Hmm, well, I'm not seeing it happen when I change graphics settings, but the results sound exactly the same as what I'm seeing randomly pop up /w no apparent trigger.

Hard not to assume this isn't all connected to the bug many have encountered where the game boots up to a similar black screen. And I'm wondering if the patches along the way introduced it, because prior to the last couple weeks when I encountered it a couple times I had played hundreds of hours w/ it never coming up.

Course I can't rule out that I have gotten new drivers and a new vid card, but odd that this hasn't affected any other game I'm playing.