After the beginning video everything is black!

[Omni]

I used to play this game a while ago with no problems, but one time I wanted to play, after the beginning intro, and loading screen, it just showed me black, no menu, no sound, no nothing. I reinstalled, tried v. 1.0 and it looked like this:

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/903/sh4te5.th.jpg (http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4te5.jpg)

Then I patched the game to 1.3 and 1.4 but neither one of them wouldnt work. Im going crazy, now that the new add-on was published, and im dying to play with Jerries... Pls help if you can! I updated my graphic card drivers and I have tried to tweak my computer the best I can but nothing seems to work... Formatting the hard drive isnt 1st on my list...

[Deimos01]

I got this too after installing 1.5 u-boat addon. I completely uninstalled both and went into C://program files/UBI and deleted the UBI folder. Some stuff can be left in there even after un-installing the game that can interfere with a re-install. I then re-installed SH4 and the U-boat addon. After I did that it ran like a champ!:up:

Also, there is no need to patch if you are installing the u-boat addon. Just do a clean install of SH4 vanilla and then U-boat.
Hope that helps.

Cheers

[Major Johnson]

Looks like a video driver issue. Maybe you updated the driver since it last worked correctly?? You might try rolling the driver back to an older one. or even, getting the lastest and greatest driver available. Also could be your resolution settings. You might want to try a lower setting. Welcome to the forum!! Good luck.

[Omni]

I did that long time ago, removed all folders manually, and installed add-on on vanilla, but it doesnt help... And the game did what I said before the add-on was even published. It doesnt run with any version, any crack, with cd-in or daemon tools or with the add-on.

[Omni]

Looks like a video driver issue. Maybe you updated the driver since it last worked correctly?? You might try rolling the driver back to an older one. or even, getting the lastest and greatest driver available. Also could be your resolution settings. You might want to try a lower setting. Welcome to the forum!! Good luck.

Im going to try your tips. Thanks for your kindness, but if I dont get the game to work, my stay is going to be a very short one :> Probably...

Edit: I think its not GC problem. When I ctrl+alt+del and alt+tab when the screen freezes, the manager says that the program doesnt response...

[Major Johnson]

Don't give up too quickly. Try and think if you made any changes to your computers configuration since the last time it worked. Something changed, you just have to figure out what. Good luck!

[tedhealy]

Do you have vista?

I have this happen to me when I reinstall SH4 on my vista64 computer. I fix it by going into my graphic card's options and disabling all advanced options like anti aliasing, forced mip maps, multisampling, threaded optimization, triple buffering, etc. I then run the game and it starts up fine. I make sure I set the resolution I want in game and then exit, reset the graphics card options, and then run SH4 and everything is fine.

[Omni]

I do tens of changes on my computer every day, and its probably 2 months when the game last worked... Which is shame...

No I run on xp.

[tedhealy]

ok, I doubt it would hurt so I'd suggest giving that a shot. Try setting all your graphic card options to default and see if the game runs.

[Omni]

Didnt work. It still says that program doesnt answer...

[tedhealy]

Do you have a codec pack installed like K-lite codec pack? Sometimes codec packs can cause troubles.

[Omni]

Hmm I have ffdshow... But it was installed when the game last worked.

[Major Johnson]

If my driver and resolution suggestions don't work, you might try restoring your o/s (operating system) to a previous date, like 2 months ago, the last time the game worked. Since you are using XP, you have that option. Just click on Start\Programs\Accessories\System Tools. In there you will see System Restore. You won't lose any data files, it just puts the operating system configuration back to a different date.
Good luck.

[Omni]

Too bad my oldest recovery points are from last week :D

[Ragtag]

To fix the black screen just go to your documents/SH4/data/cfg folder and edit the main.cfg. Set the wanted resolution under the [VIDEO] section and save the file.

Should look like this:

[VIDEO]
Resolution=1680,1050,60,22
DynamicShadows=No
FullScreen=Yes
Synchronized=Yes
TextureResolutionHigh=Yes

Just change the two first numbers and leave the rest.

[Fincuan]

Looks like the BINK codec used in the background movie is acting up. Before starting to play with drivers etc. try uninstalling ffdshow or download "Codec tweak tool" and disable the ffdshow DirectShow filter with it. The latter option is better imho since it allows you to have both SH4 and ffdshow, even if you have to disable the filter before running SH4 and enable it afterwards.

[Doolittle81]

I suggest a simple uninstall/re-install will solve the problem. Procedures are here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=133290

[Omni]

Looks like the BINK codec used in the background movie is acting up. Before starting to play with drivers etc. try uninstalling ffdshow or download "Codec tweak tool" and disable the ffdshow DirectShow filter with it. The latter option is better imho since it allows you to have both SH4 and ffdshow, even if you have to disable the filter before running SH4 and enable it afterwards.

Holy **** it worked! I disabled everything but the codecs that the program suggested at the end. Ahoy mateys! Dive dive dive!

[Fincuan]

:up:
Good to hear it worked!

[Omni]

:up:
Good to hear it worked!

Thank you very much, eli kiitos paljon ;)