Windows 7 64 bit, dual ATI 5850 cards - can't view game map

I have something similar.  I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, but nVidia GTX 295 (with SLI turned off so StarCraft 2 will work--Geez, is this how it all ends for PC gaming?).

UI looks good.  But when I load a game it only shows the cloth map.  So I hit options, and when I make a change to graphical settings or even cancel without any changes made, when I return to the game I'm in the regular view map, not the cloth map anymore.  At this point I can scroll around and rotate the camera BUT my hero is completely non-responsive to commands.  My hero doesn't respond to commands in the cloth map either.  This is both in the campaign and single-player.

I read a post where it might work better with AA turned off, which I will try, but for now I'm waiting for an updated version.  At that point I'll try tweaking things to see if I can get it running, but for now the game is unplayable.

Please open your debug.err file in notepad, and link the contents into a post here via pastebin. This will give us some technical information that can help troubleshoot your problem.

The file can be found in My Documents\My Games\Elemental

Be sure to copy the debug immediately after the error occurs; if you start the game again, the debug log will be erased and recreated for the new session.

It's not really an error, more of a permanent graphical problem - it doesn't crash the game or anything,you just can't see the game map.  It feels a little like what it would have been like to be in Plato's Cave... that said, I will try to copy the debug when the map first loads up and send it over.

Please try changing your Anti-Aliasing option to Off.  This option can be found in the Options screen, under the Video tab.

The anti-aliasing option didn't have any effect.  As soon as I started the campaign and experienced the same effect, I copied the debug.err file as requested.  It can be found at:

http://pastebin.ca/1924777

 Good luck!  Hoping I can play.

I have the exact same problem as the OP. Windows 7, 64 bit, ATI 5750.

 

When I load the campaign I can see the UI elements around the screen but the map is a blank grey/white screen until I zoom out and then it looks like a negative image of what I should be seeing.

 

I've tried AA both off and on. Here's my debug.err file http://pastebin.ca/1924797

 

Looking forward to playing once this is resolved!

 

The problem exists in 1.05 as well, unfortunately.  bwdiederich, let's hope for the best... go bughunters/graphics card adjusters!

Have you tried running in a window? 

We've contacted ATI about it. We're waiting to hear back but in the meantime, running in a window might help? Or try a different resolution?

I just reinstalled the August 24 version and that fixed everything.

Same story for me, win7 64, Radeon 5770. UI shows up, game map doesn't unless I zoom out then it's pure black with some outlines and a hero icon showing. Turning AA off does seem to solve my problem although initially it's still white, but eventually does load.

Here's my debug if it helps: http://pastebin.ca/1924945

 

ATI 5650

Changing around all game/graphic option in game has no effect, probelm still exist.

I'm clueless on what to do now... HELP please !

http://imagebin.ca/view/NQ5K94.html

http://pastebin.ca/1925136

Please give the 10.8 catalyst a try (out today) if you haven't already.

10.8 catalyst didn't fix my issue, unfortunately.  Turning AA off and running in a window don't help either.  I think I'm done with ATI cards, apparently Plants v Zombies doesn't run on anything past 10.5.

I uninstalled/reinstalled the game and also am running it in a window, and the combination seems to have worked its magic for now.  Worth a shot, other would-be campaigners!

I have an ATI HD 5700 on Windows 7 - 64 bit. Similar issue. The game and music load and all the flat graphics work fine, but in the game zoom in level, I get a weird 3-D effect where a get polygon geometric shapes shooting out of the visible terrain like a spotlight into space. I can move my sovereign around, found a city, etc., but I can't see exactly what's going on. I've installed the 10.8 drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled the game, and run about 50 combinations of video settings to no avail. It doens't actually crash, the graphics are just messed-up.

I was in the same situation ! ( my post above)
I even cross check with my other games and I did found that "King Arthur" experience the same problems with my current version of Catalyst. ( Brought King Arthur on 1st MAR 2010 , no problems and worked just fine back then ...) 

I'm pretty sure it's problem with the "newer" verions of Catalyst on my laptop ! Also in my case, 10.8 is no help at all ! also did eveything like every other gamers on this topic would, to fix the problem and still didn't work.

So, I uninstalled and reinstalled Elemental .... and uninstall all Catalyst driver and programs etc.... I'm running with Intel chipset graphic driver auto selected by windows. THE GAME IS FINALLY WORKING NOW, NO MORE POLYGON SHOTTING AROUND  !!!  Still needs to test how Elemental will work under this state, without the "better" ATI graphic driver... (King Arthur runs like a turtle at the moment... will see how Elemental reacts... )

But for the moment ....   GAME TIME  !!! untill I hit any more troubles later on, fingers cross ....( hope the developers to come up with some fix in later updates... to work with Catalyst... ) 

I reinstalled the 10.5 catalyst drivers and it seems to be working.

Has anyone else tried this and gotten results?

I'm not sure if there is another more relevant thread about this topic, but just a quick update:

I have updated Elemental to 1.06 and my gfx drivers to 10.8 (after doing a full uninstall of 10.7), and this has not fixed the white-screen on the game map for me. Open to suggestions, otherwise I'll just patiently wait for another patch

Wait for the patch  !!!  I tried a few previous versions of catalyst ... and still having polygons shootting around ... so I uninstalled all ATI driver/catalyst and is able to play the game when without it. ( graphics runs slower thou... ) 

Try other drivers auto selected by windows if you have the option.
Then you can get some taste of the Game for now... but the game is really bugged and unbalanced at the moment ( not trying to be disrespect to the dev's... but it's the truth...  )

Gived up playing in 1.06 ... too much bugs and balance problems as you can see in the forum... that's going to take the dev's quite a while to work on.... all you can do is wait.

Will see how the next update improves the game and with catalyst if ever.... will see....

I'm having the exact same problem as described here.  I'm running 64 bit Win 7 with one ATI HD 5800 series video card.  I don't really want to do the install/reinstall shuffle (I'm very busy) so I'll just keep an eye on things here to see if there is a solution.

 

We do get updates when there is a new post don't we?

I have the exact same problem ati 5870 win7 64, Intel quad core.  Tried 10.8, 10.5, 10.3 drivers.  It apears that the reason the screen is white is from the video corruption.  Cloth map doesn't fix it.  Any trees (I think they are trees?) or buildings on the map cause it.  Pretty sick of messing with it. 

Too bad.  I was a big fan of Master of Magic and have been looking forward to this game.  After spending 3 hours trying to get it working, I have decided that its a no-go.

Apparently we don't get emailed updates when there is a new post.

Has anyone seen a fix for this yet?  Should I just get a refund?  Is a fix planned?  Any news on this at all?

Pretty disappointed.  I've been looking forward to this and can't play the game at all.  Tried the fixes mentioned here.  None of them worked.

Yes.  I tried this and it didn't work.

Please post your own debug.err file in that case, so we can see your system's particular technical info.