Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

What works

Everything

What does not

Everything works.

Workarounds

What was not tested

I haven't checked battles yet but so far everything works.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

You will need to adjust resolution in the game as every time you start the game you get several error messages about the wrong desktop resolution and needing to update your video driver even though I am running the latest NIVIDIA driver as of 2 days ago. Just click through those as they are false errors. Just install Steam and nothing else. Steam will install DX9 and whatever the game needs.I had to fix my desktop resolution after running the game but only that one time. Once you set the resolution in the game then you only need to fix your desktop resolution that first time and never again. If you exit the game to restart it then you need to exit and restart steam or you get sever sound distortion every time!

1.) When does this happen:

This error is thrown when the game used up all the allocated memory (RAM) and there is no more left to complete the game saving process, and results in a crash and possibly corrupted save games.

2.) Why does this happen:

It usually happens on immense galaxies with abundant planets and many races and units on the map at the same time.

Those conditions result in a huge amount of RAM being used. This game is a 32bit game, which means that it can only access a maximum of 2Gb RAM. (So no, this error is not caused by WINE)

3.) How can this be fixed / worked around:

Luckily, there are tools out there to trick 32bit applications into using 4Gb RAM (which is the maximum amount of RAM that a 32bit system can use as a whole). Even more fortunate is the fact that this game works perfectly with this "patch".

The tool can be downloaded here

Just run "wine 4gb_patch.exe {path_to_game_exe}" and that's it. The tool will automatically back up the original executable so there's no need to do that manually.

After that's done (it should be done in an instant) you can run the game just like you normally would.

4.) Possible issues:

If your system has less or exactly 4Gb RAM and your game will somehow use all of them, this might cause problems for your other applications and possibly even for your operating system, because there may not be any more RAM free for anything on your machine.

I'm not sure how Linux (or Mac) reacts when all RAM is used up, but I'd recommend closing all non-essential applications while playing this game with this path, because this game eats through your RAM like there's no tomorrow when you play on big maps.

If your system has more than 4Gb RAM then there shouldn't be any issue at all.