Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Technical problems Solution for "black screen" in game

Hi Guys,

finally i have found a solution for the "black screen" problem in the game with certain/higher resolutions:

Just set UseDesktopResInFullscreen="0" in graphicoptions.xml and all resolutions above the desktop resolution magically work.

Reproduced it with WinXP SP3 and Win7 x64 - with Catalyst 9.7,9.9 and 9.10 and nearly all possible grafic settings.

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Another thing: I have the "transparency" bug in WinXP SP3 too, but since i haven´t found a solution i installed Win7 x64 from scratch - Divinity 2 works fine (except for the above mentioned "black screen"-bug).

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Hardware:
- Core2Duo
- P45 Chipset
- Sapphire ATI 4870 1GB
- X-Fi
- CRT Vision Master Pro 454

Regards,
Dominus

Wich folder can I find that in?

X:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Divinity 2\Profile\

I also have the "black screen" bug. It doesn't happen as often if I leave the default graphic settings on, but any change in the resolution will cause it to happen before any major event. I tried the tricks above but to no effect: the game wont accept any resolution above the current desktop resolution. I dont know if this is only a symptom of nVidia hardware or not.

Does anyone else have any other ideas?

for reference:
cpu - CoreDuo 2ghz
gpu - 2x 7950s
driver - 179.XX, 185.XX 191.XX (all drivers have the same problem)
sound - Sound blaster
ram - 2gig
os - Win7 x64/ WinXP x64 (both)

Try to put your desktop resolution in the same resolution you want to play. Does that fix that problem?


The game aways force the user to restart after changing the resolution in the options menu.
In the graphic options menu, make the game NOT use the menu in the desktop resolution. It will make the game use the same resolution into the menu and into the game, after the start it will not change the resolution again. Does that fix that problem?


Maybe there is an incompatibility between some graphic option and the vga you have. Try to find an "stable" setting. You said you have "2x 7950s", try to enable/disable the SLI, and see what is the diference in both modes.

If you run other mondern game in the same resolution you are runing Divinity 2, does that "black screen" also occurs?

Do you have any type of Antivirus? Try to disable then, does this solve your problem?

Thanks for the reply

Desktop is always in 1920x1200 mode, the same mode I want to play in.

Lowering the desktop resolution to something smaller (like 1440x1050) will also force the game to that resolution. So even if I have the game in 1920x1200, it will still run the game at 1440x1050 if that is the desktop resolution. This behavior is the same no matter if I have unchecked the "UseDesktopResInFullscreen" flag or not.

I have tried three different drivers, three different OSs, SLI and non SLI, and always the same issue. I do not have any other issues in any other game.

It just seems the game refuses to render any more 3D primitives, or will no longer load the z-buffer.

I guess I just need a patch.

Just to check, is you unable to play the game?

There is an opition in the menu that make the game use the menu in the desktop resolution. Take a look in it, enable/disable it... It makes any diference?

I think your monitor is widescreen right? Try to set the lowest resolution in the game menu, when i say lower resolutions e mean like 960x600 and 1280x800, also try non-widescreen resolution like 800x600. Does that work?

I have unchecked the desktop flag. It doesn't have any effect at high resolutions, on or off.

Someone here posted a savegame with some default settings that did work (~1220x780 res). So a lower resolution did make the game stop the black screen for now, thanks!

This got me as far as talking to the sorceress in the first town (which is farther than I could get before). However, now during her conversation the game hangs and I need to do a hard reset on my computer. The game is just unplayable without a patch.

I REALLY wish companies would stop using SecuRom, it is just trouble for every game that uses it. There must be a better way to use DRM, but SecuRom is certainly not it.

Otherwise I would really love any other hints you guys have. Playing at these low resolutions are really, to put it bluntly, ugly on my monitors. And if anyone else is randomly crashing and found a way to stabilize the game, please let me know