Talk about Black Sea...

[Dooz]

This ever happened to anyone? In the campaign map, everything starts off innocent enough... I play one battle, then when I'm back to the campaign map, all the water is black and there's no water textures. Anyone know how to cure this black plague of the sea?

[Dooz]

Anyone...? Please?...

[Mikeus Caesar]

Hmm....have you tried changing your specs? That might help. If not, then i don't have a clue what to do. On a side to all these bugs, i've noticed that there are more and more posts about bugs and problems, instead of fun things about the game.

[Dooz]

Well I'd change specs but everytime I start up the game, everything's normal. After I have a battle on the battle map, then return to campaign map, is when it changes to black.

[Hortensius]

Take your stevie wonder glasses off!!!

[MoROmeTe]

I've had an issue where after a battle the entire strat map went black, only showing setlements, armies and agents. Pretty unplayable. At first I used to do a save/load to fix it, then my little brother (yo, BOgdan!) discovered that simple alt-TAB would bring the strat map back to normal. Try it... I still don't know if it is the hardware or the modified map from RTR 4.1

[Red Harvest]

Wonderland,

What vid card do you have and how much system memory?

[Dooz]

Red Harvest, I have Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (...is that the graphics card?...), 132 GB free, 12.3 used (that's what you mean by specs right?).

Moromete the Dacian, doesn't Alt+Tab minimize the game screen? Cause that's what I use it for...

Oh and I have RTW 4.0 When I install the 4.1 patch, the entire game doesnt work. Just a screen that says "display setting not available", or something to that effect.

[ShellShock]

The Intel Extreme Graphics chip is integrated with the motherboard. Such "onboard" graphics tend to have problems with the latest games, and the general recommendation is to upgrade to a dedicated graphics card. For this your motherboard must have an AGP slot (where the graphics card will go). However, many motherboards with onboard graphics do not have AGP slots. This is really inexcusable, but it is how the manufacturers save money.

So, what is the your motherboard model? If you do not know this, what is the model of your PC (if it is one of the big name brands).

[Dooz]

Computers a Dell Dimension 3000 I believe. I'll have my friend look into it. Then off to the monthly computer fair I go to buy my videocard!... Thanks for the help everyone!

[ShellShock]

Bad news I'm afraid. The Dell Dimension 3000 does not have an AGP slot, as you can see from this review.

Your cheapest option is to replace your motherboard for one with an AGP or PCI Express slot, and get a dedicated graphics card. If you do this you need to take into account:

• Is the existing case the right "form" factor (size and shape) for the new motherboard?
• Is your existing power supply sufficient for the new graphic card (some require at least 400 watts)?
• Is your existing memory compatible with the new motherboard?

Most motherboards will accept IDE hard disks, which is probably what is fitted in the Dell.

Another option is to buy a PCI graphics card - the Dell has two free PCI slots. PCI cards are much slower than AGP, and this might not be any better than what you've got at the moment. You are limited as to the choices of PCI cards - you cannot get the latest and fastest cards in PCI format.

Do not confuse PCI with PCI Express. You've got PCI, not PCI Express. In terms of performance, the sequence is PCI->AGP->PCI Express. Also note AGP comes in different speeds: 1, 2, 4 and 8 (8 being the best).

Or you could buy a complete system. Make sure you get one with an AGP slot, or even better PCI express; then you will have a choice of which graphics card to get. I can recommend a Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT - top end of the market, and pricey, but you pay for what you get.

[Dooz]

Thanks for all the info ShellShock... sadly all the info just screwed me over... Lookin at a lot of expenses here... yeesh... maayybbeee I'll just live with minor lag for a little while longer, lol.

[Dooz]

Approximately how much would a new motherboard cost? And what other changes does it bring along exactly? What else will it change for my comp?

[Krevel]

Bad news. A new Mobo basically amounts to a new computer. You'll be able to use most of your parts, though - if that's any consolation.

Have you checked the Dell site for a new mobo/video driver for your computer? That MAY solve your problem, but the lack of a dedicated video card may be insurmountable.

[ShellShock]

Bad news. A new Mobo basically amounts to a new computer. You'll be able to use most of your parts, though - if that's any consolation.

Have you checked the Dell site for a new mobo/video driver for your computer? That MAY solve your problem, but the lack of a dedicated video card may be insurmountable.

I'm not sure how a new motherboard equates to a new computer, at least price wise. It would be possible to get a new motherboard that will take your existing processor, memory, hard disk and other cards, plus a new AGP graphics card. This could be a lot cheaper than a new computer, but you would really have to know what you were doing, to make sure everything was compatible, and you got quality parts.

[Blitz]

LOL, you seem to have a lot of bad news fell sorry for ya

[The_678]

I don't know about all this new comp stuff but I sometimes get the weird map black stuff and simply doing the alt+tab twice trick to fix it is alot easier than getting a new comp.

[ShellShock]

According to board admin at the official RTW forums, the Dell Dimension 3000 does not meet the minimum system specs: see here .

[Red Harvest]

The integrated graphics steal some memory (and memory bandwidth) from the system since they don't have dedicated memory of their own. What is probably happening is some sort of failure to allocate memory properly. It could even be related to some known memory leaks in RTW. At any rate, integrated graphics really aren't cut out for games like this.

PCI card choices are extremely limited. You can get an idea of what is available by searching o a site like www.newegg.com. I would avoid the ATi 9200's--some folks have been unable to get them to work, and they are notably absent from the list of supported ATi cards. That said, some have gotten the 9200 to work. And I'm usually pro ATi, I use an 8500 and 9800 Pro in my own machines (and had Radeon ViVo before them--still have it actually, but it is back in the box now since I don't have a 3rd machine.)

As a workaround, you might disable fog of war. Of course that has other negative effects on gameplay.

[Dooz]

Well stew my foot and call me Jude... and I was all happy I just bought a new comp... Infamy!

But the thing is, my system specs are a whole lot different than what the Dell site says the Dimension 3000 should be. Cause I didnt' exactly buy it from Dell itself, rather from some special offer type deal at Costco.... YES COSTCO! (they even sell cars!... it's only a matter of time before they take over the world..) But I assume the fact that it doens't have the necessary hardware to install a new card is still the same... but just to be safe, is there any way I can personally check myself? Without takin apart the computer perhaps? Like just a few simple clicks of the mouse and a file sayin "You're computer is fully ready to let you experience the wonderful world of Rome: Total War at its absolute best. Enjoy."

...Maybe...? ...No...?

[Dooz]

Here's a pic (thumbnail) of the black sea... just in case anyone wanted to see or somethin...


It's kinda cool... kinda weird... you get used to it...

here's the same shot, but normal colors



Anyhoo, I discovered Moromete the Dacian's technique is right. After I minimize the game and bring it back up, it goes back to normal. But then after another battle, back to black... meh... what're you gonna do...

[ulyanov]

Well stew my foot and call me Jude... and I was all happy I just bought a new comp... Infamy!

but just to be safe, is there any way I can personally check myself? Without takin apart the computer perhaps? Like just a few simple clicks of the mouse and a file sayin "You're computer is fully ready to let you experience the wonderful world of Rome: Total War at its absolute best. Enjoy."

...Maybe...? ...No...?

Jude, it's not going to say whether you can run RTW, but it will tell you everything you need to know.

Belarc Advisor

Don't post up any results without careful editing - it will show licence keys and everything...

[Dooz]

Now uh, what exactly do I look for...?

[ulyanov]

well, RAM, Processor and Gfx adaptor, they're the main things.

[MulusMariae]

Greetings, All --
I wanted to point out a couple of things about this sort of problem in case it might help others: I have seen the problem occasionally, but with LAND, not sea. In any case, the map background has gone to black with various of the other objects showing in front after returning from the battle map.

In *MY* case, I had attempted to upgrade my video card driver to the latest and greatest from Nvidia. Bad idea, as it turned out. The latest version showed the strategic map as kind of a bright "overexposed" washed-out unreadable display. I never did find a way to make it work. I stepped backwards (about a year?) and grabbed an older Nvidia driver which eliminated the "overexposed" version, but seems to have introduced the occasional "black background" problem. I can't recall the version numbers and I'm not currently in front of that computer, so I can't inform/warn of specific versions. [Note: this is with a machine that just barely runs the game: Compaq 1GHz Athlon with cheap 32MB Nvidia MMX 400] Bottom line in case others are wrestling with either "overexposed" or "black background":

You may want to experiment with video card driver versions. But be warned... the Latest may not be the Greatest.

Cheers!

[Dooz]

well, RAM, Processor and Gfx adaptor, they're the main things.

Mkay, here goes.

155.82 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
142.54 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space


Processor a
3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
16 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache


Display
Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller [Display adapter]
Default Monitor



Does that help at all? ..meh...

[ShellShock]

You might find this link useful - the official Intel support site for the 82865G graphics controller, including updated drivers.

RTW requires a DirectX 9.0b compatible card. According to Intel your controller is compatible with DirectX 9.

RTW also needs 64MB graphics memory. The graphics controller will use main system memory for this. You need at least 129MB main system memory (RAM) for at least 64MB to be available to the graphics controller, but 129MB is very low; I would recommend at least 512 MB for RTW. The specs you've posted do not include the amount of system memory. I'm not familiar with Belarc, but it should show the RAM as called something like physical memory.

If you're using Windows XP, press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and Task Manager will pop up. Go to the Performance tab, and Physical Memory (K) Total is displayed at the bottom. Divide by 1024 to get MB.

You can also get some of this info in the Control Panel display properties, as explained at the Intel site - see here.

[Dooz]

Mkay, I have 522220 Total Physical Memory which comes out to about 510 MB. I'm assuming my problems or whatnot aren't necessarily the specs of the comp, but the graphics card, which is the main problem because it's integrated and I can't un-integrate without buyin a whole new motherboard... or computer.

How much do Alienware comps run for again...?


BTW, thanks very much for all you're help everyone.

[R3dD0g]

A game like this really needs 1GB of RAM, especially considering that you're running on board graphics.

Try adding RAM, it's cheap enough and you can move it to a newer machine if you decide to go that route.

[Red Harvest]

No, you can buy a PCI card and the integrated graphics will be disabled. However, the range of PCI cards is very limited. The "upper end" of PCI graphics cards are ATi 9200's and NVidia 5200's. The 9200's are DX8 cards and have had quite a bit of trouble with RTW and are unsupported, so I can't recommend them--although at least one user has gotten it to work well. The 5200 is about the only candidate remaining.