erm, im new

graphics card?

from GalCiv2 Forums
hey
i'd never heard of galactic civilizations til 2 days ago, when i bought GC2. its a pretty cool game but i've got a problem with it.
when im playing the game, it only seems to be showing certain components of the ships. say, for instance, it mainly only shows the hull, with no detail at all. also, i've seen screenshots of the screen where you design a ship, and the graphics in the screenshots look ok, but in mine, it doesnt even show the ship, just the red arrows. then when i launch this ship, there's no hull, just the components i have attached to the red arrows. another thing, when i load the game up i can HEAR the intro movie but the screens just black, with the GC2 cursor. and the in-game movies jerk every second or so.

Is this because of my graphics card? if not, whats causing the problem?
11,052 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
by the way, its galactic civilizations II: dread lords (limited edition)
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is bizzare. Utterly bizzare.

What video card do you have (we can't tell if it's that if you don't tell us what you have ). Do you have the latest drivers?

You might also want to try going into the Regional Settings in the Control Panel and changing your region to English (US). It helps with some other issue.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ive got a nvidia geforce 2 (old ) i think..
about that regional settings thing, i'm from england so i'd have it as english(UK) wouldnt I?
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
from your description of the problem, i'll make 2 suggestions :
1. Obtain and install the most current drivers for your video card.
2. Turn the anti aliasing down from 4x to 2x or disable it all together (the intro movie problem could be linked to the AA being set too high)
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
about that regional settings thing, i'm from england so i'd have it as english(UK) wouldnt I?


Yes, you would, but that's what may be causing the bug. Latest version has some problem where it doesn't like Windows not being set to English (US), so your English (UK) might be triggering the bug. (Big might)

Oh, and at that, make sure you have the latest version in the first place.

And, upgrade you video card drivers. If you have a Geforce 2 MX, you'll want to try this, or if you have one of the other Geforce 2 varieties you'll need to use this slightly older driver. Be sure you have Direct X 9.0c too...
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
right, downloading new drivers:
am i downloading the correct drivers here?

http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=qrhogg
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
thanks for that, didnt know if i was getting the right ones.
where would i get the latest version from? i downloaded that stardock central but i dont know what im doing with it.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When you installed the game it automatically checked to see what version if any you had and if neccessary installed directX 9.0c; no need to worry there.

If it helps I too have a copy of the game bought in the UK, etc. No such problems with my machine, though it is relatively new.

Make sure you have the latest available drivers for your graphic card, processors, etc.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
how do i find out what direct X ive got?


go into the windows start menu, click run and type in "dxdiag" you can get all your computer stats, including directx version and driver versions.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
thanks for that, never knew you could do it that way.
yeah ive got directX 9.0c, ive installed the new drivers for my video card. would i have to reinstall the game to make these have an effect? i wouldnt think so but i dunno
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Many driver installations for windows require a reboot after install. however if the install didnt prompt you to reboot then you shouldnt need to

on the other hand if you're still having problems you might try rebooting and trying again.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There's also the problem with Geforce 2 is a rather old card by todays standard.
The card only have hardware support for DirectX 7 so it is not able to show that many shadows, lights, textures and so on.

Would suggest you get a newer card, like a Geforce 4 or later or a ATI Radeon 9000 series or later.
Stay away from any Geforce with the MX in the name though as those are low budget cards built on the Geforce 2 processor.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i was just going to ask about new video cards so thanks i'll check out some prices
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Check out http://www.newegg.com for video card pricing, they're pretty good there.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ATI Radeon 9200 = £67 (roughly)
not bad. im gonna upgrade my ddr ram aswell, it used to be 512mb but half of one of the cards blew so ive only got 380mb now (or something like that)