I'm posting here to help a friend out with running Civ 4

[Sovereign]

Hiyas.

A friend of mine asked me if Civ4 can run on his computer. He's able to get Civ 4 to run, but he has black terrain and possibly chesire cat syndrome. His computer is a laptop.

Here's his chip specs...

intel(r) 82852/82855 gm/gme graphics controller

Everything else meets or surpasses the minimum req's otherwise he wouldn't be able to run Civ 4 in the first place.

Is his graphic card good enough or not for Civ 4? He says his computer is only 1 year old so it should have at least T + L, unless I'm mistaken.

[seebs]

Not a chance. Intel graphics controllers are chintz. They are not real rendering hardware.

http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-011910.htm?iid=graphics+852main&

Intel® graphics products do not have hardware support for T&L. In most games, transform and lighting calculations can be performed on the processor with acceptable performance. A small number of games that specifically check for hardware T&L support may fail to run.

[Sovereign]

So does this mean he has to buy a whole new laptop? I don't understand why you have to buy a whole new laptop for a video card? What gives?

[iratheous]

Probably because it was intended as a business machine, not a 3d gaming platform.

[alva]

He says his computer is only 1 year old so it should have at least T + L, unless I'm mistaken.

and T/L is close to six !! years old.