BTS speed problem?

[anteos]

I've now removed and reinstalled bts and its working fine. I can only think that its some kind of progressive memory leak?

[mike2h]

mdrago , unless you are running xp 64bit you have to much ram. 32 bit os can only address 3 gig ram. this includes vid mem. while this has nothing to do with the problem within the game coding, it might contribute slightly to the problem.
bottom line is, that unless you are runing a 64 bit os(this applies to vista to) running more than 3gig ram(total) does degrade performance.
fyi i have been getting that long session slow down on large maps to. i think it is something they will fix as soon as they find the source of the problem.

[mdrago]

Mike, thanks for the tip on the RAM. Actually, the OS only recognizes 3.5GB of RAM. I know about that before buying the memory, but to fully take advantage of "dual channel" technology I need to buy 4x1gb.

Anyway, it's not a performance problem as you can see. My PC runs very fine, I also play Oblivion in 1650x1050 with everything maxed out and it runs fine.

There is a little utility from SysInternals (MS brougth it some months ago) called "FileMon.exe" that checks all harddrive activity. It's pretty good and here at work we were able to detect a lot of problems in PCs with that utility. For example, when a notebook takes a lot of time to do something and you know that the processor is not the issue, you can monitor the IO activity / requests with that program... a lot of times happens that the OS is trying to access a file that is no longer available, lets say, trying to access a network resource when the notebook is not connected to the LAN... perhaps here is happening something like that, and every popup in the game looks for a certain file that is not available... i dont know, i'm going to check tonigth.

It's either that or the guys at Firaxis really dosen't play huge maps for testing.

Another thing... perhaps is related to the AV software... I'm using McAfee 8.5i

[mike2h]

who told you that you need to populate all channels to take full advantage of dual channel tech? you were misinformed.
there is a diff between what the os can 'see' & what it can 'use'. 3 gig is the barrier, & as i said that also includes the ram on your vid card.
anyway, if you are happy, no probs. you shouldnt get any major probs, probably not any minor ones either. your system just wont run at optimum levels
i really beleive the problem is within the game, but if you do find something, please let us know.
have you tried turning your av prog of while playing?

[mdrago]

No, but turning off the AV and playing a little is the first thing I'm going to do when i get home! (if i can sneak past my wife!, of course)

[Wiglaf]

Destroy McAffee by any means necessary and replace with AVG Free edition.

[VtG]

I'm also getting choppy scrolling and odd flickering in the interface (ex. the chop icon for workers)

e6600
8800gts
2gb ram

[Shrapnel12]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
Destroy McAffee by any means necessary and replace with AVG Free edition.

I've been trying to kill that nagware for years. That freaking pita software keeps interupting my games to ask me if I want to download their stupid update and I can't disable it. I've used Add/Remove Programs to delete it but it is still there! How do I kill it?

[Joemurder]

Originally posted by mdrago

Please, anyone who is going to post please state a) Video Card and b) Civ version (cronicles or original)

I have duel 8800GTX's with original Civ, I've tried lowering all graphics settings to the lowest with no luck. I've messed with all kinds of settings for my cards, nothing. The problem seems the worst at the beginning of a turn, i.e., I open the tech screen and it takes aprox. 15 seconds to popup, I close the tech screen and open again and it only takes 5-6 sec. to open, next turn it starts all over again taking 15 sec. for any popup to open. This occurs on all game types, map size making little difference.

[mdrago]

Ok, I disabled the AV softwarwe... to my surprise, it's get really better but the problem still exits.
Some facts:
- My savegame loads in about half the time it usually takes to load.
- The leader popup is not taking 15 seconds, but 10.

So, the AV is playing some part in the lag, but it's not the problem.

I'm going to check now with the "filemon.exe" utility.

[mdrago]

Ok, this is getting really strange...
I try the FileMon.exe thing... I invoke Hannibal screen exactly at 18:22:19, it took exactly 15 seconds for the screen to appear.
After Hannibal appears I went to the FileMon log, and found that "Civ4BeyondSword" process just made !!!882!!! IO operations in that 15 seconds!!!
There are also a lot of "PATH NOT FOUND" errors (these one are dangerous because sometimes can cause lags). For example, here is a file the process is cheking and dosen't exist:
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Hannibal_BG_sky.dds
After not finding this file, the programs looks for the same file in another path, return "SUCCESS" for the IO operation:
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg_sky.dds

I dont know how to attach file here, so I'm going to paste the 20 first IO logs.

------- SOF
Time Process Type Path Result Ex
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Sounds\ScreenSelect-000.wav PATH NOT FOUND Attributes: Error
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 OPEN C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.kfm SUCCESS Options: Open Sequential Access: All
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.kfm SUCCESS Length: 141
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.kfm SUCCESS Length: 141
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 READ C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.kfm SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 4096
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 CLOSE C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.kfm SUCCESS
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 OPEN C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.nif SUCCESS Options: Open Sequential Access: All
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.nif SUCCESS Length: 2421
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.nif SUCCESS Length: 2421
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 READ C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg.nif SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 4096
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Hannibal_BG_sky.dds NOT FOUND Attributes: Error
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Hannibal_BG_sky.dds NOT FOUND Attributes: Error
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Hannibal_BG.dds NOT FOUND Attributes: Error
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Hannibal_BG.dds NOT FOUND Attributes: Error
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 OPEN C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg_sky.dds SUCCESS Options: Open Sequential Access: All
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg_sky.dds SUCCESS Length: 16512
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg_sky.dds SUCCESS Length: 16512
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 READ C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg_sky.dds SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 20480
6:22:19 PM Civ4BeyondSword:3040 CLOSE C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\warlords\assets\art\leaderheads\hannibal\hanniba l_bg_sky.dds SUCCESS
------- EOF

882 IO operations for a screen to appear looks like A LOT... i don't know what else to try.

[mdrago]

Looking at Joemurder previous post, and given the fact of the heavy IO activity shown in FileMon log after trying to open a "leader head", it seems that in the begining of a turn it takes 15 seconds because it's opening all those files. If you close the leader screen and open it again it only takes 5 seconds this time because those files are already cached from the previous read...
Then, you finish your turn and "lose" the cached files, so the delay start over again in the next turn.

Any ideas?

[mdrago]

Is there a way to contact Firaxis about this?
Thanks.-

[Joemurder]

Originally posted by mdrago

Any ideas?

I tried everything I could think of from my end. (drivers, background programs, graphics settings, etc.) Nothing helps. With the exception of this problem the game runs as smooth as butter. Turns move along quickly, even on large maps. It's not quite a game breaker, yet very annoying. Anybody else want to chime in?

[meriadoc]

I can't say how smoothly the game ran in its initial stages, because I don't remember. However, I'm now playing a game that is around 1900 AD, and I can say this: Every leader screen that I open, even if I opened the exact same leader screen only a minute before, takes a good 15 - 30 seconds to fully open. I'll hear the music, and then a second or two later I'll see the basic leader window, and then 15 - 30 seconds later the leader window will become "alive", that is all of the various text will appear and the animated leader will become unfrozen. But it happens every single time.

For reference, I'm running Windows XP on a dual-2.4 GHz Xeon, HyperThreaded no less, computer with 1.5 GB of RAM, and an NVidia 6200 video card with 256 MB of video RAM.