Won't run - Gray screen. Video?

[a_gunslinger]

I checked all the requirement and FAQs. I understand that you need a DirectX compliant video card. But does that mean anything other than those few newer video cards cant run EF2? Seem hard to believe they would ignore that many users. Some of the psoters seem to have DX8.1 cards running it fine (does that mean DX 9 card) may not be required?

Anyway, installed it on my sons Dell P4 1.8Ghz, 768 RAM. Mederate age card: Geforce3 Ti 200 (assuming thats the snag). Installed fine but launching game results in sound and startup but you cant see anything - just a full gray screen. I would assume video card. Work around or buy a new card? Seems like a a high price to paly one game.

[plip]

I have the soluition for you. This is something which has been bothering a lot of Dell users till now (see other posts on this forum). It has to do with the opening cinematics of the game. They don't want to run properly and crash the game.
the solution: add the following to your EF2 command line (the windows shortcut)
+introCommand "defaultSoundTrack none; afterCinematic defaultSoundTrack music/intro; afterCinematic pushmenu main \n"

This command skips the intro movies but at least you will be able to enjoy the game.

Plip

[SOL_MadMax]

Its funny that you should mention Dell users.

Here at work I use a Dell Optiplex 110 w/P3 800Mhz & 256 meg RAM and an onboard Intel i810 video card and running Win2k pro.

I had an aweful time trying to get EF1 running on this PC and when it did eventually run it was horrendous.

But, EF2 installed and worked great first time, not had a single problem on this PC.

[a_gunslinger]

Cool. Thanks. So does that mean DirectX9 cards are NOT necessarily required, just recommended? Will test the command line tweak tonight and keep everyone psoted.

[Mango]

There's no such thing as a 'DirectX 9.0' graphics card. You can use just about any 3d card to play EF2 with directx 9 installed.
Directx9 just delivers all the pretty little butterflies that high end video cards can see [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[a_gunslinger]

The command string didnt seem to resolve the issue. Sound, with gray box filling the screen. Other options by chance?
Thanks for any leads.

[Mango]

Have you downloaded the latest detonator drivers?
And use windows update to instal directx 9.0a

[a_gunslinger]

Installed DX9a update no resolution. Will go grab the latest detonator driver. Installed the latest Dell one told me I needed last night, but not the actual one from Nvidia. Will give it a go. Thanks

[plip]

a_gunslinger,

I´m sorry that the command line didn´t solve it for you. in fact, I´m surprised since for other users who had the exact same problem (flashing grey screen just after the console screen), this solved the problem.

[a_gunslinger]

Fixed it. I needed the new detonator driver. The one I downloaded was the propritey one from Dell, not Nvidia proper. That update, plus the command line you gave me, fixed the issue. Many, many thanks!