weird "green graphics of death" graphic problem

[zeedee11]

This problem seems to occur randomly. After the green graphics of death occur the game slows down so much that it's unplayable. I've found that if I alt-tab out of the game and then back into it it seems to be find again. It's just annoying to have to do this every 10 minutes. blah.

I've fully updated BTS and my graphics card with the newest firmware. All the graphic settings are at the lowest settings.

See pic for green graphics of death.

Any ideas how to fix this?

 

[zeedee11]

i'll try to post a save game of this problem if I can find an event in the game that always triggers this problem.

 

[zeedee11]

I'm still getting the slime and can't figure out why. I'm still trying to get a save game but I can't find what triggers it

 

[ori]

Welcome to Civfanatics
it seems to be a problem with your graphics card. could you post your dxdiag results? (click start -> run -> type dxdiag -> hit enter -> click on save results in the popup. Then answer here -> click on go advanced under the reply box -> click on manage attachments -> attach the saved dxdiag file)

 

[Inflammatory]

I'm experiencing a somewhat similar problem, but my problem occasionally occurs outside of Civ as well. The screen goes a bit funky with stripes all over, and the game just runs out of steam fairly quickly. That said, I play on a huge terra map with 15 civs.

I have had stuff downloading in the background that the computer has abandonded because of unsufficient memory/CPU power. Could this really be caused by bad graphics card drivers? My card is a GeForce 7600 GS 512MB and I have a mere 1GB of RAM.

 

[zeedee11]

Welcome to Civfanatics
it seems to be a problem with your graphics card. could you post your dxdiag results? (click start -> run -> type dxdiag -> hit enter -> click on save results in the popup. Then answer here -> click on go advanced under the reply box -> click on manage attachments -> attach the saved dxdiag file)

Here's my dxdiag

 

[zeedee11]

Here's my dxdiag

Have you guys checked out my dxie doodle yet?

How can I make this slime go away?

 

[ori]

I *did* look at it last week - and then forgot to answer. Sorry.
The graphics card just meets minimum requirements - so it should at least allow you to play.
The driver is from 2006 are you sure there is no newer one?
Try turning off anti-aliasing in the nvidia control panel - that might give you some more free memory for other tasks.

 

[zeedee11]

Thanks for the reply Ori.

yeah my graphics card is ancient. lol

Believe it or not, the driver is the most up to date per Nvidia's website:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_93.71_2.html

Anyway, I'll try your suggestions when I get a chance maybe later today.

It's just weird. I never had this problem with vanilla civ4. Only until I installed warlords and BTS (I installed both of them on the same day) did this problem come about. Maybe I'll try an uninstall and a fresh install and we'll see what happens.

 

[zeedee11]

It's working now!

I turned off anti-aliasing. No green graphics of death... yet.

I've been playing for like 2 hours.

I started a new game too (maybe that helped?)

Thanks again

 

[jlindy]

I think the problem is a bit deeper than anti-alaising. I too have been having some graphics problems with BtS (patched to 3.13), ripping, tearing, freezing up all together, and crashing. I ran dxdiag and saw the following results:

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 8600 GT
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0402&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
   Display Memory: 512.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1280 x 960 (32 bit) (70Hz)
          Monitor: Dell P991
  Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6921 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 12/5/2007 01:41:00, 5773568 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 12/5/2007 01:41:00, 7435392 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4742-11CF-B978-0B2000C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x10DE
        Device ID: 0x0402
        SubSys ID: 0x00000000
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A 
 Deinterlace Caps: {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
                   {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
                   {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
                   {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
         Registry: OK
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Failure at step 17 (SetDisplayMode to 640x480x16): HRESULT = 0x80004001 (Not implemented)
 D3D7 Test Result: Failure at step 39 (SetDisplayMode to 640x480x16): HRESULT = 0x80004001 (Not implemented)
 D3D8 Test Result: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x88760827 (error code)
 D3D9 Test Result: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (error code)

I reinstalled the graphics card drivers, then re-ran dxdiag and it passed all tests. I ran BtS and saw some graphics glitches, I quit the game and ran dxdiag again and got the same errors I was seeing before I reinstalled the graphics card drivers. It would appear that BtS is doing something to corrupt the driver.

 

[jlindy]

As a follow on to my previous post I experimented a bit and have found that the problem is related to anti-aliasing. I reinstalled my video driver, ran dxdiag and everything checked out O.K.. I ran a session of another game (Bioshock) and reran dxdiag again everything was O.K. I then ran a session of BtS, ran dxdiag and saw the error:

    DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Failure at step 17 (SetDisplayMode to 640x480x16): HRESULT = 0x80004001 (Not implemented)
 D3D7 Test Result: Failure at step 39 (SetDisplayMode to 640x480x16): HRESULT = 0x80004001 (Not implemented)
 D3D8 Test Result: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x88760827 (error code)
 D3D9 Test Result: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (error code)

I then started BtS and set the anti-alaising to 0, exited, reinstalled the video driver ran dxdiag and everything ckecked out. I then ran a session of BtS then ran dxdiag, and everything checked out.
Conclusion: Something about the way BtS implements anti-aliasing borks up the
video driver.
Solution: In the game options set anti-aliasing to 0 and reinstall the video driver.
I'll try some other settings to see if the problem comes back, but I suspect that anti-aliasing is the root of all evil

 

[zeedee11]

Yeah. My graphics of death came back last night (This time they were red! I think it might have something to do with which Civ I play as).

Thanks for looking into this though. I'll change the anti-aliasing settings in-game and try your fix.