cannot see text/fonts

from PolMach Forums
It took a while to get the game going, but in the main screen I cannot see text. All the fields are blank. I can see NO text AT ALL.

I've heard others have had this problem. However, I have not seen a solution posted. Can anyone help?

Thanks, atomheart
14,477 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
It sounds like the fonts are not loading properly. Have you tried it after a reboot? What were the troubles you were having before when you were trying to get the game loaded? I'm wondering if the texture files became corrupt as well.
Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top
I'm now having the same problem. I initially had trouble getting past the "failed to initialize display" message. But once I typed in a command prompt that excluded the intro movie, the menu screen showed up. Unfortunately, no words are to be found anywhere on any screen. I have DirectX 9c, version 6.7 of the Intel 82810e chipset, and Windows XP. I've tried out the game, turned off my computer, tried it again, and still no words. It seems like something may be corrupted. I've tried downloading test patches, but I can't use any of them. When I try to install them, I get this message:

The game has detected possible corruption of data files. Continuing with multiplayer disabled. Please reinstall from the original CD or Stardock Central to start normally.

I also get this message when I type "nointro" instead of "w" in the command prompt. Reinstalling the game doesn't help, either.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
This is a problem that is apparently being ignored, as far as I can judge by Frogboy's comments. They lay the blame on our video cards, but that just doesn't make sense to me. Everything else seems okay. The game doesn't appear to be sluggish -- other than the fact that there's no text -- and the music flows fine.

This is obviously a fairly common problem, as there are three people who've posted on this thread with THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM. Keep in mind that many people don't even bother seeking support, just call the game a piece of crap and tell their friends not to buy it.

So why aren't you guys trying to fix our problem?
Reply #4 from PolMach Forums Top
Hi.

I respectfully agree with fairunbalanced. I just purchased this game, and I am extremely excited about playing it. I have tried everything short of purchasing a new computer to get this software to work. I have the latest drivers and software (as I have posted in the "intro takes 45 minutes" thread) and I still cannot see any fonts or play the game at all. At least I'm not having the safedisc v3 error...

I see many threads having trouble with similar problems (no fonts, etc.) and noone is responding to help. This game is a great idea, and it is great that it's OUT (as opposed to several games that' I'm waiting for). However, I'd really love to play it! I am sure everyone else on this forum who is having trouble like myself would appreciate a line from somebody. I am willing to try anything, and I have scoured the forums for ideas. I have tried every trick I could find (updating directx, drivers, etc.), but nothing worked. Is there anyone that can help?

We'd all appreciate a line

Respectfully,
EagleRock
Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top
Jake asked for more information and has not received any answers to his question in this thread. Please note that no one replied to this thread to give Jake more information between 8/26 and 9/4. Therefore, it wouldn't have been at the top of the list until the holiday weekend that we all had off. We are trying to catch up with support after the holiday weekend. It doesn't help that there are several threads reporting the same issue, and that people are posting in multiple places.

EagleRock, have you tried starting without the intro? Go to Data\Prefs.ini and set SkipIntro = 1.

For those of you having problems with fonts, have you tried dragging the font files from the Political Machine fonts folder into your windows font folder?
Reply #7 from PolMach Forums Top
Will try that this evening. Thanks for the response.

BTW, as far as listing my system stats, I've done that at least twice on different threads, only to be essentially ignored. It's become redundant.
Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
For those of you having problems with fonts, have you tried dragging the font files from the Political Machine fonts folder into your windows font folder?


That's a nice idea, but I don't think it works. I couldn't locate the windows font folder, so I went to the start menu, clicked "run" and typed "fonts". Then I copied and pasted all the font files from the game to that folder. The game fonts that open with an "unknown application" wouldn't copy over to the Windows font folder. I tried running the game and the text was still missing. Thanks for the input, though.

Any other ideas?
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I also had the missing text problem on my first attempt at starting the game.
I did three things before starting the game again:
1.Refresh the graphics driver
2.Refresh DirectX
3.Reinstalled the game (I had it on a drive I don't use for games, anyway)

I also looked for Windows updates, but nothing there. Still running XP SP1,
and I wasn't 'leet enough to receive SP2 then. On the other hand SP2 is not
'leet enough for me to install it just yet

For those still with the font problem, try the steps above, one at a time, and
maybe report some findings?
Reply #10 from PolMach Forums Top
The game fonts that open with an "unknown application" wouldn't copy over to the Windows font folder


Mr Arex, it's really only using the .ttf files (not sure why the .fnt files weren't removed) so that is fine.

Ronny Bangsund: so is it working for you now?

If those of you still having font troubles e-mail me, I can send you a test exe that will output more infomation while the fonts are loading.

--Cari

Email
Reply #11 from PolMach Forums Top
This is an update for those of you who haven't e-mailed me but still have no fonts.

We were able to find a video card that reproduces this problem on one of our machines here. I added some extra debug information to the font code and ran the new exe on that machine, and it didn't report any problems loading the fonts or displaying strings. So Direct3D seems to think that everything should be just peachy. I'm going to try some other tests today that will hopefully help me track down exactly where the problem is occurring.
Reply #13 from PolMach Forums Top
Not yet. Do you also have the Intel 82810E chipset? If not, can you please give me your video card, the amount of video ram it has, and check to make sure that you are running the latest version of your drivers and DirectX 9.0c.
Reply #15 from PolMach Forums Top
Any new updates on this problem? I was able to play this game on another PC, I'm up to Lincoln now and have not lost yet with Kerry. My closest game was against Arnold, which I only beat him by 2 votes (Came down to Hawaii.)
Reply #16 from PolMach Forums Top
We're working with intel to try and solve this problem, but so far we've only gotten as far as having Intel assign us a support tech.
Reply #17 from PolMach Forums Top
Thanks CariElf, I'll keep an eye on this thread so that as soon as the problem is solved I can get this game!!!!
Reply #18 from PolMach Forums Top
To repeat what I said in an earlier thread:

Things are moving slowly with Intel. I don't know how much they've done already or how much they are willing to do for us beyond running Political Machine on various chipsets.

If they come back and tell us that it's because their drivers don't support the fonts and that they aren't going to upgrade their two year old drivers, it's not going to help any of you.

If you want to, you can go to Link and find an ATI or NVivdia graphic card between $30 and $50 that will run Political Machine that you will probably be able to install in your machine without having to uninstall your current card (If you're not familiar with upgrading your hardware you may want to contact your computer's manufacturer to make sure that you'll have room for it). For NVidia you're going to want a Geforce 2 or better, for ATI, a Radeon 7500 or higher. I recommend getting a card with at least 32 MB of video memory. For example, today at pricewatch.com, I found a NVidia Geforce 5200 FX for $41 and an ATI Radeon 9000 for $39. Those are both pretty good cards.
Reply #19 from PolMach Forums Top
I too am facing the no text problem, will someone please tell me how to fix it? I have done all of the driver updates, directx updates, and I have reinstalled the program twice. I have copied the font files into the master font file. I've done everything on this thread and nothing has worked. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply #20 from PolMach Forums Top
So I just bought the game today and I am having the same problem. Did we ever find a solution to this? This was a birthday present, and since I opened the game I can not return it. Any test or e-mail or something that I am missing? Thank you. Please e-mail if there are any solutions.

LauraEmail