[blubunny]

Hi,
I am having technical problems with Silent Hill 2 for the PC. I can install and start a new game just fine but when I want to access the inventory all I get is a blank screen. The same thing happens when I try to access the options and movie menu...blank screen. Also when cinematics play i get the sound of the video playing but no picture. The game never crashes or anything but is unplayable because I can't see the inventory or see any cinematics. I can't change any display options because i can't see anything on the options menu.

Computer specs: Pentium 4 2.1GHz
512Mb DDR RAM
Sound Blaster Live Value
30GB Maxtor Hard Drive
GeForce FX 5200 128MB RAM -->(have latest 44.03 nVidia driver)
Win Xp Home

Any help would be appreciated. Please help me. Or should I return the game for my money back? Thank you.

[AtreideS]

The first thing I was going to suggest was too update your drivers, then I reread your post and you already have.
I then was going to suggest changing the options.. once again you can't do that in game.
The geforce FX cards are still quite new, however it is fully compatible with Silent Hill 2 according to the nVidia website. Have you got the latest update for SH2? It's at http://www.konami.com/usa/support/files/sh2patch.exe and is for the US version only (I'm not sure where you are from so I can't tell you if the patch is for you or not).
Normally with graphics cards I'd refer you to a guide to make sure everything is setup correctly. But there isn't any available for the FX range just yet. Have a look at all your settings and make sure both DX and OpenGL look setup right. There might be one or two settings thats wrong. But I'd guess its something in the game that needs to be tweaked. But if you can't change any of the settings I guess you are out of luck. Does the game generate a .cfg file which you could change the settings in? Some games when they load look for a autoexec.cfg file and load all the settings from there. Its possible you could change the settings from there. But you would need more information on all the settings, and the commands for them.
Sorry I can't be more help. Good luck.

[blubunny]

Yes, I tried the patch but it didn't change anything.

Excellent idea on finding a file to change the in game options manually. I found a settings.ini file that looks like this when viewed in notpad;

SET DX_CONFIG_EFFECT_FOG_ON 1
SET DX_CONFIG_EFFECT_SHADOWS_ON 1
SET DX_CONFIG_EFFECT_LENS_FLARE_ON 0
SET DX_CONFIG_EFFECT_MOTION_BLUR_ON 0
SET DX_CONFIG_EFFECT_DEPTH_OF_FIELD_ON 1
SET DX_CONFIG_RES 1
SET DX_CONFIG_USE_LORES_TEXTURES 0
SET DX_CONFIG_3D_SOUND_HARDWARE 2
SET DX_CONFIG_3D_SOUND_HARDWARE_AVAILABLE 1
SET DX_CONFIG_BRIGHTNESS 3
SET DX_CONFIG_SCREEN_POS_X 0
SET DX_CONFIG_SCREEN_POS_Y 0
SET DX_CONFIG_NOISE 0

But I am a bit unsure how to change things here. Would you have any idea what in here I could change to make the menu and inventory appear?

I also have since tried changing some display options from the control panel in windows. Like 32 bit color to 16 bit, different refersh rates, antialaising and anisotropic filetering on and off. But I don't know much about these settings other than trying different combinitions, which gets a bit tireing after a while.

This is so fustrating b/c I can start a new game and have to guy run around and talk to people and stuff but when the full motion videos play, i get only sound and no picture. And I can't use anything I pick up b/c I cant see anything on the inventory screen. From what I can play the game run quite smooth and look very creepy.

I think best that I return the game ::cries:: I want to play a scary game that make me shiver and shut eyes when scare.

p.s. Thank you very much for your reply

[AtreideS]

Ok well about those options. A 1 next to an option means its on, and a 0 means its turned off. But looking at all the options you found in the file, they don't look particulary like ones that should be changed. So I'd say its best to leave them alone, although if your game you could save a backup of the file and just try changing a few settings and see what happens.
Do you have any problems with other games? It would be helpful to see if its a problem with all games, or maybe ones just using DirectX, or ones using OpenGL, or just this particular game. If you have some other games that run fine it could be helpful to list them here.
It could be possible (although unlikely) that a program running in the background is causing the problem. o here for a useful program to copy a log of your StartUp: http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/
Posting that here might prove useful.

That game does look quite scary from what I've seen. I hope you get it working, and I'm sorry I can't just give you a nice simple solution. Good luck

[blubunny]

I guess there is no solution. I got this reply from Konami.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Konami Customer,

At present, there is no solution to this problem, which relates to the nVidia drivers for the GeForceFX 5200. This problem only occurs on this particular chipset, and nVidia has been advised of the issue. We hope that in a future driver release this problem will be corrected.

Please contact Customer Service if we can be of any further assistance.

Konami of America, Inc.
1400 Bridge Parkway, Suite 101
Redwood City, California, 94065-1567
USA
Attn: Customer Service
support@konami.com
1-(888)-270-7337

---------------------------------------------------------------------

To anyone else with this problem (I think there was another older post with the same problem), we will have to wait until a new driver can fix this problem.

[Nick Brown]

I'm very disappointed to read this as I have almost the same problem and have been playing around with it for ages with no joy. I have an FX5800, and although I can't watch the movies in the game I can access the menus etc. There's nothing in the options which will solve this anyway as you have gathered by now. I downloaded the Bink player and tried playing the movie files directly in that and it works fine so I could watch them separately but not in the game. So it's either wait around for a patch, send the game back, or put my old Geforce 2 back in my PC...

I was looking forward to playing this. Not at all happy.

[lmacneill]

POSSIBLE FIX!!

I was having the same problem with the movies in SH2 - but no problems accessing the Options menu or Inventory. HOWEVER, this may work for you if you have a GeForce FX card -- try it and see.

It involves adding a few lines to a file called DEVICE.FIX located in the main SH2 folder (on my computer it was in C:\Program Files\Konami\Silent Hill 2\ ) Open up the DEVICE.FIX file with Notepad. Do a search for "Geforce_4" (without the quotes) It should highlight a line that says "DEVICE Geforce_4 0250 0251 0253"

OK, now you're where you need to be in the file. Using the arrow keys, move below that highlighted line and add a couple of blank lines by hitting return. Then, type the following:

// --- Geforce FX ---
// GEFORCEFX5600 0x0312
DEVICE Geforce_FX 0312
HACK DX_CONFIG_USE_NON_POW2_TEXTURES 0

If you're NOT using a GeForce FX 5600, then you need to determine the correct PCI DEVICE NUMBER for your GeForce FX Video Card. (The PCI Device Number is 0312 in the example above -- that applies ONLY to the GeForce FX 5600!) To find the PCI Device Number for your particular card (if it's NOT a GeForce 5600), open the Registry Editor and search for "VEN_10DE" (without the quotes). For my GeForce FX 5600, the search returned a line containing the following: "...VEN_10DE&DEV_0312&SUBSYS..." The DEV_0312 is the important part -- that will be different depending on what TYPE of GeForce FX card you have (5200, 5200 Ultra, 5600 Ultra, 5800, or 5800 Ultra) It is THAT number you need to use instead of the 0312 that I have in the fix above. (Of course, if you have a GeForce 5600, the number will be 0312 -- no change)

Hopefully that'll work for you -- it seems to have fixed all the problems I was having, although I haven't played the game fully yet...

Good luck!
Laurence MacNeill

[AtreideS]

BluBunny I'm also disappointed at the response Konami gave you. Especially after they and nVidia are making a big fuss about the games fully compatible with GeforceFX cards.
Good luck with lmacneill's fix if you give it a go.

[tanj]

Laurence, Thanks a lot for the tip !! It worked for me (Geforce FX 5200 card)

Here are the lines I inserted :

// --- Geforce FX ---
// GEFORCEFX5200 0x0322
DEVICE Geforce_FX 0322
HACK DX_CONFIG_USE_NON_POW2_TEXTURES 0

The text and videos appeared perfectly. Frankly, it wouldn't have been difficult for Konami to add this to their technical support...

[lmacneill]

I did e-mail Konami with the results of my "experiment." Never heard back from them, but hopefully they're now telling people about it, or are preparing to release a patch that will take care of the problem...

Either way, I'm glad I could help!

Laurence MacNeill

[Prawnstar]

I have a similar problem to this, but mine is when it plays the videos the sound jumps making the video slow down. I have tried the sound patch, but that hasn't done anything. Updated all of my drivers including chipset and bios. I can't work out whether the video is sending it out of sync, or the sound sending the video out of sync.

I have a:
Athlon xp2000
512mb ddr ram
geforce 440mx(nvidia 44.03 drivers)
via kt266 chipset

If anyone has any idea's I would love to know, cos it is well annoying when your adrenaline is pumping cos of a scary bit, I know i will end up taking it out on my puter.

Prawnstar

[lmacneill]

Prawnstar,

It sounds to me like you didn't install the movies to the hard drive, and your CD-ROM is having a tough time keeping up...

If that's the case, re-install the game and this time select to have everything installed to the HDD -- don't leave anything on the CD-ROM only...

If you *did* install the movies to the HDD, then I'm not certain what the problem could be -- just make certain that everything running in the background (virus scanners, task schedulers, etc.) has been shut down before you run the game... (Use the MSCONFIG.EXE program to de-select all the unnecessary startup stuff and services stuff, then have it reboot your computer before playing the game. Just don't forget to use MSCONFIG.EXE to re-select all that stuff and reboot after playing the game...)

Good Luck,
Laurence MacNeill

[blubunny]

Laurence!!!
Your a jem!! It works I can see all the menus and the inventory. The movies work perfectly now. Had to use the same number as tanj (0322) as my video card is a 5200 as well.

I can't wait till day off to start playing this game. It going to be so scarry~~ Hey Laurence, you married leh? ........oop.... shhhhh....
ahhhh, face turn all red and hot hot lah. I go hide eyes now~~ sry......hehehe Sia Lah!! song song Laurence. )

[blubunny]

ooo Happy birthday me! I like this fourm.

[lmacneill]

blubunny,

Happy birthday! (How old are you?!) Ouch -- politically incorrect question, I know... I'm not much on political correctness, however... :-)

Glad I could help -- enjoy Silent Hill 2...

Laurence MacNeill
(P.S. -- not married -- divorced; one kid, he lives with my ex.)
:-)

P.P.S. I did finally hear from Konami -- they said "thanks for the info, we're working on a fix..." Hmmm -- perhaps I should CHARGE them for fixing their bug? :-)