The Civ engine bothers me.

[Genv [FP]]

Alright, to start, I have an excellent PC, and I can run Crysis with all settings at very high ( except AA ) at 20-30 Fps. And HL2 at anywhere from 170-230 FPS

When you first boot up Civ, the time between turns takes around 1-2 seconds. Late in the game, this amount goes anywhere from 20-40 seconds. It's especially bothers me when you're clicking turns trying to get that damned win after putting your cards in a winning position


I'd really like to see the Civ engine updated. There's many community graphical mods that extend the game's lifespan by 5 years ( Blue marble, etc ). It's sad that a game as complex as civ suffers from this problem - It's irritating in the late game. Of course, the game could use a few more features ( AI diplomacy, LET ME PICK MY CIV'S COLOR, The AI in general. etc, etc )

I can't remember how many win situations I'd tossed away because of the damned time between turns being insufferable.

 

[da dick]

python isn't a very efficient language. the developers made part of the game with it so it would be as mod-friendly as possible.

you could just stop playing on huge or massive maps. or play for space or cultural victories which would discourage you from building a lot of units which would increase load time.

and then, you could also play civ 3 with graphical mods. some say the pseudo-3D civ 3 engine allows for more crisp and detailed graphics.

 

[Genv [FP]]

It's just the endgame that bothers me.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Turning the settings down helps a lot. Even my lategame turns don't take as long and I play on a (only 1 year old, but still) HP laptop. Huge has kind of slow late game turns, otherwise no problems.

 

[Genv [FP]]

It's not the settings, it's the game itself that's choking itself. The game engine is incapable of handling the late-game properly when the AI makes many moves and lots of stuff is happening, even on a computer with 4 gigs of ram and a quad core to boot.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Be that as it may, lower settings DO help it go faster if you can stand it.

 

[warpstorm]

even on a computer with 4 gigs of ram and a quad core to boot.

Civ 4 turn processing only uses one core and no more than 2 Gigs of RAM, IIRC. You have to remember that systems like yours weren't around when it was developed so the engine can't make use of the features of it.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Civ 4 turn processing only uses one core and no more than 2 Gigs of RAM, IIRC. You have to remember that systems like yours weren't around when it was developed so the engine can't make use of the features of it.

I guess that's why my 4-year-old, 3.0GHz, single-core, 2-Gig system memory computer runs it as good as everybody with these brand new super-computer systems?

Personally, I don't find the game that slow and like I said, I have a 4-year old system... but I guess my old (but top-of-the-line system when Civ4 came out) computer runs it the same as current super-computers do?

 

[Genv [FP]]

Civ 4 turn processing only uses one core and no more than 2 Gigs of RAM, IIRC. You have to remember that systems like yours weren't around when it was developed so the engine can't make use of the features of it.

Yeah I know, but it still should run fast. I can run HL2 at 200 FPS - And HL2 is starting to show it's age.

 

[Genv [FP]]

I guess that's why my 4-year-old, 3.0GHz, single-core, 2-Gig system memory computer runs it as good as everybody with these brand new super-computer systems?

Personally, I don't find the game that slow and like I said, I have a 4-year old system... but I guess my old (but top-of-the-line system when Civ4 came out) computer runs it the same as current super-computers do?

Yeah.

It should work fine on your PC.

 

[SubTonic20]

It certainly is an odd engine...It's the first game ever that can stress a very powerful computer yet still be very, very playable for someone with a heap of garbage (like me). But hey, I'm not complaining.

 

[AnitaGaribaldi]

Do you have "Show friendly moves" checked? Check this option out. You really don't need to see the AI moving his units and workers.

 

[Genv [FP]]

Nope, never had it enabled

 

[Darvon]

Alright, to start, I have an excellent PC, and I can run Crysis with all settings at very high ( except AA ) at 20-30 Fps. And HL2 at anywhere from 170-230 FPS

When you first boot up Civ, the time between turns takes around 1-2 seconds. Late in the game, this amount goes anywhere from 20-40 seconds.

I call BS? Even giving you the benift of the doubt and saying 20fps crysis on very high but 20 second late game civ turns... Let alone 30fps and 40 seconds.

I get maybe 6 seconds maximum, at 2000ad 7civ/standard maps. And that's on an old single core athlon.

 

[Temrek]

It's not the settings, it's the game itself that's choking itself. The game engine is incapable of handling the late-game properly when the AI makes many moves and lots of stuff is happening, even on a computer with 4 gigs of ram and a quad core to boot.

FPS is differnet from long wait between turns, FPS is how fast your screen is redrawn. The wait is due to AI, and AI is very demanding on the CPU. ESPECIALLY pathfinding. Now I am not sure how the AI is made, but one would think it could be made more effiecient by not performing pathfinding for each unit but rather treat each stack as a single entity for the purpose of AI.

 

[gangleri2001]

I actually like this. In the late game there's many moves to make: naval units, land units and air units. I've got also lots of options in diplomacy and civics and a huge empire (and all its micromanagement) to rule. Some time is necessary to think about what you're gonna do, and this time between turns is very useful to think about all that decisions to take.

Always look on the bright side of life

 

[Kesshi]

Genv [FP],

Have you tried saving your game, closing down the program (exiting to desktop) then reloading your save?

I say this because I've notice the same problem in my machine, however when I stop and pick up the game later on everything moves much quicker. I haven't done any official testing, but it sure feels like CivIV has a memory leak.

 

[T.A JONES]

Alright, to start, I have an excellent PC, and I can run Crysis with all settings at very high ( except AA ) at 20-30 Fps. And HL2 at anywhere from 170-230 FPS

When you first boot up Civ, the time between turns takes around 1-2 seconds. Late in the game, this amount goes anywhere from 20-40 seconds. It's especially bothers me when you're clicking turns trying to get that damned win after putting your cards in a winning position


I'd really like to see the Civ engine updated. There's many community graphical mods that extend the game's lifespan by 5 years ( Blue marble, etc ). It's sad that a game as complex as civ suffers from this problem - It's irritating in the late game. Of course, the game could use a few more features ( AI diplomacy, LET ME PICK MY CIV'S COLOR, The AI in general. etc, etc )
I can't remember how many win situations I'd tossed away because of the damned time between turns being insufferable.

Pssst the answers you seek are very highly controversial .Nobody likes to hear the rig they paid out the ear for runs slower then a older, 1/3 the cost civ4 playing machine. It true IM afraid and fact is present to back this up

It goes back to the programmers and how they designed civ4 to utlize netburst. Codename Cedarmill as peak evo in this regard This was the very last of the monocore CPU's ever made. The know how poured n this CPU model is most refined for mono game design .Nothing beat it on the civ front

This discovery came when the greatest mono cpu of all time was bolstered with quadcore suited motherboards.
Everyone knows motherboard makes the speed of specs like L2 and ram flow towards the tasks faster (1066mhz used on cedar by player aware of its dominacne for mono utilized games) or slower, ( 800mhz, cedar's deafult...a disasterous choice for bottlenecking P4's raw speed ) depending on what mhz speed

Games desiged for monocore are shown too play best on cedarmill the fastest. Its amazing artical of exception to the truth , that being core 2 is the best CPU to date for PC games.

Couple the Cedar very latest v-cards the mobo now can operate and you have he best computer made for any civ game so far . Your qaud has you in good shape to play civ5.
You will not every see a complaint with a cedarmill user about lag in turns however, you are about the 400th Core2 slow game complaint on this forum

L2 is the Cpu memory that calculates the turns in CIv4 before ram is called in . The more you have the longer your turn avoids netburst ineffiecient pipeline struture delys when virtual memeory is called up

Heres the evo of P4 .
Northwood 130nm) L2 cahe 512mb...crap yet thnks to dell most common model
Prescott (90nm) L2 cahe 512mb
Prescott 2M (90nm) L2 cache 2 MiB
Cedar Mill (65nm) L2 cache 2Mb

The straight shrink of the 600-series core to 65 nm gave Cedar Mill a lower heat output than Prescott. Now overclockers ran a 4.6 ghz nice and easy. The "40% less effiecnt then core2" claim by intel was proven as a lie becaue todays cedar owner uses the Core2 motherboard
SO a core 2 running at 2.6ghz is no eqaul to a cedar running at 3.6ghz when the cedar has a mobo deliver L2 and ram to the CPu's task at new superior levels then what was shipped before (800mhz junk!)
Back when Intel touted new dualcore they forget to say that a cedar with a better mobo/ v-card was truly the newt big advanace 'opps! and btw, monocore game optimization is here to stay for a while.'

 

[warpus]

Alright, to start, I have an excellent PC, and I can run Crysis with all settings at very high ( except AA ) at 20-30 Fps. And HL2 at anywhere from 170-230 FPS

That is not a very good comparison - as Crysis mainly draws upon the power of your graphics card, while in-between-turn processing in Civ draws from other resources in your gaming rig.

I'm not sure what kinda settings you're playing at, but I have most of my stuff maxed out, play on standard maps, have a computer that's 2 years old, and I rarely have to wait more than 2 seconds in between turns.. actually.. I can't remember the last time that happened.

 

[Siesta Guru]

Settings houldnt really change the waiting time between turns, settings usually deal with graphics and they need power from the videocard, the waiting time will be reduced with a better cpu and most likely memory.

And crysis also requires a good cpu so its really not his hardwares fault. The cpu just needs some time to think (you wonder why since half a chicken could do better).

The graphics engine isnt that bad on the other hand, only few computers are completely unable to play civ on the lowest settings. And the engine could have been used for way better graphics (oblivion is using the same graphics engine, believe it or not).