Graphic glitch in world map view

[Grizpin]

The game runs fine on my system. After a short while of playing the world map graphics become streaked lines with squares of images where resources and cities are located. When I zoom back in the graphics are still ok... it's just when I zoom out to the world view it is messed up. I can switch resolution and then back again and the problem corrects itself. I've tried running the game at a few different resolutions but the same problem exists in each one. I am running max settings currently at 1280 x 1024. PC specs:

AMD 2800XP
1 GB DDR 3200 RAM
Nvidia 6800GT 256 MB, 81.85 drivers
WinXP Pro

Any help appreciated

[Tejris]

I have exactly the same problem

i installed the newest nvidia drivers (v. 81.85) for my geforce 6800GT a few minutes ago because i have choppy wonder videos but now i have graphic bugs on world map and global view

the old drivers did not have this problem they were v. 78.xx dont know exactly

[Rabid Bunny]

I have same problem. I'm using the latest Nvidia driver - 81.85. I haven't tried to scale back yet.

I thought it was just my old GeForce2 card that was causing this problem, but if you guys are having problems with 6800GT, it sounds like a software bug, and we will just have to wait for a patch.

Still, it's a minor issue to me. Other than that, gameplay has been great!

ASUS A7N8X-E (Don't get this board, common prob with AGP 8X cards)
AMD 2700XP
1 GB DDR 3200 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 2 400, 81.85 drivers
WinXP Home

[mojocommando]

Exact same thing here guys, when i zoom all the way out i get those blurry lines going across the screen, zooming back in everything looks fine.

My mini-map is also messed up in the exactly the same way which can be kind of annoying.

P4 2.52
Nvidia Geforce 6800GT
1GB RAM
Soundblaster Live! 5.1 gamer
Win XP service pack 2

[lhc1971]

Same problem here as well.

AMD 3200 64
Nvidia Geforce 6800GT
1GB RAM
Soundblaster Live! 5.1 gamer
Win XP service pack 2

[Jigen]

I have the same problem.

[Gemdiver]

Same problem -- can anyone confirm if rolling back your drivers works?

My specs:

3.4 Intel Dual Core
4 GB RAM
2x Nvidia 6800 GTXs (on SLI -- both BFG 256 MB) - 81.85 drivers

Going to suck if the 81.85 drivers dont work well with Civ since Black & White 2 and some MMO betas I play are a lot more stable with 81.85.

[Volstag]

Same problem as well... but in addition to the mini-map glitch, my mouse/cursor flickers like crazy. Anyone else seeing this? The mini-map was fine for the first 20 or 30 turns, then glitched on me for no apparent reason.

GeForce 6800 GT (256 MB)
Latest drivers (81.85 IIRC)
1 Gig RAM
1.8 Ghz AMD 3000+
WinXP Home

One mention: I've heard, on different threads, that you _must_ install the DirectX package that comes with the game... even if you already have the same version installed (9.0c?). I chose to skip the DX installation... could this be part of the problem?

[Ravenlock]

I was having this issue and was able to resolve it by scaling back "Globe Detail" to medium. I didn't try rolling back drivers.

Globe Detail is, as far as I can tell, only applied when you zoom out as far as possible, which I almost never do, so I'm not too concerned about it - I just wanted it not to glitch. Seems fine now. I assume it's a driver conflict that will be resolved eventually.

[timster]

I have the same problem as well, but without the cursor flicker. I was getting the glitch on the minimap as well as the world map when zoomed out the entire way to see the globe. However, if I zoomed in a couple of levels, the display was proper. I also noticed that if I alt-tabbed out of the game and then alt-tabbed back in, then everything was fine, for a while. Maybe a problem with the textures getting garbled in the texture memory of the video card? The only other anomoly I have detected so far is an occasional slowness or skip when the wonder movies were playing. Below are my specs.

Pentium IV 3.8GHZ (Single Core, Prescott build)
2GB DDR2 Memory
Single 6800GT 256MB - PCI Express
Tried both the 81.85 and the 81.87 Nvidia Forceware drivers.
Win XP Pro SP2
Shuttle XPC barebones motherboard

Looking at the above posts, I notice that we all have the 6800GT, except for Rabid Bunny ... hmmm..

Also, I don't even remember being prompted to install the Directx from the install disk.... so I haven't... I will try tonight to see if that does anything. I will also try to go back to some previous Forceware drivers to see if that helps also.

Any other ideas?

[Volstag]

One other question, and this might be a product of my ignorance... anyway, I've heard that when you zoom all the way back, you're actually presented with a bonified sphere/globe representing the game world. When I zoom all the way back, the view is strictly top-down.... in other words, I can't see the curvature of the "earth". Is this a glitch/bug, or is this functionality accessed in some other way? Or do I have no idea what I'm talking about?

[Volstag]

Originally Posted by timster

Also, I don't even remember being prompted to install the Directx from the install disk.... so I haven't...

That reminded me of something. The very first time I tried to install I was presented with the option of installing DX. At the time I chose to skip it, since I already had the DX version listed. Unfortunately, the install crashed with some strange I/O error. After I tweaked some stuff and rebooted, I attempted the install again. Try as I might, I was never presented with the option to install DX again. Perhaps it can be run straight from the CD?

-V

[Grizpin]

There is a specific dx dll that needs to be installed from the DirectX version on the install disc. I'm surprised you guys got the game to run without it. Initially I couldn't run the game because of the dx dll error but it ran fine after installing the DirectX from the install disc.

Also, the world map will appear flat until more land mass is uncovered and the fog of war is lifted.

[timster]

Well, I tried everything. Uninstalled and reinstalled, it still did not prompt me to install DirectX, but probably because I already have the latest one from when I installed AOE3 only a week ago. I even took all of the video qualities down to medium and restarted, still had same problem. Finally, what I think did the trick, was that I installed one of my older Forceware drivers, specifically 77.72. Haven't had a problem since then. I would blame the entire problem on the driver, but every other game I have works with the newest drivers. Oh, well.

[Roark1138]

Just wanted to jump in and say I'm having the exact problem as well with the bizarre global view. Streaking graphics for the uncovered terrain, while cities and whatnot appear as square atop the streaky mess.

My setup:

GeForce 6600GT (128 MB), 81.85 drivers
1 GB DDR 400 RAM
2.4 Ghz P4
WinXP Pro

[rss0900]

Originally Posted by Grizpin

The game runs fine on my system. After a short while of playing the world map graphics become streaked lines with squares of images where resources and cities are located. When I zoom back in the graphics are still ok... it's just when I zoom out to the world view it is messed up. I can switch resolution and then back again and the problem corrects itself. I've tried running the game at a few different resolutions but the same problem exists in each one. I am running max settings currently at 1280 x 1024. PC specs:

AMD 2800XP
1 GB DDR 3200 RAM
Nvidia 6800GT 256 MB, 81.85 drivers
WinXP Pro

Any help appreciated

Having same issue. Windows XP Pro SP2 / AMD 3400+ / 1 GB RAM / Nvidia GT6800 81.85 drivers.

If you change the anti-alias options when zoomed out the problems clears itself - at least for me. I run at level 4 and when I have the graphic corruption issue, turn anti-alias down to 0 or 2 and the screen is clear again(normal - no lines). Shortly after playing (15-20) seconds I zoom out again to find the same issue. Could it be a problem with the anti-alias?

[timster]

Originally Posted by rss0900

If you change the anti-alias options when zoomed out the problems clears itself - at least for me. I run at level 4 and when I have the graphic corruption issue, turn anti-alias down to 0 or 2 and the screen is clear again(normal - no lines). Shortly after playing (15-20) seconds I zoom out again to find the same issue. Could it be a problem with the anti-alias?

It's possible, but unlikely, as I have tried with it at all of the anti-aliasing settings, and I get the glitches no matter what setting I have used.

However, what I did find, is that the glitch is MUCH more likely to show up towards the end of the game, when the CPU (and, the video card) is taxed much more heavily, than at the beginning. I have even had the glitch after going to 1024x768, no anti-aliasing, and low model details.

It appears so far that most of the people that have the glitch are using the 81.85 (or higher) drivers. I recommend going back to an older driver, to see if that works. With a 6800GT, like I have, I don't think that there is a huge performance or a quality difference between the 8x.xx and the 7x.xx drivers, at least not one that I could tell. My guess is that the 8x.xx Nvidia drivers enabled something on the 6800 series that doesn't play nicely with Firaxis's game. Strange that they didn't catch it in QA testing, though, as most developers and publishers test with a pretty wide variety of hardware and drivers. Hopefully, Firaxis patches it up, although I wouldn't blame them for the technical issues, as the publisher, 2K Games, should have caught it prior to release.

[Fallblau]

I'm having exactly the same problem, but only AFTER applying the 81.85 drivers.... So we're definitely looking at a conflict issue...

Of course, I'm also getting the skippy movie audio and choppy scrolling problems as well, so who really knows....

And, yep, hopefully there will be some type of patch soon... Kind of hard to tell your userbase to upgrade their drivers, when upgrading the drivers actually creates NEW problems...

System Specs:
AMD 2600XP (running at 1.9GHz)
1 GB DDR 3200 RAM
Nvidia 6600GT 256 MB, 81.85 drivers
WinXP Pro SP1

[Ravenlock]

I've reverted to the 78.01 drivers from the 81.85 ones now, and have yet to see this problem happen again. I'll let you know if it crops up again with 78.01. Looks like rolling back the driver may fix it, though.

[timster]

Originally Posted by Ravenlock

I've reverted to the 78.01 drivers from the 81.85 ones now, and have yet to see this problem happen again. I'll let you know if it crops up again with 78.01. Looks like rolling back the driver may fix it, though.

Yeah, the old drivers are working for me. This link, http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/8...ease_Notes.pdf , specifically page 48, details what the the changes are. Hopefully somebody from firaxis will look at this and investigate further.

In the meantime, the older drivers ( any driver prior to 81.84 and 81.85) seem to work. The older drivers can be downloaded at http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

I hope that helps.