I have GeForce4 420 Go (mobile) and no terrain

[Raider]

Same thing as a lot of other people have been mentioning about terrain being black and only displaying resources and units. According to the charts, my card is T&L capable. I hope Firaxis puts out a patch soon to fix this problem or someone finds a solution because this is pretty ridiculous. My comp can run Doom 3 and HL2, but not Civ4? Yeah right.

 

[Novaya Havoc]

I'm in your boat, brother. I have the same card in my Toshiba laptop -- but also, I have shine on a lot of the leaderheads and that damn Leonard Nimoy movie basically kills the game every time.

-B

 

[Arminius]

Go to the manufacturer's website (Compaq? That's what mine was and I fixed it.) and download the driver update. You prolly still won't meet recommendations, but it'll work. Let me know if this works for you, too.

 

[MNGhost]

I also have a GeForce4 420 Go in my Toshiba Satellite 2435-S255. I can't even get into the game. The Leonard Nimoy movie kills the game before I can even get into it. And Sid kills it when I try to do the tutorial!

I have tried upgrading my drivers, but the latest ones Toshiba has for my model are from 2002.

I can run Half Life 2, but apparently Civ 4 is too much for it. Is there anything I can do short of investing in new hardware?

 

[lobosan]

I have the same problem with a GeForce4 440 Go (64 MB) on my wife's Dell Inspiron 8200.
Terrain graphics show up black and the leader heads are shiny.

 

[Comraddict]

Well I have Geforce4 440 Go and it works proper will latest drivers 72.30 from compaq web-site.
You guys can use modified newest nvidia driver 81.85 that supports laptops. Get it and nv4_disp.inf from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?s=80

 

[MNGhost]

I already tried the 81.85 drivers from nVidia. When I try to install it just says it cannot find any supported hardware and quits.

 

[Comraddict]

I already tried the 81.85 drivers from nVidia. When I try to install it just says it cannot find any supported hardware and quits.

of course it cannot; official drivers are for desktop chips only.

 

[MNGhost]

Ok, so how are these drivers you linked to different? What is an INF?

 

[Comraddict]

it is modified driver inf file so it supports the laptop chipets. you simply 1.download, 2.extract, 3.replace the inf, and 4.install.

 

[lobosan]

I just downloaded a beta driver - Forceware 82.10 (x32) - from guru3d.com at
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1227
So far, it has not killed my Inspiron 8200 with a GeForce4 440 Go.
This may be very risky but the terrain is visible now although there are still some artifacts in the fog of war.

 

[Comraddict]

yep, rivers are kind of visible where they shouldn't be, that is game bug with cards that don't support pixel shaders but support TnL.

 

[Rustwork]

same card. same problems. black screen, tutorial freezes. besides not seeing the game well i also had real jerky game play. not sure if those problems are related. luckily, Best Buy allowed me to return for in-store credit. if problem is definately fixed by updating the driver in all cases i try it again. but, i will not pay for upgrades that i need for only one game. i'll keep checking to see if other have luck with this video card.

 

[Babushek]

I also have a Toshiba Satellite 2435-S255 with GeForce4 420 Go. I tried the workaround posted in the "Beginnings of a resolution - black terrain?" thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=133680

Quote:
Originally Posted by merm
here's what i did:

open up Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\Technologies\CIV4TechInfos.xml

and do a replace all changing <bMapVisible>0</bMapVisible> to <bMapVisible>1</bMapVisible>.

now everyone starts with the map revealed. terrain is fine, although the oceans look a little funny for me. you still need to explore to find goody huts and your opponents, but unfortunately the terrain types and resource locations are revealed. but you are at least on equal footing with the ai since they will see everything too.

-roger

Worked great for me! Also, I had to set the graphics resolution in the game to low to prevent it from crashing.

 

[Darrell999]

Thank you, Commraddict! This was the first time I ever heard of that laptopvideo2go site. The only drivers I could ever use for my Toshiba laptop (Satellite 2435-S255) were the Toshiba drivers from 2002.

After I updated the modded Nvidia driver from that site, Civ 4 now runs on the low settings with no black terrain or Cheshire cat smiles!

I hope this helps someone--it worked for me! Good luck!

 

[dr_royko]

I have a Toshiba 2410 with a Geforce4 420 Go card (P4 2.4, 1G RAM) and was able to see the terrain (finally! thank krishna!) with the XML fix.

I still get the Chesire cat smiles, but since it at least working now, I am hesitant to install the laptopvideo2go drivers. Anyone with the same grafx card tried these drivers?

 

[lifeaquatic]

I have the exact same card and what fixed my problem was downloading the omega driver nvidea.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Worked for me, I can see terrain and leaderheads look right now. The opening scenematic plays properly also now thanks to this driver.

 

[Maser1]

it is modified driver inf file so it supports the laptop chipets. you simply 1.download, 2.extract, 3.replace the inf, and 4.install.

Hi there,

Just bought this and have the "black terrain" problem and Mr. Spock messes things up.

Anyway, my stupid question is how do i replace the INF file? I have downloaded the 8185 and the INF but still am not sure what to do.

Thanks for understanding.

 

[bootle]

Hi there,

Just bought this and have the "black terrain" problem and Mr. Spock messes things up.

Anyway, my stupid question is how do i replace the INF file? I have downloaded the 8185 and the INF but still am not sure what to do.

Thanks for understanding.

I'm in the same boat as Maser1, if anyone can assist it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DamRho]

Installing the Omega drivers did it for me as far as the black terrain goes - except for water, water is still black but everything else is now showing - and also for the leader heads which were missing... well... the actual head (Ghandi was a floating pair of glasses). Unfortunately the Omega drivers actually rendered the game so slow it's unplayable after a while so I pretty much decided to go with the black terrain because for me it would gradually reveal as I'm playing (which again leads me to believe it's a fog-of-war related problem).