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  • #1

    Laptop screen size and freeze issues

    I am curious, whether anyone tried to run Civ3 on a laptop, and ran into similar issues.

    The default screen size of my laptop is 800x600, but it is able
    to emulate the 1025x768 size in a "virtual display" mode. (This means that as I move the cursor, a larger screen moves around below.)

    This seems to work fine, except for the diplomacy screens, when
    the lowest lines don't seem to show on my screen. For instance,
    from the manual it seems I should have the options of leaving the negotiating table, or ask the AI to make a counter-proposal, but these options simply do not show on my screen. The lowest line (barely fitting at the bottom) is asking the AI whether she finds my offer acceptable. (So if I get "stuck" not wanting to agree on any deal, all I can do is hit the "ESC" button.)

    The other problem seems to be that once I am in the 1600's, the game tends to freeze.

    I must admit that I have an "old" (1999) laptop with an upgraded hard drive, and my processor speed (340 MHz) and memory size
    (196Mb) barely fit the system requirements. Yet the game seems to be running smoothly till the 1600's so I am not sure whether this is really a hardware issue.

    Overall I like the conceptual innovations of this game compared to the previous versions. but I wish the designer had thought of a separate "laptop-scaled" version just like it was the case with Alpha Centauri. (Why do I need the CD in the machine anyway if I had to copy everything on my hard drive?)

    I will appreciate any helpful comment.

    Best regards, Gabor
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  • #2
    it runs fine on my laptop, but i also have a very new model. i run the game at 1600x1200 on the lcd. the game is overall pretty stable but there are a few bugs in it that i'm having problems with. as civ's get bigger the turns really slow down.
    I spend most my money on Wine, Women and Song.. the rest i just waste.

    Comment

    • #3
      Thats all I play CIVIII on is my laptop. Its about a year old, I upgraded the memory and I'm hardly having any problems..

      I'm not sure, what the problem is on the diplomacy. Do you not see the option for new or active on the diplomacy screen? If you do then you are seeing it all.

      Comment

      • #4
        Originally posted by Jahi
        it runs fine on my laptop, but i also have a very new model. i run the game at 1600x1200 on the lcd.
        How do you pick the resolution? When I start the game, it just switches to a large virtual screen.

        By the way, I noticed that the program does not crash (even with large civs) if I turn hardware acceleration down (to 1/4)
        BTW I have a Toshiba Satellite 2065CDS with a memory expanded to 160 Mb, and an S3 Virge/MX Video card.)

        Thanks for the reply.

        Gabor

        Comment

        • #5
          Originally posted by Jahi
          it runs fine on my laptop, but i also have a very new model. i run the game at 1600x1200 on the lcd.
          How do you pick the resolution? When I start the game, it just switches to a large virtual screen.

          By the way, I noticed that the program does not crash (even with large civs) if I turn hardware acceleration down (to 1/4)
          BTW I have a Toshiba Satellite 2065CDS with some exra memory added, and an S3 Virge/MX Video card.)

          Thanks for the reply.

          Gabor

          Comment

          • #6
            Originally posted by Jahi
            it runs fine on my laptop, but i also have a very new model. i run the game at 1600x1200 on the lcd.
            How do you pick the resolution? When I start the game, it just switches to a large virtual screen.

            By the way, I noticed that the program does not crash (even with large civs) if I turn hardware acceleration down (to 1/4).
            I have a Toshiba Satellite 2065CDS with some exra memory added, and an S3 Virge/MX Video card.)

            Thanks for the reply.

            Gabor

            Comment

            • #7
              Originally posted by JerryK72
              Thats all I play CIVIII on is my laptop. Its about a year old, I upgraded the memory and I'm hardly having any problems..

              I'm not sure, what the problem is on the diplomacy. Do you not see the option for new or active on the diplomacy screen? If you do then you are seeing it all.
              The funny thing is that I see those three buttons, but the middle one is blue at any moment. I could never get into a situation when clicking on the side buttons would have any effect.
              So I am not able to exit the screen, and I am also unable to check
              the status of any of these 20-year agreements. (I posted a separate thread on the issue, how to cancel a passage agreement.)

              Before I get to the negotiating table, some of the text
              (like "that's it" or "prepare for WAR") would not be showing only if I hover the cursor over them. (The last line would be to ask, whether I could offer a counter-proposal, and only the upper half of the text would be clearly showing.) I never saw the option of asking her to make a counter-proposal, after she refused my offer.

              Ever since I also discovered that when I look at pages like the
              "histogram", some explanatory text on the right hand side would
              have "squeezed" lines towards the bottom, to the extend of getting garbled, overlapping text. I am also unable to access some of these sides (like "top 5 cities") in any other way than
              with the appropriate F-key, although according to the manual there should be a way of clicking on a button in the lower right corner.

              Best regards, Gabor

              Comment

              • #8
                i believe there is a readme on the cd on how to change the resolution. it requires you to edit a file.

                also make sure you are running all the current patches (from www.windowsupdate.com), reinstalling direct8a never hurt either.
                I spend most my money on Wine, Women and Song.. the rest i just waste.

                Comment

                • #9
                  I wish to report that the freezes on my laptop may have been due to a software bug after all. I have found the following on the
                  The Official Apolyton Bug List
                  *Problem with changing the state of units: A city just produced a spearman and it is active. There is also a fortified warrior in the same city. By going to the city screen and right-clicking warrior and choose activate, then right-clicking the spearman and choose fortify locks the game
                  It seems I may have run into a similar scenario. I was in the process of upgrading my spearmen into musketmen, and whenever I saw an active soldier (any kind) in one of my cities, I zoomed in there to see whether I have more units, I upgraded at least one to musketman and ordered the musketman to fortify.
                  Sooner or later, the game locked up.

                  Recently I returned to the same saved game in a later phase, and now I am able to play it without turning down the hardware acceleration.

                  I have still problems with exiting the diplomacy screen without reaching an agreement, and the "new" or "active" buttons seem to have no effect. Moreover, the text on the demography screens is garbled towards the bottom.

                  But I have more and more the feeling that these are not really
                  laptop hardware issues but "design features".

                  Best regards, Gabor

                  Comment

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