Unit Action Delay

[zarakand]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if this is occurring just on my pc or if everyone else has noticed it.

When you click on a unit like ranged, missionary, planes, or work boats and try to initiate their action (bombard, convert, etc) the game freezes for several seconds then continues on to the next unit. I've also noticed that switching from unit to unit seems to take quite a bit longer in CIVUP than in vanilla G&K.

Is it just my system, or is anyone else noticing this as well? I have CIVUP G&K version .18 installed (in the middle of a game otherwise would update) and I'm playing on a standard map.

Here's my system info as well.
i7 2.7ghz, 12gb ram, radeon hd 5870.

Thanks

 

[Thalassicus]

Some users reported a similar issue in vanilla, but in my games unit responses are instantaneous. It's been difficult to track down this issue since it doesn't happen to me, and produces no specific error messages.

I have a similar computer to you, i7, 12gb ram, similar video card.

 

[zarakand]

Thanks, that sounds very frustrating. I wonder if there's anything I can do to prevent the delay. I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 a few days ago, and updated everything again so I don't think there are any conflicts per say.

 

[mitsho]

I have the similar experience, in that once you click on a different unit, the game takes several moments for the interface to change there, (but if you give a command, you see that the actual unit you clicked on, moves). So it's only interface.

However, that also happens to me in the base game, with Gods And Kings. I do have the feeling that the turn processing time has slowed down a lot with the expansion which in the end just reminds me, how old the laptop is I'm playing on

 

[Thalassicus]

It reminds me of a weird bug with mod-loading that took me half a year to track down (lua files don't re-initialize properly). That other bug is why I removed the "load game" button from the ingame menu. It was a very obscure and hard to find issue. I don't think the two problems are related, but this one feels similarly odd.

 

[jk_bonn]

Yes it is a very annoying bug, together with the late game lag ( mostly when open a city screen ) this lead to very long turns.

I think the bug is most troop related, so some have this delay but others dont, very irritating.
Maybe firaxis will fix it in one patch.......

I have now increased my ram because i hoped it will help a bit against this late game lag but i dont see any difference.

 

[zarakand]

Yes it is a very annoying bug, together with the late game lag ( mostly when open a city screen ) this lead to very long turns.

I think the bug is most troop related, so some have this delay but others dont, very irritating.
Maybe firaxis will fix it in one patch.......

I have now increased my ram because i hoped it will help a bit against this late game lag but i dont see any difference.

I don't think it's related to ram (or maybe CIV is limited in the amount of ram it can access) as I never go above 40-50% ram usage in my games even on large/huge maps.

 

[Arksa]

Overall my game is way slower when using mods (or just this mod), unit action delay, same with buildings + longer load times between turns and save games take much much longer to load with mods.

Any idea why is this?

 

[zarakand]

No idea but I concur. For me it's worth the slowness to have these interface and balance improvements. Though now I mainly play standard maps and windowed mode due to it.

 

[Thalassicus]

I think due to what we know, the best approach is divide-and-conquer experimentation. One stage is already done for G&K: we know for certain this is not a problem with the vem/gem half of the project. Civup itself also has two convenient halves: interface and modtools.

Everyone who encounters this problem:

1. Update to civup v24.
2. Disable the interface half of the mod by placing an _ underscore before the "interface" folder name.
3. Start a normal size & speed game on the continents map (so we know it's not caused by map settings).
4. Play until you would normally encounter the problem. Does it still happen?
   • Yes: problem in ModTools
   • No: problem in Interface

 

[zarakand]

I'll do that for my next game, and post the results.

 

[Gorhaax]

I played a short game and it seemed that turning the interface folder off stopped the lag though that could also be just that i didn't get very far, medieval age.

 

[Thalassicus]

If we can get one more confirmation the problem exists in the interface section, we can start narrowing it down further within that section for the next round of experiments. The interface section has some files which depend on one another, so I'll have to figure out which parts we can disable, and would like to know this is the right part to do so in.

 

[mitsho]

I just played around 50 turns from a medieval start and didn't encounter the problem (so far). (though I had quick speed on, but I did that already in the game I referenced in my first post of this thread, sorry, I overread that part of your post, Thal...).

EDIT: with the interface option off, of course. Though with CivUP 25 because I already had upgraded it...

 

[kermidge]

@mitsho

Thanks for reply. Sorry, don't know how to copy your last to this thread.

re happening in vanilla - looked several times, see no folder labeled "interface" under either sub folder in "Unofficial Patch and Vanilla Enhanced (v 166)" folder. I spent a fair amount of time looking through each individual folder, xml, lua, for things I might maybe could disable or change, not that I know what I'm doing...

re additonal-info popups - well, they're the 'tootips' that display copious info relevant to wherever the action area of the cursor is, in just about every location in the game apart from mini-map. At least, I think they're different than the ones that show up in the stock vanilla game. (Civ V 1.0.1.705) Only directly related thing, I guess, was a note in the HoverInfo folder in CivUP about Adam Watkins hover info.

One thing I've found, if, when the build panel for a city is up, if I move quickly from a neutral area - mini-map or outside the game window - the the item I want, click right smartly and back to neutral area, I avoid the popup. Or should I better call them tooltips?

 

[mitsho]

My bad for not actually checking the files before giving advice. Apparently, Thal reordered the CivUP part for G&K whereas in the Vanilla one, it's a bit more of "everything in one big folder". I now checked what's in the Interface folder for G&K, and it's the folders

• Cities (in Core folder for Vanilla)
• CopaseticUITweaks
• CsebExtendedPlotMouseover
• ExtraDiplomacyText
• FlagPromotions
• HoverInfo
• Icons (in Core folder)
• MapPins
• Misc (in Core folder)
• Techs (in Core folder
• Trade (seems equivalent to TradeOpportunities)
• Units (in Core folder
• UnitTrees
• Villages (not sure where that one is)
• and the file Interface_Data

So you may try to do the same thing we did above by underscoring the above named folders (and then play a game). Apart from that we need to wait for Thal to look further into this problem.


Regarding the tooltips, I'm not sure wether they are different from the base game. It maybe they read directly from the files instead from the text files (translation), thus they are less elaborately worded, but don't keep old information in. I'm not sure either way since those didn't catch my attention really.

If you are just annoyed by the tooltips that tell you what the yields are, the defense modifier or what the building does, you can just change the time until they appear. In your game folder (My Games -> Sid Meier's Civ5), there's a file named User Settings. Scroll down or search for the line "tooltip1seconds" (or tooltip2) and change as you like

Hope that helps...

 

[kermidge]

No worries, mitsho.

I've got a game at 2012, only Liz left with 2 cities (Montezuma denounced me one too many times and then attacked Liz for the 3rd time so I had to whup him.) I'll take the last save and copy it elsewhere, then start a new one with those folders disabled.

(Wow, that's a lot, looks like a goodly part of the mod; too bad I can't figure out which parts to disable in code, but I'm not about to start messing with that stuff.)

With the tooltips, I'd much rather have them available on demand if it's reasonable to implement. With a timing 'solution' one is left with them either being too quick to read and ponder when making a decision or waiting the time out for the 90% one may not need. I hope you see my point that as the are now, the game appears to halt while they're on screen.

I hope to post tomorrow.

 

[kermidge]

Looked three times and searched, could not find folder "Villages" or file "Interface_Data" but I could have missed them. I think I got everything else you listed disabled.

Had to re-enable Techs, else no tech and game wouldn't advance a turn.

Okay, 491 turns, 1598AD (marathon). Additional mods InfoAddict vanilla v.17 (only shows up on diplomacy screen where it's very helpful), Barbarian Unlimited Exp v.1. Here's what I found so far:

Tooltips work fine - it's the delay in 'raising' them that's back to normal, one must hover a while on the map. They release as soon as the cursor moves. No problems with them in city screen menus anymore, they're instant on, instant off when move cursor.

No unreasonable hesitations or lag when selecting, changing, moving units.

Workers back to normal skittishness.

Social policy screen back to normal arrangement but modded bonuses are there and no lag when done with a selection before exiting.

Great Scientist can't discover tech; can build Oxford with just one university.

Promoted a scout to archer via the spiffy new decision dialogs, but he got set back to two moves rather than the three he'd had from prior promotion.

That's about it so far, from what I wrote down and what I remember.

Excuse me, I've got to kill Montezuma and Genghis; Monty attacked twice, Khan once, and they're on my continent.... and I've got to build two more settlers to send halfway 'round the world, one to snag the Rock, the other to pick up three coal on a one-tile island before Catherine gets 'em.

 

[Thalassicus]

I'm working on splitting the interface folder into two parts: standalone and overrides. This should let us narrow down which half of the interface folder is causing the problem.

• Standalone: These are mostly other author's mods I included, like FlagPromotions.
• Overrides: These are lots of miscellaneous interface I did myself.

I expect to have this done sometime this week.

 

[kermidge]

Somethings I overlooked:

With the various folders disabled, results from changes in focus, buying/selling things, now are reflected immediately in city stats.

On the menu line, money and happiness usually refresh right away, the inventory not until beginning of next turn.

No citizen management, but focus works.

Also, there is a hesitation when founding a city.

With so many folders disabled, I can see it's hard to tell which is doing or not doing what. If there's something I can do to help, please let me know. Meanwhile I'll do a game with just CivUp, then one with VEM.

Inasmuch as I don't _have_ an interface folder, I'll be interested in what you find.

I find the Communitas-pack mod overall to be a very good improvement over vanilla and look forward to it working better.