Possible black terrain fix (worked for me)

[Jove]

I was going to try this, but during the install I got a msg that the thing has not passed Windows Logo testing, and may not be compatible with XP. It a nutshell, it advised me not to install and said it could destabilize my system. Is this warning just my computer being a Nervous Nellie, or is there a real risk? I've chickened out for now...

 

[chinesefireball]

Are the Omega drivers any good for the Sis m650????

Or does it have to be Nvidia??

Same problem once again - but SiS 661FX. I have seen one person that got a SiS graphics card to run - over in the general discussion thread - title is called something like "Is anyone running this under low specs?"

Found where you can download drivers: http://www.sis.com/download/
I'm downloading it now - will post when I find out the results

EDIT: It didn't work for me - still the black terrain and chershire cat. Back to video card shopping...

 

[lifeaquatic]

Man you saved my day!! I have the geforce4 420 go for my laptoip, applied the omega driver and I can play the game on the highest setting no problems. You are so awesome for posting this thread man, thank you. Spread the word on this fix.

 

[lifeaquatic]

I was going to try this, but during the install I got a msg that the thing has not passed Windows Logo testing, and may not be compatible with XP. It a nutshell, it advised me not to install and said it could destabilize my system. Is this warning just my computer being a Nervous Nellie, or is there a real risk? I've chickened out for now...

I got this warning and ignored it. This is just because Omega isn't in the pocket of Bill Gates if you want my opinion. Mozilla probably isn't "approved windows software" either.

 

[Simo]

Same problem once again - but SiS 661FX. I have seen one person that got a SiS graphics card to run - over in the general discussion thread - title is called something like "Is anyone running this under low specs?"

Found where you can download drivers: http://www.sis.com/download/
I'm downloading it now - will post when I find out the results

EDIT: It didn't work for me - still the black terrain and chershire cat. Back to video card shopping...

What did the bloke in the other thread do to get it working??
Ive poured through a heap of pages but cant find the title you mentioned.

Did he just update the SIS drivers or did he use a generic driver like this omega which seems to do the trick?

 

[Mr.No]

Ok,I had(maybe still have it but I must test it) the problem of black terrain.I put several omega drivers (geforce 4 MX440) but they worked for like 20 turns and the problem again was the black terrain.After that I read some were that I should put the latest driver for my motherboard (Via 694+ Pro) and install NVIDIA driver 66.93 (you can find it in their arhive of drivers) and I did that...can you belive it...it worked...once the black terrain showed and I restarted the game and it was ok.
So maybe it was from the drivers but if you play the game save your game every 3-5 turns(just in case) and on every start of the game delete the cashe of the game (Start/My Computer/Local drive c:/ /Documents and Settings/"USERNAME"/Application Data/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/cache ) it should be 18 files delete them all and then start the game.

I will test the game and if I find out anything new I will reply to this thread.

Best games everybody

P.S. Does any1 have spare 256 MB SDRAM 133MHz from and old computer or broken computer,I would be gratefull (I can't find this tipe of ram anywere).

 

[Jove]

Well I tried the Omega drivers, turned down the in-game graphics features and Hard-Page features to the point that the graphics started to look wierd anyway, and I still got some black terrain and invisible icons after a little while. The intro video took longer to skip, but not a record...

I do have a brand new motherboard. You'd think the drivers enclosed would be up-to-date since it shipped just the other day, but I'll look into it (PC Chips A21G board).

 

[Ubiquitous]

Ok,I had(maybe still have it but I must test it) the problem of black terrain.I put several omega drivers (geforce 4 MX440) but they worked for like 20 turns and the problem again was the black terrain.After that I read some were that I should put the latest driver for my motherboard (Via 694+ Pro) and install NVIDIA driver 66.93 (you can find it in their arhive of drivers) and I did that...can you belive it...it worked...once the black terrain showed and I restarted the game and it was ok.
So maybe it was from the drivers but if you play the game save your game every 3-5 turns(just in case) and on every start of the game delete the cashe of the game (Start/My Computer/Local drive c:/ /Documents and Settings/"USERNAME"/Application Data/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/cache ) it should be 18 files delete them all and then start the game.

I will test the game and if I find out anything new I will reply to this thread.

Best games everybody

P.S. Does any1 have spare 256 MB SDRAM 133MHz from and old computer or broken computer,I would be gratefull (I can't find this tipe of ram anywere).

Try ebay for the ram mate.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop with an Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller. Would this fix work for me? I went to www.omegadrivers.net but I didn't see anything there for Intel drivers, but I'm not sure if the ATI or NVDIA would work on mine also? Kind of new to having to update video drivers, never had an issue with something like this before. Thanks for any help.

 

[Venger]

My system, 5900XT, didn't like those Omegadrivers at ALL - they are a bit older, the 6x series, they haven't done any recent updates... not sure they are even 9.0b or c compatible...

Have a nice new 6600GT to put in this weekend to test... fingers crossed...

Venger

 

[Casus Belli]

hey guys,
should preface this message with the fact that I know bugger all about the inner workings of computers!
Ive got the black terrain problem too - my video card is Intel 852GM Extreme Graphics with up to 64MB shared memory. If anyone could tell me where to download one of these so called 'drivers' that might work, that would be great!

 

[Tenjo_Kalle]

Thanks for this help, the game works for me now with the omegadrivers

Kalle

 

[The Badger]

Cheers Hoplite!

The omega drivers fixed my "black terrain" issue.

I have an HP zv5000 laptop (Athlon 3000+), with a GeForce4 440 Go 64m Graphics card. Installing the Omega driver from the site you suggested worked great.

Would recommend anyone with a GeForce4 440 card to give them a try.

The Badger.

 

[mythmasterjr]

Thanks Hoplite these drivers seem to have fixed the issues. At least all that i have found so far.

Also, when i installed the Omega drivers I got the Windows Logo Testing bit and ignored it. The drivers are working just fine.

 

[Skirmisher]

I have a Toshiba laptop with Geforce4 420 Go, and it does not work.

After reboot the desktop does not fill the whole screen, and there is a black area to the right side of the screen.

When the game loads, there is an error message that reads: "failed to initialize renderer - check directx and graphic settings."

After uninstalling the Omegadriver the directx is there and it loads fine, but of course the problem remains unresolved.

 

[tanklord99]

Went to Omegadrivers and downloaded their drivers for my NVidia Ge440 and all is well now. Thanks for the help.

 

[Leo Tang]

If i am using SIS graphic card (and i cant change it ), wht should i do.....will the next patch fix it?

 

[marinosm]

same card (sis m661fx) here Leo Tang. i'm sure our video card does not support t&l.
the question is will the patch also fix the black terrain and leader faces problem even with those cards?
if anyone has an answer pls post!!

 

[chinesefireball]

I don't think that anyone knows exactly what will be fixed in the patch until it comes out.

 

[badboyzz224]

i have a ATI movility graphics card thats runs 64 mb. i have no clue whats going on with it if anybody could help me out it would be great.