Greetings,

don't know if this has been posted before but here goes:

Greetings,

This has happened twice in two days already.

My friend and I start a game and we save it to continue it the next day. Problem is that after loading the game, the worldmap is black, but we see the minimap and we can right-click the tiles and we can even activate the units and all, but we are blind to what happens and what is there.

Attached here is a screenshot of what I can see when I access the city. You can notice that the city map is lacking, as is the worldmap when not in the city view.

Also, when I left the game, and after 2 minutes, the worldmap became visible for my friend.

This is a recent issue. We've been able to play months ago over the internet just as we did today and yesterday except this problem occured yesterday. We started a new game yesterday thinking that it was a random issue but it happened 4 times in a row.

Steps tried to fix this issue when the game is loaded:
waiting about 5 minutes without doing nothing, skipping a turn, accessing the advisors, zooming in cities, locating a city, zooming in and out of map, basically anything to bring a different screen on top.

I've been playing Civ 3 for a long time now and many times over the internet and this is a first for me. Now, I cannot tell you if it happens with someone else though because no one on the web wants to help me with this issue.

This is my DxDiag's abbreviated report:
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/7/2004, 22:10:13
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp2_gdr.040517-1325)
Language: French (Regional Setting: French)
System Manufacturer: INTEL_
System Model: D845GBV2
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/14/03 11:28:48 Ver: 08.00.08
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 327MB used, 2132MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0904 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9800 PRO
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON 9800 AGP (0x4E48)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 753DF(T)
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6458 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 6/10/2004 21:57:24, 207360 bytes
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Creative Sound Blaster PCI
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Driver Name: ES1370MP.sys
Driver Version: 5.02.3655.0000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 11025, 44100
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK



This is my friend's DxDiag (parts of it)
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/7/2004, 22:21:53
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) (2600.xpclnt_qfe.021108-2107)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
System Model: VIA694X/686A
BIOS: Version 1.00
Processor: Intel Pentium III, ~730MHz
Memory: 128MB RAM
Page File: 178MB used, 451MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0902 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce2 MX
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0110&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
Display Memory: 32.0 MB
Current Mode: 800 x 600 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4.dll
Driver Version: 5.01.2001.1240 (English)
DDI Version: 8
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 8/17/2001 09:56:02, 1738496 bytes
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Creative Sound Blaster PCI
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1274&DEV_1371&SUBSYS_13711274&REV_04
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: es1371mp.sys
Driver Version: 5.01.3612.0000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Provider: Creative Technology Ltd.
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F

Any ideas?

Thanks

testdummy

Check you civ3\art\terrain\ folder. Are there any .PCX files in it?

Yes, 38 files for 6.55 megs,

Folder structure
deltaRivers.pcx
fatroads.pcx
floodplains.pcx
FogOfWar.pcx
goodyhuts.pcx
grassland forests.pcx
hill forests.pcx
hill jungle.pcx
irrigation DESETT.pcx
irrigation PLAINS.pcx
irrigation TUNDRA.pcx
irrigation.pcx
mountain forests.pcx
mountain jungles.pcx
Mountains-snow.pcx
Mountains.pcx
mtnRivers.pcx
plains forests.pcx
polarICEcaps-final.pcx
pollution.pcx
railroads.pcx
roads.pcx
StartLoc.pcx
TerrainBuildings.PCX
Territory.pcx
tnt.pcx
tundra forests.pcx
waterfalls.pcx
wCSO.pcx
wOOO.pcx
wSSS.pcx
xdgc.pcx
xdgp.pcx
xdpc.pcx
xggc.pcx
xhills.pcx
xpgc.pcx
xtgc.pcx

Well, it does seem very strange - if its intermittent.

All I can really suggest is ensuring that your video card drivers are up-to-date, and perhaps shutting-down some third-party applications.

Have you recently upgraded to Conquests, patch 1.22 ? New in 1.22 is this 'feature' that prevents people from seeing other people's territory (at least in PBEMs). I'm not sure if it's in internet play, but seeing this I would assume it is. You get this 'black screen' because the game has to 'update' the terrain and world map, and it does so after the turn 'starts'.

Unfortunately no, we're still both playing with 1.20

Ok, 1.20 is pretty much the same as 1.22. If I was truely correct, I would've said 1.20, however, as 1.22 is similar, it is the latest patch and most people use it, so I just said 1.22. This 'problem' appears in both 1.20 and 1.22. There's nothing you can do about it, either.