Conquests gfx problem

[syknight]

Ok, this REALLY sucks. I just spent the time to download the 500mb trial of Conquests, and this is what I get.

I have a AMD 2100+, 1GB RAM, and a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro with the latest video and VIA 4-in-1 drivers.

I should mention that regular Civ 3 works just fine, it's just Conquests that is screwed up.

Thanks!

 

[unrestricted1]

I have the same problem, and I have a full copy of conquests. I got these problems after I attempted to install over a trial of gold edition. I did that, because when I attempted to install over my licencsed copy of vanilla the screen would go black and crash to the desktop. I called support, and updated my drivers, and nothing seems to work. Someone please help.
Windows xp 1.5ghz
direct x 9b
20gb free space

 

[Duantalus]

I would recomend uninstalling C3C and Civ III, then deleting the directory they were installed to and reinstall them. Your getting that because the are a bunch of the graphic files out of place, and thats the quickest and easiest way to get them back.

 

[syknight]

I already tried uninstalling civ3. I didn't delete the directory, but when I reinstalled it, I installed it on a completely different drive, so that shouldn't be a problem. I will try again though just to be sure.

Lucky I waited for the free trial before spending my $30 on buying the game!

 

[mshipton]

I have the same problem, haven't seen any solutions yet.

I did a fresh install of Civ 3, Play the World, and then Conquests trial and got the graphics problem.

When Conquests trial was installing it said it couldn't find installation of Civilization 3 which was weird, so i pointed it to the CIV3 folder that the game was installed in. Maybe problem occurred as a result of this?

 

[syknight]

Same here mshipton, it said something about needing the ActiveMark Civilization 3 game version, yet on their web site they say it will work with any version of civ3, civ3 gold, civ3 goty, or whatever.

Because others are having problems, I'm assuming it's due to whatever bastardization ActiveMedia did to their downloadable trial version. I've sent a support request to them to find out.

 

[syknight]

Oh, I'm downloading the ActiveMedia trial version of Civ3, then I'll install the Conquests trial and see if that works. If it does, I'll compare the directory structures and see if anything is missing in terms of graphics or what-have-you as per Duantalus

 

[syknight]

Welp, it's confimed. If you download the Trial of Civ3 from ActiveMedia, then install the trial of Conquests, it works perfectly... now to compare the two and see where ActiveMedia screwed up.

 

[gurge]

I just got the C3C box version and installed it over my trial version of civ3 from Trymedia, and I'm getting a similar problem.

I've been looking at the pcx files in the Civ III\Art folder and most of them obviously dont match the filename. Its like the half the files got randomly renamed and put in a different folder.

 

[mshipton]

Bleh

Civ 3 Conquests downloadable and can purchase over the Net!

Was pretty happy when i first saw this could be done, so much for that with this stupid Trymedia version. Good thing they have a money back guarantee. Now i have to wait till the PC stores in my area get the game in which will be ages if my experience with waiting for Play The World is anything to go on.

Why did they have to make it different? WHHHHYYYYYYYY!?!?!

 

[syknight]

Man these guys are real twits, I have no idea what they did to all the art files, but they went on a massive breaking spree.

If you take all the civ3\art files from the trial version, and move them over the ones installed by the retail civ3 version, then the graphics in retail civ3 are completely broken.

I'm just giving up, this could take me forever to figure out and it's really not worth my time.

 

[gurge]

This might be easier to fix than it looks. From what I can tell, only the files in Art\Interface , Art\Advisors , and the Art\ open directory have been corrupted.

At least thats whats wrong in my case. Skynight, my screen doesnt look exactly like yours but its similar with pictures and backgrounds from other parts of the game in the wrong places. At the very least I can tell that your Advisors and Interface directorys are mixed up. I suspect we have the the same files mixed up, just in a different way.

Anyway the corrupted files total just under 16MB, so I'm thinking if we can find someone with some webspace and uncorrupted files (from a box version of Civ3 i assume) we just download them and we should be ok.

 

[gurge]

I just read your post again skynight and it sound like you have the retail civ 3 also, right? Do you have any webspace to upload the directories I listed? If not I have some unused space and I can email you the password.

Ok I just realized my solution wont work for you skynight because I have the trial civ3/ retail conquest and you vice versa. What should work for you is this:

Install trial Civ3, copy the Art folder to a different location, then uninstall.
Install retail Civ3, followed by trial Conquests.
Take the copied Art folder and overwrite it to Civ3\Art.
That should give you the mixed up interface and advisor pictures to go along with whatever screwed up picture locator program the trail versions use.

 

[syknight]

Gurge, this doesn't work. When I copy the art folder from civ3 trial to civ3 retail, all the graphics in civ3 retail are completely messed up - worse than the Conquests screenshot I posted.

I got a reply from Atari, and other than the standard "cut and paste" reply (you know, update your gfx drivers and do a lot of other things that don't apply to the problem), they basically said it wasn't their problem and I should talk to Trymedia.

You'd think Atari would get on this issue like a wet noodle - if one of their games doesn't work, most people think to crap on Atari, not Trymedia....

 

[gurge]

Yes it will mess up gfx when playing civ3 retail, but it should make your trial Conquests work when installed over retail civ3.

Basically it looks like the trial Civ3 mixes up some pcx file locations. That is, all the file names are in the correct places, but the picture under those names are totally wrong. Like the pictures of Ceasar in all the different moods and eras should be called CE_all.pcx in the Advisors folder. In the trial Civ3 there is indeed a file called CE_all.pcx in the Advisors folder, but when you view it its a part of the lower right info box. The pictures of Ceasar is actually in the open Art directory under the name exitBox-backgroundStates.pcx.

Somehow the trial versions (Civ3 and Conquests) can make sense of this which is why they work together. In my case, the retail Conquests is looking for the files where they should be, but finding the screwed up trial Civ3 files. In your case the trial Conquests is looking for the screwed up files but finds the correctly installed retail Civ3 file.

But if what I said doesnt fix Conquest for you there must be more going on.

I've managed to mostly fix Conquests for me by installing the various graphic modpacks on this site, but some files will have to be manually renamed and moved. And thats only after I can figure out what the file names mean. PITA but doable. You could try this but I'm pretty sure it wont work for you.

And yes you would think Atari would be concerned the Trymedia is selling a corrupted version of their game. I'll try badgering them both about it and see if I get anywhere.

 

[syknight]

Ah, you're right about it fixing Conquests, but since my 170 hour or so free trial is over, all I got out of it was 5 minutes of play time.

Oh well, I think I'll just go buy the retail version instead of dealing with this crappy trymedia stuff.

Maybe when I'm bored, I'll spend the time looking through the graphic files and figure it all out.. In the mean time, I sent an email to Thunderfall asking him to post a news article explaining the problems with the trial version. It's still not there, but if he can post something it would save people from wasting their time downloading this piece of garbage.

Thanks for the help gurge!

 

[Dill]

*now* I find this thread.... after much searching...

so, did anyone find an easy solution?

 

[lithicus]

Yes, dill, having finally found like-minded problematics, the question for me remains: What can I do?? I mean, for an intermediate-computer-savvy man who doesn't have loads of time to go thru files with a fine-toothed comb, etc.
Thank you for the heads-up to this site, for I do have the same corrupt stuff that the above graphics demonstrated, BUT--
it seems that much of the above messages referred to probs with trial/retail -- and I bought both games (civIII and civIIICon) -- but I bought civIII online, then bought conquests from CompUSA.
And I don't know from all those ART etc files.
Also, it seems that if I uninstalled my online game-- how would I re-install?
Oy I say.
Atari does need to start taking a little responsibility here. They 1st advised me to update my graphics card, but it was already there, and then I got the same line-- basically 'wherever you dl'd from, talk to them.'

 

[Padma]

Unfortunately, in order to D/L the game and get it to run, the game code has to be modified (because by default, it looks for the CD at startup). This modification is done by the company that sells the game online, not by Firaxis/Atari (if I understand the procedure, correctly). So if a D/Led game has/causes a problem that the *normal* game on CD doesn't, chances are it is caused by something done when modifying the game by the third party company.

 

[lithicus]

Thanks for the quick and incisive reply. I'm going to write this off as a less-than-too-expensive lesson in dl gamedom, and do Other Things. Maybe in a while, (mainly another computer, probably), I'll be able to play the damn game.
But I did notice (pardon if this is in any way inappropriate) the Master Sgt ret. I myself am a bugler for military funerals, so if anyone you know needs that service in the NY area, send me a line.
\Thanks again,
Paul Carlin
(lithicus)
paulocarlin@aol.com