whats the deal with the long proccessing times between turns

[nokmirt]

Ok, here are my times without gameboost on. Time and then turn number.

1. 0:50 531
2. 1:34 532
3. 1:31 533
4. 1:37 534
5. 1:50 535
6. 1:24 536
7. 1:38 537
8. 1:33 538
9. 1:31 539
10. 0:51 540

I am not sure why two turns were under a minute, but they were. I'll be back soon with game boost activated numbers. So, we can see if there is any difference at all.

I did notice when I had game boost on last night, units moved much faster and the scroll time between city to city was much more instant. While your in your turn this seemed much quicker all around.

 

[CivRulez07]

I just decided to try Game Booster, and it seems to work well during games! For some reason it's ignoring the change that I made to "UserSettings.ini" and is showing the intro video.

Also a side note if you want to use Game Booster, download it before the end of the month. Starting in July you will have to pay to get the basic version, but if you download it for free now, you don't have to pay for it, even when July comes around.

 

[Carl5872]

Ok, here are my times without gameboost on. Time and then turn number.

1. 0:50 531
2. 1:34 532
3. 1:31 533
4. 1:37 534
5. 1:50 535
6. 1:24 536
7. 1:38 537
8. 1:33 538
9. 1:31 539
10. 0:51 540

I am not sure why two turns were under a minute, but they were. I'll be back soon with game boost activated numbers. So, we can see if there is any difference at all.

I did notice when I had game boost on last night, units moved much faster and the scroll time between city to city was much more instant. While your in your turn this seemed much quicker all around.

First of all thank you for doing this research!!

I also had some questions about this game boost thingy.

Is there a cost to use it?

How easy/difficult is it to use for someone with almost no computer knowledge?

 

[nokmirt]

First of all thank you for doing this research!!

I also had some questions about this game boost thingy.

Is there a cost to use it?

How easy/difficult is it to use for someone with almost no computer knowledge?

No it is free before the end of the month. In July you have to pay for it.

Now what happened to me now is that I have a problem on turn 541. I have messed around with xml files etc etc, so its probably either that or a mod. It still seems strange though. Why now this late in the game, it is very peculiar? All the other civs have had all the techs for sometime now. This game goes until the Industrial Era. China and Germany DoW and after that the game does not CTD, I wait for like 6-7 minutes and hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and look at the task manager. It says CiV not responding. So, if any of you guys have a decent large or huge map savegame, no mods. Can you post it. I am going to reinstall my game. I need to before GnK comes out anyway. I might as well do that now.

If any of you can post a save where the game has been running slow. I'll test it with game booster. Thanks and appreciate it. I just don't have time to play a whole new game.

 

[Kabloosh]

I never really cared for the processing lag spikes on huge maps when the npcs are doing their work. Game runs wonderfully when its my turn and that is all that matters to me.

 

[CivRulez07]

If any of you can post a save where the game has been running slow. I'll test it with game booster. Thanks and appreciate it. I just don't have time to play a whole new game.

I have a game that I was playing with VEM and InfoAddict...would that work? Or are you looking at games without mods?

 

[The_Quasar]

Thinking I'm going to have to try this...

Thank you nokmirt for being the test dummy and your helpful reports...

 

[nokmirt]

I have a game that I was playing with VEM and InfoAddict...would that work? Or are you looking at games without mods?

Send it I will download VEM. Thank you CivRulez07.

Thinking I'm going to have to try this...

Thank you nokmirt for being the test dummy and your helpful reports...

Your welcome The_Quasar. I wonder if game boost turns on automaticially when you start a game? I know for that first run I did not initialize it manually. I will get back to you in a bit, I want to try something.

BTW if anyone has a huge map without mods that is slow in the late game, send it and I'll check it out. This way I can check with mods and without. If you have a game with info addict that will be great, because I have that mod already.

 

[CivRulez07]

Send it I will download VEM. Thank you CivRulez07.

I've attached it to this post. Note though that this game was played with a slightly older version of VEM (158 I believe - current version is 159.2) so I'm not sure if it will work with the latest version. Thanks!

EDIT: Disregard this post. See next post by me.

 

[nokmirt]

I've attached it to this post. Note though that this game was played with a slightly older version of VEM (158 I believe - current version is 159.2) so I'm not sure if it will work with the latest version. Thanks!

I will take a look and let you know. Thanks

 

[CivRulez07]

Sorry nokmirt. Uploaded the wrong save (was looking in wrong folder). Attached is the correct save. If you need the old VEM version I still have it.

 

[nokmirt]

Sorry nokmirt. Uploaded the wrong save (was looking in wrong folder). Attached is the correct save. If you need the old VEM version I still have it.

Yes, please send your version of VEM. I'll try it out. Then I will redo the test. If you go offline on steam, game booster remains off unless you turn it on manually. If you activate a game online with steam game boost turns on auto. So, I'll time turns both ways.

Anyway the times I listed earlier, that list of ten. I was playing CiV offline so game booster was not on. Those times are not bad considering.

 

[Baleur]

I played this game the day of release when everyone had massive problems with 3 minute turn times even at the beginning, I had no such issues. It was fast even on hugge maps (thats all i play) at the very end of the game.

But lately, the past few months, it is impossible to finish a game. The turn times are astronomic.
So i dont think advising him to "search for old threads" will help. Its something wrong in the later patches.

 

[nokmirt]

I played this game the day of release when everyone had massive problems with 3 minute turn times even at the beginning, I had no such issues. It was fast even on hugge maps (thats all i play) at the very end of the game.

But lately, the past few months, it is impossible to finish a game. The turn times are astronomic.
So i dont think advising him to "search for old threads" will help. Its something wrong in the later patches.

Yes, mine crashed today very late in a domination game on a huge map, when two of the largest civs went to war. Someone made an oops with a late patch. I wonder if they plan a fix soon? I think I'll give Firaxis a call at 410-887-8000 and see what they have to say for themselves.

 

[eris]

I am not a practiced reviewer, but I did install it and here are some impressions.

If you are having troubles with Civ5 turn times AND you have a bunch of background processes running all the time, this program could help you.

If you just plain begrudge every cpu cycle devoted to anything that is not your game in progress, this program understands you and agrees enthusiastically.

If you are nervous about identifying what processes are vital or not, it tries to help you along with that a lot, but you are ultimately on your own. It does want to help you put things back if you break them, and that is very good.

It knows Steam games, and that is good for our usage. The first thing it did that I noticed was turn off the WinAmp in the background. The next thing that happened was I found the list and put WinAmp back on. This is contrary to the obsessive begrudgement mentioned above, but it shows that the program knows we will have such priorities.

It is klunky coming back from gaming mode. Some processes just don't like being shut down hard and then turned back on. FireFox and my screen saver randomizer are two of them. Coming back from gaming mode leaves semi-abandoned dialogue boxes for both on my desktop, but they easily dismiss.

There is some improvement. I don't have the skills to characterize it numerically. It claims 40% on my system, but that is not at all true and it doesn't explain that number either. It is noticeably sending updates to the graphic card faster. (part of where my performance seems choked) An old save file of a game late in progress still had long turn times, and I didn't remember that game interactively enough to get a good subjective impression of how much improvement there might be. Subjectively it seemed better. I started a new game and the ancient era and classical era turns do have a certain snappiness to them which is noticeably better.

It didn't break anything for me. It has decent reviews out there and seems safe enough. If you fall into either of the qualifying categories above you might just find it of use to you. If your real problem is something other than background processes, it may only give marginal relief, but if your desperate, any little bit helps.

 

[Carl5872]

I am not a practiced reviewer, but I did install it and here are some impressions.

If you are having troubles with Civ5 turn times AND you have a bunch of background processes running all the time, this program could help you.

If you just plain begrudge every cpu cycle devoted to anything that is not your game in progress, this program understands you and agrees enthusiastically.

If you are nervous about identifying what processes are vital or not, it tries to help you along with that a lot, but you are ultimately on your own. It does want to help you put things back if you break them, and that is very good.

It knows Steam games, and that is good for our usage. The first thing it did that I noticed was turn off the WinAmp in the background. The next thing that happened was I found the list and put WinAmp back on. This is contrary to the obsessive begrudgement mentioned above, but it shows that the program knows we will have such priorities.

It is klunky coming back from gaming mode. Some processes just don't like being shut down hard and then turned back on. FireFox and my screen saver randomizer are two of them. Coming back from gaming mode leaves semi-abandoned dialogue boxes for both on my desktop, but they easily dismiss.

There is some improvement. I don't have the skills to characterize it numerically. It claims 40% on my system, but that is not at all true and it doesn't explain that number either. It is noticeably sending updates to the graphic card faster. (part of where my performance seems choked) An old save file of a game late in progress still had long turn times, and I didn't remember that game interactively enough to get a good subjective impression of how much improvement there might be. Subjectively it seemed better. I started a new game and the ancient era and classical era turns do have a certain snappiness to them which is noticeably better.

It didn't break anything for me. It has decent reviews out there and seems safe enough. If you fall into either of the qualifying categories above you might just find it of use to you. If your real problem is something other than background processes, it may only give marginal relief, but if your desperate, any little bit helps.

How easy/hard is it to use for someone who knows almost nothing about computers?

 

[CivRulez07]

nok: Attached is the VEM version that I used with my save.

How easy/hard is it to use for someone who knows almost nothing about computers?

Seems easy enough to me. There are more technical parts if you want to customize which processes are shut down and which ones aren't, but you don't need to do that. After installing it, you can just open the program, select which game you want to play, and choose "Boost & Launch."

 

[eris]

The only thing that kept me from using the default settings was my insistence on listening to WinAmp. I have been researching this process issue for a while, so there were a couple other extra things I did that depended on recognizing process names and purposes. However, I don't see any reasons you couldn't apply it as default and see if it helps. It actually labels processes with helpful clues as to how they might affect things if you are at all adventurous, and anything can be put back.

 

[nokmirt]

nok: Attached is the VEM version that I used with my save.



Seems easy enough to me. There are more technical parts if you want to customize which processes are shut down and which ones aren't, but you don't need to do that. After installing it, you can just open the program, select which game you want to play, and choose "Boost & Launch."

Thanks I will update soon.

Ok, the difference seems to be negligible. That was a standard map. Perhaps it does improve turn times on larger maps. I can say this, in turn play is much improved. Time in between turns seems to still be an issue. Firaxis hopefully will take care of this soon.

 

[WebmasterNeal]

Has anyone found that the game seems to be taking longer between turns lately as compared to, say a couple weeks ago?

For me, I seldom change my game setup, playing the same sized maps with the same amount of opponents. However, in this last week or two, the game seems to be slowing down for me significantly between turns.

I have found that if I minimize my fullscreen game to my desktop between turns, it will reduce a 4 minute wait time to 1:30 minutes for no apparent reason.