Install Problems!

[micmn]

Hi! New here. I just purchased and downloaded WWI and cannot get it to run! I am using Vista. I can see the opening scene and music, then says initializing game. After a couple minutes, screen is all black and 4 option buttons appear, Single player, multiplayer, credits and Quit. I can not press any of these and can go no further. What can I do??? Thank you!!

[calvinus]

Hi! New here. I just purchased and downloaded WWI and cannot get it to run! I am using Vista. I can see the opening scene and music, then says initializing game. After a couple minutes, screen is all black and 4 option buttons appear, Single player, multiplayer, credits and Quit. I can not press any of these and can go no further. What can I do??? Thank you!!

You write: "screen is all black"... well you should see a background picture with a frame with inside the 4 big buttons.
Also, I understand your clicks over the big buttons are not executed.

I think there's some huge hardware incompatibility. In addition, something goes wrong when loading the game graphics (that's why you see the black screen instead of the background picture.

Check the file Pic_Start.bmp inside the [game dir]\Data\Graph\Background folder. You should find it, otherwise the game would not run at all. Probably is it corrupted? This would tell us why you see a black screen...

Otherwise, the problem is in your video card: not compatible...

[borato]

You write: "screen is all black"... well you should see a background picture with a frame with inside the 4 big buttons.
Also, I understand your clicks over the big buttons are not executed.

I think there's some huge hardware incompatibility. In addition, something goes wrong when loading the game graphics (that's why you see the black screen instead of the background picture.

Check the file Pic_Start.bmp inside the [game dir]\Data\Graph\Background folder. You should find it, otherwise the game would not run at all. Probably is it corrupted? This would tell us why you see a black screen...

Otherwise, the problem is in your video card: not compatible...

hi calvinus, i have the same problem, i can see the video and then only four bigs buttoms and a black screen.

I´ve found the bmp file in that folder. My graphic card is nvdia gforce 8800 gts and i´ve already to update drivers. This is the only game i have with this problem (OS Windows XP)

can you help me? thx in advance

[calvinus]

hi calvinus, i have the same problem, i can see the video and then only four bigs buttoms and a black screen.

I´ve found the bmp file in that folder. My graphic card is nvdia gforce 8800 gts and i´ve already to update drivers. This is the only game i have with this problem (OS Windows XP)

can you help me? thx in advance

If you have the same hardware incompatibily problems like the other guy, i cannot do very much for you, sorry...

Have you tried the game on another PC?

[borato]

í´m going to try in my laptop, but i think i´ve burnt my money in this game, if nobody can help me

[calvinus]

If you click on the buttons, nothing happens?

[borato]

nothing happens, 4 buttons, under them the black screen

sry for my english

[calvinus]

Which operating system are you running? Win Vista? Vista 64?
If it's Vista 64, have you enabled the XP compatibility? Just a tip, nothing sure, sorry. Because if the problem is caused by a incompatibility with your graphic card, I can do almost nothing... Also, please try the game on another pc, if possible.

Thanks for your patience,
Calvinus.

[borato]

My OS is windows XP SP2,

I will try in my laptop....

[saffgee]

*bump*
Exact same problem here (also xp) with the gold version except my mouse pointer in game screen also doesn't move - was there a solution to this at all ?

Since no other game causes a similar problem and we're talking mainstream Nvidia cards here I seriously doubt its a graphics card issue and I'm really surprised you pooh poohed these other guys problems immediately as hardware incompatibilities.......on the other hand, since this thread seems older I'm willing to give you the benefit of doubt, maybe there is a simple explanation that eludes me and that isn't listed here.

So, to recap - at least two different operating systems, probably 3 different graphics cards........exact same problem. Does anyone have any answers ?

[calvinus]

*bump*
Exact same problem here (also xp) with the gold version except my mouse pointer in game screen also doesn't move - was there a solution to this at all ?

Since no other game causes a similar problem and we're talking mainstream Nvidia cards here I seriously doubt its a graphics card issue and I'm really surprised you pooh poohed these other guys problems immediately as hardware incompatibilities.......on the other hand, since this thread seems older I'm willing to give you the benefit of doubt, maybe there is a simple explanation that eludes me and that isn't listed here.

So, to recap - at least two different operating systems, probably 3 different graphics cards........exact same problem. Does anyone have any answers ?

What do you see exactly on the screen?

Do you have missing graphics?

The HW incompatibility problem can be with the graphic engine of the game.

Edit: the problem could be a side-effect of a missing PC Adminitrator login. I mean: some graphic element is not loaded and consequently not displayed on the screen...

[saffgee]

Well basically I load up and get a black screen for what seems like too long a time (1 minute +) - the little film originally played ok......then sometimes if I do ctrl+alt=del I eventually end up in that screen with the 4 choices and a mouse cursor that doesn't move.....but only after going in and out of the game window a few times.

There is clearly something more sinister going on here than just a graphics card incompatibility - if it were that simple, then I would have no problem admitting that my rig is tricky with some games....but that is simply not the case. I have never had a serious problem with compatibility (in fact I can't remember that particular problem at all ever) - and I have certainly played more than my fair share of games on this computer (we're talking 150+ on this particular system and 500+ in my lifetime).

It looks and feels like a problem that many should be having....at least that is my experience with issues similar to this - does anyone else recall anything like this at all even if their issues are now fixed ?

[calvinus]

Launch the "Configure Game" tool and you disable the check-box option "Play intro video".
Then run the game: you should not see anymore the 1 min. black screen.
Does now the mouse cursor move?

Also, have you tried to install the DivX codecs?

[saffgee]

tried that already (tried most of the different options actually in various different combinations) - haven't tried the divx codecs yet. Whichever settigns I use the load up screen still stays blank for ages, ie. same problem as before. Would the codecs affect game screen itself though ? surely they are more relevant to the video at startup which does work.

On another note, the directx installation asks me for a target directory when i install it - is there anywhere specific the game needs this to be unpacked to ? or is this irrelevant...

Also, are there any known issues with settings on video cards - like antialiasing or anything like that. maybe the so called hw incompatibility could be a settings problem ?

[calvinus]

tried that already (tried most of the different options actually in various different combinations) - haven't tried the divx codecs yet. Whichever settigns I use the load up screen still stays blank for ages, ie. same problem as before. Would the codecs affect game screen itself though ? surely they are more relevant to the video at startup which does work.

Not exactly. Just a few persons reported me that, only when the intro video was playing, game application lost mouse focus, so having the mouse cursor not working. Then, after a couple of Alt+Tab, getting back into the game application, the mouse started working fine.

On another note, the directx installation asks me for a target directory when i install it - is there anywhere specific the game needs this to be unpacked to ? or is this irrelevant...

DirectX installer asks you a temporary folder where to unpack temporary files. Then you should launch the core DirectX installer. So I remember, at least.

Also, are there any known issues with settings on video cards - like antialiasing or anything like that. maybe the so called hw incompatibility could be a settings problem ?

It's not clear to me if you ever saw some graphic elements (main menu buttons?) or nothing at all. In the second case, there could be really some settings to be done in your video cards.
Otherwise, it can be some resident program outside the game that makes it not working properly.

[saffgee]

ok thanks so far - I will try some of these things then report back with my findings......

[saffgee]

Right, I have got the game to load properly with a working mouse - the solution (well workaround) was to disable all sound effects.......why I didn't notice this before I don't know, but that was what was causing all the problems.

My question then - how do I get the game loadable with sound now ? What in yr opinion might be the cause of the problem ? Why would sound affect the mouse - is that a directx problem maybe ?

[calvinus]

Sounds and musics are all MP3 files that are played in background by a external library (IrrKlang).

If you post here your PC config and the sound card (brand and drivers), I can send an email to the IrrKlang support asking if there is some incompatibility problem.

In the meanwhile, if you want to listen the musics in background, you can create a playlist with all files within the following directory:

[game dir]\Data\Sound\Musics

and play the playlist with Windows Media Player running in background.

Thanks,
Calvinus.

[saffgee]

Right, I've done some checking on this IrrKlang and it turns out I am a total programming spas really (nothing new there then).....I was trying to install their latest patch so that I could claim everything was up to date - can't do that, no idea how to, its all just a bunch of files and things.

SO.....

I run an SB X-Fi - with updated drivers, etc.
What I really need to know from them is a) are there any known issues with this soundcard. b) I have DivX, Windows Media, real Player and probably about a hundred other softwares on my computer....how do I know that IrrKlang is picking the right programm ? and how would I cahnge that if its not ? c) ask them if they have an executable for me to install or alternatively just tell me where the hell I put all their files in order to make this work d) anything else you or anybody else can think of that might help.

Thanks !

edit: btw, the files on their own play just fine in media player...so its definitely something the programm is doing !

[calvinus]

Right, I've done some checking on this IrrKlang and it turns out I am a total programming spas really (nothing new there then).....I was trying to install their latest patch so that I could claim everything was up to date - can't do that, no idea how to, its all just a bunch of files and things.

SO.....

I run an SB X-Fi - with updated drivers, etc.
What I really need to know from them is a) are there any known issues with this soundcard. b) I have DivX, Windows Media, real Player and probably about a hundred other softwares on my computer....how do I know that IrrKlang is picking the right programm ? and how would I cahnge that if its not ? c) ask them if they have an executable for me to install or alternatively just tell me where the hell I put all their files in order to make this work d) anything else you or anybody else can think of that might help.

Thanks !

edit: btw, the files on their own play just fine in media player...so its definitely something the programm is doing !

Irrklang library does not use any of your installed DivX, Windows Media, Real Player... It's a DLL with its own stuff that plays MP3. It just uses the drivers of your sound card, obviously.

So your audio card is: SB X-Fi, right?
Your problem is: if you play the game with sounds & musics on, the game does not start working properly, right?

I'm going to forward your problem report to IrrKlang developer.

Thanks,
Calvinus.

[saffgee]

Correct

and tks in advance for your help... !

[calvinus]

Well, I got a response from the Developer of IrrKlang library:

this sounds like a damaged sound driver. Tell him to update the driver. Or, if your game supports it, sometimes switching in irrKlang to anouther driver (WinMM for example) also helps.

For the time being, try to update the audio drivers.

On my side, I'm going to add a new option in Configure Game tool, to allow you to make the game use the WinMM drivers, that's to say to "universal" audio drivers of Windows API.

Thanks for your patience,
Calvinus.