Weird half-screen

[WeirdoJoker]

A lot of times when I start up I get this weird half-screen (see attached pic). Or sometimes full-screen black. What's that all about?

 

[tjs282]

A lot of times when I start up I get this weird half-screen (see attached pic). Or sometimes full-screen black. What's that all about?

Remind me, do you have the GOG-version of C3C? And if so, have you bought any other games from them?

Because I have seen a similar problem on our old WinXP laptop (it made X-Wing unplayable ), and I suspect it might be a DOSBox-setting holdover (e.g. from a really old game that was originally programmed for a 640*480 monitor).

Even if that's the case, though, unfortunately I don't know how to resolve it (without re-installing).

 

[WeirdoJoker]

Remind me, do you have the GOG-version of C3C? And if so, have you bought any other games from them?

Because I have seen a similar problem on our old WinXP laptop (it made X-Wing unplayable ), and I suspect it might be a DOSBox-setting holdover (e.g. from a really old game that was originally programmed for a 640*480 monitor).

Even if that's the case, though, unfortunately I don't know how to resolve it (without re-installing).

Yes, I have the GOG version of C3C.

The other games I've downloaded from GOG (Might and Magic VI, VII and VIII) were fixed by unofficial patches.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I've been getting this "half screen" error more than half the time, using the default Steam installation of Civ III Complete on Windows 10. I've tried starting it from the Steam UI, I've tried clicking my desktop icon, neither will bring up the game consistently. I have a recent laptop with a discrete GPU (I can play Civ VI, when I want to), with the default screen resolution at 1920x1080.

The symptoms are these: Game begins to initialize, changes the resolution, and the 2K splash movie starts. I click the left mouse button (or hit ESC) to bypass the movie, and it shows the main start menu chopped. I can use arrow keys to move the selection up and down, but the menu never fills the rest of the screen. I hit ESC to exit, and try again.

It gives this half screen most of the time, but not every time. I tried adding "KeepRes=1" to my conquests.ini file, but then the game doesn't start at all. I can't seem to find a pattern to this. Where -- specifically -- should I add the KeepRes line? I'm going to try changing the screen resolution before launching the game, to see if that changes the symptoms.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I've been getting this "half screen" error more than half the time, using the default Steam installation of Civ III Complete on Windows 10. I've tried starting it from the Steam UI, I've tried clicking my desktop icon, neither will bring up the game consistently. I have a recent laptop with a discrete GPU (I can play Civ VI, when I want to), with the default screen resolution at 1920x1080.

The symptoms are these: Game begins to initialize, changes the resolution, and the 2K splash movie starts. I click the left mouse button (or hit ESC) to bypass the movie, and it shows the main start menu chopped. I can use arrow keys to move the selection up and down, but the menu never fills the rest of the screen. I hit ESC to exit, and try again.

It gives this half screen most of the time, but not every time. I tried adding "KeepRes=1" to my conquests.ini file, but then the game doesn't start at all. I can't seem to find a pattern to this. Where -- specifically -- should I add the KeepRes line? I'm going to try changing the screen resolution before launching the game, to see if that changes the symptoms.

Is this the same half-screen error I get from time to time (see the pic in the top post)? Do you have a screenshot?

 

[vorlon_mi]

Yes, I think it is the same error. When I reproduced it just now, I tried loading a saved game. It loaded successfully, even though the window was still small. I could get the screen to scroll by moving my mouse to the left/right/top/bottom. A working game, but not really playable.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

Yes, I think it is the same error. When I reproduced it just now, I tried loading a saved game. It loaded successfully, even though the window was still small. I could get the screen to scroll by moving my mouse to the left/right/top/bottom. A working game, but not really playable.

Yep that's the one - same as mine, except for different cats. All I've managed to do with it is to quit using the Task Manager and then reboot - wash/rinse/repeat until it works.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I tried some things, to try to find a workaround. It seems to be an error somewhere in the display drivers, dealing with the significantly higher resolution of modern displays, compared with those when the game was released.

Here's what has worked for me (2 times in a row):

• Minimize all other open applications. Right-click on the desktop (no icons) and choose "Display Settings"
• Scroll down to "Scale and layout", and locate "Display resolution"
• Manually change it to something less enormous, such as 1360 x 768. Accept the changes. Yes, it will look a little weird.
• Double-click on the desktop icon for "Civ 3 Complete" to launch the game, click on the 2K splash to get past it.
• My result is a changed resolution, normal-looking initial game menu.
• When exiting the game, the display seems to change back to the customary high resolution 1920 x 1080

Hope this helps!

 

[tjs282]

If the problem is being caused by the game trying to re-scale the display for the Intro-movie, then adding the additional line "PlayIntro=0" to the conquests.ini may (also) help solve it.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

If the problem is being caused by the game trying to re-scale the display for the Intro-movie, then adding the additional line "PlayIntro=0" to the conquests.ini may (also) help solve it.

After numerous (like a dozen or more) attempts to start & getting the half-screen problem, I went into the .biq file & did this, and it seemed to do the trick ... bypassed the Intro entirely & got me a normal screen. Thanks!