Terrain is Dark

[Melendwyr]

At least it's possible to work around this problem. You don't even need to change the settings - by turning on the option to display the production modifiers of the terrain, you can get a sense of what's there relatively easily.

I've noticed that, even when the squares become visible after exploring the center of the map, line-of-sight doesn't seem to function properly. Everything is slightly greyed-out as if it had been explored but wasn't currently visible.

 

[allism]

Has Firaxis said anything to anybody about fixing this black terrain problem? All I see in these fourms are temp. fixes and workarounds. Is Firaxis still sticking to there story about "its your video card, not are programming"? If there isn't going to be a fix soon, the least I would like to hear is that there working on it.

I sent an email to Take2 this morning, I have not heard back anything, even a "we got your email" reply. There's nothing on the Firaxis support site that indicates that this issue is being addressed.

One guy in another thread said that he spoke to Firaxis tech support and that they were writing it off as a video card issue. I'm not comforted by this - the terrain is able to render, as evidenced by what people can see when the world starts revealing, so I don't see why it wouldn't be resolvable through coding.

 

[joesf35]

I have the latest Omega drivers installed for my Radeon 7500. I played with all the settings and got rid of the cheshire cat and black terrain problem. I turned the '3D custom' options to high performance and the 'Smartgart AGP off'.
I don't feel like restarting my computer 10 more times to figure out which one it is but I hope this helps you guys.

And there is a new problem that you will see when you do it, the terrain is now the opposite of black.....but 3D heads!!

 

[joesf35]

Alright it is the AGP option that makes the heads appear but it now runs slower than a multiplayer game with a dial up connection.

 

[joesf35]

Alright for Omega driver users, turn off advanced graphics processor (AGP), max out performance on mipmap and max out quality on texture preferance. It runs smooth and you can see heads and terrain in white and yellow....as opposed to green and brown. Better then no terrain at all and no heads.

 

[Samtheknight]

I have exactly the same issues , dark terrain, and missing faces.Also , intro movie stutters badly(both sound and graphics)
Here are my specs:

CPU4 2.8GHZ
RAM:512MB
OS:Win XP(SP2)
Graphics Card: Radeon IGP345m 64MB with T&L support
Video card driver version: : 6.14.10.6444

It's a laptop so replacing the video card is not possible. when I ran the test on srtest.com my video card has passed the requirements but for some reason is not good enough to display all the details properly. Is it possible that this might be the software issue that makes it incompatible with certain ATI cards? I badly want to play it but don't want to spent another thousand dollars to get a new laptop, especially if it's the issue with the game itself and not with the video card.

 

[hajoobies]

I think they may come up with a solution, but not in a hurry. Prob have to wait till the official patch is released.

My laptop def dont have TnL, but what bout those built in intel 8**** graphics???

 

[TheJon500]

Ok, so the gist of the T&L problem, from what I can understand, is that it might be a software problem, so that's encouraging. I've got an ATI Radeon IGP 345M (64 mb) in my laptop, and I'm almost positive it's not T&L supported. Is there any hope for laptop users or I'm gonna have to pawn this thing off?

 

[Samtheknight]

Ok, so the gist of the T&L problem, from what I can understand, is that it might be a software problem, so that's encouraging. I've got an ATI Radeon IGP 345M in my laptop, and I'm almost positive it's not T&L supported. Is there any hope for laptop users or I'm gonna have to pawn this thing off?

I'm pretty sure it is T&L supported, it's not that old(approx year and a half old)srtest.com website also says that it supports T&L as well. Only downside is that there are no driver upgrade available for that model.Last driver was released almost 15 months ago. I hope patch if it would be eventually released would somehow make this thing work.

 

[Nwoll]

I have the same problem and i can't believe firaxis isn't fixing it! This is so annoying!

 

[Psychopath]

Thought I had something, Edited because its nothing. When you toggle baremap it does light up screen but you cant see any units sry.

 

[amirsan]

I am on the same boat with most people here...

I have an HP Pavilion laptop with Radeon IGP345m 64MB video card. This same exact problem occured for me in Rome Total War. I wonder if there is a way to fix it. I also have no idea whether my card supports T&L (whatever that is) so if someone can let me know how I can find out it would be great.

Btw, all this "temporary" fix and revealing maps is disgusting, it totally strips the game of its strategy and the essense of the game. I cannot even stand thinking of myself playing like that...

I really hope there is a real solution to this soon.

 

[atomicgirl]

I think that depends on how you define playable. I don't consider the existing bug to render it playable as a Civ-type game, any more than I'd consider a car with first gear stripped as drivable - it might get me where I need to go in a pinch, but it would be a hell of an unpleasant experience.

I'll agree with you here. I once drove pinto without 1st or 2nd gear from Massachusetts to New Jersey and this game has a similar feel to it at the moment. Quite frankly, the FOW trick is a really inadequate way to play a game I just dropped $50 on. Of course, that may be because my standards for saying things 'work' has changed since the mid-80's. It's especially annoying because it plays perfectly on my husband's computer and I can see it from where I'm sitting. I feel almost as cheated as the time I waited over a year for the release of the ultra-buggy MOO3.

Anyone else just really want their money back?

 

[joesf35]

Nobody cares about the AGP fix to get rid of the cheshire cat and black terrain?....
I played with AGP off for about 30 minutes and the white terrain problem went away and everything was perfect.

 

[amirsan]

Nobody cares about the AGP fix to get rid of the cheshire cat and black terrain?....
I played with AGP off for about 30 minutes and the white terrain problem went away and everything was perfect.

What do you mean? So you are saying that you had this same problem we have here and then you did the 'ATI Fix' that Firaxis released and after 30 minutes of playing in the dark it all became fine?

 

[GeneralMikeIII]

I really hope they fix this soon. A lot of people seem to have this problem.

 

[FranklinNoble]

I've got the same problem.

What really ticks me off is that I have a Radeon 7500, which, according to the back of the box, IS A SUPPORTED CARD.

Yes, I've tried the Omega driver with AGP off - I see leaderheads and the bleached terrain, but the game moves slow.

If I turn AGP on, I get black terrain. I can use the "reveal map" workaround, but that's basically cheating. Still get dentures and eyeballs for leaderheads, and there's a permanent state of dusk over the map.

This is programatically fixable, and Firaxis needs to address this immediately.

 

[RoboPig]

I can use the "reveal map" workaround, but that's basically cheating. .

Whats the reveal map workaround? i have the same problem, chesire cat leaders and pitch black terrain

 

[rbis4rbb]

I don't have a space for another graphics card. Do I need a new computer?

 

[darren32]

yeah...im having the exact same problems as everyone eles...ive been trying to call take 2 for the past 2 days but i never go through...i know what there going to say anyway...im fine for now with making the whole map visible but when i try to edit the file it wont let me type...its just like a url page, please help (sorry im a moron)