civilization-5pctechnical-issues
I'm trying to play the demo of Civilization 5, but I've twice now had the game crash at around turn 12. What can I do to resolve this?
Computer:
Game:
Playing Civ V in offline mode should allow you to play other steam games simultaneously. I feel compelled to point out, however, that steam only allows one copy of itself to run at any given time, so short of some technical tinkering, you're still limited to one game / steam / computer.
I don't think that there is a physical copy of civ V. Everything I've read indicates that its going to be exclusively digitally distributed.
As far as I know, Steamworks is going to function as the game's DRM which means that even if there's a physical install disc, you'll need steam to play it, even in offline mode.
As of the latest Steam / Civilization versions, this problem has been fixed. Launching the game regularly from Steam opens only the Civilization-specific selection window, and right-clicking that menu and creating a specific DirectX-11 link will create a shortcut that shows no DirectX-selection menus.
I'm not sure the "why" is really on-topic here, I just think someone made a mistake. I share your pain.
As for a solution - I've searched online and experimented a bit, and while I could easily bypass the first dialog, I could not bypass the second. To bypass the first dialog, just don't click "play" directly in the Steam game library. Instead, choose one of the following:
<steam folder>\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v. It doesn't matter which one you start, unfortunately, they all open that 2nd dialog.
This issue is also being actively discussed on the Steam forums, with no resolution at the moment.
Best Answer
Try DirectX 9 Mode
According to Nvidia's page on the 8XXX series, the Geforce 8800 supports DirectX 10. So I conclude it does not support DirectX 11.
You said that you were using "direct x 10/11 mode". I don't know, but would guess that mode requires DirectX 11 support. (Of course we'd like if it used either DX10 or DX11, whichever your card is capable of, but it sounds like it does not.)
So I suggest simply playing the game in DirectX 9 mode, which we know your card supports.
Its worth mentioning a few other standard things you could try before giving up on DX10/11 mode*, although you may have already tried them:
Both of those are being constantly updated and bugfixed. So checking for DirectX updates is worth it even if a recent version was installed with the game!
*The graphics are shiny after all.