black tiles in C2C

[dusckr87]

4. Which makes me come to the conclusion that it HAS to be the graphics card, whether it be a brand NEW graphics card, or an older one, its just a darn "LEMON." Its the only thing it could be, period.(

Except it only happens with certain SVNs in my case, and not with others. That can't be the graphics card. As AIAndy said, it is all (pseudo)random.

 

[Taxman66]

I have some new information to add. Hopefully it might help someone either to find a fix or whatever.

Today I put Civ IV, BTS & C2C (and Fall from Heaven 2) onto my Win7 64 bit machine (with Nvidia GTS 450 card). The only hiccup I had was that I had to install the Civ4 patches manually before installing BTS (it failed attempting the patches on its own).

Afterwards C2C ran just fine (and holy fast boot ups... The first time was under 4 minutes and subsequent ones even faster 1.5 - 2 minutes. A big difference than the 9 minute wait on my old XP machine).

Later in the day I discovered that my graphics driver had an update yesterday. So I went and installed that (on both machines).

Afterwards I got the black tiles on my Win7 machine (although I could see the forests and presumably other terrain features).

After a moment of panic...
1) I cleared the C2C cache (but not the BTS cache), then rebooted the machine (Installing the graphics driver on Win7 did not require a reboot like it does on XP).

2) Since I didn't know how to 'repair .net' which I kept seeing as a possible soloution, I googled it. I ran into two MS web sites. The first was a .Net framework repair tool. a) I ran that it repaired a couple things and then told me to reinstall the problem .net program/attachment. b) So I looked around some more and got a link on MS that had three files for the latest update (NDP-40-KB2468871-v2-x86.exe; -x64.exe & -IA64.exe). The instructions said to download the 'appropriate version'. Of course there was nothing saying which was the appropriate version so I made an educated guess at the -x64.exe and ran that. c) I continued with the repair tool and it found something else to repair. Continued again and it said if it didn't work it would direct me to some tech support forum.

I retried C2C and it was fixed! (huzzah, huzzah)

Not sure what step it was that fixed the issue. My guess is the graphics card has its own sort of cache that isn't emptying properly.

 

[jjake101]

Does anyone have a simple Step by step guide to solve this problem with version 26.
I tried turning the Graphics from High to Medium to Low and it didn't do anything

here's a pic
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=331213&d=1347707834

 

[KingArthur666]

Well, this is interesting. I've never had this black terrain problem in previous versions, but just updated to v26 on the svn this morning and black terrain. I've read the last couple pages here so I'm going to fiddle around with some of these "solutions" but frankly it may not be worth my time. I might go back to playing something else while this problem is worked on and a real solution is found.

 

[strategyonly]

Does anyone have a simple Step by step guide to solve this problem with version 26.
I tried turning the Graphics from High to Medium to Low and it didn't do anything

here's a pic
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=331213&d=1347707834

Well, this is interesting. I've never had this black terrain problem in previous versions, but just updated to v26 on the svn this morning and black terrain. I've read the last couple pages here so I'm going to fiddle around with some of these "solutions" but frankly it may not be worth my time. I might go back to playing something else while this problem is worked on and a real solution is found.

Again the best solution if not getting a better graphics card is: Get Microsoft.Net 4 and do a repair, delete the Custom Assets (folders inside) first, then it will ask for a re-start do that, then load C2C, and see if it still does it, if not, just stop C2C and re-start it but this time holding down the shift key that should do it.

 

[Taxman66]

Simplier version from my post above.

1. Delete the Cache folder under Caveman2Cosmos\Assets folder (anyway the cache folder underneath caveman2cosmos.

2. Reboot

3. Run .Net repair program found here

4. Install the latest .Net upgrade. The one I found on Microsoft's website had 3 versions (NDP-40-KB2468871-v2- x86.exe; x64.exe; IA64.exe I guessed my 64bit machine used the x64.exe since I couldn't find any information on which was right for me)

5. Retry C2C (optionally reboot before this).

 

[jjake101]

Thanks for trying to help me out i hope "Black tiles" permanently fixed for version 27. (You could have a 2 or 3 month public beta where people can report things like black tiles and you could try and fix it for the final release)

 

[dusckr87]

Thanks for trying to help me out i hope "Black tiles" permanently fixed for version 27. (You could have a 2 or 3 month public beta where people can report things like black tiles and you could try and fix it for the final release)

Except it's not that simple. The problem appears not to be the versions itself, but a particular version with a particular computer. No one has the same problems at the same time. For example, the solution above about deleting the cache in C2C (rather than the cache in AppData\Local\My Games\BTS, which is the one I delete when I have problems) won't work if it happens on the very first run, as that folder isn't even created until the game is run at least once. The whole .NET framework thing, while it may help others, doesn't do a thing for me (either leaving it alone works, or messing with it screws things up). It is so inconsistent that hoping to find something that works for everybody all the time is a lost cause. I'm even inclined to believe that all the "solutions" above are really just coincidences.

 

[WimpyTheWarrior]

4. Install the latest .Net upgrade. The one I found on Microsoft's website had 3 versions (NDP-40-KB2468871-v2- x86.exe; x64.exe; IA64.exe

For anyone curious, "x86" is the standard naming convention for 32 bit software, from the old days of the 386 processor. "x64" is for Intel/AMD 64 bit chips, and IA64 is for Itanium chips, which I have only seen on servers.

 

[KingArthur666]

Except it's not that simple. The problem appears not to be the versions itself, but a particular version with a particular computer. No one has the same problems at the same time. For example, the solution above about deleting the cache in C2C (rather than the cache in AppData\Local\My Games\BTS, which is the one I delete when I have problems) won't work if it happens on the very first run, as that folder isn't even created until the game is run at least once. The whole .NET framework thing, while it may help others, doesn't do a thing for me (either leaving it alone works, or messing with it screws things up). It is so inconsistent that hoping to find something that works for everybody all the time is a lost cause. I'm even inclined to believe that all the "solutions" above are really just coincidences.

I concur about the whole coincidences thing. I've tried all this stuff to no avail. I'm inclined to believe some sort of bug has been introduced in the start up of the program which is causing this black terrain stuff.

 

[Taxman66]

All I know is that it appeared after I updated my driver on my Windows7 machine. It went away after my steps. Might've simply been the reboot (Win7 doesn't seem to require a reboot after video driver update like XP does). Might've been something simple as clearing out the video card's own cache.

You could also try reloading your video drivers and reboot.

 

[crazyewok]

Im getting it too. Its happening randomly. Im in the middle of a enternity game on a large terra map. It was running smothly but now sometimes when I load my game up this happens. 1st time it happend after I closed the game down for the night. Reloaded in morning and this bug hit. Restarted the laptop and game twice and it cleared up.

Secound time the game just crashed (no error warnings) then after loading the last save game the black tile bug hit. It dosnt seem to be to do with my currnet game as I started a new game to test it and its still happening.

Running:
windows 7 64 bit.
Intel core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz
6 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 280M

Cause of the size of the save game it wont let me upload but will supply but other means if needed.

 

[strategyonly]

Im getting it too. Its happening randomly. Im in the middle of a enternity game on a large terra map. It was running smothly but now sometimes when I load my game up this happens. 1st time it happend after I closed the game down for the night. Reloaded in morning and this bug hit. Restarted the laptop and game twice and it cleared up.

Secound time the game just crashed (no error warnings) then after loading the last save game the black tile bug hit. It dosnt seem to be to do with my currnet game as I started a new game to test it and its still happening.

Running:
windows 7 64 bit.
Intel core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz
6 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 280M

Cause of the size of the save game it wont let me upload but will supply but other means if needed.

Size has nothing to do with it, cause sometimes i try playing and i get the BT on Play Now "Tiny." Just to see if it works or not. But i know for a fact that SHUTTING off you PC sometimes causes it.

 

[crazyewok]

Size has nothing to do with it, cause sometimes i try playing and i get the BT on Play Now "Tiny." Just to see if it works or not. But i know for a fact that SHUTTING off you PC sometimes causes it.

Also fixes it on my Laptop as shutting it down and reloading fixed it twice now.

 

[jjake101]

Possible solution: Try turning on single unit graphics

 

[strategyonly]

Possible solution: Try turning on single unit graphics

No offense to you on your statement BUT i am not paying $1200.00 for just my tower to play on less than HIGH graphics. Especially with duo graphics cards.

 

[jjake101]

i retried this and unfortunately it didn't work. I think we can scrap this idea. I'll try again tomorrow

 

[dusckr87]

i retried this and unfortunately it didn't work. I think we can scrap this idea. I'll try again tomorrow

It was already mentioned above anyway, in addition to turning graphics UP. That isn't what it is. If either option works for someone, fine, but my feeling is if it does work it is coincidence.

 

[ls612]

No offense to you on your statement BUT i am not paying $1200.00 for just my tower to play on less than HIGH graphics. Especially with duo graphics cards.

My $700 laptop with Intel HD 4000 (integrated) graphics can use the highest settings with Viewports no problemo, so you don't need to spend that much.

 

[Hanny]

Does anyone have a simple Step by step guide to solve this problem with version 26.
I tried turning the Graphics from High to Medium to Low and it didn't do anything

here's a pic
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=331213&d=1347707834

Try the following when it occurs, open up bug and disable viewports, start a tiny map game and exit, start a huge game and exit, then try your usual settings, it looks like a viewport problem to me as i see it when maps need a new viewport on a wrap around placement area ( cylinder or toridial) and black screen appears from then on for me, but the above clears the problem.