Failed to Initialize Renderer

[4nGeLuS]

The solution is finally posted on the official page.
http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_ati.htm
But I do wonder why there are two solutions mentioned. The first one is rather long, the second one is the much easier pakbuilder solution. It is as if the second one has some sort of disadvantage we don't know about. Someone here feel like making a guess? It seems preferable (from a users point of view) to use the easy pakbuilder solution so why post such a long an maybe complicated solution also?

 

[toomylee]

New fix for the renderer error

This fix has been tried for Inverse Icarus and Unimatrix, and got their games fully working, so everyone give it a try.

Requirements:

You have installed Civ4, along with the DirectX update on the CD. You have installed the 5.10 ATI drivers.

Instructions:

• 1. Download, unzip and run this application.
• http://boa.apolyton.net/civ4/files/PakBuild.zip
  
• 2. From the menu, select PAK->Unpack.
  
• 3. Go to your Civ 4 Folder, Assets subdirectory (CivilizationIV\Assets), select the Art0.FPK file, click Open.
  
• 4. You'll be prompted to select an extraction folder, select CivilizationIV\Assets - same folder as above.
  
• 5. Wait. The program may appear to hang with the progress bar at 100%, but it will be done with unpacking in 2-5 minutes.
  
• 6. Move the Art0.FPK file out of your Assets folder so that Civ4 can't find it.
  
• 7. Run Civ4.

Thx to SOLVED.

This is the only thing worked for me, im using RADEON 9800 PRO.

Hope this help someone out there.

Toomylee

 

[john_milton]

Altough i'v done everything as said, game is still not working for me...

I have 9600 256MB, 2.8ghz, 1GB RAM...

Is there any other solution?!??!

 

[mephistoex]

Altough i'v done everything as said, game is still not working for me...

I have 9600 256MB, 2.8ghz, 1GB RAM...

Is there any other solution?!??!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134453

Check that thread out.. if you have the same thing happening. I'm having mobility radeon 9700 128MB

 

[Cyberstar]

So this is what it means to go GOLD.

 

[Mineault]

I tried that pakbuild solution but I dont seem to have the program requiered to open the Art0.FPK. Where can i get the program to read this format, plus i have the radeon 9600 Pro and the solution proposed at this link is chinese to me, Could someone explain to me the pyton = 0 part better, thx.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134453

 

[Mineault]

cancel the pak build extract part, seems to work on the second try, ill let you know if i still have troble otherwise cancel my post. thx

 

[Speed Of Sound]

I'm a Sid fan now after the tutorial that my 5yr old son understood enough to know how to start playing.

I suspect anyone that would make such a sweeping statement about Sid hasn't seen this tutorial.

I wish i could, but i cant open the dam game.

 

[DeathInABottle]

ATI Radeon Mobility 9200: $100.
Acer TravelMate 290 laptop: $1400.
Civilization IV, Collector's edition: $60.
The frustration born from the developers' failure to test some of the most common video cards in the world: Priceless.

--

Rot, Firaxis. Rot.

 

[Cow-tippin]

My game works really fine in the begining i have a new Amd athlon 63 3800+, 1 gb ram.
and 6600 gt graphic card. Well i played the game perfectly for 1 hour after that....everytime someone try to contact me for trade, the computer just restarts, i was like ,what!!!????. I turned off all the other programs that can interfere with civ 4 and it didnt help much.
Still having the same problem. If anyone have the same problem or have an idea what to do to fix this, i would be greatly appreciated.

 

[concentricity]

Ok, so I guess I was one of the lucky few that had no problem running this with a Radeon right off the bat (aside from the Disc 1 - Disc 2 debacle). No idea if it matters, but for the record, I have an Athlon XP / 1GB/ Radeon 9800XT (128MB) with Win XP SP2, and Omega 2.6.71 drivers. I DID let the DX9 installer run during game install, even though I already had DX9c. I had no need to do the unpack fix, it just loaded fine (albeit a bit slowly).

That said, I have noticed this issue with the game sometimes crashing and/or causing a full system reboot. The reboot in particular is troubling, but I have a hunch what might be causing it... I noticed in looking through logs, etc. (and from quirks about the game loading and messages) that even when playing a single player game the engine seems to treat it as a networked game with local AI opponents. Or maybe it's more accurate to say the structure of the engine seems to be similar to xwindows local server serving local client idea.

And because the system restart seems to always follow a fail "message sent" from an AI player (treated as a seperate client, that happens to be running locally), it makes me wonder what kind of code is used here. If the local AI players are abstracted enough from the core engine, might their messages be sent to the loopback address or some such nonsense? If so, I can see all sorts of potential problems on machines with multiple nics, no nics, etc, even when trying to play a solo game.

Anyway, just some silly rambling...now back to conquering the world (between occasional restarts and freezes) and maybe some more log and ini snooping...

 

[mwx]

YES, FELLOW CIVLINGS, I AM ALSO HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM.
AMD ATH 3000 - 2GHz - ATI RADEON 9550 - 256MB - 1 GIG RAM - CIV4 FAILED TO INITIALIZE BLAH DE BLAH BLAH!!!

GOTTA LOVE IT! I CAN GET HALFLIFE 2 WORK A DREAM EVEN AFTER PUTTING UP WITH THE CRAP FROM STEAM (TELL ME YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHAT I MEAN BY STEAM!) BUT CIV4 - THE GAME I LOVE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE - THE BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR FOR ME - FiZZEd..!

SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME THERE IS A SOLUTION - OR THAT A PATCH IS ON THE WAY!!!!

'EM ALL!

 

[mwx]

ATI Radeon Mobility 9200: $100.
Acer TravelMate 290 laptop: $1400.
Civilization IV, Collector's edition: $60.
The frustration born from the developers' failure to test some of the most common video cards in the world: Priceless.

--

Rot, Firaxis. Rot.

IDIOTS!

 

[jimkirk]

Ok, so I guess I was one of the lucky few that had no problem running this with a Radeon right off the bat (aside from the Disc 1 - Disc 2 debacle). No idea if it matters, but for the record, I have an Athlon XP / 1GB/ Radeon 9800XT (128MB) with Win XP SP2, and Omega 2.6.71 drivers. I DID let the DX9 installer run during game install, even though I already had DX9c. I had no need to do the unpack fix, it just loaded fine (albeit a bit slowly).

That said, I have noticed this issue with the game sometimes crashing and/or causing a full system reboot. The reboot in particular is troubling, but I have a hunch what might be causing it... I noticed in looking through logs, etc. (and from quirks about the game loading and messages) that even when playing a single player game the engine seems to treat it as a networked game with local AI opponents. Or maybe it's more accurate to say the structure of the engine seems to be similar to xwindows local server serving local client idea.

And because the system restart seems to always follow a fail "message sent" from an AI player (treated as a seperate client, that happens to be running locally), it makes me wonder what kind of code is used here. If the local AI players are abstracted enough from the core engine, might their messages be sent to the loopback address or some such nonsense? If so, I can see all sorts of potential problems on machines with multiple nics, no nics, etc, even when trying to play a solo game.

Anyway, just some silly rambling...now back to conquering the world (between occasional restarts and freezes) and maybe some more log and ini snooping...

dunno you may be right i but im not having much problems except it playing slow and choppy but my hardware isnt the best
athlon xp2400+ 512 ddr pc2700 ram nvidia mx440 64 mb ram
seems like most of the render issues were the 256 mb ram cards

 

[Cylindric]

Bah Tried all that, but on my Dell Inspiron 9100 with a Radeon Mobility 9800 none of that works.

I can't download the latest official drivers, because ATI don't support them on mobo embedded cards (and their installer checks), and the latest Dell drivers don't seem to help.

I've tried the Omega drivers too, to no avail.

All that regardless of wether I unpack the art or not

 

[LordMarcus]

Too many posts to read 'em all, but I've got an nVidia GeForce FX 5500 here that *just* developed this problem -- was playing, the graphics got screwy, game froze and crashed, and then it would start, giving me the renderer error.

The fix suggested above by toomylee didn't help me any; oddly, the game will start fine in Windowed mode -- however, when I go in the Options menu to set a resolution, there's no resolutions available to pick!



I had set it forced to 1280x960 so I could play it in Windowed and have it fill up the screen save for the taskbar; but, on this round, I played it Fullscreen instead of Windowed on accident. There didn't seem to be any big problem except for the game not quite filling the screen right.

Well, damn.

 

[the foodster]

we've been conned.i've been following the discussions and i believe that what firaxis has done is inexcusable.i followed the advice on their web site and it completly wiped out my display
drivers.my machine is up to date and more than capable of running the game.i did a re-install just to make sure and still no dice.everyone who's had a problem with civ 4 should demand a refund.perhaps then they will learn to test thoroughly beforehand.

 

[china444]

am i stupid..have there been any patches or anything lately?
i tried the art pack thing and it still did nothin, still got the error.

plz help!

 

[china444]

Please!!@!!!!

 

[Altare]

I have an ati radieon 9600 and all my games work fine, but i stumbled upon this stupid problem, UNPACKING DIDNT WORK, REINSTALLING DIDNT WORK NOR ANYTHING ELSE SUGGESTED DID

BUT I GOT IT TO START EVEN AFTER ALL OF THE ABOVE FAILED(windows XP pro, sp2, dx9c, yadda yadda yadda)

FOLLOW THESE STEPS WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE HAS FAILED:

1- ACCESS YOUR GAME SHORTCUT IN THE DESKTOP, OR CREATE A LINK IN THE GAME FOLDER.
2- RIGHT CLICK ON THE SHORTCUT TO THE GAME'S EXE, AND ACCESS ITS PROPERTIES
3- UNDER THE SHORTCUT TAB, PRESS THE 'ADVANCED' BUTTON
4- ENABLE THE 'run with other credentials' CHECKBOX, AND CLOSE WINDOW.
5- FROM THE DESKTOP, RIGHT CLICK ON THE SHORTCUT AND SELECT 'run as'
6- SWITCH FROM 'current user' to 'select user' AND SELECT 'administrator' ACCOUNT FOR THE SYSTEM
7- ENJOY THE GAME, possibly.

I HAVE THE GAME INSTALLED ON D: DRIVE WITH SYSTEM IN C:, MY DVD DRIVE IS H:, AND MY CURRENT USER IS NOT 'administrator' EVEN IF IT HAS FULL RIGHTS. WISH THIS SOLUTION WORKS FOR ALL YOU PEOPLE OUT THERE. IF IT DOES, PLEASE GIVE ME CREDIT.

thanks all for suggesting their ideas and hints.