3 Technical problems in running Civ3.

[Huntred]

Hello,
Sorry if this appears again, I've had some difficulty in maintaining a connection. I've posted this on Civ3 Help but wanted any other ideas from the General site.

System:
P3-500
256MB
Riva TNT - 16MB RAM, Detonator Drivers 21.83
DirectX 8
Win98SE

Install went fine (excepting the registration wants a great deal of information).

Issue 1:
There is something funky with the text being displayed both on the main menu screen and in the game screen. The best way I could describe it is that multiple lines of text are being displayed on the same line, making quite a jumble. The main menu I don't care so much about, however this problem carrys over into the actual game. to where I cannot read the lower right information which tells me about the unit, it's location, what year it is, etc.

Issue 2:
Preferences menu is screwed up a bit where the selection items are out of alignment with their corresponding check boxes - this isn't just aesthetic, it's to the point to where I cannot tell for certain what I'm checking off.

Issue 3:
I have the sneaking suspicion that my Domestic Advisor is trying to tell me things however the text is not coming across and I just see a blank window. In the tutorial game, I see her face and her text box but it's empty. After toying around with the units for a few years, she pops up again - again blank.

I haven't actually gone through the tutorial or manual yet however the readme didn't have anything to offer on the subject. I'll have more time to fiddle and read tonight and I have another graphics card that I will try to plunk in the box to see if that makes a difference.

Other ideas welcome.

Thanks.

[Huntred]

Just a shot of what I'm talking about with regard to preferences. I believe the text is only shifted up by a half notch but I'm not certain.

[Jahi]

1. reinstall direct x 8a
2. check for newer video drivers, the TNT2 was never that great.
3. go to the windows update page and d/l any patches

[Huntred]

Just a shot of what I'm talking about with regard to preferences. I believe the text is only shifted up by a half notch but I'm not certain.

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by Huntred
Just a shot of what I'm talking about with regard to preferences. I believe the text is only shifted up by a half notch but I'm not certain.

Looks like your problems are font-related; the in-game font doesn't look anything like the font I see in the screens you posted, so that would explain most, if not all, the anomalies you're experiencing.

I'll see if I can get some info on a resolution.


Dan

[LdyMox]

I have having the same problem. Which makes the game unplayable.

Win98SE
256 RAM
Voodoo 3
Viewsonic G90F 19 inch monitor
AMD 500
Direct X 8 (all new updates)

Do you per chance have a large amunt of fonts installed like me? There is a font file named LSANS.TTF I am going to check if it got installed right

[Huntred]

I don't believe so - I'm not big into fonts so I doubt I have much more than the standard compliment.

While the game is fairly unplayable like this, it's very tourable. What little I have seen of the landscape is beautiful. I liked the 3D terrain - and especially features like how one can see a mountain "off in the distance" (outside of the 3x3 visibility grid). Also, one can't "cheat" like in SMAC where you can get an idea as to the nature of the surround terrain by the grid contour.

[jglidewell]

Originally posted by Huntred
Hello,

Other ideas welcome.

Thanks.

On windows you can select how much hardware acceleration you use. I had a similiar porblem to this with Railroad Tycoon. After adjusting the acceleration to a minimum there were no more troubles and the screen would show normal.

[LdyMox]

Ok I made sure that font was installed, reinstalled OpenGL and DirectX8a and still no change.

[LdyMox]

Ok I also reinstalled my video drivers. Still no change.

Sir Fraxis could you e-mail me if you do get a resolution? [ Tammy@wodgraphics ] or at least post it on this thread? The game is simply unplayable until this is fixed for me.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS


Looks like your problems are font-related; the in-game font doesn't look anything like the font I see in the screens you posted, so that would explain most, if not all, the anomalies you're experiencing.

I'll see if I can get some info on a resolution.


Dan
Do you say that you forgot to include the font used in the game?

[Boris Godunov]

I'm not having these issues at all, but isn't there a line in the readme.txt about the font issue? Not sure...

Dan, my music is skipping horribly and I had to shut it off. It's not affecting gameplay at all, but it was very annoying. Any ideas?

[rockville]

In case you didn't see this in the other thread that you started on this...

Are you using a desktop theme? If you change your desktop settings back to the defaults does the problem remain?

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by Gramphos

Do you say that you forgot to include the font used in the game?

Huh?? What I am saying is the screens he posted show a totally different font than what ships with, and is used by, the game. It could be a font conflict, "small fonts" forced on, some font program, or even just running out of memory. All fonts in my Internet Explorer tend to start looking like that "bold, sans serif" that are present in both of his screens when I've got too much going on in my machine at once.

Dan

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
I'm not having these issues at all, but isn't there a line in the readme.txt about the font issue? Not sure...

Dan, my music is skipping horribly and I had to shut it off. It's not affecting gameplay at all, but it was very annoying. Any ideas?

Just the usuals, drivers, etc.. did you do a full install? What OS are you running?

One other interesting DirectX thing I found out recently that may help you is that apparently MS ships DirectX with debugging turned on in nearly every module, and this consumes precious CPU cycles. There is a control panel applet you can download, drop it into your system folder, and then you can access it via control panel and see if debugging is turned on, and if so, you can turn it off. It helped stop stuttering sound on some other games I play quite a bit (Unreal Tournament notably) though truthfully I've never had any sound problems with Civ III.

I'll see if I can find a link to that applet, it may help some of you out.


Dan

[Huntred]

Originally posted by jglidewell


On windows you can select how much hardware acceleration you use. I had a similiar porblem to this with Railroad Tycoon. After adjusting the acceleration to a minimum there were no more troubles and the screen would show normal.

I uninstalled and reinstalled Civ3 w/ a reboot between - just in case a font didn't copy correctly.

I adjusted hardware accel to none (ugh - that won't help the framerates in AvP2..:) ). Windows wanted to do one of those quickie reboots but it had a minor lockup so I had to reset. Same issue with the fonts. I swtiched back to "full" and the quickie reboot worked.

Thanks though - that was a good one. I forgot that buddy of mine has all sorts of weirdness if he sets his Radeon VE more than a couple notches past "none". Computers are so...interesting.

[LdyMox]

Also if I try to build a city it says" Unable to allocate bufffer. Terminating program" and then the program well terminates. I never had aany graphic card problems. I'll try playing with the hardware acelleration some.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by LdyMox
Also if I try to build a city it says" Unable to allocate bufffer. Terminating program" and then the program well terminates. I never had aany graphic card problems. I'll try playing with the hardware acelleration some.

Sounds like a memory problem...how much free HD space you got? You need at least 50 meg. But I'm a techno-idiot so don't trust me.

Thanks for the response Dan, link would be appreciated...will try it when I get home tonight.

Also...is Firaxis going to set something up for constructive feedback for future patches?

Cheers.

[Huntred]

Originally posted by rockville
In case you didn't see this in the other thread that you started on this...

Are you using a desktop theme? If you change your desktop settings back to the defaults does the problem remain?

No real scheme - I think it's stock (or stockish) colors with a black background. Modest (~12) shortcuts. No active desktop features turned on. It's my very boring computer.
(The still-delayed flagship machine is a based off an EPoX-8KHA+ so I've got problems all around).

BTW - please folks, don't get bitter or panicy about this. I don't think there's a mass problem with the game as judged by the number of people in the general thread who seem to be having a good ole time. This is affecting just a couple folks - and believe me, it's definitely my week for machine rebellion (don't ask about my Tivo either)...

[Huntred]

Originally posted by LdyMox
Also if I try to build a city it says" Unable to allocate bufffer. Terminating program" and then the program well terminates. I never had aany graphic card problems. I'll try playing with the hardware acelleration some.

FYI - I have the exact same problem. I hadn't tried to build a city before - I was too busy walking around.

I have 279MB free (it's not much but I'm in a big state of transition right now). Windows is managing the swap file.

Please let me know if you get a solution sent to you - pooky@smart.net I'll do the same to Tammy@wodgraphics

Thanks.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS
All fonts in my Internet Explorer tend to start looking like that "bold, sans serif" that are present in both of his screens when I've got too much going on in my machine at once.

Dan
I've had that problem as well. Both when memory runs low, and when I increased the res to some very big and still run on a high frequency. I don't remember exactly what (and I'll not try to reproduce it.)

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Sounds like a memory problem...how much free HD space you got? You need at least 50 meg. But I'm a techno-idiot so don't trust me.

Thanks for the response Dan, link would be appreciated...will try it when I get home tonight.

Also...is Firaxis going to set something up for constructive feedback for future patches?

Cheers.

Boris,

The trusty 'Poly forums here wouldn't let me attach the file (it's really small, but the extension isn't allowed), so I put it up on our website. Just note the standard legal mumbo-jumbo; this isn't an official patch, we don't support this, etc.

http://www.firaxis.com/directx.cpl

Follow the instructions I laid out above, you may find your debugging level set high on one or more DX components. Turning them to off should increase performance, but your mileage may vary.


Dan

[LdyMox]

Ok still having the text/city building problem. p.s. the error says draw-buffer not just buffer error


I tried every hardware acceleration. I have plenty of memory (256MB) and I tried running it with as many other background programs off). I have over 3 Gigs of free harddrive space

p.s. this version I have is from the limited edition tin

:ban:

[LdyMox]

What do I do with directx.cpl?


Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS


Boris,

The trusty 'Poly forums here wouldn't let me attach the file (it's really small, but the extension isn't allowed), so I put it up on our website. Just note the standard legal mumbo-jumbo; this isn't an official patch, we don't support this, etc.

http://www.firaxis.com/directx.cpl

Follow the instructions I laid out above, you may find your debugging level set high on one or more DX components. Turning them to off should increase performance, but your mileage may vary.


Dan

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by LdyMox
What do I do with directx.cpl?




Doh! Didn't realize the message with the instructions didn't go through because of the attachment.

You need to copy the file into your [WINDOWS]/System32 directory, then you will have a "DirectX" control panel applet available. Open it up and you should be able to click around on the tabs in there and see if debugging levels are turned on for various components of DirectX (sound, 3D, etc.) Turn them to "Off" and you should see some performance gain, especially if you're using an older/slower PC.

Dan

[Huntred]

Originally posted by LdyMox

p.s. this version I have is from the limited edition tin

:ban:

Same. Figured it would be useful for hauling Christmas cookies.

[LdyMox]

I didn't do anything in the [WINDOWS]/System32 so I tried the [WINDOWS]/System folder and got the control panel DirectX applet. So far any changes have not helped. But I have not tried them all.



Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS


Doh! Didn't realize the message with the instructions didn't go through because of the attachment.

You need to copy the file into your [WINDOWS]/System32 directory, then you will have a "DirectX" control panel applet available. Open it up and you should be able to click around on the tabs in there and see if debugging levels are turned on for various components of DirectX (sound, 3D, etc.) Turn them to "Off" and you should see some performance gain, especially if you're using an older/slower PC.

Dan

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I'm having the exact same problem, but in addition, the game also crashes if I try to start a new game as soon as I finish with the custom world screen. If I quick start it gets into the game, but I still have the other problems.

Athlon 600
DX8a
Radeon AIW driver ver. 4.13.7075
WinME
6+GB free, 512MB RAM
Lucidia Sans is installed correctly

[Koyaanisqatsi]

On the crash after the world screen, debugger reports:

Unhandled exception in Civilization3.exe: 0xC0000094: Integer Divide by Zero

Context is Civilization3! 005626C8()

[LdyMox]

Mine also crashes after making a custom world. Gee I feel like a Beta tester :scared:

Originally posted by dv8ed
I'm having the exact same problem, but in addition, the game also crashes if I try to start a new game as soon as I finish with the custom world screen. If I quick start it gets into the game, but I still have the other problems.

Athlon 600
DX8a
Radeon AIW driver ver. 4.13.7075
WinME
6+GB free, 512MB RAM
Lucidia Sans is installed correctly

[Boris Godunov]

Just curious--have you guys called tech support? Dan is fantastic, but he isn't exactly a tech guru. They may have people there better suited to sort out your system quirks with the game. Dan is, after all, only 1 guy, and he isn't tech support!

[Koyaanisqatsi]

DX reinstall using the version on the game disc...no change

Background programs closed...no change

Vid driver reinstall...no change

[Huntred]

And Huntred makes 3 people with the same problem. Dump follows:

CIVILIZATION3 caused a divide error in module CIVILIZATION3.EXE at 017f:005626c8.
Registers:
EAX=00000051 CS=017f EIP=005626c8 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=00000040 SS=0187 ESP=00a53c8c EBP=00000000
ECX=00a59ccc DS=0187 ESI=00a596fc FS=4b0f
EDX=00000000 ES=0187 EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
f7 79 70 89 41 60 8b 46 04 8b 48 04 84 9c 31 a0
Stack dump:
80000200 00a59030 00a59ccc 00000020 0056289d 80000200 00a56980 00a596fc 00577f16 00a54194 00000295 00000094 00000000 00000013 00a56980 00000001

[Huntred]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Just curious--have you guys called tech support? Dan is fantastic, but he isn't exactly a tech guru. They may have people there better suited to sort out your system quirks with the game. Dan is, after all, only 1 guy, and he isn't tech support!

A tech support call is on it's way later today. However I secretly hope that this method is a rather faster track to resolution than tech support. I would like to pretend that soon Dan will storm back into the Developer's Hole and inform them that there's a signifigant problem with system compatibility in a few cases or with one of the release batches. In either case, it's pretty public and it would do well for them to address this quickly - especially here where the on-order and potential copy sales number in the thousands.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Don't bother calling tech support.

I just did. They said that mostly nVidia users (I was the first ATI he'd talk to) with high end video cards (A TNT2? But anyway) have been reporting this problem. It's only fixable with a yet-to-be-created patch from Firaxis or MS (Yeah, right) and it is a DX problem. Apparently they've been flooded, because he knew exactly what I was talking about as soon as I started describing the problem.

[chris007jg]

Can you show us a link to the phone number for tech support. They might not be able to help but atleast it will make me feel better.
Thanks
Chris
He of famous title screen

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by dv8ed
Don't bother calling tech support.

I just did. They said that mostly nVidia users (I was the first ATI he'd talk to) with high end video cards (A TNT2? But anyway) have been reporting this problem. It's only fixable with a yet-to-be-created patch from Firaxis or MS (Yeah, right) and it is a DX problem. Apparently they've been flooded, because he knew exactly what I was talking about as soon as I started describing the problem.

That sucks royally. But it happens with almost any game released that a minority of peoples' systems won't run it. Hopefully they have been ready to address problems quickly and will have a patch out ASAP.

It's weird--since my system was put together by a friend who worked at a computer shop, I always imagined I'd have more problems than others, but I think I have less. I was in the minority of people who could run Ultima 9 right out of the box with minimal sluggishness. It still stank as a game, but it ran!

Civ3 works beautifully for me so far, except the music (which I hope to fix tonight).

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
That sucks royally. But it happens with almost any game released that a minority of peoples' systems won't run it. Hopefully they have been ready to address problems quickly and will have a patch out ASAP.

It's weird--since my system was put together by a friend who worked at a computer shop, I always imagined I'd have more problems than others, but I think I have less.

Custom built systems usually have fewer problems than OEMs if it's somebody who knows what they're doing. Mine is custom built by me, and the only games I've had problems with required game patches to fix. Like this one. :p

Tech support number: 425-951-7108. 7 minutes worth of menu time for a two minute non-fix.

[Huntred]

Originally posted by dv8ed
Don't bother calling tech support.

I just did. They said that mostly nVidia users (I was the first ATI he'd talk to) with high end video cards (A TNT2? But anyway) have been reporting this problem. It's only fixable with a yet-to-be-created patch from Firaxis or MS (Yeah, right) and it is a DX problem. Apparently they've been flooded, because he knew exactly what I was talking about as soon as I started describing the problem.

Thanks for the update.

When I called tech support I was cut off during the opening message right in the middle of the recording talking about how on July 2001, Info was going to stop selling <click> When I called back, I got the same result in at the same place. Since these aren't toll-free calls, I'm not calling back. :mad: :q: :q: :q:

And I believe I was misquoted early on - I don't have a TNT2. I am using a regular TNT here (no o/cing). This is most certainly not high end. If tech support said it was a high-end issue then either there was inadequate testing of the entire Nvidia line, the Detonator drivers are incompatiable or there's something else going on. I'm giving up on this machine with this card.

Update: It works fine on my laptop (P3-600, 256MB, NeoMagic MagicMedia256ZX). As it turns out, I was missing more than I knew. On the former machine, the Dawn of Civilization screen is blank as opposed to the information given. So I guess I'm playable and happy. A sincere good luck to those of you who are still having problems.

[LdyMox]

Plus I have a Voodoo 3 not a TnT2

[LdyMox]

Sir Fraxis is there any information about the systems having this problem you need to know. Myabe you can make a list of what you need to know and a tech e-mail to send it to? Something to help the programmer track down the problem.

[Darkknight]

The DirectX .cpl works in win2000 but I can't get it to show up in the Control panel in my Win95 PC.
I just hope that my S3 works with the game:)

[PrimitiveCiv]

Hey is anybody having any problems with the TNT2 cards? Just curious......i should have the game by tommorow.

[LdyMox]

I played with the setting on the DirectX control panel and nothing helps

:madban:

[ExoD2]

Hi all.

I'm also having the problems that Ldy Mox is describing.
My system as follows:

P3-450
192 ram
1+ GB HD free
Voodoo3-2000 AGP
SB128 sound

I've tried practically everything that the troubleshooting has to offer, to no avail. I did the whole hardware accel, DirectX reinstall, video card driver update and a few othering things.

I'm still getting the font problem, the build city termination, the start new game termination. I only thing I seem to be able to do is start the tutorial and move around - building a city causes termination, meeting another civ causes termination. So the game is effectively unplayable for me... DOH!

I've read in another forum of Voodoo3 troubles... But am I to assume most Voodoo3 users are ok out there?

Cheers.

[Shadowstrike]

Originally posted by PrimitiveCiv
Hey is anybody having any problems with the TNT2 cards? Just curious......i should have the game by tommorow.

Yeah, I'm pounding my fists into the wall in frustration right now.... Grrr......:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

*Runs off to wrap cold towel around hands*

[faded glory]

Looks like its going to be a long nite for the guys a foor-axis :)

Looks like its a sack of bugs.

btw- no troubles on my end. Of course I dont own it yet :o

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS


Doh! Didn't realize the message with the instructions didn't go through because of the attachment.

You need to copy the file into your [WINDOWS]/System32 directory, then you will have a "DirectX" control panel applet available. Open it up and you should be able to click around on the tabs in there and see if debugging levels are turned on for various components of DirectX (sound, 3D, etc.) Turn them to "Off" and you should see some performance gain, especially if you're using an older/slower PC.

Dan

Dan, unfortunately this didn't work. I got the driver and set the debugging to none...same sound problems. It seems the music got really bad in diplomacy/advisor screens and had something to do with the clicking sounds of the interface messing up with the music. After clicking a lot, it skipped horribly and then eventually crashed.

So I turned the music off again...works beautifully, with sound effects. Any ideas?

Cheers.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

A solution to the font and divide by zero error:

Uninstall fonts from your system, until you have <256 remaining. If you want to keep the fonts on your system, you can create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive, copy a bunch of files from your font folder to there, and the delete them from the font folder. You can add and remove them later if you want to by drag and drop, but CivIII can't seem to find the Lucidia Sans font with more than 256 fonts installed.

Have a nice day. :D

[Utrecht]

This fix was able to solve your problems? (It sounds promising - if not wacky!) How did you end up figuring this out?


I Just spoke to Tech Support......


And here is thier suggestion.

Turn off all 3rd part applications and try it again.

Apparently,

"Civ 3 is a robust application and needs alot of system resources"

I will not be able to actually do this for a couple of hours, so I will let you know - as well as test the font issue

[Zizka]

I have one as well. Game runs and is playable except for the really bad scroll lagging. Yep. I built my system P2-450. One thing i found that helps (not just to re-iterate but to emphasize!) turn off all teh background software.. you wont believe what peopel have running that clogging their system.. especially OEM systems.!!

Z

[Zealot]

How could Firaxis and Infogrames not tested nVidia video cards?!? :mad:
This is just nuts! Thank God I didn't spend money on the game yet!

But this is really sad! It looks like another CTP2! :rant:

[Utrecht]

Actually,

This problem really seems to be graphics card independent......

So, if the solution turns out to be as dv8ed says, than I can understand how this slipped through testing. After all testing machines tend not to be loaded with lots of fonts.

[LdyMox]

I tried thiss already and sadly it didn't help. I deleted a bunch of fonts and it didn't help. Probaly for whatever their next relase is I will be better letting people test it first and wait until a patch is made. I'd understand more if I owned an uncommon or an unpopular graphics card. A lot of the ones having the problem are fairly common. Also I have not heard back from tech support (I e-mailed them yesterday afternoon). If a fix is going to take a long time (like months) I am better off returning Civ3 and waiting until the fix and by then it will probaly be cheaper.

Win98SE
Voodoo3
4 gigs free space
256 ram


Originally posted by Utrecht
This fix was able to solve your problems? (It sounds promising - if not wacky!) How did you end up figuring this out?


I Just spoke to Tech Support......


And here is thier suggestion.

Turn off all 3rd part applications and try it again.

Apparently,

"Civ 3 is a robust application and needs alot of system resources"

I will not be able to actually do this for a couple of hours, so I will let you know - as well as test the font issue

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Utrecht
This fix was able to solve your problems? (It sounds promising - if not wacky!) How did you end up figuring this out?

Yep, reducing fonts fixed my problem, Civ is now playable and hasn't crashed at all. Of course, I had 979 of them in the first place, so it might have been that my font subsystem was overloaded even before now, and Civ just pointed it out. If that's the case though, I don't know why it would have had the exact same symptoms as the other people in this thread.

[Miatezhnyi]

Originally posted by dv8ed
A solution to the font and divide by zero error:

Uninstall fonts from your system, until you have <256 remaining. If you want to keep the fonts on your system, you can create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive, copy a bunch of files from your font folder to there, and the delete them from the font folder. You can add and remove them later if you want to by drag and drop, but CivIII can't seem to find the Lucidia Sans font with more than 256 fonts installed.

Have a nice day. :D

I was having the problems with the text being unreadable and the division error when designing a custom world. dv8ed's solution worked great fro me. Had to move about 750 fonts, though.

:b: :b: Many thanks dv8ed...;) This forum was much more helpful than either of my two call to tech support....

Miatezhnyi

[LdyMox]

Hmm I deleted down to 200 fonts and things look like its working. Of course I hope they fix so I can have over 200 fonts but at least this could be a work around! I saved my old fonts and I can reinstall them when a fix comes out.

Originally posted by Miatezhnyi


I was having the problems with the text being unreadable and the division error when designing a custom world. dv8ed's solution worked great fro me. Had to move about 750 fonts, though.

:b: :b: Many thanks dv8ed...;) This forum was much more helpful than either of my two call to tech support....

Miatezhnyi

[Huntred]

Originally posted by dv8ed


Yep, reducing fonts fixed my problem, Civ is now playable and hasn't crashed at all. Of course, I had 979 of them in the first place, so it might have been that my font subsystem was overloaded even before now, and Civ just pointed it out. If that's the case though, I don't know why it would have had the exact same symptoms as the other people in this thread.

I haven't tried reducing the number of fonts I have - there are only 93 in the Fonts folder.

However I don't have the Lucidia Sans font, I only have Lucidia Console.

I feel an experiment coming on...

[LdyMox]

If you don't have it just install it from the civ3 folder.


Originally posted by Huntred


I haven't tried reducing the number of fonts I have - there are only 93 in the Fonts folder.

However I don't have the Lucidia Sans font, I only have Lucidia Console.

I feel an experiment coming on...

[Utrecht]

Well reducing the number of fonts solved my problems as well.

I also had to stop all other background apps to get my system resources above 80% - it liked it and my problems went away!!!!!

Thanks

[ExoD2]

Hey all.

I haven't had a chance to play around with my fonts too much yet, but I only have ~95 fonts in my folder so I'm not sure if that would overload it... I'll try moving some of them out of there later tonight when I get back home. Maybe it's some particular font that's doing it? Just a stab in the dark...

Wish me luck, coz I really want to build something...

[Huntred]

Originally posted by LdyMox
If you don't have it just install it from the civ3 folder.




Done - and tested to make sure the font installed correctly. Only 94 fonts in the folder.

Civ3 still not playing fair. I've got 3 background tasks (speaker, mouse and sys scheduler) - 4 if I count the resource meter telling me I'm 80-something percent free on a 256MB stick.

Dang - I feel so close, yet so lame.

[Aitara]

Compaq Presario 5008US
900Mhz Celeron
WinME
256 Megs RAM
52% System Resources Free
Graphics Acceleration set to "none"
191 installed fonts, including Lucida Sans (which I had to install manually, BTW)

STILL having the incorrect font show up, causing text fields to display incorrectly as in earlier posts on this thread. Have installed Civ3, uninstalled and reinstalled; no luck.

I'm under 200 fonts, so the tech support "fix" isn't the answer.

[Spiker]

Originally posted by LdyMox
Mine also crashes after making a custom world. Gee I feel like a Beta tester :scared:



Yeah, I'm also having the same font problem and the games crashes even when I try to exit. What a buggy game! Can't believe Sid Meier could come up with some **** like this... Very disappointed!! I'm gonna return this game or just simply throw it into the trash bin, and use the tin box to hold candies and cookies. Maybe it's time to go back to my PS2. PC games just suck!!!

[Spiker]

Originally posted by dv8ed
Don't bother calling tech support.

I just did. They said that mostly nVidia users (I was the first ATI he'd talk to) with high end video cards (A TNT2? But anyway) have been reporting this problem. It's only fixable with a yet-to-be-created patch from Firaxis or MS (Yeah, right) and it is a DX problem. Apparently they've been flooded, because he knew exactly what I was talking about as soon as I started describing the problem.

They've got that right!!! My card is the 2nd fastest card in the world so far, the 3D Prophet III which uses the GForce III chip from Nvidia. And this is not an old card like the TNT2.

[ExoD2]

"First off, make sure you are running the latest drivers for your sound card and video card that support DirectX 8.0 and DISABLE 3RD PARTY APPLICATIONS! In Win98/ME you click on start, goto run, and type in MSCONFIG, make sure SELECTIVE STARTUP is enabled, and LOAD STARTUP GROUP ITEMS is UNCHECKED, and reboot your computer"

This was a solution posted by one of the phone support guys from Infogames in one of the other Civ3 fansite forums. It fixed my problem, so I hope it'll also help some of the other people who are still having problems.

Cheers.

[ghetyei]

I wish to share with you a mysterious phenomenon.
I have a Toshiba laptop and I probably have the font problem, because some of the text on the diplomacy screen is missing, and
text on the histographs screen are garbled on the bottom.
Or so it happened every times, except once, when for one session I could see how the screens are supposed to look like.

You won't believe how it happened. I was not trying to fix anything concerning Civilization 3, but to install another bloated
program. The Encyclopedie Universelle by Larousse, and I was very frustrated because I was unable to find the French-English dictionary that was supposed to come with the package.
So after installing and uninstalling that program couple of times, I just gave up, and started playing civilization.

And suddenly it was all there. Every text fitting the underlying rectangle, I saw the line "Never mind" the first time on the Diplomacy screen. I felt like crying, but ended up doing the manly thing: I played Civ3 till next morning.

Next time I started Civ 3 it was deja vu all over again, and I am unable to reproduce the miracle.

I have a Toshiba 2065 CDS with an upgraded (20 GB) hard drive,
a 360 Mhz processor, 160 Mbytes of memory. My vide card is an S3 Virge/MX so this font issue is not limited to those other cards.
Since the program worked at least once, I refuse to believe that this would be a hardware or DirectX issue. Makers of multimedia applications are quick to blame your computer, when some of their exotic an aggressive hacks does not work on any other machine but theirs.

This other program in question is a pretty aggressive one too: it attempts to (re)install Quicktime, the Cosmo Player, and another movie player whose installation dashed by so fast that I could not even take down its name (Xmpeg or what not). It probably pushed every button and pulled every lever in what concerns processing sound or image, and in the process it must have incidentally undone the "damage" done by the Civ3 installation.

Any comments?

Best regards, Gabor Hetyei

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Just curious--have you guys called tech support?

Or how about the 0.80$ per min hint & cheat line? :rolleyes:

[mfauzi]

I guess when it comes to desperation, the best way is to start clean again. At a time my Civ III was not starting unless I start my winamp and wait for it to load (yeah, it took forever to load winamp.. WINAMP!). Of course, it was a computer fault. So I just decided to format my drive (with my OS in it) and reinstall everything I need (including Civ III). Now it runs as clean as a whistle :) I don't know if it might work for all of you though, but everytime my computer seems clogged up real bad, this is what I do. Oh.. make sure you backup up all your crucial stuff first though (documents, save games, etc.)