Black Screen

[Caligula83]

Hi,

Whenever I try to open the Caesar IV demo, I get a black screen with a hand-cursor that moves freely. It seems like the program is running because different noises are made when I click in different sections. My guess is it's because of the video card (nVidia GeForce2 MX400 64mb), but 64mb was listed as the minimum... I'm running a Athlon 1.8GHZ CPU with 1GB of RAM and can't figure out how to fix this.

A new video card has been ordered, but I'd love to see this game work before it arrives. Attached is my DXDiag.txt; please help.


Chris

[mouse]

Try installing the lastest version of DX it's dated August 2006 that might help.

[Manni]

@ Caligula83

mouse is right!
When you installed the demo........did you also install the directX that came with it???

[Einshev]

It happened me the exact same thing!! And I installed Directx that came with the installation. I'm still trying desperately to solve this!!!:(

[anandus]

Are you sure the Geforce 2MX is supported? It's a fairly old videocard.

[Gizza]

Are you sure the Geforce 2MX is supported? It's a fairly old videocard.

Good point. The requirements may say 64mb is minium, but there's more to a graphics card than the memory. A geforce 2 doesnt support directX 9, it only goes up to 8, and it just so happens that C4 requiers DX9. Im afraid your outta luck wif ur current card.

[Einshev]

I have the same card and it runs other games that require DirectX 9 smoothly. Anyway I'm buyin a good notebook in September so at least I'll be able to run the full version when it comes out!:p :(

[Gizza]

I have the same card and it runs other games that require DirectX 9 smoothly. Anyway I'm buyin a good notebook in September so at least I'll be able to run the full version when it comes out!:p :(

Some games are a bit more flexible when it comes to that, some however just say sorry mate, ur cards not good enough. Oblivion is another one that wont work without the required DX card.

[anandus]

Good point. The requirements may say 64mb is minium, but there's more to a graphics card than the memory. A geforce 2 doesnt support directX 9, it only goes up to 8, and it just so happens that C4 requiers DX9. Im afraid your outta luck wif ur current card.Not even, it only goes up to Directx7

[Keith]

Yes, the MX400 doesn't support DX9. I believe it is a DX7 card. The list I have doesn't go down to the 400 but the 420 and 460 cards are listed as DX7.

[Gizza]

Yes, the MX400 doesn't support DX9. I believe it is a DX7 card. The list I have doesn't go down to the 400 but the 420 and 460 cards are listed as DX7.

Well theres ya problem

[Keith]

The MX series of cards also don't support Pixel Shaders.

It might be more of a case that DX9 is supporting your MX 420 in a DX7 mode.

[Marius]

I happen to have the same card on a machine running win2K.

It was built for DX7 but is compatible with DX9c and passes the apropriate tests. As i understand it the pixel shading is not version 1.1 but a previous form of it.

This is the first game to totally fail on that card (black screen with cursor hand on top of it) CCR, Doom3 etc work on the card (albeit slowly).

Not a big surprise, given the age of the card, that it has finally been left behind by a game. Incidentaly, editing the .ini file to lower your startup conditions will not cure this issue.

The only hope (if your card is the MX400 series ... dont bother with 200) is seeing if the (won't say until i test it .. involves flashing the card to believe it is a quadro)...

[Marius]

Never mind ... card can be fooled into believing it is a Quadro 2 MXR but still does not support pixel shader 1.1 <dead end>

neither does the -use11 tag on your shortcut target work.

Must eventually buy a new card for this machine.