the game runs very slow

[Amenhotep IV]

does anybody know why do i have to wait over 1min after the end of turn on a huge map. it's really anoying in ADs and after. i have 320 ram and other high comp. "values"
what the problem could be? is it normal?

 

[cegman]

I heard many reports of this but I don't play huge map so I don't know if it takes that long but it takes a while on standard sometimes

 

[FM_Freyland]

Pawe, from other complaints on the board, if you have more than 9 or 10 civs playing on a huge map, the game will slow down, even in the ancient periods. There are only two ways to speed it up:

1) get more ram, which you have in abundance

2) Send money to Sid, Jeff and Dan via Paypal to have them help you with your game. Or, at least add the features that were originally promised.

Jonathan

 

[Zouave]

Originally posted by Pawe³
does anybody know why do i have to wait over 1min after the end of turn on a huge map. it's really anoying in ADs and after. i have 320 ram and other high comp. "values"
what the problem could be? is it normal?

Yes, it is normal. It's not you. people with 256 RAM and a 1 gig CPU have said it is slow. Patch 1.21 made it slower. Just watch TV while your playing, or bring up another Windows screen.

 

[Frodo Bolson]

If it is the game itself the one who is slow, try closing all the background programs that may be running while you play. Pressing ctrl + alt + delete will show all the current programs working in windows, if you close them (except explorer and systray, wich must remain working) you will have a better performance. You can also defragment your hard disk, you should do that each month or so.

But if it is the time between turn what takes time, I'm afraid that depends in a high value of the number of units the computer must move each time. Gigantic maps and many civilizations mean more units, and it is very logic that if there are 500 or more units to move the computer will take some time. I'm not sure if it is available here, but in other Civilizations games you can turn off the enemy movements (it means that if they are showed or not), wich would increase speed.

 

[Old Fox]

I also play on the huge maps and experience the same problem.

The problem is that the computer is playing the AI civs the same way it is playing you. unit moves with all the other civ's figuring their battles, diplomacy, etc.

At the end of your turn each time go to prefs and turn off all animations and unit moves, etc. When you get to the point where you can move units again, turn them back on.

Pain in the butt, but it seems to help a bit.

I suspect the game is programmed in VB or something, not particularly efficient. I haven't looked to be certain, it just has that "feel" to it.

 

[sgrig]

I experienced huge slowdowns when playing on a 256x256 map with 16 civs in the modern era - AI turns can take upto an hour! Even calculations involved when building a harbour or an airport can take a few minutes!

However I found that this is very good if I have some work to do - I play a turn, hit space, and then I can work for at least an hour, checking from time to time that I don't get any messages from my advisors!

However, on a large map (130x130, I think) with 12 civs, it is much faster - the wait between turns is no more than a minute or two, which is acceptable to me!

I am playing on a laptop, with 128 MB RAM, 650MHz Celeron.

So to Pawe - 1 minute waits are not too bad!

I also found that the advantage of long turns is that it adds realism - you feel the responsibility of your decisions, and it does feel as if you are making decisions for 5 years ahead! Loading such games is also a pain (might take upto 5 minutes), so the reloading "cheat" is out of question - hence no easy way to 'undo' bad decisions!

Note: I checked in the Task Manager that Civ3 takes up about 35MB of real memory and 195MB of virtual memory on my computer, even though about 20MB of real memory are still unused, but during AI turns it has a 99% CPU usage. So my guess is that increasing memory won't speed it too much - the key is probably the CPU power, though I may be wrong.

 

[Richard III]

I had a 350mhz with dinky ram and hated it. It was slow. So I solved the problem and bought a 128k ram with 1.6gig. And you know what? It ain't slow anymore! No complaints, really.

R.III

 

[syswei]

1.21 is PAINFULLY slow. I play on a STANDARD-sized map with standard number of civs. Yes, you get hourglass-type waits even in the early stages. But by the time you get up to the modern age, the game is unplayable. I for one DON'T think that 1-3 minute waits are acceptable. I gave up (didn't even finish my first 1.21 game) and uninstalled 1.21. Didn't play civ3 at all for a month, I was so disgusted. Finally went back, but am playing with 1.17. Firaxis I hope you read this and make performance a priority. I have only a 500mhz pc, but with 384mb.

 

[warpstorm]

This has been discussed a hundred times before. Soren basically said don't play on Huge maps with 16 civs, it wasn't designed to take it. That feature was thrown in at the last minute because they could, not because it would run well (it won't). 1.21 runs a little slower because of the file compression on auto saves (thankfully removed), turn off auto saves if this is the prob. The real time chewer is the path finder, which has to get the current best path beween any two points.

 

[costanza]

The problem is related directly to the CPU speed. The graphics aren't a problem and I bet it doesn't take a whole lot to pull stuff off the CD or your hard drive.

I have an Athlon 750mHz with 512 megs of ram and the game runs slow. I bet at 1.7 gigahertz with half that ram would outperform mine on Civ 3.

 

[Trinity]

There are several possibilities for slow response in the game.

1. Processor speed makes minimum requirements. That's just to sell the game. Actual processor should be twice the minimum.

2. SDRAM runs slow (133 MHz), DDR runs at 266 MHz. If your video card has SDRAM the effect is cumulative.

3. Celeron and Duron processors don't process math and graphics as fast as Athelon and Pentium IVs.

4. Win98 SE still gets ActiveX registry errors and they occur about 10 minutes into play. These definitely slow things down. Norton can fix these temporarily, but the OS will eventually screw up. The problem has been fixed in XP.

5. and the most likely cause is your swap file. If you let windows manage your swap file it will fragment. When it fragments, the whole computer slows down. I changed it to manual at 2.5 times the size of my ram for both minimum and maximum size. I also put it on a separate partition that has only the swap file on it.

The last one is a cheap fix. Get Partition Magic ($20), and create a dedicated partition. Go to My Computer under properties. Set the swap file min and max to 2.5 times your ram and have your computer put it on the dedicated partition. That will speed things up some. You could do the swap file thing on the same partition if you'd like. Hope this helps. Good luck

 

[syswei]

I already have a partitioned drive: C has the OS (win98), D has aps including civ3. If I don't want to create another partition, do you recommend the swap file go on C or D?

 

[Trinity]

Put it on C:\ and set it's min and max to 2.5*RAM. Hope it helps some.

 

[pompeynunn]

The 1.21 patch has definitely slowed things down. I now have long waits between turns on a huge map with 16 civs which I didn't get before. I have a 1.8GHz P4 with 512MB of RAM, so if I'm getting slow turns, I guess everybody will.

I will try turning off the autosave though to see if that helps - if the long times are due to saving the files, then I guess no amount of extra RAM or processor will help that much - the limiting factor will be the speed of the HDD.

 

[Trinity]

I've noticed as I've gotten into modern times, the game has slowed down. I assume it's because of all the movements in the rest of the nations, those we don't see. It's still a lot faster on this computer than it was on my 450 MHz AMD K6-2.

 

[VOODOO MEDICINE]

Just select less Civ's to play on the map. I had the same prob when I played with 16 Civ's on the map but since I play with 8 I don't have that problem anymore

 

[syswei]

Even with 8 civs on a standard-sized map, the game is notably slower in the earlier ages (comparing 1.21 to 1.17) and is ABYSMALLY SLOW, even UNPLAYABLE once you get up to the modern age.

 

[Traquenard-fx]

The game during the turn passing seem to freeze and continu...
I say that because sometimes I only move the mouse of my computer and the game seem to go more faster. Possible?

 

[Amenhotep IV]

Thanx very much for help. From what you say, the only chance is to wait for Civ3TW. Maybe Firaxis will solve the problem