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Topic:
Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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theblackofnight
Posts:
3
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/26/07 11:45am
Subject:
Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I'm just wondering if anyone else is having the problems that I am with Blacksite Area 51. I see the splash screen when starting and then the screen goes black with a mouse pointer and does nothing. I have to alt-tab out or ctrl-alt-del to force the game to shut after several minutes of nothing happening. I've updated to the 1.2 patch, and have all the latest drivers for my system. Does anybody else have this problem?
I've contacted tech support and gotten very generic answers that most people with any common computer knowledge would have tried (and I did), with no help at all. Anybody with any ideas would help me a lot.
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Ex_Pose
Posts:
4
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/28/07 1:16am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
- Date Edited:
11/28/07 1:41am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Ex_Pose
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Just like I have. Black screen and not support video rate! I have Hyundai ImageQuest 17" TFT and Geforce 8600GT (dualcore AMD 64 4200 and 2Gt DDR2 and XP 32bit and DirectX9.0C)
I test 1024x768 and 800x600 - 32 and 16bit - 60Hz and 70Hz but the game don't works. Must restart with reset.
I can't found answer from the Customer Support Center.
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theblackofnight
Posts:
3
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/28/07 7:40am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I did manage to get into the game one time by setting the sound in dxdiag to standard acceleration (I have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2, so I am assuming that is the most of the problem.) So anyways, I got through the intro and to the main menu...where after about 10 seconds of horribly skipping framerates, my whole computer froze and required a hard reset.
I tried getting into the game several times after that one with the exact same conditions and it black screened again every time. So obviously whatever is causing the problem, the game "may" randomly start...and then promptly crash!
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Ex_Pose
Posts:
4
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/28/07 9:57am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I test that sound set but it doesn't help. I try also change all resolutions in all engine.ini-files but they don't help.
My videocard supports these video resolutions:
1280x1024
1280x960
1280x800
1280x768
1280x720
1152x864
1024x768
960x600
800x600
600x480 be missing... how can I start the game without start videos... I'm angry, unfinished game and patches!
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Ex_Pose
Posts:
4
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/29/07 5:56am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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Videos are 1280x720
Audio: 32000Hz 16bit stereo
Why game don't works? It notify that video rate isn't support!???
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leafsfan2k6
Title: Hockey Fanatic
Posts:
1,676
Registered:
Sep '05
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Date Posted:
11/29/07 8:39am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I did my darndest to look up this issue this morning and think I may have a fix for XP Users.
Click start, run, dxdiag, and press enter. If it asks you to scan for WHQL say YES.
Click on the more information tab, and then choose override refresh rate.
Choose a custom value of 60 and get out of there.
Now the game should work.
-----signature-----
Proud canuck living in california.
Go Leafs Go
Hockey Rules!
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Ex_Pose
Posts:
4
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/29/07 11:29am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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Yeah, but it didn't helps.
Any good ideas?
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theblackofnight
Posts:
3
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
12/4/07 4:09pm
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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Yeah I got a good idea. Take the game back to the store and when they complain that they don't take PC games back, tell them to blame Midway for releasing an alpha instead of a finished release.
I played through the first Area 51 with little or no problems and had a blast. This game is utter trash and should be buried in the desert along with Atari's truckloads of copies of the 2600 E.T. game. It's that friggin' bad.
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WhiskeyOscar
Posts:
4
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/5/07 6:46am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
- Date Edited:
12/5/07 6:47am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
WhiskeyOscar
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I too have a similar issue.
My Blacksite is v1.2 and I've tried both v1.0 and v1.1 too, for the record.
When I boot Blacksite it just blackscreens me, I can't alt-tab out and I can't Alt-F4 to kill it either. Win-tab doesn't work either and my keyboard also doesn't respond despite me getting in-game sound.
I'm running;
Windows Vista Ultimate x86
AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ ~3.14ghz
3GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2
2x GeForce 512MB XFX 8800GTS Alpha Dog Edition
I've tried forcing resolutions and refresh rates, disabled one graphics card, disabled sound cards, edited the config files too... Nothing works at all. Plain black screen with nothing on it, no keyboard response.
Just reporting that it's not just happening to one or two people, a solution would be nice since the store won't take the game back.
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Hyperion
Posts:
2
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/6/07 7:06am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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yes i am having the same problem also.
I just paid good money for a game that doesnt work.
It was the exact same thing with Unreal Tournament 3 last week.
I think it's the unreal engine - the latest version of it is compeltely pants.
With ut3 we were told to change ...
UseMinimalNVIDIADriverShaderOptimization=false
to
UseMinimalNVIDIADriverShaderOptimization=True
for nvidia card users - and the game worked then and stopped stuttering and freazing.
Unfortunately there is nothing like that setting in the config ini files for this game.
Heck thre is only 1 crummy config file and it has nothing of use in it that we can play with to try and sort this issue out.
Its going to take HELP from MIDWAY.
Fat chance we have of that happening.
Post here if anyone finds a fix pls.
Hyperion
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WhiskeyOscar
Posts:
4
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/8/07 4:12am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I've been going through the files and I thought it was originally some kind of conflict caused by the resolutions set in the config files, or a refresh rate issue.
I'm still confident that this could be the issue - but I've now changed all the StartupResolutionX=1360 lines to 1360 instead of the default 1280, and likewise the StartupResolutionY=768 lines from 720 to 768.
The intro movie plays at 1280x720 at a 16:9 ratio but still doesn't show, but I can play it normally in the bink video player, but when booted in game it's black, but I hear the sounds.
There doesn't appear to be any way to force a refresh rate - as that's what I believe is the issue - in the configs, and forcing one through the desktop shortcut with -refresh doesn't seem to work.
I also noticed that in the config files, the max frame rate (something like frameratecap=) is only 10.0, I have to wonder if the game is intentionally broken after seeing some of the stuff in there.
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WhiskeyOscar
Posts:
4
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/8/07 4:34am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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Okay, here's what I know about the unreal engine's configs;
Ripped right out of the BaseEngine.ini in my UT3 installation;
This comes after [Engine.Engine] section:
[Engine.ISVHacks]
DisableATITextureFilterOptimizationChecks=True
UseMinimalNVIDIADriverShaderOptimization=False
At the bottom of the config there is:
[SystemSettings]
; NOTE THAT ANY ITEMS IN THIS SECTION WILL AFFECT ALL PLATFORMS!!!
Including the settings;
ResX=800
ResY=600
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
UseVsync=False
What I've found out by playing with this:
The Blacksite configs IGNORE anything added to them it seems, and that changing resolutions in the configs, or forcing Vsync in the configs DOES NOT WORK. I realise that Midway have modded the engine quite a bit but I can't help but feel that in doing so they've BROKEN it.
It's about time they fucking fixed this. I've spent hours messing with this, when it should have worked to start with. If anyone else knows more about config files/the UT3 engine please come forward and help me solve this.
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Hobbes
Posts:
2
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/29/07 3:30pm
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I also have this friggin problem..I did get the game to run for 20 seconds by turning sound acceleration completely off. It had nothing to do with my graphical settings i think. But then it froze anyway. It appears to be global. No edits Ive dun seem to work
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Evildeaddan
Posts:
3
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/29/07 3:56pm
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51 ***fix!!??**
- Date Edited:
12/29/07 4:31pm (4 edits total)
Edited By:
Evildeaddan
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Hey guys i think ive found a fix!! (read the whole lot + check edits!)
the answer lies in a fresh installation of the game, before you run the game edit the
"BlackSite Area 51\A52Game\Config\PCSeekFree\Cooked\Coalesced.ini"
*WARNING*
you MUST edit this file with a developers notepad or hex editor (I used SciTE) otherwise the game will crash every time.
( i think notepad could possibly add a few unnecesary characters so you need to edit and save the file as it is)
and when editing be sure to replace the characters and not to add any more.
basically look for (or search)
StartupResolutionX=1280
StartupResolutionY=720
(in a fresh install there should be no other config files found that have this entry.)
and change them, there should be 2 entries in that file that you need to change.
i have also found that when changing this you need to keep four digits at the ResolutionX and three at the ResolutionY
eg.
StartupResolutionX=1280
StartupResolutionY=768
I have only managed to get it working on this res (1280x768 so far.
but as far as i am aware the 2 key things to get this to work are, complete fresh install, and DO NOT EDIT IN NOTEPAD.
Just like you's i spent hours on this damn thing trying to get it to work, and now i think i have found the solution... i hope!
My Specs:
Intel Core2Duo E6750 2.66ghz x2
2gb DDR 800 Dual Channel
Nvidia 7600gs
Windows XP Pro (sp3 rc1)
*edit*
forgot to add, i havent installed any patches yet as it seems to be working ok on my rig. if i do encounter problems i will give this a go in 1.2. or i may even do it in the next hour or so, if i can be bothered!
**edit #2**
I can confirm that this method definately does not work in version 1.2
I have ran a windows search looking for every file that contains "StartupResolution" and changed all accordingly using scite editor, I even changed those in the PS3 folders!
and it is without any luck what so ever.
 oh well back to the drawing board!
hopefully this post will spawn off a starting point for someone else to help too!
I think the problem is more than likely caused by the driver for your monitor, if you have a plug and play monitor in your device manager then more than likely your pc will think the monitor can support all resolutions the graphics card can do, which is usually not the case.
So those of you that can actually find a driver for your monitor may be in luck, mines a cheep pile of crud without a brand!
my theory is that if the game finds the monitor cannot do 1280x720 (which is a strange pc resolution anyways) then it will defaultly go to the next one up or down. i doubt it but anything is worth a try!
Good Luck.
EvilDeadDan
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welcome69
Posts:
1
Registered:
Jan '08
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Date Posted:
1/7 5:20am
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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Hi all I also got ripped off big time buying this rubbish game, that black screens, in the end i found that downloading the noCD crack from gamecopy world made the game work (i used crack 1.1) even though i had updated the game, although i can now play the game just is not right. and has crashed on me twice in 2 hrs of play (not happy)
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Beetlejuice
Posts:
7
Registered:
Jan '08
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Date Posted:
1/10 2:48pm
Subject:
RE: Black Screen and cursor at startup of Blacksite Area 51
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I too, have this problem.
I've noticed however, the moment the screen goes black, and you try and alt-tab, theres another program running as well as blacksite.. you can't switch to it, nor can you do anything after about 5 seconds. i think it was a fluke that i noticed it.
This is the issue, i think.
Previou sposters have said video refresh issues. I don't think it is. My monitor stays refreshed and doesn't lose its signal.
I can alt-tab out eventually, back to windows, then i hear the 'powered by unreal technology' sound, alt-tab back in and see a bit of the logo and then move on to the (c) midway blah blah bit, before getting to the main menu.
One day midway will actually read their own forum users pleas and offer advise actually on the forum, like most other companies provide, instead of a basic run of troubleshooting for everyone, the same.
A lot of people are getting this issue, surely PM'ing several people to get their information and sitting down with them either via email, or an instant chat program, to work out what the problem is, would be good, imo.
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