Terrain is Dark

Ok, the moment of truth!!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=142993

The patch 1.09 has been released, guys, please post your results, and whether the problems have been cleared. Be sure to include your graphics card name AS WELL as any other things you have done previously that might effect the results (for example, editing the XML files, etc). Hopefully we can come to a final solution for all of our problems.
 
My fellow collegues,

I am here to announce that I have been granted playership by the almighty gods of Civilization 4! :D

The game seems to work great! The leaderheads are perfect, the black terrain problem is gone!

This is what I did:

1. Download new patch.
2. Install Omega Driver.

Thats it. And it seems to work great. The patch itself only solved the Cheshire Black Cat Alice (whatever you call it) problem, but not the terrain. I then decided to install the Omega Driver, and it fixed the black terrain problem. So now hopefully I will be able to play a full game through.

Good luck everyone, and I hope my fortunes are spread around to all those who had this problem and are deprived of their empires! :p

Oh and btw, my graphics card is Radeon IGP 345M.
 
zerokarma said:
Does anyone know if this patch resolved the ATI 7500 series problems?

Fixed it for me

IBM Thinkpad T41 with latest drivers (downloaded from IBM support site)
(radeon 7500 mobility 32MB)

terrain fixed, cheshire cat fixed, graphics for food &c all look fine, resources display correctly as long as the animations settings are turned down.

Never had to edit any xml files, or anything, just
installed the game & directX off the CD,
updated the thinkpad display drivers (no obvious effect) - current lvl 6.14.10.6546
used the advanced->check for updates button in Civ4
:goodjob:
 
the patch fixed the dark terrain for me as well. I'm running on a dell inspiron 1150.

one thing i have noticed is that i now get a prompt when i load the game saying my system does not meet the min reqs. the game loads, and is a bit slow, but that is to be expected on this laptop (64mb built in vid card).
 
Well, I also have a radeon 7500c in an Inspiron 5100. Sadly, the patch only opened up the small window in the upper right corner. Still have fog of war and cheshire cat. So, is it worth it to update to a 9100, I think that is the newer mobile. I'm almost better off just getting a new machine. I was looking forward to the game though.
 
The patch did fix the dark terrian issue for me, most of the time, but occasionally I have beams going upwards from various parts of the people and terrian (I have a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440), but it is better than than the totally dark terrian I had before.

I am also experienceing a little bit of slowness (every so often).
 
Ivel said:
the patch fixed the dark terrain for me as well. I'm running on a dell inspiron 1150.

one thing i have noticed is that i now get a prompt when i load the game saying my system does not meet the min reqs. the game loads, and is a bit slow, but that is to be expected on this laptop (64mb built in vid card).

I get the same warning on my Intel 82845G but after i start playing the game runs a little slow but the terrain is no longer dark and everything is fine so except for a little slowness which i can live with the patch worked great!!:)
 
I still have the same problem (GeForce MX440). Patch and most recent driver didnt help.

Is it possible that my graphics card is kaput?
 
Ivel said:
the patch fixed the dark terrain for me as well. I'm running on a dell inspiron 1150.

one thing i have noticed is that i now get a prompt when i load the game saying my system does not meet the min reqs. the game loads, and is a bit slow, but that is to be expected on this laptop (64mb built in vid card).

Yeah, I'm running the same system (the Vid card is standard, unchangeable IIRC) so if you have an 1150, the dark terrain will dissapear once you patch. The actual card is an Integrated Intel one, but I don't know the number.
 
zerokarma said:
Does anyone know if this patch resolved the ATI 7500 series problems?

My system specs:
Gateway 600YGR Laptop
Pentium 4 M 1.6Ghz
ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 64MB

I had to do the following to finally be rid of the black terrain:
- Installed the 1.09 patch
- Installed the radeon omega driver v2.6.75a

The patch also fixes the intro movies' sputtering audio problem for me.

I am quite happy with the patch, but I do feel that Firaxis should release a fix that does not require the omega driver installation -- especially since the Radeon 7500 is specifically mentioned as being fully supported on the box.
 
do2e said:
My system specs:
Gateway 600YGR Laptop
Pentium 4 M 1.6Ghz
ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 64MB

I had to do the following to finally be rid of the black terrain:
- Installed the 1.09 patch
- Installed the radeon omega driver v2.6.75a

The patch also fixes the intro movies' sputtering audio problem for me.

I am quite happy with the patch, but I do feel that Firaxis should release a fix that does not require the omega driver installation -- especially since the Radeon 7500 is specifically mentioned as being fully supported on the box.

After playing a few games, I've noticed some problems still remain.

The sputtering audio in the intro movies are back after rebooting.

Animal resources such as cows and pigs are invisible. All that is left are their shadows.

I am not too happy with the patch anymore.
 
I had the black terrain problem. too. This was after installing the patch. Before that the game installed but wouldn't run. But then I was pushing it since I have an Athlon 1.2Gb system running Windows Me. (Yes, I actually got it to run and played several turns under Windows Me). I thought about it and checked my video card (GeForce2 MX200) which was the problem. After changing to an ATI Radeon 9200 SE, bingo! terrain and units not only visible but 3-D and smooth scrolling/zooming etc. I'm still going to upgrade to XP, but it can wait a while until the after Christmas sales.:lol:

jimmygeo
 
Hey guys, I'm new here, so bare with me. I just bought this game last night and tried playing it, and my map is all black the faces also only have eyes and lips. I have a laptop comp, it's a sony vaio, fairly new.... what should I do to fix this problem. Thanx.:mad: :cry: :mad:
 
igoryek said:
Hey guys, I'm new here, so bare with me. I just bought this game last night and tried playing it, and my map is all black the faces also only have eyes and lips. I have a laptop comp, it's a sony vaio, fairly new.... what should I do to fix this problem. Thanx.:mad: :cry: :mad:

Many would reply "read the rest of the thread and not just the last page." However, I would suggest trying to download and install the patch; there is a link to it on the main page, or better yet launch Civ IV, go to "Advanced" then to "Search for Updates," or something like that. It should do the rest.

If the patch doesn't work, there are a few other ways of making the game playable, but not of completely fixing the problem. I have tried to describe these other ways to many people, but I think I just made them more confused then they were before:crazyeye:. Anyway, good luck.
 
the patch 1.09 seems to have worked for me i get no more black screen and the units now open up the fog as they pass over the land. i have a raedon 7500 card and no t& L what ever that is.
i did not need omaga driver 2.6.75a
 
roalan said:
the patch 1.09 seems to have worked for me i get no more black screen and the units now open up the fog as they pass over the land. i have a raedon 7500 card and no t& L what ever that is.
i did not need omaga driver 2.6.75a


I have the same card, the patch kinda fixed it a little but still sometimes when I move from one place to another place on the map it kinda gets messed up again. I wish I could find a fix ot fix it perm. it's just very annoing.
 
igoryek said:
I have the same card, the patch kinda fixed it a little but still sometimes when I move from one place to another place on the map it kinda gets messed up again. I wish I could find a fix ot fix it perm. it's just very annoing.

I only played a few moves so i hope it does not do the above. the moves i did seemed ok.
 
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