View Full Version : Anyone else having trouble getting Civ4 to run?
killercane
26-10-2005, 20:20
Ive turned everything down on my 64 MB videocard (the only thing that doesnt fit into the recommended requirements), and Im still having trouble getting into the game. Ive messed around with the INI settings to no avail. This is pretty damn frustrating.
The Spock intro plays, I select begin game, and it freezes. Any help would be appreciated.
Shabbaman
26-10-2005, 20:46
Wow.
Someone actually has the game.
Thumbs up.
So no, no help here. First and most obvious tip: upgrade your graphics card drivers.
Or buy a new card. A 128mb NVIDEA or ATI costs around 30 euro on the web these days...
It seems people all over the globe that already have obtained the game are reporting massive bugs using ATI cards... something obviously has gone wrong after testing.
Your problem may or may not be related, but I would not buy a new card yet until Firaxis has commented on the issue.
That is highly expected. I mean, I would be very surprized if I am actually able to run the game at all without any patch. ;)
Have not got it yet though.
In my little experience, Civ2 plain refused to run before I got the expansion pack and then civ3 refused to start every other time and when it did start, it was throwing up on me every 30-60 minutes of gameplay before the first patch of the vanilla.
Hm, Civ III may be outdated de jure, not de facto ;)
quote:Originally posted by Beam
Hm, Civ III may be outdated de jure, not de facto ;)
That is certainly true. The only way to enjoy civ4 is reading through sirian's walkthrough for now for many people who crave.
Bugs report thread at CFC also started already. [lol]
quote:cheshire cat floating heads that are just grins and eyes
terrain is completely black, only shows units, resources, and forests and things like that, nothing else
One of the first threads in the bugs forum. [lol]
Beginning is promising, as usually with Civ.
It seems that sirian is the only one able to run the game so far. ;)
No, it seems that most of the problems lie with the newer ATI cards. Installing the old drivers often does not help. A few people have problems with the wonder movies with NVIDEA cards.
Almost all bugs reported for now are videocard related...
But I guess they skipped some good testing of the videao card compatibilty! ;)
Well in that case I'm changing my plan and not running to Utrecht on friday. I have a laptop with an ATI card and a desktop with NVidia, so I'll exercise some patience.
quote:Originally posted by akots
...it was throwing up on me every 30-60 minutes of gameplay...
I'm trying to picture that... [scratch]
I'll let ya know tomorrow :D
I got mine today and will try to install it tonight
killercane
27-10-2005, 01:01
Well I got it to work. I had reinstalled the drivers and the game once already, and then did it again. It worked on the second reinstall... The only thing I can think of is it didnt uninstall the previous driver fully. Its working now, with the performance I would expect out of a 64 MB card.
My first impressions are that it isnt drastically different than III, but the early game is much much slower. Im still getting used to the interface.
grahamiam
27-10-2005, 05:23
mines been working since the 1st install. ATI Sapphire Radeon 9600 PRO (128MB), Catalyst Ver 05.7, AMD Athlon XP 2500+, Windows XP Home SP2
Mine is working as well... I played thru the Tutorial sucessfully and I have a crappy computer 1GHZ and everything seemed fine with the exception of the music track was a bit choppy at first.
The video bugs are grown exponential last night! Let's hope they are all related and are gone when the (first) patch arrives.
Thank god I have no ATI card! But then again, plenty of NVidia cardholders have wonder movie crashes and XML error pop-ups...
This is a copy of the PTW release! Anyone remembers that nightmare? [groucho]
Have it running but systemcrash after hitting Print Screen or Alt-Tab to another app.
Markstar
27-10-2005, 12:06
Nope, looking good so far. :)
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Markstar/2005102712553_civ panther.jpg
192.81KB
I'm actually really surprised how smoothly it runs at 1600*1200. Not bad. [cool]
Socrates
27-10-2005, 12:31
Markstar, you got screwed ! You got the version with the wild animals acting like barbarians !! [lol] How silly is this ? [mischief]
In 600AD right now and it really is a different animal compared to Civ III. Choose continents as maptype only to find out I'm on my own continent so only barbaction so far. Just learning the game mechanics.
O, skip suicide gallies. :(
Shabbaman
27-10-2005, 14:34
What level are you playing Beam?
grahamiam
27-10-2005, 14:49
i played noble last night as the english (liz) till 250BC. standard, continents. my units were dying all over the place (hint, don't attack barb archers with chariots [lol] ). I shared a content with Rome, all alone. I beelined for Alpha while he pretty much did the bottom techs. However, once I reached alpha (the tech that allows tech trading), i couldn't sell writing for lower priced techs (he refused). Kind of annoying, but I'm sure I'm missing something.
killercane
27-10-2005, 15:05
That confused me at first too. Im not sure how to improve relations besides sharing the same religion. If they dont like you, then no trades. Open borders help, but they wont give you that option at all.
grahamiam
27-10-2005, 15:11
open borders becomes available with a tech, forget which one. Rome offered it to me and I accepted. They also demanded writing and I refused, but they didn't declare :)
Gee, I am way below minimum requirements, but it runs quite well on my 5 year old machine!
I'm hoping one of you can help me figure out what needs to be upgraded on my machine...
If I play a game above a tiny map on the lowest graphics setting I can get the game to play alright.
Any higher settings than that the game will crash telling me that I have a lack of "virtual memory" Is that the RAM? the Processor? The graphics card itself?
What do you think? Will I need a whole new computer?
Shabbaman
01-11-2005, 13:45
Perhaps your pagefile is too small. You can set this in the windows configuration screen, in system or something like that.
erm... explain like you are talking to someone a bit slow...please :D
Shabbaman
01-11-2005, 14:20
It's a bit difficult, because I'm using a dutch win2k machine at work (and I assume you're using an english winxp). But let's try. Go to the start menu in the bottom left, then settings and configuration screen. Click the system icon. It should be in the advanced tab, under a advanced button or something. Perhaps using windows help searching for "pagefile" might help.
and I need to increase this?
Edit: There is actually a tab that says "Virtual Memory"
any guess as to what to set it at?
Shabbaman
01-11-2005, 14:28
I don't know for sure, but it might be a good idea. The pagefile is reffered to as virtual memory. I know that Battlefield2 requires a pretty large pagefile. Mine is around 1GB.
cool I try mussing with it when I get home :D Thanks
A lot of problems I've read about are due to drivers rather than the hardware. In many cases, things are fixed by going to an earlier driver rather than the latest.
My guess is that Firaxis tested the game using drivers from last year and a lot of folk automatically update to the latest.
So col's tip for today : if you have video problems try and older rather than a newer driver.
digger760
01-11-2005, 16:03
Virtual Memory is hard disk space used when RAM runs out. To Adjust in WinXP:
1. Open Control Panel
2. Double Click System Icon
3. Click on Advanced Tab
4. Click the setting button in the performance section (in section 1 of 3)
5. Click on the Advanced tab
6. Click on Change button in the Virtual Memory section (bottopm right)
7. Change as you see fit.
8. Try Civ4 again and good luck.
col, I already basically did so. Upgraded the ATI driver from a year-old but no change in the issues: system crashes both when making screenies and when alttabbing.
Now I am really considering to buy a new vidcard, for example a GeForce 6600 with 256 MB for about EUR 130-140. How is the bang for the buck for that card, any other cards recommended?
TIA
Shabbaman
01-11-2005, 16:47
quote:Originally posted by Beam
Now I am really considering to buy a new vidcard, for example a GeForce 6600 with 256 MB for about EUR 130-140. How is the bang for the buck for that card, any other cards recommended?
I have that one, it's pretty decent. Check out tweakers.net for comparisons.
digger760
01-11-2005, 17:09
If I were to buy a card, the Geforce 6600 256MB would be my choice for bang for buck. I would go for the Gigabyte Silent Pipe Version...no annoying fan.
BTW I think Col said to downgrade you drivers...not upgrade.
Consider an upgrade from a year old driver to current driver a reversed downgrade. ;) It didn't make a difference so downgrading won't either.
I was planning to fit the card with a heatsink anyway, I'll check if the Gigabyte is available for a competitive price compared to a card with fan + Zalman heatpipe, thanks for the tip!
6800 definitively is in another price range and I don't feel there is a need for one.
grahamiam
01-11-2005, 17:49
i've heard that the memory on the 6600GT is faster than the vanilla 6600. not sure, but maybe a 128mb 6600 GT would be better and cheaper than a 256mb 6600. just a thought
Shabbaman
01-11-2005, 18:08
Grahamian is correct about the memory speed. The GT is the more expensive version though (although it has less memory). But let's not clutter this thread with video card talk.
Well, according to Firaxis my videocard is too slow while I have an 128MB geforce4. Dunno wants wrong, apparently it reads the card wrongly. I am below the minimum settings (thats not thue).
The intro video is choppy (what's new) but the tutorial is handled ok. A custom game is slow on loading and playing. The game goes wild on my hard drive and chews away all memory. Processor isn't maxed out but the rest is. Defragging now (according to the bug reports that helps).
Tried to run the game with this System Mechanic running. Guess what: when it started to optimize RAM crash to desktop. Just prior to that the graphics became unusually slow.
Going to inquire for both the 6600 and the 6600 GT this week, although the latter mainly seems to be available as PCI Express which my machine does not support.
I have a Winfast 6600GT (PCIe) but no Civ4.
quote:Originally posted by col
I have a Winfast 6600GT (PCIe) but no Civ4.
Sounds like a deal! [groucho]
Thaks for your help! Increasing the page size seems to have done the trick. I played a small game to the renisance era last night with no problems.
it runs quitr ok on my laptop even. Me surprised, especially as the graphics card uses my ordinary 512RAM. so effectively I'm running 384MB Ram.
Time to buy the extra 512MB :)
Lt. Killer M
03-11-2005, 15:11
firaxis sucks, hu?
I hope that's an ironic remark, but it has become a bit too much a stopgap IMO. http://www.straland.com/images/smilies/angry.gif They just made a game which everybody loves and gets high ratings at all review sites.
Lt. Killer M
03-11-2005, 16:48
matrix, they consistently manage to make nice games, but also consistently manage to fail making playable .0 or .1 versions of anything, except for a select few who happen to have the same PCs, and that only sometimes.
Imagine the games were cars - I do not think you'd have anything but disdain for am car manufacturer who's cars have a 90% breakdown rate at first start [lol]
Socrates
03-11-2005, 17:44
Though I garee this is annoying, 2 explanations (not "excuses") :
- The Car era started more than a century ago, whereas the Video Games era started something like 30 years ago. Man knows cars best.
- Cars that don't run properly have a far greater chance to have you injured or killed, which isn't the case with video games. That translates into people buying defected video games more, because the risk is largely lower. Plus you can get patches for free, is it the case for cars ?
Just replaced the ATI Radeon 9500 (2 years old) with a Geforce 6600 and all previously reported crashes are solved. Can make screenies! Can ALT-TAB!
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Beam/200511321653_firstscreen.jpg
104.75 KB
ANY DICKHEAD CLAIMING MOST OF THESE CRASHES ARE NOT VIDCARD RELATED GETS FIST IN ARSE.
IF 2K DOES NOT PROVIDE A SOLID VID PATCH SOON THEY GET TWO FISTS IN ARSE PLUS THE FINGER.
Recent ATI Radeons are as good as Geforces for all but Civ IV. It is lunacy one needs to buy a EUR 130 vidcard to run a EUR 50 game.
Shabbaman
03-11-2005, 22:29
I play Battlefield2 with it as well, so that already adds up to 100 euros ;)
quote:Originally posted by Beam
IF 2K DOES NOT PROVIDE A SOLID VID PATCH SOON THEY GET TWO FISTS IN ARSE PLUS THE FINGER.
Now that has got to hurt...
Rik Meleet
04-11-2005, 02:00
When I have Civ 4 running, the game tends to go very slowly. I mean, 10 seconds to open a city-screen ??? And the game drags on and on because of that. Selecting an individual unit in a SoD means waking up the whole stack and telling each and every single unit what it should do (most often: go back to sleep). And that 10 times longer than I needed in Civ 3 to pick an individual unit. It's all so slow.
I can Alt-Tab and take screenshots, but if I switch too often the PC crashes as if someone pulled the powercable out. It's "Civ 4 or nothing". Not that cool.
imho, it all sounds similar to what was the case with previous versions. These things all will be apparently patched and hopefully, after that the game would work ok.
Again, these glitches are rather strange because RTW uses similar requirements, rendering and graphics but it runs OK.
killercane
04-11-2005, 07:11
The problems Im still getting are mostly with game crashes. The main one seems to be exiting to main menu/desktop from a game, which causes a complete comp reset every other time I do that. The quick fix Ive found is to pick retire and go through the exit screens.
Melifluous
04-11-2005, 14:01
LOL as mentioned in another thread I have installed the game from DVD.
I go to run it from the autorun on the DVD and it asks me for the correct DVD-ROM and restart the application! wtf?!?
ITS ON 1 DVD! The support site tells me to put CD-ROM 1 back in the drive and try again.
ITS IN 1 FUCKIN DVD! [rant]
Stupid. Real fuckin stupid.
Firaxis may not suck but the publisher does.
Has no-one tried to run it from DVD?
Wankers.
Melifluous
Yeah, it runs from a DVD with me. And it runs ok.
It is scary to see my reply on you, earlier in the other thread, become reality... :(
Mel, prob. you got the US version burned on 2 DVD's and the first DVD not shipped?
BTW: you're still away until 22nd august? lol
Melifluous
04-11-2005, 15:20
Oh I got it working with the use of safedisc4 hider but that aint the point.
Please god cant they just test their games a little [pray]
[meli]
Civ4 hasn't crashed a single time here!
It freezes a lot though, for about half a minute and then continues. That's quite annoying.
Furthermore I get the feeling 512MB RAM isn't enough so that it uses a lot of the pagefile.
Lt. Killer M
07-11-2005, 10:57
I have had some crashes - totally frozen PC, usually. But, it runs! :D
No crashes, no freezes, no lockups. Runs smooth as silk.
Ok I do have a pretty high spec system. Athlon 64 3200. 1 Gb of Ram and a 6600 GT video card.
Won the first game on warlord to used to the UI pretty easily.
Second game on equal setting went a little different. I was in the middle of the pack 3/8 not too far behind the leaders when the aztecs invaded. Yeah. Yeah. I thought. Gulp. Big mixed stack that took me out very effectively. This AI knows how to attack.
Next game, I'm a little more cautious with my defence and am currently in scoring lead and confident of the win. But there is no doubt that Soren has done a great job with the AI this time round.
digger760
07-11-2005, 11:37
DVD takes about 3 mins to get past copy protection. Brothers in arms was much worse, it took about 10 mins. No-CD patch will be high priority!
Insalled perfect.
Seems to run perfect
Dell 8600 Laptop
Geforce 5650 Go 128MBram
512 Meg ram
Downside: cost 55 Euro in GameSpot and Game, Where as another store, which had not yet received copiess said they would sell it for 40 Euro ( I smell a monopoly agreement there!). Amazon, after postage was gonna cost 32 Euro. I could take my copy back to GameSpot for a full refund and claim it did not work on my PC....but I can't be arsed driving into the city centre.
Pastorius
08-11-2005, 08:54
@digger: Just wanna mention that play.com has free shipping, as in 17,99 pounds including transport/delivery.
Which is cheaper than 40euro, in terms of Norwegian kroners, given that the Krone is strong against the Euro
Darkness
08-11-2005, 09:19
quote:Originally posted by Paalikles
@digger: Just wanna mention that play.com has free shipping, as in 17,99 pounds including transport/delivery.
Which is cheaper than 40euro, in terms of Norwegian kroners, given that the Krone is strong against the Euro
Which is why I ordered it at play.com. For a total of 28,99 euro's. 3-5 days for delivery, meaning it should be in my mailbox on thursday at the latest.... :)
Socrates
08-11-2005, 15:24
quote:Originally posted by Darkness
Which is why I ordered it at play.com. For a total of 28,99 euro's. 3-5 days for delivery, meaning it should be in my mailbox on thursday at the latest.... :)
So, Darkness, you assure me that you only have to register there, order the game, and they deliver it at 28.99 € total within a few days in all the listed countries (France & NL included) ?? No tax thingie, as Shabba mentioned ? No fist in the arse ? No spyware or lots of ads in mailbox from them ? I'm waiting for someone to confirm that everything is fine with play.com, from registering there to delivery... :)
Can you confirm all of this when you get the game please ? Thanks so much, I'm scared to death. [mischief]
Darkness
08-11-2005, 15:51
quote:Originally posted by kryszcztov
quote:Originally posted by Darkness
Which is why I ordered it at play.com. For a total of 28,99 euro's. 3-5 days for delivery, meaning it should be in my mailbox on thursday at the latest.... :)
So, Darkness, you assure me that you only have to register there, order the game, and they deliver it at 28.99 € total within a few days in all the listed countries (France & NL included) ?? No tax thingie, as Shabba mentioned ? No fist in the arse ? No spyware or lots of ads in mailbox from them ? I'm waiting for someone to confirm that everything is fine with play.com, from registering there to delivery... :)
Can you confirm all of this when you get the game please ? Thanks so much, I'm scared to death. [mischief]
I'll let you know when I've received the game... :)
smalltalk
08-11-2005, 20:45
Just installed the game. (On my work machine in the office, something I actually tried to avoid, but well ... [rolleyes]) It runs, the units show, but the tiles stay pitch black.
Time for an new machine, I guess. My old 1.2 MHz still runs Win98, as the manufactor of my soundcard won't provide an updated driver.
Darkness
21-11-2005, 09:24
quote:Originally posted by Darkness
quote:Originally posted by Paalikles
@digger: Just wanna mention that play.com has free shipping, as in 17,99 pounds including transport/delivery.
Which is cheaper than 40euro, in terms of Norwegian kroners, given that the Krone is strong against the Euro
Which is why I ordered it at play.com. For a total of 28,99 euro's. 3-5 days for delivery, meaning it should be in my mailbox on thursday at the latest.... :)
Still haven't received the game.... :(
I've requested a refund (19 days is way to long, so I feel I have actually been very patient) :(.
Pastorius
21-11-2005, 13:51
Argh! Those bastards.
Weird though, considering that all the people I ve talked with that have ordered from them (shipping to Norway) have said that they are quite good at delivering within reasonable time.
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