Warlords - Memory Leak?

[jukesy]

Hello all

512 MB ram,
1.7 Intel Centrino,
128 dedicated ATI card.

While playing a multiplayer game with two people over a wireless lan:

After playing for some time both computers start going very slow and freezing for minutes.

The pagefile shows pc using 200+ MBs.

Even after closing Civ4 the computer is still painfully slow and takes a couple of minutes to even open a folder or shut down. (5 to 10 minutes)

Sometimes task Manager still shows Warlords process running even when I terminate the process or end the game.

The exact same thing happens to my friends PC, he also has 512MB and dedicated graphics card.

We have to keep rebooting the PCs every two hours and then all is fine again!!

Any advice?

 

[crunch]

Sadly, your computers are probably ill-suited for longer sessions because of your lack of RAM. What you can do to prolong your gameplay:
- play smaller maps
- close all background applications before launching civ (antivirus programs, instant messengers...)
- turn off sounds in the ini file (EnableAudio=0)
- turn graphics detail to low
- turn off all nice features (multiunit graphics, animations...)
- lower game resolution
- try playing in windowed mode (Fullscreen=0)

I have a similar (weaker) system. I know that it can take up to a couple of minutes for Civ4 to release the memory it uses. I have observed (and you can too) in the Task manager, how the memory usage slowly decreases, until it's finally gone. Just wait I guess. Go grab some snacks in the meantime (in moderation).

 

[jukesy]

Thanks

But the thing is; if we reboot our PCs and load the saved game everything is fine again. Really quick actions. And yet there is still the same map size, graphics detail, number of units moving, battles taking place, etc.. etc.... when we reload.

Steve

 

[boneys26]

I have the same problems playing standard maps 8 civs and i have 2 gig ram...also when i click for world builder the game gives me a black screen saying civ4 warlods has encounterd a problem and needs to close (that happends every time i click worldbuilder in warlords) or after playing for a while just goes to show how rushed this xp was just like civ4 when it first came out. Fraxis company moto is "money first then fixes" And before anyone says turn things off or run low graphics detail i'm running the lowest detail graphicly with no music playing. And both 1 gig ram cards are new with no faults (i've tested)

 

[crunch]

if we reboot our PCs and load the saved game everything is fine again

well... yeah. The longer you're playing, the more memory civ is using. After a while it reaches the point where almost everything has to be swapped to hard disk. And this is when civ slows down dramatically and eventually crashes. Thus, my recommendation is: start saving the memory (e.g. on audio) - it should prolong your gameplay.

 

[jukesy]

The longer you're playing, the more memory civ is using

Why?

That does not make any sense unless the game is not releasing memory.

What is the difference between starting a game and playing for 2 hours to get to point X, and loading a game at point X. The game play when loading a game is no different, I can still see all my old units, and cities and even look at the histograph to show me my history.

I play many games which are larger than Civ and are cosntantly writing to the hard drive and I have never had this before.

 

[Artosoft]

Why?

That does not make any sense unless the game is not releasing memory.

What is the difference between starting a game and playing for 2 hours to get to point X, and loading a game at point X. The game play when loading a game is no different, I can still see all my old units, and cities and even look at the histograph to show me my history.

I play many games which are larger than Civ and are cosntantly writing to the hard drive and I have never had this before.

That's called a bug. Memory bug. Until (hopefully) they fix it on next patch. When...? I don't know...

Regards,
Arto.

 

[auldian]

What is the difference between starting a game and playing for 2 hours to get to point X, and loading a game at point X.

Some games do it after 2 hours, some take 2 days. Assuming it is running out of RAM + pagefile, try a program like FreeRAM XP Pro that was recommended by Thrallia in this thread.
Prior to that, condition your PCs with defrags, chkdsk, etc. A lot of helpful techniques are on page 1 of the "Fix-It List" (sticked in this forum).
Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Pounder]

There is the same problem in single player.

If you play for several hours eventually things degrade, if you restart your computer and play from the the last save everything is perfect again for several hours. There is nothing wrong with your computer.

 

[morchuflex]

Yes, there seems to be an unsolved memory leak in Warlords.

Game performance decreases with time, and this has nothing to do with the number of units or parameters increasing, because it affects even the easiest things to process for any decent computer: moving units, or swapping worked tiles in the city display. In the early game, everything is smooth. After about 2 hours of play, it's down to a crawl. But if I quit and reload, it's smooth again... Only for some time.
So, it CANNOT be due to insufficient RAM or CPU power. If it were CPU or RAM or Graphics Card related, it would increase with the complexity of the display and mainly affect the time the AI takes playing its turn, not you moving a trireme around a desert island. And anyway, a computer that can handle Doom3 at a constant 60 FPS with all eye-candy ON can certainly handle Civ4.

So anyone dismissing your complaints by telling you to lower resolution or play on smaller maps with fewer enemies is just insulting your intelligence.
Memory leaks were common in the grand old times of DOS gaming. Master of Magic, for instance, was, very like Civ4, noteworthy for its (astouding gameplay and) poor usage of memory, and with time could even cripple a PC that had 3 times the required specs.

Firaxis people, there is still unfinished business with Civ4...

 

[Gumbolt]

yep!! Sounds about right.

So what is the advice.

Upgrading is not worth the money to try and run the game or better to wait for a patch that may never arrive?

Will this improve with vista??

 

[morchuflex]

Unfortunately, no suggestions.

Another thing that suggests very poor memory management from this game: load a savegame, and it takes, say, 15 seconds (give or take depending on your computer). Now, play a few turns, and without quitting Civ, load a savegame. This time, it takes much, much longer. Why?