Vampire Mascarade Bloodline Is black screen and funky

[NineZeroD]

Hello All
Iam haveing a bit of a different problem then everyone else seems to be. I can mount the image just fine and the game loads but it loads to everything but a small section in the middle black and flickering like when a tv channel keeps rolling over. Ive got the latest nvidia driver and latest version of deamon tools and iam stuck it will not work. Any ideas.

[seraphim19]

mine does pretty much the same thing. i can load my image (bty: if u have clone cd thats the problem just un-install it and it works just fine with image and d-tools) and it starts up and it shows the dumb movies and then when it gets to the game menu it just stays black and i hear the menu music and shizza like that. but i cant see anything i also have the latest drivers for my fx5200 :( :( but anyway whats the problem with the video?

[l20l3]

your video card might not be good enough for this game i believe the fx5200 does not have hardware T&S......not sure but that might be it

[Luciel]

theres likely to be a list of supported graphs cards in the manual or on a readme file in the directory, check that out, ultimatly contact tech support.

[RedSean]

Iam haveing the same problem then you. i "can" load my image and it starts up and it shows the dumb movies and then when it gets to the game menu it just stays !!!BLACK!!! and i hear the menu music and shizza like that. but i cant see anything ????

i also have direkt X 9.0c
i also have the latest drivers for my fx5900XT but anyway whats the problem with the video?

in the readme ...all nVidia GeForce™-Chips working with vampire....

Any ideas?

by RedSean

PS: sorry for my bad english i am a real GERMAN

[JoyBoy]

Contact Tech Support.

[RedSean]

yeah i have fixed the problem.. it was the refresh-rate under Direkt X... just stop and edit refresh-rate

thx by RedSean

[tbaher]

in the readme ...all nVidia GeForce™-Chips working with vampire....


All this means is that GeForce MX (read:junk) can run it without crashing oe whining (kinda like what PrinceOfPersia did.. that was funny) and that they tested this with the most recent (then .. not now) driver
In other words, even though this is the source engine that is used in a less efficient way than half-life, they still want people to buy the game without worrying about how crappy their current card is.
Marketing.

This has nothing to do with your problem, just me venting out frustration with marketing dudes.

Joyboy: shouldnt there be a rule for the General gaming forum that says something about Tech Support Questions?

[neckfreak]

refresh rate is not the only problem with vampire: bloodlines, eventually, if you have an old nvidia card or any of the mx versions you have to disable fastwrites. the funky screen happened to me also with "sherlock holmes: the case of the silver earring" - this solves it. i read some info about the games, so i figured out that "SH: Silver blab bla" i set to default at 100 hz refresh rate, which can be changed from some config file, i think. still haven't figured it out for vampire: bloodlines. hope that helps.

[][nCogNit0]

hi were do i alter the refresh rate in Directx pls help

[gUzAnO]

hi there guys, me new in this forum site (btw: i'm chilean so sorry bout' my rusty english) well i have the same problem (at the first time i wasn't even able to actually "load" the game, once i've uninstalled CLONECD and mount tne lil' GCW images it worked fine) after all the dumb movies and just when i get to the menu, the screen goes black and the only thing i see is the red "thingy" (like blood effects?) as a "GAME MENU" either i try clicking on some of them still got the black screen (did i mentioned that i hear the menu music? ;B) well i read this thread and it said: "change refresh rate under Direct X)" and other one said: "not only refresh rate... set as default 100Hz... alos the SH:Silver blablabla..." well i don't know THAT DEEP videocard knowledge, so if someone is kind and gentle could you (any of u) explain, very detailed (plz) how can i change the refresh rate and what refresh rate is? (BTW: my monitor is a bit old tis a samsung syncmaster 550v so the max refresh rate i could get to is 60Hz), well looking forward for your answer...
sinceresly,
gUzzAh.

PS: Thanks for any help, =), and again please sorry because of my english...cya

[gUzAnO]

BTW: i have an ati radeon sapphire Atlantis 64 DDR AGP 8x, if this could be of any help? the readme says: "Supported Chipsets for 98/ME/2000/XP All ATI® Radeon® Chipsets" still have the black and funky "thingy" bugging me to death! :(

[tbaher]

oops.. wrong forum
*post deleted*

[gUzAnO]

i've tried the refresh rate stuff and still doesn't works!! what can i do =( plz i want to play this game!!

[Grumpy]

@gUzAnO
plz i want to play this game!!
Maybe you should just use your original discs to play until a proper NoCD.exe is released! That's if one ever does come out! ;)

[tbaher]

I thought this also happens to them with the original disks .. that's why it's in the General Gaming instead of the PC Games Forum.

Did you try tech support?

[Wickerman]

Signed up just to give you guys the official Activision fix for the game. It worked for me and I had the blackout screen at the menu with the original discs and Alcohol installed.

This can happen when your monitor is not capable of displaying the refresh rate the game is attempting to display in.

You will need to manually set the refresh rate for the game on your system.
1) Click on the Start button > Run.
2) In the box type: dxdiag
3) Click the OK button.
4) DirectX Diagnostic Tool will open
5) Click on the "More Help" tab
6) Click on the Override button
7) Select "Override Value" and enter a value in the box that your monitor can support, then click ok
8) Exit the dxdiag via the exit button at the bottom or the x in the upper right hand corner

At this point the game will be launching with the refresh rate you specified. This change will affect all direct3d games on your system, so you may wish to revert the override option back to "default" in between game sessions.


This can also happen if your computer does not support the default resolution the game is attempting to launch in. You will need to manually set the resolution for the game to one of the resolutions supported by your monitor.

The game supports the following resolutions:
800x600
1024x768
1280x1024
1600x1200

My Monitor only goes up to 85Hertz (don't know about my LCD but considerring it's new it shouldn't have the problem) and I set the override to 75. No screen blackout. The game boots up in 800x600 so you shouldn't have a problem there. Haven't gone past the character creation screen yet, but at least I can see it. Strange how this game is so dodgy, yet I can play Half Life 2 with max settings just fine.

[Alberich]

I found a solution here (https://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/activision.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=13884&p_created=1100729060&p_sid=VlCJauth&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PWRmbHQmcF9ncmlkc29yd D0mcF9yb3dfY250PTQ5JnBfcHJvZHM9MSw0MTImcF9jYXRzPSZ wX3B2PTIuNDEyJnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vyc y5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1) =)

Just switch the resolution to 1024x768 or 1280x1024 by editing registry.

Btw I had exactly the same issue with Master of Orion 3, with an ATI radeon and a flat panel display.

[LoM]

I don't know if I have the same problem (wtf is funky??)

After starting Vampire my monitor simply shuts down... is that the same problem you discussed here?

[Wickerman]

Yep same propblem.

[tbaher]

I think I heard somewhere that LCDs shouldn't go over 60.
Try forcing to 60Hz and see what happens.