30-10-2001 20:58									#1
	3 Technical problems in running Civ3. Enter the AD-FREE zone

Hello,
Sorry if this appears again, I've had some difficulty in maintaining a connection. I've posted this on Civ3 Help but wanted any other ideas from the General site.

System:
P3-500
256MB
Riva TNT - 16MB RAM, Detonator Drivers 21.83
DirectX 8
Win98SE

Install went fine (excepting the registration wants a great deal of information).

Issue 1:
There is something funky with the text being displayed both on the main menu screen and in the game screen. The best way I could describe it is that multiple lines of text are being displayed on the same line, making quite a jumble. The main menu I don't care so much about, however this problem carrys over into the actual game. to where I cannot read the lower right information which tells me about the unit, it's location, what year it is, etc.

Issue 2:
Preferences menu is screwed up a bit where the selection items are out of alignment with their corresponding check boxes - this isn't just aesthetic, it's to the point to where I cannot tell for certain what I'm checking off.

Issue 3:
I have the sneaking suspicion that my Domestic Advisor is trying to tell me things however the text is not coming across and I just see a blank window. In the tutorial game, I see her face and her text box but it's empty. After toying around with the units for a few years, she pops up again - again blank.

I haven't actually gone through the tutorial or manual yet however the readme didn't have anything to offer on the subject. I'll have more time to fiddle and read tonight and I have another graphics card that I will try to plunk in the box to see if that makes a difference.

Other ideas welcome.

Thanks.

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This has been downloaded 1618 time(s).

	30-10-2001 21:00									#2
	Preferences Menu Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Just a shot of what I'm talking about with regard to preferences. I believe the text is only shifted up by a half notch but I'm not certain.

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	30-10-2001 21:05									#3
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

1. reinstall direct x 8a
2. check for newer video drivers, the TNT2 was never that great.
3. go to the windows update page and d/l any patches

	30-10-2001 21:05									#4
	Preferences Menu Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Just a shot of what I'm talking about with regard to preferences. I believe the text is only shifted up by a half notch but I'm not certain.

Attachment: misalign.gif
This has been downloaded 1563 time(s).

	30-10-2001 21:09									#5
	Re: Preferences Menu Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by Huntred Just a shot of what I'm talking about with regard to preferences. I believe the text is only shifted up by a half notch but I'm not certain.

Looks like your problems are font-related; the in-game font doesn't look anything like the font I see in the screens you posted, so that would explain most, if not all, the anomalies you're experiencing.

I'll see if I can get some info on a resolution.


Dan

	30-10-2001 21:19									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

I have having the same problem. Which makes the game unplayable.

Win98SE
256 RAM
Voodoo 3
Viewsonic G90F 19 inch monitor
AMD 500
Direct X 8 (all new updates)

Do you per chance have a large amunt of fonts installed like me? There is a font file named LSANS.TTF I am going to check if it got installed right

	30-10-2001 21:34									#7
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I don't believe so - I'm not big into fonts so I doubt I have much more than the standard compliment.

While the game is fairly unplayable like this, it's very tourable. What little I have seen of the landscape is beautiful. I liked the 3D terrain - and especially features like how one can see a mountain "off in the distance" (outside of the 3x3 visibility grid). Also, one can't "cheat" like in SMAC where you can get an idea as to the nature of the surround terrain by the grid contour.

	30-10-2001 21:54									#8
	Re: 3 Technical problems in running Civ3. Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Huntred Hello, Other ideas welcome. Thanks.

On windows you can select how much hardware acceleration you use. I had a similiar porblem to this with Railroad Tycoon. After adjusting the acceleration to a minimum there were no more troubles and the screen would show normal.

	30-10-2001 22:10									#9
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Ok I made sure that font was installed, reinstalled OpenGL and DirectX8a and still no change.

	30-10-2001 22:20									#10
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

Ok I also reinstalled my video drivers. Still no change.

Sir Fraxis could you e-mail me if you do get a resolution? [ Tammy@wodgraphics ] or at least post it on this thread? The game is simply unplayable until this is fixed for me.

	30-10-2001 22:22									#11
	Re: Re: Preferences Menu Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS Looks like your problems are font-related; the in-game font doesn't look anything like the font I see in the screens you posted, so that would explain most, if not all, the anomalies you're experiencing. I'll see if I can get some info on a resolution. Dan

Do you say that you forgot to include the font used in the game?

	30-10-2001 22:28									#12
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I'm not having these issues at all, but isn't there a line in the readme.txt about the font issue? Not sure...

Dan, my music is skipping horribly and I had to shut it off. It's not affecting gameplay at all, but it was very annoying. Any ideas?

	30-10-2001 22:31									#13
	Inflate your Upload Space

In case you didn't see this in the other thread that you started on this...

Are you using a desktop theme? If you change your desktop settings back to the defaults does the problem remain?

	30-10-2001 22:35									#14
	Re: Re: Re: Preferences Menu Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Originally posted by Gramphos Do you say that you forgot to include the font used in the game?

Huh?? What I am saying is the screens he posted show a totally different font than what ships with, and is used by, the game. It could be a font conflict, "small fonts" forced on, some font program, or even just running out of memory. All fonts in my Internet Explorer tend to start looking like that "bold, sans serif" that are present in both of his screens when I've got too much going on in my machine at once.

Dan

	30-10-2001 22:39									#15
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quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov I'm not having these issues at all, but isn't there a line in the readme.txt about the font issue? Not sure... Dan, my music is skipping horribly and I had to shut it off. It's not affecting gameplay at all, but it was very annoying. Any ideas?

Just the usuals, drivers, etc.. did you do a full install? What OS are you running?

One other interesting DirectX thing I found out recently that may help you is that apparently MS ships DirectX with debugging turned on in nearly every module, and this consumes precious CPU cycles. There is a control panel applet you can download, drop it into your system folder, and then you can access it via control panel and see if debugging is turned on, and if so, you can turn it off. It helped stop stuttering sound on some other games I play quite a bit (Unreal Tournament notably) though truthfully I've never had any sound problems with Civ III.

I'll see if I can find a link to that applet, it may help some of you out.


Dan

	30-10-2001 22:42									#16
	Re: Re: 3 Technical problems in running Civ3. Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by jglidewell On windows you can select how much hardware acceleration you use. I had a similiar porblem to this with Railroad Tycoon. After adjusting the acceleration to a minimum there were no more troubles and the screen would show normal.

I uninstalled and reinstalled Civ3 w/ a reboot between - just in case a font didn't copy correctly.

I adjusted hardware accel to none (ugh - that won't help the framerates in AvP2.. ). Windows wanted to do one of those quickie reboots but it had a minor lockup so I had to reset. Same issue with the fonts. I swtiched back to "full" and the quickie reboot worked.

Thanks though - that was a good one. I forgot that buddy of mine has all sorts of weirdness if he sets his Radeon VE more than a couple notches past "none". Computers are so...interesting.

	30-10-2001 22:46									#17
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Also if I try to build a city it says" Unable to allocate bufffer. Terminating program" and then the program well terminates. I never had aany graphic card problems. I'll try playing with the hardware acelleration some.

	30-10-2001 22:52									#18
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by LdyMox Also if I try to build a city it says" Unable to allocate bufffer. Terminating program" and then the program well terminates. I never had aany graphic card problems. I'll try playing with the hardware acelleration some.

Sounds like a memory problem...how much free HD space you got? You need at least 50 meg. But I'm a techno-idiot so don't trust me.

Thanks for the response Dan, link would be appreciated...will try it when I get home tonight.

Also...is Firaxis going to set something up for constructive feedback for future patches?

Cheers.

	30-10-2001 22:52									#19
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by rockville In case you didn't see this in the other thread that you started on this... Are you using a desktop theme? If you change your desktop settings back to the defaults does the problem remain?

No real scheme - I think it's stock (or stockish) colors with a black background. Modest (~12) shortcuts. No active desktop features turned on. It's my very boring computer.
(The still-delayed flagship machine is a based off an EPoX-8KHA+ so I've got problems all around).

BTW - please folks, don't get bitter or panicy about this. I don't think there's a mass problem with the game as judged by the number of people in the general thread who seem to be having a good ole time. This is affecting just a couple folks - and believe me, it's definitely my week for machine rebellion (don't ask about my Tivo either)...

	30-10-2001 23:01									#20
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by LdyMox Also if I try to build a city it says" Unable to allocate bufffer. Terminating program" and then the program well terminates. I never had aany graphic card problems. I'll try playing with the hardware acelleration some.

FYI - I have the exact same problem. I hadn't tried to build a city before - I was too busy walking around.

I have 279MB free (it's not much but I'm in a big state of transition right now). Windows is managing the swap file.

Please let me know if you get a solution sent to you - pooky@smart.net I'll do the same to Tammy@wodgraphics

Thanks.

	30-10-2001 23:04									#21
	Re: Re: Re: Re: Preferences Menu Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS All fonts in my Internet Explorer tend to start looking like that "bold, sans serif" that are present in both of his screens when I've got too much going on in my machine at once. Dan

I've had that problem as well. Both when memory runs low, and when I increased the res to some very big and still run on a high frequency. I don't remember exactly what (and I'll not try to reproduce it.)

	30-10-2001 23:08									#22
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov Sounds like a memory problem...how much free HD space you got? You need at least 50 meg. But I'm a techno-idiot so don't trust me. Thanks for the response Dan, link would be appreciated...will try it when I get home tonight. Also...is Firaxis going to set something up for constructive feedback for future patches? Cheers.

Boris,

The trusty 'Poly forums here wouldn't let me attach the file (it's really small, but the extension isn't allowed), so I put it up on our website. Just note the standard legal mumbo-jumbo; this isn't an official patch, we don't support this, etc.

http://www.firaxis.com/directx.cpl

Follow the instructions I laid out above, you may find your debugging level set high on one or more DX components. Turning them to off should increase performance, but your mileage may vary.


Dan

	30-10-2001 23:11									#23
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Ok still having the text/city building problem. p.s. the error says draw-buffer not just buffer error


I tried every hardware acceleration. I have plenty of memory (256MB) and I tried running it with as many other background programs off). I have over 3 Gigs of free harddrive space

p.s. this version I have is from the limited edition tin

	30-10-2001 23:15									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

What do I do with directx.cpl?

quote: Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS Boris, The trusty 'Poly forums here wouldn't let me attach the file (it's really small, but the extension isn't allowed), so I put it up on our website. Just note the standard legal mumbo-jumbo; this isn't an official patch, we don't support this, etc. http://www.firaxis.com/directx.cpl Follow the instructions I laid out above, you may find your debugging level set high on one or more DX components. Turning them to off should increase performance, but your mileage may vary. Dan

	30-10-2001 23:21									#25
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Originally posted by LdyMox What do I do with directx.cpl?

Doh! Didn't realize the message with the instructions didn't go through because of the attachment.

You need to copy the file into your [WINDOWS]/System32 directory, then you will have a "DirectX" control panel applet available. Open it up and you should be able to click around on the tabs in there and see if debugging levels are turned on for various components of DirectX (sound, 3D, etc.) Turn them to "Off" and you should see some performance gain, especially if you're using an older/slower PC.

Dan

	30-10-2001 23:30									#26
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by LdyMox p.s. this version I have is from the limited edition tin

Same. Figured it would be useful for hauling Christmas cookies.

	30-10-2001 23:54									#27
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I didn't do anything in the [WINDOWS]/System32 so I tried the [WINDOWS]/System folder and got the control panel DirectX applet. So far any changes have not helped. But I have not tried them all.

quote: Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS Doh! Didn't realize the message with the instructions didn't go through because of the attachment. You need to copy the file into your [WINDOWS]/System32 directory, then you will have a "DirectX" control panel applet available. Open it up and you should be able to click around on the tabs in there and see if debugging levels are turned on for various components of DirectX (sound, 3D, etc.) Turn them to "Off" and you should see some performance gain, especially if you're using an older/slower PC. Dan

	31-10-2001 00:24									#28
	Suffering from ads?

I'm having the exact same problem, but in addition, the game also crashes if I try to start a new game as soon as I finish with the custom world screen. If I quick start it gets into the game, but I still have the other problems.

Athlon 600
DX8a
Radeon AIW driver ver. 4.13.7075
WinME
6+GB free, 512MB RAM
Lucidia Sans is installed correctly

	31-10-2001 00:48									#29
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

On the crash after the world screen, debugger reports:

Unhandled exception in Civilization3.exe: 0xC0000094: Integer Divide by Zero

Context is Civilization3! 005626C8()

	31-10-2001 00:55									#30
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Mine also crashes after making a custom world. Gee I feel like a Beta tester

quote: Originally posted by dv8ed I'm having the exact same problem, but in addition, the game also crashes if I try to start a new game as soon as I finish with the custom world screen. If I quick start it gets into the game, but I still have the other problems. Athlon 600 DX8a Radeon AIW driver ver. 4.13.7075 WinME 6+GB free, 512MB RAM Lucidia Sans is installed correctly