A Unique Problem?

[cpnichol]

Hello,

I've had numerous graphical problems with Civ 4, the majority I've either sorted or the patch did. Except for multicoloured lines and triangles flashing across the screen all the time (see screenshots). I've searched through this forum and not found anyone with similar problems, does anyone else have this? and can anyone help?

It really is annoying and makes playing for any length of time hard on the eyes.

Please help

CP

 

[AlfMaster]

Havent had this problem. first I've seen of it, but I havent been browsing this forum that much. Will tell if I find anything. Good luck

 

[gunnergoz]

Please post your system specs, thanks.

 

[cpnichol]

AMD Athlon 2400 (2ghz)
Nvidia GeForce MX4000 128mb
512mb RAM
Plenty of HD space
Windows xp

The only thing not up to recommended specs is probably sound. Just use the on board.

 

[Lahdoz]

Graphic artifacts is what to call that... Last time I had them was because of an overheated video card. This can also be causes by an unstable power supply, incorrect AGP slot voltage, or a BIOS in need of updating.

 

[rebby]

I have the same problem only much much worse (the artifacts look the same but covers the entire screen).

ONLY happens when I access the diplomacy screen and goes away when I manage to exit (by blindly clicking and hoping to exit the diplomacy screen). Wonders movies also causes the same thing.

Athlon 1.8+
1 gig RAM
6600GT 128M

(only ran into problems after I upgraded to the 6600GT from an old 4200)

All other 3D accelerated games works just fine.

 

[DeyofAlgiers]

Ive had it! I think it has something to do with the graphics card. When a worker or another unit moves between different squares theres a little tail animation that moves behind it. It is supposed to disappear but I think your video card isnt removing it or something like that. I have a Nvidia GeForce 5200.

 

[rebby]

Ok, that's really wierd.

Turning everything to LOW (render quality, textures, &c - but not checking low resolution textures on the right hand side) solves my problem.

I'm not convinced that its a heat issue - HL2, FarCry, Max Payne 2, and Dawn of War all work fine - and the graphical issues in Civ4 only arise when I'm in a menu and goes away if I can exit from the menu (sometimes there's still residual texture corruption).

Well, at least it's playable now.

 

[bio_hazard]

I have the black terrain- and noticed that automated units (workers or units I accidentally set to patrol or something) moving around leave streaks that disappear. I think its kinda cool

the original poster has a different problem- if you look closely you see at least some of the streaks originate from corrupted icons or text. I've only had stuff like that when the game crashes- screen either goes completely black or else the whole screen becomes corrupted, often centered around a city where I was trying to do something).

I've found my crashes to be somewhat unpredictable- sometimes after only 15-20 min, but other times i've played close to 2 hrs. I've had many fewer crashes by preemptively saving/quitting, and remembering to delete the cache.

 

[-Warmonger-]

I have that same problem... only on certain games, and only when I scroll to a certain spot on the map do those appear. I have no idea what causes it, but it isn't present on all maps, just some of them. And I know it isn't an overheating vid card because I have checked into that and other high graphics games play flawlessly. Any ideas anyone?

My specs:
Pentium 4 2.8 MHz HT
2048 MB RAM
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
Latest drivers for everything

 

[Phoenixlord]

i've got the same problem and it is not from the graphics card overheating for my laptop never gets hot. so i look at the log files it shows that various images are not unloading correctly they are begin forced to unload which is leaving behind these graphic artifacts

specs
Alienware
P4 2.81 Ghz
1280 MB ram
ATI 9600 Pro 128 MB

 

[cpnichol]

Thanks for all the responses. I wasn't really expecting many.

I don't think it's to do with overheating, as the problem occurs as soon as I load civ 4 straight after turning my comp on. And I have no problems with any other games.

Corrupted graphics or texts seems to be the problem (see screenshot). They seem to be worse when moving from one location to another or when the diplomacy screen appears. But they will still occur to a lesser extent when nothing is moving or changing (see screenshots).

I'll try changing the in game settings, but I have already changed those. I've also updated graphics card driver. Any other ideas?

CP

 

[AlfMaster]

I have the black terrain- ... after only 15-20 min, but other times i've played close to 2 hrs. I've had many fewer crashes by preemptively saving/quitting, and remembering to delete the cache.

You PLAY with the black terrain.

I commend you

 

[vanionBB]

This could be fried video ram. I have seen this type of thing before on other games with an ATI 9200 that was overclocked too far and permanently damaged. The artifacts were sort of the same. I would suggest testing your current configuration with a different video card.

 

[-Warmonger-]

I tried with the vid card I pulled out of my other computer, a GeForce 6200, same thing happened, and that card is fairly new, not overclocked. I don't think they both would be bad cards.

 

[MacDeepBlue]

I just came to the forums to post the same problem. I have a brand new AMD 64 3800+
e-GeForce 6600 LE
1 gig of ram
no sound card (it is not yet compatible with xp 64)
playing the 1.09 patch
and running on xp 64

I thought maybe it was the opporating system as I could not find anyone else with the problem. It seems to inititate for me with diplomacy and when I scroll to certain points on the map. The problem goes away (temporarily) when I save and reload. And there might be a corolation with the problem and large or huge maps as when I played on a smaller map there was no problem but now I have that problem. The wonder movies also are choppy and occasionally the game just exits with a windows error, but that is usually when the wierd graphics problem is happening. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix it?

 

[bio_hazard]

@AlfMaster,
I've only actually completed one game (the GOTM). If I'm just messing around I'll reveal the map using the world-builder, which lets me see all the terrain but obviously takes away some of the surprise.

 

[rebby]

I thought that I had "fixed" things by turning down all the graphical settings to low. Well, that didn't last long.

I upped the AGP aperture (from BIOS) to 128 from 64 - things got worse. Lowered it to 32 and made sure fast write was disabled.

Viola - even at the top graphical settings, I don't get the corrupted graphics anymore, even when accessing menus and diplomacy screens.

Now, I just get random crashes (lockups, can still mouse, alt-tab works and I'm presented with a "civ has to terminate, blah blah, do you want to create a dump file?" Tried installing the newest version of python, still random crashes. Sigh - back to the drawing board.

 

[cpnichol]

Well it's been at least 3 months since contacting customer support and I still have the same problem. If anything it is worse now since I upgraded to 1.52. Customer support haven't been much use, 1 generic email that everyone seemed to get, 2 emails saying the same thing (empty temp folder, make sure nothing else is running) and 1 saying you have been passed to level 2 support.

This is the most bug infested game I have ever had the misfortune of spending my parents hard earned money on, and I bought Daggerfall!.

(sarcastic)

CP

 

[Zydor]

Please post your dxdiag and we can have a look

Regards
Zy