Graphics Problems

[Uber_Bob]

I tried to run CMBB on my work computer, it starts up fine, i go to start a game, the "Loading 3d graphics" Panel appears and then the game starts, this is what happens, it is running fine, except the graphics dont work, I can select the squads and see the select boxes around the outside, but they fill the screen.

(see pic, the colour along the bottom isnt like that, its fine, I just set the image to 16 colours to save upload space)

Specs:

Pentium 4 3ghz

480mb RAM

32Mb SiS onboard gfx

Please Help!! :mad:

[Richie]

You might want some sort of add on video card...

[Redwolf]

It's beautiful, man.

Just enjoy

[Schrullenhaft]

I've had trouble with some of the later drivers for the onboard SiS graphics. The CMx1 series used to run fine with the SiS 740/650 IGP chipsets. However some recent drivers from SiS seems to have goofed that up (though I haven't checked the very latest ones). I no longer have access to motherboards using the earlier SiS 740/650 series chips. I had thought that an SiS 741 would be similar, but I could never get it to work with CM. I've only gotten a similar all-black 3D display in CM.

I haven't tried anything lately regarding SiS drivers. Assuming that you have a SiS 661 series IGP you could possibly try the latest driver, 3.75 from SiS. Unfortunately I'd guess that the issues probably remain, but it would be worth it to try them out. I'd suggest uninstalling your current drivers first, rebooting and then installing the driver. If Windows prompts you to install the driver, skip on that (so that you get a 'warning' about a 'failing' device).

In my experience it's best NOT to install the driver with the installer. In the past some of the control panel extensions have caused the "black screen in CM" problem; which went away when the driver was installed without them. Even if you opted to not install these utilities (if even offered in the current installer), the problem would still occur with CM. This makes installing the driver a bit more complex, but there's a small chance that it will allow CM to work with your current hardware.

Extract the driver files from the .ZIP archive that you download from SiS into a directory you can easily find and browse. In here go to the AGP driver that's located in \3.75logo\AGPPack\AGP\current\WINXP (the last directory may be whatever Windows version you're running if it isn't XP). There's no installer program for the AGP drivers alone, so they will have to be installed manually. In the Device Manager (Control Panels > System control panel > Hardware tab > Device Manager button) go to the System Devices section and open it up. Look for a "SiS CPU to AGP Controller" (or something to that effect). Double-click on that and go to the Driver tab and then click the Update Driver button and go through that process (pointing to the above files) to update the AGP driver. This may require a reboot after the driver is updated.

If you do reboot, you may be prompted again to install the video driver. If you are, then follow the process through and pick out the directory \3.75logo\WINXP_2K to install the driver from. Hopefully the .INF file there is compatible with your hardware. Otherwise if you're not offered to install the driver, you'll need to go through the same process as the AGP driver.

Here's a thread that mentions some previous experiences with the SiS IGP chips.

As already suggested, you may want to try to install another videocard (I assume AGP) if possible.