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1.6 beta 3 now available on SDC

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1.6 beta 3 now available on SDC

from GalCiv2 Forums

1.6 Beta 3 will show up if you have pre-release versions checked on SDC.  Its version number is 1.59[b].095 in SDC but it will show 1.6 Beta 3 in the title menu. If you are getting the error message when trying to start a metaverse game that your game will be invalid, you don't have the correct version.   

1.6 Beta 3 is mostly data changes and AI tweaks. 

+ Pirates event less common, somewhat less lethal

+ AI deals with Disease event better

+ Various AI tweaks

+ 3 new maps

+ Extreme Colonization more expensive

+ Visual updates to some planetary improvements

+ AI more focused on what it builds on planets (long story)

+ Some additional dialog (but no new trees) for computer players

+ AI tweaks to tech tree

+ Fixed a minor bug with the money popup in the tradewnd if you were in debt. 

+ Fixed bug where the influence and morale bonuses did not show up correctly on the summary screen (from the planet screen) if there was a influence or morale bonus (respectively) on that tile.

We're still working on some optimizations and other fixes.  There's a few wrinkles to iron out with the new minimap and line graph code but after that I should be able to work on adding some new features.

Also available today is a new optional module for pre-generated height maps, which is about 250 MB (before compression).  If you turn down the randomness of the heightmaps, the game will use the pre-generated ones more often.  This should mean a decrease in RAM usage, quicker loading times, and increased performance.  Note that these are available for people who do not have Dark Avatar yet as well, with the same benefits.

If you haven't updated from 1.50x3 before now, this would be a good time to do it since you can get it from SDC now.  I have been taking a lot of care to make these betas stable.  If you are worried about trying a beta, you can archive your current version of GalCiv2/DarkAvatar from the File->Archive menu in SDC so that you can un-install and restore 1.50x3 if you find that you need to.  If you have Windows Vista, the beta will be particularly beneficial to you as 1.6 beta 2 resolved the slowdown issue when scrolling or panning.  (Windows XP users should also see better performance, but it was REALLY noticeable on Vista.)

Update:

GalCiv2: Dread Lords and Dark Avatar will both attempt to find pre-generated heightmaps for a given class (and type) of planet.  If it can't find one, then it will generate one randomly.  So just by downloading the heightmaps module, you will be reducing load time and the amount of memory used because the game will not have to randomly generate as many maps. The Planet Surface variety slider on the Video Tab of the Options Menu will further reduce the number of heightmaps that are used.  If it is at 100%, it randomly chooses between all the heightmaps available for that class and type.  If it is at 50%, it will only choose among the first half of the heightmaps available for that class and type.  So you may find that just downloading the heightmaps module is enough, but if you're still having memory issues on gigantic galaxies, try turning down the Planet Surface variety.

 

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Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

the colony ship has only 250m colonists capacity
even if I create a custom ship its the same

This appears to be one of the new tweaks Brad made for 1.6; colony modules have had their max capacity halved.


Interesting. Looks like a planet within 2 squares of the homeworld is more valuable now.

It takes zero movement to travel between two planets within two squares of each other, since you can manipulate launch direction. Thus, after you colonize such a planet, you can have your next colony ship make 9 trips back and forth between your homeworld and the new colony to load it up to something like 2349 M or 2499 M people (usually the planet is a class 4 and will not grow once population is 2500+), then all subsequent colony ships can load people off the colony (until your last early-game colony ship, at which point you shift most of the people back to the homeworld to avoid being hurt by the class 4 limit), all at zero movement cost. This nearly doubles your very early game population growth rate... now it looks like the comparative advantage offered by this tactic is larger.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just curious, but when you archive the program, where is it stored?
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Just curious, but when you archive the program, where is it stored?

The default is a backup folder in the folder where Stardock Central is installed, e.g.

C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\Backup

but you can change the location in the Advanced Settings.

Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
See the picture in reply #15 above.
Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have "Show Pre-Release Versions" checked on SDC, but it only shows version 1.59.080 with no new versions (i.e. 1.59[b].095) as available. I have also had problems with SDC being unable to connect to the US-1 server, so I switched to US-2. I know that the two previous 1.6 betas were available as a separate zip download. Is there a similar option for beta three?
Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have "Show Pre-Release Versions" checked on SDC, but it only shows version 1.59.080 with no new versions (i.e. 1.59[b].095) as available.


Hit the Refresh XML button in the internet section of SDC's settings. That should jog it into seeing the new update.
Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I might as well put give a bug I found here.

The blue rectangle on the minimap showing the area you are found in is quite thin and almost invisible. This follows the trend already described with the star and planet icons.

Also in the minimaps in the Ship Governorn wierd white lines show up crossing the whole map. I didn't take screeshot, I might do that later.

Thank you for this update, it runs much faster with less stuttering.

I also had a crash, but I was doing too many things at once so I don' know how to reproduce it, and I reloaded the game without saving the debug.err
Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I have "Show Pre-Release Versions" checked on SDC, but it only shows version 1.59.080 with no new versions (i.e. 1.59[b].095) as available.


Hit the Refresh XML button in the internet section of SDC's settings. That should jog it into seeing the new update.







Thanks Kryo...Did the trick. I appreciate the assistance (as well as the quick reply).
Reply #35 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually, the planet surface variety slider is also in 1.5 of Dread Lords. I verified that this morning before I updated the post.

Thank-you Cari. I am still on 1.4x, so I guess I'll update and try out 1.5.

Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the game is unstable
every time I start a new game I use ctrl+N till I found a good position on the map
but after the patch it crashes very often when Im doing this
why stardock does not create a map creator/editor? would be much better
and please..
add a tick box to save the password in login window for metaverse
Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There was an instability using Control-N in a much earlier version as well.

I sure hope it has not resurfaced.
Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Am I a complete noob, or have all my savegames and design templates gone? The samegames don't really bother me, but since adding ship designs is so much more difficult in DA than DL I'd like to know how to get them back.
Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So you may find that just downloading the heightmaps module is enough, but if you're still having memory issues on gigantic galaxies, try turning down the Planet Surface variety.

Wow! Cari, but your not blowing smoke with this statement.

I just did an experiment in DL 1.5.
Gigantic Galaxy
Habitable Planets - Abundant
Number of Planets - Common
Number of Stars - abundant
Loose Clusters
Anolamies - Abundant

Setting the slider first to 100%, then 50%, then 10% - I start a new game and get to the planet screen. Then Control-N and get back to the planet screen, etc x9.

Check out these memory usage figures:

-100%-------50%------10%-
547,444 - 508,636 - 424,112
647,292 - 587,052 - 438,500
693,424 - 596,740 - 414,652
751,536 - 622,356 - 423,564
801,296 - 644,580 - 426,844
839,100 - 655,404 - 425,244
875,860 - 667,216 - 430,468
903,524 - 684,996 - 430,572
925,312 - 694,112 - 434,444
943,840 - 710,808 - 434,032

Clearly, using the Planet Surface Variety slider has a very dramatic effect on memory usage - especially when combined with many Control-N's.



@Smartie0 - try the slider at a lower value and see if you still get a lot of Control-N crashes.
Another thing is the star and nebula density. If they are set high they use a lot of memory as well. I have mine set to 1 nebula and 61 stars, and I very seldom crash. In fact, there is only one way for me to crash GalCiv - it is that predictable.

If it were a real bug in the game more people would be reporting it. If you post your debug.err info just after the crash it might help to find the problem.
Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top
Great to find a update for GalCiv2 (Dark Avatar).

Only one question, is there any new conflicts between the High Res. Def. Mod
and the new beta files?

Ok, maybe two questions, Are saved games ok with the new game files?

Thankx.

Reply #41 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Looking at your chart Moosetek, made me smile. Now I can run Windows Media Player, at the same time! No more having to use my iPod for music! *SWOON*
Reply #42 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Setting the slider first to 100%, then 50%, then 10% - I start a new game and get to the planet screen. Then Control-N and get back to the planet screen, etc x9.

Check out these memory usage figures:

-100%-------50%------10%-
547,444 - 508,636 - 424,112
647,292 - 587,052 - 438,500
693,424 - 596,740 - 414,652
751,536 - 622,356 - 423,564
801,296 - 644,580 - 426,844
839,100 - 655,404 - 425,244
875,860 - 667,216 - 430,468
903,524 - 684,996 - 430,572
925,312 - 694,112 - 434,444
943,840 - 710,808 - 434,032

Clearly, using the Planet Surface Variety slider has a very dramatic effect on memory usage - especially when combined with many Control-N's.


I can understand that a greater variety uses more memory. But if starting new games with Ctrl+N several times in a row causes the momory consumption to rise, isn't that a clear sign of a memory leak?
Then again, no idea how you measuered it. For example Windows' task manager is extremely inaccurate. The memory consumption it lists includes unused pages the OS didn't reclaim for other tasks yet.
Reply #43 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It was the GalCiv2 process in TM on a second monitor.

And whether it is showing an inaccuracy with unreclaimed pages or not, the initial loading of the game shows a pretty big difference in memory usage.
123MB is close to a 25% difference.

I'll probably try a few games with the different slider percentages to see if the memory usage late in the game are proportional to the Control-N test.


I'll let CariElf and Frogboy determine if they have a memory leak. At the very least, saving and loading the game again should clear it up once the 'right' planet was found.
Reply #44 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have "Show Pre-Release Versions" checked on SDC, but it only shows version 1.59.080 with no new versions (i.e. 1.59[b].095) as available.


Hit the Refresh XML button in the internet section of SDC's settings. That should jog it into seeing the new update.



I am having the same problem. I have 'show pre-release versions' box ticked and have refreshed the XML buttom in the SDC's setting. But I still only have 1.59.81 showing up in the SDC.

I am in the UK by the way.

PS Any chance of having the files downloadable off a link like the last two versions please?
Reply #45 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I'll have to ask Cari about the Cltrl-N and planet variance causing more mmeory to be use dover time. To me, it looks like it's not clearing out the old planet textures.

Reply #46 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I had saved one of the games with the slider set to 100%, and I think it was the 8th or 9th Control-n so it was up around 1GB on mem usage.
When I went back in to play the game the memory for that game was back to normal levels. After snagging 9 planets it was around 750MB.
Reply #47 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
same as others - can't access 1.6b3 on SDC??
Reply #48 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not sure what happened, but 1.6 b3 incresed the framerates I was getting compared to 1.6 b2 and earlier by a appreciable amount. I have an older vid card - now I can actually zoon in and not have to play the game as much on Tactical level!

Good job!

And thanks for fixing the invisible ship bug! Can't wait for the 1.6 final.

EDIT: Using Cntrl-N still can result in the reset the intelligence level of the aI from what the player originally set it as.
Reply #49 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
[quote]

I have "Show Pre-Release Versions" checked on SDC, but it only shows version 1.59.080 with no new versions (i.e. 1.59[b].095) as available.


Hit the Refresh XML button in the internet section of SDC's settings. That should jog it into seeing the new update.



I am having the same problem. I have 'show pre-release versions' box ticked and have refreshed the XML buttom in the SDC's setting. But I still only have 1.59.81 showing up in the SDC.


*I have now fixed the problem. I uninstalled the Stardock Central program, cleaned out the registry (with a registry cleaner I am not that brave), downloaded the SDC software straight fron the web, reinstalled (it automatically pick up the updated HML file and downloaded them), reregistered my games and bobs your granny I can now download 1.59[b.95 etc!

Reply #50 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
same as others - can't access 1.6b3 on SDC??


if you have 1.59[b].095 on sdc it is 1.6 Beta 3