Black Screen after intro videos

[Jansemanse]

Hello All!

I just downloaded the game installed it, set up the Steam account.

When I start the game the following happens:
The intro movies (logo's, movie) play, but the intro movie flickers.
After the intro movie I am greeted with a black screen and a mouse pointer, nothing happens after that.

Hope someone can help me before I loose any more hair :-D

Regards
Jan

Comp: Mac Pro, Dual Xeon 2.26Ghz, 6gb, NVidia GT120 512mb, Mac OSX 10.6.5

 

[scarfhead]

I have the same issue. Game was borked by the last Mac OS update for the following cards:

ATI Radeon HD 5670
NVIDIA GeForce 320 M
NVIDIA 8800
NVIDIA 9600
NVIDIA GT 120

http://support.aspyr.com/index.php/kb/article/000779

Anyone know how to launch the game in windowed mode without being able to change your graphics settings in-game?

 

[ryan123]

I am experiencing the same problems on a first gen Mac Pro 2.4gHz with the ATI Radeon 1900XT w/512MB. I hope this gets fixed quickly - I've been looking forward to this game for ages.

 

[cecilbturtle]

Anyone know how to launch the game in windowed mode without being able to change your graphics settings in-game?

+1

I looked through config.ini, graphicSettingsDX9.ini and UserSetting.ini and couldn't find anything that looked like windowed/fullscreen. I also tried holding down option at launch hoping it might pull up a Mac-specific dialog, but nothing.

Obviously if we can't get beyond the initial black screen it is impossible to set this in the in-game options.

 

[AlanH]

The last four lines in my GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini file have the following data:

FullScreen = 0

FSResID = 0

WindowResX = 1280

WindowResY = 960

FullScreen = 0 means use window mode
FullScreen = 1 means use full screen mode

WindowResX and WindowResY are the window width and height in pixels

I don't know what FSResID is.

 

[Ajax-Rex]

I am experiencing the same problem with the steam civ5 download. The intro movie runs fine for 30 sec or so. Then the cinematic starts to flicker. After the intro is done the screen goes black, I have the game mouse and can hear music, but there is nothing else on screen. In fact, I am locked on this black screen. I can't command-tab out, can't force quit. All I can do is power off my mac and start up again. Here are my system specs:

MacPro Dual Quad Core 3ghz
6gb Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
OSX 10.6.5
Dual Samsung Monitors

At least when the screen goes black and my computer comes to a stop, there is some mildly pleasant game menu music playing in the back ground. Sigh. I was really looking forward to crushing the deceitful Aztecs under my boots tonight.

 

[LanceWeber]

Working Solution:

MBP 9400/9600 here. I had the same issue and was in the middle of fiddling with the diff between my Bootcamp and Aspyr ini's when I saw AlanH's post (Thanks!!).

Steps:
#1) I set my graphics card to Better Battery vs Better Performance per other posts then Logout/Login.

#2) In your home directory, Documents/Aspyr/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini edit the .ini file per AlanH's post. Just copy the four lines he provided and add them to the end of the file.

#3) Ran Civ5 - it still started in fullscreen mode, but the menu screen actually displayed this time.

#4) In Options/Video I unchecked Fullscreen, then exited. Didn't make any other changes - the only allowed resolution at this point was 1024x768.

#5) Restarted Civ and it opened in windowed mode. I was able to configure the screen size to 1920x1080.

I wanted to post this asap - I haven't actually started a game yet! Also TODO: Reset the graphics adapter back to the 9600 and see if it works.

Update:
Game runs great so far! Messing with the graphics settings now to see how far I can max them out. Running on the 9600 now.

 

[Ajax-Rex]

Working Solution:

MBP 9400/9600 here. I had the same issue and was in the middle of fiddling with the diff between my Bootcamp and Aspyr ini's when I saw AlanH's post.

Steps:
#1) I set my graphics card to Better Battery vs Better Performance per other posts then Logout/Login.

#2) Edited the .ini file per AlanH's post. (Thanks!!)

#3) Ran Civ5 - it still started in fullscreen mode, but the menu screen actually displayed this time.

#4) In Options/Video I unchecked Fullscreen, then exited. Didn't make any other changes - the only allowed resolution at this point was 1024x768.

#5) Restarted Civ and it opened in windowed mode. I was able to configure the screen size to 1920x1080.

I wanted to post this asap - I haven't actually started a game yet! Also TODO: Reset the graphics adapter back to the 9600 and see if it works.

I will be the first to admit I know next to nothing how Steam works behind the scenes on my mac. As long as it loads when I double click it I am good. But I am going to assume that Steam users don't have access to the "GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini" file in the above fix and its just for the store bought box owners?

 

[LanceWeber]

I will be the first to admit I know next to nothing how Steam works behind the scenes on my mac. As long as it loads when I double click it I am good. But I am going to assume that Steam users don't have access to the "GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini" file in the above fix and its just for the store bought box owners?

Sorry, I was rushing to post the steps and it probably wasn't very clear. I'm on the Steam version too, and you can easily edit the files. I've updated the instructions, see step 2 above.

 

[Ajax-Rex]

Sorry, I was rushing to post the steps and it probably wasn't very clear. I'm on the Steam version too, and you can easily edit the files. I've updated the instructions, see step 2 above.

Ah, I see it now. Thanks! Now to find the right line to edit...

 

[LanceWeber]

Ah, I see it now. Thanks! Now to find the right line to edit...

Just copy the four lines from AlanH's post and add them to the bottom of the file and you should be good to go.

 

[Ajax-Rex]

Just copy the four lines from AlanH's post and add them to the bottom of the file and you should be good to go.

Well, I just copied and pasted them in and it doesn't seem to be working. The game is still booting in fullscreen. I have tried it a couple of times and its still lockin up me machine. I will double check it and see if I can notice anything out of place. I am also using dual monitors and I don't know how that will affect it so I will try to disable the 2nd monitor and see if it makes a difference.

 

[cecilbturtle]

Well, I just copied and pasted them in and it doesn't seem to be working. The game is still booting in fullscreen. I have tried it a couple of times and its still lockin up me machine. I will double check it and see if I can notice anything out of place. I am also using dual monitors and I don't know how that will affect it so I will try to disable the 2nd monitor and see if it makes a difference.

No joy here either. Still boots in fullscreen and goes to black.

 

[mikuckis]

Sorry for my english

I had the same problem yesterday after download. Actually I found the solution in technical solution in the aspyr website. There are several problems with several video cards after 10.6.5 update. What I did and what helped. Press the command button (left to spacebar) and double click the CIV V shotrchut ( I have created it when were installing the game) Then will pop ups the window where you cane choose windowed mode or change the resolution. I just changed to window mode and then it went good. In the game options I changed back to fullscreen and to my maximum resolution and now it runs without problems relaunching the game. I hope it will help you guys.

 

[cecilbturtle]

Sorry for my english

I had the same problem yesterday after download. Actually I found the solution in technical solution in the aspyr website. There are several problems with several video cards after 10.6.5 update. What I did and what helped. Press the command button (left to spacebar) and double click the CIV V shotrchut ( I have created it when were installing the game) Then will pop ups the window where you cane choose windowed mode or change the resolution. I just changed to window mode and then it went good. In the game options I changed back to fullscreen and to my maximum resolution and now it runs without problems relaunching the game. I hope it will help you guys.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for - I knew there was a way to bring up that dialog somewhere. Unfortunately switching to windowed mode didn't solve the problem for me - I still get the funky screen attached after the intro video with no way forward or back other than force quitting.

 

[mogmismo]

I could watch the intro, then blank (actually, seems my resolution was so off, I could see the menu screen's statue background's knee in the upper left corner)

No luck changing settings in the config files and all the other fixes involving cache files, and the like out there on the Internet (was able to get rid of the intro movie, but screen resolution changes never worked), until I saw what mikukis said:

Press the command button (left to spacebar) and double click the CIV V shortcut

I was able to choose a small resolution and windowed mode, fire up the game, get to the menus, and change the resolution. Now it all works fine.

Here's what that screen looks like:

 

[bkpatterson]

I'm also having the same issue... Intro video plays fine but then I get the black screen and 2 yellow bars either side.

Have done everything noted above, managed to get the preference pane up and ran it in a window at all resolution sizes but without any luck.

As of this moment I am open to suggestions

 

[jasonramalho]

I could watch the intro, then blank (actually, seems my resolution was so off, I could see the menu screen's statue background's knee in the upper left corner)

No luck changing settings in the config files and all the other fixes involving cache files, and the like out there on the Internet (was able to get rid of the intro movie, but screen resolution changes never worked), until I saw what mikukis said:

Press the command button (left to spacebar) and double click the CIV V shortcut

I was able to choose a small resolution and windowed mode, fire up the game, get to the menus, and change the resolution. Now it all works fine.

Here's what that screen looks like:

I can't for the life of me get this to work ... my guess is force windowed mode is shut off in the .plist file witch i can't find .... is there any other way to fix this??? ... it was working fine for me and i had to mess with the rez now i am getting the same as described above ... I can see a bit of the start screen to he right but cant click anything.

I have tried to re-download civ 5 from steam in hopes the settings would return to default but it was the same after a fresh download

Please can anyone shed some light on the situation.

 

[jasonramalho]

man i have tried everything ... i have been at this for 4 hours ... please someone

 

[Ajax-Rex]

Sorry for my english

I had the same problem yesterday after download. Actually I found the solution in technical solution in the aspyr website. There are several problems with several video cards after 10.6.5 update. What I did and what helped. Press the command button (left to spacebar) and double click the CIV V shotrchut ( I have created it when were installing the game) Then will pop ups the window where you cane choose windowed mode or change the resolution. I just changed to window mode and then it went good. In the game options I changed back to fullscreen and to my maximum resolution and now it runs without problems relaunching the game. I hope it will help you guys.

Yep, this fixed it for me. Thanks!

Note: I still have my GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini modified as mentioned in the beginning of this post. I don't know if it works any better when combined with Mikuckis's advice, but for those who aren't having any luck may want to try the two tips together. You can find the GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini file here...

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