Civ IV Demo Out [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

mechamac

Sep 25, 2006, 04:10 PM

Niiiice.

http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19303

mduser63

Sep 25, 2006, 05:24 PM

I was thinking on my way home from work just now how I'd sort of like to spend some money I got for my birthday on Civ IV. I've never played any of the Civ games, so I had looked (earlier) for a demo to see if I like it and see how well it will run on my computer. Got home to see that a demo was released today. Downloading now...

Mackilroy

Sep 25, 2006, 07:27 PM

I already have the full game, so no demo for me! :)

The Senator

Sep 25, 2006, 08:33 PM

how does it run???

Mackilroy

Sep 25, 2006, 08:53 PM

It runs smoothly. After I downloaded the update it ran better, so definitely grab that if you want the game. Plus, it looks very nice and plays very nicely. :)

Spaceman Spiff

Sep 25, 2006, 08:54 PM

8 hours until the download's done... Lot of downloaders, I guess.

zwida

Sep 25, 2006, 08:59 PM

Boy... I've tried hard to avoid this one for all kinds of reasons, but it looks too good to pass on.

Beautiful graphics, nice looking revisions...

DAMN.:D

QCassidy352

Sep 25, 2006, 09:08 PM

it's a great game but runs pretty badly on a macbook. I want a new imac...

Mr. Anderson

Sep 25, 2006, 09:09 PM

Best waste of time out there :D

Bought the game when it came out - lots of fun?

D

Mackilroy

Sep 25, 2006, 09:13 PM

it's a great game but runs pretty badly on a macbook. I want a new imac...

Did you grab the update?

plinden

Sep 25, 2006, 10:25 PM

8 hours until the download's done... Lot of downloaders, I guess.
Are you not torrenting it? 45 minutes till it's done, started five minutes ago

quigleybc

Sep 26, 2006, 03:33 PM

Hasn't this game been out for a little while now? or is it new ?

Mackilroy

Sep 26, 2006, 04:16 PM

Hasn't this game been out for a little while now? or is it new ?

It's been out for months on the PC side, maybe a month or so for Macs.

thegreatluke

Sep 26, 2006, 04:29 PM

It's been out for months on the PC side, maybe a month or so for Macs.
Eleven months for PC, four for Macs. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_IV) :)

apfhex

Sep 26, 2006, 04:34 PM

Don't play it! You'll sit down and then 20 hours later at 6am you'll feel horrible. :( ;) :o :p

Anyway, Civ IV is a lot better than Civ III, but still.

(when I played the full PC version) I was almost able to build nukes in the 14th century though.... those turns just take so long at that point.

Mackilroy

Sep 26, 2006, 11:19 PM

Eleven months for PC, four for Macs. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_IV) :)

Thanks. :)

Macnoviz

Sep 27, 2006, 06:46 AM

Are you not torrenting it? 45 minutes till it's done, started five minutes ago

Yay, instead of 8 hours only 8 days with the torrent :D

QCassidy352

Sep 27, 2006, 07:11 AM

Did you grab the update?

the 1.61A patch? That's what I have. It brings the game from "unplayable" to "sluggish." If there's a newer patch, point me towards it!!

SpankyPenzaanz

Sep 27, 2006, 09:57 PM

is it still turnbased?

Mackeyser

Sep 27, 2006, 10:10 PM

I really like that I can run it at full rez (2560x1920). The characters are IMMENSE.

I'm still struggling with the interface a bit. I'm so used to micromanaging the cities, that I have preferences on what improvements are made. In this case, it seems like some of Alpha Centauri was brought into the mix regarding worker automation.

Still, getting to see the wake of boats moving, the waves on the shore, the animations all look so sweet.

Glad the demo was only a 100 turns.

I forgot how addictive that game is. I could say "one more turn" until I passed out.

Mackilroy

Sep 27, 2006, 10:24 PM

the 1.61A patch? That's what I have. It brings the game from "unplayable" to "sluggish." If there's a newer patch, point me towards it!!

Funny... mine went from 'sluggish' to 'decent' and I have a quarter of the RAM you do.

FelixGV

Sep 27, 2006, 10:24 PM

I've played a couple of games on the PC version. It is as fun as it is addictive... and that means A LOT. It is purposefully uninstalled now, for the sake of passing all my courses. Check out the Addiction Trailer:

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/620/620513/vids_1.html

It's not that far fetched, and pretty funny too :D .

fusionstudios

Sep 28, 2006, 11:22 PM

is it still turnbased?

Of course. Why would they want to change that aspect of the game?

ColoJohnBoy

Sep 28, 2006, 11:30 PM

Has anyone tried this on any Mac with less than the recommended specs? Downloading now to give it a shot, but wondering what I can expect.

Simon R.

Sep 30, 2006, 04:18 PM

I just installed this demo on my Mac Pro. But the graphics is totally corrupted. The intro, menus, and the characters in the game work fine, but the terrain is totally screwed up and mainly black with a few coloured dots here and there. Anyone got an idea what could be up?

cazlar

Sep 30, 2006, 04:46 PM

Has anyone tried this on any Mac with less than the recommended specs? Downloading now to give it a shot, but wondering what I can expect.
I've played the full game on a 1Ghz 12" PB, so way under spec. Definitely not snappy, and slows down a lot towards the endgame, but if you turn all the graphics options off and keep the map size to small or tiny, it is playable (at least for me).

Macnoviz

Sep 30, 2006, 05:12 PM

Has anyone tried this on any Mac with less than the recommended specs? Downloading now to give it a shot, but wondering what I can expect.

I tried it on a Macbook, and the entire surface was black with streaks of colour, unless you zoom out to the entire region. So, not playable

Mackilroy

Sep 30, 2006, 05:35 PM

I tried it on a Macbook, and the entire surface was black with streaks of colour, unless you zoom out to the entire region. So, not playable

Um… that's in your experience. I play it on a MacBook – smoothly, and with no streaks of color. So yes, playable, but YMMV.

zwida

Sep 30, 2006, 06:12 PM

Don't play it! You'll sit down and then 20 hours later at 6am you'll feel horrible. :( ;) :o :p
You feel even worse when you're wife walks into your office and reminds you that you 1) have to make breakfast for the kids and 2) have to get ready for work.

Reminds me of that feeling in college when you realize that you have an exam in a few hours that you completely forgot about.

Nausea, shame, self hate, and (in this case) exhaustion.

lewion

Oct 1, 2006, 01:46 PM

Um… that's in your experience. I play it on a MacBook – smoothly, and with no streaks of color. So yes, playable, but YMMV.

Also in my experience... tell me, do you have the full version? and at what settings do you play? i have a MacBook with 1gig of ram and you only have 512, so it is not notmal that you can play and i can't....

Also, do you have 1.4.8??? update osx???

Mackilroy

Oct 1, 2006, 02:07 PM

Also in my experience... tell me, do you have the full version? and at what settings do you play? i have a MacBook with 1gig of ram and you only have 512, so it is not notmal that you can play and i can't....

Also, do you have 1.4.8??? update osx???

Yes, I have the full version of Civilization IV. I was originally playing in 10.4.7, but yes, now I have 10.4.8. As for my settings…

Screen Resolution: 1280x800
Graphics: Low
Render Quality: Low
Globe: Low

Single unit graphics, Animations Frozen, Effects disabled, Globe view buildings disabled, Full Screen mode, and Low Resolution Textures were all checked.

QCassidy352

Oct 1, 2006, 03:03 PM

I have the same settings but 1024x768 resolution which should produce better performance. I also have 1.5 GB more RAM than you do.

And game performance is decidely mediocre. I mean, it's quite playable, but the system takes a second to be ready for the next action after each unit move, entering cities has a second or two delay, switching between units is laggy...

Maybe we just have different standards?

Yes, I have the full version of Civilization IV. I was originally playing in 10.4.7, but yes, now I have 10.4.8. As for my settings…

Screen Resolution: 1280x800
Graphics: Low
Render Quality: Low
Globe: Low

Single unit graphics, Animations Frozen, Effects disabled, Globe view buildings disabled, Full Screen mode, and Low Resolution Textures were all checked.

Mackilroy

Oct 2, 2006, 12:47 AM

lewion

Oct 2, 2006, 01:45 AM

Hmm. That's really odd… I have much less lag than you. :confused:

Maybe it's because you have paired ram... could make a difference...

Anyway, could u do something for me?

Download Minions Of Mirth universal binary, update, install, do everything.

Then play it and tell me if you have lag....

Settings low.

QCassidy352

Oct 2, 2006, 06:04 AM

Maybe it's because you have paired ram... could make a difference...

I have 2 GB of paired RAM.

Mackilroy

Oct 2, 2006, 07:40 AM

sokrates

Oct 2, 2006, 08:32 AM

hm strange, game starts, menus look fine, but ingame the map is black with yellow lines on it, no matter what resolution, I have the 24" Imac with gf7600 gt... strange...

Surf and Turf

Oct 2, 2006, 08:37 AM

whoops i meant that civ is a great platform game

sunfast

Oct 2, 2006, 08:49 AM

I've never played any Civ games so I might give this demo a try - see what all the fuss is about :)

Macnoviz

Oct 2, 2006, 09:44 AM

hm strange, game starts, menus look fine, but ingame the map is black with yellow lines on it, no matter what resolution, I have the 24" Imac with gf7600 gt... strange...

yep, that's what I had, too, on my Macbook.

If you zoom out to the max, you probably see the terrain

Mackilroy

Oct 2, 2006, 12:16 PM

Maybe it's because you have paired ram... could make a difference...

Anyway, could u do something for me?

Download Minions Of Mirth universal binary, update, install, do everything.

Then play it and tell me if you have lag....

Settings low.

I've done as you requested, lewion. For the first five seconds or so there was a little lag, but after that the game ran smoothly. I set it to low as you wanted (but I bumped up the resolution) and it originally had me set at high rather than low.

iKwick7

Oct 2, 2006, 01:42 PM

I have had no luck getting the demo to run- both on a 24" iMac and on a macbook. In both cases I get the black, fuzzy terrain but can see the units just fine. Is it just the demo that is giving this problem and not the full game?

Mackilroy

Oct 2, 2006, 02:16 PM

iKwick7

Oct 3, 2006, 09:29 AM

I'm guessing that's what it is, as I have the full game and I've never had that problem.

Sounds good. I have civ 4 on the *gasp* pc but I would MUCH rather play it in os x- especially when I get the 24" imac at the end of this week. Pretty much the only computer game I play.

Has anyone confirmed if you can play online versus pc players???

gallagb

Oct 3, 2006, 12:50 PM

I've played the full game on a 1Ghz 12" PB, so way under spec. Definitely not snappy, and slows down a lot towards the endgame, but if you turn all the graphics options off and keep the map size to small or tiny, it is playable (at least for me).

ditto G4 1.33 ghz PB w/ 1.25 RAM
half way through the tutorial
and it seems to be fine
sluggish
but fine
might go out & purchase the 'real deal' just for kicks
b/c it'll also work on my intel fast machine when/if i buy one

Mackilroy

Oct 3, 2006, 04:22 PM

Sounds good. I have civ 4 on the *gasp* pc but I would MUCH rather play it in os x- especially when I get the 24" imac at the end of this week. Pretty much the only computer game I play.

Has anyone confirmed if you can play online versus pc players???

From the manual:

Multiplayer versus PCs
Note: The PC Version of Sid Meier's Civilization IV must be updated to Version 1.61 to be compatible with the Mac Version.

To play Sid Meier's Civilization IV Mac versus PCs via LAN play, simply set up the PC/Mac server as a LAN server, and then join through the LAN multiplayer option.

To play Sid Meier's Civilization IV Mac versus PC's over the Internet, you must use a direct IP connection. To join a multiplayer game via direct IP, first select Multiplayer in the main menu, then select Direct Connection. You must then type in the IP address of the computer that is hosting the game. This computer may be a Mac or a PC.

To host a Direct IP game, the process is similar. First select Multiplayer in the main menu, then select Direct Connection, and then Create. You will then be presented with the standard multiplayer game setup screen in which you can configure the game server settings. Once you start the game, others may join it by following the steps in the prior paragraph. Mac or PC users may join this game.

NOTE: If you are trying to join a PC game through Direct IP over the Internet, the PC server MUST be set up as a DIRECT IP Server and NOT an INTERNET Server. The Mac version of the game does not use GameSpy for Internet play and therefore cannot join GameSpy games.

nbs2

Oct 3, 2006, 04:35 PM

I just tried it out over the weekend on a friend's PC. It's really depressing that he can run it just fine (4 or 5 year old no-name fairly basic lappy) and according to the official specs, I shouldn't even think about running it on my PBG4/1.25/512. Maybe I should give the trial a shot anyway...it is free. :o Funny thing is, I would have bought sight unseen if not for the (IMO for a strategy) absurdly demanding requirements.:mad:

iKwick7

Oct 4, 2006, 01:09 PM

From the manual:

Fantastic, thanks! Looks like I will be picking this up ASAP (got my 24" today) and I will be able to play online versus my pc friends. :)

lewion

Oct 5, 2006, 03:13 PM

I've done as you requested, lewion. For the first five seconds or so there was a little lag, but after that the game ran smoothly. I set it to low as you wanted (but I bumped up the resolution) and it originally had me set at high rather than low.

Why thank you.
Anyway, i still have a little lag sometimes though, but when i'm like playing for 5 minutes all the lag is gone and i play at high now highest screen...
Low gives me more lag than high ??? what the :) but ty for testing :)

zwida

Oct 6, 2006, 01:09 AM

Damn. I just ordered it from Amazon and should have it by Monday. I'd done a good job avoiding it until the demo came out and I got to play around in it a bit.

I kinda feel like an addict about to take another drink after being dry.

Ah well, might as well raise the glass.