SLOOOOOOOOWWWWW reload time...

[Venger]

So I decide to experiment with the stacked combat thing, see how and why it works. And first, it doesn't seem to, since a stacked Praetorian and Catapult attacked and I was treated to a catapult vs. horse archer duel...

Anyways, so I go to reload the last turn, and... JEEZ ALMIGHTY. Had to be well over a minute just to reload the game. So, this time I run the combat with the whole stack, and get a similar treatment... and reload. JEEZ ALMIGHTY, same thing at least as long, maybe 90 second to get this game going again.

And when it does come up, the redraws are very very slow at first.

Anyone else notice such a thing? I wonder if this is an artifact of the graphics issues I am having (not very smooth, used to crash all the time).

No reason I can think of for this - dual Athlon 2.2GHz with 1GB of RAM. Come to think of it - does anyone with a dual core processor or dual CPU's also have problems? Wait - that deserves it's own thread...

Venger

[Yolky]

well i never reloaded a game yet, I play for a few turns learn something new, start over again, rinse and repeat.

What I noticed is long loading times to just start Civ IV to get to the Start Menu. I guess it has something to do with the software that Civ IV uses.

I don't know much about computers, but the video card shouldn't have anything to do with load times, just when playing the game. I could be wrong, but it's a guess.

[Peterk1]

Yeah, you're not alone.
Count your blessings, takes me 10-15 mins to load a save on a huge map....and the computer doesn't seem to be underpowered for the game either. Runs fine once I am playing.

[Solver]

90 second reload times, yeah, that can happen, and wouldn't even be the longest possible. The bigger the map and the further into the game it is, the more complex these saves get. I am myself rather happy to wait a minute or two, as long as it doesn't start to take me 10 minutes .

[Sava]

so far I have only played on standard maps

but I have not noticed long load times

it only makes sense that if you play on huge maps with lots of units, it would take a long time to load

Venger, any more details about the game you were loading? map size, amount of units in the game... also what processor do you have (the exact model, not the speed), what is your hard drive (size, approx free space, speed, cache size), what video card do you have and what settings are you playing Civ4 on? all that stuff will affect your load time...


in the games I have played, when I save and reload, it takes no longer than 10-15 seconds at most... but then again, I am only playing on standard maps so far.

my specs so you get an idea for reference:

Athlon 64 3500+ w/ 1GB PC3200 RAM
Geforce 6800 Ultra 256MB OC
250GB HD (about 36GB free) 7200RPM w/ 8MB cache

I am playing Civ4 at 1600x1200 with full anti-aliasing and highest graphics settings.


Lowering your settings might decrease load times. But don't quote me on that.

[Venger]

I have dual 2.2Ghz Athlon MP's Barton core with 1GB DDR and a 250GB HD with 16MB cache, 5900XT Nvidia with 128 MB - there is no reason it should take this long. I am playing 1024x768, Medium graphics, no anti-aliasing.

I can play loads of other games without issue... including Pirates, which I think uses the same engine...

Venger

[Sava]

what type of Civ4 game are you playing? i.e. map size?



how many units are in the game?

16mb cache

[Venger]

Playing the second largest map size, unmodded.

And here's the thing to consider that I didn't make clear - it's only RELOADING that is so slow. If I start the game from scratch, it loads much quicker. But reloading takes MINUTES...

Something ain't right on this game engine...

Venger

[spy14]

Unoptimised and rushed out to get plenty of sales in time for Christmas?

I'll have more faith in this game when I see some VERY large patches coming out.

[Peterk1]

I finally nailed down the problem with some advisors that take forever to load.

It's related to advisor screens that feature "screen grabs" of the map like military and the screen where you can check out the 5 best cities in the world.

If you play on a huge map, I'm guessing that the game acually scans the 3D world to get the images that get shown. I'll have to try my next game on a Standard size map because huge is pretty painful.

Advisor screens that are text only come up right away.

Laying the grid on the map is also about a 5 minute operation for me.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Venger
Playing the second largest map size, unmodded.

And here's the thing to consider that I didn't make clear - it's only RELOADING that is so slow. If I start the game from scratch, it loads much quicker. But reloading takes MINUTES...

Something ain't right on this game engine...

Venger

You mean loading a saved game is shorter for you if you exit the game completely and start the program again?

That is strange.

It is opposite for me. It is much quicker if I just load from in the game.

I wonder if this is an isolated incident with you. I've tried loading games on two other PC's in my house and I get the same results. Both of these PC's are lower end machines.

One is a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz (Dell machine) another is an Athlon 1700+ that barely runs Civ4.

Loading times, even on those systems, are not that long. They are not as fast as my PC, obviously, but not as long as the times you are claiming.

It would be helpful if more people contributed to this thread and posted their system specs and how long their loading times are.

I don't know what the problem might be, but I doubt it's a problem with the game engine.

[Googlie]

Most of my (now, thankfully few) problems with graphics have come from loaded games.

For instance, last evening I played for about five straight hours, with nary a glitch, finishing a game.

Today I started a fresh one, and saved after about 50 turns or so in order to write a short history. On reloading the save, all sorts of terrain problems, stalls, stuttering and at one stage when scrolling the map it seemed to move about a tile per second.

Reloading wasn't slow, though - just the resulting graphics from the reload. (In fact, I think it actually loaded faster from a current .sav than starting from scratch)

Moral for me, though, is to not start a game unless I'm assured of enough time to finish it in one sitting (or else leave the PC on all night and thru breaks)

[wilebill2]

Me, new release of anything, as yet unpatched, I tend not to "max it out" to see what it will do. So I am playing Tiny to Standard. Few patches down the road I'll go to huge, hopefully with issues resolved by then.

But of course, if playing huge was the whole point of buying the game for you, then I see why my approach would seem wimp and timid.