New fix for the renderer error

[iiisamiii]

Re: Not on 7500

Originally posted by frazzledog
The Mobility Radeon 7500 most definitely has hardware T&L but like the others I have the no terrain problem even after updating to latest drivers and running this fix. I haven't tried the Omega drivers but I am reluctant to do this on my work machine. If anybody tests them and has sucess please let us know.

This is a PARTIAL fix for the Mobility Radeon 7500 users (like myself). I found this in another thread somewhere on this board, but here it is if you haven't found it:
I installed the omega drivers http://www.omegadrivers.net/ and turned off AGP under the SMARTGART tab.

I can now play the game, however the oceans are still black, unless they are zebra black and blue, and all the ground looks like tundra. I can see the leader's faces normally. At least I can play, and pray Firaxis fixes this in a patch, if it can be fixed. Otherwise I will demand that they send me a new user's manual which does not specifically state that the Radeon 7500 is the minimum supported video card. Happy Civ'ing

[maRaider]

Originally posted by BaysideLogHomes
I'm having probs then running the file after it's been unzipped... I'm Win2000

Something about the entry point, AttachConsole in Kernal32.dll

You are not alone. I don't think it works in 2000. I am pulling my hair out. Anyone want to buy a copy of Civ4? I am a longtime fan of the franchise, but this is patently unforgivable. This type of thing is why QA managers get paid and, frankly, those who miss them should look into a career in food service...

And, yes, I am in the industry, make games and know wtf I am talking about.

If anyone can figure a way to get this unpacker to run in 2000, I would be profoundly grateful.

[Craighallworth]

FIRST IMPRESSION...EYE STRAIN GALORE

I got it to work but I dont know if I liked the game very much. I found the graphics really straining on the eyes. Its damn hard to tell whats going on. Since they have three little icons for each unit its a lot smaller then before and you have to pretty much put your nose to the monitor to see it. Not to mention the font is so damned small and alot of the important data is in tiny font on the left hand side. Plus the terrain, particularly jungle and later the windmills and other land improvements make it nearly impossible to tell what each unit is. I just played for about 5 hours and my eyes are so strained I feel like a headache and I used to play civ 3 for like 10 hours straight with no headache.

I tried it on all of the available resolutions too and I have a 19" monitor. Plus I couldnt figure out how to do the macro stuff like continental rally point, all cities build same unit etc. but im sure that must be possible.

hope yall have better luck.

peace

[sn0wX]

i tried the unpack last nite..and it worked...but crashed after 15 turns..and would not load again...so now i tried to follow step by step from the start on the civ4 website...back to square one..failed to render

radeon 9550
p4 2.4ghz
1g ram
tried both cat 5.10 and omega 2.6.75a

i am truely dissappointed after waiting a year for this game. Like a kid with candy leaving the gamestore..only to get home and find someone had wrapped a plain old rock in the paper and stuck it to a mostly eaten sucker.

as for those who try to defend the devs...for those of you who do computer repair for a job...the labor costs for each of us trying to fix this beta release is upwards of 300-400 at a rate of $60-80 an hour

looks like i'll have to build a whole new computer just to play this game

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by maRaider
If anyone can figure a way to get this unpacker to run in 2000, I would be profoundly grateful.

Firaxis are working on an official Win2k compatible PAK tool. In the meantime you may use my unofficial FPK tool, that come with a lot less features, but have been reported working so far.

[sn0wX]

Well, 90 minutes later i have successfully assembled a p4 1.9ghz with 512mb ram and a geforce 3 that can successfully and WITH EASE initialize the engine.

Although I am still pissed at the horrible excuse for a game they put out as an ATI owner, i still love my civ games regardless of that.

for the rest of you ati owners who continue to have the problems even after the pak fix, i feel your pain. good luck

[IBMT42]

I followed this guide.

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_ati.htm

Still game wont run on my IBM T42 with a Radeon 7500 Mobile.

Thinking about it I better clarify.....the game starts fine, but I get all black landscape.

Any ideas ?

[Flavious]

This fix sadly won't work for win 2000 users, like me there is another alternative solution found here, although I have not actually tested it yet. Although you could wait for the win2000 fix which they claim to be working on atm.

hxxp://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_ati.htm

[tengee]

Hello,

I have W2000 with a radeon 9600
I have done all the previous and without success
Then when I start the PakBuild.exe I get a new message saying :
The entry point for the attachconsole procedure can not be found in the KERNEL32.dll library

What should I do pls

[Gramphos]

You may download and use my attempt at a pak-extracting utility. It works with Win2k, and extracts the PAKs correctly. So just get it instead of the PakBuild.exe and use it for the PAK extraction step.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=4092199#post4092199

[jpietrzak8]

Worked for me (W2K)

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks -- the alpha pak program worked for me. Everything seems to be working now.

My setup:

Windows 2000 (professional)
ATI Radeon X800XL
Intel Pentium 4, 3.06 GHz
1 gig Ram

Thanks guys!!!

[feline]

*bows*

The unpa(c/k)king works fine here too
(WinXP Pro SP2/Sapphire Radeon 9600)

I really appreciate the work and this work-around!

Thanks!!

[Morwynd]

At first, I got the renderer error. So I tried the PAK fix, then I got no error, just dumped to desktop.

Then I deleted my entire cache directory (Documents and Settings/%YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE%/My Games/Civilization 4/cache/), and the game now starts!

Thanks to all who provided suggestions.

[ozzytx]

Windows XP 64-bit
2 x BFG 6800 Ultra OC

This fixed the video problem but now my units and popup menus are invisible sometimes.

[LongKnife56]

This worked for me for my laptop.

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 2 ghz, 640 MB, and the 64
MB Radeon mobile 9000.

My biggest challenge was to get the latest 5.1 drivers to install as Dell tries to control that and their latest drivers for my laptop's card were two years old. I downloaded the 5.1 catalyst drivers from ATI and used The ATI Technology Radeon 9000 Microsoft drivers and ignored the warning that they could not be verified to work with my hardware.

Thanks alot!!!

Next up - my desktop.