"Cheshire Cat Grin" Bug

Wanted to get a thread out there on this one.

The game and custom DirectX installs fine. Intro movie runs fine. I only run into problems when the leaderheads are displayed, and then on the map. The leaderheads are simply teeth and eyes. On the map, I have a light area that moves all around with the cursor , but everything else is black.

I have a Radeon 7500 Series Vid Card/64 MB RAM with the latest drivers. This card DOES have T&L. My system meets all minimum requirements...(srtest.com verifies this) yet the game will not run properly.

Radeon 7500 Series Vid Card 64 MB RAM 8.18.0.0. Drivers
AMD Athlon 2400 CPU (Barton)
1.0 GB System RAM
Windows XP sp2 with all current hotfixes installed
DirectX 9c - updated with custom Firaxis build
Soundblaster Audio
PC Chips M848A Mainboard

DXDiag log file attached, along with a screen of the problems.

Read up on the ATI video card problems. This is common.

Chieftess said:

Read up on the ATI video card problems. This is common.

Click to expand...

I know they are working on the problem with the "init rendering" game not loading. But I have seen no one adress this issue in particular for those of us who can get the game to run but have rendering issues. I have been following this issue on the boards as it developed all day.

And this issue is not just centerd on ATI cards from several other posts I have read here and on Apolyton, other cards are involved.

I have seen a few off the cuff remarks on Apolyton that it is because the card does not support T&L - but this card does support T&L - in fact it is a card specifically mentioned by name under Minimum Specs.

I just want someone official to say they are aware of this issue also - and are working on it.

Until then I guess I will uninstall Civ4 and go back to Civ3.

I listened to all thee hype from firaxis about not requiring the latest hardware to run this, but I get the same problem with my dell laptop running P4, Intel 855 Video (64mb), Intro video runs, but I get Cheshire Cats and black terrain. Odd it seems to still play at all,\.

yes I have the exact same issue -- cheshire cats, black terrain, yet palys fine. I have Intel 855

Try to get the latest driver. (I believe the video card company knows about the issue, too...) If they don't have a driver within a few weeks (or months -- programming can take time, you know), then you could upgrade your video card.

Chieftess said:

Try to get the latest driver. (I believe the video card company knows about the issue, too...) If they don't have a driver within a few weeks (or months -- programming can take time, you know), then you could upgrade your video card.

Click to expand...

You are kidding, right?

I have a video card that is listed as meeting the minimum specs...listed right on the box itself as a matter of fact...

(And I have installed the latest driver from the ATI web site...the one's Soren recommended on Apolyton.)

<On Rant>

How can they sell a game and not support a card Firaxis themelves advertises will work? Isn't that a bit of a bait and switch in a weird way?

No way am I buying a new card. I'll uninstall Civ4 first...and put it on the shelf until a decent patch comes out. But I will probably think 4 times before ever buying another product from this company if it takes that long to fix this bug.

(Sad thing is this was a surprise gift from my wife...I was not planning on buying it for a few months becasue I was scared something like this would happen.)


<Off Rant>

(That felt good - needed to get that off my chest!)

I am trying to be patient and remain cool...trying to be helpful...I respectfully ask just please don't just tell us to go buy a new card if we already meet the minimum specs. That is not an answer.

I'm a developer and certainly understand that you can't test every configuration, but the T&L thing is going to throw ALOT of average consumers for a loop....

you could upgrade your video card.

Click to expand...

Wow. That is horrible advice. I'm sick and tired of this "solution" being presented to people. Firaxis released an inferior product, and it is up to them to fix it, not the consumer. My setup is 2x their recommended requirements and 4x their minimal. No way in h3ll am I buying any hardware to play this game.

I am greatly saddened that we cannot turn off "T & L" if supposedly a user has great control in modding the game.

I guess I should wait until one of my favorite franchises comes out with a game to buy a laptop instead of 2 months prior to its release.

Not all of us have a few hundred dollars to blow on a new video card, especially if the new card won't actually function with the game, Chieftess.

I can see terrain squares once my explored area expands enough, so clearly it's not a purely hardware problem - if it were, shouldn't it be impossible for the terrain to ever be displayed?

Telling people to change their hardware when the problem is almost certainly a bug isn't just not helpful, it's harmful - and it's certainly not appreciated.

I hate this. I'm going to insane!

here's what i did:

open up Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\Technologies\CIV4TechInfos.xml

and do a replace all changing <bMapVisible>0</bMapVisible> to <bMapVisible>1</bMapVisible>.

now everyone starts with the map revealed. terrain is fine, although the oceans look a little funny for me. you still need to explore to find goody huts and your opponents, but unfortunately the terrain types and resource locations are revealed. but you are at least on equal footing with the ai since they will see everything too.

-roger

Hmm, wasn't there something new in the approach of Civ4 when it comes to showing the world?
[quote='Pre-release info"]The Mini-Map starts out zoomed in when the player starts a new random game. As they explore, the Mini-Map will expand. This has been done so exploration is a lot more interesting each game. What it means is that when one starts a game, he or she does not know exactly where on the map they are. In Civ3 the player always knew where they were exactly in the beginning. Now this is not the case at all.[/quote]

oldStatesman said:

Wanted to get a thread out there on this one.

The game and custom DirectX installs fine. Intro movie runs fine. I only run into problems when the leaderheads are displayed, and then on the map. The leaderheads are simply teeth and eyes. On the map, I have a light area that moves all around with the cursor , but everything else is black.

I have a Radeon 7500 Series Vid Card/64 MB RAM with the latest drivers. This card DOES have T&L. My system meets all minimum requirements...(srtest.com verifies this) yet the game will not run properly.

Radeon 7500 Series Vid Card 64 MB RAM 8.18.0.0. Drivers
AMD Athlon 2400 CPU (Barton)
1.0 GB System RAM
Windows XP sp2 with all current hotfixes installed
DirectX 9c - updated with custom Firaxis build
Soundblaster Audio
PC Chips M848A Mainboard

DXDiag log file attached, along with a screen of the problems.

Click to expand...

Exact same problem as you are having. 'Cheshire cat' leaders and black map. I can see my settler and the city once it's built, but not the terrain they are is on. And I can see the GUI.... But beyond that, nothing.

Very similar system specs, except less RAM in mine (512M).

Also, I have further issues, with a system lockup shortly after starting a new game. No error messages or anything, simply a frozen screen and requiring a full reboot.

I've tried all the driver updates and DX checking. Nothing works.

Oddly, I couldn't even get as far as this (game would lock up immediately after the loading screen completed before) without going into my task manager and ending process on everything but explorer and systray. Now it crashes a few minutes into gameplay.

Anyhow, this is ridiculous. We both have systems that, while not high end machines, do meet the minimum system requirements of the game according to the package and everything else I've read. Which means the game should work without having to purchase new video cards or whatever.

At any rate, I've uninstalled and am taking the game back to EB if there isn't a solution presented in the next day or so.

Firaxis and Take Two is not paying me enough to QA their games.

merm said:

here's what i did:

open up Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\Technologies\CIV4TechInfos.xml

and do a replace all changing <bMapVisible>0</bMapVisible> to <bMapVisible>1</bMapVisible>.

now everyone starts with the map revealed. terrain is fine, although the oceans look a little funny for me. you still need to explore to find goody huts and your opponents, but unfortunately the terrain types and resource locations are revealed. but you are at least on equal footing with the ai since they will see everything too.

-roger

Click to expand...

worked for me and I have an intergrated, non T&L graphics card as well.

you can pretty much see what is happening with this bug. if you play the smallest pangea map possible and have black terrain, you can see the lit up area near your location. if you start zooming out .. out .. out .. suddenly you get to a point where the lit up area pops back over on to your location and your location isn't dark anymore. as you zoom back in, it pops back over to where it started and your folks are left in the dark again. on a bigger map you can't see it working like this because the distances are too great and it isn't obvious where the lit up area moved to. maybe there are also graphics hardware problems with some people, but if you see that .. that looks like a quirk in the game's code to me, i hope they can fix it soon.

--
bring us out of the dark ages!

move_quietly said:

you can pretty much see what is happening with this bug. if you play the smallest pangea map possible and have black terrain, you can see the lit up area near your location. if you start zooming out .. out .. out .. suddenly you get to a point where the lit up area pops back over on to your location and your location isn't dark anymore. as you zoom back in, it pops back over to where it started and your folks are left in the dark again. on a bigger map you can't see it working like this because the distances are too great and it isn't obvious where the lit up area moved to. maybe there are also graphics hardware problems with some people, but if you see that .. that looks like a quirk in the game's code to me, i hope they can fix it soon.

--
bring us out of the dark ages!

Click to expand...

Since the greater ATI problem is solved, looks like this one is gonna get swept under with the banner reason "unsupported card".

So is this problem not going to be fixed? I was planning on buying the game first thing tomorrow morning but my laptop has the Mobility 7500 and I have read that although I will be able to install the game but get stuck with the dark terrain and chesire cat problems. I don't know much about patches, but does this sound like a problem that can be patched? Swapping vid cards in alaptops is pretty much a non-option, so I hope I am not out of luck.....Wanna buy the game before it is sold out everywhere, but very worried....

I don't think this will be patched. So, you can play it with fog of war off and choppy graphics.

My advice: just wait on buying it. They might decide to do something (pretty please). You might a newer laptop later on and the game'll cheaper. No point in spending $$ just to get dissapointed.