Graphics problem...!

[Montaillou]

Hi. I'm new to the whole Civilization franchise, much recommended by many people I know. But now I find I can't get Civ3 to play properly on my Dell PC. Very frustrating!!!

When I try to play, after the loading screen, the main screen with all the options (New game, settings, etc.) appears offset to the left by a few inches. So, a big strip down the right hand side is black, and some of the picture has disappeared off to the left. This continues if I go ahead and try to play, making it basically impossible. Any ideas?

By the way, I have a Dell Dimension 5100 with a Nvidia GeForce 6800 and a Dell 1905fp monitor. I've updated drivers for both, to no avail. (I had some initial problems with the sound, but updating the Audigy drivers worked for that.)

My PC isn't exactly unusual, so I was hoping this might be a problem someone had encountered before; but couldn't find anything when I Googled.

I'd be very grateful for any tips (or at least suggestions of where to look for tips!).

Thanks in advance, Montaillou.

 

[Turner]

What resolution do you normally run at? Civ3 will change the resolution to 1024x768. Some monitors, when they change resolutions and refresh rates, will not have the picture lined up. You'll have to use your monitor's control panel to fix it. Vhold and Hhold would be the settings.

You could find the .ini file for the game you're playing (civilizationIII.ini, ptw.ini, or conquests.ini, in the same folder as the game you're playing) and add the lines to it "Video Mode=XX" and "Refresh=YY", where XX is the first part of your resolution (i.e., Video Mode=1280 for 1280x1024 resolution) and YY is your monitor's refresh rate.

 

[GVBN]

Some monitors have an option to automatically adjust the screen

 

[Taras Bulba]

im not technical mastermind, but i know that the buttons on you moniter, one of them allows you to move the screen you see over to the right, left, up and down. If you can figure out which goes where, that might help. I know, i messed up my comp, and my dad had to center it and showed me how, so if i did it again, i could fix it myself