuck. Nothing happens. And now it has a new videocard. On a three year old Dell computer of about €750 with an internet connection of nominally 120 Mbps, in fact about 75 Mbps. Buy a new computer to play this game?
I don't understand that the game uses up so many resources: I can play Civ4 without any problem, or Rise of Nations, who both have a lot more movement on screen. Civ5 looks way more simple on screen and yet it gets stuck.
 
Update 27-3-2011 (referring to my earlier comment 20-3-2011): On the computer of my youngest son you get to the moment when you give your first settler the order to build a town and there it gets stuck. Nothing happens. And now it has a new videocard. On a three year old Dell computer of about €750 with an internet connection of nominally 120 Mbps, in fact about 75 Mbps. Buy a new computer to play this game?
I don't understand that the game uses up so many resources: I can play Civ4 without any problem, or Rise of Nations, who both have a lot more movement on screen. Civ5 looks way more simple on screen and yet it gets stuck.

Simple on screen rarely directly correlates to how much stuff is going on behind the scenes. Example: Dwarf Fortress or Minecraft.

The engine is not very well optimized, and there is a lot of AI computation going on in the background. Founding new cities, setting up trade routes and the like is resource-intensive.

With all that being said, my 2.5 year old computer can play Civ 5 with no problems, so Id look at problems with your hardware or drivers. Its quite unlikely that the issue is related to Steam.
 
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