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macdummy · Jun 22, 2006, 11:03 AM

are there any people that have received their pre-order copies of civ4? i know it's coming out any day now and i can't wait.

Helmling · Jun 25, 2006, 09:42 AM

I just want to know if it would run on a Macbook.

AppleCello · Jun 25, 2006, 01:14 PM

The guy writing on MacWorld.com/news says that it runs reasonably well on a 1.8Ghz Macbook with 512 of ram.

Helmling · Jun 25, 2006, 01:39 PM

Yeah, I read that at CivFanatics. However, he also said he didn't put in a lot of time with it and we have no idea what size maps he was running. I play on huge with maxed-out players. I do not, though, care if I have to turn the graphics all the way down--they look good even at min. I'm thinking a MacBook with a good amount of RAM will be up to the task.

AppleCello · Jun 25, 2006, 05:12 PM

how are you buying your copies of Civ IV ? Im planning on going to the Apple Store to pick it up. Whenever it gets there... Are you guys going through amazon or somewhere else?

macdummy · 03:11 PM

i know i'm being very impatient here, but have there been any civ4 sightings at any retail stores? i live in the bay area california, i've called most apple stores and compusas with no luck.

on the civfanatics.com forums there are people that have already received their copies! i'm getting crazy right now, i really want to play this game!

AppleCello · Jun 30, 2006, 02:04 PM

my local compUSA supposedly has them, I am goign to stop by in an hour or 2 and try to grab one. Will let you know. no luck with the 2 local apple stores, btw.

macdummy · Jun 30, 2006, 08:09 PM

i have it!!! i just picked it up at a local apple store (san jose california) but i can't play it until later tonight when i get home! i can't wait and i'll write a little review as soon as i can.

macdummy · 01:01 PM

OK so i've been playing civ4 all night....i had to get up early and get a lot of stuff done but i think i might have went to sleep at 5am...

anyway, the game is great. it took a little while to get used to the new interface but it's rockin. the game runs solid on my system with all settings on high, dual 2.5 w/2 gigs of RAM and 256 nvidia GT graphics card. i'm only in the classical age and playing on a large sized map, but so far so good..we shall see how it performs when all the civs are in the modern age with many more cities and units.

so civ does it again, i am already addicted to this new one but figured that would be the case.

Helmling · Jul 1, 2006, 03:31 PM

it's a dual with 2.5 and a 256 card...I think it'll run just fine. If not, then the rest of us are really screwed.

Rev-O · Jul 1, 2006, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by macdummy

OK so i've been playing civ4 all night....i had to get up early and get a lot of stuff done but i think i might have went to sleep at 5am...

anyway, the game is great. it took a little while to get used to the new interface but it's rockin. the game runs solid on my system with all settings on high, dual 2.5 w/2 gigs of RAM and 256 nvidia GT graphics card. i'm only in the classical age and playing on a large sized map, but so far so good..we shall see how it performs when all the civs are in the modern age with many more cities and units.

so civ does it again, i am already addicted to this new one but figured that would be the case.

What resolution are you running it at? I have a 2x2GHz G5 with a 6800 Ultra and 3.5 gb ram pushing a 30" display. I plan on getting Civ 4 today or tomorrow!

macdummy · Jul 1, 2006, 08:17 PM

hi, i have a 20" cinema display and am running the graphics settings at the highest native resoultion of 1680 x 1050. can't wait to get home and continue playing, have fun when you get your copy!

macdummy · Jul 1, 2006, 08:24 PM

btw, the macbook actually runs civ4 pretty decently. a good friend of mine has a stock coreduo 2.0 white macbook and i let him install the game and try it out because i was curious to see how good it would run.

granted he hasn't made too much progress from the beginning of the game, but the game itself is most definitely playable although slightly choppy when navigating around the game map. i imagine that towards the end of a civ game when there are a multitude of cities and units the macbook has the potential to crawl, but i can't confirm that yet.

i'm sure maxing out at 2 gigs of RAM will certainly help, my friend still has only the stock 512 pair but it is still decent.

Helmling · Jul 2, 2006, 12:50 AM

The difference between early and late game performance from Civ 4 can be dramatic. I'd played Civ4 on a laptop with integrated graphics a few months ago. It was fine early on, but became unplayable in the late game.

I really wish we could get some definitive answer on this playability question--one covering the entire game experience.

iamnotmad · Jul 3, 2006, 08:47 AM

Will CivIV run on a g4 at all? I have an upgraded quicksilver - its a dual 1.8 G4 with 1.5GB ram and 256MB radeon 9800. If anyone has a similar config, I'd love to know how it runs. But more importantly, will it even run if not a G5 or Intel (as in the sys req's)
Thanks!

macdummy · Jul 3, 2006, 02:24 PM

here's another little update for those interested:

i've hit the modern era, and the game is starting to crawl a bit! i am playing on a large sized map versus 7 other civs, but there is a decent lag when 'waiting for the other civilizations' to take their turns. i'm curious to try out the peecee version of this game. there are little quirks that bug me like experiencing a 'mini-lag' when selecting different units.

overall it's still very playable, but wow, this game sure is a resource hog. i also took the game off of full-screen mode because i wanted to multi-task and the max resolution in windowed mode is 1440x900. what was interesting was when i took a quick peek at activity monitor. with civ4 running, my processsors are basically maxed out at 180% CPU usage and nearly 400 mb of RAM.

i'm praying that future updates will improve performance.

Boochie · Jul 3, 2006, 04:12 PM

For kicks I did a Google search to find the system requirements for Civilization II, which is what, 6-7 years old now? It required a PowerPC, a CD-ROM drive, 10 MB of RAM available, and system 7.5.3 or better. Oh, how times change! Back when I was in grad school in the early 90s we played the original Civ on Mac II machines, with 25 MHz 68030 CPUs and a pittance of RAM.

Things have gotten out of control.

Boochie · Jul 4, 2006, 09:40 AM

I bought Civ4 yesterday at the Apple Store. The graphics are very nice to look at, but they're a bit on the choppy side on my dual 2.0 GHz G5 with 2 GB RAM and stock Radeon 9600 graphics card at 1680x1050. It improves somewhat if I drop the resolution down to something lower, though it doesn't look as smooth on my 20" LCD display.

The game itself is pretty cool, with many changes to the gameplay itself, but the resource demands are absurd for a turn-based game such as this. I can't believe that the game engine itself needs a pair of 2 GHz G5s to do its thing.

DoctorGonzo · Jul 4, 2006, 11:00 AM

Got it yesterday (only $51 and some change from GoGamer.com w/2 Day FedEx shipping) and it's unbelievable.

It's smooth as butter on my 20" iMac Core Duo even in the early 20th Century at 1680x1050 with detail maxed out. To me, Civ 3 was simply a slight bugfix and somewhat of a downgrade from Civ 2, but this is everything I hoped it would be and more.

If your system can handle it, you really need to buy this game. Excuse me while I go surrender more of my life to it.

Timetheus · Jul 5, 2006, 03:35 PM

I got mine today from Amazon. the game is smooth even at highest rez and detail on my MacBook Pro 1.83.

However, I experienced 3 consequtive kernal panics (only my 2nd bunch ever on this machine). I turned the settings all the way down and haven't had any issues since. I think it has to do with the anti-aliasing setting. On "4" the system crashed after 2-3 turns. on "2" it toke 15 or so, and with it off I haven't had any issues. I'll have to keep expeimenting, but I'm reasonably confident that that's the issue.

It could just be an issue in the Intel code, as you PowerPC users don't seem to be having any issues. Hopefully a future patch can resolve the issue (the anti-aliasing is hardly essential, but it's a nice touch). btw, I have 2GB of RAM and 10.4.7

Other than that, The interface takes some getting use to for Civ vets (I played Civ on a old 386, Civ II on an LC III - which was all sorts of fun on big maps... - and Civ III on my retired iMac). But I think once I get past the intial shock and tech issues It'll claim as much time as the previous installments.

Boochie · Jul 5, 2006, 04:25 PM

All incarnations of Civilization have been incredibly addictive, and I expect this one will be no different. When I was in school a friend's girlfriend got fed up with him because he spent so much time in the lab playing civilization (when he told her he had "work" to do). It was the tipping point that led to their eventual break-up.

AppleCello · Jul 6, 2006, 08:53 AM

I opened a support ticket with Aspyr for the same thing. THey seem to think it has to do with either the 10.4.7 upgrade (vid drivers) or the quicktime update. THese were all released after CIV IV went into final duplication so they will have to provide an update... most of the time it runs very smoothly though. Minor inconvenience for now.

I am running a 2.0 MBP with 1 gig ram, 10.4.7, etc

Originally Posted by Timetheus

I got mine today from Amazon. the game is smooth even at highest rez and detail on my MacBook Pro 1.83.

However, I experienced 3 consequtive kernal panics (only my 2nd bunch ever on this machine). I turned the settings all the way down and haven't had any issues since. I think it has to do with the anti-aliasing setting. On "4" the system crashed after 2-3 turns. on "2" it toke 15 or so, and with it off I haven't had any issues. I'll have to keep expeimenting, but I'm reasonably confident that that's the issue.

It could just be an issue in the Intel code, as you PowerPC users don't seem to be having any issues. Hopefully a future patch can resolve the issue (the anti-aliasing is hardly essential, but it's a nice touch). btw, I have 2GB of RAM and 10.4.7

Other than that, The interface takes some getting use to for Civ vets (I played Civ on a old 386, Civ II on an LC III - which was all sorts of fun on big maps... - and Civ III on my retired iMac). But I think once I get past the intial shock and tech issues It'll claim as much time as the previous installments.

Timetheus · Jul 6, 2006, 04:01 PM

Sounds good, hopefully we get an update soon - for now I'll just keep playing with the settings down. =)

wookitus · Jul 6, 2006, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by iamnotmad

Will CivIV run on a g4 at all? I have an upgraded quicksilver - its a dual 1.8 G4 with 1.5GB ram and 256MB radeon 9800. If anyone has a similar config, I'd love to know how it runs. But more importantly, will it even run if not a G5 or Intel (as in the sys req's)
Thanks!

I have a single processor G5 1.8ghz with the 9800 256mb SE card and it is frustratingly slow -- almost painful. I'd believe the minimum system requirements.

Rev-O · Jul 6, 2006, 06:52 PM

Very limited playing time on my 2x2GHz G5 with 3.5 gb ram, 256 mb 6800 Ultra. I've played briefly with it at 2560x1600 with graphics set on medium without issue... but I have yet to have multiple civs going on a big map in the later stages.
The game is a hoot. Wish I had more time to play it!

Rumor · Jul 6, 2006, 07:30 PM

I'm guessing my G4 400mhz won't cut it...

I am running Civ 3 quite well though, just go it the other day. Cool game.

Perhaps it's about time to build a windows box for gaming...

iRussel · Jul 7, 2006, 09:38 AM

Runs great on my machine. I'm a FPS kinda guy tho. I liked Warcraft II a lot but haven't played this kind of game since then. Not sure if I can get into it or not.