Found Memory Leak & Sound Problem with game and fixed it so far!

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 01:08

Okay...

1st Delete the Civ4 Cache before every game!

2nd Set your Vitural Memory to 2.5x Ram = 1Gig = 2500

Min 2500
Max 2500

Then it should ask you to reboot once you set this and apply it!

Next load up game and do Advance Options Set to Sysconfig or EAX4 if you have Audigy Sound Cards! (This part Im NOT sure if it had anything to do with it so far!)

Then you will need to exit the game and reload it for new Advanced settings to take place.

Once you play a game for example for testing on my part I loaded the Earth1000AD and did my test that crashed me 100% of time and did it 2-3 times and never crashed me no matter what I did for as long as I scrolled around on the mini-map this time.

***Once I hit ESC then exist to Main Menu it freezes for a second and then pops down to Main Menu with a screen saying Sound Device for recording or something like that isnt found so its disabled???*** (I think this may have something to do with the crashes from the Civ4 Program?? Only was able to find this once I set the Virtual Memory to 2.5x Ram.)

**I also Uninstalled 5.10 ATI Drivers & installed Omega ATI latest Drivers[Much better drivers]**

2.4GHZ P-VI
256M Radion 9550
1 Gig Ram PC3200
OEM SB Audigy

All latest drivers for all devices.

So far so good.

PS2.. I also in the Config.INI ...

I set Cheatmode = Chipotle

Autosaves = 1

Civfreak1970

Hope this helps you all!

GodScythe · October 31, 2005, 03:02

how does one delete the civ 4 cache before the game?

snoopy369 · October 31, 2005, 03:05

/%username%/Application Data/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/cache/
Delete that folder ("cache"). Application Data is a hidden folder and you have to have view hidden folders set in your folder options to see it

Alternately type into start->run the directory

If you have a standard installation it will be:
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\My Games\

Replace %username% (including the % signs) with your username that you log into the system with (you can find this out by going to my documents and looking at the path for my documents) and type that into start menu -> run.

FlashAron · October 31, 2005, 03:38

... only to tell for all sad ATI Users ... I as a Nvidia 9950 AGP Card User have also Problems with the game.
(P IV 3.0 Ghz, Intel Mainboard, 1 GB HT DDR Ram etc.)

Even I could play for 1 to 2 hours with some freezes, which always continues after same 1-2 minutes.

I also have done all tips here ...
low, medium and high config -> NO DIFFERENCE in performance
New drivers, high swap file, deleting cache etc.
killing all unneeded processes before playing

NO DIFFERENCE
...
AFTER some time and the progress of the games ... game getting VERY SLOW and I HAVE TO REBOOT the computer or it freezes ...
special when MAP VIEW changes between UNITS from one part of the map to the other ... that's it (but only after 1-2 hours play)
If I relode changing view works fine for the next hours ...

SO IT IS FOR SURE CRAPPY PROGRAMMING as the game f%$%§$%% up the memory

So we have to wait ...

PS: Okay playing 18player worldmap !

snoopy369 · October 31, 2005, 03:48

Have you tried updating your motherboard drivers/bios, and your sound card drivers?

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 04:30

Sorry all the Config.INI should have read Cheatmode = Chipotle (Very sry for the spelling mistake!)

It seems to be better now..Yet it is badly programmed around the memory/Cpu usage! Im sure I'll crash again sometime when I have time to stress it more than I have of late!

Anyways what I have posted above does seem to make things better if you have all drivers up to date! This game seriously needs a patch! I never had any problems until Civ4 and it being so flakey!

Civfreak1970

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 04:34

Please everyone who has a ATI card let me know if this helps? Also Nvidia Im sry I have a second computer running a 5200FX and it runs a bit choppy but installed easy and plays so far good! (Havent tested the other computer that much but my 12 Year old did some playing with it and no crashes!)

Civfreak1970

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 04:36

One last thing! Make sure you always kill the Cache file folder before you start a game just incase!!!

Civfreak1970

Raion · October 31, 2005, 04:42

The game needs a patch for a memory leak. All one could do with what is mentioned is perhaps apply a bandage to it. Sooner or later, the game is going to use more memory than it should, and probably a patch is needed.

I played further on a Tiny World with only 3 players so far, but anything larger, and the game will use up memory faster, and 557mB Peak in the game in the year 2750B.C. like my first Standard Map Epic game with only 5 total players, seems to be excessive, and the game started getting laggy and before it may crash, I just saved the game and exited the game.

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 04:57

Hi,

I was wondering if you could list your system specs and if a decive is onboard or not? Also Ram amount and Video card Ram amount? thank you!

Civfreak1970

Franklinnoble · October 31, 2005, 12:07

what does "Cheatmode=Chipotle" do?

DRoseDARs · October 31, 2005, 12:24

Quote:

Originally posted by Franklinnoble
what does "Cheatmode=Chipotle" do?

From another thread:

Quote:

Originally posted by Gramphos
cheat mode. Makes some more functions in the worldbuilder possible.

Quote:

Originally posted by Civfreak1970
The reason I enabled it is because it lets the world scroll properly instead of locking sections out! This I believe also added to the bugs in it crashing to desktop!

Civfreak1970

Raion · October 31, 2005, 15:04

CRC.dat is espescially needed in that cache.

Those files Listed I think are data for the current game you are playing, as in seeding of the planet and all of that data when first starting a new game.

The game has a few issues and plays fine up to a certain point.

The movie (*.bik) files do not play correctly with the sound, and of course some other bugs related to the game.

Pirates! has the same kind of setup and is almost identical, and Pirates! plays fine out of the box!

Except Pirates! does not have a cache but Civ IV is a much bigger game with the exectuable of the game (CivIV.exe) file.

So yes there are some files probably needed for Civ IV, but the game needs a patch!

FX 5200 Geforce with 78.01 drivers
1.8gHz Celeron
512 mB memory with 2048mB Virtual Memory
Windows 2K Professional
Live! sound card

And all other games play fine even as far back as the 56.72 drivers from Nvidia!

Except the newest drivers from Nvidia support OpenGL 2.0 and Direct X 9.0c version better, but then like I said the 56.72 drivers even worked with Direct X 9.0c.

It is the game of Civ IV that is not working correctly with the *.bik files and also some other issues and needs a patch!

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 16:06

I agree it needs a patch and for someone from their stupid company to say its making a patch!!!

Civfreak1970

Cartman · October 31, 2005, 16:57

Quote:

Originally posted by snoopy369
/%username%/Application Data/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/cache/
Delete that folder ("cache"). Application Data is a hidden folder and you have to have view hidden folders set in your folder options to see it

Alternately type into start->run the directory

If you have a standard installation it will be:
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\My Games\

Replace %username% (including the % signs) with your username that you log into the system with (you can find this out by going to my documents and looking at the path for my documents) and type that into start menu -> run.

How do I find it if I installed it under D: ?

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 18:27

Are you joking? LOL

Civfreak1970

mrs_c · October 31, 2005, 18:31

You know snoopy369, I really appreciate all the work you're doing to help us run the game...but it shouldn't require all this work. No other game company requires this. My Dell is a (2004) P4 3.06 GH; has 1022 MB Ram and it's upsetting to be informed I need to update my motherboard drivers/bios. No other game company requires this.

The game runs fine until the first religious clip runs. Then the fonts disappear and the font graphics become garbled. (I get a bunch of lines in place of titles). The game continues to run ok for about an hour but locks up and only a hard reboot will solve the problem.

My graphic card is NVidia 440 with current drivers.

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 18:41

There is a patch in the works! They cant give me a release date yet and they are very much aware the game has bugs! They are getting phone calls streaming in with people with complaints and bugs! I asked why they couldnt just post something and they said only the Civ4 Developers at Firaxis have the power to do it and didnt know why they havent posted anything yet!

Patch is coming!

Civfreak1970

Franklinnoble · October 31, 2005, 18:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Civfreak1970
There is a patch in the works! They cant give me a release date yet and they are very much aware the game has bugs! They are getting phone calls streaming in with people with complaints and bugs! I asked why they couldnt just post something and they said only the Civ4 Developers at Firaxis have the power to do it and didnt know why they havent posted anything yet!

Patch is coming!

Civfreak1970

Well, I hope you're right.

I tried this fix - still get sound that skips during intro and wonder movies.

I've updated the firmware all over my T42... updated every driver I can find... defragged my hard drive... you name it. My computer is as up to date as I can make it. :-)

Hopefully Firaxis will make this a really good patch...

Franklinnoble · October 31, 2005, 19:08

What's really frustrating is that all the movies run great if I use the external .bnk player... so I know my system can handle the movies just fine... there's just something screwy with Civ4 here...

Civfreak1970 · October 31, 2005, 22:57

On a HUGE map with 18 Civs I was in about 1500 AD maybe later and had most of the world uncovered and I scrolled out to look at the planet and it slowlydumped to desktop. What I caught it doing was a Memory Leak-Video to game driver maybe problem from the Civ4 game and it not clearing its cache properly!

Game is very badly coded for memory!

Civfreak1970

Civfreak1970 · November 1, 2005, 00:47

Huge map 18 Civs and get to about 1700AD and world map is mostly showing and all I can say is crash to desktop! This game has a bad MEMORY LEAK!

1 Gig Ram
256M Video Ram
2500-2500 Virtual Memory too!

Give me a break this is a bad MEMORY LEAK!(I have never had a single problem with ANY game until I found this bad piece of code called Civ4!)

How the HELL did this pass Beta and Q/A?(Fire that guy or the guy that said to ship it!)

Civfreak1970

seebs · November 1, 2005, 01:04

Dude, no offense, but... Do you even know what the words "memory leak" mean?

Civfreak1970 · November 1, 2005, 01:14

It means it LEAKS memory!

Civfreak1970

PS. The more load I put on the memory the faster it crashes...Then what else could it be?

seebs · November 1, 2005, 01:17

Okay, uhm.

A memory leak is when a program's memory usage increases over time due to memory being allocated then "lost" to the program.

That does not necessarily mean that a program will crash faster if you are using more memory. Nothing you've covered so far gives a good basis for asserting that there's a memory leak. Indeed, if there were, it would have a lot more effect over a long small game than on a large map just after a load.

It's possible that this code has memory leaks (well, maybe; they could be using a good garbage collector). However, that doesn't seem to be a good fit for the observed crashes.

Koyaanisqatsi · November 1, 2005, 01:55

It does seem to have a leak though. Performance gets progressively worse over the course of a game session, you shut down and restart the game, and everything is wonderful again for a while longer. What would you attribute that to?

seebs · November 1, 2005, 05:31

If I were seeing that, I'd attribute it to a memory leak. I'm not seeing that. The majority of my crashes have come from a save game I have lying around which I can reliably crash the instant I load it. I haven't had much experience of performance degradation over time. A larger map, and/or larger civs, perform worse, but quitting and loading a huge game has no visible effects.

Koyaanisqatsi · November 1, 2005, 06:05

Well, it's what I've been seeing. I haven't really seen crashes--just twice, both when loading quick-saves. But the problem with video stuttering gets progressively worse the longer I play, and gets better after a restart...that's the main technical problem I've had.

GAZ082 · November 1, 2005, 06:34

*Sigh* I dont wanna summon the power of the Gods to properly play the game. I'll wait the patch.

I consider myself a computer savvy, but there are so many formulas and almost none works. Only a patch doing some real modifications will make this game work properly even with low details.

Civfreak1970 · November 1, 2005, 06:55

LOL...I win!

Civfreak1970