A second guide fixing Anno 1404 CTD/Hourglass (64 bit)

A guide to fix your Anno CDT for any windows OS

Introduction

Hi,

In this guide I'll explain how to fix Anno 1404 from having CTD/endless hourglass issues. First of all, a great thanks to Shona for making the first guide here https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577231025 . Unfortunately, while this solution can help solving the issue for some people (mainly people using a slightly older OS), it will not solve it for everyone as it masks the issue rather than addressing it.

I was annoyed by this game having so many CTD issues, so I've looked into what's causing the problem and found a fix for it.

The problem

It all bears down to the fact that Anno 1404 has a rather severe memoryleak somewhere in it's code (presumably texture related), and as a result it pumps unnecessary data into your RAM. This is a problem, as the Anno binaries are written in 32 bit: technically it can only see the first 4gb of RAM in your system. If you are old school like me and played the game back in 2009, you'll know that it did not have that problem back then. This is because the developers made the memory overflow in the PAGE memory, masking the leak. A common practice back then that works if you have a 32 bit OS (like most people did 10 years ago), but it does not work on a 64 bit OS like most people have now. When playing the game, once 4gb of RAM is used up, the game crashes as it cannot find any more empty spots to store its variables, resulting in nasty CTDs or freezing. Setting the LAA flag (ie the 4gb patch) allows the program to actually use 4gb of RAM which helps a bit, since apps in a 32 bit environment can use only 2 gb of physical ram, to ensure that the kernel has sufficient RAM to remain stable (which does not matter for 64 bit systems as long as you have more than 4gb of RAM).
In an ideal world, the Anno binaries would be re-written for 64-bit. This can take a fair amount of work, and I don't think the people at ubisoft are bothering for a 10 year old game (although they should if they decide to still sell it), so I'll present to you the second best solution : To flush the excessive memory and reducing the memory load from the game.

Solution part 1

First things first : Folow Shona's guide to the letter here, as we will also need the LAA flag. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577231025

Second : We need a program called CleanMem Mini Monitor Pro. It's freeware that you can download here https://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem

WARNING: In the past there were some issues with this program and GTA V online. If you'd want to play both, either check the GTA forums, or install/unistall CleanMem when you want to play anno:GTAV online

*DISCLAIMER : I take no responsibility for any issues caused by CleanMem Mini Monitor Pro. Use at own responsibility*

once installed, it will look something like this










use these settings


























Use the add button and add Anno4.exe and Addon.exe










If you use the program for the first tine, press install first










Then press edit task schedule









you'll now get a list with all active tasks on your PC. Look for this one and double click



Now find it in the top list again


Go to the triggers tab. There will be 2 tasks set here. Pick the first one and set it at these settings.


















second one at these






























The program is now set, restart your machine

Solution part 2

We have now set the program to flush the unnecessary memory. Now we need to set Anno to use as little memory as possible.

1) Kill as many programs you don't need by the windows task manager.

2) Edit the anno engine.ini, find this line.

<NoWindowFrame>0<NoWindowFrame>
to
<NoWindowFrame>1<NoWindowFrame>

3) Go to you Nvidia:ATI control pannel and set in the AA and other gfx settings to your liking for anno 1404 and venice.

4) Start up anno, go to GFX settings and set them to this. Also set the game to windowed mode.















5) Once the game is running for a few minutes, you can change the ingame texture quallity to high. Don't forget to put it back on medium when you load the game though : Due to too high memory loading, the memory gets already saturated during loading up a saved game. Once the game is running it's fine. Now enjoy Anno 1404 !

Q&A

Q: Do I need to disable the steam overlay
A: Yes, I highly recommend it. Steam uses up memory, you want to use as little memory as possible

Q: Do I need to start a new game when using this trick ?
A: No, you should be able to play the old saves on your system.

Q: Help! The game crashes when it's loading !
A: You forgot to set the textures back on medium. In low population games, you'll get away with it. from ~20K onward not. Once the game is loaded you can safely set the textures back to high.

Q: After loading the game lags when I want to pop down a building. When i place it, it crashes.
A: This can rarely happen. for some or the other reason the game can demand a huge amount of resources when poping down a building after a load. Just press build on an already occupied piece of land with that building, and the lag and CTD will go away.

Q: Is there a time limmit on how much I can play the game ?
A: To my knowledge, no. I've played over 60 hours on a big map with 3 CPU players, 60K pop and no CTD, even with sessions lasting longer than 4 hours :)