Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

Developers
	Firaxis Games
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Linux	Aspyr Media
Publishers
	2K Games
OS X, Linux	Aspyr Media
Engines
	LORE
Release dates
Windows	October 24, 2014
macOS (OS X)	November 26, 2014
Linux	December 18, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	81
OpenCritic	81
IGDB	82
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	4X, TBS
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Civilization

Warnings

Mantle graphics API option requires an AMD video card with a driver version earlier than Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.5.1.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view 4X and TBS game in the Civilization series.

The game received a single major expansion, Rising Tide, in October 2015, which included new civilizations, units, hybrid affinities, and more options for aquatic settlements and units. In November 2014, a minor DLC titled the Exoplanets Map Pack was released as well.

The game's shorter development and support cycles resulted in some performance issues compared to its immediate predecessor, such as leaders being visible only in minimum settings on some systems, and rendering issues common with those in the previous game.

General information

PC Report - Civilization: Beyond Earth on Linux

Official support knowledgebase

Civilization Wiki - A detailed wiki for all Civilization games and their spin offs

Apolyton Civilization Site's Civilization: Beyond Earth section - A huge forum dedicated to all Civilization games and their spin offs

Civilization Fanatics' Civilization: Beyond Earth Forums

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
		Sold by 2K Games. Collection also available.
		Sold by Aspyr Media. Collection also available.
GamersGate		Sold by 2K Games. Collection only.
GamersGate		Sold by Aspyr Media. The Collection also available.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store		The Collection
Mac App Store		Currently single player only. Multiplayer support will be added in a future update.
Steam		Free demo: steam://install/322610
Amazon.com (unavailable)

All Windows and Linux versions require Steam DRM.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Minor DLC includes map types.
Expansion pack	The expansion pack include multiple civilizations, mechanics, and improvements.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Exoplanets Map Pack	Pre-order bonus
Rising Tide	Free demo: steam://install/394170

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

The cinematic intro video can be disabled from the in-game options screen in the "Interface Options" tab.

Delete/rename video files
Go to <path-to-game>. Delete or rename CivBE_Logos.bk2. OS X and Linux: delete or rename Aspyr.bik.

Speed up main menu options

Modify MainMenu.xml[citation needed]
Open <path-to-game>\assets\UI\FrontEnd\MainMenu.xml. Find and replace all mentions of AlphaStart="0" with AlphaStart="1".

Skip legal screen

Skipping legal screen
Open <path-to-game>\Assets\UI\FrontEnd\FrontEnd.lua with a text editor. Find line UIManager:QueuePopup( Controls.LegalScreen, PopupPriority.LegalScreen ); Replace it with -- UIManager:QueuePopup( Controls.LegalScreen, PopupPriority.LegalScreen ); . Save the file.

Enable Split-Frame Rendering (SFR)

Enabling SFR results in better multi-GPU performance with more consistent overall frame rates.

Edit graphics settings
Go to the configuration files folder. Open GraphicsSettings.ini. Change Enable mGPU = 0 to Enable mGPU = 1. Save and close the file. Notes Only works on Mantle-compatible AMD Crossfire setups.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/aspyr-media/Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

The configuration can be found in config.ini.

User preferences can be found in UserSettings.ini.

Advanced graphics settings can be found in GraphicsSettings.ini.

Cache\ and Logs\ folders are highly compressible

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\Saves\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth/Saves/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/aspyr-media/Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth/Saves/
Steam	<Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/65980/remote/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud		Only 10 saves can be synced. Select "Steam Cloud" in the Save menu to access.

Though save files are compatible between systems, you will need to rename them manually when moving. This is because patches to non-Windows releases are sometimes delayed, which might cause compatibility issues.

Video

Video Options.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Issues unresolved.
Multi-monitor		Broken on AMD cards[citation needed]
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		MSAA on all systems. On Windows with Nvidia cards CSAA, with AMD cards EQAA
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Interface Options.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See Remapping.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Remapping

Edit CIVBEControls.xml[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\assets\Gameplay\XML\Units Open CIVBEControls.xml. Change the controls to match the desired ones.

Audio

Audio Options.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, sound effects, ambiance, and speech
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer Options.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		8	Hot seat
LAN play		8	Seems to have issues with more than 4 players.[citation needed]
Online play		8
Asynchronous multiplayer

Issues unresolved

AMD - Actual mouse cursor position becomes offset

AMD has reported an issue where the actual mouse position becomes offset from the cursor position. They are working with Firaxis to correct this issue.

Go to Windows Settings and adjust Text Scaling
Right-click the desktop. Select Screen Resolution from the menu which appears. From the window which appears, select Make text and other items larger or smaller. Set DPI scaling to 100%. Click the OK button.

Unable to use resolutions beyond 1280x720 on 144Hz monitors

Run game in windowed mode
From the main menu, go to the Options menu, then to the Video tab. Deselect Fullscreen. Click on the Accept button. Exit the game, then restart it. Notes Changing the refresh rate of the monitor to 60Hz in-game or otherwise does not fix this issue.

Issues fixed

Game crashes on "Configuring Game Data"

Configuring Game Data[citation needed]
Go into the Options menu, then the Video tab. Uncheck Fullscreen Click the Accept button. Exit the game, then restart it.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11
OpenGL	4	OS X and Linux only.
Mantle support		Requires an AMD video card with a driver version earlier than 19.5.1 (2019).
Shader Model support	5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Steamworks

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista SP2	7
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz	1.8 GHz Quad core
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD 3650 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT Intel HD 3000 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible	ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series Nvidia GeForce GT 400 Series Intel Ivy Bridge
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	10 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GT 640M ATI Radeon 4850 Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB of VRAM

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 14.04, SteamOS
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3 2.4 GHz AMD A10 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 1 GB of VRAM

ATI/AMD and Intel GPUs are not officially supported on Linux.