Black

[Titankid]

ok, so I FINALLY get around to getting Civ IV,(I've been playing civ faithfully since civI but i just got back stateside, so I just got it) and I take it home for a awesome afternoon, I install it no problems, says I have all of the requirements which i should anyways b/c I always play game on this laptop, and i go to play it, and all of the terrain is black... not just like shroud, but black... i can see units, and i can see like the outlines of rivers and trees, but i can't even see water.. my mini map is in color like it should be, and if i scroll all the way out i can see the lay of the land, but this is obvisously no way to play the game.. i can't even see cultural borders... any ideas? I reinstalled it, but same thing happened and rebooting didn't help either.. neither did adjusting the screen resolution or color...

 

[Zanmato]

Your laptop video card needs to support hardware TnL (transform/lighting) in some way or you will get 'black' effect. Most laptops have integrated graphics and most of these sadly don't support this feature, like Intel GMS family chipsets. There is very little you could do about other than try the game on another machine.

 

[The Great Apple]

Have you tried downloading the patch? I don't know if it'll help, but it might.

In game go to advanced --> check for updates.

 

[MrCynical]

Try patching the game to 1.61. That fixes this in many cases.

 

[Titankid]

Where do I have to save it to or doesn't it matter?

 

[Zanmato]

If you patch through the game 'Check for updates', it will download and install itself and update the game. A copy of the patch will moved to 'My Games/Sid Meier's Civ4/Patch/'.

 

[Titankid]

Unfortunatly that didn't work... I downloaded it but just to junk or whatever last night, and then when i went into in game and hit "check for updates" it said that the game was fine and that there were non avaliable at this time so it must have upgraded, but it is still black. How can i tell what kind of video card i have on the laptop? It's a Sony Vaio with windows xp.

 

[Zanmato]

Post your DxDiag log, got to 'Start' > 'Run..' > Type [Dxdiag] without the [ and ] and then 'Save all information' then attach the text file you just saved to you next post. Chances are you have an Intel video chipset.

 

[abruke]

I bought Civ IV last night, and find I have the same 'black screen' problem. I'm not on a laptop, though..I'm on a Dell desktop, only 3 yrs old, and although I've had the occasional problem with Civ III (crashing), I've never been this frustrated! I deleted programs, unloaded and re-loaded, all to know avail...the intro 'stutters' as it plays, then when gameplay starts, the black screen is there (same symptoms-I can see the vauge outline of rivers, etc.)
I haven't tried any patch yet, and I'm a bit afraid to as I am close to computer illiterate (at least when it comes to patches and installing them..)
Has anyone successfully fixed this particular problem?

 

[The Great Apple]

Welcome to CFC!

The patch may or may not fix it. It's definately worth a try.

If you go to "advaned --> check for updates" from the main menu it should begin downloading, and automatically install itself.

 

[abruke]

Great Apple: Thank you for the welcome!...

And thanks for the patch suggestion...I hesitated to do it at first, but figuring
I had nothing to lose anyway, I downloaded it, and (crossed fingers) so far it
seems to be working! I got a screen that said the game was readjusting itself since I was running under the min. requirements (I'm guessing it meant my video card, as I'm running on a Dell w/2.2 gHz and 512 SDRAM, but it is 3 yrs old), but it worked! The opening intro still stutters while playing, but for now, I'm up and running!

 

[Michelangelo]

I got the same problems but b/c of the patches I can play allright. The movie stuttering happens to me to, but there are movie files available, at low resolution, at the Firaxis site, and prob here in the civfanatics too. Haven't tried them yet, but they are supposed to help on our machines.

If you have the black terrain, try going to the worldbuilder and back again. I don't recall completely if you have to do anything in the worldbuilder, but you could look at the reveal fog of war. If you can see terrain then, the patches might work. They did for me.