Combat animations grind game to halt all of a sudden...

from Stardock Forums
In my current game, the combat animations are very slow. Like 60secs to resolve a ship to ship fight. The rest of the game moves at a normal pace, and a save from way back in this game, or from a new game, results in combat being fine. Never seen this problem before, the game usually flys for me.

Any ideas?

olaf
605 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I will check that, but this is some kind of bug and I was just wondering if anyone else had seen it.

Medium map. Off the top of my head, 3 majors left, maybe 1 minor. Not an unusual amount of trade, in fact less than normal. Ships, not sure, but again nothing crazy. I have had a lot more.

olaf
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I've seen it before on medium and small maps myself. However, it won't do it consistently for me.

Athlon XP 1900+
1 Gig DDR
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

~SDC~
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
System is pretty beefy

XP2700+ on a KT3Ultra running XP Pro
1g RAM
Radeon 9800Pro
Audigy Gamer

Only seen it this once, but it completely ruined my game :(

olaf
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
No one else experiencing this?

It still happens to me. Turning explosions off helps, but it doesnt fix it totally. Always happens late in a game, when it does happen. And it has to do with the save, so rebooting, etc. doesnt help.

It happens on my other comp too, which has totally different specs, so I cant believe I am the only one seeing this.

Any ideas?

olaf
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
The only slowdowns I've experienced have been related either to me multitasking GalCiv and several other programs, or simply to the obviously greater workload associated with larger maps. The combat animations have always been smooth.

- Ash

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
There is a setting in the pref.ini that says something about battle speed, and it has a ratio. Does this affect that problem by chance. If not, does anyone know what its for?


~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I havent messed with any ini settings. I keep hoping someone from Stardock will post under this thread and give me some advice, what to try, what to check, etc.

olaf
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Found this in the debug.err file that seems to coincide with this problem occurring:

Debug Message: Could not find animation titled Icon24Trans in model 0ecobase01 (PlayAnimation)

Another thing that is in there a few times is:

*DEBUG ERROR: *** Unable to locate font Verdana07Race12B, FTDataManager::FindFont ***
*DEBUG ERROR: *** Unable to locate font Verdana07Race11, FTDataManager::FindFont ***
*DEBUG ERROR: *** Unable to locate font Verdana07Race12B, FTDataManager::FindFont ***
*DEBUG ERROR: *** Unable to locate font Verdana07Race11, FTDataManager::FindFont ***

Please someone from Stardock take a look at this for me.

olaf
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Actually, this one seems to be the most common:

Debug Message: Could not find animation titled Default in model 35Decoration (PlayAnimation)

and this one comes up sometimes also:

Debug Message: Could not find animation titled Icon24Trans in model 0ecobase01 (PlayAnimation)

I see stuff like this in that file also, but it doesnt seem to coincide with my problem:

Debug Message: MWinEditFields::Create - Unable to find sprite sizing graphic for NameInputBG
Debug Message: Creating opening menu.
Debug Message: MemMan: Unable to find pointer in GetBlockInfo. Memory system: DataMan
ASSERT ERROR in file G:\PROJECTS\pear\SOURCE\MEMMAN.CPP at line 579.
Debug Message: MemMan: Trying to free memory that has not been allocated. Memory System DataMan
ASSERT ERROR in file G:\PROJECTS\pear\SOURCE\MEMMAN.CPP at line 361.

Thanks
olaf


~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
OK, played a few games on another comp, and saw some of the same things in its debug.err file, specifically the memman.cpp errors and the font errors. Didnt see those play animation errors though, and also didnt have the combat slowdown problem.

The machines are very different, and I also installed the game differently. I did a total download install whereas on my main machine I installed with the CD, then used SDC to get updates.

So I probably will reinstall on my main machine and see if these problems crop up again.

olaf

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Still having this problem after a reinstall via SDC. Its really annoying at this point. How do I contact Stardock officially? I submitted a ticket with Strategy First, but somehow I dont think that is going to get anywhere.

olaf
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Seems to happen mostly with Frigates, if that helps. And when using the Windows client, the menu bar says (Not Responding) next to the version number 1.02

olaf
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Well I emailed Frogboy my saved game, hopefully that will tell him something. I am begining to think its a problem with my 9800 or its drivers though. I had a ti4600 in this machine when I first started playing GalCiv, and didnt ever see these problems. Anyone else running a 9800Pro with this game ok? Or even a 9700? What catalyst drivers do you use if so?

olaf
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I think I finally fixed the problem. It seems AGP Fast writes on was the trouble. Turned that off and problem went away. Yay!

olaf