Menu Background and some menu icons not appearing

[sargeant]

Hi,

I have just installed BtS and after resolving the issues with patching for the Civ IV Download version I had (downloaded from GamesPlanet) I am able to start BtS OK. The problem I am having is that the background to the menu items on the main screens are not appearing - making it very difficult to see what options you are choosing.

In the game I am also unable to see the menu icons for all of the icons that were standard in the regular Civ IV game (meaning I can see the corporation and espionage icons only). When I mouse over the area it is possible for me to click on the items, I just can't see the icons.

Has anyone else had this same problem?

I am running Windows 7 (64bit)
3GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC

did you install and are you running the game with admin rights? is it patched to date?

 

[sargeant]

Yeah, I am running it as administrator and it is the latest version patch. It is a strange issue, it looks like some of the templates (if that is the correct word) are missing. The game still places without any problems - just a bit difficult to read some of the pop up videos etc.

 

[ori]

just checking: you did right click on the installer and chose run as admin?

please open
my games\beyond the sword\civilizationIV.ini and set all items with log in their name from 0 to 1 and save
then start a game open a couple of screens that are wrong, close the game and post all items in
my games\beyond the sword\logs as a zip file here.

 

[rookie13]

Hi, I live in Japan right now, and I bought Civilization 4 and
Civilization 4: Beyond the sword from gamesplanet.com.

I found the same problem too:

When I install Civ4 and Civ4:BtS, the game miss backgound menus in
game. This is really annoying bacause it's difficult to read and I can't
see some interface parts...

I tried the most recent version of nvidia driver, some of the old
versions, and 319patch from gamesplanet. But the problems have not fixed yet.
I attache dxdiag and some screenshots.

plz, help.

Additionally, I found other people who bought the games from gamesplanet
too, and has the same problem. So, the problem might be the source files
in their server....maybe.

I will wait for your reply.

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC

I expect your operating system is Japanese language?
also: is the game patched?

 

[rookie13]

thx for your reply.
Yes, My OS is Japanese. And, the game is patched by 319patch which is downloaded from gamesplanet.

 

[ori]

a lot of people had troubles like this with the non-unicode language being set to a non-latin language. Try setting that to english, restart the computer and see if that rectifies the problem.
If it does its a pain, since it will likely screw with Japanese language programs - but at least its an easy test.

 

[sargeant]

This is exactly the problem I have got. Apologies, I have not had a chance to add any log files to this thread. It is worth noting that although I bought Civ 4 from Games Planet, I actually bought BtS from Direct 2 Drive.

 

[ori]

these kind of problems are usually caused by some xml files not being read properly - this can be caused by non-latin OS, however it can also be due to all sorts of other reasons.
When you installed BtS was Civ4 patched to 1.74 before that?

 

[sargeant]

It was - I had to update to the 1.74 patch as I was having some problems installing BtS on the original version. I got the 1.74 patch from Gamesplanet. I will get the log files to you soon - I am at work at the moment so not able to access my machine at home.

 

[sargeant]

Hi,

I have attached the zipped log file. There does seem to be a number of errors in the XML doc which might be the problem.

 

[rookie13]

I uninstalled the BTS and civ4. After that, I changed the non-unicode language into English,and installed civ4, patched it with 1.74, installed BTS and patched again with 3.19. But still same problem occurs

hmm... I dont know how to read the log files, so, if any problems exist in there, and can be fixed. plz let me know.

 

[sargeant]

Hi Ori - any ideas based on the log files?

 

[ori]

sorry lost this from sight...
and it gets worse since I am now going to be offline for a week...

Anyhow: the logs do not have any unexpected errors (those that are there stem from the developers being to lazy to code cleanly). So I am at a loss right now. I will think about it, but don't expect an answer from me within the next 7 days If this still persists then, please bump this thread again.

 

[picmar]

Hi guys - I'm new to the forums and relatively new to civ. I bought the vanilla edition a couple of weeks ago and I've moved up to monarch with my experience on revolution.

Anyway, I'm having the exact same problem on Vista and XP. I emailed gamesplanet and they absconded responsability, as they were just the distributor (I suggested as a distributer they should exercise at least a little responsability by taking it down and cease profitting from a broken product - to which I've yet to receive a reply), and told me to contact take two. I did this but I'm awaiting response "in the next 72 hours".

I've tried reinstalling direct X9.0c, updating drivers and patching both versions of civ to different degrees, but none of these amateur attempts have made any discernable difference. I'm so desperate to play this version I've made do without the interface but I can't stress, although admittely a minor problem, how irritating it is. Having arrived here, I'm sure the problem is software related and nothing to do with the hardware - I'm also having the same problem on my brothers computer.

I'm desperate to come up with a solution and my only thoughts are that it has something to do with not having warlords installed. I noticed on the install that alot of warlords files were also included and wondered whether they had lazily programmed the menus through warlords and hastily excluded these files in the setup. So is everyone else experiencing this problem playing only the vanilla edition without the Warlords expansion?? It might not get us anywhere but it's doing my rag in.

Any help or suggestions are massively appreciated.

Cheers

 

[picmar]

I've been snooping around my beyond the sword folder and I found this text file. I guss it doesn't really say what the problem is but it certainly describes it in a lot of detail. Maybe someone with more technical knowledge can enlighten us as to whether there is a known solution...

I've just checked my resource folder and all of these files are in there so why they aaren't being loaded is beyond me. Although Vista does seem to want to open them in Open Office...

Okay I'm going to stop editing this now - but I just tried to replace the themes in the beyond the sword folder with the ones that seem to work fine with my original civ 4. Still the same problem. Maybe the files are fine but the program can't acces them. I dunno. I give up. Help?

This will be my last edit....Found this thread http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=297517

Basically it's as I thought and you need a DL warlords to play the DL BtS - what a con. They're going to get an angry email and hopefully they can provide it for free. Seeing as it seems this was a problem nearly a year ago you'd of thought it would specify on the "download now" page- requires warlords. What it actually says is- "requires original civ4"..... I'll let you know how I get on and hopefully we can be given Warlords for free. We do have statutory rights!

 

[ori]

BtS does not in any way shape or form require warlords as it installs all the warlords files it needs itself - unless warlords was installed at the time of installation of BtS and later removed there should not be any problems related to non-installed files. The most common problem though are installations that do not run to completion.
Gamesplanet by the way is lying - as distributors of the digital version they use different patches than the take 2 distribution and as such need to provide them. Did you buy both Civ4 and BtS from them? was Civ4 patched to 1.74 prior to the Bts install?
Welcome to CFC

 

[picmar]

Cheers for the reply Ori.

I have fixed the problem, and after alot of tinkering I figured out the problem. Both BtS and vanilla were patched up to date with the digital patches. I had a sniff round the resources folders - of which the BtS one was virtually empty. I figured it must be trying to load the vanilla resources that were not included with BtS, but apparently there was a conflict. So I downloaded their version of warlords and ptched it up. A look in the resources folder for Warlords revealed all of the original civ 4 resources. So I copied and pasted them into the vanilla resources folder and these ones are apparently compatible with BtS. I've got it working fine but unfortunately I required the resources from Warlords to bypasss the compatability issues. I've since emailed gamesplanet detailing my exact steps and have received one back basically saying - "oh- well done, we'll pass this on to our development team".

Although BtS shouldn't require Warlords- with my fix I'm 99.9% sure their version does. I'm convinced it's not a hardware issue because my bro had the exact same problem on XP with a completely different setup, as are the other posters in this thread. Neither I or my bro have those issues with this fix. Irritatingly enough, even once you have downloaded, installed and patched their Warlords- the problem still persists, and only with this particular fix can you resurrect it from the ashes of unacceptability.

Hope this helps anyone whose bought the digital version, or those that are wondering whether to buy it or not. I'll post again once their "development team" has finished with my email.

 

[picmar]

So they finally admitted they were selling a bum copy. Not after they tried fobbing me off with an account of them installing on their own machines and having no problems (i subsequently replied that I expected they had installed the digital complete edition on the basis of my findings and was, surprise surprise, correct). After 5 days of silence it didn't come unexpected when they crawled back with the admission that they had the same problem. So they are offering me a refund for Beyond the Sword and have promised to update the edition they are selling online. Which is fair enough I guess, but it's been a bit of a pain in the arse, and it annoys me as an unemployed graduate that I've basically done the job for them, and might i add with very little expertise in computers.

I suggest if there's anyone looking for a refund, you address your emails to "Marco" as he is the representative I've dealt with and he understands and accepts there is a problem.