Combat Mission Black Sea black screen on startup

[Schrullenhaft]

I would suggest updating the driver and seeing if it might make a difference. Try the latest 27.20.100.9466 (5/14/2021). I suggest downloading the .exe for the simplest installation. If you get an error message (like I did) about being unable to install this newest driver, then follow these instructions for uninstalling your current drivers and installing these latest ones. I also suggest downloading the latest graphics driver from your laptop manufacturer to have on hand if something doesn't quite work right with these Intel-provided drivers.

[EastUkraine]

Unfortunately the generic latest driver is incompatible with my system. At this point, I'm starting to lose hope of this issue being resolved given how its apparently a hardware incompatibility. I'm still confused though, how come this game in particular seems to refuse to work?

[Kevin2k]

For what it is worth, There is a system here at the office with the same graphics hardware, so I was so kind to do a quick test:

HP laptop with Windows 10 Pro (Build 19041.928)
Intel UHD Graphics 620 - Driver v27.20.100.8854 Dated 14-10-2020. (Graphics is part of i5-8250U CPU)
 

https://battlefront.sharefile.com/share/view/s5e19b6f89ce483a8
CMBS Windows v102 DEMO.zip (1.051.868.252 bytes)

 

Works fine. Intro shows up, Menu shows up, 3D game shows up.

[Schrullenhaft]

When you got the error mentioning that the driver was incompatible with your hardware, did you try the instructions I linked to above for removing and installing the latest drivers:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000056629/graphics.html

These instructions will not work for all situations, but in most cases they will allow for the installation of the latest drivers. Occasionally there are actually hardware/firmware differences between some OEMs and the original generic hardware standard that Intel develops its drivers with. In those cases (and I assume that such modifications are actually pretty rare) you will have to stick with the drivers provided by your OEM (the laptop manufacturer). This is why I suggested, just in case, to have a fresh download of the latest drivers from your manufacturer.

The Intel instructions basically boil down to:

1) Remove current driver via Device Manager and select option to actually remove the driver files.

2) 'Scan' for new hardware and this should hopefully install the generic 'Microsoft Display adapter' (or some equivalent).

3) Disconnect from the internet (assuming you don't have to authenticate your login with a server). This is necessary to prevent Windows from downloading and installing a driver for the Intel video itself (which might be the driver you just uninstalled).

4) With the 'Microsoft' generic display adapter still installed, install the new Intel drivers. Hopefully this takes and you now have the latest (which laptop manufacturers will rarely have).

5) Reboot after the new drivers are installed and reconnect to the Internet.

 

The reason that your current drivers might be problematic with this game is that CM uses the OpenGL API for graphics. Most games on Windows typically use DirectX (a Microsoft-only technology) and that gets more development attention and support than OpenGL (which is a more open standard). Some Intel drivers may lack a lot of OpenGL support, but as you can see with some of the latest drivers we've been able to test the CM games do work (functionally, if not perfectly).

Edited May 21, 2021 by Schrullenhaft
Missing a few details.

[Erwin]

Would Kevin's problems have any relevance to my own struggles to get any CM2 game to run on my new Win 10 system?

[EastUkraine]

My GPU must be a special snowflake because it seems to only be compatible with OEM and not generic drivers. It doesn't say my drivers are up to date, instead it says no supported driver or software updates. Also surely if it was an OpenGL issue there would be at least another game in my steam library that would be broken right? Once again, I'm glad you're still working on my problem. Maybe this long chain of messages can hopefully help someone else in the future.

[Schrullenhaft]

DO NOT USE the Intel Auto-Updater. Your current drivers are the OEM ones (supposedly) and the Intel Auto-Updater is going to recognize that and tell you that there is no update available. Try the method I mentioned above and see if it works (which involves uninstalling your current driver) - please read the Intel link carefully so you know the exact steps. It's possible that that process may not work (and you have some true customizations to your video hardware/firmware), but I think that most of the time the Intel-provided drivers WILL work. Again, make sure to have a download of the Acer provided video drivers in case something doesn't work right and you need to reinstall them.

When it comes to OpenGL, it is a less common standard on the PC, especially for large game developers. Sometimes they'll have a game programmed with both DirectX and OpenGL, but that is usually a pretty rare situation now-a-days due to the amount of development and debugging time that takes. Here's a list (that I don't know how accurate it is) of OpenGL games. Some of these games may have both an OpenGL and a DirectX mode/version and if that is the case, you would likely be using the DirectX version/mode:

List of OpenGL games

There is a newer BIOS version (1.49) for your laptop, but it supposedly only updates the Intel microcode (typically used for identifying and operating newer CPUs). Occasionally some of these BIOS updates have updated video BIOSes, but Acer doesn't mention that in the quick listing of the BIOS updates.

The latest video driver I see on Acer's site is 24.20.100.6286 (dated 2019/03/18). I'm not sure if that is what you're already using or not. The other Intel video driver in the download list is 23.20.16.5038 (dated 2018/06/15), but it mentions support for 'RS4' and I don't know what that is (a game or software program ?).

[Schrullenhaft]

Erwin - I don't think the issues here are what you're seeing unless you're trying to run the games on Intel GPUs (integrated into the CPU). That's assuming that the issue here is due to video drivers. I don't recall your exact situation, but I thought you had an Nvidia GPU and I wouldn't think that this situation would apply to you.

[Erwin]

Yes, I have nVidia.  I'll try again with CMCW as it's a standalone presently - should be the simplest to get working on my $3,000+ lump of useless metal I have here.

[EastUkraine]

Yeah I've given up on this honestly. My computer will not accept the latest as it's completely incompatible (uninstalling does nothing), and I already have the latest OEM driver. Every single avenue of checking for updates to my OEM driver shows that its the latest version, including both intel and acer's tools. Considering this game was released in 2014 and my driver is from 2017, I doubt updating it would accomplish much anyways. I'm still confused though, I could have sworn that I've played other games which use OpenGL with absolutly no problems before in the past. I guess this is just a quirk of integrated chips, and maybe I'll try this game in the distant future when I can afford a discrete graphics unit. Either way, thanks for the help, I do appreciate it and will remember it when I try this game in the future.