Huge maps running slow on fast computers?

[d-audi]

Okay I know THIS GAME, of all games, can't be pushing my xp 1700+ 512pc2700ddr 7200rpm HD to the limits. This game is basically UNPLAYABLE at around industrial area with 14-16civs with a HUGE map. Wait time 1-2minutes at times in between turns. That is just unnacceptable. I can see maybe 10 seconds, MAYBE, but come on. Yes I turn everything off before playing, no surfing the net, using basically a fresh format and install of winxp pro. Does firaxis just not know how to write games or am I just an exception here?

[Ethelred]

The game was never intended to have a HUGE map option. That was added by fan request. If you don't have the patience play on smaller maps. Huge maps are there for those that insist on it despite the long wait and the incredible tedium of administering hundreds of cities and moving 500 to a thousand tanks every turn.

You can speed up the game by doing better. If the AI has fewer units and fewer cities they won't take long to complete their turns.

[Demerzel]

You can speed up the game by doing better. If the AI has fewer units and fewer cities they won't take long to complete their turns.

heheh, meow!

[miccofl]

Originally posted by: d-audi
Wait time 1-2minutes at times in between turns.

And you're complaining?! I had a turn once last 8 1/2 hours. It was a gigantic fully developed map in the early modern era. The AI had 14 civs to deal with, although at this point it was down to about eight. My turn took seven hours, I was on the offensive and had over 300 tanks to move into position and/or attack in a four-fronted war. The AI took over 1 1/2 hours to complete it's turn at which point I got a domination win. This was a bit of an anti-climax but at 2:00 AM I was a little glad it was over.

[georges bonbon]

Turn off friendly animations. It helps.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by miccofl


And you're complaining?! I had a turn once last 8 1/2 hours.

You Are Crazy!

[alva]

and maps in PTW will/could be bigger. At least you will be able to make them bigger in the editor

I used to love xtra huge maps, but i've gone down to standard, at least this way I finish one from time to time

[EvilKosh]

Most people probably already know about this, but I only recently discovered for myself that if you hold the shift key while units are moving (e.g. when they're doing a GoTo, or enemy units are moving) it speeds up the animation. It helps a little bit at least.

It's been my experience, however, that Civ3 has helped my life a little with huge maps... I can play a game and get housework done at the same time!

[Skeeve]

I'm running a Pentium 4 2.4GHZ with 512 ram, and yes, sometimes huge maps with 16 civs can be a bit slow.

However, I recommend NOT automating too many workers. This seems to actually cause my own turn to slow down while waiting for the little guys to finish scurrying around.

With little or no automation, things seem to move a bit better, such that turns are not unbearably long. Also, as an absolute must - make sure you turn the "friendly-unit" animations off! It can become incredibly tedious watching the computer shuffle troops around. (You might consider turning off the 'enemy-unit' animations, too, if you're a bit of a war-monger).

Also, in another thread, someone sent me 10 valuable tips for keeping the computer working in top conditions.
I can't remember most of them, but a few of the significant ones were:
* Purchase an extra fan or two to cool the interior (slot fans)
* Clean out the dust every so often that builds up inside
* CTRL-ALT-DEL programs that are in memory and "End Task".
* Visit Apolyton often and be Ming and Markos' special friend.

(Not sure how this last one affects your computer speed, but I'm just passing it on)

- Skeeve

[Knightblade pDM]

One of the easiest things to do is to turn off some/most of the animations for movement. Turning off friendly/enemy moves will make the game run faster. A 90 second turn with animations on will be about 30-45 I think with them off. I've played two Ultra Maps(256x256) and the only animation I had on was for battles, and it didn't take that long per turn

[sun_tzu_159]

Dear all,

I have noticed that effect of speed up on shift key but it is better to turn animations off.

I have run this game on 2.8GHZ P4 advent (With NVIDIA Geforce MX440) and 233MHz PII (With NVidia Geforce MX PCI) and it makes hardly a jot of difference on speed if game settings are equal.

Is there a badly coded loop or two in the code that runs on a timer that is set rather than number of operations performed?

It is not the graphics that run slow, it is AI decisions making. It made a difference when I added more memory up to 384MB on 233MHz but this was due to reduced disk access. There may still be a memory leak?

Regards
SUN_TZU

[sun_tzu_159]

Skeeve, what are the other 6 tips?
I have some -
1. DEFRAG the hard drive regularly, once a week i.e.
2. OPTIMIZE the registry after defrag
3. CLEAR out all TEMP folder files and all temp files.
4. CLEAN registry of unwanted entries and correct the wrong ones.
5. MAX the memory on the system board
6 USE SCSI controller for C:\ drive, not IDE or others
7 BUY a program to do 1-4 - worth the money.
8 CHECK for memory leak in CIVIII
9 CLEAR system tray before playing.
10 MAKE sure boss is not watching you play. Have another app ready for CTRLALTDEL escape.
IF BOSS_MAN = YES, DO DUCK_AND_DIVE_ROUTINE

Regards
SUN_TZU

[PrinceBimz]

I have an Athlon XP 1800 with 768MB Ram and it runs the game right along on large maps. I have not played the huge ones yet, will try sometime. I do think added memory helps though regardless of your processor speed.

[Akaoz]

Before I upgraded my system I ran the game on a P3 966. 256 MB SDRAM, GeForce2 GTS and a 7200rnd HD.

On Marla's World map (and unpatched) I gave up somewhere in the late industrial age. By then the turns where taking ca 30-45 minutes.

I now run (v 1,29f) on an AMD XP 1900+, 512MB DDRRAM, and the late game on the same map takes about a minute or two for the AI to finish moves, and another minute to go over my cities.

From what I can tell the FSB is the chokepoint, not the RAM.

-Alech

[Akaoz]

Oh, and my old system was WinME, and now I run XP.

[sun_tzu_159]

Hi all,
I have checked turn times with some old saves. Win98 on PII 233MHz, 384MB RAM, NVIDIA MX PCI (200 AGP Equiv). Largest Map, no mods. 1.29f with 30.82 NVidia drivers (sweet)

1. Ancient - AI turns = 1 minute
2. Medeival - AI turns = 1 minute 30 secs
3. Industrial - AI turns = 2 minutes 15 secs
4. Modern - AI turns = 4 minutes 45 secs

This is with anim off, music off, 16 CIVS.

On P4, 2.8GHz, NVIDIA MX440, 512MB memory, Windows XP (plan to get more memoy but it is DDR and not cheap) all else as above.

1. Ancient, AI turns = 45 seconds
2. Medeival, AI turns = 1 minute 15 seconds
3. Industrial, AI turns = 1 munute 45 seconds
4. Modern, AI turns = 2 minutes 30 seconds (big difference was not expected here, may be a clue, will look closer to workings of this - but probably it is memory size).

Can anyone else benchmark each era with machine config. We can then see which is running best and may be clue why. If anyone has really powerful machine of 1.8GHz or more with loads of memory on this would be useful.

Regards
Sun_Tzu

[Skeeve]

Originally posted by sun_tzu_159
Skeeve, what are the other 6 tips?
I have some -
1. DEFRAG the hard drive regularly, once a week i.e.
2. OPTIMIZE the registry after defrag
3. CLEAR out all TEMP folder files and all temp files.
4. CLEAN registry of unwanted entries and correct the wrong ones.
5. MAX the memory on the system board
6 USE SCSI controller for C:\ drive, not IDE or others
7 BUY a program to do 1-4 - worth the money.
8 CHECK for memory leak in CIVIII
9 CLEAR system tray before playing.
10 MAKE sure boss is not watching you play. Have another app ready for CTRLALTDEL escape.
IF BOSS_MAN = YES, DO DUCK_AND_DIVE_ROUTINE

Regards
SUN_TZU

I can't remember what the other 6 were, but I think you covered some of them. Defragging was definitly one.

Hey, I wonder how many people actually play CIV3 at work? -- I'll start a thread.

- Skeeve