Intel Video Cards

[lolo79]

Hi,

I have a 1.4 Ghz Samsung Laptop with Intel 85215 graphics card and 756 mhz RAM.

I'm able to play real-time video games like command and Conquer decently (can't claim it runs great, but it doesn't slow down too much and doesn't crash, even on multiplayer games).

I get the black screen on Civ 4 (low and medium graphics). When I set the graphics to high, I get ONLY THE TREES AND WATER black.

Has anyone with the Intel Graphics card been able to run the game? Will a patch also fix issues with intel graphics cards?

[CrONoS]

It works... but i have an Intel GMA 900. And it works at good speed.

[lolo79]

That's reassuring...

Did you have the problem in the first place? Did you fix it by going to the World Builder or by going through a few turns on the game?

From the blogs I read, it's not clear if it's a video hardware problem or a Civ 4 issue.

[yogi_1]

While waiting for the patch, here is a workaround:

Start a game as usual.
From the in-game menu start the WorldBuilder.
Click on the "Reveal all tiles" button.
Exit WorldBuilder

Voila. The black tiles are visible now.

Exploring is not very funny this way - but at least you can play.

[Subtestube]

For the moment at least, this is definitely a hardware problem. Your graphics card does not support Hardware Transform and Lighting, and that's why the terrain is all black. The 9xx series of Intel Graphics accelerators does, and that's why it goes properly for cronos_qc.

For more information, see this thread.

EDIT: I should note with regard to the post that was made while I was making mine: When the whole world is rendered, selective lighting is turned off. The whole map is just rendered at full-brightness, hence why hardware T&L is required when fog of war is still involved. In other words, when you can see everything, you're actually working around something that isn't a software problem as such.