ATI Graphics Card Owners: re FAILED TO INITIALIZE RENDERER

[Rayanth]

I think what's the most depressing about this is that Firaxis and Take 2 knew about this problem and decided to do nothing about it. As far as I know, ATI still has a resonably good percentage of the market share, I also know that if I created a piece of software that didn't work on 33% of the machines it was supposed to, I would be fired.

As a sidenote, after reinstalling the 5.10 drivers, I tried changing the resolution on my computer to 1024x768 before starting the game. Although it still did not load, displaying the 'Failed to initialize renderer' message, it did not flicker back and forth into full screen mode.

Actually, they didn't know about this. They tested the Beta on many machiens running various ATi cards and this issue never came up. It has only appeared in the Gold/Production version... which they could not have tested before it hit store shelves.

It's the first they've heard of this issue, and I am actually workign DIrectly witht hem on helping them learn how to fix it. Stay tuned, and believe me, we are doing everything we can to find a fix.

 

[Iskan]

May be. I still have no files, according to DxDiag, with today's timestamp, no matter how many times I run the DXSETUP on the Civ DVD.

ATI Radeon 9550. I reinstalled DirectX from MS site, and timestamps show today's date.
Not working.

 

[Kitran]

So I've removed any traces of the ATI drivers, and installed the DirectX from the Civ CD and still no joy. I keep getting the initialize error. Grr! I just wanna play! Oh, and don't bother calling Take2 support, they'll just hang up on you.

Oh, running an X800 XT card with a 2.4 ghz 64-bit proc and Windows XP Pro SP2, 1 gig of RAM

 

[Niramas]

I wish I could figure out how to delete this message....

 

[fresca]

In hopes this helps:

Card name: RADEON IGP 345M
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RS200M AGP (0x4337)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4337&SUBSYS_8175104D&REV_00
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Sony Notebook LCD (1280x800)
Monitor Max Res: 1280,800
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6458 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 7/10/2004 21:37:00, 207360 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes

Sony VAIO laptop.

It works for me.

 

[Jayseki]

Hey Kitran, just keep trying! i finally got through to someone (after 2 hours of being repeatedly told to call back "later" (i was told everything from 1/2 hour to tomorrow morning)) anyway the dude said they thought it was to do with a program/network/somethingamajig by MS called dotnet. i am so dumb when it comes to software, but thats what the guy said ( the one i could understand- some of those guys have the thickest UK accents ive ever heard!) anyhoo, i got a complaint # and supposedly they are going to send out a batch email when theyve fixed the problem. although the guy i talked to first told me to expect it with in and hour or so, when i called back a few hours later, they told me they are shooting for 9 am est.(i had to call sevral times to finally get someone who didnt hang up on me immediately).
let me just say this- I AM SO FRUSTRATED+DISAPPOINTED!!!!!!
ive waited months for this, so WTH!!!! also in response to Rayanth who said

It has only appeared in the Gold/Production version... which they could not have tested before it hit store shelves

why on earth couldnt they have tested it b4 it hit the shelves? deadline?
anyway, i was in the store when the game came in, waiting, and now ive been sitting at home bored with a whole $%^$% day i set aside for this

very very very disheartening

 

[rtilley]

Here's what I'm running. I plan to get a copy of the game today after work (East Coast). I'll post my experience to this thread... good or bad. At first, I was going to wait a week or so to get the game, but if I can reproduce a bug and help speed up a patch, then I'll do it today!!! I'm sure it'll be worked out soon

Manufacturer Gigabyte GV-R955256D
Chipset ATI RADEON 9550
Memory 256 MB
Memory Bus 128 bit
Memory Type DDR 16Mx16
PCB Form ATX
BUS AGP 8X
D-SUB Y
TV-OUT Y
DVI Port Y (DVI-I)
VIVO No
MultiView Y
Tools V-Tuner II

Driver from Catalyst Ver. 5.5

The above fails with the renderer error. So, I got the latest ati drivers and their catalyst removal tool. I reomoved all of the old driver components with their removal tool and then installed the latest version (5.10)... same error as before. Someone screwed up here in a bad way

 

[Jayseki]

Trip, when you are done re-calibrating those warp plasma manifolds, would you please report to the bridge for debrief

 

[FlakMonkey]

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Atlantis

Doesn't work.

This is pretty damn disturbing. I love Sid Meier's games, and Civilization is my favorite game of all time. I had butterflies in my stomach all week over this, and then I get home to find the little brown box on my front porch, thanks FedEx. But when I install the game, I find that fate keeps us apart for a while longer. Please, someone give me a time frame as to when we can expect these problems to be fixed. I'm really looking forward to whoring this game, and tomorrow is the only good chance for a gaming session I'll be getting for quite a while. Thanks.

 

[pf1085]

I can't get past the pick a leader screen, when i try to pick a civ...it crashes and needs a hard re-boot. Was able to get past it once, to the formation of the world video and it crashed again...

!@#!@#!@# Frustrating....

Dell 600m laptop
Pentium M 1.4 GHz, 767 Mb RAM
Win XP SP2

Mobility Raedon 9000
VRAM 64 mB
3D accl, HW T&L

Video Driver 6.13.10.6279

 

[Pushead]

VisionTek Xtacy 9200 series
Uses ATI driver 6.14.10.6530

Windows 2000 SP 4.

The game works, but the intro movie was glitchy, the audio cut out several times, and it looked very pixelated. It plays, but seems very slow with the unit animations. It also froze during the tutorial.

 

[Jayseki]

this sucks out loud-its so great to know that you cant just go to the store and buy a game for 50$ and expect it to work w/o a degree in programming and a high level of social engineering. i agree, someone screwed up bad, most likely multiple people
^@#^&&@#$%!&^# computers ^%^#%%^^&** rushed deadlines
#$%@%^&^ world (j/k)

 

[Zero_Kool]

FYI.......

Powercolor Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB 400MHz

Didn't work with Catalyst 5.7, upgraded to 5.10.
Initally had the .dll error, never got to the splash screen. It was trying to launch from the 1st disk as the play disk, but after the upgrade it wanted disk 2.
Now working.

 

[Jayseki]

dont you mean you DOWNgraded?

 

[Black_death]

Radeon x700
catalyst 5.10
2.5ghz pentium 4
1 gig ram
NO FING LUCK!
Ive seriously been planning this entire week around this game, and between problems with amazon delivering it and the fact that it wont run this is the most difficult game ive ever encountered. Initially it would run a bunch of jarbled snown on the screen with some noise, but after i upgraded the driver it just never shows anything/crashes to desktop after Initengine. Initializing error be damned. WTH fireaxis? i told my mother to buy this game i was so excited. i feel extremely betrayed.

 

[harbourn]

dont you mean you DOWNgraded?

No, he means upgraded. 5.10 means FIVE dot TEN, indicating the 10th subversion of version 5. 10 is greater than 7, thus, upgrade.

 

[doronron]

Those of you having problems, are your ATI cards the XT variants of their types, or not (ie x800 XT)?

It seems the trend here and on Apolyton is that the XT variants are the ones failing to render. Those who own the Pro variants can run Civ IV out of the box.

 

[Jayseki]

so it was really version 5.07, not version 5.7? because guess what? 5.7 is greater than 5.10

 

[Jayseki]

btw my card is a radeon 9550, no XT

 

[Jayseki]

sry harb dont mean to be rude this is just so horrifyingly exasperating. i coulda bought liberty city stories for my PSP, and i bet a million $ IT would worked on my PSP. but nooooooo, here i am bored as hell and still no official word from firaxis on WTH is up, when they will fix it, or what. and naturally, nothing on any of the "official" sites even acknowledges that there is a problem (they dont want to scare away customers i expect). civ3 and pirates both run smoth as silk on my comp.