Unreal Gold Crashes To Black Screen When Using 32-bit Video

NightOwl76 · 08-19-2010, 09:43 PM

I have Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament on my Steam account. The games work fine, but when I choose the 32-bit option, the screen goes black and nothing else happens. I have to open the Task Manager & close the game. Then I have to manually change the settings in my unreal.ini file from 32-bit to 16-bit. I would like to know if there is some kind of patch that may be available for the game. It looks horrible using 16-bit graphics. Thanks for any help.

Windows 7 (32-bit)
AMD Phenom II 955 Deneb Black Edition oc @ 3.6 GHz
GeForce GTX 480 SC
ASUS Crosshair III Formula
mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600

seseorang · 08-22-2010, 12:34 AM

What's your driver version?

NightOwl76 · 08-22-2010, 12:54 AM

258.96

seseorang · 08-22-2010, 05:41 AM

It might be worth switching to the earliest driver that supports it. Have you tried switching renderers? openGL, Direct3D, S3GL, software, etc?

NightOwl76 · 08-28-2010, 10:39 AM

seseorang,

Thank you for your replies. I'm also having trouble with the original Red Faction game and with my old Monolith games (Shogo, Blood 2, Kiss: Psycho Circus, etc.).

Okay, I can only do 32-bit when I choose 3Dfx, but unfortunately, I can only see it in windowed mode, & the highest resolution available for that is 800 x 600.

Since 16-bit Direct3D does work in Unreal Gold, there's no point in regressing to software mode, but thanks for the tip.

NightOwl76 · 10-17-2010, 09:59 AM

Software mode looks better than 16-bit Direct3D mode, and software mode sucks! There must be a way to play Unreal Gold in 32-bit mode on my computer.

MADDOGGE · 10-17-2010, 10:38 AM

I have the retail version of Gold and it plays fine in 32bit mode with everything maxed out. FYI this is one of those older game I own that will sit on black screen for a long time before starting. This game takes about 3-4 minutes for me before the game actually starts. I have another I can't remember atm that takes near 9 minutes to start.

Win7 64
Phenom 9600 2.3 GB
4 GB ram
8800GT 512MB

I'm not sure what differences if any, there are between the retail and Steam versions. I don't know how long you are waiting when it black screens before giving up and killing the process. Start it up and go do something elsewhere for 10 minutes and see what happens.

10-19-2010, 10:30 AM

Hi,

this error happens with all Nvidia 4xx cards, if you run any Unreal Engine 1 game in Direct3D with 32 Bit colors.
According to this thread: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=181366, Nvidia is working on a fix for this error.
Unfortunately, newest 260.89 WHQL has not fixed this issue yet and it is neither listed under "Open Issues" list.
Since the more people report this problem, the sooner it will be fixed, you can also post in the thread, mentioned above, or report the error at http://www.nvidia.com/object/driverq...assurance.html

For a workaround, use the inofficial Direct3D 10 renderer from http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/
Make sure, that you have installed the latest "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2010 (x86) or the renderer will not work.

NightOwl76 · 10-20-2010, 07:55 PM

IT WORKS!!! THANK YOU, Playton!!!

Murciegalo · 11-07-2010, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PLayton

For a workaround, use the inofficial Direct3D 10 renderer from http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/
Make sure, that you have installed the latest "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2010 (x86) or the renderer will not work.

Worked perfect for me. Thanks a lot.

Soilbreeder · 11-07-2010, 12:06 PM

You could also try the OpenGL renderer:
http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/

11-15-2010, 04:10 AM

I just wanted to update, that this issue does not happen, if you run Unreal Engine games under Windows XP.
As far as I know, not all Unreal Engine games are supported by the alternative renderers (e.g. Clive Barker's Undying and Wheel of Time).

NightOwl76 · 11-25-2010, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soilbreeder

You could also try the OpenGL renderer:
http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/

Soilbreeder,

Thank you for your help. Yes, the new OpenGL file fixes the problem, but OpenGL isn't compatible with my iZ3D glasses. It doesn't support them. DirectX does, and Unreal Gold in DX10 works fine with my glasses. I will, however, back up the new OpenGL file you referred me to.

Ren7on · 12-20-2010, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PLayton

For a workaround, use the inofficial Direct3D 10 renderer from http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/
Make sure, that you have installed the latest "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2010 (x86) or the renderer will not work.

Works and looks amazing! Even have widescreen support! Thanks!

01-07-2011, 05:01 PM

new beta driver 266.35 somehow fixes the crash with original Unreal D3D renderer.
After first start, you need to ctr-alt-del out of the game.
In the upcoming Windows 7 screen, you can click on cancel and the game now loads fine.

I do not own Unreal Tournament, so I don't know, if it shows the same behavior, works without any problems, or still crashes.

08-19-2010, 09:43 PM	#1
NightOwl76 Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 40	Unreal Gold Crashes To Black Screen When Using 32-bit Video I have Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament on my Steam account. The games work fine, but when I choose the 32-bit option, the screen goes black and nothing else happens. I have to open the Task Manager & close the game. Then I have to manually change the settings in my unreal.ini file from 32-bit to 16-bit. I would like to know if there is some kind of patch that may be available for the game. It looks horrible using 16-bit graphics. Thanks for any help. Windows 7 (32-bit) AMD Phenom II 955 Deneb Black Edition oc @ 3.6 GHz GeForce GTX 480 SC ASUS Crosshair III Formula mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600

10-19-2010, 10:30 AM	#8
PLayton Guest Posts: n/a	Hi, this error happens with all Nvidia 4xx cards, if you run any Unreal Engine 1 game in Direct3D with 32 Bit colors. According to this thread: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=181366, Nvidia is working on a fix for this error. Unfortunately, newest 260.89 WHQL has not fixed this issue yet and it is neither listed under "Open Issues" list. Since the more people report this problem, the sooner it will be fixed, you can also post in the thread, mentioned above, or report the error at http://www.nvidia.com/object/driverq...assurance.html For a workaround, use the inofficial Direct3D 10 renderer from http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/ Make sure, that you have installed the latest "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2010 (x86) or the renderer will not work. Last edited by PLayton: 10-19-2010 at 10:36 AM.

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08-22-2010, 12:34 AM	#2
seseorang Join Date: Feb 2010 Reputation: 689 Posts: 7,250	What's your driver version?

08-22-2010, 12:54 AM	#3
NightOwl76 Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 40	258.96

08-22-2010, 05:41 AM	#4
seseorang Join Date: Feb 2010 Reputation: 689 Posts: 7,250	It might be worth switching to the earliest driver that supports it. Have you tried switching renderers? openGL, Direct3D, S3GL, software, etc?

08-28-2010, 10:39 AM	#5
NightOwl76 Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 40	seseorang, Thank you for your replies. I'm also having trouble with the original Red Faction game and with my old Monolith games (Shogo, Blood 2, Kiss: Psycho Circus, etc.). Okay, I can only do 32-bit when I choose 3Dfx, but unfortunately, I can only see it in windowed mode, & the highest resolution available for that is 800 x 600. Since 16-bit Direct3D does work in Unreal Gold, there's no point in regressing to software mode, but thanks for the tip.

10-17-2010, 09:59 AM	#6
NightOwl76 Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 40	Software mode looks better than 16-bit Direct3D mode, and software mode sucks! There must be a way to play Unreal Gold in 32-bit mode on my computer.

10-17-2010, 10:38 AM	#7
MADDOGGE Join Date: Jan 2008 Reputation: 8364 Posts: 25,094	I have the retail version of Gold and it plays fine in 32bit mode with everything maxed out. FYI this is one of those older game I own that will sit on black screen for a long time before starting. This game takes about 3-4 minutes for me before the game actually starts. I have another I can't remember atm that takes near 9 minutes to start. Win7 64 Phenom 9600 2.3 GB 4 GB ram 8800GT 512MB I'm not sure what differences if any, there are between the retail and Steam versions. I don't know how long you are waiting when it black screens before giving up and killing the process. Start it up and go do something elsewhere for 10 minutes and see what happens.

10-20-2010, 07:55 PM	#9
NightOwl76 Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 40	IT WORKS!!! THANK YOU, Playton!!!

11-07-2010, 12:06 PM	#11
Soilbreeder Join Date: Dec 2007 Reputation: 5 Posts: 150	You could also try the OpenGL renderer: http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/

11-15-2010, 04:10 AM	#12
PLayton Guest Posts: n/a	I just wanted to update, that this issue does not happen, if you run Unreal Engine games under Windows XP. As far as I know, not all Unreal Engine games are supported by the alternative renderers (e.g. Clive Barker's Undying and Wheel of Time).

01-07-2011, 05:01 PM	#15
PLayton Guest Posts: n/a	new beta driver 266.35 somehow fixes the crash with original Unreal D3D renderer. After first start, you need to ctr-alt-del out of the game. In the upcoming Windows 7 screen, you can click on cancel and the game now loads fine. I do not own Unreal Tournament, so I don't know, if it shows the same behavior, works without any problems, or still crashes.