Turn Speed: A Game Breaker?

[Kurgan]

I'm using a Pentium IV 1,5 Ghz, 256 Mb RAM, nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra 64 Mb video card, under Windows Me, and it works perfectly, I haven't had any problems with the speed, scrolling etc.

[Akaoz]

Kurgan: Have you played huge/16 civs? Up to the modern age?

-Alech

[Falconius]

Originally posted by dweez
But it DOES do something - it turns off the AI unit animations. Of course if you've already turned them off in the preferences, it won't do much

OK, I see. I did have them turned off, so that's why it doesn't work for me.

[kmj]

Originally posted by Akaoz
Kurgan: Have you played huge/16 civs? Up to the modern age?

-Alech

Yeah. It is slow with 16 civs, I just started a game last night. I think that's to be expected though. 16 AI's - lots of units moving around. Imagine trying to play a board game with 16 players, though. You'd be able to watch an entire episode of the simpsons between each of your turns.

[Akaoz]

How slow? I have a 15 min wait in the modern age...

-Alech

[Kurgan]

Akaoz, I did not play yet a huge map with 16 civs, but I usually play 12 in large, and it goes fast, I will try a large one with 16 civs soon.

[Akaoz]

Heh, would you like to try my save game? It's a 9Mb file...

-Alech

[Fredric Drum]

Originally posted by StarGazer


My experience indicates that it is NOT just seeing the units move around that causes the turns to be so long. Here's the skinny.

I'm using a Pentium III 550 Mhz, 256 Mb RAM, nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra 64 Mb video card, under Windows 98.

Since I created a huge world with 80 percent water and 20 percent archipelago, eight civs, for the most part each civ is on a separate island-continent. As a result, I seldom see any foreign units being moved around while I'm waiting for my turn, just one or two ships passing near my island every once in a while.

Nevertheless, the delay between turns has risen to between two and three minutes (I'm now at 1957 A.D.), which is really unacceptable -- especially since the screen is frozen, thus making it impossible for me to examine my cities, etc., while I am waiting for my turn. All I can do is sit there, waiting and waiting and waiting and .... I've never played a solo computer game in which I have had to wait such a long time for my turn, and I've been playing them for 20 years.

The AI probably still moves his units around, even if you can't see them.
For me, speed issues occurs at huge maps only.. it must be the total number of cities and units that counts, and that number is significantly larger on huge maps. It's possible that this can be corrected if the AI can learn to fortify his units. Moving units is probably faster when you can't see them, but it still takes some time to calculate the movements.. and most of the time the AI is moving units just for the fun of it.


Fred

[WFHermans]

From reading all the posts I get the impression that the most important thing is NOT to use the huge map. Can anyone confirm this? I will play my next game with 16 civs on a smaller map and see what happens.

[Travathian]

Civ3 will eat up all the ram it can get. I'd recommend going to 256mb if you can. Especially since doubling your memory will cost less than your next game.

Second, don't try doing anything else on the system wile playing Civ3. Turn off virus software or crap like Norton's systemworks and similar software. If anything, use msconfig, remove the startup folder, restart and then play Civ3.

Next, think how long your turns take, and your brain is the fastest computer around. The computer has to move every piece, plus it has a series of rules to run thru repeatedly to decide what to do. So 10-15 minutes for 7-15 computer opponents to take their turn isn't unreasonable in my book, and I'm running a 1.4 with 512mb.

I don't feel that anyones problems are video card related, it all comes down to memory, processor, and settings. Huge maps with 300+ cities and 1000+ units require time to manipulate.
Lastly, the 10-15 minutes between turns is a good reason to get your arse up from the computer and get blood flowing in your legs or read a book like I do.

[Polonius]

How do you all feel about the speed since the patch? I haven't check it with a clock, but my game certainly seems to have speeded up since I applied it. Before the patch I turned off all the watch movement options but it didn't make the difference I was hoping for - I still had to watch a heck of a lot of little men running around the screen while I waited.

Since the patch they have either increased the options to turns stuff off or made them more effective. I still have to wait quite a lot during late game moves but the time seems more or less acceptable now. (I have an Athlon 1.2ghz and 256 meg RAM)

[darthx86]

oops - double post

[darthx86]

Here's a proposal: I'll link to my current saved game (Babylonians, regent, 5 AIs, large map - I think). On my old machine, it would take ~40 seconds before my advisor would pop up (1740AD).

I just upgraded my hardware last night, so I am anxious to see how it improves (when I get Civ 3 installed). In the mean time, let's get a benchmarking poll running. Download the save, cycle the turn, and time it with a stopwatch or use the PC's clock (whatever). Post your result and your system specs in this thread.

Format:
CPU (Make, model, and speed)
RAM (How much, what type, how fast)
Video card (make, model, RAM)
Video driver version
OS and any updates

My reference specs:
CPU = Dual Durons 1GHz (200MHz DDR bus)
RAM = 512MB Crucial, DDR, CAS 2.5, registered
Video card = Asus 6800, GeForce 256 32MB DDR
Video driver = nVidia reference 12.41
OS = Windows 2000 SP2

I'm curious to see just where the performance bottleneck is on this game.

File: http://www.geocities.com/darthx86/Civ3test.zip
EDIT: I checked and Geocities is being stupid. Right-click on the file and save, and it will download just fine.

[battists]

Good idea on the benchmark. Here's my take:

My reference specs:
CPU = 700 mhz Pentium
RAM = 256MB
Video card = ATI Rage Mobility
OS = Windows 2000 SP1

It took about 32 seconds for me.

[Peace Builder]

I have a similar experience with several other games including a predecessor to this one. What I found then will probably apply here as well.

The larger the map, the more memory it takes. The more units, the more memory it takes. If you don't have enough physical memory it starts using virtual memory. The more virtual memory it uses the more often it has to wait for memory to load from disk.

In a predecessor to this game on a huge map I would get into the game a ways and it would crash. It always seemed to be about the same point. After increasing my RAM the game stopped crashing. The unexpected side effect was that the game speeded up imensily. I had another machine with similar specs. I ran the game there and watched the hard drive stay in use 100% of the time while the game was running. After upgrading the memory the in-use light came one briefly once in a great while. Since then I have always put large amounts of memory in my machines.

My Civ3 runs acceptably fast on a huge map with 8 civs into the modern age. With a huge map and 16 civs it ran fine also but I haven't played past the middle ages yet. As the game moves on it does take longer. But I haven't seen more than about three minutes at the worst. When I have a lot of units on the map I sometimes do hold the shift key down to speed up the animations. But most of the time I watch for any units my moving units expose. Three years ago I was playing a strategy game of this type that started out with the computer taking around a minute for it's turn and as the number of units increased it eventually reached over an hour for the computer turn. So two or three minutes does not seem like much of a wait for me.

I run with all animations on and the music off. Before I tired of the music, it didn't seem to make a difference to my speed.

I am using a stock Pavilion N5470.
CPU = Athlon 4 1Ghz
RAM = 255 MB
Video card = Trident CyberBlade XP (69)
Video driver = Version 6.50.6054-10.69
OS = Windows ME

I have used Norton Utilities to repair my system periodicaly. I also run Norton System Doctor at all times including when playing games. Tonight I discoverd that my virus scan had started. Even with it running I experienced less than 30 seconds computer turn with 8 civs on a huge map in the early part of the industrial age in 1470.

I installed the patch and speed hasn't seemed to be affected by it.

As to new cities, I have seen a delay. I think it was around 5 seconds.

I hope this helps those of you who are experiencing problems.

Have a Terrific day!