Black Screen at Start of Resumed Game

from Stardock Forums
I reinstalled GC and played ok for 2 hours. I saved the game, but when I tried to continue, I saw the non-Stardock logo (Strategy First) and then just a black screen. The mouse pointer would move but nothing else would work. I have to power off/on to recover. I verified the Dart*.dll files were in windows\system and ran regsrv32.exe on all 3 files. I'm running Win98SE. HELP!!!!

The C:\Program Files\Drengin.net\galciv\debug.err file contents are:
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: RGB in format 5:6:5, Masks reported as f800:7e0:1f
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 1234dc
Debug Message: Added fonts: VerdanaWhite11 VerdanaWhite12B VerdanaYellow11 VerdanaLtBlue11 VerdanaGreen11
Debug Message: Added fonts: VerdanaRed11 VerdanaRed12 VerdanaYellow12 VerdanaOrange12 VerdanaLtBlue12
Debug Message: Added fonts: VerdanaDkBlue12 VerdanaLtBlue12B VerdanaOrange12B Verdana00Race11 Verdana01Race11
Debug Message: Added fonts: Verdana02Race11 Verdana03Race11 Verdana04Race11 Verdana05Race11 Verdana00Race12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Verdana01Race12B Verdana02Race12B Verdana03Race12B Verdana04Race12B Verdana05Race12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: font2 font1 Comic10 Comic12 Comic12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic14 Comic14B Comic16 Comic16B Comic18
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic18B Celtic14 Celtic12 Celtic10 Basker14
Debug Message: Added fonts: Basker16 BabylonBlue11B BabylonBlue11 BabylonBlue10B ArialGreenB10
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialYellowB12 ArialLtBlueB12 ArialDkBlueB12 ArialGreenB12 ArialRedB12
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialWhite12B ArialWhite14 ArialWhite16 ArialOrange12B ArialLtBlue12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialLtBlue14 ArialGreen14 ArialRed14 ArialYellow14 ArialGreen16
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialYellow16 Arial13B Arial16B2 Arial10 Arial12
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial12B Arial14 Arial14B Arial16 Arial16B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial18 Arial18B GaraWGold11B GaraBW14B GaraW11B
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: Game Initialization completed.
Debug Message: Creating cutscene window.
Debug Message: Creating soundtrack handler.
Debug Message: Creating movie handler.
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Creating opening menu.
Debug Message: Creating player setup screen.
Debug Message: Creating race setup screen.
Debug Message: Begin playing intro movie.
Debug Message: Initialize Tilemaps
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Scanning sprites.
Debug Message: Scanning Models.
Debug Message: Scanning bitmaps.
Debug Message: Initializing Galaxy.
Debug Message: Begin creating other screens.
Debug Message: Initialize Game Options.
252 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
And you made sure that the Dart*.dlls were not in your Drengin folder?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, the 3 Dart*.dlls are in the windows\sysstem folder only. All are dated 10/10/02. Please let me know what other info I can send to help debug this problem. Thanks.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I am very happy to report that updating to DirectX 8.1b for Win98 did the trick!!! :)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I am having the same problem but upating DirectX didn't help and mt dart dlls are in the windows\system folder only.

Here is my debug info:
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: RGB in format 5:6:5, Masks reported as f800:7e0:1f
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 1234dc
Debug Message: Added fonts: VerdanaWhite11 VerdanaWhite12B VerdanaYellow11 VerdanaLtBlue11 VerdanaGreen11
Debug Message: Added fonts: VerdanaRed11 VerdanaRed12 VerdanaYellow12 VerdanaOrange12 VerdanaLtBlue12
Debug Message: Added fonts: VerdanaDkBlue12 VerdanaLtBlue12B VerdanaOrange12B Verdana00Race11 Verdana01Race11
Debug Message: Added fonts: Verdana02Race11 Verdana03Race11 Verdana04Race11 Verdana05Race11 Verdana00Race12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Verdana01Race12B Verdana02Race12B Verdana03Race12B Verdana04Race12B Verdana05Race12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: font2 font1 Comic10 Comic12 Comic12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic14 Comic14B Comic16 Comic16B Comic18
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic18B Celtic14 Celtic12 Celtic10 Basker14
Debug Message: Added fonts: Basker16 BabylonBlue11B BabylonBlue11 BabylonBlue10B ArialGreenB10
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialYellowB12 ArialLtBlueB12 ArialDkBlueB12 ArialGreenB12 ArialRedB12
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialWhite12B ArialWhite14 ArialWhite16 ArialOrange12B ArialLtBlue12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialLtBlue14 ArialGreen14 ArialRed14 ArialYellow14 ArialGreen16
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialYellow16 Arial13B Arial16B2 Arial10 Arial12
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial12B Arial14 Arial14B Arial16 Arial16B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial18 Arial18B GaraWGold11B GaraBW14B GaraW11B
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: Game Initialization completed.
Debug Message: Creating cutscene window.
Debug Message: Creating soundtrack handler.
Debug Message: Creating movie handler.
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Creating opening menu.
Debug Message: Creating player setup screen.
Debug Message: Creating race setup screen.

It would seem that I'm locking up with a black sreen at the "Debug Message: Begin playing intro movie." portion.

Any advice?

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Ah, just replied to your previous message. Do you have the file Intro.bik in your galciv directory?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I think this is another place where SmartException should be advertised. Not that it would fix this particular problem, but sometimes a blank screen, sometimes called a "blue screen of death", can be caused by a cascade of crashes. When this happens and you have SmartException installed, sometimes you get crash information about the first crash recoreded (sometimes not, but the ones it catch can be VERY important).
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
It's possible, there's not a lot can go wrong up to the point that his debug.err is reporting. I am thinking that it doesn't like the bink movie, or possibly the music.

I still have to figure out what I can do to make the bink movies and music more robust, but until then if removing the Intro.bik file from his directory will get the game loaded, it would be a good thing.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok. I figured out a solution to my problem. Hope this helps others as well. I removed the prefs.ini file from the drengin folder and voila, no more black screen lockup instead of the intro movies. Thanks for the help everyone.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Intro "movies"? All I get is three screens with logos.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
The logos are bink movies stored in intro.bik. That's how they fade in and out
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
I hadn't noticed them fading in and out. I will watch for that next time I load it up. And I will probably to a total uninstall and reload for Beta 3.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
OK. The first one fades in and out about medium speed (I never noticed that) and the other two fade in and out fast (you really have to watch it to see it). I get the little "boom" as well with the second and third ones.