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Difference between revisions of "Sid Meier's Civilization III"

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
(Removed Gamespy key point since there's now an automatic warning.)
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|online play players  = 8
 
|online play players  = 8
 
|online play modes    = Versus
 
|online play modes    = Versus
|online play notes    = Online server browser no longer works in non-Steam versions. Steam version has been updated to fix this.<ref name="Steamworks"/><ref name="GameSpy"/>
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|online play notes    = Online server browser no longer works in non-Steam versions. Steam version has been updated to fix this.<ref name="Steamworks"/><ref>[http://2kgam.es/2KOnlineMigration 2K Online Server Migration from GameSpy Technology – 2K Support]</ref>
 
|asynchronous        = true
 
|asynchronous        = true
 
|asynchronous notes  = Possible option. Used by default.
 
|asynchronous notes  = Possible option. Used by default.

Revision as of 23:19, 15 April 2019

Sid Meier's Civilization III
Sid Meier's Civilization III cover
Developers
Firaxis Games
Mac OS (Classic) Westlake Interactive
macOS (OS X) Westlake Interactive
Publishers
2K Games
Mac OS Aspyr Media
macOS (OS X) Aspyr Media
Release dates
Windows October 30, 2001
Mac OS (Classic) October 30, 2001
macOS (OS X) 2006
Sid Meier's Civilization III guide on StrategyWiki
Sid Meier's Civilization III on Wikipedia

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).
Sid Meier's Civilization 1991
Freeciv (unofficial) 1996
Sid Meier's Civilization II 1996
Civilization II: Test of Time 1999
Sid Meier's Civilization III 2001
Sid Meier's Civilization IV 2005
CivCity: Rome 2006
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization 2008
Sid Meier's Civilization V 2010
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth 2014
Sid Meier's Civilization VI 2016

Key points

Non-Steam versions can be migrated to Steam by contacting 2K Support.[1]

General information

Official game site
Civilization Wiki - A detailed wiki for all Civilization games and their spin offs
Apolyton Civilization Site's Civ III section - A huge forum dedicated to all Civilization games and their spin offs. Modifications for the game can be found here
Civilization Fanatics Center's Civilization III Page
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc DRM[Note 1] or SecuROM DRM disc check (varies by release).
Windows
Mac OS
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Civilization III Complete
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Civilization III Complete
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Civilization III: Play the World Required for multiplayer support.
Windows
Civilization III: Conquests Contains all content from Play the World.
Windows

Version differences

Civilization III Complete is a complete version with both expansion packs.
Gold Edition contains Civilization III and Play The World.
Play the World adds additional civilizations, game modes, and multiplayer support.
Conquests adds additional civilizations and scenarios to the game, as well as new government types and other features.
The Game of the Year Edition contains the original game with a bonus CD containing additional maps and behind-the-scenes videos.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Art\Movies\
  2. Delete or rename CivComplete.bik and intro.bik.
  3. Repeat for expansion folders, if applicable.

Notes

Video file loaded depends on the game version and expansions used.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Conquests[Note 2]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/3910/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Conquests\Saves[Note 2]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/3910/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game options menu.
In-game options menu.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Set KeepRes mode[citation needed]
  1. Open the configuration file (Civilization3.ini or Conquests\conquests.ini).
  2. Add the line KeepRes=1
  3. Save your changes. The game will now run at the desktop resolution as borderless fullscreen.

Windowed

Set windowed mode[citation needed]
  1. Open the configuration file (Civilization3.ini or Conquests\conquests.ini).
  2. Add the line KeepRes=1
  3. Add the line Video Mode=1152
  4. Save your changes.
Video Mode is the horizontal window size, with the vertical height calculated based on the 4:3 aspect ratio.
The game window will have no border.
The game area can't be resized after the game is launched - doing so causes graphic corruption and may crash the game.

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Civilization III: Play the World is required for multiplayer support

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
8 Hot seat
LAN play
8 Versus
Online play
8 Versus
Online server browser no longer works in non-Steam versions. Steam version has been updated to fix this.[1][4]
Asynchronous multiplayer
Possible option. Used by default.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Removed from the Steam version.[1]

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 3783, 6500, 6667, 28900, 29900, 29901
UDP 2302-2400, 6500, 6515, 13139, 27900
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Compatibility settings

Issues with the game may be corrected with compatibility settings. For the Steam version go to <path-to-game>\Conquests\ and right click on Civ3Conquests.exe. Select properties and set the compatibility settings. This can cause serious performance issues on windows 10.

No music or sound effects during diplomacy

This is an error caused by a Windows 10 update limiting sound to two channels.

Install IndirectSound[5][6]
  1. Download and extract IndirectSound.
  2. Copy the two files, dsound.dll and dsound.ini.
  3. Paste into <path-to-game>\Conquests\.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
OpenGL 1
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer GameSpy Removed in Steam update.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium II 400 MHz
System memory (RAM) 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.8 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 9.0b compatible

Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[3]
  2. 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  3. 3.0 3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/3910/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (3910) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References