Conquests Picky with Video Cards?

[shenryyr]

I've been shifting back and forth between comps and noticed something: Conquests doesn't show up on my screen on this computer. I used the same discs to install Civ3, PTW, and Conquests on all three computers, and the other two computers can play all three games just fine. But on this computer, when I open Conquests, all I get is a black screen. The game is running, because if I hit a few buttons I can get a game started. Nothing shows up on the screen, though. Weirder, is that Civ3 and PTW both play fine on this computer.

I know the Conquests disc is okay because it loads on the other computers without problems. I've tried uninstalling Civ3, PTW, and Conquests from this computer completely, then reinstalled them all, and still the same problem persists.

I can only guess, but does Conquests have different video requirements than Civ3 & PTW?

1 + 1 + 1 == ... 2?

 

[Gojira54]

It is more picky than previous versions. When I got C3C I had the same problem. Try upgrading your video cards drivers to support the latest version DirectX.

I have a 16 MB Voodoo 3 PCI. Unfortunately updating its drivers was a bit trickier since Voodoo is no longer around. I found a hacker site dedicated to providing "homegrown" drivers for this now defunct company.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I have a Nivida TNT Model 64 32 MB Gfx card. Not very good, but runs Conquests like a charm.

 

[torrasque]

I have a Matrox Millenium G200 with 8 MB VRAM. It plays pretty well, although the text is occasionally mutilated.

[see attached pic for example]

It makes diplomacy a biatch





torrasque

 

[shenryyr]

Amesjustin--

Done and done. Thanks for the suggestion, they were out of date! But conquests still comes up black, with the music playing. The intro movie shows, but the menu does not. Civ3 and PTW both come up properly.

The card is a 64mb geforce 4 mx 420.

 

[Gojira54]

Originally posted by shenryyr
Amesjustin--

Done and done. Thanks for the suggestion, they were out of date! But conquests still comes up black, with the music playing. The intro movie shows, but the menu does not. Civ3 and PTW both come up properly.

The card is a 64mb geforce 4 mx 420.

Then I don't know what to tell you other than Atari put up some help for people having this problem on their site. Check there.

 

[Goober]

Works fine with my Nvidia GeForce 64 Mb. Of course, everything does. Nvidia's rule!!!

 

[shenryyr]

I wonder what's wrong, then. Went to Atari's site and did everything they suggested- disabling everything in the startup list in msconfig, making sure nothing extra is running in the applications and processes tabs of the task manager.

Filling out the form to mail Atari now. They must have answers hidden away in a lockbox in siberia....

 

[billwagnon]

shenryyr -

I think I'm having the same problem you are. Have you solved it? I have the Nvidia 64 geforce card too.

Game starts with splash screen, flashes to black a couple times and dies.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[yu173023]

shenryyr,
I had the exact same problem with the black screen on load-up (I could hear the game's music playing and knew it was running okay). I fixed it by loading a specific driver for MY specific monitor model into the "device manager." Prior to this, I had some generic driver provided automatically by Windows from when it first detected the monitor, and I was experiencing the same problem that you described above. After putting in the specific driver for my monitor, all problems were solved.
I hope this works for you---It's really hard to find some monitor-specific drivers, so good luck. Please keep us posted about your results, since I'm sure there may be others that could benefit from this.
Thanks.

 

[Shabbaman]

I had similar problems with my new computer. Then I added the line "refresh=60" added to the conquests ini file and it worked like a charm. Like yu173023, it was more a monitor problem (although it was working fine with my old Voodoo III, but not with my new Geforce 4...).

 

[DJMGator13]

Have you tried posting this question in the tech support forum here at Civfanatics? There are a few video card posts in there that might be helpful.

I'm running a Radeon 9000 Pro with 128mb and it works great.