Failed to Initialize Renderer

[freeop]

If its something like DX9 that is causing the issue, then presumably people with multi machines all had the same DX9 installed (prior to the arrival of Civ4) and therefore they all have the same problem.

The problem isnt just ATI cards (I dont believe its the cards at all actually) as nVidia users have also reported it.

Now, if everyone with the problem would just answer 1 question: Did you have DX9 on your machine before you bought Civ4? (Dx9 could have been installed by you, another game or by XP SP2). Answers to this could speed up solutions a lot...

Yes I had the Microsoft's DirectX 9.0c installed before installing Civ4.

And when the game disk asked me to install DirectX 9.0c again, I let it do it and had no problems.

And I stiil have the same problem as most others do, the "Failed to Initialize Renderer" message.

 

[Mazruk]

@Storm2380

Did you have DX9 before you installed already? I believe from what you've said that you didn't.

You are also proof that x800xl's actually work.

 

[Mazruk]

Yes I had the Microsoft's DirectX 9.0c installed before installing Civ4.

And when the game disk asked me to install DirectX 9.0c again, I let it do it and had no problems.

And I stiil have the same problem as most others do, the "Failed to Initialize Renderer" message.

In those circumstances, I dont believe it actually replaces the existing DX9 so you are stuck with the crappy MS version of it which doesnt work.

(unfortunately for me, I too have the crappy MS version so I'm hoping to help you guys fix it so when I get the game on 4th Nov it works for me too)

 

[cannedarse]

HOLD ON!!!!!!!!!!! another thought. duhhhhh, as the game seems buggy it could be saying the error but there could be many problems. but now im leanign torwards the directx issue kinda. but others have played and installed it. and now when i tryied to reinstall my game it doesnt even do the dx install.

 

[69king]

I can just imagine the next trailer for Civ4:

Can a computer game be TOO Frustrating?

"By the time I figured out my ATI card wouldn't run the game I was a full blown forum junkie. There were times I would spend 2 or 3 days straight clicking the refresh button waiting for news of a fix or patch. I didn't eat, didn't get up to go to the bathroom." . . .

 

[Librum]

This is infuriating.

Asking us if we had DX9 installed prior? Updated our drivers?

That's phone support speak for 'please get off the phone and try that so I don't have to talk to you anymore'.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, echoing what other folks on this thread have already said:

All our other cutting-edge games work fine, Firaxis, all ten, or a dozen, or twenty of them, so excuse us if we find this drivers/dx9 business a bit hard to swallow.

 

[Storm2380]

@Storm2380

Did you have DX9 before you installed already? I believe from what you've said that you didn't.

You are also proof that x800xl's actually work.

Well, to the best of my knowledge, yes. I'm not 100% sure I had the lastest 9.0c or whatever update (I haven't updated DirectX in the last few months) but I am sure that 9 was on my system, give the other games that I have installed and am (well not NOW since Civ runs) playing.

I'll try to monitor this as I can, but I'm at work so I can't print out DirectX dialogues for you or anything. I'll help as much as possible guys!

 

[noviere]

Did you have DX9 on your machine before you bought Civ4? (Dx9 could have been installed by you, another game or by XP SP2). Answers to this could speed up solutions a lot...

Yes -- I've had it installed for quite a while.

 

[vincenzo7]

i like how if you goto civ4.com today, the headline is CIV4 WALLPAPERS AVAILABLE. Yeah cuz i'm wearin a real big happy CIV4 hat today, so big and happy that i want to look at artwork of a game that i can't play. do i sound bitter?

I hyped this game up big time with 3 of my other friends. Well, they were playin last night without me (NVIDIA). and i do have an nvidia 6800, but it fried while playing day of defeat source just 3 days ago, so i am in the midst of a 2 week turnaround replacement time. lucky me? yeah right.

all told, the latest omega drivers helped load it on my less-than-capable laptop (ATI 9200). when the game loaded george washington was merely a set of eyes and the terrain was all black. so being that much closer made it even worse.

fellow want-to-be-CIV4-fanatics-in-the-worst-way, at the very least we can try to keep each other smiling, so feel free to laugh at my misfortune if it helps. let's stay strong and try to get our money's worth, which in this case, is no more than what was originally expected....the ability to merely play a game we all want to be in awe of.

and you will see me knock all responsible or possibly responsible parties involved until it's fixed. yes i respect the hard work developers put into a game. Yes i understand nothing is perfect when you dont have a common denominator. i went through this crap with Blizzard and WOW only a year ago. and i trashed them then. but once they fixed it, i was a supporter once again.

think of it as tough love. critics and players alike are what keep the gaming industry honest and on their toes. did you read the afterword in the CIV4 manual? well i did. frankly, i had some time to kill. lol. players helped in a big way with this game. we keep them making great and greater games and we keep them looking back at policies and how they can improve. and we keep their pockets full. if you dont please us or enterain us, you fail. right daikatana?

bottom line. you have our 50$ for something we can't play yet. and we're ok with that. we still want to play. we aren't going to return it. at least i'm not. just fix it and we will be happier than hogs in a horsepile hoedown.

seacrest out. i'm shot. need more coffee.

http://digg.com/gaming/Civilization_IV_Plagued_By_Errors_On_Launch_Day

 

[Mazruk]

This is infuriating.

Asking us if we had DX9 installed prior? Updated our drivers?

That's phone support speak for 'please get off the phone and try that so I don't have to talk to you anymore'.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, echoing what other folks on this thread have already said:

All our other cutting-edge games work fine, Firaxis, all ten, or a dozen, or twenty of them, so excuse us if we find this drivers/dx9 business a bit hard to swallow.

Erm, I dont work for Firaxis - but I have got DX9.0c already on my machine and would very much like to know if that is the culprit so I can sort it out for myself before my game arrives on Nov 4th. If YOU dont want my help then fine, but get off my case when I'm trying to help others!

 

[aMillionAndNine]

Just a note on an ATI card that civ4 is working on.

After reading all of the posts yesterday I decided to pick up the game on my way home even though I have an ATI 9800XT. (I know, I am an idiot) I was very suprised when it worked with no problem.

The process:
I am running slightly old drivers (8.10 I think) and I decided to try it on that first.

I had directX 9 installed already but I let civ4 install it.

The install hung on the civilization.exe file probably because of a problem with the cd drive so I switched to my other drive and it install no problem. (And quickly too)

After that I started it and it worked fine. I don't know if that is any help.

 

[Mazruk]

Just a note on an ATI card that civ4 is working on.

After reading all of the posts yesterday I decided to pick up the game on my way home even though I have an ATI 9800XT. (I know, I am an idiot) I was very suprised when it worked with no problem.

The process:
I am running slightly old drivers (8.10 I think) and I decided to try it on that first.

I had directX 9 installed already but I let civ4 install it.

The install hung on the civilization.exe file probably because of a problem with the cd drive so I switched to my other drive and it install no problem. (And quickly too)

After that I started it and it worked fine. I don't know if that is any help.

Can you confirm that it was Dx9.0c (specifically) that you already had? Or was it an older Dx9?

 

[Prince James I]

Hi!

This might be a bit drastic, but has anyone tried the DX developer runtimes?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/default.aspx

Fortunatly for me, I don't seem to have any problems

MSI Radeon 9800 Pro (5.10 drivers)


-James I

 

[aMillionAndNine]

Can you confirm that it was Dx9.0c (specifically) that you already had? Or was it an older Dx9?

Unfortunately I am not sure. I can tell you this. Unless it was updated by Windows Update (which I don't think it was) the last thing I installed that could have updated it was Dragonshard (boring).

I did not pay that close of attention to the version that was already on the machine. I had seen reccomendations to install the version with civ4 so I did it.

Sorry I can't help more.

 

[Wolfgang76]

yes me too. i buy games all the time. also i know this may sound weird but is there any similarity of the cores on these cards that dont work.

700 pro works vs. x800 XL not working.... just an idea

Nope, x700pro here and I am getting the same problem.

As it seems to work on some x700's I wonder if an DX install from another game might be causing the issue.

 

[Imperator666]

i want a photo of sid meier himself coding the hotfix that would make me forget all anger
no seriously, i am pissed off like ive never been pissed off over a computer game. releasing "bananaware" to the public is something that has becore far too popular in the gaming industry. i do miss the times when games couldnt be patched through the internet and thus had to be perfect from the very start. just like civ 1.

 

[tromp10]

I can't get civ4 to start! I keep getting....

Failed to Initialize Renderer - Check DirectX Version and Graphic Settings


I've checked the DirectX Version.... 9.0c

What am I supposed to check for graphic settings..... they are the default.. (Radeon 9550 AGP)


Arghhhh!

Hi magnusmarcus,
please help my when your have support for your problem. I have your problem! CIV IV not started! Check Graphik ect. ATI Herculess-3D-Prophet 9600 256 Mb 200 Mhz
My System:
Pentium 4 3,4 Ghz HT FSB 800 Mhz
Infinion DDR-RAM 2,048 Gb dual channel PC 400
ASUS P4P800-VM Mainboard
Terratec 512i digital 4.1

I can not gog understanding and reading english. excuse my please.
I hope your can to help my !
Have all a nice Day !!!
chau
tromp10
germany
telemark21@yahoo.de

Adress for German CIV-Fan-Plattform:
www.civilization-4.de

 

[yendorII]

another one here same problem.
Card: ATI x800 XL
doesnt work, did reset uninstall reinstall changed background colors to and from 16 bit(which helped a bit dont know why) created a new profile(which also helped a bit with 16 bit on my new profile it came father along in its startup before giving the error message.) I also uninstalled and reinstalled my video card driver.

Installed it on my laptop though with a ati radeon 200M series and that works fine(although a bit slow due to not so powerful a laptop)

 

[g4bb3]

I give up. This sucks since i actually took some days of for this game.
Now im just gonna rest and check in a feew days from now to see if a patch is up. But i doubt it.
I have done everything adviced here and still the same problem with the failed to initialize renderer. Im tired of unistalling/reinstalling rebooting now.
Anyways, I keep all my drivers always up to date. Even bios for motherboard,DVD-rom etc.
I use and ATI 800XL and have never problems with other games.
The install disk did not even ask to install DX since it was already up to date ofcourse. yeah yeah I ran the setup anyway from the disk still no go.

The only thing i refuse to do is to install older drivers, that is not a solution for me since i enjoy FPS games also.
I suspect its gonna take along time before Fireaxis "succes to initialize rear end" to solve this.
Thanks for all the help anyways guys.

 

[Grifter]

I know its a little drastic. But has anyone tried doing a re-install of the OS, installing your drivers, then the game with DX9 supplied? Just a thought.