Explanation Needed on Black Terrain

[Saloth Sar]

To the technical wizard who runs this page:

I have been looking at this forum, and I have noticed that there are many people like myself who have the same problem. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a clear explanation for this problem on this website.

Notably, the problem for many of us, is that the game runs, we can see cities, animals, and units, but we cannot see the terrain. In particular, the terrain does not clear up from darkness when the map is explored. However, in my case, I loaded the American Revolution scenario and I am able to see all terrain features.

Thus, I would like to know if threre is something wrong with the game, or are our systems not up to date? Is there a patch which can correct this problem? Is a new video card necessary?

Again, in my case, I have a NIVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X graphic card. I have 54.6GB of free space on my computer, and I have Windows XP Service Pack 1, with 512 MB of Ram and a Pentium 4 CPU. I, therefore, believe that I have all of the system's requirements.

As I result, I would like to know what is wrong. I have un-installed and re-installed the game twice, but to no avail. Would anyone please let me know what I might need to do to correct the problem? In addition, it would be nice to see a clear link for all, that gives a diagnosis of this problem.

Thank you for your time and attention.

 

[MrCynical]

Firstly, have you downloaded patch 1.52? If you're still on 1.0 then you're much more likely to have this problem. Black terrain was a very common problem when the game was released due to people having graphics cards that didn't have, or for some reason weren't using TnL. However this was fixed in patch 1.09. The graphics card is the same as the one on my computer, and Civ 4 is running without the black terrain problem on patch 1.52, so it probably isn't that if you're using that patch.

If you have, then have you tried switching to low res textures? These are rather ugly, but should show up properly on just about any computer.

 

[Saloth Sar]

Dear Mr. Cynical

Thank you for your response. It was quite helpful. Now that I downloaded the patch, the game actually works.

It is strange that the game would be put on the market and require the patch in order to play it. Nevertheless, I am excited that it works now.

To all those concerned: if you are searching the website here and have encountered the same black terrain problem, try downloading patch 1.5 if you have not done so.

 

[Backstageben]

thsnks for that advice, but I got the patch as soon as I got the game and still can't see anything but units and trees and coasts and such?!? my comp is less then a year old and I use it for CAD and Photoshop so you would think the video card would be up to snuff... any further ideas?

 

[patweb]

Dear Mr. Cynical

Thank you for your response. It was quite helpful. Now that I downloaded the patch, the game actually works.

It is strange that the game would be put on the market and require the patch in order to play it. Nevertheless, I am excited that it works now.

To all those concerned: if you are searching the website here and have encountered the same black terrain problem, try downloading patch 1.5 if you have not done so.

Happens all the time noadays. It seems that the additional funding provided by the sales revenue is needed to finish QA. Heck, now they are selling the 'boxes' long before the game is even finished. If you are lucky, the game you bought will sell well enough to fund the necessary patches to make it actually work. If you aren't, you are like me and bought Microprose MTG, Pool of Radiance, and other such peices of utter garbage (Meat Puppets comes to mind as well).

 

[Backstageben]

sorry I didn't post any tech info, I have an ADM processor, I guess faster then a P4, and over 160gb of free space but I don't know where to find the data on any of the other stuffe, so if it makes a diff let me know but I do run photoshop and CAD on here if that matters. and I have the 1.52 patch. thanks in advance.