black screen

[legionaire]

ive heard black screen is caused by not having a good enough card.

I have a all-in-wonder ve pci from ATI.

does anyone know if this supports caesar IV

[Amenirdis]

As I said in your other thread, attach your dxdiag file, so that we can see your computers specs. There are so many different ati cards that we need to know the exact name of it.

run DXDIAG and save the results to your computer. Click START then RUN and type DXDIAG and click OK. Once the program is fully loaded, SAVE the results to a folder on your computer.

Then upload that file to your problem message via the MANAGE ATTACHMENTS button below the text box area where you type your message. UPLOAD the DXDIAG.TXT file. Close the window, then SUBMIT your message.

Attach it either to this thread or your other one. :)

[legionaire]

Ok heres the dxdiag info

[Amenirdis]

Thank you, legionaire. You were right, the card is old and it does not support the needed shaders which the game needs to run. You might want to consider buying a new card, if you can afford it.

Edit: It won't help running the game right now, but you might want to free some space on your harddrive, you're running low. Also, your soundchip could use newer drivers. Check out realteks homepage for that.

[Keith]

Ok heres the dxdiag info

As Amenirdis said, your card is based on the ATI 7500 Rage series and those cards don't support the necessary graphic feature used in the game.

[legionaire]

ok i have another graphics card in my comp called

Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics

when i loaded caesar iv with it i got a message box with this message:
(Smiles are D's)
__________________________________________________ ___________
Game Exception

Unhandled exception: n/a
Type: (bunch of squares)
File: C:TMill\source\Engine\D3DDeviceManager.cpp
Function: TMill::Engine::D3D::DeviceManager::ChangeDevice
Line: 3338
_____
| OK |
------

__________________________________________________ _____________

[Keith]

Yeah, that's even worse than your other one. It doesn't support T&L features either.

You can try that 3D-Analyze (http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/tools/3d_analyze/) program to force the main CPU to emulat T&L, but so far the others with Intel chipsets that have tried it haven't had much luck. It might work better with your Nvidia card. You want to check the boxes in program I mentioned next to Force SW TnL and emulate Hardware TnL caps.

[legionaire]

lol okay, thx

[Keith]

See the edit above.

[SasquatchMike]

I just bought this brand new computer, specifically to be able to play games like Caesar 4.. but the demo won't play at all.. what's the deal?

[Keith]

The computer itself is fine and meets the specs, however, if you want to play Caesar IV you are going to need to get a seperate video card that supports T&L and is DX9 compliant.

Your system uses a chipset on the motherboard for video functions (Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family). Unfortunately it doesn't support the use

From Intel:

Intel® 82945G Express Chipset

Delta Force Xtreme* Game Displays Error on Launch

http://www.intel.com/sites/templates/pix/circuit388.gif

Delta Force Xtreme* game will not launch. When an attempt to launch the game is made, it displays an error stating: "This video card does not support HW T&L (Hardware accelerated Transform & Lighting). This game requires a video card that support HW T&L, and therefore will not run on this device."

This game requires a graphics adapter with hardware T&L (Transform & Lighting) support to run. The Intel® 945G Express Chipset graphics controller does not support hardware T&L. T&L can be done by the processor (in software) with acceptable performance in most cases, but since the game specifically checks for hardware T&L, it fails to run.

[mouse]

The D series processor is different from the Celeron D series it is better/newer than the P4. It's among the first dual core processors so the processor more than meets the spec to run C-IV. The information is available on the Intel website about the D processors.

[PCDania]

One other (minimal) possibility is you have a "D" series CPU. Letter CPUs are downgrades for the most part, but yours seems "strong" enough to compensate. So, we'll hope that's not going to be a problem.
Sorry but mouse (and Keith) is correct in that the only problem what hardware goes seems to be the onboard graphics. A Pentium D is more then capable of running Caesar IV and does not have to compensate in any way so that is not going to be a problem. The Pentium D is the successor of the Pentium 4 (Prescott) I mentioned the other day.

@SasquatchMike
According to newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16883107091 your computer has a free PCI-E 16x graphics slot. I take it this is your computer as the model # given on the site [A1560N(EX278AA#ABA)] is the same as in the Dxdiag file you submitted. If you buy a new graphics card you will have to keep in mind that your power supply unit is a 300Watt model so make sure your new graphics card does not require more.

Edit: tsk, tsk. Still can't spell....

[Springer]

just to show how powerfull a D series P4 can be ;) (a lot of reading :eek: )

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores/index.html

[PCDania]

I'll bet it's about the D805 they overclocked to 4.1Ghz :p. Don't try this at home unless you know what you are doing.

[Springer]

I'll bet it's about the D805 they overclocked to 4.1Ghz :p. Don't try this at home unless you know what you are doing.

Indeed it is and IF i had the money to get all the parts i would have it already, but clocked at max 3.8 Ghz as that speed can be kept with a Zalman Cooler (i think i know what i'm doing, and have been doing for the last 15 years :D)

[Springer]

What can I say?! Not perfect, just human like the rest of the world. (Sigh :o )



Join the club Phil ;)

[mouse]

Tech advances move so fast it's hard to keep up with all of it. Add to that Intel changed it's processors naming conventions to add confusion;)

[asadkhan25]

Ok So I run Caesar IV and have the same problems, black screen with sound.

I have attached the file for you guys to see the specifications if this is good enough or not.

THe other computer I have at home has a Nvidia Quadro NVS 280 64 MB graphics card suffering the same problem. I suppose both my cards dont support 1.1 pixel blah blah blah but i Just wana confirm before i decide to buy a new one.

Can you guys recommend probably the cheapest compatible card for this game?

THanks in advance

[KenyaSong]

could you tell me if i have any chance to play caesar on my computer?

[Rnett]

Yes, a complete makeover....:D

More ram, better video card, faster cpu, update the sound drivers for starters. I know that's not what you want to hear, but better to know in advance then to go in blindly and have way too many issues.:)

[KenyaSong]

lol :))

thank you anyway.
so i won't play the game 'cuz i don't have the money...
j'm'en fous :P i will play caesar 3 again and again :D

[druida]

Hi,

Im getting a black screen at the middle of the game.....

I have an ATI Radeon 9550 Graphic card.

I also uploaded my dxdiag.

Whats wrong? :mad:

[Rnett]

Might be the operating system, it was written for windows 2000 or xp home/pro.