Terrain is Dark

[allism]

This laptop has an Intel 855GME chipset that handles graphics among other things, to my knowledge it does not support T&L

Same problem, chipset 828 - it does not support T&L. Enough people are reporting that it's not T&L, though, that I have to question whether that's the sole problem.

It runs fine on my husband's computer, though - and he's fairly certain his does support T&L. He can run out and get a new video card, though - I can't, due to this being a laptop. Using his computer is not an option for me playing because, well, he'll be playing. We bought two copies for a reason .

 

[Melendwyr]

I have the exact same problem. The terrain simply will not display: not in the game screen, not in the city screen, not anywhere but the highest zoom-out level. I can determine what's where, but that's all.

In addition, the sound on the opening movie is interrupted regularly, and the world-creation images are extremely jerky.

I should have the right hardware to make this game work. What's wrong?

 

[combatmonkey]

I've been playing around with some things and I've gotten things to look a little better. Well, actually a lot better but only in a small area. As you can see in the screenshot below, there is a patch in the upper right corner that looks great. I can even scroll around, and the patch moves with my scrolling. Any ideas yet on how to make the whole screen look so nice?

 

[SkyDog]

How'd you make that work?

 

[combatmonkey]

Unfortunatly, I'm not sure. And it really isn't playable yet anyway.

 

[Skedastic]

I'm having the same problem. I posted screen shots in another thread here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3214694#post3214694

My computer is AMD 3200+, 512 MB of RAM, and GeForce 2 MX which is a 64 MB card with T&L.

Any ideas?

Like an enormous number of other people, you have a video card which doesn't have hardware T&L, but for some reason you think otherwise.

The game should simply refuse to run or display a splash screen warning it probably won't run properly due to insufficient hardware, which would at least prevent this sort of issue.

 

[combatmonkey]

Shoot. Well, I did get the world builder mode to work. Everything looks great there. Is there any hope, or will I be buying a new graphics card. And if so any reccomendations that will work without breaking the bank?

 

[Skedastic]

Shoot. Well, I did get the world builder mode to work. Everything looks great there. Is there any hope, or will I be buying a new graphics card. And if so any reccomendations that will work without breaking the bank?

Check out the thread in tech support called "Video card Q&A."

There are loads of video cards for $50 - $75 which ought to run this game just fine. For example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102408

Anything that's: Radeon starting with "9" or "X" will run the game (eg, X700). Anything that's Geforce starting with 5, 6, or 7 will run the game (eg, Geforce 6600). These cards: Radeon 9100, 9200, X300 and Geforce 5200, 6200 are "budget" cards which you would be well advised to avoid at the cost of a ten or twenty bucks extra. A Geforce 4Ti (and even a Geforce 3) but NOT a Geforce 4MX will run the game and you may be able to find one dirt cheap online somewhere.

Note the large number of posts suggesting there may be bugs in this game preventing Radeon cards from working properly, even cards which should be more than powerful enough.

 

[Eastian]

Like an enormous number of other people, you have a video card which doesn't have hardware T&L, but for some reason you think otherwise.

The game should simply refuse to run or display a splash screen warning it probably won't run properly due to insufficient hardware, which would at least prevent this sort of issue.

GeForce 4 MX DOES have T&L. Just read it in the card features at the nVidia website. I'm concerned because I own a GeForce 4 MX 420...

EDIT: Some people got it working with a GeForce 4, although a minor graphic glitch has appeared: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=133139

 

[Hardin]

Any card with the name Geforce supports Tnl. The Geforce 256 was this first card to support it.

 

[GenMarshall]

Same problem with laptop with Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller.

The game should simply refuse to run or display a splash screen warning it probably won't run properly due to insufficient hardware, which would at least prevent this sort of issue.

This is not good . Well I am going to hold off buying this game untill I get a new laptop. Its sad to see Fraxis making us buy new computers or video cards, Its almost like they just only want people who have a high end computer to play this game .

 

[minger]

Same problem with laptop with Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller.

I have the same problem and the same system

 

[Melendwyr]

The good news is that some freaky interaction between the Fog and the tilesets means that, with enough playing time, it becomes possible to see the terrain. The game can be played in such a state, particularly if you turn on the tile-bonus markers.

The bad news is that the Fog is messed up. Also, clearing a forest gave a huge amount of production for no obvious reason.

 

[combatmonkey]

As was noted somewhere else on the forum, even for people with the "dark screen" the mods work perfectly. Also, after playing for a few turns, a corner of the screen becomes visible (as shown in the screen shot above). I have tried both of these myself and had success. Not to mention that all other graphics, movies, animations, everything works fine. This means that the "dark screen" problem can not be due to a bad graphics card, but rather coding that isn't completely compatible with particular systems. So, it seems like this must be a software patchable problem. What can we do to help and encourage Firaxis create a patch as quickly as possible?

 

[allism]

What can we do to help and encourage Firaxis create a patch as quickly as possible?

When in trouble or in doubt
Run in circles, scream and shout?

 

[joesf35]

I didn't even get top of the line... ended up getting a Nvidia GeForce 6200. Downloaded the latest driver from their web site (didn't use the CD that came with it of course). Anyway, works like a charm now. I didn't even realize that I was having trouble with the opening movie, which I can now see. And, no dark terrain and no cheshire cat. ;-)

Sandy

That's wonderful that you got it to work but some of us may be in college and had a hard enough time finding the money to buy the game by itself...much less a new video card to go with it.

Everyone should just relax because if they want to sell more than a few thousand games then they will have to fix this huge problem.
There is an entire audience out there that will just return this game for a full refund after they realize it doesn't work and they won't spend the hours we are, to search around on the net, for a fix. So they lose probably around 100,000+ unit sales.
There is also the group that will search for the fix, but if that "fix" is to go buy a new card then there goes another 50,000+ units they would have sold.

Oh and - Radeon 7500 with newest omega drivers, game runs ok but I have the black terrain / alice in wonderland cat problem.

 

[allism]

I am becoming more and more convinced that this is not a T&L problem. I can run the American Revolution scenario just fine (but not a couple of other scenario that I tried). The terrain renders fine in WorldBuilder. I could not, however, EXIT out of WorldBuilder to see if the terrain came back in the regular world.

I can't remember who mentioned the American Revolution scenario working, but if you can tolerate playing scenarios (I can't), it's there.

Just in case anyone from Firaxis is actually reading these, I tried saving a game, exiting out of the app completely, and going back in (since the American Revolution scenario requires exiting out of the game and going back in to run), but the reload of the game still had the black terrain problem.

 

[merm]

(this is a double post - i should have posted here in the first place probably)

see everything but the terrain and the leaders? here's what i did to fix it:

1) start a game.
2) found a city.
3) save the game
3) retire and look at the map. see your city? figure out where the center of the map is relative to your city.
4) load your game.
5) send a scout to explore the center of the map as seen on the retire screen.
6) as your scout uncovers tiles at the center of the map, tiles in your fog will be uncovered.

i managed to play an entire game to completion like this. i've tested it on tiny and standard maps for "great plains" and "continents".

since i can see everything fine once i've explored the appropriate area (although leaders are still messed up),this makes me think this is not a "T&L" issue, but rather a bug.

one simple fix would be to have an option to start the user in the center of the map. if you start there you don't have to deal with exploring the "fog".

can't believe they didn't test this on older systems.

-roger

 

[oldStatesman]

I am becoming more and more convinced that this is not a T&L problem. I can run the American Revolution scenario just fine (but not a couple of other scenario that I tried). The terrain renders fine in WorldBuilder. I could not, however, EXIT out of WorldBuilder to see if the terrain came back in the regular world.

I can't remember who mentioned the American Revolution scenario working, but if you can tolerate playing scenarios (I can't), it's there.

Just in case anyone from Firaxis is actually reading these, I tried saving a game, exiting out of the app completely, and going back in (since the American Revolution scenario requires exiting out of the game and going back in to run), but the reload of the game still had the black terrain problem.

American Revolution Mod does not work for me. Still have Cheshire Grin/Dark Screen.

I can go into World Builder, and use reveal all tile mode - then I can see the tiles and play - but the graphics are still not right. In full out zoom I see no units or the circles with the icons pointing to them - but when I zoom back in they are there.

 

[merlin9784]

(this is a double post - i should have posted here in the first place probably)

see everything but the terrain and the leaders? here's what i did to fix it:

1) start a game.
2) found a city.
3) save the game
3) retire and look at the map. see your city? figure out where the center of the map is relative to your city.
4) load your game.
5) send a scout to explore the center of the map as seen on the retire screen.
6) as your scout uncovers tiles at the center of the map, tiles in your fog will be uncovered.

i managed to play an entire game to completion like this. i've tested it on tiny and standard maps for "great plains" and "continents".

since i can see everything fine once i've explored the appropriate area (although leaders are still messed up),this makes me think this is not a "T&L" issue, but rather a bug.

one simple fix would be to have an option to start the user in the center of the map. if you start there you don't have to deal with exploring the "fog".

can't believe they didn't test this on older systems.

-roger

can you please post your specs.