Unable to allocate draw buffer

[Utrecht]

I am running into 2 (possibly related) issues.

First and foremost Machine Config

Win 98
Pentium III 933 with 512 Meg RAM
Radeon AGB Card with 64MB of SDR RAM with Latest Video Drivers (as of Oct 15th)
Direct X 8.0a installed and verified

When I launch the application (in 1024x768 16 bit colour) The introd video comes up and plays smooooth.

Now the Problems

1) The font on the main menu appears to be off. Especially the Text that would appear at the bottom of the screen. (i.e. it is written on top of itself - The credits are REAL bad)

It further manifests itself in the preferences screen where the text does not match the button (like a Florida Butterfly ballot

Next, I attempt to start the tutorial. It loads fine and the first settler appears. Again, the text in the unit description box is messed up with writing on top of itself.

Then I attempt to found my first City by selecting the button or Hot Key and am presented with a Fatal Error: Unable to allocate Draw Buffer)

My initial diagnosis was out-of date video card - I downloaded the latest - still the same problem,

So now I am leaning towards it being something with Direct X, but I have latest there.......

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

[LdyMox]

Your not alone. I am having that problem as is several others.

[Utrecht]

So, any word on potential solutions?

[Utrecht]

Based off of the information that I am seeing on Civfanatics Help site, it appears that there are some issues with ATI cards.......

Right now, there is no solution, but I am going to call and verify.

[LdyMox]

You can try the following (it worked for some having this problem and some not)

Try uninstalling any fonts you don't use. Previously I had over 100 installed and took it down to 200 and Civ3 worked fine. was even able to sneak it upto 300. Though the amount probaly depends on your system

[Jim Frost]

I have the same exact problem as the original poster of this thread--the jumbled text and the buffer error/program shut down upon founding the first city. I don't have the same video card however. Mine is STB 4 Meg AGP--unfortunately can't get more precise than that because Gateway never could tell me. Other specs, PII, 300 MHz, 196MB Ram, Windows 95 OSR 2.

At any rate, I've reduce the number of fonts and the number of Apps running but that hasn't helped at all.

Anyone finding answers elsewhere?

This is getting annoying since I had the copy protection problem before but I fixed that with the fixed file and thought I was on my way . . . only to uncover these new problems (not sure if the jumbled text and draw buffer error are related or separate problems).

Jim

[Jim Frost]

bump

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Try removing all fonts called "Lucida" or any variation thereof from your fonts directory. This should address the font issue. You'll have to contact Infogrames tech support for help on the draw-buffer problem, that's a little out of my league.


Dan

[geetarvocoder]

phew, thought I was alone on this one (still means that after all the delays in the game getting here I can't play it! ) . . .

specs (if they help in solving . . . ):
OS: 98
Processor: PIII 866
RAM: 256
Video Card: nVidia RIVA TNT 2 64

Cheers, a very frustrated NZ civer

[geetarvocoder]

JUST GOT THE FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

go to the infrogames help site

http://www.ina-support.com/faq/civ3_pc.asp#trouble

where i found the following (my problem was the Scansoft OCRAware one . . .)

"The game runs fine, but the text is displaying oddly, like it's all compressed or I'm getting a Divide Error when I try to run the game."

We have found that this problem seems to be occurring on systems with more than 256 fonts installed in the Fonts folder, or systems running Scansoft's OCRAware software.

To check your fonts, click Start, then Run, type "Fonts" into the Open box, and click OK. When your Fonts folder opens, check the lower left corner to see how many fonts you have installed. If you have more than 255, you will need to uninstall fonts until you have 255 fonts or less installed. Contact your OS provider if you need assistance with this process.

To check for OCRAware, press Control-Alt-Delete on your keyboard to bring up your list of running tasks, and check for OCRAware in this list. If you find it, click on it to highlight, and click the End Task button.

Once these two conditions have been satisfied, try running the game again."

Cheers Jamie

[Spiker]

Is it worth the efforts? Is this method reversible? I mean why do I have to go through all this just because of one game? I might need those fonts back later on... and the game might only be sitting on my hard disk for like 2 weeks, 3 tops. BTW, this is not jst a problem with the ATI cards, as I'm using an GeForce III card and are having the same problem. Also, why Firaxis has to use the smooth-edge fonts? I hate this feature very much because it makes all the texts in other applications look very ugly, so each time I have to turn off the feature after done playing CIV3. All and all, I think this is one of the worst games I've ever come across in the past 10 years. Even if there's a patch for it later this month, I don't think I'll be playing it very long.

Originally posted by geetarvocoder
JUST GOT THE FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

go to the infrogames help site

http://www.ina-support.com/faq/civ3_pc.asp#trouble

where i found the following (my problem was the Scansoft OCRAware one . . .)

"The game runs fine, but the text is displaying oddly, like it's all compressed or I'm getting a Divide Error when I try to run the game."

We have found that this problem seems to be occurring on systems with more than 256 fonts installed in the Fonts folder, or systems running Scansoft's OCRAware software.

To check your fonts, click Start, then Run, type "Fonts" into the Open box, and click OK. When your Fonts folder opens, check the lower left corner to see how many fonts you have installed. If you have more than 255, you will need to uninstall fonts until you have 255 fonts or less installed. Contact your OS provider if you need assistance with this process.

To check for OCRAware, press Control-Alt-Delete on your keyboard to bring up your list of running tasks, and check for OCRAware in this list. If you find it, click on it to highlight, and click the End Task button.

Once these two conditions have been satisfied, try running the game again."

Cheers Jamie

[Jim Frost]

Thanks for the info. I did try removing the Lucida fonts which I did find were still installed on my computer even after reducing the number of fonts. Unfortunately it didn't help with the jumbled text. Also checked for the OCRAWare but I don't have that.

Guess I'll just have to wait for the patch or until I get a new system!

Thanks again,
Jim

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS
Try removing all fonts called "Lucida" or any variation thereof from your fonts directory. This should address the font issue. You'll have to contact Infogrames tech support for help on the draw-buffer problem, that's a little out of my league.


Dan

[tatterdemalion]

Fix worked!

I had the exact same problem as indicated in post #1: jumbled text and draw buffer allocation error. I tried the fix in two steps: deleted the Lucinda fonts and that took care of the jumbled text problem.

But when I tried to start a game I I got Civ3 has caused an error in Civ3.exe message.

I disabled the OCRAware problem. (A stupid little program it was too - a scanner text recognition program. I never used it. I am SURE that it did an immaculate job too.)

I then uninstalled Civ3 and tried to reinstall. I got some registry error problems after that. But I am not sure whether they were due to the disabling of OCRA or the uninstallation of CIv3.

I have WinMe, so I rebooted a few times and let the registry repair utility do its thing. Once the registry was stabilized, I reinstalled Civ3. I was able to start a game. The text was fixed. I was able to build a city. I haven't tried every option, but I do seem able to play the game now anyway.

Thanks for this thread.

[phoenixcager]

This thread is a life-saver!

I was just about to give up trying to run the game.
I definitely have ocraware running, so now I'll go try it without that.