Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Technical Problems Screen goes black sometimes during battles

I don't know if there is a fix for this, but it seems every time I play, the screen will go black for no apparent reason. I have to reload the game and sometimes it works and sometimes it'll keep doing it a few times until I take another path to the enemy.

It seems only to happen during fights, that I can recall. I'm still playing the game, but it's more of an inconvenience than anything.

Thanks.

I don't quit the game and start again, but quickload the last quicksave.

This game, which I love btw, is becoming unplayable. I don't want to have to
keep reloading it everytime the screen just blacks out while fighting. It happens so frequently now that it is becoming unbearable.

If you alt-tab out of the game and then back again, does that help? Do you still get sound when the screen goes black?

Have you browsed the technical forum looking at other topics? Nobody else has had this problem that I recall seeing, so I'm not sure what to suggest.

Check if there are files called debug.lst or error.txt in the Beyond Divinity folder.

I assume you ran the configuration and tried changing the resolution or disabling fog? Did you try playing with the graphics options in game?

Have you learned deathblow or another similar combat skill that could be causing a problem when it kicks in?

Try deleting the files in the dynamic folders;
'..\Beyond Divinity\Acts\Act1\Dynamic', '..\Beyond Divinity\Acts\Act2\Dynamic', etc.
These folders are used as a cache for the game. Files are created / copied there from the save game folder when you load, and written / copied to those folders when you save a game. The files will be re-created as required the next time you start Beyond Divinity. If there was a corrupt file in those folders, deleting the files should fix the problem.

Have you tried doing a clean re-install of the game and patch?
Zip or otherwise backup your saved games folder to another location first, just in case. Each save is a separate subfolder in the '..\Beyond Divinity\savegames' folder; the 5 'bd_act#_start' folders are created/updated by the game/patch, and do not need to be backed up.
Un-install the game, re-boot, in Windows Explorer browse to the 'Beyond Divinity' folder and make sure there are no files or folders remaining, except within the 'savegames' folder (though the 5 'bd_act#_start' folders should be gone). After that, shut down all non essential programs (especially anti-virus), re-install the game, re-boot and shut down all non essential programs again. Run the game, and maybe start a new game to see if you continue to get crashes during fights. If you saved any games in the patched version, they will not be playable in the unpatched game version. After that, install the patch again, then re-boot, shut down all non essential programs, start the game and see if you still have a problem.


Do you have any other DirectX games, and if so are they having any problems?

Have you run a Scandisk or defragged your hard drive lately?

I have the same problem. For no apparent reason, the screen goes black except for the character windows on the upper right and the minimap on the upper left. Only happens during combat. Other DirectX games work fine. I even upgraded my graphic card drivers to the latest version (radeon 9800 pro.) I can save the game, exit the application, reload and open the game. It's getting so bad, I don't feel like playing it anymore.

While I'm here, I might as well mention the other problem, sometimes one of my characters will somehow make it to the outside walls of a dungeon, you know, the black area where nothing is supposed to be. You can walk him all around the map, tracing the outline of the area. Sometimes this happens to monsters too. I'll look for another post on this one.

John

I assume you tried double clicking on a character portrait or using a hotkey to switch characters or re-centre the view?

Characters sometimes getting through walls is a known problem. If you have the other character enter and leave the BF, or click on stairs, etc it will teleport the wayward character back into the normal game area. If both characters go through a wall, sometimes entering and leaving the BF will shift the position enough to get back.

Hey,

Having exactly the same problem.... Whenever trying to initiate combat with a new creature, the screen goes black. On the mini-map you can see the crosses for the chars and the enemies and the battle obviously continues as the chars take damage and eventually the red cross disappears (or the char dies).

Saving and reloading the savegame shows the chars again - until you initiate combat again. It happened once or twice until now in Act III when it is happening whenver I initiate combat and the game is therefore unplayable.

I have tried using an old savegame which is ok for a while, but eventually the same thing starts happening again.

Cannot see any solution here, but I thought I would add my two cents and see if anyone else if having the same problem.

I dont recall this happening when I played the game the first time - i.e. pre 1.45 patch.

Sys info:
BD 1.45 on WinXP SP1
Dell 9100 p4 3ghz, Radeon 9700 128mb , DirectX9b etc...

Cheers

Lance

Have you tried to delete your dynamic folders? (see above for where and how)

i had that early in Act II once or twice after we had a power dip and the game exited incomplete. I deleted the dynamics, and it was fine afterwards again.

~I had exactly the same problem, and still do. Double clicking one of the character icon resolves it for me. Still damned irritating though.

The sudden black screen is related to your mouse.. (let me guess, either optical or cordless?)... whats happening is when you get into a battle, for some strange reason, your mouse jumps to the end of the screen, effectively and very fast scrolling you out of your viewable screen into uncharted territory.

double clicking the char's portrait just brings you back....

Sometimes you can fix the problem, by getting an updated driver from the mouse vendor.. (it may be that the mouse doesnt function 100% with the generic windows drivers - in this case the driver from the vendor fixes the problem... unfortunately most asian companies dont write drivers for their own mice, they only rely on microsoft's drivers.)

in some cases, the mouse "twitching" happens due to window's memory handling. This can sometimes be fixed, by setting the virtual memory to a fixed size.

hope this helps....