Game Effects Freeze (All Stardock/Community Suggestions Followed)

from GalCiv3 Forums

I have been playing since launch. I get varying amounts of time playing the game before the game freezes and/or crashes on me. I have followed all specifications from Stardock and this wonderful community. I only played on Small to Tiny maps, stopped using custom ships, shut off my processor auto-cooling (HP CoolSense), forcibly updated my driver because it is an HP Laptop and HP did not have an update available for the Intel 4600 graphics card (HP Envy), increased my virtual RAM to 14000 MB, and have been generally trying to get this game working.

I opted in to every test patch that came out and have been very patient. I am posting here because I see other issues of a similar nature. I have the reporting tool online, shut off the Steam overlay, and did just about everything else available to me besides purchasing a bigger, faster, computer or simply uninstall the game and stop playing it for a few months. I want to point out, I love Stardock and I play a ton of their games, they are great developers and truly tied into the products they put out. 

My computer specs are as follows:

  • Windows 8.1 (64 bit)
  • Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40 Ghz
  • 8 GB of Installed Memory (RAM)
  • Intel 4600 On board Chipset

I am concerned because some of the suggestions for playing this game are "Use a tiny or small map". I did not pay $30.00-$50.00 (or whatever Steam charged me) so I could play a very small space 4x game. I purchased this game to use all of its features. I know Stardock is working hard to fix these issues, but until they do I will be uninstalling the game and the DLC I purchased because it is unplayable in this condition and requires far too much work for something that is supposed to be entertainment. 

I am envious of everyone playing large map games and am saddened by this development. I love GalCiv and only hope it will be resolved sometime soon. 

Thank you for your time and see you a few months, maybe the game will be more playable at that time. 

As I said, this post was created to just alert the Devs that the problem continues to persist after every improvement made. 

It is also to thank the Devs and the Community for all your help. I really appreciated it. 

 

 

 

 

9,863 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thank you for taking the time to post, we greatly appreciate your kind words and your feedback. We are discussing a possible resolve to increase performance on laptops with Intel video cards. At this time we want to make sure that we choose the appropriate resolution to this and in the end make the game more enjoyable.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I appreciate your response and will await that day. Keep up the good work! Love your games. :-)

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It is now September 14, 2015. Nothing has been done to resolve this issue. Any updates?

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

i have a very similar laptop to yours but an Intel 4000.  I too was limited to tiny & small back on 1.0; med maps would almost always crash around 100 turns. Things have improved greatly (at least for me) with subsequent releases.  One thing that made a big difference was video drivers.  I had the most recent from Lenovo but i could see Intel had newer ones.  When i tried to install using the update utility it told me SORRY you have custom drivers from Lenovo and abort.  However i was able to download new ones from intels site and istall manually.  It mad a difference so you might want to give it a try

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Have you tried a win10 update?  maybe something will jostle back where it belongs & it's still free

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Tetrasodium, reply 5

Have you tried a win10 update? maybe something will jostle back where it belongs & it's still free
End of Tetrasodium's quote

Yes Call me nuts but i upgraded to W10 when if first came out.  Absolutely no problems at all.

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I updated to Win10 too. I will check into the Intel update. I appreciate the help. I know that Stardock was working with Intel to fix the Video Memory issue. Let's see if I can actually get this game working now. 

Thank you.

 

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Talonspyre, reply 7

Thank you.


End of Talonspyre's quote

No problem.  I also increased my page file to like 16mb (even thugh i only have 5Mb ram),  seemed to help.  I had forgotten about it, think i'll try lowering it and see what happens

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Just remembered another thing that might help.  My I 4000 sys most often crashed when it was zoomed in on the map.  A very easy mod is to limit the zoom  so the map only shows the icons and not the detailed graphics.   Another post has the how,

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well, played with settings and upgraded my Intel drivers. Still not a noticeable change. Hopefully Stardock will work this out with Intel. The game again goes on the shelf. 

 

Maybe someday I will be able to play the game.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

can you give more info on when/where/what you were doing when it crashed.    ie. wher you in diplo screen, viewing man map, in shipp desigher?  Can you pop out while in game and report memory/ cpu usage.   I know how frustrating this is . I know it not mush fun on tine/small but can you play them without a crash?

 

Have you submitted a ticket and included the support tool info and save game?  It can be VERY helpfull

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It was while I was viewing the map. It usually is, I move around the map and then screen freezes, but I can still toggle buttons in the background. I can even advance the turn. Mouse cursor does not show up so I have to guess.  Ship designer can crash for its own reasons so I am playing completely stock with all DLC. 

I have submitted a ticket. I may need to start submitting more. :-)


 

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Talonspyre, reply 12

It usually is, I move around the map and then screen freezes
End of Talonspyre's quote

I had this a lot if i was zoomed in,  stopped when i put the anti zoom mod in.  Never had it crash in ship designer except back in beta.

Seriously, if you haven't done a recent ticket you should.  Many times it helped me.  Be sure to included the support tool info and save game

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hey Talonspyre,

Sorry to hear you're still having some trouble! By any chance, are you currently updated to patch 1.3? We've seen some reports of performance increases on Intel cards after updating.

If you are fully up to date, we've also seen some cases where the freezing experienced was linked to the Intel driver configuration for that system.

Assuming your Intel driver is fully up to date, within your Intel video driver utility, change all the relevant performance settings from 'Use App Settings to 'Use Driver Settings'.

Additionally, you also want to make sure any applicable settings in the driver are set to 'Maximum Performance' where that option is available.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-022130.htm

If you're still seeing that issue, I would like you to follow a0152570's recommendation and put in a ticket so we can gather some updated information about that issue.

Please let me know if you have any questions/concerns.

Thanks!