I believe something is wrong with my DirectX 9.0c

*sigh*

My new computer is sick, fellows. I think something is horribly wrong with the DirectX portion of it.

I open any higher-end video game (UT2K4, SWAT4, C&C Generals: Zero Hour) and I can't see any menus. The game looks like something just skipped drawing the menu sections and most of the nearer graphics. There's no ocean in the Zero Hour opening screen, there's no video that plays in the beginning, The audio works great, and I can see the little motorcycles and hovercrafts zooming around, but I can't see the menu screen whatsoever.

With SWAT 4, More of the same. The little videos (Which evidently don't require any 3d shtuff) play passably, the sierra logo goes by, the Nvidia logo goes by, etc, etc, etc.

I get to what's supposed to be the menu screen? It's black, with a bunch of little, ill-defined lights scattered around.

But here's where it gets trippy, folks.

UT99 runs great. I can run it with everything jacked all the way up, and it doesn't even say boo at me. Crimsonland, Scorched 3D (a 3d remake of the old classic Scorched Earth), Celestia (3D space exploration and wandering game-ish thing), and Blender (A 3D modeling and graphics-heavyweight) all run teriffic.

If that's not scary, I don't know what is.

My system specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon64 3200+ (2.0 GHz)
1 GB Patriot Ram (DDR 400)
EVGA GeForce 7600 GS (AGP 8x, DDR 2, 256 MB)
Windows XP Pro, SP2

I have all the latest drivers installed for the GPU, so that's not an issue. I just need a step-by-step that doesn't involve me reinstalling (Again).

 

Well, I've tried everything that he did, and to no avail.

It may be that most of the things that work either use DX 8.1 or are using OpenGL.

...Crap...

How do I burn off DX9.0c and re-install it?

The lame crap I'm finding through google won't let me actually use the 'free' programs without paying for them...

 

...grrr...

Reinstalling it doesn't help either

 

Several games you have mentioned are picky about their video cards. Direct X isn't the only thing that can be off, if the video card is considered too old by the game makers. Are you sure it meets the minimum standards?

 

from everything I've heard about this card, it's a stable, compatible powerhouse that's been tested on games that need much higher specifics to run well.

It's also been made in the last 18 months or so, so I'm relatively certain that it should work on all of the abovementioned games. I had them all running decently on my older system with 2^(-3) less power

 

The reason I asked is I ran into a similar situation with my ATI AIW 7500. There were a lot of games it didn't work with. Reading the specs on the games the absolute minimum was an 8500. PITA, and I believe it is basic laziness on the game manufacturers part, as the graphics was not any better, nor was the speed. But if they design it we have to live with it. If you can I'd check into the hierarchy of cards required, it could still be the problem. BTW, simply upping the card did the trick on my computer, it is not a function of CPU speed or memory, but entirely the video card. DX doesn't even enter into it, since these cards will apparently go the latest DX without trouble, and are still incompatible with the later games.

 

I had an inferior card by all accounts (a 64 mb NVidia Quadro) and the abovementioned games worked great

...A lightweight card designed for offices kicked the crap out of a gaming card...

I tells ya, it's a crazy world...

The other reason I'm mad is because I can't use my new copy of Autodesk 3DS MAX 8, and the initial config of it makes me think that DX is the problem.

(OpenGL did its thing with 3ds max, though. I'm happier now that I figured out that it could use it.)

 

Looking at the prices of these cards, and what they do, I have to shake my head. I understand the processing they do, the ability to give water a realistic fluid texture for example, but in general the games that are demanding the top of the line cards don't measure up. That's why I say it is laziness on the software writers part. Truth is, on a stratigy game like Generals I don't give a flip about realism (I'm a total fan of the C&C series, although since Westwood has been assimilated it has gone downhill fast IMO).

You have to take a good long hard look at the specs of all games before you buy them nowdays, they are getting picker and picker about hardware specs. Having said all of the above, I could be wrong. There might be a good uninstaller for DX drivers, I know I've needed them in the past. So far I've been lucky and found a higher revision to replace them with, which has saved my bacon several times. I keep a disc of all those kind of files, so I have a set of known good drivers to use when I build a new computer or reinstall an OS.

 

I'd just like to play the games, that's all. I can't see the menus or remember where they were placed, so I can't play them.

 

Stupid thing still isn't working, and now games that should be working aren't working at all, and WarRock just went kaput on me, so I'm pretty cheesed.