Gas-gauge for loading maps!

Please! (TotA)

from GalCiv2 Forums
Maybe it's just me, but I really don't like the lack of any sort of indication that the game's chugging along when it's loading or creating a new map. On Immense this can take several minutes (I've got a pretty good system, not terrific, but it *runs* things just fine!) A loading gas gauge along the bottom stripe (where it says "Loading") would be terrific. Or if the hint box would change every 30 seconds or so. ProcessXplorer constantly is thinking TotA has gone off the deep-end until the game finishes loading. Just a small request... :)
9,704 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
On my main machine it's not an issue (about 20 seconds for immense) but my laptop takes quite a while longer, even on small maps. More than once I thought it simply locked up under the stress.

So, yes, an indication of "I'm still alive" would be nice. Maybe a progress like in the Dominions map generator (who tells you at what step in the process it is).
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would love to see this feature as well, but if I'm not mistaken it would require an additional thread to do the loading asynchronously. That might not be all that simple for them to code in depending on how their loading system works now.

At any rate, it would be nice to have!
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ProcessXplorer constantly is thinking TotA has gone off the deep-end until the game finishes loading. Just a small request...
End of quote


Perhaps you chould exclude GalCiv2 from ProcessXplorer's... exploring?

I don't know what system specs you have, but mine are very average.
2.8GHz Pentium D, 3GB ram, Nvidia 6800GS... nothing special these days.
It might take a couple minutes to load a saved game, but it never takes that long for a new game.
10 seconds max. (DL 1.5, by the way - but it shouldn't make that much of a difference)

There are some things that might slow things down, such as a real-time virus scanner.

It is always a good idea to exclude the GalCiv2 folders from the real-time scanning engine (both in Program Files\... and in My Documents\...).
Many have reported performance gains when they excluded the GalCiv2 folders from real-time scanning.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
On my main machine it's not an issue (about 20 seconds for immense) but my laptop takes quite a while longer, even on small maps. More than once I thought it simply locked up under the stress.So, yes, an indication of "I'm still alive" would be nice. Maybe a progress like in the Dominions map generator (who tells you at what step in the process it is).
End of quote


The length of loading actually depends a lot on the complexity of your ship designs!

For a while I created absolutely ridiculously complex and pretty ship designs - then I noticed even when starting a new game, which would take half a second without custom designs, was now up to thirty seconds +.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ahhh... I've not bothered to put it on the exclude list because, well, I'm lazy & what little free time I do have I horde greedily, trying to eek out every last second of playing time. :) Seriously, I'll have to add that & see how it works. As much as I like ZoneAlarm, it is somewhat brain-dead when it comes to doing it's thing when I'm doing my thing. Only part of Norton that I liked was being able to have it automatically stop scanning when the CPU load got to a certain point, like, say, playing an intense game (I had a most horrible death in Oblivion once because of ZA decided then was as good as any to start scanning to "make-up" for a regularly scheduled scan that was missed. grrrrr....)

As far as ship designs slowing things down, I've noticed that it takes a second or two to bring up my custom ships in any window where's there's even a thumbnail. Gratifying to see my cool designs, but, yeah, I guess I kinda over-did some of them (my world-maker is something else - huge hull, max mini - including Shrinker - and as many colony modules as I could pack on there!) The rotating was a particularily bad idea for me - I've got my survey ships & scouts decked out with all sorts of cool "radar sweeps" & rotating gizmos. Sigh... I guess I should be grateful there's no blinking lights or such since I lavish those all over my ships too.

Finally, my systems about the same, a bit weak on the RAM (1.7G or something crazy like that - not sure what my buddy did with that.) Decent VDU but AGP & after shelling out $450 (on sale) for the miserable thing two years ago, now it's destined to be a paperweight what with PCIe running amok nowadays. Sigh... Still, the game plays reasonably well (music was stuttering last night, but I'll check again after I zap ZA from messing with it.) Turns take a couple of seconds each on immense maps, but I don't mind - time enough to take a sip of beer or wine or Coke & plot my next move! :)
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That World Builder reminded me of a "funny" incident I had when I first played the game & built it. I had a smaller planet (Class 6 or so) that had two really good manufacturing bonus tiles on it (+300% & +700%!), on which I built my manufacturing capital. Late game, found a big old radioactive planet & wanted to jump-start the colony, so I built one of these on that planet & just about broke the colony - launched the behemoth without thinking & sucked the colony dry! I didn't figure out how to shuttle population until a later game & reading the forums (couldn't figure it out on my own for some reason.) I don't remember exactly what happened to that colony as the game ended before the World Builder made it to its destination. Oh, well.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I also would possibly welcome an accelerator "device" to indicate what's really happening... after reading up some of the answers above i can't help notice how INCREDIBLY better systems most everyone here seems to have & enjoy!

I mean, get serious. I know my pseudo-PC is VERY slow and with the following;

--------------------------------------
...
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: ZYXPSILON
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Languages: French (Regional Setting: French)
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
System Model: MS-6528
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: **** Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1500MHz
Physical Memory: **** 512MB RAM
Page File: 336MB used, 1424MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: **** NVIDIA GeForce 6200
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6200
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0221&SUBSYS_02F1196E&REV_A1
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Samsung SyncMaster 750ST(T)
Monitor Max Resolution: 1280,1024
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9371
Driver Date: 10/22/2006 13:22:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes
---
Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using hardware vertex processing
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_NONMASKABLE
Debug Message: Attempting to create D3DDevice at resolution 1280 x 1024, Windowed: 0, Multisample: 1
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: *** HAL (hw vp): NVIDIA GeForce 6200 (!!Lights up, textures!!)
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 60
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: RGB in format 6:6:6, Masks reported as ff0000:ff00:ff
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete (Yup, ticking and running slooooowly!)
Debug Message: GalCiv2 is activated.
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
-----------------------------------------------

It IS to be expected. And, i'm dumb (or smart, btw) enough to still enjoy whatever GC2_DA can throw at me. Terrible slow-downs is one thing, TBS tactical gameplay another. Explore space, single-player. A bit less critical than Crysis and it's behemoth demands. Or even, Vista OS quality fancying.

There is, nevertheless, a bunch of good advice to optimize a few things written in previous posts; which i may even try to enhance the experience. TotA comin' right up is another good reason why i should take great care of some system settings until i finally get to buy a more recent & performing machine.

Although, Phoig's special world-maker-builder ship reminded me about a tricky little design i tackled up awhile ago.
The ever soooo gimmicky late-game spawning anomalies seeker i patched up just for kicks below....



Double Hyperwarps engines, plenty of defensive shieldings, a few gizmos to make it look X-Commy daring and fast. And as a bonus, THE textures. To me, it mattered much back then.

It's quite okay. I really don't mind the painstakingly weird wait(s).
After all, fun is what you make of it.
;)
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cool ship Zyxpsilon! I've gone so far as to shrink down that little shuttle-looking thing in the Terran "My Style" tab (I think...) & make little escape shuttles on my bigger ship, complete with a gantried mooring, little aerials, port/starboad lighting schemes, the whole 9-yards. Loads of fun to make. Spent most of one night doing nothing but designing ships (late in the game to have enough toys to play with.) Annoyingly for me, the next game, when I wanted to recylce the same basic design but fitted with more primitive techs, I couldn't (even though I'd saved them as templates), because I, like an idiot, saved them *with* the techs in place. Sigh... Learned my lesson & now I have a suite of ships sans anything (the so-called Mt series... :)

I had a squad of these little survey pinnaces as I called them that have something crazy like five stellar folders on them. Suckers moved like greased lightning whenever an anomaly spawned. Musta driven my allies crazy! Which reminds me, does anyone know if there's any benifit to equipping freighters with better engines? For making the initial route connect, sure, to cut down on travel time, but once the route's established, is there a speed factor involved for the freighter?