black terrain

[usurper]

After installing the game and firing it up with the disc labeled "install", I was excited for a new civilization experience. However, the experience immediately turned bad as the impressive intro movie was destroyed through frequent pauses. I chose a leader, who appeared only as a set of floating eyes and mouth on the screen. Undeterred, I continued to start a game only to realize the terrain is black, rendering the game worthless. After updating my video drivers, the problem did not go away. Does anybody know how I can solve this problem? My card is old, Radeon 7500, but it clearly states on the box that this should be good enough for the game to at least be displayed (Who plays Civilization for the graphics?) Does anybody have any ideas? The series has taken a serious down turn in terms of quality (anybody play a game of Civ 3 without putting holes in their walls?) and I'm sick of games being released that need patches to even work. I miss the days when a 386 was more than enough to play a game of Civ.

[Daniel123]

Me too!

I'm having the same problem. Black terrain and cheshire cat looking characters.

I really want to play this darn GAME!

It is really tough since it runs and the movies look just fine.

HELP! Please

[rvinall]

it's because your video card doesn't have T&L (transform and lighting) capability. The game will never work for you unless you get a new video card. Or if you have a laptop, you'd need a new computer altogether, since laptops aren't designed to have upgradable graphic cards. yeah, it really REALLY sucks, the same thing happened to me. I also waited so long for this game, only to find out the laptop I only got less than a year ago that cost over a grand is completely unable to run it.

[usurper]

I have a Radeon 7500, on the list for hardware t&l, and on the box it says Radeon 7500 should work. There must be another problem.

[Franklinnoble]

Wait for the patch.

In the meantime, open the world builder in game, and reveal all tiles. You'll be able to play... the graphics won't be as bright as they should, and you'll still have eyeballs and dentures for leaders, but you can play.

[gdijedi7]

That's a reall bummer, although my problem is slightly different.

I have a laptop and everything works beautifully, except that my terrain is black. I don't know what my video card is and I can't find anything to tell me, all I know is that it's nVidia. I don't want a new computer. Oh well. Knew I'd need a new one eventually...

[usurper]

Thanks for the reveal map tip

[Barington]

I seem to have the same issue; but odd thing I can see some illuminated terrain floating around the edges of the screen.
The revealed part is not where my scouts are currently, they are off stumbling about in the blackness

No idea what my graphics are, its a P4 3GHz Dell about 18 months old; never occured to me it would not be up to running this game. very dissapointed.

[rvinall]

can someone help, I did go into the editor to reveal map, but I still have fog of war covering everything, even where my units and cities are placed. How do I disable fog of war?

Also, even with all the effects turned as low as possible, the game still runs pretty darn slow on my laptop (2.66 ghz, about 480 megs ram) even after I close almost all of my programs running in the background? Why is civ4 such a hog?

do y'all think its possible that a patch could fix any of these type of issues? but anyway, it'd be great is someone knew how to disable fog of war as well, thanks.

[gdijedi7]

Well, when I used Reveal Map, everything was under Fog, but If I used a Stealth Bomber to recon a cetain area, what it uncovered became bright and clear for the turn. I don't know if it was just an oddity of that map, or if each map has a certain spot. explore...