Update please

from PolMach Forums
Patiently awaiting news of update on the "failed to initialize display" issue. In case you didn't keep track of my info, my video card is an 82810E, with the current updates. Get the "Failed to Initialize" message, and when I open in a window, I get the game, but with NO TEXT. I can move from screen to screen just fine, the graphics seem fine, there's just no text.

I've been dying to play this game... I've been sitting on it for well over a week, and would like some help, please.
5,928 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top

One suggetion on that: Do you have DirectX 9C?

DirectX 9C has fixes for font handling and since you're missing text, that seems likea possibility.

Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top
BTW, as a suggestion, you can get a decent video card for $40 that would take care of all these issues. Are you running on a desktop or laptop?
Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
It's a desktop. HP, can't remember the exact model... not at home right now. Running Windows ME. While trying to fix my problems, I did download the most recent version of directx... I presume it's 9C... but I'll check again this evening.

Not really a "computer guy," so the thought of digging into my computer to change video cards is a tad challenging... but, just for argument's sake, what's the cheapest video card I could buy in order to run this?
Reply #4 from PolMach Forums Top
I'm having the same problem as fairUNbalanced (I like that name, BTW). I have the 82810e video card, except I'm running Windows XP. Someone asked if I updated to the newest driver - does that mean updating to DirectX 9C? I think I have DirectX 9 - I don't remember anything about a "C".

And Frogboy, you posted elsewhere that you guys were working hard on getting this game to work with the 82815 chipset - if that happens, would it work with the 810, as well?
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top

Well let me give you the technical issue in a nutshell:

We use Texture and Lighting in the game very heavily. This is a "3D" function but we use is so that we can do things like zoom in on the map and change the color of things very quickly. The result is very smooth game play for most people.

It appears that the older Intel chipset drivers don't support even the software mode (Which they're supposed to in order to be certified by MS) which causes the game to fail.

When someone suggests updating the drivers they mean to go here:

http://www.intel.com/design/software/drivers/platform/810.htm?iid=ipp_810echpst+body_drivers&

Install these drivers and hopefully it'll resolve your problem.  If it doesn't, it's not likely we'll be able to fix it either. *Someone* has to provide a software rendering equivalent and that's supposed to be the driver maker. For us to do it would take weeks and it would be slow and chunky.

Our last game, Galactic Civilizations, didn't have zooming in or on the fly colorization or lighting effects or scaling and so forth because of the performance hit.  That's why we went this path with The Political Machine and the nice thing is that if you have a video card that has proper drivers, you can run the game on incredibly low end hardware (think Pentium II level machine).

So the standard answer is:

1) Make sure you use those drivers listed above

2) Makes ure you have the latest DirectX (www.microsoft.com/directx)