The General Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Hello, I just purchased the CMBB Special edition. When running, I get the "loading 3-d graphics" box loading once I have chosen my scenario. 5 dots appear after it and then it starts blinking with no map showing up. The lower menu is fine. I am running Windows XP with directx 9. I have an integrated SIS 661fx video on my pentium 4 board. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 Does 3D work for other games? Does it work in `dxdiag`? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hpt. Lisse Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 Start looking at a new video card... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The General Posted August 31, 2004 Author Share Posted August 31, 2004 3d does work with other programs and with dxdiag. I heard that there are problems with the SIS chipset. I'm looking into buying a new video board. Which would you recommend between the Nvdia 4600 and 5700? Thank You. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 The 4600 is said to be compatible with older drivers which gave some CMers the least trouble. However, I cannot reproduce this and run just fine with 61.77 drivers. The 5700 is not much faster, even slower e.g. in Call of Duty, but is a DirectX 9 card. You would have to get a 5900 or 5950 to really beat the 4600 (for some games, not for others, sorry). My opinion of the FX 5xx0 cards is not very high. The Geforce 4 series was a real runner, the FX 5xx0 were always a little behind. If you find some dumbo to sell you a 4600 cheap then go for it and put the rest of the money aside to get a 6800 next time (which seems to be a good series again). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 Some of the SiS series graphics chips do have problems with CM. However I just did some testing with the SiS 740 & 730 series and it performed fine with CMAK (which is probably true of CMBB & CMBO also). I was able to get fog, alpha-blending effects (transparency), explosions, dust, etc. What driver are you using ? I suggest checking your version out (Control Panels > System control panel > Hardware tab > Device Manager button > open up the Display Adapters item and double-click on the listed videocard > Driver tab) and possibly downloading a newer driver. For the SiS 661FX select "IGP Graphics Drivers", then "SiS661FX & SiS760 series" and then finally "Windows XP" (the third one down) and press the 'Go' button near the bottom of the third list. The v. 3.61a driver should work for you. I tested an equivalent driver downloaded from Windows Update that worked fine with the SiS 740 (This universal driver from SiS supports both chips, so that is why I think it should work). You may want to download the latest DirectX version 9.0c . It probably isn't that different from 9.0b (which you most likely have), but it worked for me under WinXP with the latest drivers. I suggest making sure that your CMOS/BIOS setup is reserving 64Mb of memory for your video. The default is probably 32Mb which should work too. If you want more details, tell me the exact model of your motherboard (i.e. - Asus P4S800-MX, etc.). As others have pointed out however, you could get even more performance out of a dedicated videocard such as the GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 4800 or 4600 (the 4600 is the fastest of the three). These cards will have faster memory and they won't 'bog down' your Northbridge chip and system memory. Edit: it might be necessary to uninstall your current SiS drivers (via the Add/Remove Programs control panel), reboot and have your card detected as a 'VGASave' or whatever safe-mode driver WinXP uses, install DirectX 9.0c, reboot and then install the latest SiS drivers. [ August 31, 2004, 01:44 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The General Posted September 1, 2004 Author Share Posted September 1, 2004 Thank You for your reply. I installed Directx 9.0c (after removing video driver) and then installed latest driver. CMBB is now working correctly. My motherboard is an 661FXG. I have a Cicero computer. I looked at CMOS and Bios settings (by pressing delete during memory check) but could not find a video memory setting. Would you have any idea how to increase my integrated board memory from 32 to 64meg? Thank You. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 I'm not familiar with the "Cicero Computers". What I could find on the web didn't specify which SiS 661FX motherboard you have. Do you happen to have a motherboard manual that may have come with your computer ? Some potential examples would be 'PC Chips M963G' or 'Asrock P4S61' or 'MSI (Microstar) 661FM-L' or 'Abit AG-72' or 'Asus P4S800-MX'. You may also be able to find this information on the screen where the memory is counted/displayed. Near the memory total there may be a model number, etc. Otherwise the last recourse is to open up the computer and look for a printed model number on the motherboard itself. For example, the PC Chips M963G in the CMOS/BIOS setup, selecting 'Advanced Setup' there is a 'Share Memory Size' setting that determines the amount of system memory that is dedicated to the video. You'll also see a setting called 'Graphic Win Size' which is also called the 'AGP Aperture'. This isn't the setting to tell the computer how much memory to dedicate to the video. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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