Maximizing Performance ?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm running the Game on a Dell Dimension 2400 with a 64MB Video card, 256 MB RAM, and a 2.4GHz Celeron Processor.

Currently, big ships lag the game big time, especially if there's a fleet, and I have several very large ships that I'm currently using. They also have a lot of jewelry on them.
Would reducing the physical size of these ships help this issue any? Or removing some of the Jewelry?

Also, after I've played for about half an hour, the game starts to lag really bad, especially in the late game, with it taking 30 seconds for a turn to process, or the screen scrolling really jumpy and slow. There are a lot of starbases around too, if this matters at all.

I know that I don't have the recommended requirements, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do with what I have currently to help these issues. Playing on a Huge or Gigantic galaxy is out of the question because of enormous load times, so is including more than four races. And, the above problems manifest themselves even earlier in the game. If I were going to upgrade my computer, would kicking RAM up to 512 MB fix this, or do I need to look into a new video card?

Also, this is sort of a minor issue, but after I attempt to reply to a thread, it refuses to reload, and all I get is a white screen every time I click on that thread. I'm viewing the forums in Firefox. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
7,212 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Obligatory bump + checking to see if the forum thing is still an issue in IE.

EDIT: Apparently it's not.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi!
big ships lag the game big time, especially if there's a fleet, and I have several very large ships that I'm currently using. They also have a lot of jewelry on them.

I have worse comp than you (bare almost 1 GB RAM), and have to play in "icon" mode (zoom out until everything changes to icons) to get a decent performance. I can play huge galaxies with 100 habitable planets, however late game turns take up to 30 sec now. Doesn't matter, from Stars! I'm accustomed to waiting for a turn up to 3 days .

What could work for you is 1GB RAM to be able to play in bigger galaxies, and faster graphics card to get more eye candies (what IMO all the jevlery only is).

BR, Iztok
TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You also realize that turns aren't going to be instantaneous later in the game because the game has to render each ship movement, and the galaxy get's a little crowded a few years in. I'm running it with 512MB of ram and a 128 ATI Mobility Radeon and my late game turns are taking just as long as yours are. It's a sad fact for less than cutting edge computer users out there. But at least taking a step up in each category would let you play large and huge maps with max races without toomuch waiting around.

As for your forum problem...it could just be issues with the server at the time.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is confusing;
Make sure you have the latest graphical drivers; Also make sure you are using the latest drivers for your motherboard (chipset). This will also make a difference...
I don't see any lag myself... I do have a fairly fast system though.

But installing up to date drivers for your mobo and your gfx card are important!
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I just added a 1gb stick to my machine and it made a world of difference to my in game performance. I used to have lagged battles but now the battles are smooth as and the game performs a lot lot better.

If you can afford it I'd look into extra RAM for your PC. Otherwise you are goin to have to turn off graphics options.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
RAM is the biggest chokepoint in a computer these days, and the cheapest to upgrade, however from the sound of it you need to sacrifice some prettiness for functionality.

Jewellery on ships makes the game run slower, lots of jewellery = lots of slowdown.

Zooming out to "icon view" on the main map will speed things up significantly.

Also be happy that your turns are only 30 seconds long, in my current A:CTP2 game the average turn takes 5 minutes or longer for the computer to process

Edit: P.S.: Celeron = not suitable for gaming, IF your motherboard supports it, upgrading to a "real" Pentium 4 CPU will help, some can be had for under $100.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have a laptop with a celeron M360 its fine for all games , much quicker than my 1.6 pentium 4 its rubbish . The graphics card isnt great though ive found that Gal Civ 2 works just fine . The main thing with this game in my opinion is the memory , i started with 256mb and despite starting great and going hundreds of turns quickly eventually it slows upgrading to 1gig ddram made a huge boost in performance .Best to get some memory . Save upgrading anything else till windows vista and gal civ3 .
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Under game opotions change tactical view zoom option lower to something like 10. That will keep the ships as icons unless you zoom really in.

What version aere you playing at?

1.1 really fixed a lot of the performance options especially for larger maps and teh 1.12.009 Beta does a much better job at ship and fleet memory management.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also 1 G memory is most effective for windows and my new system really uses up to 2 Meg . Galciv2 trys to use at least 712 MB Ram - 1.5 Meg Ram so if youu don't have that your hard drive swap file is getting a workout.

Disk defreag and a proper swap file size is essential.

Turn off Antialiasing and make sure you have teh latest video drivers.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Funny, but I get better frame rates with AAx4 than with x2 or none.

And I agree, ram is top of the list to upgrade. If you have under 2GB you will go into swap file rather quickly on the huge and gigantic maps. I usually play huge maps, and the ram usage normally gets to around 1.6GB.