in ns, on my laptop, my commander options are always completly black. i have had to memorize all the quick keys. when i press tab, normally the alien scores are yellow, marines blue. on my computer, all scores are green. today i played ns, it was the same. then i played tfc and tried to go back to ns and the whole screen is black once i am in the server. i press tab and i can see all the scores. i press tilda key and the console and game menus come down. the friends dont work either now (shift + tab).
i have tried before to reinstall ns and steam to get the commander options to not be black, but it wont work. now that my screen is black im fucked. i can hear everything and shoot my gun and stuff, but im fucked cause i cant see.
can anyone help me out?

got system specs and video driver version?

no, i do not know how to acquire these things.

Windows_Key+R, dxdiag [eneter]. Display Panel.
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"When I was ten, my mother said to me, 'If everyone thinks that way, doesn't that make it right?', and when I said, most emphatically, 'No!' - she gave me the most distressed look." - My grandmother
Thothie

I've seen what you're talking about happen to me a couple of times. Usually it occurs when I'm set to auto-retry on Jiggly's and it loads me in while I'm alt+tabbed doing something else.

I get a black screen with any type of 3d rendering, I can see the escape menu and the console, but nothing actually in the game. Alt+tabbing in and out of the game never solves it, I always have to quit NS and restart it, then get back in line for Jiggly's again.


I don't really know what causes this, but I would try a couple of things.

First, make sure you have the latest video card drivers.

If you don't know what you've got, go to Start- > Run- > Type "dxdiag" -> Click "yes" -> Click on the "display" tab.

Your video card's specifications will be listed on this page, including manufacturer, model, ram size, current resolution, blah blah blah. Just write down what you have, and download drivers for it.


Next I would check the resolution you're running NS in against the resolution you're running windows in. Are they the same? If not, try making them the same. Some laptops have wide screen specialized resolutions, if the system is having to convert back and forth every time you alt tab or it tries to load something, that might be causing problems.


Thirdly, shut down any extraneous software before you load NS. Ctrl+alt+delete and go to your "Processes" tab, and see what's listed. Generally, if it says "SYSTEM" under "User Name" that process is important to running windows, and shouldn't be ended. (Note the use of caps - that distinction is important, if you have other processes running on your machine that are listed as the user name "system" or "System" they are probably not windows, and you should get a virus cleaner.)

Ending unneeded processes won't hurt anything, you're only turning things off temporarily. It will all come back once you restart your computer. Keep in mind that if you have a lot of stuff running on your machine, picking and choosing the things you want over the things you don't want is difficult. Especially with anti-virus software. If you don't know what something is, Google it.

Here's what my process list looks like right now:



I use an iron fist on my process list. If yours is significantly longer than mine, you should consider removing some of the crap on your machine.

If you need further instructions on how to clean out your machine a little better, I can post a separate thread about it later.


And finally, I would get into the video card settings for your laptop and do some kind of color calibration. Normally they have a wizard you can go through to calibrate your monitor for best performance color wise, and it sounds like yours is set wrong. Play with the contrast and the gamma too, as well as color temperature. Maybe take a screenshot of commanding in NS and have it up while you play with settings.


Post again once you've tried all this and let me know how it went.

--Locane

lol, I post something 2 hours long and Thoth nails it in 2 sentences.

Sigh.

--Locane

Obviously we've entered some sort of bizzaro reverse world.
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"I was married by a judge... I should have asked for a jury." - Groucho Marx
Thothie

will test on wednesday. thank you very, very much for the input. help is very appreciated.
lets smoke a bowl.

i see thoth made the 500 mark on posts the same time i made my 100

Wow, I can't believe I watched that. I want those 10 minutes of life back.
Now.

i gotta stop over lookin things, it was the video options that went out of wack. i stole some wireless conectivity at my house and found that out today.
my comm options are still, and have been black. they rarely appear normal, along with the tab team scores appearing normal as blue and yellow instead of just green for all.

Could be texture clamping or something, again, would need to know the make and model of the card, and what drivers ye be using to have any real clue.



You mean, 10 minutes of your bizarro life back!?

There's a reason those things air at 2am.
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"I've named all the stars, but I've named them all the same name, and there's terrible confusion when they speak to one another." - Drusilla
Thothie

Sealab = win

Mission accomplished.

On the real topic, there's no way that some sprites were deleted somehow? If "reinstall the software" works for other Windows based programs, why not for NS?