Civ-PtW eating up computer resources

BigFurryMonster · June 18, 2003, 16:41

Is it me, or is Civ using more and more computer memory every day? It really takes me something like 10 minutes to start up the game and load a saved game. Other applications (I don't have many open really!) slow down like hell.

Do you experience the same problem?

vmxa1 · June 18, 2003, 17:38

I seem to remember they had a memory leak at one time, not sure if it was in PTW or only the original one.
It was corrected.
Sounds more like just the game you have going. If you have wars where harbors are lost or change hands and capitols are captured or razed then you run into the issue where the game has to check on all possible trade routes. It is very painful.
Post a save and I will see if it impacts my system.

BigFurryMonster · June 18, 2003, 18:00

Sorry - can't do that. It's the Inter Site Demo Game (which requires a password).

But also, the time to actually start up the game is quite long.

alva · June 18, 2003, 20:49

Yep, noticed it too with 1.21.

Don't know if it runs smoother, havn't played a game yet.

it will always run at 100% though, no matter what kind of PC you have.
(note that the requirements have gone up too with PTW)

Mad Bomber · June 19, 2003, 00:50

A few other things to remember,

The more you have, the more you lag. This is true for weverything in the game but is especially true for # of Civ's.

These will make your computer lag with PTW
1. Large or huge hap
2. Large # of CIV's
3. Large amount of units (over 1000 per game will slow you down)
4. Programs running (PTW was not designed to work in multi-media; the only thing you should have running in the background is a simple graphics program for screenshots and perhaps a music program or MP3 player and these programs will slow down a PTW game to a crawl even on a P4 machine)

vmxa1 · June 19, 2003, 01:40

I have not seen this. I mostly play std maps wiht 8 civs though. I did just finish one with 12 civs and saw no slow down at all.
I alternate bewteen animate all and not. I use show all moves all the time.
I rarely see more than 200 units per civ in a game.
Have 1.21 on now, but have not used in before this and was running 1.14F.

Tiberius · June 19, 2003, 04:42

10 minutes to start up the game and load a saved game ?

This is definitely a lot. It takes me ~ 2 or 3 minutes to do this. But then it depends on what kind of comp. you have (especially proccesor and RAM, I think).

I didn't notice lags when playing, but like vmxa1 I also play only on standard maps with 8 civs.

The most annoying is actually when I quit civ. For aprox. 1 or 2 minutes I can't do anything at all. My computer is not responding at all during this period. After that however everything is back to normal.

dexters · June 19, 2003, 05:21

My last game on a huge map (continents) with 16 civs was a major slow ass loader.

Took about 1 to 2 minutes to load and about 2 to 3 minutes in between turns.

Someone said earlier the game has to recalculate trade routes, and I tend to agree, as with large maps on continents, you've got a ton of sea tiles to look after for those Civs not connected by a land trade route.

Immediately after this game, I played a huge map 16 civ game on Pangea and the load time and the wait time in between turns was cut considerably shorter and cut to about 1/2 to 1 minute (tops)

dexters · June 19, 2003, 05:27

My system by the way, is an aging P3 450 with 512 RAM.

I tend to think my large banks of RAM tends to give my Civ game a performance boost as It is not uncommon for me to hear people with far superior systems getting hit hard on their waits.

I am upgrading my computer soon I wonder how fast the turns will go

I think I can finally venture into the custom ultra large maps you can make in the editor and go for 32 civs.

alva · June 19, 2003, 06:29

Quote:

I am upgrading my computer soon I wonder how fast the turns will go I think I can finally venture into the custom ultra large maps you can make in the editor and go for 32 civs.

The first turn is a good indication of what is to come, it takes a long time because of all the cities being settled, after that it will get better (for a while).
I tried it once (decent PC, not sure if I tried it with my current 2000XP/+700MBram, previous 1400/256Ram)

Theseus · June 19, 2003, 12:59

BFM, have you re-booted?

Also, you might want to try a program called Hijack This to clean out any crap that is being loaded when you boot up and start Windows.

vmxa1 · June 19, 2003, 14:55

I would like to get my hands on a save that is doing this slow play and loading issue. I asked for a huge map one on the thread for huge games, but no one ever posted one.
I have played huge maps, but not in the last few months, so I am not sure of the impact.
So anyone that has one please post it here or email to me vmxa@sbcglobal.net, thanks.

bobbo008 · June 19, 2003, 15:11

i specifically got 512 MB of RAM for this game (1.8 GH, as well). I play on huge maps (280x280) with 24 civs and its not uncommon for 10 civs to have over 200 units each. its usually a minute or two between turns, but that is still annoying...

dexters · June 19, 2003, 15:51

Quote:

Originally posted by vmxa1
I would like to get my hands on a save that is doing this slow play and loading issue. I asked for a huge map one on the thread for huge games, but no one ever posted one.
I have played huge maps, but not in the last few months, so I am not sure of the impact.
So anyone that has one please post it here or email to me vmxa@sbcglobal.net, thanks.

'

I'll post my Carthage game (the one I described took a while to load - not ten minutes, closer to three) when I get home.

vmxa1 · June 19, 2003, 15:55

Thanks...

BigFurryMonster · August 13, 2003, 09:58

I increased my Virtual Paging File (W 2000) and it works much smoother now.

Turk Man · August 13, 2003, 18:15

it slow of the size of ptw

spy14 · August 15, 2003, 10:57

There's more factors than just game size/ system spec. If you end up with spyware on your system for instance it can slow down significantly, not just in Civ but across the board. Also theres factors like type of RAM to interfere (theres fast stuff n slow stuff), and motherboards (these make a huge difference - theres no point having a gig of ram and a 3Ghz processor if the motherboard is the cheapest the manufacturers could get their hands on).

My systems an 1.2 Ghz processor, 256mb, and I dont encounter excessive lag times until I use huge maps with 10+ civ's.

Turk Man · August 15, 2003, 11:51

i play in 360x360 map.and with 20 civ in it.

vmxa1 · August 15, 2003, 12:01

Quote:

Originally posted by spy14
Also theres factors like type of RAM to interfere (theres fast stuff n slow stuff), and motherboards (these make a huge difference - theres no point having a gig of ram and a 3Ghz processor if the motherboard is the cheapest the manufacturers could get their hands on).

You are tring to be funny here right? Hyperthreading cpu's do not have any bad motherboards or slow memory. You just to not have that many options at this point when going with 3.06GH processor.
Just how slow can a 1GB memory be? Mine runs Civ on 250x250 maps at about twice the speed of my 1.7GH system.

vmxa1 · August 15, 2003, 12:17

Quote:

Originally posted by spy14

My systems an 1.2 Ghz processor, 256mb, and I dont encounter excessive lag times until I use huge maps with 10+ civ's.

If you want to see what a test of you systems is let me know and I will email you a save (1.2MB) of the AU402 game. I played this game to see how much of a load it could be. I tried to let all civs survive. My guess is a long turn will take about an hour on your system. Most will take at least 20 minutes. Only turns with little or no war will be quick.

The worse turns took 25 minutes on my 3.06 (1GB), more than 50 minutes on 1.7GH (512MB). So I would expect 256MB system will be pressed to the wall.