Advice needed: Buying a CivIV Computer

[Baldyr]

While (still) awaiting delivery on my new PC (see thread above) I'm doing some research on how to tweak XP. (Thanks for the links!) I have come across a few issues I would like some comments on:

Is it likely that the cause of the game occasionally crashing would be that Windows has in fact timed it out? Would it make sense to increase the timeout time for ? http://www.tweakxp.com/article36967.aspx

Would it make any difference if one was to change the priority of main game file on a dual-core system? http://www.tweakxp.com/article37033.aspx

Would Prefetch help start up the game quicker (say after a reboot)? (Has anyone tried this?) http://www.tweakxp.com/article37036.aspx

Also, I wonder about RAM – one would want to have as much free Memory as possible when running , right? All Windows applications, services and even graphic interfaces in the background still take up RAM, even if the OP and run on separate Processors. Thus it would make sense to strip down XP as much as possible in order to free up RAM?

Someone suggested that I create a dedicated User on my PC for gaming in general and in particular. Wouldn't it make even more sense to create a different Hardware Profile instead, since I can disable tons of both services and hardware? Or is both a Profile and User the way to go? (It would seem like you can change a whole lot more with a Hardware Profile than on a User Account.)

And finally: Are these instructions still valid since I'd like to think than many issues would be addressed by now? (Like does run with anything else than the DirectX 9.0c that ships with the core game?)

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141473

[Baldyr]

So I bought the new computer, updated everything and installed . I have tremendous problems installing BTS though. InstallShield Wizard freezes after it looks for "DirectX Runtime Components" and states that: " There is a newer version of Sid Meier's Civilization 4 available. The Latest patch will now be installed."

Does the original game need to be patched in order to BTS to work? (Isn't it a newer version of the program?)

When I do manage to complete installation of BTS I can't install the latest patch and InstallShiled Wizards crashes: "An error (-5009 : 0x80040806) has occurred while running the setup."

And once I have managed to patch the game I can actually start a game and load mods. But not RFC which produces the following error: . "AppName: civ4beyondsword.exe AppVer: 3.0.0.91 ModName: cvgamecoredll.dll ModVer: 3.1.7.0 Offset: 0010e480" (I have downloaded the latest version of the mod, and I have renamed the original folder before unzipping the files in the mod folder.)

I've uninstalled and re-installed the game, BTS and the latest version of RFC several times now and it's always the same procedure and the same result. (I reboot after every setup.) Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

[snoopy369]

Yep... the original version does need to be patched BtS is a different game, not technically just an upgrade to vanilla Civ; but it does use elements of vanilla Civ to operate. Since the vanilla Civ game has an update to be done, they package it separately, so you are still able to play vanilla Civ games with the right version were you to do so (and some people do ...)

No idea on RFC error, though. You might post the actual error message - there should be an actual error, beyond just the error details.

[Baldyr]

This guy has the exact same problem (screen shot included):

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7023036&postcount=390

I still have trouble patching the game. It says a previous setup hasn't finished and freezes. (I did however manage to patch it earlier, but now I'm stuck.)

[snoopy369]

That's an interesting error screen, and mostly a useless one

That error does however look to be a patch related problem - it could indicate your cvgamecoredll.dll file is corrupted (or just not the right version).

My suggestion: Do a thorough uninstall, including deleting the Installshield folders (this takes a bit of doing...) and the registry entries, if you feel comfortable playing around in the registry; delete the program folders and my documents folders; etc.

Then re-install. Consider using a different patch file than you currently are using (did you download the Apolyton hosted one? If not, consider doing so). Patch in order:
-Install Civ4
-Patch Civ4 to 1.74 (with a standalone patch, can be found on apolyton or on firaxis' website)
-Install BtS
-Patch BtS to 3.17 (with a new patch file)
(and if you have Warlords, install it in between them, and patch it, before installing BtS)

You could have a scratched/etc. CD, as well, but there's not a lot of doing about that, so let's assume that is not the problem.

Make sure and reboot your machine frequently - do so before you uninstall, then do the uninstall and delete the various game folders, document folders, and install shield folders (in "C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\" for most users... you have to figure out which is Civ's and BtS's, which can be challenging), then the registry entries; then reboot; then install Civ4; reboot; patch; reboot; install BtS; reboot; install patch. Rebooting constantly helps a lot in clearing out Installshield issues.

[Nikomakkos]

Originally posted by wodan11
...If another $40 will give you an extra 2 years of usability, it may well be worth it...

...Given how cheap memory is, it's well worth it even for your other needs, and for future usability in 2009 and beyond...
Wodan

Computers and electronics are way cheaper in USA than in Europe, for some reason. I gave up on constantly buying a new computer when the desire to play hit me. Now I just pay a membership at this place where they have lots of good computers with heaps of games on them. For some reason they won't patch civ though, so I can't play online .

[Baldyr]

That solved it, thanks man! I'm sooo relieved. (I actually had nightmares tonight, about patching BTS and about work. I have really been looking forward to do some gaming before my vacation is over. It could be Christmas I get my next chance to sit and waste time in front of the 'puter.) You're a real life-saver!

I can now play RFC so next order of business is to stumble on the inevitable next issue with the game.

To be continued...

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by Colm
Do not go for Vista. In a survey of 10 million gamers, only about 25% used Vista. Vista is just not good enough for games as it uses too much memory.
If you DO go for Vista, get at least 4 Gb. Xp with 2 Gb is more then enough for Civ.

I would agree with that. I've been playing on an Asus laptop with 2.2GHz dual core CPU, 8600M GT graphics and 2GB RAM. In Vista, I haven't had a problem with large maps to the point where I win (which has always been earlier than, say, Jet Fighters). With ANY mod - my favourite being Rise of Mankind - I get crashes in the Industrial era, even with 6 civs and normal size maps. The situation is a little better when I use XP instead, but the crashes just happen a bit later.

XP, 3GB+ RAM. As for graphics card, get anything as long as it supports (I think) Shader Model 2.0 (SM2.0). My first laptop was perfectly fine for Civ except the integrated graphics card couldn't do this, so the map was invisible except under cheat mode. Never again...

[Baldyr]

I can now launch the game, play mods, load save games and have not experienced any crashes yet. The game is VERY sluggish though. It plays about exactly how Vanilla did on my old computer before the first patch was released, I think. This means that after about 30 sec of gameplay, when everything is really lightning fast and the game responds momentarily, it all gets stuttered and not very responsive at all. Every command takes up to 10 sec to execute and map scrolling/zooming is very jerky. The game isn't really playable at all.

So what I've tried this far is:

- all graphics settings are low/disabled
- no sound what–so-ever
- no noticeable difference in windowed mode
- clearing the cache didn't help any
- all drivers for everything are AFAIK updated (inclusive BIOS)
- XP is updated (sp3)
- no difference between RFC and a game on a tiny map with only one AI
- experimented with tweaking 3D graphic settings on my ATI card
- allocated exactly 3000Mb virtual memory
- disabled AGP via dxdiag
- turned hardware accelaration for sound off entirely
- DirectX appears to be the correct version
- frequent reboots
- (I'm sure I forgot to mention something)

Here are my system specs:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=5348503#post5348503

I haven't downloaded/installed the Omega drivers yet, since I'm still hoping to fix the problem with the manufacturers own set.

Also, while I've set AntiAliasing to a zero value in the game options, I can't find the AA settings for my ATI card. (My software version is Swedish and I really don't know what the heck "AntiAliasing" would correspond to.)

Any ideas? I'm guessing it's an issue with the ATI card, its settings or drivers. I'll gladly post any screen shots of settings or such if it would help.

Someone mentioned that would only use one processor (out of two) while the other one would take care of OP and services and such. When I check Task Manager both CPU:s are very busy indeed and drop down to 0% activity when I close the game/window. (I'm not sure how to read the memory usage since it's divided into several different types.)

And yeah, the new machine isn't connected to the Web since I haven't installed AntiVirus as of yet. (In order to eliminate yet another possible source for potential problems.)

[wodan11]

There are some settings that you can only change by using Notepad to edit the .ini file, that might help.

[Nikomakkos]

Man, I feel for you. Damn, I hate that. I'm never buying a computer again for games. Like I said, I just pay for membership at this place.

Hope you get it fixed.

[Unimatrix11]

Originally posted by Nikomakkos
Man, I feel for you. Damn, I hate that. I'm never buying a computer again for games. Like I said, I just pay for membership at this place.

Hope you get it fixed.

This just sounded as if you just played so you can rightfully post at aployton... - but i know what you meant. And i do feel bad for baldyr as well. I have never seen someone thinking everything through so much in detail to get just one game running at a brand new comp and then it still fizzles somehow. I wish i could help. But all i can do is wild guessing: Maybe you ´overtweaked´ ? Like turned off some windows service, that civ would actually benefit from ?

I dont think BTW, that Anti-Aliasing got translated on your software - at least i never heard a german word for it. What it does, is smoothing the edges, if you wanna look for a swedish word, that would express that (i like edges BTW - having played games on big TVs with 160x200 (i think it was on the C64 with 16 colors, without ´tricks´), i like to note the tinyness of the pixels from time to time - so i always turn off AA).

(EDIT: Oh, you said ´pay´ not ´play´ - anyways...

[Baldyr]

I've tried to fix the issues with gameplay for an entire day now, and I will probably keep on trying for at least another day. I don't however think it will do me any good.

I've read the forums (both here and on CFC), downloaded and installed different graphic drivers, downloaded and tried tweaker software, tweaked every setting I could change. But I really can't see any improvement from all my efforts, probably since I'm not a hardware engineer and don't know what the heck I'm doing. (Heck, I'm not even qualified to buy a computer that plays , hence this thread.) So the game remains virtually unplayable – and it might be even worse now after all my tinkering.

My options are getting fewer and fewer so I'm approaching the point where I just will give up trying to play . I will probably not wanna play it anymore anyway, after going through all this crap. My options seem to be:

1. ...to try out as many graphic cards as I can before I'm due back at work (I think it might be easier for me to find a card that actually works with than to find a set of drivers/settings that work with the card I just bought)

2. ...to do what I did last year and play on my fiancées computer (that doesn't work out too well for me since she's using it, and that's the whole reason I needed an own machine in the first place)

3. ...to sell the computer (and perhaps buy another computer for Christmas in hopes it will work out better – and possibly throw away more precious leave)

4. ...to forget about the whole thing and try to enjoy the last week of my vacation (or just go back to work immediately to earn back the money I spent on the computer)

Thanks for all the help and support, by the way, folks!

Unimatrix11: I haven't tried shutting down any services in XP yet, even though I had planned on having a pretty bare bones hardware profile for purposes. (No network, no ports, no virus protection, no nothing.) The OP shouldn't be the problem though, since it's a completely clean installation and I don't run any other applications (apart from the odd tweaker program) on it. Regarding AA I haven't found a way to turn it off completely yet (I have found the settings though) – just to scale them down (to x2 or something like that).

Finally I would like to thank Firaxis for making a useless piece of software and for wasting my time and money. And I know I'm not alone. I will NOT be buying Civ5 if Firaxis has anything to do with it – and I will DEFINITELY not be buying a new computer to play it!

Civ used to be one of my primary hobbies and passions, once upon a time, but then they had to go 3D with it. I will never understand what all the bling-bling adds to the game. (If someone would create a completely new non-3D interface for the game I couldn't be happier.) Maybe I should just pick up again and finish my ultimate history simulator mod? At least Civ used to be fun back then...

[Baldyr]

So my last ditch effort failed as I can't get 3D-Analyze to launch . I thought I could try that since I can't confirm anywhere that my Sapphire HD3850 supports Transform & Lightning. If that were the case I could just install another card and that would solve it, right? But. How do I know what (recent) graphic cards support T&L? (Including my present card.)

[Solver]

T&L is supported by practically every contemporary card. It's been a feature for as long as 8 years now, I think. All cards except the Intel integrated chipsets support T&L.

What you're encountering is definitely strange. Tried any other games on that computer? In this situation I would lean towards trying a different graphics card. Just in case. Borrow one or something and see what that gives you.